Poison God's Heritage

"You really find awkward times to ask awkward moments, I don't need to confirm my identity to you, either way, you've already seemed to be set in your mind to think of me as who I am not, so I won't humor this childish behavior," I said.

"Me? You're calling me childish, you're barely at the nascent soul stage, you haven't lived half of my own lifetime, and you call me childish," she asked.

"Because if wisdom comes with age, but yours seemed to have skipped you, now drop this stupid weapon, and let's focus on how to escape from here, in case you didn't notice my Heart Flame is already working, so don't disturb me," I berated.

Mei Ling backed away, annoyed, and sat down without speaking another word.

I sighed as I resumed my work, the idea was simple, I needed pills, a lot of them, sadly with this limited supply I cannot make a full arsenal comparable to what I own, but I can still make enough pills to help us navigate through the Poison Mist Valley.

I began by making the most essential and most important pill I know and perfect.

The Breath Sealing Poison pill.

I made about ten in the span of five minutes, which was a decent amount, then I made a couple antidote pills and began making more offensive poison pills.

An hour in the making, I've already finished preparing most of the pills I needed. And now was the time for the second part of this session.

"Are you done now? I don't know why you're making pills," she said and I slammed my hand on her mouth.

"Quiet!" I said, "They're in the cave…" I added.

I grabbed a piece of Black Inkstone and squashed it, I then hurriedly began writing on the ground.

A set of full inscriptions with one purpose. Camouflage.

It took me less than ten seconds to finish, and I was thankful for my skill in inscription writing.

Because the moment I was done and the inscription lit up, two men appeared at the entrance of the room we were in.

The two were wearing full red and black robes, similar to the Fire Palace robes, but a bit different, they had a symbol of a dragon on their back instead of a Phoenix.

"Hmm, I'm sure I heard something coming from this room," one of them said as he took another step inside.

"It seems that I was mistaken, it must have been the wind," he said.

"There is an air current in the other pathway, let's move, they must have left from that side." The second cultivator said.

"Right, let's head out," he said and the two of them moved away.

Just as I felt Mei Ling's body relaxing, I grabbed her mouth even tighter and shook my head.

I then spoke wordlessly for her to read my lips, "They are still in hiding, they never left, don't talk."

For several more awkward and long minutes, nothing seemed to happen. But once again, one of the cultivators came back into the room.

"I'm really confused, there is nothing in this room but why do I feel that people are here," he said.

"You must be getting old, let's just move, it's not like they're inside the walls, can't you see that the whole room is undisturbed, not even dust has been moved.

"Right, let's go then, we need to hurry up and meet with the captain, if lord Byung comes down before we find them, we'll be in deep shit."

The two of them finally left, this time for real and I slumped down.

"We bought enough time," I said.

"How did you know they didn't leave?" she asked.

"Footsteps, their footsteps changed, they were moving away, but suddenly the sound was completely cut, they didn't walk far away from us to not hear their footsteps but they levitated and came back, so I knew they were still near, now we need to hurry and leave," I said.

"Why should we leave?" she asked, "We're safe here, they won't come checking again," she said.

"They won't, but they will probably inform the others who'll come here. I don't want to deal with that, not to mention if this guy Byung comes down, we're doomed. My inscriptions can hide us from a sub-Ascendant cultivator, but once an Ascendant is involved, we're dead. Let's head out," I said.

"You mentioned that once we are at the other side of the Poison Mist Valley, we'll find someone to help us escape, are you sure about that? Do you know someone strong enough to take on an Ascendant?" she asked.

Honestly, I don't know, all I know is that Du Shen survived after he reached the other side of the Mist Valley, but if we were to stay here we're both going to die.

"Let's just say, if we make it out, we won't be dying, I said.

"Then what are we waiting for, we need to leave now," she said worry clear in her voice.

I shook my head, "We'll be discovered the moment we leave the perimeters of this inscription, turn around," I said.

"You're being a bit too brave aren't you," she said.

"God damn it woman, you think we have time for that, show me your back," I told her.

"Your words and actions aren't matching," she said frowning.

She turned and revealed her back to me, to which I grabbed a smudge of the ink and began writing something on her back. it took a few minutes for me to finish and once I was done, an inscription was formed on her back.

"Make sure that you don't wet it," I said.

"What's that?" she asked.

"A confusion inscription, it will translate divine sense to objects near you, unless you're visually spotted, Divine Sense will not detect you," I said.

"Then what about you?" she asked as she put back her clothes on.

I swallowed one of the pills I made and said "I'm good, let's go," I said and the two of us headed out of the room.

The two of us backtracked to the cave entrance and I made sure to peak and look around, lest some other cultivator is waiting at the other side of the cave entrance. Seeing no one there, the two of us headed out.

We made sure to stay close to the cliff's edges and only move when we were sure that our next position was safe.

Sooner than expected, a wave of divine sense washed all over us, thankfully the owner wasn't powerful enough to detect us, and was foolish enough to cause the entire valley to erupt in roars and howls.

"Good, this gives us good coverage," I said to Mei Ling, "We'll now head to the forest," I suggested.

"But the remnants are there," she said.

"And so are all the monsters, our best place to hide is in plain sight, we cannot be escaping to the wide open fields, and among the monsters and demonic beasts no cultivator would dare use their Divine Sense to track us lest they reveal their location to the dwellers of the forest, we have to act decisively," I said.

"I'll trust you on this, Du Shen, let's go," she said as she pulled her dagger closer to her.

The two of us then moved out and toward the howling forest, ready for the worst.

***

Outside the Poison God's Trial ground. A massive gate was closed for all.

Many cultivators had come to check up on the trial, and most of them were actually predators in wait.

A few cultivators emerged outside the gate and looked awkwardly at the situation. This group of cultivators was all confused about what was going on or what they were even doing there.

Among them was a man who was wounded, he looked exhausted, with his ember eyes looking as if they were about to fade.

A man in blue robes approached the person with the ember eyes and asked. "You're Meng Hao?" said the man in blue.

"Depends on who's asking," said Meng Hao ready for a fight.

"Calm down, I'm Rain, I know you're a friend of my disciple, so do you know what's going on inside?" asked Master Rain.

Meng Hao hesitated to answer, and Master Rain sighed, "I guess you too had your memory altered, no matter let's go," said Master Rain.

"Memory altered?" questioned Meng Hao.

Master Rain frowned, "You didn't?" he asked.

"Yeah, I still rem-," Before Meng Hao could finish, Master Rain had already moved his hand to create a protective sound barrier around them.

"Speak through divine sense, shit will go down if people know that your memory is intact, what happened?" asked Master Rain.

Meng Hao then began telling him the stories of the Poison God's trial.

And through all of Meng Hao's telling, Master Rain was confused about two things, the first, was, why Meng Hao among everyone here was the only one to have his memory remain intact. And the second one was, why the fuck was that stupid disciple of his even in this dumb trial in the first place!

Once Shen Bao comes out, he'll have a nasty berating waiting for him…if he comes out.