Poison God's Heritage

"What in tarnation is happening here?!" one of the scavenging cultivators uttered, completely stupefied by the fact that someone was actually fighting the Heavens.

"This is absurd, its completely unbelievable, how can a man fight the heavens? Should he just quietly take the Tribulation and wait for its passing?" his question was rhetorical in sense. But it was still a question that was worthy of an answer.

A cultivator next to him replied, "That's what the norm is, but, do you think, that what we're seeing is normal? Do you think that you can survive one thunderbolt from that Tribulation?"

"Only if I have ten lives, and even then, I don't think I'll make it," he replied.

"That's what's probably going on in the mind of that cultivator fighting the Tribulation, if he were to cower and droop his head, his life will be taken, so he's fighting against it, to prove that he deserves to survive…"

Unbeknownst to the cultivators who were watching, far away on the other side of the Vast Expanse something sinister was brewing.

***

"It finally revealed itself!" the Fire Lord spoke his words rumbled through his entire domain with unprecipitated glee.

"Move the army!" the Fire Lord spoke.

This was a broad order, so the general foolishly asked, "Which regiments, Master of the Flame?"

"What do you mean, by that, General, I ordered you to move the army, in all its entirety!"

The General's eyes widened at the sudden realization, to move the whole of the Fire Lord's army meant only one thing. A war that will be written down in the history of the Vast Expanse is about to unfold, and he'll be part of it.

"As the lord commands!" the general saluted and hurried out to shout orders.

The Fire Lord clenched his fist, "Finally, the last Key had appeared, with it, all of them will be mine, and once they're all in my hand, the path to the Beyond Shall open!" the Fire Lord looked towards the north.

"With the Queen injured, and the Wind Realm in a state of chaos, none can stop my march. And as soon as I get rid of the pests along the way, I'll claim the Vast Expanse as my own, unification of the entire world will happen in my generation! Do you see it forefathers! Your Bastard Son! The one who you yourselves said to be nothing but the son of a servant! The illegitimate son of a whore! Now will achieved what all of you had failed to do in your prime!"

The Fire Lord's energy seemed to burst forward as he convinced himself with the inevitable fall of the Vast Expanse to his order and rule. Since he already owned two keys and knows the location of the rest.

The first Key he owns himself, is the Fire Key, and it had been with him for eons, allowing him to rule over the flames. The second Key was the Metal Key, though he personally doesn't have it, it is owned by the current puppet king of the Water Domain who serves none but the Fire King. The Earth King Old Beast is the one currently owning the Earth Key, but he is nothing but a brutish barbarian, luring him out of his planet, as to remove him from the Earth where the key is most powerful, then killing him is the easiest way for the Fire Lord to obtain the Earth Key. And finally, the Wind Key, owned by the Wind King, who would easily perish since his protector, the Queen of the North is currently heavily injured.

As for the Water Key, it is currently sending singles from a region close to the borders of the Wind and Earth realms, meaning that it just revealed itself, and it will cause a huge havoc as many cultivators will try to claim it for themselves, in that chaos the movement of the Fire King's army will undoubtedly not be noticed until it's too late.

And thus the Fire Lord's Army began moving.

***

"What are you both doing?" asked Master Rain, frowning when he saw both Yuyu and Liang Yu fully packed up and ready to travel.

"I don't suppose you're going to stop us from seeing Shen Bao?" they asked.

Master Rain sighed, "Since I met that brat, so many of you have been treating me like an old foggy not worth respect, listen up kids," spoke Master Rain as his aura seemed to suppress the world itself, "There is a good chance that what Dao Shen felt was a mistake, I don't want to deal with you all crying if he ends up dead or not out yet!"

"We won't be a bother!" they both said.

Master Rain sighed, the girls were adamant on following him, "And you? Why are you coming?" he asked Dao Shen.

"Because I'm bored, there is nothing to do here, I mean going to the Fire Lord domain was fun and all, but I really don't like the oldies here, they're all treating me like a test subject wanting to learn more about Soul Magic…"

Master Rain sighed but he had to agree, the Heavenly Academy's professors are pretty keen and adamant when it comes to Soul Magic since it's the area they lack in the most, and anyone who can remotely know about it will be asked, no, more like interrogated on how it is used.

"I suppose Zhang Tian will remain here," Master Rain said as he noticed his absence, after all, his mother was heavily injured when fighting the Fire Lord. Not even Master Rain could assist her since he had been fighting for three years constantly and had lost a great deal of his Qi on the run. But no matter, she should heal up in a few years and be good as new.

"Alright Little Cabbage, we've been working you to the bone for the past years, don't hate me for this, but your master is probably back how about we go meet him," Master Rain said as he petted the Thunder Bull's face.

The bull didn't seem to mind as he nodded and the group rode on the carriage, heading toward the location of Shen Bao.

***

The Divine Tribulation was not holding back any punches. More reinforced Thunderbolts came down toward me with desperate abandon. As if the two of us could never exist under the same sky, they came down with rumbling fury and wrath, only to be shattered apart as my fists ripped the very essence of the thunderbolts.

More and more came at me only to be struck down and punched away.

The power of the Golden Titan was absurdly oppressive in this giant form, but for me, it was on an entirely new level. Though my cultivation level is still far below the Golden Titan, the power level I'm sure I've surpassed him a long time ago.

And now freed from the need to suppress my Qi I let it roil and coil as it spiraled almost out of control within my Dantian, surging and surging as it was pushing my cultivation base forward to what it needs to be.

Right now, the Qi I'm using is far, far, far more than my body could ever handle, and thanks to the Divine Tribulation, I'm able to use the excess of it, which was an absurd amount to fight against the Tribulation. While the rest of it, is currently throbbing through my cultivation base pushing it forward, and forward.

"Break!" I called as I sent two fists forward with a disgusting amount of energy to break apart the incoming bolts, the reason for this surge of Qi was because I reached the peak of my Saint cultivation base already and needed a few seconds to breakthrough.

And the breakthrough came with utter ease, and not before my body could even start adjusting to the King Realm of cultivation, it surged even more as it broke through three more minor layers in succession, then all the way to the peak of the middle layers.

Six layers in a fraction of a second, and I still had more Qi left to push myself even more toward the peak of the King Realm.

The Heavenly Tribulation, enraged at being distracted and deceived with my former blow as it allowed me to break through, manifested two fists that would look like they could pluck the very stars from the world.

The two fists opened into palms and then clapped while I was in the middle.

The clap fucking hurt. I felt like a mosquito being squished as the two palms that were made of cloud felt heavier than the blow of iron, and that wasn't the end as the electric blast from the powered up and charged up cloud palms wreaked an endless stream of electric might through my body.

The clap broke my body and the electricity fried it.

But. Against the regenerative prows of the Titan's Body and the Essence Blood of a Primordial, tis but a scratch.

I instantly regenerated my broken limbs and my burnt body to peak state as more of my Qi surged forward breaking through the next three layers in succession.

And as if I had hit a wall, my cultivation was immediately forced to a halt.

Frowning, I couldn't understand why, I clearly had more than enough energy to reach past and beyond the realm of Kings into the Realm of Emperors, but…

It was as if I was lacking a condition.

The distraction almost cost me my life as another hand was preparing to blow me to mush, and looking at the state of the clouds, they were about to dissipate, this was its last assault.

"COME!" I called as I gathered all my energy to block this incoming strike.

"I'll take this one head on!"