"H…how do you know about that?" I spoke, there was no point denying it.
Liang Yu looked at me strangely but didn't speak as long as her Sect Master was speaking.
"I did my investigations on the Three Sun Sect, and they really are not big fans of what happened back at Si Xue, a barren land it might be, but they were there for a reason," the Sect Master spoke.
"Two of the twelve Acolytes were supposedly in that planet, and now that it has been sealed off, they can no longer put their hands on the Poison God's Heritage," The old man said.
He seems to know a lot about the Poison God's book.
"You think you're special?" the Sect Master grinned. "You're not, there are technically eight more of you, every Poison God's Acolyte has left a book, and seven of them have been discovered. All the owners of those books are prominent figures in the world of cultivation," the old man said.
"But you," he said, "You're weak, unaffiliated, powerless to change your own fate," he said, heavy words, but true nevertheless.
"What is stopping me from taking your Heritage right now?" the old man said.
I tensed up at his words.
"Nothing actually, you wouldn't even stand a fighting chance against me. And I could take your Heritage and partake in the Poison God's Trial," he said.
"S-sect master!" Liang Yu spoke.
"Calm down child," the Sect Master replied, "Though tempted I am, I'm still bound by the Karmic laws of the worlds, if I were to spit in the face of someone who brought closure to my dead grand daughter's life, my Karmic balance would be upturned, and I'll receive divine punishment, thus, I'll ignore your presence for now," the old man said and then turned to the people in the city.
"But I do not wish to see so many foreign mortals here, they don't deserve to live in this place," the old man said and raised his hands.
I don't know what took over me, because, realistically speaking, the guy in front of me was unfathomably powerful, a mere word and I could lose my life, but the moment he raised his hand against MY city! MY people.
I shot forward, my eyes screaming bloody murder as creeping demise shot forward with deadly precision towards the old man's head.
"Ho," the man smiled and grabbed the tip of my sword with two fingers.
"Hot blooded," he spoke.
I didn't need to wait for his reaction as I already had several explosive canisters materializing right next to his face.
I always hid a few in subspace, and could easily switch them back to the current space. The appearance of the canisters wasn't much for the old man to phase. He only needed to grunt, for the canisters to crumble and break.
Yet some of them weren't explosive in nature, and the moment they broke, they released a poisonous cloud.
Among the poison was the Breath Sealing Poison.
"Oh, Breath Sealing poison, it would have been a good tool to use against other cultivators, but not for someone who uses Saint Qi," he spoke as I realized that the Breath Sealing Poison was failing miserably to penetrate through his Saint Qi protection.
"X! Z!" I called and immediately the two puppets shot forward X was immediately shot back down with a backward palm while Z's speed was comparable to a snail moving as he easily swatted him away.
I slammed both my hands together in front of me and then blew on the tip of my fingers shooting powerful gout of purple poison.
"Interesting, going for the big guns already," the old man said. "But the Bone and Body Grinding Poison is only capable of harming people below the Ascendant Realm, I could easily expel this as long as I don't literally drown in a pool of it," the old man said and with a single stomp on the ground, the whole poison around him blew away like it never existed.
"You had your fun, now it's my turn," the old man said, a moment later, he took a step forward and slapped me across the face.
The blow was strong enough that It shot me through several buildings, breaking and crashing them then rolling on the ground like a rag doll finding an end to my endless tumbles on the ground thanks to a massive boulder.
I broke the boulder due to how powerful the crash was and felt that my own back was broken in response.
The old man took another step and was already next to me, he raised his leg and went for the finisher.
My entire body, at that moment, felt the terror of death, I couldn't change it no matter how I struggled, my tools and trinkets weren't enough to fight against this oppressive power, and I once again felt true death.
Yet, I wasn't going to go down like that.
Space shivered as two puppet arms manifested, one from my shoulder and another from my waist, they shoved me to the side helping me avoid the old man's stomp that cratered the ground.
I rolled back, and called all four arms, taking a strained breath after another.
This man… wasn't trying to kill me, well, he was but wasn't trying hard enough, I know this, he wants to see something.
His moves were just barely enough for me to escape, or survive with a breath away from death. He was currently keeping his 'Karmic' vow, but at the same time if I were to die, I knew that it was not because of him, but because of my lack of ability.
I was being tested, and I didn't like it.
"Weak," spoke the old man, "Slow," he added as he slowly walked towards me, "Unworthy," he stated, "And completely irrelevant," he finished.
I slapped my hands together once again this time manifesting the Veridian Heart Flame. This caused the old man some pause, then I pointed it forward and shot it like a torrent of flame, this however made him scuff.
"Untalented," he said as he swatted away the Veridian Flame as if it was nothing.
I shot forward and raised both my arms up, making a claw motion then sliced down.
"Rash," he said as didn't even dodge or evade the incoming blow.
The Poison Tiger Claw disappeared as if it was a harmless breeze against the old man's robes.
The old man kept moving toward me, as I was processing ways to deal with him. Nothing seemed to work.
I then tried the Laughing Slaughterer's technique. Surging forward with undeniable momentum, risking all for one blow…
Only to get stuck in the chest by a palm so slow that I felt like I was being toyed with.
"Copycat," he said as I was thrown to the side.
I pulled a treasure from my inventory, it was the Laughing Slaughterer's Pagoda.
"SEAL!" I spoke as I threw the small tower in my hand toward the old man.
The pagoda rose above the old man, rotated then began enlarging as it fell down towards him.
However, the old man easily held his hand up, "You don't have the qualification to seal me," he said, and just like that, he twisted his hand and the sealing broke causing the pagoda to return to its former smaller size.
I was almost out of tricks, and he seemed to be, losing patience…
"I guess there is no point in keeping you alive, I might have to pay some Karmic dues, but it's far better than having one of the Acolytes fall at the hands of an unworthy person," he spoke and this time I knew if I didn't do something, I'll be a goner.
I didn't want to do this, but it's probably my only shot, I then pulled several talismans.
They looked illegible, for even the old man didn't seem to know what these were.
However, the skies above me knew what these were, and then the world thundered, causing even the old man to frown.
"What is that?" the old man asked.
"How about you find out for yourself," I said as I pulled my brush and finished the line that was missing on all of the talismans.
The world turned dark far too fast for even the old man to fully grasp the situation.
"How are you calling Heavenly Tribulation?" he questioned.
"Enjoy finding out in the afterlife!" I spoke as I threw the talismans toward him.
They shot forward as if they were seeking a target, and the moment they came in contact with the old man, the world rumbled.
I knew for a fact that he could have easily dodged them, but he didn't, he wanted to see how capable I was.
Once the talismans reached the old man, the world seemed as if it was wrathful at itself, and roared as thunder boomed and red lightning shot down with murderous intentions toward the old man.
The old man, however, grabbed one of the talismans and crumpled it within his hand hiding it from the incoming lightning, and received the rest of the lightning against his body.
He didn't get phased, pushed, or even seemed to be feeling pain.
The lightning kept coming down against him while he yawned from boredom.
Soon, the last lightning bolt shot down against him, and for the first time, he reacted.
"Ah!! That's the good stuff, I was feeling a bit sore, nothing a good heavenly tribulation can't fix," he said.
And soon the clouds dispersed leaving an unscathed old man all alone standing in the middle of a scorched field.
I was a bit perturbed by what just happened right now… this man, treated heavenly Tribulation lightning like they were the hand of a young maiden giving him a massage.
He then opened the crumpled piece of talisman in his hand and began looking through it.
"Interesting, you somehow managed to record the Heavenly Law, though incomplete…still, not enough, not nearly good enough," he said as he threw away the talisman as if it was nothing worthy of note. Another thunderbolt came down to strike at the talisman destroying knowledge that shouldn't be shared and sounding like the end of an anti-climactic play.
"If this is all you're capable of, you're better off dead, child," he said.
I slowed down my breathing, closed my eyes, then took a deep breath, the words that I couldn't speak before, "Real and Fake, World of Delusion." Immediately, law lines shot from under me all over the place and then they trapped the old man within a domain that I could control.
The old man looked around and was, for the first time impressed.
"A domain, at the Nascent Stage…"
He spoke, and the moment he took a step forward he frowned.
As he actually took a step back.
He then, like a little child began trying stuff, like moving around, using hand gestures, and even spinning around himself, smiling as if he had had his fill, he then pointed his finger at me, manifesting a small beam that shot towards me, only for me to not be hit by it.
In this world, up is down, down is up, and the front is back, but for a person to shoot directly at me, instead of the shot to be sent back, in this case, my own position was changed from in front of the old man to behind him.
"What an interesting Domain," he said, "But, it is weak to one thing, the old man said and moved his hand in a circle around him.
Hundreds upon hundreds of small little balls of light manifested all around him, and then they all shot in random directions.
"You can't dodge what you can't escape," he said..
Though his words could have been true, I was already prepared for something like this when I faced the Sect Master of the Three-Legged Raven sect. He chose an attack that targeted all directions.
"Delusional Inception!" I called and immediately, within my domain, another manifested a smaller one, more compact, this one was not affecting the old man, but was affecting only me.
Aspherical dome manifested around me, and whenever one of the beams touched it, it reversed its course and went flying away somewhere else.
"Oh… now this, is interesting," the old man spoke genuinely surprised.
"A domain, within a domain, I've never seen something like this, no, it shouldn't be even possible, a person's computing ability shouldn't be this high, not to mention a person like you without a talent root, yet you still managed to create two folds of the same domain without them breaking themselves apart and managing to coexist? How?" the old man asked. But he clearly didn't wait for me to explain.
"Ah, I could guess why, your domain is a delusion domain, a Dao that changes reality, a dangerous Dao, not many could even dare to gleam knowledge of such domain, for fear of their reality might be mixed with lies. It is a dangerous one, yet you're still capable of retaining your sanity within delusions… interesting, this could only mean that your soul power is rather monstrous," the old man rambled on.
I had no idea what the hell he was saying though, Dao of delusion? What the heck is that, I only cultivated spatial law.
"But, it is still not enough," he said, and then spoke, "World's Adage, Despairing Eternity!" the old man spoke and just as his own domain was spreading.
I grinned.
Gotcha, motherfucker!