"What do you have against us? Against the Fire Palace to treat us this way!" one of the Fire Palace disciples spoke after I 'treated' them.
"What do you mean by that? I'm saving your lives am I not?" I said.
"Only to throw us to the fire next, it is nothing but extortion, you're not saving our lives we're a byproduct for your own survival, we're tools to be used so you can guarantee your life," he said.
"And what's wrong with that," I said to him all smiles. "At least you'll have a chance, hell if there are no traps there you might just come out fine," I said.
"I don't agree," he said, then added "Because you're a fool for thinking that you'll use us as your tools," he said.
"You'll go against your oath! Are you not afraid of the heavens?" spoke Liang Yu addressing the Fire Palace Disciple.
"Oh, of course, I am, but that doesn't mean I'll be going against my oath, I swore not to reveal your secrets not to follow you. And you were foolish enough to treat us before we swore to help you, hah, what an idiot," he said.
The rest of the Fire Disciples all seemed to laugh in sync as they mocked and ridiculed my assistance to them.
The girl in the white Dress also added, "They are right no one here will follow the words of a low birth, come with me I'll find a way around this palace, I'm one of the best cultivators in the younger generation," she said.
Many seemed to turn their faces toward the girl and completely disregard me.
"She is right, I know her," spoke Wei Lei, "She is Xuan Su Tian, not of the royal family but as close as one can get, she has a lot of power and is supported by the might of the Wind Realm, the man who gave his life for her was her guard, he was one of the strongest and gave his life for her survival. If we were to have any chance at surviving we must follow them," he said and took a step forward.
"Such unfaithful dogs!" spoke Lin.
"Dogs are the opposite of that," I said, "They are loyal and good followers and companions, these however are nothing but ungrateful brats," I said as I watched them all move away.
"However," I spoke, this time loud enough, "Who permitted any of you to leave?" I spoke.
My words seemed to cause some confusion between the group of people moving forward.
"Shen B-" Wei Lei didn't dare speak my full name so he stopped and said, "Don't make this difficult we can survive with them, we can't follow you, they have more experience and more power you're barely at the Soul Transformation Stage, most of these people are at the cusp of Ascension," he said, "Don't make this difficult, you can't win."
"You all seem to be mistaking something," I said. "You think I cured you? How did that ever happen?" I said.
They frowned and Xuan Su spoke, "What do you mean by that, we're all healed up, it was your mistake by doing so, are you trying to imply that we're still sick? I've already scanned myself there is no trace of poison left in me," she said.
"Is that what you think," I grinned, "Then look again," I said. "This time, deeper, between your veins, within your cells, within the fat in your body. Look close," I spoke.
Soon, she did and her face turned whiter than a sheet of paper.
So did everyone else's.
"You finally get it now, you were never cured, the poisons have only been halted, trapped, and imprisoned within the cells of fat in your body. It was pretty difficult since you're all are cultivators and trying to stockpile poison in your nearly inexistent fat was a hard task, but it's still there. Only trapped, momentarily so, until you start exerting yourself and burning it, it will all come back to your bloodstreams and you'll be back to the same agony you've been here before. I never cured any of you, I gave you a chance at survival, and this is how you treat me? You show your fangs? very well then."
I said as I had both hands behind my back, "I had given you life, and I can take it," I said and one step forward.
Everyone seemed to buckle as nausea and dizziness seemed to rattle them.
"I've released a fraction of the trapped poison in all your body back to your bloodstreams, now, you're on the clock. Every Hour spent will mean more poison will be released into your bloodstreams, so, go on ahead, venture and explore for me, because once you're all done and dead, I'll know which path to take." I said.
Fear and the terrorizing realization of death seemed to slowly hover over their faces.
One could almost see it, the scythe of the grim reaper tightening close around their necks, waiting, for a moment to cull their lives.
Ah, the joy of it, when they finally die in agony, unable to…
I slapped myself and that was awkward because the group in front of me didn't understand why would a person would slap themselves out of nowhere.
But I did that because…my mind was being tampered with.
'I guess, it's the influence of another Purple Skull. The two that I used to harbor have either died, or been digested thanks to the Draconic Soul, but the presence of another Purple Skull is bringing me a lot of unwanted vile ideas…I want to terrorize them, but not kill them unless they deserve it. However, the Purple Skull is an insidious suggester.'
"Never mind that," I said smiling, "So, tell me, are you gonna follow like docile sheep, or are you going to all die?" I spoke.
"You can only control the poison if you are alive," spoke one of the Fire Palace disciples, "So Die!" he said as he shot towards me with blinding speed.
The palm of his hand was burning bright as he shot it toward my chest.
Only for me to look at him dumbly, as he stopped a couple of steps in front of me.
Black veins sprouted all over him and began surging as his body started shuddering, his veins began pulsating and then rupturing as black blood seemed to seep out of his bloodshot eyes, mouth, and ears.
He couldn't speak a word as his body began spasming and then soon, his own spine broke from how powerful the spasms became.
And a second later, he was no more.
"Well, that was not wise," I said.
"You-You killed him!" spoke one of the Fire Disciples.
I turned to the kid and said, "Technically speaking, I didn't kill him, it was the poison inside him, and that was because of that asshole outside. Secondly, I already told him not to exert himself, remember, the poison is stored in fat, and if you use your Qi, some of the fat is burnt because you're using a lot of energy. Thus the poison was released into his body, and finally, he tried to kill me first, so I was in all my right to kill him, if I wanted to of course," I said and then approached the corpse of the dead man.
"You might want to cover your eyes for this part," I said.
My companions did, but the rest didn't.
"Well, I hope you have a strong stomach then," I said as I opened my mouth and called upon the poisons and plagues that were within the corpse.
Like a torrent, the poisons seemed to surge up into my mouth and went directly to my Dantian.
My body suddenly jerked as black veins spread around my face and body, then they soon calmed down as I had consumed and learned these new poisons.
"Pretty powerful," I muttered as I stood back up, to see the people around me look at me in complete horror.
Some even began to throw up.
"Devil! You're a Devil! A devil cultivator!" someone spoke.
"Euh, no, I'm a Demonic cultivator, know the difference," I said, "Now, tell me, are you all still going to act like little kids? Or are you going to move? Because you're on a timer and it's ticking," I said.
That was enough to have everyone scampering forward to the palace.
"What did you do to them?" asked Lin using Divine Sense. "I've seen you. Eat that person? But I fail to understand how is that enough to cause them to worry."
"Oh, you're interesting you don't find that weird or strange?" I said to her.
"No? You defeated your enemy, and then you consume him for his power, that is a normal thing in our race." She said.
"Well, you might want to keep what happened a secret from those two," I said as I gestured with my head. "Humans aren't very fans of this practice," I said.
Did I just consider myself not human? Well, I only consumed the poisons within that person's body, it's good poison, and shouldn't go to waste.
"Liang Yu, Yuyu, let's go," I said.
The two of them opened their eyes, and so did the rest of the Heavenly Academy Students.
"They seem in a hurry," spoke Wei Lei.
"That's because they saw something ugly," I said as I turned to him, face to face, "You wouldn't want to see something ugly, do you?"
"…no, I would rather not," he said.
"Then start moving!" I said as I ushered him to go ahead.
Me, Lin, Liang Yu, Yuyu, and the rest of the Heavenly Academy Students followed after the group ahead.
And I could see from the occasional glares I was getting from the girl in white, from the White Palace that she had some unsavory words to say about me, but she was too afraid to speak them out loud.
"This is the first time," spoke Yuyu.
"The first time? Of what?" I asked.
"This is the first time I've ever seen you act as a True cultivator… since the day you came to my palace, and many years later. This has been the first time," she said.
'Is it now. Cruelty, deviousness, and cunning. Perhaps, that is the way of cultivators. And I gotta say…It's not that bad."
Once they reached the palace gate, it opened up for them, rather eerily.
"Well, I guess we'll be able to find out what is this place, and the reason we were brought here, very soon," I said.
***
"Get a move on it, find them!" spoke a man with so many wounds on his body one would think he should have been dead a long time ago.
Yet a vile pulsating poison energy was coursing through his body supplementing him and stopping the bleeding.
Next to him were several people...Or what used to be people.
They were the corpses of already dead cultivators, cultivators that Shen Bao had seen die right in front of him.
And one of these cultivators, broken of body flesh and bones was holding a stick.
he managed to point his stick forward, and with his decaying dead broken body, he still uttered, "Northern Wind....Seek!"
A torrent of cold wind manifested on his stick and shot forward pointing the way.
"Good! GOOD!" the man of many wounds spoke as he gripped tightly on a green book.
"Poison God Heritage has many secrets...And raising the dead with poison! HA, I never knew it to be possible! at least not without using Devil Cultivation!"