We arrived at a new floor, yet again a bit smaller than the one under it. But on this floor, there didn't seem to be anything of note besides the massive pillar in the middle of it. It was a square pillar made of an obsidian-like substance.
Before I could consult the poison god's book, Xi Son hurried towards the stone, trying to pocket it into his pouch but was soundly denied.
"Damn, I can't take it, nor can I refine it for my own use." Xi Son said.
"Pardon my lack of knowledge, what is this?" I asked.
"Huh? I thought you would know; this is a Law Stone. Though this is the largest one I had ever seen. It helps cultivators understand the laws of the world. But on a rudimentary level. This is more like a preparation for when they begin studying Law in order to confirm their Dao and create their Domain."
So many new concepts that I have yet to fully understand but I believe I have the gist of it.
"Though fellow cultivator Shen Bao's cultivation is severely lacking, you can still gain glimpses of this Law Stone if you can understand something from it. And I believe this is the test of this flour. But it is highly unfavorable for you due to your cultivation level." Xi Son said, though he spoke in a none derisive manner, I could feel hints of pity in his tone. Not the good kind of pity even though pity was never good.
I nodded at Xi Son and approached the Stone, trying to understand what secrets it held.
There was nothing worth paying attention to, it was nothing more than a well-chiseled stone that stood in the middle of the room, but seeing Xi Son sit in a lotus position in front of it and enter meditation gave me enough hints on what I should do next.
I sat opposed to Xi Son on the other side of the stone and closed my eyes, the stone was not meant to be seen through one's eyes, but one's mind, and using my Mind's Eye, I was able to peer through the stone into a vast expanse. No, into Thee Vast Expanse as the Poison God's book just sent the information to my head.
***
This world you live in is but a minuscule spec of dust in the ever-expanding Vast Expanse, it is unlimited and forever enlarging, birthing new life every fraction of a second, and creating secrets, treasures, and worlds anew while bringing death destruction, and anhelation to more.
You are but a mere spec of dust within a spec of dust in such a large world, but even a pebble can create ripples that resound through a lake as you can make your name resound through the Vast Expanse.
While the domain mankind had explored cannot be more than a fraction of a fraction of the Vast Expanse, you can be sure that more exist for you to explore, and the dangers and rewards it entails are for only the brave to discover.
Do not feel as someone insignificant, for as long as you follow this master's teachings, your voice will be heard loud and clear throughout the Vast Expanse!
***
I took the words of the Poison God's Book with a grain of salt, as I a former man from Earth know, the universe is huge, and huge isn't enough to encompass the true meaning of how big the universe is. Simply put, I know that as many grains of sand there are on Earth, there are more stars in the universe. And that is true.
I peered into the Vast Expanse that was in this stone, and all I could see were stars so numerous that it was mind bogging to keep track of them all. And then there was a star, a green one, in incessant turmoil, as green flames(?) spun and rotated, revolved, and morphed within each other, and then my eyes focused on the planet even further, ignoring the background and solely peering into the planet.
It felt warm, not hot, not boiling, but just warm, the flames weren't flames, but rather liquid that acted like flames. And within this liquid lived monsters of proportions unimaginable. Serpents that were as long and as large as rivers, and scorpions that furrowed into the flame liquid and emerged, battling against each other in frenzied furry, never stopping never receding, and always and forever battling against each other. I saw more creatures, but there was only one thing in relation to all of these things. The massive leaping frogs, or the snakes, nor the colorful bugs, they were all, poisonous.
This was a planet that was festering with poisonous creatures and the planet itself was doused in poison. I have no idea what this means, how can a planet have an ecosystem such as this? But I was in a cultivation world and making logical explanations where I was literally spewing poison out of my own mouth just a few moments ago seemed rather illogical and a moot point to argue.
Suddenly, something strange seemed to happen, as the waves of green flames parted, revealing two sets of eyes that definitely belonged to a reptilian creature. The eyes, from where I could see them sent shivers down my spine, as they were as large as the moon, and glistened in gold while the abysmal slit in them looked like space was split.
This creature's eyes were so massive that I had a hard time understanding how it could even fit inside this planet. Then I figured out why almost soon afterward when the damn planet shuddered and literally uncoiled around itself.
A draconic serpent as large as a planet was looking directly at me, where the former liquid that made the planet slowly rotated around its body, probably just due to how massive this creature was, it literally had its own gravitational field. Where the massive creatures I saw before, now were nothing more than specs of dust along the enormous size of the draconic serpent's frame.
The serpent opened its mouth revealing rows of fangs large enough to contend with mountains, and then it hissed, with enough force that space around it shuddered and vibrated, causing it to ripple and break in so many ways that I felt the destruction of the whole universe was bound to happen at any time now.
Then with its eyes locked at me, the serpent began moving towards me.
Only then was I forced back into where I was sitting, fear gripped at my heart, and cold sweat drenched my back.
Xi Son was still meditating, not having sensed what just happened and only the Poison God's Book was my solace as it explained what happened and what I just realized would be my most troublesome foe, and the looming scythe of death upon my head.
***
Serpent God, one of the seven Primordial Creatures. Nothing much is known about them, but I have faced it several times before and never managed against its impressive might, not even at my prime, I was not even able to scratch it. Thankfully, it was not fast, but at the same time, it was my most fearsome foe.
For this Primordial Creature, it vied, loathed, and envied anyone using his path of cultivation. It will not still, nor stop until all that seek the Dao of Poison are consumed by it. As this Primordial Creature's goal was to go beyond his current unknown cultivation and reach above, it failed to find treasures enabling it to break through and would seek to break through by finding and consuming cultivators who use the Poison Path.
However, what bogged my mind was the fact that although there were many, many, many sects cultivating poison, the Serpent God would only move against specific targets, and I was among them, and so would this danger befall upon you as you cultivate the same path as I did.
Disciple of mine, take not this creature as a sign of despair and mortality but embrace it as a deadly reminder that you have to increase your cultivation before the Serpent God reaches where you are.
Do not curse me for forcing you down this path only to be hunted to the end of life by this creature, for I too had suffered at his hands, and had known of its impeding approach only when I achieved Ascension. Then and there, I was lucky to have an artifact that propelled me on a random planet through the Vast Expanse, giving me ample opportunity to escape the hunt. I grew stronger while the Serpent Approached, and whenever it got closer, I would escape once again.
I have never found a way to escape its hunt, and as you read this. Do know, that if the Serpent is after you, then it had already claimed me within its jaws. Escape, run, and grow stronger, for only when you're mightier than the Serpent God, can you free yourself from your own mortality.
***
I took deep and heavy breaths before images began flooding my mind, as I saw the serpent god chasing after the figure of a young man that didn't look older than his thirties. The man flew through the stars with enough speed that the stars turned to long rays of light. But the serpent god leisurely followed after it, breaking through planets as if they were made of paper, and gobbling them up along his way. The cultivator stopped, heaved raising both hands, then swiped down, with his fingers in a clawing manner. This clawed grip looked exactly like the Poison Tiger's Claw. And while I could replicate the basic move to some semblance of perfectness, what I saw made my head throb in exasperation.
As when compared to my claw, the cultivator who I now assumed to be the Poison God, created claws waves that were larger than planets, like seriously larger than fucking planets where he himself looked no bigger than an atom compared to the massive space fissures he created.
The claw marks wounded space itself, forcing it to break on contact where waves of pale green and sordid energy came down upon the snake.
And what was mot vexing was how easily the serpent shrugged off the titanic assault with relative ease. Causing the cultivator to sigh in hopelessness and turn tail escaping further.
The images stopped and I was left with a sense of desolated dread. How the hell can I face against something like that? And that creature was creeping towards me as I speak. How long will it take to get here? Hours? Days? Years or centuries? No matter how long, it is of the utmost frustration to know that death is coming whether you want it or not.
I focused my eyes on the stone because I needed to at least figure out how far we are. And just as I found myself in the vast expanse, I focused on my body, finding it on a random star in a random direction in the Vast Expanse. And almost instinctively, I turned to locate the serpent, who was still coming over, but, he was so far, so, so far away that it would be absurd to even believe this distance crossable in a hundred lifetimes. I had more chances of dying by a heart attack or outright getting killed by Xi Son here than the serpent to kill me. The distance was absurdly far that I had a hard time understanding why did the Poison God even feared this thing, he could just keep randomly teleporting around the universe.
Still, it was frustrating knowing that this damn thing would always and forever be hot on my heels.
I calmed myself and began inspecting the rest of this unfathomably large space, but at the same time making sure not to disturbed any ancient beings, and then I found myself lost in the beauty of this world.
For it was so grand, so large and so majestic that one would spend several lifetimes trying to describe it and never give it its due right.
Space was grand and kept so many secrets and treasures and mysteries that it was extremely compelling to go and seek them, and so I found myself lost in its amazing mysteries...