Once we entered the inn, I ordered several courses of food, for some reason I was famished beyond humanly possible, and I ate and ate, tearing through meat, fish and whatever was presented to me.
The group with me looked at me as if I was a monster, but I didn't care, I bit through pork thighs with gravy dripping down my mouth as I gulped wine like water, and continued eating.
"Brother Shen Bao, you should chew, otherwise you'll have stomach troubles," Xiao Lang said grinning.
After chewing a couple of times, not thanks to his advice but in preparation for a retort I said, "I'm so hungry I think that I'll be wasting time chewing. Want a bite?" I said as I handed Xiao Lang the pig's thigh, but he shook his head and raised both his hands, "I'm sorry, still no stomach to eat. Especially after that display earlier."
I shrugged, "More for me then," and I continued eating.
"A satiety pill should help you calm your hunger wouldn't it?" Wu Di asked.
I shook my head, "My body, for some reason is demanding sustenance, a satiety pill can help keep hunger away but I feel that I'll collapse. Use your divine sense," I said.
Immediately, a probing wave of energy came against my body and lingered a bit over my muscles then retreated, Wu Di's expression turned complex.
"What's going on?" asked Xiao Lang.
"Shen Bao is right, his body is on the verge of deterioration, it seems that the heavenly tribulation lightning had burnt so much of his muscles that when it tried to heal him back, it focused on sustaining his muscles with nutrients his body had before." Wu Di said.
"That doesn't make sense, usually the Heavenly Tribulation grants the cultivators that survive it heavenly Qi, it doesn't interfere with their bodies to force rejuvenation." Xiao Lang said.
Only I knew the answer to that question and I wasn't going to share. Actually, the Heavenly Tribulation isn't really a dick of a super omniscient power. It's actually…nice.
Basically, in terms that everyone could easily understand, the Tribulation caused me pain, and after surviving the punishment, I felt sorry and wanted to apologize so usually it would offer Qi to help cultivators heal back from the damage that it caused them with bonus. But, I cannot cultivate heavenly Qi, and Heavens is proud, and wouldn't want to be known as not merciful, it couldn't heal me using its own powers, so it used the second best thing, my body, and forced it to rejuvenate the wounds and damage. But the downside to the second option heaven chose, was that it was I who's going to pay the price. For whatever selfish reason, heavens thought that it did me a favor by forcing my body to heal up. It did more harm than good, but thankfully I can easily supplement the nutrients that were forced to regenerate me with food, a lot of food.
I continued eating, vegetables for fibers, no matter how disgusting, meat for protein, fish bones even for calcium, and even fish eyes for various fats and other amino acids that were within foods that I didn't bother thinking too much before eating.
After an hour of feasting, I had so many people watching our table with frightened looks. They couldn't believe how many plates had been presented to my table only to have been emptied immediately afterward.
"MOAR!" I said as I struck a mug on my table, and a servant hurried to pour me drink as another took the plates from the table and placed another plate full of dumplings.
"It feels like Shen Bao is more serious against food than the Heavenly Tribulation," Xiao Lang said and Yuzehan giggled at his statement. That simple sentence caused the rest of the people in the inn to smile.
"Brother Shen Bao, congratulations on attaining Core Formation!" one random cultivator said as he stood on my table, from his pouch he pulled a mug full of wine and placed it on my table.
I took the mug and emptied it on one gulp, then slammed the bottom of the mug on the table in ecstatic joy, "Good wine!"
"I'm glad you like it," the cultivator said and then left the area.
More cultivators came in, some even shared some exotic foods they had in their pouches and placed them on the table.
I was surprised by the actions the cultivators had done, and when I asked Wu Di why he said, "Simple, you stomped all over that Chan Gui, giving back face to the cultivators, though I would have killed him you let him go. But it's for the best, this way he will live with shame following him forever."
"Ah," I said as I nodded, there it is again, Face, fuck face. I grumbled under my breath and continued eating.
Many cultivators offered more foods until one of them came and offered me a mug full of a dark bubbling liquid, it stank of a rancid smell and didn't look edible at all. The kid who gave me the mug was actually hesitant, it was as if he didn't think this was a good idea, and from the look of everyone around him, he honestly believed that offering me this mug of bubbling sludge was a bad idea.
"I'm sorry, I'll take it away!" the kid said but I grabbed his hand.
He yelped in fright, "That's Fungal Greed's Torment!" I said.
"Yes, it's highly poisonous." The kid said.
"No, highly toxic!" I shook my head, "Toxic and Poisonous are two different things," I said as I grabbed the mug from his hand and downed it in one gulp, "GOOD!" I screeched as fumes came seething from my mouth.
The Fungal Greed Torment went down my stomach like heavenly juice, the toxic substance empowered my core and reinforced it, supplementing it from the Qi it had lost in the earlier battle and began rejuvenating me. My whole demeanor began radiating as my body relaxed and I no longer felt hungry anymore.
"That's some good concentrated stuff! Do you have more?" I asked but the kid shook his head.
"No worries, you saved me a lot of time, here," I said as I threw the kid a Soul Condensing pill. The whole room buzzed as everyone looked at each other and then a few had some greedy looks in their eyes, mostly pointed at the kid.
I think I just caused the kid a huge blunder.
"I can't accept this!" the kid said as he tried to give me back the pill.
I shook my head, that's your payment, I was actually putting the kid in a bad spot but I needed to make a point clear to everyone here.
One demon saw the pill and approached the kid, "If you don't want the Soul Condensing Pill I'll make sure to take good care of it, let me keep it safe for you."
The demon was a stereotypical hulking mass of muscles with two horns, scuffed hair, two large frontal fangs protruding from his lower jaw. He had a club strapped to his back and was wearing pants and had his upper torso bare for everyone to see the rippling muscles in them. A typical bully.
"Kid, do you remember when I told you that the Fungal Greed Torment is toxic and not poison?"
The kid was at a loss as the large man was still coming his way with a snide smile on his face and extended hand as if expecting the pill to be handed without question.
"Y-yes."
"Let me give you a small demonstration on the difference between poison and toxin." I snapped my fingers and the hulking mass of muscles convulsed, his eyes flipped behind his skull and fell frothing at the mouth. Dead.
"This is a toxin," I said and immediately everyone shuddered at what just happened. Unable to understand how the hulking man died before even knowing how.
"Fungal Greed's Torment, it's a mushroom that has a small microorganism living within it." I said as I stood up, "In a sense, the Fungal Greed's Torment, the plant itself is harmless, yet it cannot live without that small microorganism that creates toxin while it lives above the plant, and that toxin itself is what nurtures this plant. They cohabit. The Fungal Greed's Torment Is called that way because most people see it they confound it with gold ingots. As its golden color attracts the attention of many people who touch it and die immediately after it's too late."
"But there was no gold in the mug you drank," Wu Di said.
"Yes, because the moment the Fungal Greed's Torment is ripped from its root, it turns black as charcoal, a final ironical sneer at the man who was blinded by greed and pulled his own doom with his won hands."
"Still, how did this guy die?" Xiao Lang asked, "You didn't even touch him, nor did I see you attack."
"Oh now, did you," I said as I grinned, use your divine sense, everyone should but don't focus on the people around you, but the air itself," I said.
The moment I said that everyone in the room had their face turn pale as a sheet of paper.
"What the hell! What is that?!" Everyone had the same question as fear gripped their hearts.
"That's Toxin!" I said grinning. "This little kid here," I pointed "Was carrying a time bomb, the mug," I said and used my own Divine Sense to see what everyone was seeing.
The mug on the table was constantly releasing toxin in the room so much of it that it flooded the whole room, but it was harmless.
"The mug was what killed this man," I said.
"But, why didn't it harm us?" Wu Di said.
"Well, it was simple, the toxin will not affect a man that I didn't want it to affect."
The crowd was even more bewildered.
The toxin would only affect a person that has been in direct contact with it, and since only I was the one who drank it, I'm the new host of the microorganisms, and as their host…" I grinned "I'm their king and if I want someone dead, they'll be dead." I said as I waved my hand.
Anyone with their divine sense active would notice that the micro-organisms in the air came rushing toward me and affixed themselves on my body.
"Damn, for a second there I thought you had us all as hostages," Xiao Lang said.
"If I wanted to take a hostage, I would have done so without the need of the Fungal Greed's Torment. I have many other poisons," I said and sat down.
"You should take that mug and burn it, even if I had drunk most of it, there is still toxin there," I said to the kid and he immediately took the mug and threw it in a nearby fireplace.
"You should always have your divine sense active, lest you die without knowing how," I advised everyone in the room and they all took it seriously. This was no joke, they just realized that death could happen to them without them knowing.
"Divine sense expends a lot of Qi, we can't have it active all the time." Some random cultivator said.
"Then don't spread it around you like a globe, just have it right above your skin, like a second layer of skin, this way you'll sense if something forging was trying to invade your body," I said.
"Many thanks!" one of the kids around me said, "Senior Shen Bao, you've taught us a valuable lesson, I'm indebted to you."
I shrugged and waved the man off, "No worries, advice costs nothing." I said to the kid, and the rest all began clasping their hands at me.
"You're becoming more and more famous Brother Shen Bao," Wu Di said.
"It's just basic human decency, if everyone shared advice we'll be better people, but most become arrogant due to the power they obtain when they cultivate and forget their origins. We're all humans no matter how far on the path of Dao we go, we'll never change the fact that we're humans. And I'm not talking about the human race I said as I looked at a few demons that were in the room, "I'm talking about being a good person in a world where no one takes a second look at beggars in the street and deem anyone weaker than them nothing but trash, a kind word for the right person can flip their lives around. Demon, human, or celestial, we're all capable of emotion, and if we're able to share advice and be kind to the other we can progress far."
"Wise words!" someone spoke and his own words caused my body to shake, it seemed that someone powerful was listening to us.
Suddenly a man accompanied by the three demons who raised the barrier when I was breaking through inside this very in came.
He had a hood over his face and was covered from head to toe with a large robe.
"Seems that you're far wiser than I expected," the ma said as he removed his hood and I saw a demon not older than the age of forty standing in the company of the three other 'guards?'
Several demons immediately kowtowed to the man, "Hail his majesty Tarta'Ghoul!"
'Ah shit, this is the guy whose daughter I ogled at when she was naked. Well, this is gonna be interesting.