Poison God's Heritage

"What just happened?" the commentator was watching with a stunned expression as he failed to realize the thing that happened on screen.

He looked at Eccentric Long waiting for an explanation. The latter only shrugged.

However, a hearty laugh from the other side of the audience echoed. The man that had given up his title as the Poison God spoke.

"I see, only now can I fully and wholeheartedly accept my inferiority," he said.

"Po.. I mean Master Xiao Du, could you please help explain what is going on," the commentator asked.

"I'll do so once I join both your tables," Master Du grinned.

"You are more than welcome!" the commentator replied and the three of them gathered around in a table overseeing the arena.

"Now, for Du Shen, he had proven the path of poison he is following. The poisons in his body, they are not normal. The density and toxicity is something far beyond whatever I would dare try on myself. However, he is fully integrated with them. He is truly…" Xiao Du looked up at the tower of the Dusking Sun, "Deserving of the title Poison God, he is poison itself," said Xiao Du.

"We all admire a well placed praise and compliment, but many of us here have no understood the underlying meaning of your wise words!" said the commentator, clearly hinting that he himself had no idea what was going on.

"The Frostbound mirror, it replicates a man's entire build, muscle and Qi level included. The trial was simple, it was to test one's knowledge of the Ice law, since a clone cannot use Law it is the only way to defeat it, especially since whoever is taking that trial is denied the use of Qi.

The trial is very simple, only those who are capable and have learned during their travel time across the frigid area will be able to learn a new ice law, and the ice law that they should learn in theory will be how they can clear that part. However, that does not apply to Du Shen, who by some miracle is still able to use Qi."

"So, you're saying that he used Qi to defeat the clone?"

"Not at all, he didn't even need to move a muscle and that is exactly what happened. Du Shen's art and cultivation allows him to cultivate his body to become poison, it was the poison itself that killed the clone," said Master Xiao Du.

The commentator scratched his head and said, "but how come Du Shen is still alive, the replica is exactly the same, so he too should have melted due to the poisons on his body."

"I could probably answer that," said Eccentric Long. "The clone was missing something," he said.

"And what is that? The artifact has been created by one of the eight suns, I doubt they would make such a mistake that it didn't copy a person's body exactly."

"I'm not saying that the artifact had an error, the artifact functioned to its full ability and intent and it indeed copied Du Shen perfectly, however, it only copied his flesh and cultivation. It didn't copy his soul. And I have a feeling that Du Shen's art requires both his soul and body to function. Like Yin and Yang, never one without the other.

And the mirror only copied the body leaving the soul thus the body melted."

"I see, so to say, his soul is like an antidote for all the poison in his body and without the antidote the body will die. A very interesting analogy! Now, that is well and explained. But what in god's name happened for the other challenger?"

"Well. As we could hear, it seems that he is indeed, just lucky…" said Eccentric Long.

"Luck? That can't really be an explanation now?" the commentator said.

"As I have said, I have seen many things through my lowly life. And among them were cultivators with absurd amounts of luck that the world itself will bend and fold for their sake, and others who were of the most wretched luck kept alive by divine cynical mockery itself. Unable to even end their own lives as they had to grind through life with an incredible malice and bad fortune.

This man seems to be of the former type."

"Luck can also be a power I suppose," said the commentator.

"It is indeed a part of one's power, however, as Du Shen had said, luck is a fickle mistress. She may dote on you, and give you the riches of the world, and one day might drag you to the depths of despair without any warning or notice. One shouldn't live their lives relying on something like luck," Eccentric Long said.

"I see, my eyes have opened wider now! Still this isn't all we have for the Black Flag challenge otherwise it wouldn't be deserving of the color. The last and final part is now in front of them! Will they clear it?!"

***

The mirror in front of us suddenly reshaped itself into a door that opened in the middle allowing us entry into a sub spatial room.

As I walked inside, I had a feeling that the weather turned colder. The room we were now in had nothing. It was a small circular room with a small pond in the middle. And four small carpets for meditation around it.

The pond water however was frozen solid. There were some rings inside the ice block. However, above the ice was a large bowl that held a white raging flame inside it.

"Oh, a true frost shard… Why is this here?" Law explained.

"And what is that?" I asked.

"It's a really cold flame that's all I know about it. But it's not practical or usable for anything besides understanding Law. It can't be harnessed or used. And it will destroy a person's body if anyone dares to touch it."

Our bracelets then shined at the same time.

"Using your understanding of the Ice Law, retrieve one of the rings inside the pond. The deeper the ring in the pond the more rewards are inside it. Do note, that the ring is the only way for you to proceed to the next trial. You must retrieve it without damaging it."

The mission was simple, however, Law was muttering to himself about it being unfair.

"What's wrong now?" I asked.

"I think we'll need to use our ice law to suppress the flame, and if we do that, some of the water will melt and we'll be able to retrieve the ring, the problem is, that my understanding of Law isn't enough to suppress a True Frost shard…" he said as he sat down and immediately jerked up.

"Ouch!"

He took a look at the place where he sat, there was something underneath the carpet. He pulled the carpet up and found a ring that looked similar to the ones inside the pond.

"Oh, I guess I pass…" he said and before I could even interject, he was teleported outside the room.

"Bruh…"

I shook my head, let's not talk about that.

I also sat down and began analyzing the pond. The coldness coming out of this thing was absurd. Without Qi, I should have frozen over. But I'm protecting myself well using my Soul Flame.

Yet it is not enough to suppress this True Ice Shard. Well, maybe to an extent enough to melt a small layer of ice. But using fire might damage the rings. And using force might break them. So is there no way but to use ice law? However, I'm really terrible at Ice law.

Water Law is different since it is one of the basic ones. But ice is different although close.

'Hold on a second…' I looked around, this whole room is in a subspace. Meaning the flame could exist in a subspace. So, it must have been moved here. And if it was moved…'

I stood up and began studying the flame some more. The material holding it was nothing out of the ordinary, it was basically pottery and it was simple it could resist the cold. So it isn't something special that can carry the flame.

It must have been placed there by someone.

I refrained from pulling my personal brush since Old Fu told me that it was a very rare and sought out item. With people watching every move I do, it would be nothing but a foolish risk to show more of my cards.

I pulled a normal quill and brush and began writing inscriptions on talismans I had with me.

The inscriptions were simple and the idea was even simpler. I didn't need to suppress the flame. I just need to remove the flame entirely. Also, a forever cold flame isn't useless. I can use this in my Lord of Lords pagoda.

The problem is where to keep it for now and that's why I'm using these talismans.

I continued writing and inscribing on several dozen talismans and spread them around the pond, focusing the bulk of them to float around the flame. Thankfully they didn't outright freeze over and were able to function once I added my own Qi.

The makers of this test had already thought that someone might try and remove the flame entirely that's why they removed the ability to use Qi, however, that does not apply to my Poison Qi, so…

I clapped both my hands together enabling the formation and suddenly the whole flame disappeared along with the bowl carrying it.

"Nice!" I said as the ice that was underneath the flame instantly turned to water causing all the rings to simply sink down.

I grabbed the shiniest of the rings which I remembered was at the bottom of the pond from the start and soon the teleportation happened to me too.