Poison God's Heritage

But being cooped up here in this cave, unable to obtain any of the benefits of this Qi root made me lose focus.

I need to take a break, doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of madness.

I opened the cave and was met with a bright white blanket that covered the entirety of the sect.

It was snowing.

And it seemed to have been snowing for a while now.

The weather was chilly, but nothing a few rotations of the Heart Flame couldn't fix.

There were no cultivators wandering the sect at this time. Most would have been either cultivating in seclusion or hiding away from the snow in the sanctity of their abodes or caves.

I walked through the snow, moving aimlessly and without a goal. To be honest, I was never stumped this hard in finding an answer to any question I have. But this was absurd. I couldn't cultivate anything. I even tried different cultivation manuals from the Lord of Lords pagoda, but nothing worked.

As I was walking, I found myself at the top of the stairs leading down to the exit of the sect.

Using my divine sense, I detected a person at the bottom of the stairs. And was surprised to see him sitting there, in the lotus position, the same as I first saw him. He was the person who was guarding the gate, the person who didn't care when I entered.

I walked down the staircase all the way to the gate, since he was sitting on a boulder outside the sect, I didn't step out in case it would be considered 'leaving the sect without permission.'

"Aren't you feeling cold?" I asked the man.

He opened one eye and took a look at me, then he said. "Cold or heat are nothing for a cultivator, why to ask why I am cold when you yourself are rotating your own Qi to fend off the chill," he said.

"True, I have been blind," I replied.

"Not only blind, ignorant too," he said.

Now you're being an asshole.

"How come a person like you, given one of the best cultivation spots in the outer sect, not only not gain any advancement in your cultivation, but to even degrade your Qi to such an extent? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you are purposefully trying to destroy your cultivation," he said shaking his head.

He must have remembered my Qi levels when I first went past him. And since he knows that I got the 'special' cave, rumors must have spread.

"I'm having difficulties cultivating, that's it," I spoke, I didn't want anyone shoving their nose in my business.

"You're surprisingly ignorant for someone at the Nascent Soul, why are you cultivating yang techniques with that awful dark Qi you're emitting?" he said. His question was rhetorical since he immediately closed his eyes back and went back to cultivating.

Ah…

I really am an idiot.

I began laughing hysterically, indeed, why was I trying to cultivate the Fist of Roaring Ki when the soul in this body is incompatible. No wonder it felt like I was suffocating every time I tried to absorb heavenly Qi using a Yang-based technique.

I immediately headed back to the cave, enlightenment comes and goes, and hints can come from the strangest places.

Once I was inside the cave, having locked its gate. I entered the lord of lord pagoda.

And headed immediately to the library, the Demonic Section.

This is a demonic soul, and it needs a Demonic Cultivation technique.

In the Demonic Section of the Lord of Lords pagoda, there weren't many books, only a few a dozen, which made looking through them rather simple.

Of the books I found, none were worth looking through besides one. Underworld's Death Finger.

It sounds like a simple technique. But it actually is a brutal Demonic Cultivation. It uses the power of the Underworld, opening a gate to the unknown and releasing the Death Qi as an assault.

The premise sounds plausible and powerful, yet there is a drawback, as all-powerful techniques, they cannot exist without a side effect.

The Underworld's Death Finger is powerful, yet it comes at the cost of a person's soul.

Every time one draws from the Underworld's river using this cultivation technique, it inflicts a powerful backlash upon the user, in regard to their Soul Power, it draws upon the user's soul to inflict damage.

"Basically, every time I use this skill, I'll have to sacrifice a bit of my own soul in the process as payment. This would have been a good skill to use since I have a pretty powerful soul. Yet my soul is finite. And I cannot spam this." I shook my head as I was about to disregard the skill, but then my hand immediately grasped the book.

The hand in question though was mine, it hand scales on it, they only appeared for a moment. But this was a clear indication to what this means. The dragon soul, the one capable of absorbing other souls is interested in this technique.

"Oh, so you're meaning that you can offset the negative effects by absorbing Souls."

Thinking about it, I nodded.

"Then let's do it," I said and pulled the book with me back to the cave.

I sat down and began reading the manual.

It started without introduction and immediately went to how one should move their Qi through their meridians to start this cultivation technique.

The Meridians in Question were pretty dangerous, they were in the heart, brain, groin, and the liver.

The breathing technique to absorb the Qi was also nothing gentle. Instead of calmly breathing in and out, it was more like siphoning the air and stealing away Qi from around me.

Yet, there was a problem. I couldn't cultivate this technique with this body.

This body had opened many meridians and already stepped into the path of cultivation. It is already in the Nascent Soul.

"Damn, I'll have to dissipate this body's cultivation. Without breaking my meridians or my Dantian…"

This is going to hurt…

I took a few breaths and began releasing my cultivation. It felt like I was creating a hole in my Dantian where all my Qi and energy was pouring out.

Nascent Soul's first stage became Core Cultivation's ninth stage. Then it dropped all the way to the first stage, releasing so much Qi that it was barely held off inside this small chamber.

Then it turned to Foundation Establishment, then it dropped even more.

"Shen MO!" I heard a shout.

Gasping for breath from the agony of releasing my cultivation, I answered, "Yes? What is it deacon?"

"Are you alright? It feels as if you had an accident cultivating. You're releasing all your Qi, do you need medical assistance?" he asked.

"No…need. I'm fine," I replied.

The deacon didn't answer but I heard his steps moving aside.

I guess this stunt brought attention to me.

Enough that divine sense was scanning me, left and right. It was damn annoying.

"You're being rude, stop with the act of voyeurism," I said to whoever used their divine sense on me.

It didn't take much for the Divine Sense to dissipate and leave me alone.

Good, I then continued on, fully dissipating the Qi in my body until I was fully turned into a mortal.

And god did I hate that.

My body felt heavy, enough that my bones felt like they were about to break.

It was the atmosphere, this world is not friendly to cultivators.

I felt the roughness of my clothes and felt blisters starting to grow on my feet just from sitting in the lotus position.

Yet, all of this was needed.

I sighed after having released all of my Qi and went back to being a mortal. This reminded me of my days back as Shen Bao the city lord.

But, the me now, and the me then are different.

I grabbed a low grade spirit stone in my hand and then began absorbing its Qi, using the exact pathing in the manual. Coursing it from the meridian in the heart, which felt like I was stabbing myself with a hot searing knife.

Then to the mind, which felt like my brain was being struck by a sledgehammer.

The pain was enough to have me bleed from the nose.

Then I coursed it down to my groin, it was so awfully painful that I had a feeling that both my eggs had been crushed with a spiked mace. And then to my liver, giving me the urge to throw up as if my side was pierced with a searing hot rod.

This cultivation technique is not fun.

And I needed to rotate this Qi a few hundred times before I reach Qi Condensation.

Then, all I need to do, is suffer this pain a few hundred times, not a big deal.