Poison God's Heritage

The cultivators all dispersed in different directions, a futile effort in the hopes of extending their lives. 

But what is the point in running away? The whole place we're in is nothing but a trap, and we can't move out of it or leave it.

"We're like rats trapped in with a tiger…" Dao Shen spoke, but his words betrayed his actions as he took a martial artist pose, both his claws fuming a black smoke ready for a fight to the death.

"I guess so," I said as I raised my hand.

Several Tungsten Bullets flew up in the air and continued their climb.

"Oh those toys again, you think they will be of help?" Dao Shen asked.

"I highly doubt it, but we need all we can get," I said as we were readying up.

The massive snake seemed to cross the vast distance between us rather too rapidly for us to think up of anything, and almost too soon, Du Shen was right in front of us, as he lowered one of his hands, causing the chains linked to the serpent's snout to relax.

This made the serpent stop in front of us, and gaze at us menacingly.

"You still wish to fight?" Du Shen spoke, his words revibrated through the entire area as if he was the very lord of this place.

"I'm not about to lay down and die now will I," I spoke, I needed to buy time, time for the Tungsten Bullets to reach their height in orbit then to start their descent, I have to buy time for us to fight this person.

"You should, since you all belong to me," said Du Shen.

"I'm not an object to belong to someone," I replied as I pulled up my revolver and pointed it at Du Shen.

"You seem to be mistaken something, you don't have a right to say anything, I made you, built you, created you, and gave you your current form. If it wasn't for me you'd be long dead in a ditch somewhere," he said.

His words rung some truth to them, but I knew he didn't know of my circumstances.

"Those words mean nothing to me, I built myself, struggled against the odds and created the very man standing right here, I won't deny that the Poison God's Heritage had a hand in it, but it was me who strove, learned and fought against illness and death to be who I am."

If there was no Poison God's Book, there wouldn't be a me here, but at the same time, if there was no Poison God's book, there wouldn't have been those cultivators in the cave, and I would have found another way to become a cultivator. Fate may play a hand in who I am to become, but it is I who must take the steps to be who I wish to be.

"Words, words, words, in the end, all that matters is he who stands at the end, and I see no way for me to fall," he said.

"Then you must be blind," I said "X, Y, come out!" I called and my two puppets emerged from the book.

They immediately rushed Du Shen, Y aiming to decapitate him instantly while X shot several rockets toward the serpent's eyes.

The serpent closed its eyes as the explosives blew up, not rattling him in the slightest, as for Y's sword, it was easily stopped by two fingers from Du Shen's hand.

"Out of your depth, league and level, you're far too weak to pose a challenge to me, give up your book," he said.

I sent a Divine Sense message immediately to Dao Shen, "Shit, he isn't Du Shen," I said.

"How do you know that?" he said questioning me, it was obvious to all of us who had owned the Poison God's book that Du Shen appeared to us once, and we saw him, this man indeed looked like him, but deep down, I knew he wasn't.

"Why would Du Shen ever need the books back? something isn't right," I told Dao Shen.

"That doesn't help though, even if it isn't him, what do we gain by knowing this information?" he asked as he waved both hands in a claw motion causing a wave of black smoke to surge up forward like a spear, aiming to impale the imposter.

"He asked me to give up the heritage, Du Shen doesn't need it since he made it, this is an imposter, but his goal is to get our books," I said

"Then let's not give it to him," Dao Shen said as he backed away when he saw that his smoke spear was immediately dispersed the moment the serpent opened its eyes.

"I played with you enough," he said "Freeze them," Du Shen said and instantly the serpent's gaze focused on us.

Dao Shen was frozen in place while I felt an annoying pressure upon me.

Soul Pressure?

I didn't move though, I made sure to mimic Dao Shen's frozen figure and waited to see what was going to happen.

Du Shen jumped immediately from on top of the serpent and approached me, and just as he was about to grab me by the neck, a man with a dagger appeared behind him and stabbed him in the neck.

"Easy! Oh so easy it is to kill you, and you call yourself the Poison God, such unworthiness!" the man spoke as he crept up from behind the imposter.

It was a half dead half alive corpse, with several maggots creeping up its face, the hand grabbing the dagger had bare bones and skin on it.

Shi Situ joined the fight as it appears.

He then twisted the dagger causing a fountain of blood to seep out of the imposter's neck.

"It's good that you froze them for me, this will make it that I can get all of the books without moving a finger," he said as he looked at me.

"Now then," he said as he let Du Shen's body drop to the ground and approached.

"You've been talking a big game earlier, how does it feel to see your own death approach?" he said.

But before he could even take another step, someone was already grabbing him by the neck, Du Shen had never fallen and what fell to the ground was nothing but an illusion.

"Something this weak is actually a disciple of mine? Such waste," he said and simply snapped his neck.

"Though you may have learned the Death Heritage and you're able to revive after dying, you can't escape this," he said as he gripped tighter on Shi Situ's neck.

Looking closely at the imposter's hand, you could see black smoke surging up from Shi Situ's body and into Du Shen's hand. 

'Devouring?' I thought for a moment, it was the same ability of Dao Shen. He was able to absorb the very life essence of what he touched.

The frozen Dao Shen sent me a divine sense message immediately.

"You… are… right…" he spoke in terribly stressed and strained words, "He… isn't Du Shen… his devouring is… wrong," he said.

Suddenly Shi Situ's body was turned to dust and on book fell to the ground from his remains.

The fake Du Shen went down and grabbed the book, he then looked at me and said, "Now it's time to take yours, I hope you kept the golden book with you," and grabbed my neck.

I immediately felt terrible pressure on my neck enough to suffocate a man's very soul and breath.

A powerful divine sense forced its way into my mind trying to pry open my sea of consciousness.

He wishes to devour me?

To devour my soul?

Funny thing is… that's not possible.

I opened my defenses and allowed him to enter my sea of consciousness only to see something completely different of what I expected.

Instead of the Soul of Du Shen what I saw was a glowing sword that looked slightly confused.

It turned around and around, trying to figure out what was going on in this strange sea of consciousness.

Where he found a massive sea with high tides and massive waves, there was a single fortress in the middle of it with a rising tower in its midst. The tower overlooked the entirety of the sea, and was surrounded by high walls that were manned with puppets of all kinds.

The puppets were controlling turrets and cannons waiting for the sword to make a move.

and on the top of the tower was a soul, a white soul that looked like me.

The sword having located my 'soul' shot forward like a bullet, easily surpassing the speed of the very bullets and shells shot at it, its aim was simple, to impale the very soul that was housed in the tall tower, and immediately break my will.

But before the sword could even reach the tower. A hand as big as the very serpent Du Shen was riding on appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the sword tightly inside it.

It didn't allow it to move an inch.

That was my real soul's hand, and in my own sea of consciousness, I'm the lord.

For a second when both my hand and the sword met, I was able to see something… 

A memory… a very old memory.