Poison God's Heritage

Making the entirety of the vast expanse your enemy could mean one thing and one thing only.

He's planning on dominating it, anyone with even half a functioning braincell can guess that, but why now? Why did he act now? What changed?

"The Queen is hurt," said Master Rain to me.

As if that was an answer to the question painted on my face.

"How did that happen?" I asked.

"Well, me and the kids," Master Rain said, "Decided to take on your goal of going and assisting Meng Hao in retrieving his wife's soul. And the Fire Lord managed to awaken out of his cultivation and chase after us when we were escaping the Fire Domain with the soul, the Queen came over to assist us, since her son was with us, and in a confrontation with the Fire Lord she suffered injuries," said Master Rain.

"How grave?" I asked.

"Grave enough to shake the power level, she's currently bedridden and without the ability to use one of her arms, her soul has also been damaged and that caused her to lose a great deal of her ability, the Fire Lord seemed to have used something that interfered with her Soul Magic and this cost her dearly…"

"I need to take a look at her, but still," I said.

…

"That's not enough to cause the Fire Lord to go on an all out assault, if the Wind Realm wished, they could easily fortify and defend their territory long enough for the queen to recoup from the damage, not to mention the Fire Lord isn't only attacking the Wind Realm, he's taking out any opposition that's coming his way, including the other domains…"

"So you're saying that there must be another reason why he's attacking," Yuyu asked.

I rubbed her head and said, "Yes, and I believe I know what it is," I said.

"I doubt that the reason could be the disappearance of the Primordial Serpent God, though it usually rests in the Wind Realm domain, it rarely interacts with the people, besides the followers of the Poison God's path of course. So it must be something else," Master Rain said.

"Sharp as always, yes, the Primordial Serpent God wouldn't have moved an inch even if the Vast Expanse was lit aflame, but the Fire Lord is coming here, because something that was lost long ago was once again revealed," I said as I pulled it form my holding bag.

Just as I pulled out the pentagonal jewel.

The world itself seemed to gain a new color to it as it shone bright releasing its essence into the world, revealing that it had once again appeared.

Master Rain's eyes opened wide as he said, "Hide that damn thing! There are too many eyes watching,"

"I did it on purpose," I said.

"What's that?" asked Yuyu.

"Oh this is the Water Key, one of the original elements of the Vast Expanse, and a key to unlock the Door to the Beyond," I said.

She didn't understand what I meant and before I could interject, the key simply jumped from my hand and landed between her breasts.

"huh…"

"Well… that's not good," Master Rain said.

"What do you mean?" yuyu asked as she removed the key from her chest and grabbed it in her hand.

"The key chose you apparently, which is strange, I thought it would take Master Rain as owner," I said.

"Why would you think that? Also how come it followed you without attaching itself to you?" asked Master Rain.

"Because I'm its ride out of the belly of the beast, otherwise it'll still be stuck in the stomach of the Primordial Serpent God.

Yuyu's eyes turned white as she began experiencing the same thing I did.

Soon enough she opened her eyes and took a gasp after another, "This thing is dangerous!" she said.

"It really is, and the Fire Lord is coming for it, well, this make things a bit more annoying," I sighed.

"Let's move out of here, we need to head back to the Heavenly Academy, as for you Shen Bao we need to talk," he said.

We rode the Thunder Bull and left the area while cultivators could do nothing but watch, after all, they just saw a King Realm cultivator being completely destroyed in seconds, how can they even stop us or even think of doing so. Not to mention the power I showed, Master Rian himself was with us, and only a fool would dare come at one of the strongest unprepared.

As we rode on, Master Rain took a while before asking, "How come you're stuck?" he asked.

I immediately understood his question and the meaning behind it.

"I've yet to understand the reason why, I'm still pondering on it," I replied.

"Stuck? What does that mean?" Liang Yu asked.

It wasn't Master Rain who answered but it was Dao Shen, "Shen Bao's current prows rivals that of a low ranked Emperor Rank, I strongly believe I can't take him on in a fight, but still he's unable to cross the boundary of the Emperor rank, I believe he's stuck at the Understanding part," Dao Shen said.

"Which comes to me as a surprise, since you always would come up with most intricate and absurd ways to see the world, your understanding of it should be several levels higher than someone at the peak of the King Realm, hell even more than people at the Emperor real…"

"I guess I know what you mean, it isn't that I do not understand the world around me, I understand it enough to say that I understand nothing, which in itself is Dao, however, what I believe myself lacking isn't the understanding of the external, but the internal…" I said

"The more I hear the more confused I get, Liang Yu said.

"To understand the Dao one must know themselves first, and what's around them. For me, I believe I have ample understanding of the surrounding, but I know nothing about myself," I said.

"Which is even more absurd, how can one not know about themselves?" she asked.

I thought for a second and said, "I'm not who I am," I said. I didn't really feel like telling them I'm transmigrated it'll only bring more questions. "Take for example my Soul, why is it that powerful? I never ate any treasures or got a heavenly opportunity to give me a soul comparable if not stronger to the Queen herself, since I can't even see the limitations of my Soul's energy. Why did that happen? I asked.

Which was reasonable enough a question to everyone hearing, since I honestly don't understand yet why my soul is that strong.

And that in itself, is a lack of understanding of one's self.

Who am I? am I Shen Bao, the Poison God Cultivator, or am I that man who spent long nightly endless hours programing for a low tier company.

Was my past just a dream? Was it a second life? Is this reality, or am I still dreaming? Have I truly died that day in that dark alley? Am I currently in a coma and everything here is merely fabricated? Or is this my true self, and the fact that I lived in another dimension and another planet called Earth is the dream?

Perhaps I was always a cultivator, and due to my deviation while I was starting my cultivation path I was comatose and dreamt about an entire world. Only to wake up having forgotten who I truly am and only remembered the dream.

They're many questions and they're not easy to rebuke or prove, nor answer.

"I've yet to understand who I am, to know what I must do, to have a goal and reach beyond my current realm, it may take me a month to know, a year or even eons, I may even never arrive to an answer and forever be stuck here until my last breath. To understand oneself isn't a question that can be inferred from the experience of others, since everyone lived a different life. So, I must keep pondering until I arrive to a satisfying answer, only then can I step into the next realm."

"I would rather we stop talking about this topic," Master Rian said. "It will sway and divert the understanding of the younger ones, you may find an answer to your question in due time, but if the others who hear this were to take your words for it, they may lose understanding of their own selves," Master Rain advised.

I nodded at his approach, since I didn't want to confuse anyone.

Only I can answer my own question of Who Am I.

"Anyway, tell us what was inside the snake," Dao Shen said.

"I don't think anyone will believe me if I tell," I smiled.

"You can trust us to believe," Yuyu said.

"Alright, so it goes like this…"