Poison God's Heritage

"I once happened to have had my hands on one of those apes, they're very vicious. Not only are they quite crafty and cunning, they're also powerful beyond belief. Their simple looking bodies hide a cruel internal power that would probably kill any Void Stage cultivator that isn't paying attention.

Their sound attack is enough to rupture one's drums and internal organs, and their eyes are very strong and acute, they can see in the dark and are not easy to trap or confuse in illusions," he explained.

"Then, how the hell did Du Shen manage to capture and snap one's neck, even I have no way of doing both things at the same time!" the commentator said.

"Well, I guess it's just luck," Eccentric Long said.

"How so? How is luck even related to what just transpired?" the commentator replied as if aggravated.

"Luck as in, Du Shen never intended to technically kill the ape, and if he had no ill intentions to kill the ape, there is no reason for him to develop killing intent against it," Eccentric Long said.

"You mean, that Du Shen considers the ape so far below its notice that the thought of 'killing' it didn't even cross his mind?

That means that he didn't even deem the ape as a living organism but barely an existence that he needed to observe and take note of, nothing more nothing less, like a subject of an experiment." The commentator exaggerated his explanation, but at the same time painted a clear picture for everyone in the audience.

"That is the making of a monarch, those who see with an eye empty of prejudice and empathy, a rather pragmatic view of the world. And that isn't easy to achieve," Eccentric Long said and took a pause, "There was a hidden factor in this simple looking trial," he added.

"Is that so?" the commentator grinned as he realized where Eccentric Long was going.

"Seeing your reply, you must have also been aware of it. The idea that the contestants need to 'Kill' the Three Eyed Ape is in itself a seed that you planted in the heart of every cultivator that is taking this trail.

By giving them all the urge to hunt and kill, they all developed a small killing intent toward the ape, and no matter how small, it is still killing intent, and the three eyed ape is amazing at detecting any trace or amount of killing intent. So, by saying that, it will get everyone to think of killing the ape, however Du Shen from the start thought differently," he said.

"Care to further explain for the audience!" the commentator waved at the people keenly listening.

"Of course. Du Shen, from the start, the first thing he did was to analyze and take note of his surroundings. Something many would do, however, he took it one step further. He grasped the essence of the island and realized that it was hiding a secret. From then on, he made sure to take everything he sees from an analyzing perspective lest he falls to the trap of the island.

By doing that, he withdrew all thought of haste and hostility and took an approach of careful analysis and understanding. Not to mention his strange ability to move without ever making a single blade of grass bend, or even harm an ant if he were to step on it.

A strange and yet completely nature attuned movement art he had shown that could make him blend in completely with nature, if it was not for the advanced scrying eyes, even we could have lost sight of him."

"You gave Du Shen a lot of praise," the commentator said.

"He deserves more. And I'm rather understating it. The fact that he was fully capable of approaching something that could sense killing intent and even snap its neck, which by the way is incredibly difficult. The ape itself has a strong resistance to physical damage and is very powerful.

To snap its neck, one's physical prowess need to be comparable to a peak body cultivator of the Void Shattering realm. But Du Shen did that with only his early stage Void Stage cultivation," Eccentric Long said.

"How would you know that?" asked the Commentator.

"Because I had to wrestle my way out of the Floating Islands and as you know I do cultivate my body," Eccentric Long said. "And even I barely was able to kill the ape before my internal organs were damaged, also speaking of internal organ damage, for anyone who is in the radius of the screech they should start bleeding from all orifices after taking that blast.

But Du Shen kept following the ape, and resisted all of those screeches through hours without showing much than a wince at the first encounter then nothing but mild unnoticeable discomfort afterward," Eccentric Long added.

"I am still intrigued by Du Shen's cultivation. He obviously looks like a normal cultivator that cultivates the spirit, but from what we saw he also cultivates the body. And his mind is sharp enough that he is able to make all those eccentric weapons and tools. A cultivator that cultivates mind body and spirit is very rare to come by." Xiao Du said.

"Indeed, now let us see the rest of the competitors, we do have a few that also managed to slay the ape, although with some difficulties."

***

"I'm bored…" I said as I was calmly sitting atop a tree. The body of the ape was of no relevant use. And I'm still wondering why the ape was intent on baiting cultivators to chase after it.

After a while of not doing much, I decided to keep moving about and see what other cultivators were doing.

I moved through the trees and ended up seeing several cultivators being done in by the apes. However, a few had managed to defeat it and chase it down. And among them, was a face I didn't expect yet expected at the same time.

I hopped down from the tree and approached the man who was relentlessly scratching his neck.

"Stop that, you'll rip through your skin," I said.

Turning, Law's eyes brightened, "I knew my luck was good, but didn't expect it to be this good!"

"You caught your ape?" I asked.

"More like it tripped and fell, and I managed to take it down, but yea, I did clear the first half now I just need to wait till morning… But I'm not going to lie, this damn itch is killing me!"

I sighed at his absurd luck.

"Anyway, let me take a look," I said.

"Why are you helping me this much?" he asked.

"Not many would let me take a look at this thing, also you're luck is probably working in your favor as I don't have any ill will toward you, nor is the stage making us fight among each other. Anyway, let me see," I said.

Law handed me his hand and said, "Feels like something is wriggling inside me, I don't know what though."

I lightly grabbed Law's hand and sent my divine sense through it, to scan and analyze the source of the rash, and noticed one thing.

It was a type of fungal rash.

"Fungus," I said.

"What, where?"

"I mean the rash you have, it's a skin rash. Doesn't seem serious, but I've seen how it caused cultivators stronger than you to break down to pieces. I guess it's only at the early stage of activation, but once you receive the soundwave of the ape, it will enable the dormant attribute of the rash, which is strange, how is your rash not activated?" I asked.

"I don't know, but what do you mean soundwave?" he asked.

"The ape that you caught, did it not scream at you?" I asked.

"No, I came form behind it and as it tried to run away it tripped and fell in a pile of poo or something…"

I almost facepalmed at the absurdity of his luck and said, "This thing is enabled by the ape's screems, let me see if I can remove it," I said as I pulled out a small knife and cut through Law's palm.

I then connected a drip of my blood into his bloodstream and began attacking the rash.

Surprisingly it was very weak to a myriad of poisons. Almost like a normal fungal infection.

I applied a sulfuric based toxin from my poison on his blood stream.

"This will make you feel uncomfortable, you'll probably feel like you're choking and drowning at the same time, but bear with it for a moment," I said.

Law nodded and I began funneling the poison through his body. His reaction was as expected as his body tried to pull itself away from me, his nose and eyes began bleeding and he started coughing and trying to gasp at the same time.

But it didn't last long before his body was rattled with toxin, and soon began convulsing.

After a while, the rashes on his body began disappearing and soon his skin returned to normal. Once that was done, I withdrew the toxins back not to accidentally kill him.

"How you feeling?" I asked.

"Like I was about to die, that didn't happen before… I guess there is a first time for everything," he said.

"Take this," I said as I threw him a pill.

"What's this?"

"It'll help you fend off growing any more of those rashes. But at the same time you'll need to prepare," I said.

"For what?" I asked.

"I think the island didn't like it when I removed the rash… and now it's angry," I said as I pointed ahead.

In front of us, were several dozen slimes that began shaping themselves to the shape of people.

And one of them was a bit familiar, he was the first person I was spying on.

I guess this is the next part of the trial.