Poison God's Heritage

Tracking the group of cultivators that escaped through the forest wouldn't have been something difficult if I had the ability to use Divine Sense. But this damn forest is too troublesome. Although I doubt any other creature would dare venture into the Black Tiger's territory, outside of it, many other beasts would be reigning there, and if I were to offend them by using Divine Sense, I might die without knowing.

I was lucky that the Black Tiger is smart and was able to speak, having made contact with it made it so that I wouldn't have to give up my life. But for other creatures, they'd probably just kill me.

Since the Black Tiger was able to sneak up on me with ease, I need to be warier of other beasts.

But first things first.

I jumped from the tree and went to the corpse on the ground. What remained of the cultivator was half of his body, the other half had turned to mush the moment it came in contact with the black tiger's paw.

But this lower torso had a holding bag hanging on the belt.

I pulled it up and opened it. Though there was a security formation on the bag, nothing short of a few strokes that my brush couldn't handle it.

The contents of the holding bag were decent. Several good treasures, though nothing of use to me, they can be sold for some materials. The best part was the abundance of medicinal and poisonous herbs.

I grabbed all I needed from his holding bag until I was left with one last piece of the map.

From the content of this map, it seems that these cultivators were searching for something in this forest. I can't figure out what it is with only one part of the map.

Thinking things through, I was reminded of the corpse of Shen Mo.

So, I turned and headed towards the corpse.

And I was thankful I did because one of the cultivators had already arrived to the corpse's side and was searching his holding bag.

I jumped the cultivator landing my palm squarely on his back.

The cultivator grunted, but soon realize that he couldn't move. He was under the effects of my Soul Shackling inscription which I derived from the Soul Sealing Stake.

I've seen this person before, he was the one who was using his ears to listen to Shen Mo's movements.

Cultivators are arrogant, and arrogance makes them careless. This one, if I were to fight him head-on, he would have probably put up a fight. But since he was too careless in this forest. Especially after finding out about the body of Shen Mo, it was easy to subdue him. The effects of the Soul Shackling inscription were very good in neutralizing a person's ability to use Qi, or even galvanize their soul to escape the body.

With his soul stuck to his body, I drove my sword into his head ending his life.

Having taken out the group's tracker, they will be at a loss in this forest. And this will give me more freedom to move.

I grabbed the man's holding bag. Same thing here, clothes treasures, some poison and medicine herbs, and pills. Bits of saint Qi crystals and a piece of the map.

I combined the two pieces but still couldn't figure out the purpose of this map.

Once I grabbed Shen Mo's bag though, I understood everything.

In it was a memo that described what happened to him. He was a disciple of the Poison Sect. The ruling Sect of this Poison Planet. And from what his note tells, he was able to gain the inheritance of a High Ranking Corpse Cultivator. One that controls cadavers like they are puppets. They can use them to fight, and can even inhibit them in case their original body was destroyed.

If the soul is powerful enough the one who masters this art can technically live eternally by jumping from one body to another like a parasite.

I already have the manual, it was the same thing Shen Mo was trying to destroy using his own Veridian Heart flame.

"Automaton, keep this body preserved," I spoke.

A small portal opened up under Shen Mo's body and was swallowed inside.

From the rest of the memo, it seems that Shen Mo's understanding of Poisons was very lacking. Which made him lose his status in the Poison Sect. Even with a pure Viridian Heart Flame, he was unable to make good quality pills.

It says here, that he was often ridiculed for being called names and even had elders saying to him that the Veridian Heart flame was a waste on him the same as a gold ring on a pig's snout.

This made him the target of many disciples who wanted his Viridian Heart flame. Yet thanks to his understanding of the Corpse Sect's secret manual, he was able to raise a few corpses to assist him and fend off the people who were coming after him.

Yet, he had disclosed the weakness of such a technique to the person who he thought is his lover.

I shook my head "Typical cliché idiot who thinks using his crouch instead of his head. You really have no excuse for thinking that you have been wronged. You should keep your secrets to yourself you dumbass."

I sighed as I continued reading but there wasn't much left in the memo. All I found was him mentioning where he obtained the manual, and he already pinpointed it on a map.

The map was found by his ex, but he managed to tear a crucial piece from it when he escaped.

as for why the rest of the map was cut between the disciples I could figure that out without Shen Mo needing to note it down.

It's to avoid being betrayed. The five of them found the map, and they cut it into equal pieces so no one would betray the other when they go hunting for the heritage of the Corpse Master.

But they were still lacking the most important piece which was on Shen Mo's holding bag.

With this piece and the other two, I can probably figure out the general location of the cave.

And thinking about this in a broader sense. I can easily deduce that the other cultivators had already figured out where the general location of the cave is. Since they had the whole map minus one part, they only needed to find landmarks belonging to the map and then head and search the mission portion of the map.

I don't understand why they wasted time hunting Shen Mo, but it could be because they wanted to shut him up, or take away his Veridian Heart Flame along with the Manual in his possession. Hell, it might be all three reasons.

This is like hitting ten birds with half a stone. Since I'll be completing the tiger's request. Have Shen Mo's revenge, and obtain the inheritance of the Corpse Master.

I've been thinking of using the second part of the Poison God's manual, the Death Heritage, but since I wasn't too familiar with Corpse Mastery, with this manual and the Poison God's heritage, I should be able to make good progress in my cultivation and understanding of Death Qi.

I took another glance at the torn map and figured out the direction I needed to go to find the rest of the cultivators.

I then lit up the Sealed Corpse using my own Veridian Heart Flame and headed toward the location of the cave.