Poison God's Heritage

"How in god's name did you escape the tiger?" they asked at the same time.

"What I'm about to say might sound like I'm lying," I said.

"You're under the Truth Seeking Pill, unless you're an ascendant you cannot lie and live to tell the tale afterwards when under the pill," he said.

"Okay," I sighed, "The tiger killed one, while the rest escaped, I was left alone against the black tiger, but it mocked me. It spoke," I said.

"The Black Tiger spoke?!" they said.

"Yes, it's pretty sentient, it said that his name was the A Heavenly Dark Tiger, and it gave me a task, completing it will allow me to live, failing it will get me killed," I said.

"Interesting, what was the task it gave you?"

"To kill the intruders," I said.

"So, you turned on your own sect members in favor of saving your cowardly life?" spoke the second elder in the room.

"Madam," I said.

"It's miss, and it's Elder Yun Fei for you!" she said her eyes dejected.

"Right, Elder Yun Fei, I was being chased, and they wanted my life, was I supposed to let them kill me? What would Elder Yun Fei do in my situation? Would you give up your life?"

My question was pretty simple, would you give your life to your sect members or would you give your life to the tiger? Both meant death and your only way of escape is to kill or be killed.

"I would have knocked them unconscious and brought them back for investigation!" she said.

"But that is you, Elder Yun Fei, I'm a weak Nascent Soul cultivators, and all of them were higher in cultivation stage than me, how was I supposed to survive? Please don't project your power against me," I said.

"You insolent little..."

"Please, Yun Fei, the kid is right, you cannot compare yourself to him, also if it was me and the other elders chasing after you, could you say that you could knock us out unconscious and bring us to the hall?" he said.

This elder is taking my side, good. I can use this.

"Then how did you manage to overpower cultivators that were higher than you in cultivation base?" he asked.

"Poison," I said.

The elder smiled.

"Poison, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that this is your first lie, but seeing that you didn't feel an ounce of pain, I'm pretty surprise and wish to know more, what kind of poison, and how? Since I know everyone in the sect, and clearly remember you, Shen Mo, the disciple with the worst talent in regards to Poison Refining," he said.

"I can show you a demonstration of the poisons I used," I said.

"Please do show," he said.

I then pulled a few herbs and pills from my holding bag. I made sure that the pills I pulled out were of mediocre to decently good quality.

"What's this? It's an interesting pill," Elder Xian said.

"That's an original pill, it made from a mix of Breath Sealing poison, Flesh Melting Sap and the evaporating poison of a Swamp Feasting Frog." I said.

"Interesting combination, what does it do? I can understand what each poison does separately, but mixing poisons like this can reduce their potency," he said.

"Indeed it can, but if mixed properly you can amplify their power exponentially so. The secret is Spirit Grass," I said.

The elder shook his head, "Spirit Grass should have no effect on a pill of this mixture," he said.

"It wouldn't if it was simply added to it. But if spirit grass essence was to be used as a catalyst for the pill, instead of using to refine the pill, the effects would increase. This pill isn't solid, it is made hollow on the inside. And once the pill is made and hardens, I ingest the essence of Spirit Grass inside the pill. Upon contact with the ground or any solid matter, the pill breaks, and the Spirit Grass essence is released, the contents of the pill then begin reacting to the Spirit Grass Essence and create a heavy smoke, and highly potent of all three poisons. A poison that Seals the Qi, denying detection or escape, a Poison that Melts flesh, and the Swap Frog Feasting Poison that increases the density of such a poison to further spread in all direction. This pill alone is able to spread to hundreds of meters in diameter worth of range." I said.

"Shen Mo..." the elder said

"Yes."

"Are you the one who devised such a poison?" he asked.

"Well, yes," I said. it was actually my own creation.

The elder thought for a moment and said, "That is such a novel way of using Spirit Grass... this simple implementation can dictates how many other poisons can be used. Impressive. Would you be willing to share this discovery with the Poison Pavilion? We here, under the Disciplinary hall are under oaths not to divulge our Sect Members secrets. But if you wish to share this discovery your punishment will be far less than it should," he said.

"I don't really mind, after all it's just a simple application, that's nothing compared to what I can do..." I said

The elders looked at each other and then at me then said, "Tell us more!"

I raised my hands forward, "I doubt that this is under the 'Investigation'" I said.

"Ah, you are right, but tell me how come you, with such a knowledge for poison are deemed to be so terribly bad at poison making?" he asked.

"It's simple," I said "It was because I had heart demons," I said.

"How so?" asked elder Xian.

"My cousin," I said and began telling the sad story of Shen Mo.

After finishing, the elder said, "Then you're telling me you have gotten rid of this heart demon of yours? How did you?" he asked.

"Fear," I said.

"I fail to understand how this relates, in fact fear would actually make even more heart demons," he said.

"Not the fear of my cousin, no, the fear the heavenly tiger had ingrained in me, it just made all of what I went through to seem so... meaningless, pointless and without any value. What caused me to pursue the Poison Sect was me seeking an easy way to surpass my cousin, I thought it was something easy to do, yet I was met with failure after failure in my pursuit of original recipes. Failing to make easy pills was because I always lose focus when I was making them, thinking of my situation, and how I can close the gap between me and my cousin, yet the Heavenly Dark Tiger scared the fear of my cousin out of me and implanted the fear of the tiger instead. My cousin looks like a firefly compared to the tiger. And thanks to that fear, I managed to refine pills inside the forest, and used them to save myself," I said.

The elder nodded as if I had spoken of an experience that was valued in gold. Most of what I said were lies but it didn't mean that they didn't have any truth to them. The best lies are told when there is truth in it.

The elder nodded and then began asking some random questions. After a while, he handed me another pill.

"What is this?" I asked.

"The interrogation is over, this pill will negate the Truth Seeking Pill, this should make it so you can have your freedom of word back again, we will be having a meeting with the elders to decide upon your punishment for leaving the sect, as for the matter of killing other disciples, I'm sure that elder Yun Fei would agree that it was in self-defense," he said.

The other elder just shrugged and the two of them stood and left the room, leaving me alone in the dark.

Well, this worked out fine, now, I'll just have to wait for what's going to happen to me in this sect.