Chapter 293 - Corpse of the Ancient Poison Master

Things became much easier after Lu Tianzi managed to comprehend the Law of Poison.

With a greater understanding of the underlying laws that governed the multitude of poisons, Lu Tianzi started deciphering the puzzle before him at a pace incomparable to before.

Entity by entity, he ran through every single one of them in his mind.

Every body part, every natural enemy, every weakness and strength, all of them started appearing in his head as though they were pieces of debris floating up to the surface of the ocean from the deep.

The emergence of each piece of debris created slight waves that caused the others to waver, but Lu Tianzi quickly found ways to fix them in position.

From one floating debris to a hundred.

From a hundred to ten thousand.

The scene in his head grew larger and larger, until there were hundreds of thousands of debris floating on the surface of the water.

Each piece of debris corresponded to a piece of information, linked together to form a complex network.

And then a single huge ocean wave crashed into them, shattering everything into pieces as they returned to the depths from which they came.

Lu Tianzi opened his eyes, and the illusory green vortex behind him slowly dissipated into thin air.

Huuuu-!

He let out a deep long breath and a smile began creeping across his face.

Lu Tianzi was not sure about the amount of time that had passed, but he finally had his answer.

In the end, the solution could be found within the problem itself.

With this many entities present and at his disposal, they provided him with a vast arsenal of materials that could be used as he wished.

The resulting concoction could surely be made from their remains.

This made sense as well.

Otherwise, in the case where the one being tested had no suitable materials in his possession, he would never be able to pass the test no matter how knowledgeable he was.

Perhaps this was also the reason why despite them being mere projections of the engravings, their remains did not disappear upon death.

In fact, it could also be the case where he had no choice but to use the materials provided, and bringing in poisons of his own would do absolutely nothing in helping with this test.

Either way, it no longer mattered.

At his will, Origin Force crashed down upon the entities present, bringing an end to their short lives.

With a wave of his hand, Origin Force shrouded over the pile of newly formed remains.

The selected ones floated up from within the pile, their remains appearing to disintegrate as Lu Tianzi's Origin Force ground them down bit by bit, leaving only the parts that he required.

Lu Tianzi then pulled out his own mortar and pestle.

Even though he was not a poison master, a set of mortar and pestle was a necessity also for herbalists, and Lu Tianzi naturally would have one in his possession as well.

Hundreds of parts floated over and entered the mortar one by one, his mortar moving quickly as he quickly mixed them together in a specific order.

It did not take long before Lu Tianzi managed to produce a green concoction.

Holding the mortar in his hands, Lu Tianzi turned towards the talon statue in the middle of the chamber.

He carefully poured the viscous green mixture into the stone bowl, filling it up to the brim.

Lu Tianzi then placed both of his hands on the stone bowl and drove his origin core, channelling Essence energy into it.

Then… nothing happened.

But Lu Tianzi was not fl.u.s.tered, for what he just did was merely an experiment.

He did not fully understand how it worked, but the energy structure within was similar to that of the detection formations earlier.

That being the case, he had already more or less expected that Slaughter Essence energy would simply bounce off of it, just like what happened with the detection formations.

And thing turned out exactly that way.

Next, he drove the Spiritual Essence in his inner world and channelled Spiritual Essence energy into the stone bowl.

Just as he had expected, the stone bowl cleanly accepted his Essence energy this time.

Weng-!

With a loud buzz, the talon statue started to glow. The mixture in the stone bowl slowly began to bubble, as though it was bowling over within a cauldron.

The mixture then shot out from the stone bowl, splitting into hundreds of thousands of tiny droplets that each headed for one of the engravings in the walls.

These droplets of water directly entered the engravings, as though it was being absorbed into cloth.

After which, each of the engravings began to give off a glow of their own, alternating between glowing and not, as though they were pulsating by the second.

While they were still relatively dim individually, with hundreds of thousands of them, these engravings easily lit up the entire chamber.

At this point, even Nanlan Qianxue could not help but stop her meditation to look.

"Is it over?" Nanlan Qianxue asked.

"I guess we will find out," Lu Tianzi answered, his eyes still fixated on the glowing talon statue.

"I see," Nanlan Qianxue followed his gaze, curious as well about the special effects that had not appeared during the previous tests.

After a few moments, what Lu Tianzi had been waiting for finally happened.

The talon statue and the engravings on the walls stopped glowing simultaneously. Following which, one side of the wall started to turn translucent, revealing a passageway behind.

Lu Tianzi smirked.

As expected of a poison master. In the end, it was still about finding a poison that could work on all of them.

"Let's go," Lu Tianzi said while extending his hand towards Nanlan Qianxue.

"That's it?" Nanlan Qianxue could not help but express her disappointment while taking Lu Tianzi's hand.

"You are expecting a lot from a tomb," Lu Tianzi chuckled.

"It being a tomb doesn't mean it has to be boring," Nanlan Qianxue shrugged.

"Haha, hopefully the next one will be better then," Lu Tianzi led the way out with a laugh.

With that, they exited the chamber through the translucent wall and went down the passageway.

This time, the passageway was not long by any measure.

Before long, they had arrived before a huge stone door.

Pushing it open, Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue came face to face with a chamber that was rather small and simple.

It was a rectangular chamber three metres wide by five metres long, with tiled flooring and brick walls. With a single glance, everything was laid bare before their eyes.

A stone coffin lay at the far end of the chamber, propped up by an elevation in the ground level.

Laid on the floor in front of the coffin was a small grass mat, seemingly meant for people to kneel and pay their respects.

Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue exchanged quick glances as they came to the same conclusion.

They had finally arrived before the corpse of the ancient poison master!

But the thing that immediately drew their attention was actually not the coffin, but a crystal on the roof that shone brightly as it illuminated the entire chamber.

Even before they entered, Lu Tianzi had sensed that the World Origin Energy in the surroundings was being drawn into the ancient tomb like an endless tide. Right now, he seemed to have found the very reason why this was happening.

World Origin Energy wrapped around this crystal, drawn into it without end.

But this crystal did not store everything within either.

As though acting as the centrepiece of the underground formation array, World Origin Energy that flowed into it was directed downwards, feeding the complex formation array with energy and thus allowing it to remain active.

Lu Tianzi rubbed his chin in contemplation.

So this was the reason why such a large scale formation array was able to sustain itself for such a long time…

"Go on," Nanlan Qianxue urged.

"Mm," Lu Tianzi nodded solemnly before walking towards the coffin at the far end of the chamber.

He knelt down on the grass mat and kowtowed towards the coffin to pay his respects.

Lu Tianzi might not know anything about the identity or history of this ancient poison master, but he still felt a certain level of gratitude towards the other party.

After all, it was obvious by now that the mechanisms in the ancient tomb had a separate purpose to them other than to keep out intruders.

They might seem dangerous at first, but apart from the test of combat against the Four Symbols, the obstacles in the ancient tomb all served to aid a martial artist's understanding in the poison arts.

Of course, that was provided one possessed the Spiritual Essence cultivation system.

For the ancient poison master to arrange all of this before his death, it could be seen that he truly had the good of the future generations of human martial artists in his heart.

Either that, or he was looking for a human martial artist to succeed his heritage.

Lu Tianzi did not know if he could be considered a human anymore, but there was no doubt that he had still benefited from the ancient poison master's efforts. So he felt that it was only right for him to pay his respects before anything else.

Click-!

Right after his forehead touched the ground, a mechanical click sounded out, and a small hidden compartment opened up from the elevated ground that was propping up the coffin.

Hmm?

Lu Tianzi looked up in surprise.

There was only one item within, a spatial ring.

At this point, Lu Tianzi could not help but let out a bitter smile.

The hidden compartment was truly too well concealed. Had it not activated by itself, Lu Tianzi would never have been able to find it.

He had thought that the tests were over and done with, but it seemed that even this seemingly simple grass mat was a test as well!

Lu Tianzi reached out to pick up the spatial ring before sinking his perception within.

There were not many items within the spatial ring.

Two jade slips and a set of armour, so only three items to be exact.

After making sure that there was nothing else within the hidden compartment, Lu Tianzi took a closer look at these three items.

Between the two jade slips, one of them contained a cultivation technique named the Body of Thousand Immunities, while the other contained a combat technique named the Palm of Thousand Venoms.

Judging from the names alone, it was obvious that the two techniques were interlinked.

It was either that the combat technique was derived from the cultivation technique, or that the two techniques were developed by the same person, thus receiving similar names.

Either way, Lu Tianzi decided that he would surely look through them later when he had time.

Since this unfathomable ancient poison master bothered to pass down these two techniques in particular, Lu Tianzi was certain that they must be impressive in their own right.

In fact, if not out of consideration for Nanlan Qianxue who was still waiting patiently, he would have look into them without hesitation!

Next, Lu Tianzi pulled out the set of armour.

Unlike the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour, this was a set of plate armour that was impossible to hide beneath the clothes.

It was made of a special metal that Lu Tianzi could not recognise, but there was no doubt that it was extraordinary.

Still, with no information on hand, he would have to test it further in order to know the true limits of the armour.

Before that, there was no way for him to really make use of it.

Not with confidence, at least.

With that, he stored away the plate armour and stood back up, giving yet another bow towards the coffin before turning back towards Nanlan Qianxue.

As for the insides of the coffin, Lu Tianzi decided against checking it.

After all, that would be equivalent to disturbing the eternal rest of the ancient poison master.

Judging from how the hidden compartment opened only after he kowtowed towards the coffin, the ancient poison master seemed to be someone who valued the virtue of respect.

Thus, it was likely that the poison master might decide to set traps for anyone who dared disturb his corpse.

If that really was the case, then Lu Tianzi had absolutely no confidence of being able to survive anything that was thrown at him, especially after seeing the means that the ancient poison master was capable of!

"Is that it?" Nanlan Qianxue blinked blankly.

With the amount of effort needed to get here, she had expected there to be lots of benefits. Instead, all she saw was the one plate armour that Lu Tianzi had drawn out of the spatial ring.

Unless the other items in the spatial ring were worth the effort, this seemed to be quite the disappointing outcome.

"That seems to be it," Lu Tianzi shrugged.

But at that moment, Lu Tianzi suddenly remembered something and turned his attention towards the crystal on the roof.

With the large amount of energy gathering around the crystal, perhaps he could take advantage of this somehow?