Chapter 294 - The Ancient Poison Master

Lu Tianzi walked under the crystal, a silvery light flashing across his eyes.

As expected of the ancient poison master.

Not only was the underground formation array complex beyond his understanding, even the centrepiece of the formation was a crystal unlike anything Lu Tianzi had ever seen.

But this only caused the doubts in his mind to resurface.

With how resourceful this ancient poison master was, how could the human heritage of this day be so much weaker than that of the demons?

Well, whatever the reason was, nothing would change.

The demons were the dominant race now, and that was all that mattered.

Lu Tianzi sat down cross legged on the floor and stretched his perception towards the crystal in a bid to establish a connection with it.

With the amount of World Origin Energy passing through the crystal, its effect on cultivation would surely be multiple times greater than that of an Essence stone. Even if he had to make Nanlan Qianxue wait a little longer, Lu Tianzi was reluctant to let go of such a rare opportunity.

After all, as compared to his Slaughter Essence cultivation, it had been far more difficult for him to improve his Spiritual Essence cultivation all this while.

For that reason, he needed to make full use of every possible opportunity to improve his Spiritual Essence cultivation, especially one that was this difficult to come by!

And just as expected, the moment he managed to establish a connection with the crystal, Lu Tianzi could feel a small wisp of energy entering his inner world.

This energy was far purer than World Origin Energy, refined by the crystal and originally meant to be directed into the formation array.

However, Lu Tianzi was now intercepting this flow, hijacking this pure energy for his own cultivation purpose.

This small wisp of energy entering his inner world was only the beginning.

The amount of energy flowing from the crystal to his inner world gradually increased, as if the channel connecting him to the crystal was slowly widening, as though transforming from a small stream into a raging river.

This energy was then further refined by Lu Tianzi in his inner world, adding to the absolute mass of the rotating ball of Spiritual Essence particles within.

As Lu Tianzi continued to drive his Spiritual Essence cultivation according to the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique, the amount of energy flowing from the crystal into his inner world continued to increase.

But especially because of that, Lu Tianzi had to take extra care not to break the original flow of energy while doing so.

After all, the formation array protecting the ancient tomb relied on the energy from the crystal to remain active.

The last thing Lu Tianzi wanted was to end up shutting down this protective formation array, especially after he had just made the effort to pay his respects to the corpse of the ancient poison master.

It would be a true irony if he did so!

The purity of the energy from the crystal was astounding.

Tapping on this pure stream of energy, it took far less effort for Lu Tianzi to increase the density of the rotating ball of Spiritual Essence particles in his inner world.

Before long, he could already feel himself touching upon the upper limit of the Advanced Essence Condensation realm, ready to break through to the next boundary at any moment!

But right at this moment, Lu Tianzi suddenly felt light headed, his consciousness quickly slipping away.

It struck him so quickly that he had no time to react.

Before he could do a thing, his vision had been engulfed by darkness, his consciousness completely lost to this world…

***

He did not know how long it took, but it took the chirping of the birds to finally rouse him from his sleep.

Lu Tianzi's eyes opened to the endless blue sky, the warm rays of the sun shining down upon his face.

"Guo Ming! Are you there?" Lu Tianzi found himself shouting out.

Hmm?

He certainly did not intend to say that.

Lu Tianzi tried to move his hands, but he had absolutely no control over his body whatsoever.

At that moment, he realised that it had happened once again.

He was once again seeing the memories of others.

As for who these memories belonged to, it was not a difficult question at all, especially given where he had been only a moment ago.

It should be none other than the ancient poison master!

"Yes, Teacher!" a young man shouted in response before hurrying to his side. "I am here!"

This Guo Ming was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, with his long black hair tied in a neat long braid that stretched down to his back. His features were clean and pleasant, and his cheerful smile could be described as infectious.

"Is it done yet?" Lu Tianzi asked without bothering to sit up.

"Almost! Only the last step is left!" Guo Ming answered excitedly. "I am just waiting for you to wake up so that you can witness it for yourself, Teacher!"

Lu Tianzi smirked before sitting up to look at this young student of his. "All right then, let's go take a look at your masterpiece!"

It was only then that Lu Tianzi realised he had been lying down along the edge of a cliff all along. From his sitting position, Lu Tianzi was overlooking a vast city with streets that were bustling with activity.

This was a city far grander than even Scarlet Moon City, with beautiful cobbled roads and finely designed structures. Giant towers littered the landscape, protruding out from various parts of the city, each of them showing off refined architecture beyond compare.

World Origin Energy shrouded the entire city, pulled in through a giant energy gathering formation.

It was truly an impressive sight.

But what drew Lu Tianzi's attention was something completely different altogether.

The people within the city… they were all humans!

Be it the people on the streets, the stall vendors, the guards, the kids playing among themselves, at a glance, every single one of them was human!

Perhaps his senses had been amplified somehow, but even from such a distance, he was able to make out this much.

Now that he thought about it, both Guo Ming and his body were human as well!

If he truly was in the body of the ancient poison master, then it would be just as he had thought.

The ancient poison master was indeed a human.

But what he was seeing right now was something far beyond his expectations.

Not only was the ancient poison master a human, but there was even an ancient human civilisation that was incomparable to the demon civilisations of the modern day!

So then, what exactly happened to the humans?

What could have happened for them to be suppressed by the demons to such an extent?

Lu Tianzi might be lost in thought, but the original body thought nothing of it even when he was presented with such an impressive view.

He stood up and turned around nonchalantly, following Guo Ming who eagerly led the way.

Then again, it was only natural.

After all, while this might be a spectacular scene in Lu Tianzi's eyes, who knew how many times this original body had seen it in his life?

He might even be sick of it already by now!

The duo proceeded further up the mountain, until they arrived at a clearing where ten huge cauldrons were placed along the borders of a wide circle, each of them being heated over small flames.

"Wait and see, Teacher!" Guo Ming called out before proceeding to stand in the middle of the circle.

"I am watching," Lu Tianzi nodded with a smile.

Guo Ming closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.

Origin Force flooded out from his body, reaching out towards all ten cauldrons at once.

Whoosh-!

The flames under the cauldrons suddenly intensified, causing the burning wood to crackle loudly in response.

Rumbling sounds could be heard from within the cauldrons, and their lids vibrated violently. Whatever the contents inside was, it seemed like it was ready to burst out at any moment.

"Hah!" Guo Ming shouted as he exerted his Origin Force once more.

Boom-! Boom-! Boom-! Boom-!

All ten of the cauldrons burst open simultaneously, and thick white smog was shot out towards the centre of the circle, straight towards Guo Ming.

Ten white pillars of smoke exploded towards Guo Ming in such a manner, threatening to engulf him altogether.

But before the white smog could reach him, Guo Ming spun his hands above his head. As though dancing to his movements, the ten pillars of white smog spun around him, forming a white tornado that rotated with him in the centre.

This white tornado continued to stretch upwards rapidly, as though reaching straight for the heavens.

"Form!" Guo Ming yelled out once more as he clasped his hands together.

The white tornado shrunk immediately, compressed into a white sphere in front of him.

It continued to shrink further and further, until it finally reached the size of a ring.

Guo Ming's hands turned into a blur as he drew countless seals in the air. The white smog started twirling around in the shape of a perfect sphere, as though there was an invisible layer holding it within.

The white sphere floated over into his hands, and Guo Ming received it carefully.

Once he grabbed hold of the white sphere in his hands, Guo Ming immediately turned around and waved it excitedly towards Lu Tianzi.

"Saw it, Teacher? I was awesome, wasn't I? That was so perfect that even I am starting to be afraid of my own talent!"

"Hahaha! Not bad indeed!" Lu Tianzi laughed heartily. "It seems like you haven't been slacking off too much while I was asleep!"

"Naturally!" Guo Ming grinned. "At this rate, I will probably be able to catch up to Teacher soon enough!"

"Stop being so full of yourself, you still have a long way to go!" Lu Tianzi chided jokingly. "The Thousand Venoms Bead that you refined is still far from perfect. Here, let me show you exactly what went wrong."

"Ehhhh?" Guo Ming grumbled. "Can we not turn this into a lecture again?"

But his complaints fell on deaf ears.

Lu Tianzi went on to explain the very fundamentals of the technique, listing out every single step needed to forge this Thousand Venoms Bead.

The Thousand Venoms Bead was formed from a combination of ten thousand different poisonous ingredients, prepared in ten cauldrons for varying durations to produce white smog of different compounds and densities.

The resultant white smog would then be compressed into a small sphere, sealed in with a unique method that required both the correct hand movements and the secret heart scripture.

Guo Ming was reluctant initially, but he still took care to listen carefully, noting down everything in his heart.

And so did Lu Tianzi.

Words continued to emerge from his mouth one after another, some of which Lu Tianzi had never even heard of.

But every word that came from his own mouth, Lu Tianzi engraved deep in his heart.

He did not know just how potent this Thousand Venoms Bead was, but just the fact that an Origin Core realm martial artist like Guo Ming was learning it in such earnesty was enough proof that it was nothing inconsequential.

It took a while, but the lecture ended eventually.

After the lecture, Lu Tianzi led the way down the mountain and headed towards the very same city that he had seen when he first woke up.

By the time they arrived, the city guards already had the gates opened wide, with every single guard standing at attention.

"Welcome back, Lord Er!"