348 Icy Venom

'He is doing it once more…'

Blake couldn't help but sigh internally as he witnessed the new candidate pushing the gate, supposedly for the third time today!

What he was told about him, his escalating points which were approaching Blake's own points that were built with 6 months of effort, his baffling actions… all these clues almost had the opposite effect on Blake who just couldn't understand what kind of 'genius' or 'monster' this junior brother of his was…

Since the position who he was so close to was going to be taken by someone who spent less than 2 weeks in the sect, he had no evil intention towards this monster. After all, just judging by Lan's result, he would probably be able to take his head easily if they met on the battlefield.

As such, he simply wanted to talk to him and at least understand what kind of person he was, but just as he wanted to leave his chair, Lan took out another tome and handed it to the Overseer, it wasn't hard to tell that he was going to attempt a third challenge!

Seeing this, Blake could only sit still as his gaze only grew more distant, it could be said that his mentality had grown after facing the huge gap that he only imposed on others yet had never faced it himself till now…

`~~`~~`~~`

[ Basic Mastery Test: Use 'Freezing Venom Spear' to counter and possibly defeat your opponent ]

[ Opponent: has achieved complete basic mastery over 'Freezing Venom Spear' ]

[ Test Results:

1. You will… ]

[ The comprehension test starts now! ]

I received a long spear as Ian.0025, my before last opponent, appeared along a spear as well.

This time, there was nothing to consider, 'Freezing Venom Spear' was an attack technique and also one that required weapon use, so the restrictions were similar to the very first test and the test itself was even more simple than that!

Of course, 'Freezing Venom Spear' was still a special one, otherwise, I wouldn't have chosen to use it after browsing the whole tome library of the Water Courtyard.

Its principle was simpler than the other two, but it's lethality could be considered as at least double that of 'Aerial Sword'!

Naturally, it was simple only in use but it's mechanism wasn't, as this technique depended on close binding of Ki or essence with the Ice elements to morph into a completely different material, or into an 'Icy Venom' to be exact.

This 'Icy Venom' was actually capable of freezing weapon Ki and elements of opposite nature to the Ice element, like fire or even water, the degree of freezing erosion depended on the affinity the element had with Ice, but it could be said that it had an effect on every elements, just that it was of different degree…

Even weapon essence would be also frozen if it was exposed to the 'Icy Venom', but that required the weapon energy used in the formation of the venom to be at least of the same grade, naturally it would have more of an effect if it was of an even higher grade.

According to the words recorded in the technique tome, this technique was supposedly half a 'Beast Art', as the creator of it had actually copied the sequence from a Icy Boa's venom creation sequence after beating observing it with a special tool, merging it with normal spear arts which he excelled at and allowing the technique to reach its current form.

As both me and my doppelganger both finished the complicated venom formation sequence, the 'Icy Venom' had already completely covered the spear tip, ready to penetrate the enemy and freeze everything in its way, after applying the venom, one only needed a basic spear technique to use it for attack, thus the reason behind its simple nature.

The simplicity of the technique and its unique opponent disabling nature, as even the body would be eventually affected by its nature, made it a perfect technique to use against a large number of weaker enemies. So, considering my situation in the demon bases, this technique could be a great supporting technique to use alongside the bow, not only would it help me conserve my elements, even the elemental essence arrows could be even more quick and lethal if the 'Icy Venom' was applied to them.

Thanks to the technique's simple nature, the test could only be considered even more simple as only one's mastery of the sequence affected the venom's lethality so it was a battle of who survives longer as we only kept leaving injuries on each other for 3 minutes before…

Klang!

No longer capable of holding the venom, Ian.0025, whose complexion looked quite similar to that of a pale vampire, dropped the spear in his hand as I immediately took the chance to go for the neck!

[ You have received 999 Achievement Points! ]

One could realize the potency of the technique from the fact that my doppelganger which had his body tempered by 'Icy Fire Formula' and even obtaining 'Ice Skin' to fall in 10 minutes. Of course, that wouldn't have been possible if we weren't willingly taking hits and waiting for the one with the less potent venom to lose first...

[ Would you like to proceed to the next test? ]

"Yes," I replied for the third and last time!

[ Choice confirmed! Preparing for the commencing of the next test… ]

[ The comprehension test will start in 1 minute… ]

Although the scenery didn't change like usual, this time, the tower cleansed the venom out of my body, it was probably because the next test would be useless if I entered in a poisoned state to begin with…

Naturally, I once again didn't hold high hopes, especially for this test. After all, just like how this test quickly ended in my win, the next test was likely to be the same, quickly ending in the about to come out Ian.0026. However, as the tower's AI was likely to calculate the mastery proficiency from the fatality of the 'Icy Venom' once it entered my opponent's body, I didn't worry about my level of mastery being overlooked and taken as lower than it was as I just prepared the sequence for the last battle...