Chapter 186: Daunting Discovery

A few days later, I found myself at the edge of a pretty large city, it was built within a vast opening of green fields, a cultivator city that had many people going in and out of it. And yet again, anyone with the ability to flight was forced to come down and walk to the gate. Waiting patiently until their turn would come up.

Since I didn't want to cause any trouble in a cultivator city, I calmly went down and followed the group. Slowly waiting until men and women would be asked for their reason to enter the city and pay a small 'tax' to access the facilities.

Right before my turn would come up, a young snobbish man came in rushing on the back of an earth dragon.

The earth dragon looked like a raptor with less evil features and had feathers on its legs, and a beak instead of the familiar raptor snout full of razor-sharp teeth.

"MOVE ASIDE!" the young kid said and the majority of the group on the path to the gate moved aside.

I say the majority because I was the only one who didn't move.

"That man is going to get crushed," one of the people next to me said as the raptor came rushing in.

As the creature approached, the kid looked more irked seeing me unmoving, so he pulled a whip and swung it sideways in an attempt to swat me like some unsightly fly.

'Might as well try that now,' I thought to myself as I calmly moved my finger forward then did a horizontal wave.

If anyone was able to comprehend law here, they would understand that what I did was slightly extend a gravitational law.

This caused the gravity in front of me to slightly change, and become heavier than normal.

The whip, having made contact with the modified gravitational field lost all power and became an anchor to the rushing man, this he didn't know yet.

And since I didn't want to directly collide with the raptor, I moved to the side.

The kid scoffed at me and continued moving, not realizing that his whip was still connected to that point in space.

And once the raptor moved enough and the kid wanted to pull back his whip. It went taut and ripped the kid off the back of his raptor and onto the ground.

The raptor never realized that it had already lost its master and continued running towards the gate, where the guards made sure to stop it, even with brutal force.

The kid, laying on his back, howled like a mad beast, "YOU!" he said as he stood up, "You're a dead man!" he called and once again tried to pull his whip back, but it didn't work.

I slowly approached the kid and said, "I'm, in a terribly, terribly awful mood right now." I said, "So if you want to keep your little life, don't fuck with me." I said with a smile and patted the kid on the shoulder.

And moved away from him and towards the gate.

While he didn't notice, I already injected a bit of my poison qi with that contact. 

"YOU DARE HUMILIATE ME LIKE THIS! Do-"

"Do you know who I am, yada yada yada, and all that crap," I finished his sentence. "I don't care, and frankly don't give a fuck, even if you're the emperor himself, so piss off before I make you," I said and snapped my finger.

Immediately, the poison Qi injected into his body activated and the kid fell to his knees, blood came out of his nose and mouth. As he gasped for breath.

This was not a lethal dose I activated, but enough to make him know that I'm not someone to be messed with.

"Who is that cultivator? What did he use? I didn't even see him move." One of the passersby said.

Another filled him in, "He must be an elusive master or an Old Monster, we don't want to mess with those, let's leave this place for now." 

Soon, everyone made sure that they were no longer in an earshot from me and moved aside keeping distance, which worked perfectly for my sake. As I went inside the city unbothered by the guards, apparently 'tax' is not applied to 'old monsters'. So that was good.

The last I knew from the door to the city was a few cultivators rushed to the kid's side and gave him some pills, though if I wanted those pills wouldn't work, but since I didn't want to kill him, I just left a hidden lethal dose of Poison Qi because as my luck would dictate, I'm sure I'll be seeing that kid again. It's just the way this shit works, and it better to be prepared than not.

I soon merged with the crowds of people going into the city, and once I found the opportunity I went into an ally and ate the same pill I ate before facing those two half ascendants near the Purple Cloud Sect.

Once my face changed from the pill and I gained the aura of a low-level Core cultivator instead of my ambiguous and almost none-present poison Qi aura, I walked out into the street and towards the nearest restaurant.

Once I was inside, many divine senses came rushing, but didn't do any heavy probing and calmly hovered around.

I retaliated with a wave of my own divine sense that scanned all over the place and made sure to push away the others.

This made it clear to everyone in the inn that I wasn't someone they wanted to spy on.

Not a second later, all the divine senses disappeared and left me to my peace.

I looked around and chose an empty table in one of the corners. Once I was seated a waitress came in and asked me what I'd like to have. And since I have no idea what this restaurant offers.

"Chef's choice, and a strong liquor," I said.

The waitress nodded and went back to the kitchen as I waited.

Though it might appear that I'm doing nothing but wasting time, sitting here is pretty convenient to know what's the news and what's happening in the city, as proven by the group of cultivators sitting next to me.

"I'm sure brother Ji tai will win this year's tournament." One of four disciples wearing the same pale blue robes said.

"Yes, he is the strongest of our sect, and will definitely mow down any competitor with utter ease." Another said.

"I wish if was a Nascent Soul cultivator too, otherwise there is no hope for me to even participate," another kid said.

The last one who probably was this Ji Tai said, "It's not a condition to be a Nascent Soul cultivator, its just that having that cultivation stage makes it easier to be seeded, instead of having to do the mock battles." The man who I presumed to be Ji Tai said.

"Yes, man, I can't wait for tomorrow's battles. Also, did you hear about the news?" asked the first kid.

"What's going on?" the second said.

"Apparently, a lot of disappearances have happened lately," said the kid.

"We all know that, that's why I asked you all to stay together," Ji Tai said.

"Yes, but there is an update," the kid said.

"What update?" Ji Tai asked, and he looked intrigued.

"One of the people who was kidnapped, a girl from the Nine Petal Lotus sect surfaced. But her whole body was plagued with a very dangerous poison…" said the kid.

'This is interesting.' I thought.

Suddenly, the waitress came and placed my order in front of me. I ate and kept an ear peeled as to hear the rest of the conversation.

"What poison?" asked Ji Tai.

"It's the Bone and Body Grinding Poison. And not only that, all her meridians were broken!"

A thunderous boom echoed within my mind as I heard the news.

'What in the hell? Why would someone try that shit again.'

My reaction was pretty obvious, though I didn't move, I was noticed. And the guy named Ji Tai sensed me.

And since I was exposed. I stood up, and picked up the liquor bottle, and went towards the group.

"I'm slightly interested in what you just talked about," I said and placed the bottle in front of them. "Can I hear more about this incident?" I asked.

The leader of the group seemed slightly hesitant to answer, but the kid who was speaking earlier, with the sight of the very expensive bottle, continued speaking, "Yes, as I heard, the girl didn't make it through, and all her meridians were broken, I have no idea why someone would do such a thing, but all I heard was, that before she passed she said something that was bothering me." The kid said as he poured himself a cup.

"Xiao Lu, you seem rather too open to a stranger, don't you think," Ji Tai said to the kid before he finished his words.

"He could be the very same man who did that thing to that girl and you're just exposing what she said to him, wouldn't that be a possibility?" Ji Tai said.

Xiao Lu, immediately looked at me like if I was a monster.

"Wow! Hold up, I'm no demon in disguise, I just arrived at the city this morning, and if what this brother was saying was true then whatever happened had been happening for a while now, right? So how could I be the same person? But it's okay if you don't wish to share, I have no ill intentions, I was just interested. You can keep the wine," I said and turned to leave.

"Wait," Ji Tai said.

Turning, I waited for him to speak up.

"You don't seem like someone with evil intentions, I was just testing your reaction. If you really were the culprit, you would have denied it with more than this flimsy excuse. Just sit with us, we can't afford to take the charity of a person without giving back, Xiao Lu, finish up what you had to say for this brother." Ji Tai said.

I nodded to the leader and waited for the kid to finish up.

"Yeah, anyway what I was saying was, that she said something along the lines of, 'Many are still there, he is killing us, poisoning us because he can't open the book.' This means absolutely nothing, but it stuck in my head, I mean, what does poison have to do with opening a book?"

A shiver went down my spine, as this kid's words were damn serious… because if my guess is right this would only mean one thing…

There is another Poison God's Book.

"Well, it's really sad, she was a beautiful girl, I had hoped she would battle brother Ji Tai." Xiao Lu said.

"She too was a competitor?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, well, now that you mentioned it, everyone that disappeared was supposed to partake in the competition." Xiao Lu said.

'Good, now I have a lead on whoever is doing this shit, though I really want to chase after that asshole who did what he did to my city, this precedes it. another poison god's heritage isn't something to easily ignore.'