All Venom (2)
A/N: two more chaps on the way~
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*Klack*
*Klack*
*Klack*
With every step the knight took, his massive, awe-inspiring armor would let out metallic noise. The man tightly gripped a beautiful green staff with six spirit rings slowly rotating around the said weapon. A Tool Spirit Master.
*Swish*
The spirit master came to a halt as his lips behind his helmet shuddered in terror. He was alone in the dense forest as a strange stream of mist crept up around him. The previously bright sun was blotted out by dark purplish and greenish fog as the man began to choke up slowly and gradually. He coughed and struggled to take off his helmet.
*Thck*
The heavy helmet raised a metallic sound as it fell on the ground beneath him. Wheezing, the man looked down on his eyes as he was strangely on all his fours, his hand now gripping the tender bosom of a very beautiful girl with luscious green locks and a seductive smile.
"Li La?" The man gasped, his eyes gripped with fear as the woman only caught his wrists tightly, keeping his hands on her breasts while she continued to smile and lie under him silently.
"No- wait, I killed you that day! I had you! I'm the last man you would've ever done—"
*Ghak*
The man coughed violently, with each throat scraping gulp that followed, he tasted his own blood welling up.
*Drip*
*Drip*
Droplets of putrid, dark red blood fell on the woman's face. The man felt it, his own skin starting to melt alongside the blood flowing from his nose but the woman in front of him didn't have any reaction to the blood.
She only smiled, ever so gently.
---
*Whoosh*
Dark Fog turned into a pale and tall man wearing dark armor. In his hands was a corpse with dark green veins popping from his neck and his unmasked face revealed an expression of despair. Eyes wide and dark purplish.
"This is the seventh offender in the team," Ghost Douluo's raspy voice emerged as he let down the corpse. If carefully observed, one would be able to see that Gui Mei wasn't holding the corpse directly but had it wrapped up by dark tendrils of mist.
"Another one? I have to wonder how long do you plan to test the poison and form an appropriate antidote," A slightly quirky and sharp voice resounded. Yue Guan walked over with a smile as Ja Sun followed her with an idle expression.
Bibi Dong was already present at the edge of the camp. The tensions were high but Bibi Dong didn't care that much. Instead, she knelt near the corpse and touched its neck without a disgusted expression.
"The Knights with compromising past and records are clearly the first to test the potency of its poison. Even if they aren't any offenders, the Knights exist to make it more convenient for us to achieve our goals," Bibi Dong replied calmly, "What did this one do?"
"The usual, sexual assaults and then murders." Yue Guan stood next to Gui Mei while Ja Sun crouched beside the corpse. Taking out a knife, he slashed the wrist of the corpse and controlled his spirit energy to bring up a blob of the man's purplish blood with a green tint during reflection and calmly ingested the poison.
Yue Guan and Gui Mei grew silent. It has been three days but they had grown more alert of Ja Sun than any other member under Bibi Dong's control. He was too strange! Just the ability to absorb poison made him better than an average spirit master but clearly, that level of aptitude held no meaning for Ja Sun.
But things weren't as easy as the two Titled Douluos have expected.
Although Ja Sun has absorbed the mandibles of the Death Spider Emperor, the poison of the spirit beast itself is a mixed one accumulated over a hundred thousand years!
His veins began to swell around his neck for a moment and it took Ja Sun a few seconds to finally sigh in relief.
"Any change?" Bibi Dong inquired, ingesting a drop of poisonous blood herself, too. Absorbing poison is her forte, too, of course, this would benefit her.
"Slightly," Ja Sun nodded, "The Spider is onto us. Its poison is no longer paralytic and only makes the spirit master hallucinate but the underlying toxicity easily kills the spirit master."
"Hmm, wait, it also coarsens the veins." Bibi Dong added.
"Maybe we should form a group like wine tasting— poison tasting," Ja Sun smirked, compressing his voice as Bibi Dong finally cracked a smile on her cold expression.
"Not necessary. Two or three more subjects and I will be good to go to create a rudimentary antidote for everyone," Bibi Dong sighed softly and 'instructed' the same to the two Titled Douluos as they nodded in affirmation.
"By the way, what was with that corpse of the Moon Reindeer in our tent? It's almost 70000-year-old, right?" Bibi Dong questioned as the two began to walk back into the center of the camp.
"Heh, a reward," Ja Sun stated truthfully, "For a job well done."
"What job?"
"I managed to complete what I was researching. At least, now, Spirit Souls don't have a reason to cause us Spirit Masters to go and massacre a forest... now I'm stuck at something else though," Ja Sun mumbled, "Remember that time when you said Arrays are useless?"
Bibi Dong rolled her eyes, "Will that ever stop?"
"Probably not," Ja Sun smiled, looking a bit exhausted. He clearly did not have his previous flare while focusing everything in attaining his objective. Of course, even if he can now separate the soul origin of a corpse— human or Spirit Beast— this doesn't mean he can directly absorb it. There is simply some factor about Spirit Souls that allow them to easily refine external soul origin and absorb them and this was his next line of exploration.
Of course, with the hunt of the 100000-year-old spirit beast almost starting, Ja Sun saved his ability to form a quest for the hunt itself since even he knew that he wouldn't be able to just refine soul origin for himself, something that Rakshasa failed in, too, or to be precise, never considered it due to the complexity involved.
"Anyway, what's the status on Lana's spirit soul?" Bibi Dong inquired.
"Hmm... almost thirty thousand of age already. She hunted a 10000-year-old boar spirit beast... but this method is definitely more time-consuming and exhausting to me. I wonder if I should start charging her gold coins for every year."
Bibi Dong snickered at seeing her man so tired. Pecking his lips gently as many pairs of eyes instantly trailed them, she whispered, "Did you forget that we're all rich now? Anyway, if it is tiring, you should simply pause it for the time being."
Ja Sun is the only one in the group who had something that allowed him to manipulate soul origin— Divine Intent. If it wasn't for divine intent, even if he figured things out, actually separating soul origin would have been a lost cause and since the act directly utilized Divine Intent, it definitely took a toll on Ja Sun whose mental world was not healed in the first place.
"Oh, such compassion? Almost made me question that you weren't the same Bibi Dong who just categorized the knights as fodder."
Bibi Dong shrugged, "That's how it is."
"Yeah," Ja Sun shrugged, too, unable to find anything wrong with her words.
The group, in the meantime, was busy with their own stuff while Bibi Dong was busy preparing preliminary antidotes and then feeding it to the next sacrifice before sending him off deeper into the forest. The Knights were now clearly more repulsed by Bibi Dong and her group but in face of the absolute might of the two Titled Douluos, the chosen offenders within the team could only move or die in the camp itself.
Of the group, only Tang Yuehua was disapproving of such methods but lack of ideas and the fact that Bibi Dong was clearly thinking of efficiency, Yuehua could not even retort and only keep to herself since she already knew that even her values and morals at times wouldn't budge the group.
The nail that drove Yuehua to finally accept the reality was Ja Sun's words as he remarked casually while using the Mental Acupuncture Technique on her, "You've gotta understand the reality. You accepted the fact that killing a spirit beast is beneficial to you and even if it's Clear Phoenix who does your work, that didn't stop you from taking half the responsibility... so it's kind of demeaning and stupid that you'd feel this way. Not for Bibi, of course. But you."
Soon, Bibi Dong's basic antidote was completed in the form of purplish pills made out of her own blood that countered the mixed poison of the 100000-year-old Death Spider Emperor but this was merely the first line of defense.
Everyone, including the Titled Douluos, covered themselves completely. Purifying masks developed by Ja Sun settled around their noses and mouth, too. It wasn't hard to create this particular item. He just needed to add a purifying rune but the level of rune wouldn't last against the potency of the Death Spider Emperor's poison for long.
Once everything was settled, the group departed after clearing their campsite, not wasting another second.
[Objective: Form the Death Spider Emperor's Spirit Soul and find an enclosed location privately to pump your fist in.
Mission Rank: A
Mission Rewards: Death Poison Core
Time Limit: 2 Hours]
Ja Sun pursed his lips once he formed the mission. He felt a little aggrieved, of course. The last time he hunted a 100000-year-old spirit beast, it was an S-ranked mission but now it was merely an A-ranked mission. While only below S-Rank, the quality of rewards drastically decrease and Ja Sun wasn't even sure if the Death Poison Core was useful to him given how he had the Bloodline Core of the Three-eyed Golden Lion waiting to be absorbed.
In fact, this might become yet another unusable core after the Dragon's Mind Core that he had gained during the Tournament. It was a core related to mental energy, Ja Sun already knew it, but it wasn't compatible with him. It was, however, compatible with Erlong but Ja Sun doubted she had anything noteworthy to trade it for.
The fact that such a mission was now categorized as A-ranked meant that Ja Sun was literally suffering from his own strength now— suffering from his success, that is.
'Well... still cannot say no to such a reward,' Ja Sun clicked his tongue. While Erlong may have nothing to trade for the Dragon's Mind Core, Ja Sun was sure that Bibi Dong could be very 'persuasive' once it is hinted to her that she can form her core...
"But... it's likely that she'll form a core anyway. Absorbing a 100000-year-old spirit soul that is the same as one's martial soul is bound to bring many benefits," Ja Sun concluded internally.
As the hunting party continued forward, Ah Yin sensed the number of spirit beasts slowly dwindling. Even though her domain is not detectable by many, recent incidents have shown her that the camouflage of her domain isn't absolute and to refrain from spooking the Death Spider Emperor but it was clear that the intelligence of the Death Spider Emperor was greater than any spirit master could have anticipated.
*Chhp*
The leading spirit sage froze as he stepped on something mushy instead of the solid ground. His halt made the party slow down itself while the Spirit Sage looked down.
"What the hell is this?" His fear was quickly suppressed once he found that his foot was stuck in a pile of a white puddle that refrained from letting him move forward.
"Oi, get a move on," one of the Spirit Sages scowled.
"I can't. It's probably a spider's web or something similar," the man replied with a frown. A purple ring of energy appeared around him and a phantom of wolf's claw struck at the web.
"What?"
Surprised gasps rang as the spirit attack actually stuck into the web as well. Even after cutting of his channel of Spirit Energy, the phantom of wolf's claw hadn't faded from the puddle of the web.
"What is going on?" Gui Mei appeared out of a sudden through the reformation of dark mist. His eyes instantly focused on the web and a deep frown etched over his pale face.
"Everyone..." Ah Yin compressed her voice, only communicating with her teammates, "I suggest all of you expand your domains at my mark. Except for Erlong...
I hadn't fully focused on my domain so I couldn't feel it the moment we entered it but... we're already in a domain. Its ability to hide is even greater than my own domain."
Ah Yin's words shook everyone while Ja Sun instantly used his skull bone to expand his True Fantasy Domain. After becoming more than a 100000-year-old skull bone, his True Fantasy had turned into a domain, and using the Yin-Yang Illusion, Ja Sun hid his skull bone that appeared over the tattoo of his third eye and also the purplish border of his domain.
He instantly connected everyone's mind with his superior one as a hub for all of them to communicate at a moment's notice.
"Do you think we're found out?" Hu Lana spoke.
"Wow, we're in a domain, you Dumb Fox. Of course, we're found out," Erlong rolled her eyes.
"She's not wrong," Ja Sun added, causing Lana to glare at both of them but the situation took for worse as Ah Yin hissed, "Now!"
While doing so, she controlled countless vines that tore from the ground to smack against many shots of webs targeting the group.
"Eh?" Yue Guan gasped, his nine spirit rings appearing at a moment's notice while Gui Mei and the other spirit masters were the same.
"Prepare for attacks! Defensive Formation Seven!" The leaders of the hunting party didn't need anything else to quickly prepare for battle. The spirit masters quickly moved, surrounding everyone, including the Titled Douluos elder and bringing out their Martial Souls. Well, all but one— the spirit master who had his foot stuck into the web.
"Make a move," Gui Mei scoffed lightly. A black wing slashed out from his back as the webbing began to disintegrate, finally freeing the Spirit Sage but this only made the Ghost Douluo's and the Chrysanthemum Douluo's expression darken. Gui Mei had to exert slightly just to destroy a small piece of the web.
"Hehe~" A cute yet eerie giggle tore through the silence. The voice seemed to be present everywhere but Ja Sun had already accurately found the source of the voice. Even if he could attack long range with the Dragon Beard Needles using his Gauntlets, the chances of it hitting the spirit beast within its domain were not high and it would give away his hand by hinting that he was aware of the beast's presence.
"This is my domain, humans. All Venom."
The voice spoke up cheerfully. The sweet voice itself distracted the spirit masters a bit but it wasn't enough to beguile them. Not with the effects of antidote already taking place.
"Do you want to know why?" The voice inquired.
"No!" Gui Mei snorted. His figure distorted and a stream of black mist rapidly zoomed towards the east of their location.
"Hmm, a coy one, aren't you?" Yue Guan giggled eerily himself. His fourth and eighth spirit ring glowed. A clone was formed instantly as it rushed in the same direction as Gui Mei while Yue Guan's true body condensed a piercing Velvet Chrysanthemum made purely out of the light that shot towards the direction of the spirit beast at a speed greater than his clone and Gui Mei altogether.
Ja Sun perceived it instantly. The giant body of the spider hidden in the shadows moved instantly, dodging the attack of light for once but the attack had a mind of its own and it homed in on the spider.
Its mandibles parted to spray a ghastly stream of green venom over the approaching Gui Mei only for his seventh spirit ring to brighten. Wings appeared on his back while his entire body turned translucent as he phased through the spray of venom. Ja Sun knew that it was the Ghost Demon Spirit Avatar of the Ghost Douluo.
Yet, the speed of the 100000-year-old beast shocked everyone. It suddenly vanished!
'No... it's actually—' Ja Sun was amazed.
But Gui Mei and Yue Guan didn't have the same quality of observational skills and Yue Guan scowled.
"Explode!"
He stated lightly and his clone, and the Chrysanthemum made of light exploded, causing many trees to uproot and downright disintegrate. While Gui Mei remained unaffected, he also continued to look for the Spirit Beast.
*Slash*
His eyes widened in surprise as a spider's leg layered with purple spirit energy tore into his back this time around, causing him to grunt while his third spirit ring glowed.
A small dome of grey energy instantly covered him.
'Oh... that's bad for him,' Ja Sun realized it instantly and so did Ghost Douluo as a tiny, almost minuscule spider with its legs covered by green tufts and its body otherwise purplish silently remained perched on Ghost Douluo's shoulder. Its legs were covered with thick purple spirit energy that drove through the Ghost Douluo's armor as his already pale face lost all its color.
"It's called All Venom— because no matter how much you hide, my poison will grace your final breath regardless of your efforts."
A cold voice emerged beside Ghost Douluo as he roared. His ninth spirit ring instantly erupted.
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