Breakthrough 4

Darkness swirled behind Tang Yun's closed eyelids.

The moment the Venom-Thread Pill dissolved on his tongue, it felt as though molten needles stabbed their way through his veins. His breath hitched. The world narrowed to a single point of pain.

"–ghh!"

His body convulsed as if writhing under invisible chains. Poison Qi surged from his dantian like a storm unshackled. It wasn't just pain. It was rage his own Qi rebelling against him.

But this was expected.

No pill born of deathroot, nightshade marrow, and serpent spine orchid would offer a gentle path forward.

This was poison cultivation.

To strengthen, one had to drown.

To ascend, one had to first suffer.

Tang Yun forced his spine straight, fingers pressed into the ground of his secluded courtyard, sweat trailing like rivers down his neck. The formation seals he'd inscribed beneath him the triple-layered Toxic Meridian Conduction Array hummed with flickering green light, struggling to contain the violent Qi fluctuations.

Behind him, Tang Xiaomei sat nervously by the edge of the inner formation ring, clutching a jade vial of antidote pills. Her fingers were white with tension.

"Please hold on…"

But Tang Yun didn't hear.

His world had turned into chaos.

Inside His Body

The Venom-Thread Pill had activated fully, splitting his meridians open like bark torn by lightning. Threads of black-green Qi surged wildly, digging into blocked channels and corrupted qi veins like worms eating through old wood.

Every inch of his body screamed.

But within that chaos, Tang Yun's spiritual will sharpened.

He entered his Inner Sea a meditative mental space formed by all cultivators. His was filled with roiling green mists, where his dantian floated like an obsidian moon above a venomous sea.

"Too much… it's tearing me apart."

A crack spread across the surface of his dantian.

That was the risk. Most cultivators sought to expand their dantian slowly and methodically. But poison cultivators were different. Their method was to corrode, melt, and remake like a snake shedding skin under acid rain.

Tang Yun had to guide the poison, not be consumed by it.

Venom Qi Tempering – Critical Phase

With gritted teeth, he focused on drawing in the threads of surging Poison Qi, redirecting them through precise meridian points Gate of Withering, Vein of Shadow Bloom, Deathroot Spiral nodes unique to poison cultivators.

Each attempt was like grabbing a lightning bolt with bare hands.

His inner sea rippled violently.

But Tang Yun didn't retreat.

"This is the final step…!"

Suddenly–

Bang!

The Toxic Meridian Conduction Array flared, then cracked at two points. Glowing green lines began bleeding poisonous mist into the air.

"Tang Yun!" Xiaomei cried out, stepping forward, but stopped herself at the very edge. The poisonous mists were too deadly one breath could kill her.

Tang Yun's body arched back. Blood erupted from his mouth, black and hissing with acidic venom. His veins pulsed visibly under his skin, like coiling snakes made of ink.

The Pill was reaching its Third Pulse Phase the moment when it would either integrate fully or destroy its host.

"No turning back…"

Inside his inner sea, Tang Yun felt a shatter his dantian split open completely.

For a heartbeat, there was nothing.

Then—

A roar.

Not his.

The Shadow Serpent, a manifestation of the poison laws he'd begun to comprehend, rose from the depths of his spiritual sea. It hissed, coiling around the shattered remains of his dantian, injecting it with threads of abyssal green light.

Tang Yun realized:

"I must… let the venom shape me."

He stopped resisting. Instead of suppressing the venom, he guided it not like a master taming a beast, but like a blind man listening to the song of snakes.

The serpent lashed through his inner sea, flooding his core with Demonic Venom Qi.

It hurt.

It burned.

It tore him apart.

But in return…

It remade him.

Reality – Dawn Approaches

Outside, the mist faded. The formation had died.

Tang Yun lay unmoving.

His skin was pale, lips darkened. Xiaomei wept silently, unable to touch him. The jade vial clattered beside her useless now.

But just as the sun's first light cracked over the horizon

Tang Yun's fingers twitched.

Then his chest rose, steady and slow.

His eyes opened.

Not their usual dark brown.

But deep emerald, glowing faintly with venomous luster.

His breath drew in hollow, controlled.

The Poison King had returned.

Internal Changes – Breakthrough Confirmed

Tang Yun took a moment to steady his mind. He checked his dantian now larger, with a stable triple-layered shell unique to the Late Qi Awakening Realm. His meridians were reinforced with venom-etched scars, capable of channeling a far purer flow of poison qi.

His control over Demonic Venom Qi had nearly doubled.

Even more shocking… he had faintly touched a Poison Law Fragment. Not mastery, but recognition.

"...I succeeded."

He rose slowly, wiping the blood from his lips. His strength was not just physical. It was spiritual. His will had grown sharper, harder, colder.

Tang Xiaomei rushed to his side, trembling.

"Y-Young Master–!"

He caught her wrist gently, stopping her from entering the now-lingering poisonous zone.

"It's done," he whispered. "You did well not to interrupt. One breath, and you'd be dead."

She lowered her head, still shaking.

Tang Yun turned his gaze to the sky.

"Late Qi Awakening… finally."

But he didn't smile.

He knew the path only grew more dangerous from here.

Tang Mo Watches

Far above, from the shadow of the sect's south mountain ridge, Elder Tang Mo stood still, leaning on his withered cane. His aged eyes had seen everything.

He smiled faintly.

"Venom-Thread Pill at twelve. Guided the backlash. Reshaped his meridians under pain most men would die from."

He tapped his cane once on the rock beside him.

"He's ready for the tournament."

[End of the Chapter 40]

[Tags]: Reincarnation, Martial Arts, Poison, Scheming Protagonist, Cultivation, Weak to Strong, Anti-Hero, Cold Protagonist, Clan Wars, Hidden Identity, Revenge