Chapter 397: The Twelve Paths
The Thunderbull carriage rode the skies with speed far surpa.s.sing anything I"d seen. It is still far from the speed it used to have when I first rode on it back at the Ancient Sect Memory trial. But this speed is far superior to even my own hoverboard.
The Thunderbull rode on the skies and into s.p.a.ce away from the tribulation that was slowly dissipating and away from that nasty old man.
I"ve gotten my hand on one of the Poison G.o.d"s Heritage books, and it seems that this one already had consumed another book.
s.h.i.+ Situ, the Poison Cultivator had already killed another compet.i.tor and now I own four of the twelve books.
My own book, the Poison G.o.d"s Heritage of Alchemy, immediately consumed the Poison G.o.d"s Heritage of Death and another one that was included inside it.
The one included was the Poison G.o.d"s Heritage of Law.
The moment my own book consumed the other, a new text revealed itself to me.
***
Dear Disciple of Mine.
You have managed to gather four of my tomes. This is the minimum required to know more about the secrets of my Heritage.
As you may have realized, you are not the only one in pursuit of my knowledge. You are but one of many. Though I treat all those who had taken my book as my disciples, only the one who"ll gather all twelve shall be my truest heir.
By now, you have known of the existence of the acolytes, might you be one of them is of no concern to me or to my heritage. Only the strong have the right to claim this knowledge.
Might you be someone other than my Acolytes then do know that they will not stop until all of the books are gathered and only one shall rule.
As for the Heritage, it is as you may have realized divided into two sections.
Section of Battle, where the following books and the wisdom in them is included.
The Heritage of Death, where you can survive death if you"re willing to give up a piece of your soul and cultivation. You may raise the dead by controlling the poisons in their bodies and souls. They may do your bidding as you wish and will.
The Heritage of Carnage, where you may slaughter your way through hordes of enemies, gathering blood l.u.s.t as heavy and as weighty as the sea. The Slaughter Path is a vile, and lonely path, it is not righteous nor it is Evil, it is a path that will follow you the moment you slay a life.
The Heritage of the Sword. A sword"s poor company for a long journey, however, the sword is mighty in the hands of the powerful and nothing but a tool in the hand of the weak. It can save as it can kill, only with enough power can its heavy weight be burdened.
The Heritage of Devouring: My most loathsome teaching. The power to consume and abate an enemy"s prows. One can speak nothing but ill of such a path. It is as strong as it is as dangerous of a path. This path can give you the power to consume the world, yet grow greedy and it may consume you.
The Heritage of the Body: Of all the paths of Battle, this is the most unorthodox in my teachings, yet it falls not in the league of the rest. A strong body is also a great tool in your journey to the peak, the power to crush a mountain with one"s bear fists is not a dream when you follow this path.
The Path of Poison. My first teaching, and my pride and joy. Though the entirety of my teachings start with knowledge of poisons, it is still a mysterious path that even I have not reached its end. Knowing one"s poison is the same as knowing one"s own death. As poison can kill as easily as it can save.
These are the most powerful of my teachings of combat, none of them fall behind the other. Yet with the power of battle alone, I couldn"t have been called Du Shen.
Knowledge and understanding of the world are also imperative to my teachings, thus I made the secondary six paths of knowledge.
The Path of Alchemy: With poisons, abundant one can create means and tools to control such poisons into whatever they wish. This path will bring riches abundant and enemies aplenty however, it is by far the greatest path in terms of establis.h.i.+ng one"s foundations and growing stronger.
The Path of Inscriptions, though I haven"t been the greatest inscriber, this path leads one to the mysteries of Inscriptions, Restrictions, and Formation Making, creating powerful tools to aid you in your journey, traps to kill one"s enemies or make powerful treasures all the same.
The Path of Mind, this path is nothing short of a miraculous understanding of the power of one"s mind. With it, your Divine Sense can spread to cover the world itself, and your pressure upon your opponent can bring them to their knees.
The Path of the Soul, this path is what makes one understand the power of the Soul, with it, you can grow strong even if you have no body. You may possess another and you may force another to your bidding if your Soul Strength is capable enough. The reaches of one"s cultivation level heavily depends on one"s Soul Strength.
The Path of Law; One"s understanding of Law is the same as one"s understanding of the world. In this path, my teachings will allow you to approach law in a new view away from what many consider the norm. it may clash heavily with the knowledge of the cultivation world but it is not without merit.
The path of Dao. Dao is nothing if not mysterious, he who claims to know Dao knows nothing. It is a path that has no start, nor end, it is the understanding of everything yet nothing. It is a Path as Deep as it is as wide, you may start journeying to understand the Dao, but you may fail to know a fraction of it even if you live a thousand lifetimes. Here, all of my understanding is composed, and if you follow it, no matter the power of he who you face, with knowledge of Dao, you may bring them to kneel.
These twelve books are my pride, I have separated them since I didn"t want those who are unworthy to have access to such rich knowledge, only the one to gather them all may have the true Heritage. And if you are fated to such a feat, then it is yours to do with as you please.
***
"d.a.m.n, that"s a mouthful," I said as I finished the text that appeared in my book.
I checked on the Poison G.o.d"s book index and saw that it had four chapters in it.
The first, which I already had, was Alchemy, and the second was Inscription, which is the one I obtained from the cave under the Black Tower ages ago.
The other two were the Death Heritage and the Heritage of Law. s.h.i.+ Situ had two and he was pretty strong since one of them was of Battle.
The thunder carriage kept on moving through the stars and I didn"t have any intentions of slowing down. A person as strong as that old man would probably have many treasures and means to catch up to me if I were to slow down, so I might as well create as much distance between us as I can.
Now while I was moving away I started thinking of all the stuff that s.h.i.+ Situ had spoken about. He was in a great rush to get my book and seemed to be afraid of someone else. I could easily guess who, another one who is looking for the books. And probably the same person who already owns five of Poison G.o.d"s books. While I have four, meaning that three other books are still roaming free. I can"t sit back and relax while this hunt is going on, and my best bet right now is to grow strong enough to compete with these people for the books.
The Poison G.o.d"s Trial will open soon, and if I were to vie for the knowledge and power behind it, I"ll need to be an ascendant first. A true one.
For now, I"ll need to head back to the heavenly academy.