Poison God's Heritage

Chapter 699: Life and Death

Zhang Tian's butterflies exploded upon contact with Tul's claws.

The small statured man swiped and sliced at the incoming butterflies while his eyes never let out their focus away from Zhang Tian.

Unbridled greed and will to kill and consume Zhang Tian's soul painted itself obviously in Tul's perverted expressions.

The latter, however, simply weaved around the arena, dodging the incoming claws as would a feather move in a powerful wind gale.

The footwork of Zhang Tian stemmed from his understanding of the Wind Law that he was born in it. The Prince of the Northern Domain of the Vast Expanse had lived his entire life protected by the Northern Wind.

Able to freely move about in extreme and eccentric ways never before seen, as if he danced across a flurry of incoming blades, certain and full of confidence that not even the hem of his robes would be damaged.

After making some distance between the two, Zhang Tian waved his fan up, creating a powerful gust of wind that lifted his opponent and then slapped at the air in front of him, sending several wind blades toward Tul's seemingly awkward airborne posture.

Yet the half-corpse was unwilling to take the blades head-on as he twisted his body in inhuman ways. Enough that the bones cracked and snapped as he changed himself to look like a mangled corpse.

That sudden transformation allowed him to slip between the wind blades and gave him enough time to land down and reform himself how he was before.

As soon as Tul's feet touched the ground, he charged forward at Zhang Tian, with one arm extended into a claw form, he clasped his fingers rapidly, creating a dark clawed arm from underneath Zhang Tian that suddenly collapsed on itself as soon as it manifested.

Zhang Tian had safely moved away from the sudden bursting claw and realized that he wasn't as safe as he thought he would be.

A piece of his robes was ripped in the process.

"Seems that I won't be able to defeat you easily," Zhang Tian said and then opened his fan. "Wisdom of The Ages."

Shen Bao was immediately reminded of this Domain and how powerful it was. After all, he personally experienced this when he was Du Shen, and then when he was a Golden Core cultivator.

A domain so vast and so grand that it would send shivers down one's spine.

Rows upon rows of books inside shelves next to shelves. They extended from the depth of an invisible abyss to the height of the unbreachable heavens.

Laws and knowledge of worlds that were born and broken. Of ages long before time itself and older than any existing soul. Understanding of the essence of the world, a budding projection of the world's oldest truths.

Enough to cause even the Wisest Sun to stand up and look at this Domain.

It was by no means a domain meant to kill, but a domain that was meant to enlighten. It would be harmless to a kind and friendly soul, but for an enemy, it is a mortal enemy.

Zhang Tian's appearance changed, as he was elevated among the bookshelves floating high above Tul's worried expression. Zhang Tian's seat was a great lotus. While Tul's stood on top of a massive mountain of corpses.

"You dare trap me in a domain? I far out-skill you in terms of cultivation! BREAK FOR ME!" Tul shouted only for him to realize that he had no ability to break this domain.

He shouted once again! "BREAK!"

But nothing happened.

"You can shout all you want, it won't release you from its grasp."

"This must be fake," Tul said, "There is no way this is your domain," he added as he kicked the skull of one skeleton under his foot.

"Why do you think so?" Zhang Tian simply asked.

"Because your karma is too pure for you to have killed a person," Tul shrugged, "So it must be fake, after all, these eyes of mine can see the true essence of a person. And yours is as bright as light itself," Tul said.

"But I did slay my share, I have killed countless people, and their remains are what you are standing atop," Zhang Tian then moved his hand forward and a book moved from behind Tul and flew all the way to Zhang Tian's hands.

"These are their laws," he added.

Tul's mind was racing, "That must be a lie… but lies are the darkness that appears in one's soul, how can you lie yet still remain clean?" he questioned.

"Because it is not a lie, have you ever thought that you might be wrong?" Zhang Tian grinned at Tul who was unable to accept the reality of his situation.

"I cannot be wrong!" Tul spoke.

"Then let these Domains prove your err! Seventh Book, Hell Eternal!"

Suddenly the shelves were pushed to the side and a gigantic area where nothing but Tul was present atop was left.

From the ground, the land split apart, and from the skies, the world turned dark. Flames of hell itself surged forward with unrelenting fury, melting stone and steel and turning what was once hard rock to molten lava, the skies wept as they spilled flaming pebbles that tore through the air with relentless rage. While torrents of liquid fire burst from everywhere.

The heat around Tul increased to match the surface of a burning sun, and he couldn't do anything but create a Qi barrier to protect himself from harm's way.

Tul's eyes squinted as he realized that Zhang Tian used not only one but two domains at the same time. Something unheard of, but in the vast world of the Beyond, anything is possible.

Still, it was not a true domain, though it was still painful to suffer, Tul's experience told him that he could still thwart this position and come out on top.

With more Qi released the hot flames of this enraged volcano were suppressed, and more dark Qi cooled them off to look like an arctic glacier.

"Yin beasts Yang if you have enough!"

"I see," Zhang Tian smiled as he pulled another book with a blue cover.

"Sixteenth Book, Submerged World…"

His words were as calm as the sea before a storm. And almost instantly, waves as tall as mountains manifested themselves all around Tul's stunned self. Crashing down with unrelenting ferocity as they broke and tore apart the ice-made bedrock.

Tul's body was at the mercy of the unstoppable tides and currents as he was pushed down, with water forcing itself into his mouth and nose. The sudden rush of the new domain had caused Tul to be dumbfounded and unable to react in time, almost enough for him to have lost his composure there and then. But a man who cultivated through brutality and murder wasn't a man with little experience.

He fought back, pushing more Qi outward to stop the flow of water, but before he could even react, Zhang Tian's hand carried another book, a green one where he simply threw a small seed, smaller than a mustard seed into the waters.

"From the Depths of the scorched earth, where life takes root, to the boundless seas, the source of all existence, ignited by the burning passion of the earth's core, I call upon thee, the Earth Tree to grow!"

Suddenly the small seed cracked, and from it roots emerged, and began absorbing the endless waters. Growing rapidly as the sapling bore its roots into the ground. Manifesting a trunk as sturdy as the mountain itself.

The tree rose to endless heights, reaching far above the clouds almost touching the very heavens themselves. While its roots tore into the ground and dug deep.

The tree's branches extended themselves as would a dragon dancing within the clouds, and its leaves fluttered when caressed by the wind.

The World Tree manifested from law, oppressed upon Tul's very source of cultivation.

"While you cultivate through death's embrace, I find solace in life's cradle, for those who have witnessed the cold grip of death, life becomes the most precious of gifts. But for you, a deadly poison, LAW!"

Suddenly Tul's entire being was suppressed. Forced into the ground prostrating in front of the existence he fought against his entire life. Where he sapped the lives of others, making himself a half alive half-dead man, the Tree of Life began banishing the 'death' law in him.

Unable to even utter a word, Tul's very being began fragmenting, shattering and slowly dissipating into ash.

A rather unceremonious, anticlimactic, and boring end to a man who seemed to find too great of a joy in ending a life that had just begun.