“You dare reap the life of my Gao Clan’s younger generations in front of this grandfather!?” roared a man with jet black hair that hung down to his waist and a sharp nose like a sword.

  He fell from the heavens like a meteor and crashed against the street in front of Wang Ren. Every house within a dozen metres was flattened from the force of his landing.

  Killing intent rolled out of him in waves. Every mortal nearby exploded into a shower of blood instantly and Wang Ren was forced to his knees, even with the support of Master Bang’s presence.

  The Foundation Building cultivator raised an arm and was about to swing it at Wang Ren when suddenly Master Bang appeared in front of him, his simple glaive clutched in both hands.

  As the furious cultivators arm descended, the air itself was poisoned in its wake and the earth rotted around his feet. The world trembled as hand met glaive, but neither man won the exchange.

  “My disciple will do whatever he pleases and you will watch like a dog, Gao Ze,” Elder Bang declared.

  “Hmph! Bang Ji, you sure have grown arrogant since this grandfather last met you. What gives you the confidence to face me with your chest puffed out like a rooster,” Gao Ze sneered.

  “While you hide away in your caves, letting your vile spawn poison our lands, I was not sitting idle. What is the patriarch of a third-rate clan before the Shattering Earth Carving Heavens Heavy Glaive of Bang Ji! Kowtow and repent your crimes and I will show you the mercy of my Cloudy Falls Sect,” Elder Bang snarled.

  “Truly, this is incredible! Even the pups of the Cloudy Falls dare to bare their fangs at this grandfather. Has the world forgotten the terror of the Ten Thousand Poison Monarch!? I will remind you why even your sect leader didn’t dare to attack my clan’s ancestral home, brat!” Patriarch Gao Ze roared, fury painted on his face as spit flew from his mouth.

  The two men didn’t exchange further words. Their bodies blurred and disappeared from view as the fight began. Wang Ren could barely follow their movements.

  Bang Ji needed nothing but his glaive and his body. He inhaled sharply and started to swing his glaive, the air parting in its wake and the heavens trembling.

  Gao Ze bit his finger, drawing blood as black as the night sky and rapidly drawing runes into the air with his toxic blood. The liquid burned into the air, spreading rot as he drew.

  Every single time he completed a rune he infused it with qi and it started to twist and writhe. In just a few breaths he had painted two dozen runes. Every single one transformed into a venomous creature formed of blood and qi.

  There were spiders, snakes, centipedes, strange furred beasts with sharp fangs, and more. The myriad creatures of poison and blood dashed towards Bang Ji and started to snap and strike at his flesh.

  With every swing of his glaive he carved another creature apart. Even in death however, they exploded and sprayed deadly poison across the sky.

  Every single drop of black poisonous qi and blood that hit Elder Bang’s skin burned a hole in his flesh, but it was healed in seconds. The man’s vitality overflowed and his well trained body would not succumb that easily.

  However, that was only the first exchange of techniques. The two Foundation Building cultivators were simply testing each other.

  Gao Ze had not been sitting idle while his poisonous creatures were attacking Elder Bang. His entire body was now coated in a shimmering, translucent armour of poison. In his hands he wielded an ornate sword with seven vibrantly coloured gems embedded in the blade itself.

  With a shout all seven gems lit up as his qi flowed into the sword. A red gem winked out, returning to a dull grey as the blade erupted in crimson flames.

  Gao Ze vanished from his position and appeared in front of Elder Bang, his sword carving a trail of flames through the air as he swung at the man’s neck.

  Elder Bang met the slash with a swing of his glaive. The clash of steel rang out through the city as the two blades met. The earth trembled and dozens of houses were blasted into dust from the force of the strike.

  The crimson flames snapped and flickered at the glaive, the steel of the blade being eaten away by Gao Ze’s esoteric technique. Elder Bang frowned and then snorted, his qi flaring as his biceps swelled.

  He grunted and pushed down, smashing Patriarch Gao’s sword away and forcing the man to leap back or be slashed in half. The flames petered out as Gao Ze looked down on Elder Bang.

  Even though the elder had won the clash, his glaive had been damaged and he was forced to draw out the residual strength of his body. Both men had been forced to use more of their techniques.

  A yellow gem on Gao Ze’s blade flickered out and the blade itself transformed. It was no longer an elegant jian but resembled a saw. It had vicious teeth coated in small yellow spines and a curved blade.

  The two cultivators roared as they clashed once more. Elder Bang was able to repel Gao Ze once more, but he now sported a horrifying wound down his arm. It festered with rot from the touch of the yellow spines and poured infected blood down his side.

  Gao Ze didn’t escape unharmed either. He had a cut from his right shoulder down to his waist that dripped black blood.

  He pressed two fingers against his heart and grunted. Small insects poured from inside his body and started to plug the wound, forming a makeshift scab to stop the bleeding.

  Elder Bang pulled out a pill and tossed it into his mouth while rubbing a strange liquid on the cut. It sealed itself but the traces of the yellow infection remained under the skin.

  The battle unfolded at lightning speed as they used more and more of their hidden techniques. Each of the seven gems on Gao Ze’s blade dulled one after the other, revealing strange and mysterious techniques that Elder Bang was forced to creatively resist.

  Each of them was rooted in poison and corruption, but the diversity was ridiculous. He truly earned the name Ten Thousand Poison Monarch.

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  A green gem produced a dragon of swirling poison qi that breathed poison. Elder Bang took two slashes to carve it apart but his body slowly grew more infected.

  When the blue gem faded it sent endless droplets of blue poison into the surroundings, each of which exploded to form an acid rain that fell on Three River City. Bang Ji was forced to protect the innocent mortals of the city and swung his glaive in a circle, producing a wind that blasted the acid rain back into the sky.

  However, Gao Ze used that opening to strike once more. The fifth gem faded and at first nothing seemed to have changed about the sword.

  Bang Ji breathed heavily and observed Gao Ze. In the blink of an eye the sword extended a hundred li and pierced right through Elder Bang’s shoulder.

  It had been aimed at his heart but the old man was too fast and avoided death at the last moment. However, he was slowly losing the battle.

  He was the Second Elder of the Cloudy Falls Sect and while he had a duty to uphold the honour of the sect, he knew that he was not a match for the devious patriarch of the Gao Clan. Even the strongest warrior would fall in a poor matchup.

  However, he would not give in until the moment of his last breath. That was his pride as a cultivator.

  He roared and slammed his glaive down on the sword, shattering the steel and then ripping himself from the blade that was buried in the earth. Gao Ze simply tossed the sword into the air as an orange gem faded, returning it to its former glory.

  The final gem was the largest of the seven. It was pure black and seemed to drink in the light around it. Unlike the others it didn’t fade to grey but instead began to pulse with qi.

  Gao Ze stuck the sword into his own heart and gasped. The sword turned into a giant worm and wriggled its way inside the man.

  His body transformed in a grotesque manner. His flesh turned black and his eyes went green as he became a monstrous creature of poison and corrupted flesh.

  Black ichor dripped from his orifices, burning away everything it touched. Even though he looked clumsy in this form, his speed had increased.

  “None have looked upon my Myriad Poisons Transformation and lived! Die, Cloudy Falls dog!” he cried.

  Elder Bang closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Wang Ren suddenly heard his master’s voice in his head.

  My disciple, watch your master’s final moments and burn them into your memory forever! Let this be the whetstone on which you sharpen your vengeance and rise to the pinnacle of this world!

  “What!? Master Bang-” Wang Ren exclaimed, his eyes widening in horrified realisation as he looked up at his master’s wide shoulders.

  Despite the endless poisons destroying his body from within and the blood that streamed from his wounds, Elder Bang cut a heroic figure. He suddenly roared and his dantian lit up like the sun.

  “Gao Ze, it is impossible for a lowly worm to comprehend the magnificence of the clouds above. Your arrogance has sealed your death! I, Bang Ji will write the end of my legend by slaughtering the reviled Gao Ze,” he announced, qi flooding every inch of his body as his muscles exploded with power.

  The towering corpse-like abomination and the suicidally empowered Elder Bang blurred as they rushed towards each other. The heavens themselves shook as the two cultivators clashed.

  With every single strike of Gao Ze’s, a dozen poisons infected Elder Bang. Despite that, they were instantly burned away by the overflowing qi that filled his body.

  He was burning away his cultivation to bring his combat prowess to unprecedented levels for a brief time. It made him nigh unbeatable by any below the peak of the Foundation Building Realm, but when the technique ran its course he would be nothing but a burnt out husk.

  The poison abomination was fearsome, every single blow carrying the weight of a thousand mountains, but it wasn’t enough. Bang Ji’s glaive ripped the skies apart as the steel sang a song of death.

  Every slash carved chunks of rotting flesh away from the monstrous abomination, but it seemed to have endless pustules and hunks of fat covering it. With every passing moment Elder Bang’s cultivation slowly burned away.

  After an incense’s worth of time, the battle was reaching its climax. Gao Ze was no longer a fearsome monstrosity.

  His hulking body had been hacked to pieces by Elder Bang’s endless barrage of glaive strikes. Elder Bang had paid a heavy price to reach this point—his body was withering and his dantian no longer resembled a sun but was more like a flickering lantern.

  The next exchange would be the last. Neither cultivator would emerge victorious, but only one would survive.

  “Come, trash!” Elder Bang roared his defiance to the heavens.

  “Die!” Patriarch Gao Ze hissed.

  Right before the two cultivators met, the entire city shook as a giant explosion came from the city lord’s palace. The whole top of one of the jade towers was blasted into dust and something flew from within.

  The figure smashed into the Gao patriarch and they both flew into the distance. Elder Bang’s glaive fell on empty air and he could only laugh.

  “What a miserable way to die,” he cackled as his cultivation burnt out and he fell to the ground, utterly crippled.

  He was not dead, but he would barely be mortal for what little remained of his life. Wang Ren rushed to his side and attempted to feed him a healing pill but he refused.

  Another figure rushed from the palace, chasing after the first. It was Elder Jin, scowling as he ran through the skies as though walking on solid earth.

  His sword was covered in blood while his left arm hung limply by his side. He spared a glance at Elder Bang, his face a conflicted mess of emotions.

  In the end he raced after the two Gao cultivators who had crashed somewhere in the city. A few seconds later the city started to shake again as the battle continued.

  After a single minute, the rumbling stopped. Wang Ren’s head was hung low. He felt like a failure.

  His Junior Brother was still struggling with a mysterious wound that he could not cure. His master was a cripple and would likely die in less than a year, while they had failed to kill a single enemy.

  Elder Jin appeared, tossing two corpses to the ground beside Elder Bang. “The heavens are cruel indeed. If we knew that Gao Ze himself was going to be here we should’ve petitioned the sect leader to accompany us. Second Brother Bang, if not for your sacrifice we would both be dead. I thank you,” he said while bowing to his waist.

  Elder Bang coughed blood and raised a hand weakly. “Don’t thank me, little Fifth. I only did as I wanted,” he wheezed, collapsing from the exertion.

  Wang Ren held him up by the shoulders, a look of concern on his face. Elder Jin narrowed his eyes for a second and then took a single step, appearing in front of Zhao Dan.

  “So, this is the scum ex-disciple that you laid down your life for. Worthless,” he harrumphed.

  Turning back to Elder Bang, he placed his arms inside his sleeves, pacing up and down the street. “Elder Sun told me that if the opportunity to clean house presented itself, I should take it,” he said, rubbing his chin.

  Wang Ren leapt to his feet and drew his glaive instantly. “Traitor! You dare!?”

  The next moment he was struck in the chest by Elder Jin and flew into a nearby building, spitting blood.

  “Don’t be stupid, Disciple Wang,” he sighed. “First Brother Sun believes the Cloudy Falls Sect is already his. He is arrogant and blinded by greed, propped up by the fools in his clan. I am no fool, but I need his support for now.”

  He appeared in front of Elder Bang and stared down at him. “Second Brother, this isn’t personal. I will make sure to tell the others that you died a hero, taking the evil Gao Ze with you,” he said with sadness in his eyes as he cut Elder Bang’s head off.

  Elder Bang only smirked as the blade fell. He died with a smile on his face and his head raised in defiance, as he lived his life.

  Before anyone could react, Elder Jin stepped and appeared in front of Zhao Dan. He was still struggling against the soul parasite, barely able to see as the hand of death closed around him.

  Elder Jin raised his sword once again. “I will take more pleasure in your death, trash. You dared to cripple my disciple, showing no face to me and the sect. Die!” he cackled as he swung his sword once more.