Poison God's Heritage

"Ao!"

"En…ao"

"Shen Bao!"

My eye fluttered open as I looked up. Law's mug was up too close to mine.

I pushed him off and got up, "God that was awful," I said as I fought an urge to throw up.

"Sorry to help I guess," Law had a hurt expression on his face.

"Not you," I said as I popped a pill in my mouth to help against the nausea. "Using the Heaven Swapping Ring on that thing sucked me dry of all Qi, I haven't been this exhausted in years," I said as I slowly circulated some of my Qi making sure that the thunder high above wouldn't just kill me.

"No need to worry about the thunder and lightning anymore," Law said as he channeled his Qi in his hand manifesting it in an orb.

My heart almost dropped when I saw him do that for a second, but thankfully nothing happened.

"Seems like the Heavenly Dao has agreed to our stay here, perhaps it had seen how we fought against those fiends."

'Quite interesting, how did this even happen?'

Thinking about the Heavenly Dao having sentience will cause me more headaches than answers. To have something that is considered the laws and rules of the world be able to understand and reason is something that bogs the mind. But, it's a cultivation world and this is how things are here.

"We need to leave," I said as I looked around. "It feels like something might happen soon." The second sentence I said in a lower voice.

Sadly I lost a good portion of my puppets back into the Bastion. They're all disabled for now so the Rakshasas will ignore them. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try and get them back.

Since the Tao Yang is now in recovery mode and hidden away from sight, she should be able to return to peak condition soon. Only then can we retake and reposes the Bastion.

"Shen Bao, return soon," I heard. It was a divine sense message from the Lord of Lords. I can even sense that he isn't that far, and probably just outside the Thunder Domain.

"Shen Bao," I received another Divine Sense message, this one was from Tao Yang. "He saw me, and knows I'm here, the one who just spoke to you," she said.

"I see, but worry not, he isn't a bad person. If asked nicely I'm pretty sure he'll even help hide your identity for now," I said.

I got up and called my ship out. Then hopped inside with everyone alongside us. Flying out of the Thunder Domain shouldn't take us a long time anymore, especially with the permission of the Heavenly Dao. So I blasted the engines and had the ship fly out of the area in less than three hours.

Once we were outside, several of the cultivators that had came in with us were already waiting by the portal. They had failed to achieve the final goal. As for the portal, it only opened when we got there.

We got off the ship and I collected it before entering the gate.

And as soon as we did so, loud and ear-ringing cheers echoed from everywhere.

"CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR CHAMPION!"

The sound of the commentator resounded through the arena. "Du Shen, by the power granted to my by the Eight Suns I commend you for all of your efforts and officially announce you, Strongest Under The Sun!"

Even louder cheers -can you believe it- echoed all around us.

Brother Zhang Tian clapped in joy saying, "Though we really did not do much here, you deserve all the recognition you need. Next time I won't be so useless!" he congratulated me.

"I had fun fighting the Silver Rakshasa with you, Shen Bao," Dao Shen said as he patted me on the shoulder.

The Fire Lord simply snorted and flew up to sit under the Darkest Sun's seating area.

While Law was basking in the cheers, though they weren't aimed at him I can honestly say that without his absurd luck, we could have been in a terrible pinch sooner or later.

Several congratulatory messages and promises of rewards and gifts came at me via divine sense from all over the audience. After all people want to make connections with someone who earns the title of Strongest Under The Sun.

The audience was pretty persistent. Although our time was packed full of action and adventure. They had to watch a lot of long and boring scenes. In Earth time, it took many months for this entire competition to finish. And that's a lot of sitting and patience from the audience.

I clasped my hand to everyone in the audience and coughed once.

Everyone knew that I wanted to say something.

"Thank you all for your patience and tolerance to our struggle and adventure. I'm sure we could have done better in many areas and we'll try and improve some more. After all although this is a title sought by many cultivators, I know full well that there are far stronger people than me in the Beyond. I have no intention of growing arrogant beyond what my abilities allow me just because of the title.

Although it is grand in essence it is vain and empty without the strength of character and integrity to back it up, so I will continue to improve myself further to stay at your best intentions."

Lip service was easy, and flattery can get you very far.

"HOW HUMBLE! Though Du Shen had proven himself capable of many things and had shown us talent he still remained humble, although he comes from a lower world like the Vast Expanse where the Emperor Stage is enough to thwart the entire realm over, he still struggled and claimed victory over many other cultivators of higher stages! Du Shen, the humble!"

"Du Shen The Humble Dragon!"

"Du Shen The Humble Dragon!"

The crowd continued cheering as they seemed to enjoy the title.

It roughly translate to the Humble Poison Dragon God… quite interesting… but this is just to prop and hype up the crowd.

"With the title of the Strongest Under the Sun given, it is now time for the best part! THE REWARDS!"

"Now due to the events that happened beyond our sight, only the Suns are capable of rewarding the cultivators due to what the Suns had seen. I already have been given a list of rewards to gift and the order of participants.

For Fifth Place, The Fire Lord. Although he had proven extremely capable through the competition, and in the Thunder Domain, he had fallen injured at the last stage and needed assistance, it dropped his ranking from second to fifth. Do not worry it isn't to say that you are any weaker than the rest, but one cannot control fairness in life or opportunity.

For the Fire Lord, the gift comes from the Flamboyant Sun, an Extreme Yang Cultivation technique. The heavenly Golden Three-Legged Crow Manual. And an Extreme Yang Jade that amassed Yang Energy for millions of years from the depth of the beyond the hottest volcano."

The crowd was all in awe and cheers as they realized the generosity of the fifth-position reward. Pretty interesting.

"Fourth Place belongs to Zhang Tian, his ability to commandeer law allowed him great ease in access to all repositories of the Thundering Domain and aided him in understanding how to move through the terrain, not to mention the ability to fight against higher-level enemies and still come out victorious and clean of robe since the very start of the tournament!

For Zhang Tian, the Reward has been provided by the Wisest Sun. The culmination of the Wisest Sun's pure work. Untouched and unbiased by his own opinion, raw law matters in fact. And a Sentient Law Stone that aids in understanding the heavenly Law."

Zhang Tian's eyes opened wide as he seemed to understand the value in these gifts far better than I do.

"For third Place! Dao Shen. He showed ferocity like no other, and through his entire venture in the tournament, he had yet to shed a single drop of blood. Overwhelmed many of his foes with his sheer ferocity and savagery, the Laughing Slaughterer himself has chosen to give this reward. The Blood Letting Blade.

A fearsome Heaven Stage weapon that's capable of eradicating all life if one has the power to wield it.

Since the Laughing Slaughterer had deemed the weapon too powerful, a few sets of seals have been implanted on it that will unseal themselves if the wearer is in danger, or when the wearer reaches higher stages of cultivation. Oh by the way, the weapon comes with a warning, if anyone above Dao Shen's stage of cultivation by even one major real tries and steal it, the weapon itself will kill them.

If the attacker is two major realms higher, the Red Sun will kill the attacker. If you want his weapon, then fight him fair and square for it, only the worthy is allowed to wield it."

The warning was for everyone who showed greed to that weapon, and to go against one of the suns… I highly doubt anyone would want that.

"As for our fourth participant Law Tang. Who albite having fought few enemies… well, many enemies… Brother how the hell did you manage to get second place?! I literally cannot remember you doing anything worthy of note! But even the suns said you're second! This must be the heavens being generous to you.

I guess it is luck in a sense," the commentator sighed for your rewards… Huh, what's this…" the commentator was panicking. "There is a reward like this?!!"