Jared did not join the pursuit. Instead, stood before Sarpa’s twitching torso, two fingers glowing with concentrated marked aura. He drove that aura into the corpse’s elixir field as delicately as a surgeon slipping a scalpel beneath skin. A moment later, withdrew, a faint filament of gold spiraling around his fingertip.
“Found it…” said, voice low but unerringly certain. That glimmer was the unique spiritual aura of the Flaxseed clan, tangible proof that Sarpa had once plundered their magical items.
“Mr. Flaxseed,” Jared called without turning. “Your clan members’ treasures are almost certainly locked away inside Venom Palace.”
Flaxseed’s fingers, still clutching a charm, trembled as closed them into a fist.
“My ancestors’ items…” whispered hoarsely. “I must retrieve them.” Together, the trio strode across a carpet of cooling bodies toward the bone-white silhouette of Venom Palace.
Every wisp of poisonous miasma recoiled from Jared’s marked aura, parting as though some invisible torch were clearing a path. Even the venomous parasites hiding in the darkness burrowed deep into the soil, unwilling to risk his shadow.
The palace gate had been fashioned from the skull of a giant beast. Desiccated human skins, long drained of color, dangled from its fangs and fluttered in the wind like obscene banners.
Eight guards in scaled mail flanked the entrance. Their skin was an eerie blue-violet, and each clutched a spear embedded with glimmering toxin crystals that pulsed like diseased hearts. The lead guard jabbed his weapon toward Jared.
“Turn back!” barked, voice rasping as broken glass. “Trespassers in Venom Palace die where they stand!”
Jared, having no patience for idle talk, gave his Dragonslayer Sword a lazy flick.
A gold-and-black light-ten feet long and sharp as judgment, shone across the threshold. It cleaved the eight guards and their spears in two before slamming into the monstrous skull with a thunderous boom.
Crack! The sturdy skull shattered like brittle porcelain, shards skittering across a floor already stained by horrors untold, revealing the gloom within.
Inside the main hall, the toxic mist was ten times thicker, swirling in viscous coils that stung the eyes and throat.
At the Chamber’s heart sat an old man in emerald robes, perched atop a stone dais. Before him, a bronze cauldron bubbled with pitch-green liquid, belching fumes so foul they clawed at sanity itself. He was none other than Toxius Ricin, leader of Venom Valley.
When Toxius slowly raised his head, the tendrils of vine-like veins writhing beneath his translucent skin became clear. His eyes were pure, bottomless jade, twin wells devoid of pupils, devoid of mercy.
“Sarpa is dead?” asked, each syllable dripping like venom from a freshly opened fang. Toxius’ voice was a rasp, like two water-logged boards grinding together In the dark.
“Not bad,” sneered, saliva threading from the corner of his warped grin. “No wonder you dare to barge into my Venom Valley…”
Jared stepped through the ruined doorway into the main hall. Around him, the marked aura carried flared outward, forming an invisible barrier that kept the drifting toxic mist at bay.
“Centuries ago, the Flaxseed clan was wiped out. You were one of the butchers.” There was no question in his voice, only a verdict already delivered.
Toxius let out a croaking cackle, every burst of laughter accompanied by a wet drip that made the teeth ache. “Correct… That old man’s so-called ‘Poison Immunity’ would have been perfect alchemy stock. It’s a pity blew himself apart first. Otherwise, I’d have broken past the Earthly Immortal Realm ceiling long ago and climbed higher still.”
Flaxseed shook so violently that the charm in his fingers nearly snapped. “You b*stard! I’ll rip you apart!”
“What’s the rush?” Toxius licked cracked lips; his tongue was dark emerald and forked like a serpent’s tip. “Once I refine the three of you into poison pills, the regret of that day will be gone.”
His gaze speared Jared. “A body soaked in marked aura yet untouched by toxin, nothing could suit a Marked Aura Poison Pill better.”
“Enough talk!” Jared blurred forward.
The Dragonslayer Sword screamed through the air, a gold-black streak aimed straight for Toxius’ brow.
Toxius did not dodge. He merely extended one finger toward the bronze cauldron beside him. The cauldron’s viscous green broth erupted, twisting into a colossal toxic dragon. Needle fangs bristled as It lunged for Jared, the air sizzling and corroding wherever its breath passed.
“Petty tricks!” Cold light flashed behind Jared’s eyes. His sword energy accelerated, the intertwined gold and obsidian radiance punching clean through the dragon’s skull.
The dragon burst with a wet pop. Toxic rain fanned across the main hall, but every droplet that drifted within one meter of Jared ignited against his marked aura and vanished to ash.
“Oh?” A sliver of surprise flickered in Toxius’ jaundiced eyes. “Your aura actually burns away my venoms… Quite remarkable…”
