With a thunderous slap on the stone armrest, Toxius split the marble dais. The entire floor cracked open, and from the fissures erupted ink-green vines, wriggling like venomous serpents toward the trio.
Corin’s longsword rang free. Silver-white arcs of sword energy sliced through the nearest tendrils, severing each before it could touch flesh.
“Careful! These are Corrosive Vines. Their tiny hairs burrow under the skin and rot the heart!”
Flaxseed unfurled a golden net etched with runes, casting it wide to form a shimmering wall that held the vines back. “Jared, that old geezer sits at Top Level Earthly Immortal Realm Level Seven. Watch his true venom art!”
Jared never glanced at the vines. His stare locked onto Toxius. “Your fight is with me!”
He closed the distance again, but this time, each sword technique blended the ghost-step movement technique had mastered within the tomb of swords, turning every advance into a feint inside a feint.
In his grip, the Dragonslayer Sword seemed alive. At times, it was a golden serpent lashing wildly, and other times, a black dragon’s claw problng. Every cut hunted a fresh gap in Toxius’ defenses.
Unprepared for the erratic sword technique, Toxius shuffled backward again and again. Sword energy ripped his emerald robe, exposing skin beneath that looked more like warped tree bark than flesh.
“You wretched brat, did you think I feared you?”
Driven to rage, Toxius tore the shredded robe wide. A black serpentine tattoo coiled across his chest, and at his murmur, it wriggled free, becoming a two-foot shadow snake that slithered up his neck and settled atop his skull.
“Behold my life-bound parasite, the Spiritual Corrosive Snake. It will burrow into your consciousness field, nibbling at your divine soul until living and dying are both denied you.”
With a whisper-thin hiss, the snake became a black streak, darting for the center of Jared’s brow faster than sight. Corin and Flaxseed cried out, but the vines coiled tighter, choking every chance of rescue.
Jared had foreseen the strike. Instead of retreating, leaned in, and from his forehead erupted golden light-the dragon’s power shield forged the day refined dragon essence.
A razor-edged screech tore through the hall. The snake slammed into the golden barrier and was hurled back, white smoke curling from its scorched scales as it tumbled through the air.
Toxius’ scream tore through the hall.
“Impossible!” howled. The Spiritual Corrosive Snake, his life-bound parasite that had spent a century honing to prey upon divine souls, had never failed, until now.
In the heartbeat that followed his disbelief, Jared’s sword arrived. The tip of the Dragonslayer Sword halted an inch before Toxius’ brow. Black-and-gold sword energy lanced outward, pricking his skin and drawing a single bead of blood.
“Y-You cannot kill me!” Toxius finally tasted fear. “I am the leader of Venom Valley. Spill my blood, and every Poison Cultivator across level five will hunt you to the ends of creation!”
Jared’s gaze remained icy. “Did the Flaxseed clan beg you with the same desperation when you slaughtered them?”
The words pierced Toxius’ last defenses. Color drained from his face, and collapsed against the stone dais, strength deserting him.
Jared whispered a single verdict, “Kill!”
The blade flashed, a streak of night and sun, and was gone. Toxius’ head tumbled to the floor. Ink-green blood fountained from the stump, yet the moment the droplets touched Jared’s marked aura, they burned away into harmless mist.
With their master slain, the rampaging poison vines shriveled instantly, and the toxic mist began to lift from the main hall.
Flaxseed gazed at the corpse on the dais, then fell to his knees. Facing the direction of his long-dead Flaxseed clan, struck his forehead to the marble three times. “Ancestors, I have avenged you…”
Corin rested a hand on Flaxseed’s shaking shoulder, eyes shimmering with bittersweet respect.
Meanwhile, Jared approached the bronze cauldron. The liquid within, once a seething green venom, had turned as clear as mountain springwater.
He brushed the bottom of the vessel and fished out an emerald badge carved with the word “Flaxseed”. A faint spiritual aura still clung to the stone.
“This belonged to your clan,” Jared said, offering the emerald badge to Flaxseed.
