Poison God's Heritage

Law's idea of sending a puppet covered inside a wooden cabinet inside was sound. Since it should stop the lightning from striking it directly as the wood element is not conductive.

But, that didn't go as planned. The small cabinet couldn't last longer than ten breaths of time before it was bombarded with lightning all over it.

"Sigh," Law's sigh was loud and deep, revealing the frustration within him.

However, I on the other hand was smiling.

"Why are you sighing?" I asked him.

"I thought that my idea might work, but I guess I'm far from your level of intellect, hah," he laughed ruefully as he was pulling back the scorched cabinet via a rope.

The devastation was clear and obvious as the cabinet was still aflame. After putting out the fire, I was left with a cruel sight of the puppet's remains.

Law was feeling a bit down from having his idea 'fail'.

"Nah, this is actually good," I said to Law.

"What do you mean? Look not even the puppet was unscathed," he said.

"Yes, but there is a difference," I told Law.

He contemplated a bit and said, "Time!"

"Exactly, time. It took longer for the thunder to clap and destroy the wooden cabinet than when I sent the puppet immediately. So, the wood did something, it hid the puppet although for a short extent from the thunder and lightning."

"So, we can assume that the lightning reacts to metal but is having a harder time to notice it due to the wood around it?" Law said.

"Something like that. Insulation is key, perhaps if I make it so the thunder is unable to detect the puppet?"

I mumbled to myself as I was thinking of using some of the Soulsteel as a barrier to stop lightning.

But before I could get to work, I noticed the divine sense of two people.

"We have company," Law said as he prepared to fight.

"Relax, they're friendly," I said.

Soon, a man wearing a set of pure white robes and a shcolar's hat along with a white fan in his hand slowly arrived landing gently right in front of us.

The other man with a black set of robes followed immediately after and stood next to him.

"Junior Brother," Zhang Tian smiled.

I clasped my hands at Zhang Tian, "Senior brother, it's good to see you well."

Then turned to Dao Shen, "You too, good to see you doing well for yourself."

"Same here," Dao Shen said as he looked all around us.

"The ship, it's able to stop the lightning," Dao Shen commented.

"Not really," I replied, "I'm missing the last half of the formation to enter this area." I pointed behind me.

"Same here," Zhang Tian said, as he raised his right arm.

"Here too," Dao Shen said. He also had three circles and a half.

"Only one of us can get in then," Law said.

"Not really," I replied. "This actually makes things far easier and simpler, we can all get in." I said.

"How come?" Zhang Tian asked.

"Because if you two fuse the circles, we'll be able to see the fourth circle and I can replicate it on the ship, then we can all go inside," I said.

Zhang Tian took note of the formation on top of the ship and nodded. "You can always keep this senior brother surprised. Very well, you may take this then," he said as he presented me his palm.

"No need, I can print it on your arm," I said as I pulled out the cutoff arm that I was using as a reference and gave it to Zhang Tian.

With the arm in his hand, he absorbed the rest of the circle and empowered his own tattoo. And soon the fourth tattoo was printed on it.

With this, his hand had four circles. "Cyan, so I need cyan stone. There is some at the edge, give me a second."

The cyan Soulsteel was right next to us, so all I needed to do was dig it out, but more than half of it was buried inside the clouds and only a small portion was visible to us.

"Brother Zhang, I'll need you to uproot this Soulsteel for me," I said.

"Soulsteel?" Zhang Tian asked.

"An arbitrary name I gave it to this metal, after all, I have no idea what this is. Anyway, with the four circles you should be able to walk into the clouds however be very careful and in case you feel threatened immediately withdraw."

"I'll do as junior brother says," he said and slowly pressed his hand into the dark clouds.

Seeing no reaction, Zhang Tian stepped inside and soon disappeared.

Breath after breath of time, anxiety and worry began growing within me. After all, this domain is deadly to the mightiest of cultivators. And I just asked my sworn brother to walk inside it.

But thankfully, nothing seemed to happen, and soon the cyan boulder shook.

Zhang Tian seemed to have extracted it completely from the base and pushed it outside the dark cloud curtain.

He then walked back out.

He took a few strained breaths and said, "That place is very dangerous," he said.

"You've only been there for a few seconds, what do you mean?" Law asked.

"The Qi, you can't use more than a tenth of your Qi in there. This," he said as he pointed at his palm, "It stops you from using your Qi."

I thought for a second and said, "I now understand."

"What is it?" Law asked.

"This thing here, it was actually reacting not to metal, but to Qi, if something goes inside it, the Qi within them causes the atmosphere to destabilize. The entire thing is like the surface of a calm lake. And the presence of Qi disturbs it as would a pebble do to said lake. The formation in your hand is complete and it stops your Qi from going beyond a certain threshold." I explained.

"I guess if all of us keep our Qi at ten percent we shouldn't be assaulted by the formation," Law said.

"I wouldn't really risk that," I said.

"How come?" Dao Shen then interjected.

"Because, if Zhang Tian was allowed to use ten percent and he was the only one inside, and another person goes in, then Zhang Tian's permitted level would drop to half. And the same person would also need to use half. The total that the formation could ever allow is a fixed amount of Qi, so the more people who go inside, the less that total becomes."

Law slumped down on the ground and said, "It would probably be better for me to remain here. I don't want to ruin it for everyone," he said.

"No need for that," I said as I began carving the cyan stone.

"What are you doing?" Law asked.

"I'm finishing what I started, I already memorized the pattern on Zhang Tian's hand, so I'll continue making the fourth circle on top of the ship," I said.

"Will the ship be alright? Wouldn't it be affected by the disturbance?" Law asked.

"Unlike us cultivators, the ship is a machine, and the amount of Qi it generates and uses can be easily regulated. So ten percent of Zhang Tian's Qi is more than enough for the ship to move about with us inside it," I said.

"But if we all go in, the formation will be destabilized," Law said.

"As long as all of us remain inside the ship, the total Qi that the cloud could sense will be nothing but the ship's. Since I built spatial rooms inside it that are technically insulated and separate from the space we're in right now," I said.

"That's a risky theory," Dao Shen said.

"But it is all we have, not to mention I can put the ship on mode that will allow it to use external Qi to function. Meaning that it will not produce more Qi than it is consuming, which will also keep the balance of Qi fixed." I added.

"How can I help?" Zhang Tian asked.

I threw him a small cube of the cyan Soulsteel, "help me carve cubes with that exact size and shape. Not a single blemish can be allowed," I said.

Zhang Tian nodded and began working, and so did Law and Dao Shen.

With the three of us carving the Soulsteel we soon managed to finish up the parts for the cyan circle.

I then began placing them in order and shape to match the formation the Blue Sun had made.

It's pretty impressive how she managed to understand and deduce the use of the Soulsteel and shaped it into a tattoo. I need to ask her how she came up with that idea.

Once I was done placing the cubes, I carved the exact formation on Zhang Tian's fourth circle on the cubes then I infused them with Qi for them to weld together.

The fourth circle locked in place and the four-circle lightning expelling formation was done.

Not going to lie, it looked ugly as hell. Since it had protruding parts all over it looked like a melting crown on top of the ship. But after all, since it works it is fine. Function Over Form.

"Let's get inside, and just for safety measures, try to stop your Qi from overflowing. Even though we're inside the ship," I said.

Our group soon got inside the ship and I began guiding it slowly into the clouds.

Hopefully it all works out… otherwise… I don't even want to think about it.