Poison God's Heritage

"Alright," he agreed, stepping forward. "Here's the plan. I'll funnel my Qi into you, amplifying the Soul Shackling Stakes. But be warned, Shen Bao—it'll feel like you're dying. The pressure from my Qi alone will feel like it's crushing your very bones. You'll need to channel it into the stakes without losing control.

Once the stakes start siphoning years from the chains, you'll corrode them faster than you've ever imagined."

I swallowed hard. "How much faster?"

"With my Qi? Instead of a thousand years per second, it'll be hundreds of thousands. But it's going to hurt."

I stared at the glowing chains binding the Lording Sun, shimmering with malignant intent. They seemed alive, pulsing faintly with every breath the Lording Sun took, a constant reminder of his imprisonment. I had no choice. I had to do this.

I turned to the Automaton. "Create a portal here," I ordered, pointing to the space directly next to the Lording Sun's bed. The air shimmered as the Automaton obeyed, opening a glowing rift that led to where the Lording Sun lay, motionless beneath the chains that bound him.

"What are you planning, Shen Bao?" Liang Yu asked, her eyes narrowing with concern.

"You'll see soon enough," I replied, my voice steady though my insides twisted with anxiety.

The rest of the room cleared out quickly, leaving me alone with the Red Sun, the Lording Sun's unconscious form, and the ominous chains that bound him. We walked out of the portal but I remained right in front of it.

I flexed my fingers, feeling the weight of what was to come, and then plunged both my arms through the portal, leaving only my body outside with the Red Sun behind me and everyone else watching from a distance.

The stakes materialized in my hands, cold and heavy, their weight familiar but far more foreboding now.

"Give me a view of what's happening inside the room," I said to the Automaton who complied by creating a floating imagery of my arms inside the portal, with the stakes in hands.

My mind raced as I positioned them against the spectral chains. "Automaton," I commanded, my voice firm despite the pounding in my chest, "Crank up the time differential to the max in five seconds."

"Understood," the Automaton's disembodied voice replied.

"This still won't reduce the actual time we experience, Shen Bao," the Red Sun reminded me. "You're about to feel every second of this."

"I know," I grunted, beads of sweat already gathering on my brow. I had a plan. "But I've got another trick up my sleeve." Taking a deep breath, I focused inward, calling upon my inner strength, the one skill that had saved me countless times before.

"True and False," I muttered. "Domain of Delusion: Black!"

A concentrated dome of energy enveloped the portal and the stakes, bending reality itself. The Red Sun's eyes widened in surprise as the black tendrils of my domain slithered into existence, coating the entire chamber in an otherworldly shade darkness. The world turned black around us, and the bubble of my domain speed through the portal and around the table.

"What the hell is this?" the Red Sun exclaimed, his voice tinged with both awe and concern. I could feel the weight of his gaze on me, trying to understand what I was doing.

"This," I whispered through clenched teeth, "is how we cheat time."

But I wasn't done yet. The first domain wasn't enough.

"Domain within a Domain," I gasped, feeling my vision blur as I forced myself further. "Domain of Delusion: White!"

This was the Enforcer's Improved Domain, a far deadlier and more offensive portion of it. If the Black Domain of Delusion was defensive and relied on confusing the enemy, the White one allowed me to surpass all injuries and convert them to my enemy.

Another wave of energy pulsed outward, overlaid with the first. The black-and-white world around us became even more distorted, reality itself twisting under the pressure of two contradictory forces. Time, space, perception—all of it became malleable, bending to my will, my insanity… my Delusion.

The Red Sun looked at me like I'd gone mad. Maybe I had. "You're insane," he muttered, his voice barely audible through the strain.

"Monochrome!" I shouted, forcing the final piece into place. The domain solidified, reality itself wavering at the edges as the monochrome field expanded. My mind reeled from the strain, the sheer impossibility of what I was doing threatening to overwhelm me. But I held on. I had to.

The monochrome part is where I steal perception.

The Enforcer had told me something, that if I can confuse my mind to delude it into thinking what I belive becomes true in my domain, I might be capable of upturning the heavens.

Though I'd never do that since it's too much of a hassle. I can take control of this small portion of my domain, and take away the chromatic color of time. Remove it and bend it, accelerate it or slow it down as my Monochrome Domain decrees. But, without enough Qi it's all just a dream. Enjoy new stories from empire

The Red Sun blinked, shaking his head. "Now," I said, my voice trembling, "Your Qi."

Without hesitation, the Red Sun unleashed his power, an eruption of raw, burning energy that shot through me like a tidal wave of molten fire. It felt like a star had exploded inside me. Every nerve, every fiber of my being screamed in agony as his Qi coursed through me, threatening to tear me apart from the inside.

"KILL!" The thought was not mine—it was the Qi itself, a living, breathing force that wanted only destruction.

"KILL!" the power seemed to have thoughts of its own, as it wanted me to do nothing but Kill.

Eradicate, Terminate, Decimate, Obliterate! SLAUGHTER! SLAUGHTER! SLAUGHTER!!!

My eyes bled red and turned red. The Qi wanted me to stab the Lording Sun and pounce on the Red Sun and destroy all and any around me.

"I told you, it's too much for you to handle Shen Bao!" the Red Sun said.

"Don't Stop!" I shouted as veins began rippling under my skin.

The Red Sun's power was like a sentient flame, raging and violent, screaming for blood. I fought to control it, my body convulsing under the strain.

"Shen Bao, stop! You can't handle this!" the Red Sun shouted, his voice barely penetrating the haze of pain that clouded my mind.

But I wasn't listening. I couldn't stop. If I stopped, we'd lose the Lording Sun. My mind danced on the edge of madness as I funneled the Red Sun's Qi into the stakes. The chains glowed brighter, their colors warping and shifting as the stakes began to absorb time, devouring the centuries like a starving beast.

Time warped around us, accelerating at an unimaginable rate. I felt every second stretch into infinity, the weight of thousands of years crashing down on me, even as I forced the stakes deeper into the chains.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The act of suspending and accelerating time as I see fit could be considered the domain of the Heavens. I fear I might once again be called into the Enforcer's presence, but this is the only way I know to save the Lord of Lords.

"Just… one more second…" I gritted my teeth, feeling my body burning from the inside out, my bones cracking under the pressure.

It would have taken thirty six days of this pain to get the chains corroded and corrupted enough. Yet with the power of the Red Sun, the immense Qi, the ability for me to delude Time itself within my domain, and the fact that my Monochrome slightly muted the colors of the Seven Colored chains.

The chains—those wretched, cursed chains—shimmered, then hardened to a bronze hue, rusting over, their once vibrant colors dimming and darkening. Slowly, impossibly slowly, they began to crumble. A small crack appeared, then another, until finally, with a sound like breaking glass, they shattered.

"STOP!" I screamed, and the world snapped back into focus.

The sudden silence was deafening. The monochrome world vanished, the Red Sun's Qi receded, and I collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. My entire body felt like it had been scorched from the inside out. My vision swam with spots of black and white as the room returned to its normal colors.

It was over.

The chains were gone, nothing more than a pile of dust on the floor. The Lording Sun lay motionless, but I could already see his body stabilizing, his breathing evening out as the strain of the chains vanished.

The Red Sun knelt beside me, his massive frame casting a shadow over my prone form. He was grinning. "Never thought I'd say this, Shen Bao, you're a crazy bastard, but you did it. Again."

I tried to laugh, but it came out as a strangled cough. "Never… again…" I rasped, my head pounding with the mother of all headaches. I could feel my body shutting down, my muscles seizing from the overexertion. But at least this time, I wasn't meeting the Enforcer. At least, I hoped not.

The Red Sun stood, surveying the scene. "You've got guts, I'll give you that. It's not everyday that someone can take on my Qi into their body and not fall into a maddened frenzy of slaughter,"

As I lay there, barely clinging to consciousness, I couldn't help but reflect on the insanity of it all. We had fought creatures that defied understanding, survived impossible odds, and now… now we had saved the Lording Sun.

For a moment, I allowed myself to rest, the tension in my body slowly melting away. A victory, though we had a lot of deaths on our side, we still saved the beyond. A pricey victory, but a victory nonetheless.

But deep down, I knew that this was only a temporary reprieve. Something far worse was looming on the horizon. After all, the question that hadn't left my mind surfaced once more. Where did these Rakshasa come from? The beyond is nothing but an endless void with a single slab of dirt where cultivators live in. hell, even its one and only Sun completely disappeared once the Endless Night happened.

I have no idea what lays beyond this void, but it is where these things have come from. And we'll soon have to deal with that. But for now, I need to sleep.