The training grounds of the Tang Clan had been transformed.
Dozens of white-robed servants carried out vats of venomous beasts, vials of poison mist, and strange fungal growths wrapped in sealing talismans. Jade platforms were raised. A light fog of Suppressing Powder a neutralizing agent blanketed the area to keep the volatile environment from killing spectators.
Twelve disciples stood before the central platform.
Twelve heirs of poison.
Tang Jinhai, with his crimson vine glowing faintly, stood with an arrogant tilt to his chin. Tang Feiyan's beautiful smile masked the faint pulse of a sharp qi surrounding her. Tang Wuhen, hidden in his black robes, said nothing. The others watched each other with suspicion or fake civility.
Then there was Tang Yun.
He stood at the far end, dressed in faded brown robes, his shoes still caked with dirt from the alchemy garden. His vine, still tucked in its silk pouch, showed no sign of vitality.
Some snickered.
Even the announcer Elder hesitated before calling his name.
"Tang Yun will you… participate?"
He nodded silently.
A faint smile curled on his lips.
Rules of the Trial
The Venom Bloom Trial was deceptively simple:
Each heir would plant their vine into one of twelve test fields pits filled with beast blood, poison qi, and corpse-soaked soil.
They would then activate their vine with their own qi.
The vine's response its bloom, root spread, and reaction to external stimuli would determine their ranking.
But there was a twist.
In each pit, a poison beast had been hidden beneath the soil. The vine's qi would awaken it.
The goal wasn't just to grow. It was to survive.
Tang Yun's Pit
His field was a miserable one.
While others had fertile blood-soaked soil, his was cracked, dry, and reeking of mold. A faint spiritual suppression hovered over the area likely a relic of failed experiments.
But it didn't matter.
Tang Yun smiled as he knelt and placed his silk-wrapped vine into the soil. He removed the outer layer carefully and fed a small droplet of refined Corpse Lotus Extract into the soil.
Others used pure qi. He used toxins.
He channeled a thin thread of Reverse Qi Absorption, not to empower his vine but to let it feed on the poison in the pit. The others were trying to grow trees.
Tang Yun was raising a parasite.
The Awakening
The ground trembled.
Jinhai's vine exploded with light, coiling upward like a blood-hued flame. The crowd clapped.
Feiyan's vine opened into an ethereal orchid bloom, its petals exuding a fragrant, sleep-inducing mist.
Wuhen's vine turned into black bramble, burrowing into the ground and poisoning other pits.
Then came Tang Yun's pit.
A hiss.
A cracking sound.
From the moldy ground, something snapped upward a thin green tendril, but pulsing with black veins. At its tip, a bulbous eye-like bud opened, then hissed and spat a thread of acid mist into the sky.
The crowd gasped.
The vine trembled and a serpent burst from beneath the soil.
It was a mutated Blood Pit Viper, over three meters long. Its crimson fangs dripped venom as it coiled toward Tang Yun's root.
But the vine didn't retreat.
Instead, the bulb at the vine's tip swelled, and shot a needle into the snake's face.
The viper screamed.
Its body convulsed.
And then… the vine began to devour it.
The roots slithered upward, wrapping around the serpent's body. With each pulse, the snake shriveled and the vine grew.
Within a minute, the viper was reduced to a dried husk.
Tang Yun's vine stood a full foot tall, pulsing with faint black qi. No beautiful colors. No radiant light.
But even the elder hosting the trial stepped forward in disbelief.
"This… this is not an absorption. It's assimilation," he muttered. "The vine consumed a beast above its stage?"
Tang Yun stood up slowly, brushing dust from his sleeves.
He bowed to the elder politely.
"Apologies, Elder. I used a waste-field technique I found in the archive. I thought it might work better in a cursed pit."
The elder stared at him. "Waste-field technique?"
Tang Jinhai stepped forward, scowling. "That's cheating! He didn't use his own qi! He used external poison to power his vine!"
Elder Tang Mo, who had appeared silently beside the judges, replied coldly:
"And yet, it worked. He did not violate a single rule."
"If anything," he added, eyes narrowing on Tang Yun, "he made the worst pit yield the most ferocious result."
Ranking Results
1. Tang Feiyan – Highest spiritual purity, balanced growth.
2. Tang Jinhai – Most explosive power.
3. Tang Wuhen – Most aggressive infestation.
4. Tang Yun – Parasite-class bloom, lethal assimilation type. [Dangerous Anomaly – requires observation.]
The top 4 would be granted access to a personal instructor for the Vine Year, and entry into the Inner Compound's Second Floor, where more advanced resources and poisons were stored.
Tang Yun was ranked 4th.
Many scoffed.
But some… began to whisper.
"That vine didn't just grow it ate a Blood Pit Viper alive."
"Is he really that useless?"
"I heard he never even trained in poison qi formally…"
The venomous seeds had been planted.
Tang Yun left the field with his vine tucked back into his silk pouch, humming softly.
[Tags]: Reincarnation, Martial Arts, Poison, Scheming Protagonist, Cultivation, Weak to Strong, Anti-Hero, Cold Protagonist, Clan Wars, Hidden Identity, Revenge