031 The Poison Pill

"I'll do it." Liam said.

"Sure, Here's the poison pill. When you're ready." Albert said.

"You're not going to ask me if I'm sure? What if I die, what will you do then? You'll be kicked out of the sect you know." Liam wanted to probe Albert, as he wanted to be as safe as possible. He wasn't the type to throw his life away. Not when his sister was still without him.

"I know, that's why you won't die." Albert said shortly, then he proceeded to wait for Liam to ingest the pill.

"What is he planning, why risk being kicked out of the sect for this. Even if it's a low chance, there is still the possibility that I won't make it out of here. And he can't get away, everyone outside saw the quarrel we had. Everyone would know that he was the one that killed me." Liam's thoughts were all over the place, he could not understand why Albert would do this. Even if it was only to help him, the pills were still very expensive. Why give them to him.

"When I take this pill, how will I see the poison structure?" Liam asked as he wanted to be as ready as he could.

"No use explaining it, you will know when it happens." Albert said and it was apparent that he wanted to be finished with this and go on with his day. Liam saw this and he decided that it was now or never.

Not saying anything more, he took the pill and ingested it. As soon as the purplish pill slid down his throat, Liam could feel it melting inside of him. A second later he got a feeling that there was a gaging whole in his stomach and that something was burning him from the inside. In the next second, the feeling spread to his whole body and Liam just wanted to throw himself in ice cold water, but he doubted that would do anything as he felt as if the flames were inside of him. It was like his bones were red hot metal rods, burning the flesh around them.

"Focus!" Albert said to Liam.

Liam barely heard him, as he was weaving on the ground and groaning, he was trying to resist screaming his lungs out. By the third second, he could no longer resist as he let out a scream that almost Shaked the whole room. Luckily the formation on the room was also sound proof.

"It's useless, he won't be able to see anything. I might as well give him the poison resistance pill now, and spare him from enduring the pain anymore. Albert was debating whether he should give the pill to him now. It was apparent that Liam wasn't doing too good.

"I can do this!" Liam screamed out through his teeth. The fourth second passed and Liam was still on the ground screaming. By now the poison had spread through his whole blood stream and the pain he was feeling was unexplainable.

On the fifth second, Liam unconsciously went to smash his head on the ground, in hopes of going unconscious, that way, he won't have to endure the pain anymore. But then, he saw something.

His vision went dark and he saw his body from the third person prospective. His body was hollow, there we're only a few poison particles inside of it. His body was like a molecule, consisting of the specific placement of the poison particles.

The burning sensation inside his bones was a pentagram of poison particles, The weakness of his heart was an upside-down triangle. And a long serpent like line of poison, from his brain along his spine. These we're the components consisting the poison. Every part of the poison and its effects had a specific poison molecule structure and they all went together in a curious way.

The simple structure and effect of each figure, if you so called them, was not difficult to remember. But the intricate way in which they all combined and worked together, was where the real difficulty was.

10 seconds. Liam might have a new vision in front of him, but the pain was far from over. Each second felt like a thousand years, and each and every year the pain got worse and worse. Liam felt as if he had been enduring the pain for millennia, but only observed the poison structure for a millisecond.

15 seconds. The pain that Liam was currently feeling was unlike anything he had ever imagined was possible.

"Has my time passed, did Albert really trick me. Am I really dead? There is no universe where I have endured this for less than 20 seconds. Either I am currently withering away in a ditch, or I have entered the afterlife and are about to be reincarnated." Liam even thought he was dead for a second. The only thing keeping him from being sure of that thought, was the image of his hollow body with the intricate poison structure within it.

"I can do this!" Liam thought to himself. "There is no way I am dying here. Not when I don't know how's Haley doing, And mom and dad. Do they know if we're dead or alive? How could I ever leave them witch such a burden and uncertainty. I have to survive."

A few seconds or millennia, Liam was unsure about the passage of time anymore, everything went black.

"Where am I?" Liam said as he opened his eyes, his blurry vision did not allow him to see anything clearly and his whole body felt paralyzed.

"You finally woke up. You won't be able to move for a little while longer. The poison attacks your brain, both in the spine and head, making you dizzy and paralyzed after a few minutes. It also attacks your nervous system, raising all alarms, to make you feel as if you're burning from the inside. And lastly, it weakens your heart, slowly you lose strength, until there is no more and you perish." Liam heard Albert's voice.

"I survived?" Liam asked.

"Of course, you did. There was no danger. After I fed you the poison pill, I personally extracted all of the poison from your system." Albert said.

"But why?" Liam asked, as he still didn't know why would Albert do this.

"Owen sees a lot of potential in you two. He wants to be on good terms. Take this as a favor, I will come to claim it in the future." Liam saw Albert smile, when his vision finally cleared up.

"You saw each of the structures, right. Even if you couldn't memorize the intricate way they work together, don't worry too much, you can experiment until you find it. Just don't experiment on people." Albert said before he went to the door. "You should be able to walk in three to five hours. You are currently in my guest room. Return to your own home when you can."

"Thank you." Liam did not know what to say. He was receiving kindness from people around him, all that he wasn't expecting. His first few encounters and Ralphs words made him believe that the cultivation world was harsh and that there was nothing for free, but now he got offered help from Borg, the hooded man helped him constantly and asked for nothing in return and now Albert. Liam wasn't quite sure what to think.

"In a bit more than a week, I will be able to see Hayley again." Liam smiled. Everyone was talking around, about how the grand elder's disciple was going to participate in the soul pet event. Everyone was excited to see her, as the grand elder had been keeping her inside Elder's peak.

"Everyone is saying, that she has grown really fast, from other elders, there is a rumor that she is already at the peak of the fifth human realm and is waiting to get her soul pet, before she breaks through to the sixth human realm. Even though she was only at the third human realm when she arrived." Liam smiled when he thought about how everyone was speaking so well of his sister.

Three hours later, he had enough mobility to get out of bed, then he slowly made his way towards the door.

Albert wasn't inside his villa and when Liam went out the front door, he saw the full moon outside. It was the middle of the night.

"How long was I asleep for? There goes my whole day of training." Liam said as he started to make his way down the mountain. The more he went down, the more mobility was returning to him.

"The qi at the top is amazing. I have to get there as soon as possible. Just cultivating for those 3 hours was the same as 2 days in my house. The difference between the top 100 and top 10 000 is like heaven and earth." Liam thought, as he was preparing to challenge some house higher up, in hopes of getting a villa with a higher qi density.