Chapter 13 - Poisonous Serpentine Faction

At the sky, Li Duyi was staring blankly, still thinking about last night. Then, the three approaches Li Duyi and sat down next to him.

" Still thinking about last night? We are sorry about that, we didn't know you had such a past " Zhu Yue said, feeling sorry for Li Duyi.

" That's right, to think you've experienced losing someone at a young age. She must be a great person" Bai Yin said, Wen Li nodded at what he said.

" She is, let's not talk about it. Instead, let's focus on the present. We are entering the inner sect, what factions will you guys enter? " Li Duyi asked.

" I'll join Dragon Coil Faction. What I've known is that they are good at fist technique. I've been quite interested in fist technique lately " Wen Li said, waving his fist around.

" For me, I'll join the Frost Peak faction. They are composed of women and I have some connection to them, my sister Zhu Nian is a member of the Frost Peak faction. " Upon saying that, the three of them looked at her in surprise.

" Why didn't you mention something so important? I feel betrayed " Bai Yin exaggerated. Faking tears, earning him a chuckle from the three.

" Oh please, you didn't ask about my background, and besides, I am going there with my effort. " Zhu Yue rolled her eyes.

" Right, but still... You should have said even if we didn't ask, right guys? " Bai Yin looked at Li Duyi and Wen Li. They shook their head helplessly and now, Bai Yin feeling betrayed, was sulking in the corner.

" Fake friends, why are you so mean to me guys? Did I do wrong? Have I offended you somehow? " Bai Yin looked at them, but his action is just a way to lighten up the mood.

" Anyway, I was thinking of joining the Light Ocean Faction. They are quite adept at cultivation and they had the highest number of inner disciples. " Bai Yin said.

" How about you Du Yen? Do you have any intention of joining factions? With your strength, it would be quite easy for you to join any factions. They will flock to your side, offering you many benefits " Wen Li said, making them nod as they looked at Li Duyi, waiting for his response.

" Hmm, I was thinking of joining the Poisonous Serpentine Faction. Like Wen Li, I am also quite interested in poison path lately. " Li Duyi said, surprising the others.

The reputation of the Poisonous Serpentine Faction is quite mysterious, their peak is full of poisonous fog and formations that most of the disciples of the inner sect always avoid. The disciples of this faction can be said to be weird and reserved.

They are also strong, stronger than any other peak. Not because of their cultivation realm but more of their knowledge in handling poison, they can even heal using poison and now, Li Duyi, someone they knew for some time, decided to join the Poisonous Serpentine Faction.

Something they didn't expect. From the behavior of Li Duyi who always befriended anyone he met, joining such a mysterious faction is the least likely to think of. They decided not to ask Li Duyi, after all they did last night. They are now considerate in asking questions.

" I see, good luck in joining the Poisonous Serpentine Faction, Du Yen. We will cheer you on " Zhu Yue said and they nodded.

Li Duyi smiled. The reason why Li Duyi wanted to join this specific faction is because he wanted to stay low for a while, like 5 or more years. After that, he will finally reveal himself to the sect and expose the elders to their corruption. In those five years, he will have to accumulate enough strength to fight off any opposing side and make the sect better.

Soon after, the flying beast finally arrived at the inner sect. The disciples gasped at the sight of the inner sect, and the difference between the outer sect and inner sect was astronomical, in the outer sect, it has a big span of area to accommodate the ever-growing disciples that the disciples are everywhere. It can be said that the outer sect is somewhat of an entertainment area but has a decent look.

For the inner sect, the beautifully complex structures were something they haven't seen in their lifetime. It has the immortalized scenery and the people are something different, they have a wise sage aura in them, given the age of 100+. Understandably, most of them are mature enough.

In the sky, one can see the way the structures are formed in a specific way. At first glance, any person who saw this for the first time without formation knowledge might think it's beautiful for its pattern but the way Li Duyi saw, was something different for others and with his talent of formation, can see the core function of such formation.

The formation gathered the heaven and earth qi to provide benefits to the inner sect, it protects them from the threat of peak Empyrean Realm. The highest realm of cultivation.

Besides that, the speed in cultivating increases by 70% compared to the outer sect which is two times faster than the outside world. It also has a concealment function and a confusion formation that will lead the unidentified foe to be stuck for eternity unless they have the strength to break through. But, for one to break through such formation, one must have the strength of Law Unity and an extent level of a grandmaster in formation.

Which only a few attained.

For others, this formation is perfect in their eyes but for Li Duyi. As one can guess, it has flaws. The weakness of this formation is the fact that one can disrupt the formation by destroying one of the structures but the sect seems to already find this weakness and reinforced the structures to an extreme degree of durability.

After he arrived, he will modify the formation but leave the increase in cultivation speed as it was.

Soon after, the flying beast departed to the ground and the disciples dispersed after the elders told them where to go. The four of them separated into their factions and Li Duyi immediately arrived at the core to tweak the formation a little bit.

It only took him an hour to modify the formation, making the weaknesses of the formation lessen.

Li Duyi moved to where the Poisonous Serpentine Faction was. With his speed, Li Duyi arrived in a few seconds.

The disciples of the faction looked at Li Duyi curiously. Suddenly, a disciple walked towards Li Duyi and ask.

" Are you a new inner disciple? If you want to join our faction, you must pass the test. A test of knowledge, you must already get the gist of it, right? " He said, with a creepy smile.

His build is quite skinny like he hasn't eaten for many months, and under his eyes are heavy eye bags. It looks dark that one can associate him with a panda. But, his cultivation realm is quite high, around the 2nd stage of Spiritual Sea Realm and he seems to be on the verge of breaking through the next stage.

" Where can I take the test?" Straight to the point, Li Duyi was guided by the smiling senior of his. Like the reputation, the disciples of the Poisonous Serpentine Faction are quite weird and they have a high cultivation realm compared to the other factions where most of them are in the 3rd stage of the cultivation realm.

" Come with me, to think someone is brave enough to come and take the test. The elder will be happy with this news, what is your name, Junior? " The disciple asked, looking at Li Duyi with interest.

" My name is Du Yen, senior disciple "

" Ah, the guy who acquired the first place, I know you. To think we got the first placer this year, kekeke. You can call me Senior Qing " Laughing weirdly, Senior Qing guided Li Duyi towards the hall where the disciples take the test.

" You should know the history of our Poisonous Serpentine Faction, right? We have the lowest disciples but not because we are weak. It's the requirements and quality we needed, most of the disciples here are at least at the 4th cultivation realm, which is the Spiritual Sea Realm. We can give you leeway since you have a bright future, and we can uplift the cultivation requirement which you need to attain the spiritual sea realm. But, if your knowledge of poison is amateur, we won't accept you " Senior Qing said, letting Li Duyi know the rules and requirements of joining the faction.

Li Duyi nodded and followed him to the hall. In the hall, it reeks of strong poison gas from the concoctions of the disciples.

" Elder Xin, a disciple has come to take the test. We have the 1st placer here, to think someone is dumb enough to come here and take the test kekeke " Senior Qing laughed at Li Duyi, and Elder Xin laughed along with him.

" Don't bully your junior, he is still wet behind his ears and needs some pampering from us kekeke. Here, fill in your name, cultivation realm and you are good to take the test we will impose " Elder Xin handed him a paper. Li Duyi took it and began to write, Li Duyi was kinda surprised by their behavior and now, he knows how they earned such a reputation.

He was questioning himself if the choice he picks is correct but just because they had such behavior doesn't mean he will change to another faction to join.

He handed the paper back to Elder Xin and was given another paper, a test paper. He was asked to answer the test paper. Li Duyi nodded and began reading the questions. It consist of one hundred questions and Li Duyi finally know the reason why they only had a few disciples of thousand disciples, 6,969 to be exact. From what he gathered from Senior Qing.

From the first ten questions, it consists of the herbs needed to create poison pills. After that, the next ten questions question the better effects of the poison. But, the last question was the hardest, he was required to provide his own Poison Pill, which must be in detail from the ingredients to the concoction.

But, Li Duyi answered all of them and handed it to Elder Xin. Elder Xin took it from him and carefully read all the answers, as he continue reading, his facial expression kept changing. Till he read the final ten questions and decided to test them out.

Following the steps provided in the paper, Elder Xin with his expertise in concocting poison pills. It took him an hour to finish concocting all the poison pills that were provided in the paper and from the effectiveness of those pills, he can say it is many times better than his own and he didn't even bring out the full effect of it because of how low his level despite being the best in concocting poison pills.

He looked at Li Duyi in disbelief and grab the shoulder of Li Duyi as he looked at him, a look that speaks business.

" You! You are a monstrous genius. You, become my right hand and we will elevate the status of the Poisonous Serpentine Faction! With you around, we will become the strongest faction and we might become a core faction with you here. What do you say? Are you down, Du Yen?" Speaking fast, Elder Xin was excited about the future of the Poisonous Serpentine Faction. Now, he finally sees the hope of becoming a core faction and making the poison path more reputable.

It is his dream to make the poison path more well-known and make others understand the beauty of killing opponents through poison and erase the bad reputation of the poison path that it is a cowardly way to kill someone. Only an idiot and those people that preach honors would think killing someone with poison is considered cowardly.

They didn't think that in assassination, war, or battle, one can turn the tide with poison and all that matters is the one who wins. All of the disciples of the Poisonous Serpentine Faction had the same thinking as Elder Xin. So, Elder Xin wanted to see if he can rope Li Duyi into his faction by providing him with such a benefit.

Now, he waited for Li Duyi to answer him and his answer can determine the future of the Poisonous Serpentine Faction. In a way, it's also a way for him to provide the sect some help and turn the tides with any war. Any help like poison will make them win the war.

" Think about it, if you join our faction. You'll be provided with the highest materials we can provide. We can also help the sect win any war with your genius mind in making poison. Come on, if you want me to beg, I'll beg. " Elder Xin said, bowing to Li Duyi.

Li Duyi was quite touched with his gesture and it's not like he doesn't want to join the faction. He just didn't have any chance to answer Elder Xin.

As for Senior Qing, he was shocked to see Elder Xin groveling to the ground. He looked at Li Duyi weirdly, knowing that Elder Xin is a man who doesn't hesitate to give his all to the sect's betterment.

" I will join your faction, you don't have to beg. That's also the reason why I'm here, Elder Xin. If I didn't intend to join your faction, I would've gone to the other faction. Please, stand up and mind your reputation as an elder. " Li Duyi calmly said.

" Right, I didn't think of that. Then, Qing Peng, tell all the other disciples to come here. As for you, come with me, we have a lot to talk to " Tidying himself, Elder Xin walked towards the highest floor of the building where Li Duyi followed behind.

Li Duyi was glad that Elder Xin seems to only want the sect to be better and that he seems to be a good man despite his unique behavior.

Now, he officially become a member of the Poisonous Serpentine Faction.