In his previous life, he had always thought of ways to improve himself.

To make himself powerful enough to resist those stronger, so he could be left unhindered to do as he desired. His body had already contained a myriad of poisons that could kill lesser cultivators with the merest scratch.

He had researched and eventually created a new poison but to test it would be too troublesome.

Now however he had obtained the perfect experimental vessel, what was left but to test the fruit of his research?

He lay back and began to float on the surface of the purple marsh.

An ordinary cultivator began to purge their bodies of all the mortal toxins as soon as they stepped into the Red Qi realm, starting with their skin and bones.

Next would be their marrow and blood at Orange Qi realm finally followed by the five viscera at Yellow Qi realm. It was the natural process of things unless they followed a Body Refining art and could purge the impurities of their mortal lives earlier.

He had never prescribed to Body Refining arts, although he did know a few.

Unfortunately, by the time he came to develop this particular technique, he had long since cleansed his whole being of impurities.

These impurities could become troublesome further down the road by limiting one’s cultivation.

They could become shackles.

They were a poison.

As a master of poisons, this notion intrigued him and spurred the creation of this technique.

His current body had twenty years of mortal impurities stored up, better still he had lived a decadent debauchee lifestyle, so the concentration of these impurities were higher.

Perfect for testing his aptly named Decadent Poison skill.

He would condense all those toxins, all those impurities into one location and as an added benefit, he would cleanse himself at the same time. It wouldn’t be as strong as a typical tempering, as he didn’t have the cultivation base to quench his body after drawing away the impurities, but it would make that future step easier.

Once the poison was condensed, he would also be able to use it to maintain his dandy lifestyle without worrying about building up new impurities.

If he could make it then to the Yellow Qi realm, he could even use it as a hidden offensive weapon.

Thanks to the composition of the Decadent Poison itself it should have corrosive properties as well as its usual poisonous nature.

Fully relaxed he let the thick pulpy purple liquid wash over him as he slowly started to submerge.

The most dangerous stage.

As he didn’t have any cultivation base to speak of, he was forced to rely on the only qi within his body. The yuan qi - his very life force - which the previous occupant had spent a good many years degrading.

Within him, he grasped the thread of yuan qi and cautiously drew it towards the first blocked acupoint.

Even with the bath full of liquid meant to stabilise and nourish his yuan qi, he was taking no chances.

In the body there were over 400 acupoints and 20 meridians; 12 primary pathways and 8 extraordinary channels, these would have to be dealt with one by one till all the impurities they contained were collected.

Unfortunately, they had to be collected within the dantian, given its toxic nature if he mishandled the gathering it could lead to irreparable damage.

Gently, carefully he guided that thin flickering thread of yuan qi to delicately begin scooping out the impurities blocking the first acupoint before it started to bore its way into his meridians. Sometimes it was a drill, sometimes a shovel and sometimes it was a plane.

Most of the time cultivators would make their qi into awls to break through blockages and bottlenecks, but here Ren Yao needed excellent control and something with a little more finesse.

It took more than half a day, even in his embryonic state, to scrub clean all his acupoints, meridians, skin, bones, blood and marrow and that was because he had experience with this sort of method from his time nurturing the Myriad Venomous Poisons within his body.

Also, from detoxifying the techniques early failures.

Although that poison skill and the one he was currently trying to nurture were on two different levels.

His new poison would contain years of alcohol poisoning, the impurities from countless banquet feasts and the pollutants from twenty years of breathing this stuffy mortal air.

He broke the surface of the now lighter purple lake and took a few deep breaths.

Its beneficial medicinal effects had already begun to leech into his body.

The smell had also lessened enough for the guards to approach once more, although they wore plain cloth’s over their noses just to breathe.

Under those crude masks, they smiled when they saw their young lord surface. Although they had been given specific instructions not to interfere, they were still worried when he was under that filth for so long. There were a few who were even wavering between their orders and diving in to save the young lord.

Of course, the smell of that purple bog kept them loyally following their orders.

Without even opening his eyes, Ren Yao gave one leisurely wave of his hand, and they dumped the second round of barrels containing viscous fluids into the purple mire.

As the contents cascaded in he once again slowly sank into the depths.

Usually cleansing the five viscera was the hardest part, but that did not worry him. No the hardest part for him would be when he opened all his pores. As soon as he did so, the medicinal qi which had been leaking into his body from the medicine bath would become a raging flood cascading through his system completely rampant and unchecked.

If it did so without proper preparation, he could lose control of the poison he’d condensed, and that as well would rampage around destroying his body from the inside.