Chapter 231

That’s right.

Chris’s poison of will wasn’t just about taking a life.

It was a toxin that, through the dominion of dark mana, turned the victim into his own puppet.

“The nature of the poison of will is partly mixed with the poison of control, making its dominion far more powerful. Though, the conditions to activate it are quite strict.”

He had to ingest the poison directly by mouth.

“That’s why I deliberately proposed this Grail duel.”

Chris had pushed himself to challenge over thirty opponents to the Grail duel—all for this very purpose.

To force the entire faction of Marquis Goras to consume his poison of will at once.

In other words, this duel was Chris’s trap.

“My reason for coming to the Extreme Poison Mage Guild was ultimately to secure their loyalty. The noisiest faction, Marquis Goras’s, had to be subdued first.”

Of course, they didn’t accept it quietly.

“You bastard. How dare you—”

“Do you really think we’ll just fall for this?”

The Marquis Goras faction ground their teeth, shooting him icy glares.

“Seems like you still don’t understand your position. Everyone, bow your heads.”

Bang!

All of them dropped to their knees, pressing their heads to the floor.

The shocking sight made everyone in the hall swallow hard.

“This can’t be. How is that even possible?”

“No matter how strong a poison of will is, it can’t have that kind of effect, can it?”

“Is this some kind of miracle poison or something?”

Poisons that forced the victim’s actions did exist.

They were called “domination poisons.”

But those only coerced obedience through pain or threats to life—not puppeteering someone like a marionette.

There was a reason for this.

“This poison is crafted with dark mana. It’s incomparable to any cheap domination poison. Plus, it incorporates the principles of curse black magic and binding arts that enforce obedience.”

Even the Marquis Goras faction, composed of high-ranking poison masters, didn’t kneel willingly.

“Damn you!!”

“How dare you! With such cheap tricks!!”

They gritted their teeth and summoned their poison energy.

Especially the six-star poison masters tried to break free from the domination and stand.

“You’d better not.”

Along with that warning—

“Gah!!”

One of the strongest poison masters suddenly coughed up blood and collapsed.

“Count Jayan?”

“His core’s broken?!”

If they tried to forcibly break the domination, their core would be damaged.

“Even if you try to detoxify, it’s the same. If you’re confident, go ahead and try. But be prepared to become a cripple.”

Chris sneered.

“There’s no way your limited knowledge can detoxify my poison.”

The faces of Marquis Goras’s faction turned pale.

They could feel it too.

There was no way they could detoxify this poison with their current skills.

“This is impossible. Such a meticulous structure. How could someone who’s only studied poison for a month create something like this?”

“In terms of resilience, it’s not even inferior to miracle poisons.”

“They might be able to detoxify it forcibly, but their core would be destroyed before that.”

In other words, they were now in a position where they could never disobey Chris’s orders.

At that moment, a cold voice rang out.

“I can’t stand this any longer.”

It was Yohen, the second-in-command of Marquis Goras’s faction and a seven-star top poison master!

“If you don’t stop right now, I’ll turn you into a handful of blood.”

His dark eyes shot a terrifying glare at Chris, but Chris just shrugged.

“Stop? What are you talking about? This is a fair duel. Have you forgotten what a duel is because you’re too old? Even if you’re senile, there are lines you don’t cross.”

Yohen’s face flushed red, but Chris didn’t back down.

“More importantly, I don’t think you realize who’s holding the knife here. If I snap my fingers, all of them will become cripples. Don’t forget that.”

Yohen’s fist trembled with rage, but he couldn’t say a word.

Chris was right.

“And you’re going to have a drink too.”

“…What?”

“Forgot? You’re also in a Grail duel with me. Trying to sneak away quietly?”

Yohen let out a bitter laugh.

“You dare challenge me with poison? Me, the ‘Poison Lord’ of the Extreme Poison Mage Guild?”

“What’s stopping me? Besides—”

Chris snapped his fingers.

“Poison Lord or not, I think I can make you submit just as easily.”

Yohen’s pride flared, his face burning with fury.

“Fine. Show me what you’ve got. I’ll make you realize how high the sky is.”

Swish.

Chris transformed his dark mana into poison again, poured it into a cup, and tossed it to Yohen.

But this wasn’t the poison of will he’d used on Marquis Goras’s faction.

“Jingang poison? Is that all?”

A five-star Jingang poison, a step below the six-star poison of will? Not nearly enough.

“Drink up. But just so you know, this is a duel. Whatever happens to you, I’m not responsible.”

Yohen frowned, staring at the poison in the cup.

“This is hard to analyze.”

He couldn’t tell what kind of poison it was or what power it held, thanks to the layered concealment spells.

There was an unsettling feeling about it, but since he’d accepted the duel, refusing the poison was out of the question.

“Trying to pull a stunt on me with mere Jingang poison.”

He downed the poison in one gulp.

It slid down his throat, passed through his stomach, and began spreading through his body.

“I’ll crush you in one blow.”

He summoned his poison energy.

He tried to overwhelm Chris’s Jingang poison with a stronger poison energy.

But then something unexpected happened.

“What’s this energy?”

Yohen’s face stiffened.

A massive energy burst began erupting from Chris’s poison.

It wasn’t the level of a typical Jingang poison.

It was an absurdly powerful force, surpassing poison of will and rivaling miracle poisons.

Chris smirked inwardly.

“I poured all the energy I’ve gathered with the Vampiric Ring at once.”

It was obvious how overwhelming the amount was.

But Yohen wasn’t to be underestimated.

“How dare you!!”

A fierce blue poison aura flared across Yohen’s entire body.

He threw everything into suppressing Chris’s Jingang poison.

“I don’t know how you packed such immense energy into your poison, but you’ve underestimated me. It won’t work on me.”

Yohen was famous among the seven-star top poison masters for his overwhelming poison energy.

If it was just a battle of poison energy, no one in the Extreme Poison Mage Guild could surpass him.

Just as the duel seemed to be turning in Yohen’s favor—

“Sorry, but this isn’t the end of my tricks.”

Chris revealed his hidden ace.

Within the layers of poison energy, a radiant mana burst emerged.

More precisely, it was the energy of the righteous cultivation technique.

“…What?”

Yohen’s eyes widened in shock.

He hadn’t fully grasped the situation.

It was natural—suddenly, righteous cultivation energy burst forth from within the poison.

At that moment, Chris and Yohen locked eyes.

Chris smiled slyly and sent a message into Yohen’s mind:

—I’ve used righteous cultivation too.

Yohen’s face drained of color.

“You bastard…!!”

But he couldn’t say more.

The total amount of righteous cultivation energy hidden in the poison wasn’t large.

But it was enough to be a deadly blow.

Especially since righteous cultivation energy was a natural counter to poison, and it erupted from inside.

Yohen was helpless.

Swish.

The righteous cultivation energy sliced through Yohen’s poison barrier like a blade.

Right at the most critical point—the core.

“Gah!”

Yohen coughed up blood violently.

But that wasn’t the end.

Flash!!!

The energy within Chris’s poison surged through the gap the righteous cultivation had torn open.

Straight into the core.

An enormous force pierced Yohen’s barrier and rushed into his core.

“No, no, no! Gyaaaah!!!”

It was like a massive explosion inside the core.

Normally, no matter how powerful the poison energy, a seven-star poison master couldn’t be harmed.

But Chris had cunningly triggered the energy inside the core.

Even a seven-star poison master couldn’t withstand such an internal blast.

Yohen collapsed, coughing up a tremendous amount of blood.

“P-Poison Lord!!”

“Hurry, get the Poison Lord to safety!!”

The Extreme Poison Mage Guild’s poison masters hurriedly carried Yohen away on a stretcher.

But Yohen wouldn’t recover.

“His core’s completely shattered. Even if he lives, he won’t be able to move a finger or speak properly.”

The core wasn’t just a vessel for mana.

It was closely connected to every part of the body. If it was damaged like this, the victim became a cripple.

“…”

“…”

A deathly silence fell over the hall at Chris’s victory.

Not only had he forced over thirty high-ranking mages to their knees, but he had also defeated the top seven-star poison master.

The Extreme Poison Mage Guild’s members couldn’t believe the duel’s outcome, even seeing it with their own eyes. They were speechless.

Chris smirked.

“I think it’s safe to call this my victory.”

“!!”

He looked toward Marquis Goras’s faction.

“Well then, I look forward to working with you from now on.”

The faces of Marquis Goras’s faction turned ghostly pale.

Losing a duel with over thirty people at once was shocking enough, but an even more terrifying reality awaited them.

From now on, Marquis Goras’s faction was firmly leashed by Christian.

In other words, with this duel, Chris had managed to partially subdue the Venomous Maga.

It was the moment when the name Christian was etched into everyone’s minds as a ‘monster’ among the Venomous Maga.

* * *

The next morning, Chris woke up in his bedroom, wearing a hollow expression—as if he’d lost everything.

You might wonder why he looked so defeated after such a great victory.

“No way. I achieved the Venomous Immunity, yet I still can’t drink!”

The night before, Chris and his group had a modest celebration.

It was supposed to mark their duel victory, but honestly, Chris just wanted to drink and had coaxed everyone into joining him.

He downed the alcohol in one gulp—but to his dismay, he didn’t get drunk at all.

At the time, it felt like a blessing.

But then came the crushing realization.

“What if all the alcohol’s detoxified right away? That’s no different from drinking juice!”

His detoxification ability was just too powerful.

Every drop of alcohol that entered his body was immediately neutralized, making drinking utterly pointless.

In the end, Chris had to suppress the effects of his Venomous Immunity by limiting his power.

“I couldn’t even finish a single drink before passing out. Damn it. Why can’t there be a middle ground?!”

There was no other choice.

The Venomous Immunity, born from the Venomous Constitution, wasn’t something he could dial up or down.

He could either completely suppress it and become someone who couldn’t handle alcohol at all, or fully activate it and become someone who detoxified alcohol instantly—making drinking meaningless.

“Ugh! What is this? No matter how good the drink is, it’s basically like drinking non-alcoholic stuff! Is non-alcoholic liquor even liquor? It’s just weird-tasting juice!”

Chris tore at his hair in frustration.

“No, I can’t give up. Before I leave the Venomous Maga, I will find a way to build up my tolerance.”

He let out a heavy sigh and began to map out his next steps.

“First, it’s a relief that I successfully subdued the Marquis Goras faction.”

Everything had gone according to his plan.

If it hadn’t been for the special circumstances of the Holy Grail duel, even Chris wouldn’t have pulled off what he did yesterday.

Especially since Yohen was a formidable opponent who would never have been defeated in a straight fight.

“This is just the beginning.”

Chris thought ahead to his next goal.

“I need to obtain the Poison Essence and complete the Venomous Constitution.”

It was all to prepare for the upcoming Jinrok Rebellion.

“The Blue Stream Demon King will definitely stir up chaos within the Venomous Maga.”

The Jinrok Rebellion was also orchestrated behind the scenes by the Blue Stream Demon King.

“Just like in the Dark Maga, he’ll want the Poison Essence.”

And it wasn’t just this incident.

Because of the horrific disasters the Blue Stream Demon King had unleashed out of greed, the Southern Magic Kingdom would soon bleed heavily.