Under the excited gaze of many juniors, the day the inheritance site opened drew closer, and they left Summer City. Xue Yueliang followed the trickle of people and felt a slight sense of dread, she knew that this trip would not be simple, but she had to brave the dangers if she wanted to reach the top.
Cowardice was not an option. As soon as she left the city, Xue Yueliang boarded her sword and remained floating above the inheritance site. She found that cultivating her spiritual Qi; while simultaneously exercising it, helped her improve many times over.
Though she had already reached the 9th level of Qi Refinement Realm, every minuscule amount of power mattered. Soon the number of people increased, leading to a few hundred young cultivators filling up the empty plot of the ground, but the few li surrounding Xue Yueliang remained empty. And wherever there were people, there would be conflicts.
"Why is it that lady gets to occupy a large space by herself; while we squeeze together?" An unsatisfied voice sounded.
The voice came from a bald, burly man, appearing to be middle-aged, but as the kingdom banned cultivators above the age of twenty-one he could only be an older-looking youngster.
"It's not an easy feat to be on a sword for so long, that young lady is either powerful or from a prestigious clan, and either way, it's best not to offend her." His companion gently said, but the burly man did not seem to pay heed.
"Only the power of one's fist is true in the cultivation world." He arrogantly declared before walking up to Xue Yueliang's space.
"Hey kid, let's fight!" He said, looking up at her.
Xue Yueliang did not bother replying and kept her eyes closed, paying him no heed. Seeing that she ignored him, the burly man's face contorted as he shouted once more, startling those behind him. Once again, Xue Yueliang ignored him. The man's face twisted as he threw rocks at her.
Xue Yueliang found it laughable that he wanted to fight her without even being able to reach her; she kept her eyes closed as she deflected the Qi-imbued rocks with wind blades.
But to outsiders, it made it seem they mysteriously refused to hit her, making her appear more unfathomable.
After feeling that she attracted enough attention, Xue Yueliang finally opened her eyes and coldly said, "Life or death battle?"
The man's gaze turned sharp and sneered, "You're one arrogant brat. Prepare to die by my fist today." He could not stand the humiliation he suffered today and wanted to use her blood to reclaim his face.
Xue Yueliang faintly gazed at him and mildly said, "You're not worthy of fighting me."
Before the man could even retort, she released Hei Yu from her mind palace, letting him leap onto the ground. His small size made him appear more like a precious spirit beast than one used to fight, causing the onlookers to feel like she was looking down on the man too much.
But before anyone could say anything, Hei Yu leapt onto the man's shoulders and bit off his neck in one clean move. He was neither able to scream nor defend himself before his life ended.
A deathly silence overwhelmed the onlookers as they drew more distance between them and Xue Yueliang, a fearful look on their faces. The exact effect she wanted. Xue Yueliang ordered Hei Yu to not eat the man's corpse; after all, she only wanted to scare the crowd, not enrage them.
Before Xue Yueliang could re-enter a meditative state, she noticed two powerful auras surpassing the Qi Refinement Realm.
It was her brother and the princess; they would have looked like a perfect pairing if the princess did not seem so disinterested.
They claimed a spot for themselves, and Xue Yueliang continued her cultivation. Between harassing her or the princess of a kingdom, Xue Yueliang knew which her brother would choose; thus, she could enter a meditative state with a carefree mind.
Momentarily, an elder from the palace showed up, regal and dignified, with a profound cultivation base.
He glanced around at the crowd and opened his mouth, "Young cultivators of the Qinxia Kingdom, you have the opportunity to inherit the will and power of a top expert from ages past, a chance many people could never get. I hope that the person most fated with the supreme expert inherits his power and brings it and our country to new elevated heights. "
With his words, an exciting fervour erupted amongst the crowd, appearing as if they could already see the honour and glory that waited for them after they got the inheritance. They all thought it could be them.
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The elder smiled and reminded, "Most importantly, remember that every person here is your fellow countrymen and not your enemy; you are all young geniuses. It will be a tragedy if any of you die."
Quite a few gazes landed on Xue Yueliang after they heard those words, as they still had not forgotten how easily she had killed that burly man.
The elder frowned as he looked in Xue Yueliang's direction, Xue Yueliang smiled and bowed deeply toward him, easing his expression, and he continued his words, "Then I won't hold you any longer."
As soon as his words landed, a dazzling light appeared behind him, seemingly cutting through space as it showed a different scenery than before.
The inheritance was in a mystical realm. An uproar sounded as the young cultivators rushed in, though their speed was incomparable to those who rode a flying sword.
Xue Yueliang waited until the princess, her brother, and a few others entered the mystic realm before rushing in herself.
She did not know how many of the few thousand people here would survive by the end of this, but she would prefer not to mix in with those more powerful than her until she had some confidence.
A slight feeling of dizziness hit Xue Yueliang as she crossed the magical barrier, prompting her to close her eyes, and as soon as she opened them, Xue Yueliang saw a completely different sight than what she had seen while she was outside.
When the mystical realm appeared before, it seemed like something out of paradise, but now that she was inside, it appeared more like a giant graveyard.
Skulls and broken bones littered the ground, dark patches of what looked like it was blood stained the walls and the floor, and a few globs of rotting flesh remained on the ground, releasing a sickening stench.
Xue Yueliang was not unfamiliar with this smell and looked around to find the cultivators that had entered before, but there was no one in sight. She thought everyone might have been teleported separately by the formation and did not bother to think about it any further, opting to walk around.
From what she could glean, Xue Yueliang felt that this place must have been a temple in the past, but a massacre had occurred here, and from what her Master had said about painting the purest surfaces red, she could guess that it must have been a Master's work.
As for why they were at his inheritance site, he must have wanted them to suffer along with him, not even getting a proper funeral. Xue Yueliang kicked the bones in front of her and watched as they rattled and rolled around, feeling that there must be a deeper meaning.
She grabbed a bone and closely examined it; before pinching hard and turning it into ash. The ashes, however, did not disperse; they instead turned into streams of mystical power that rushed into her mind palace, increasing the power of her divine sense.
"How evil." Xue Yueliang laughed.
Her Master was not satisfied with only killing them and refusing them a proper burial, but he also planned on having the remains defiled and destroyed.
For the first time, Xue Yueliang felt some admiration for her useless Master; at the very least, he was thorough when planning his revenge. Xue Yueliang swept her spiritual Qi around and destroyed the many bones around her, turning them all into spirit Qi that strengthened her already powerful soul.
As the number of bones she obliterated increased, Xue Yueliang saw pieces of a map in her mind's eye, the map of the ruins, and as a consequence, Xue Yueliang redoubled her efforts, though the feeling of her soul steadily growing stronger, she would not be satisfied with just this.
As the map became more whole, she headed toward the nearest treasury and was amazed by the sight before her. Mountains of spirit stones and precious ores were haphazardly stacked around, tempting even those not interested in riches.
Xue Yueliang gulped as she released Hei Yu and ordered him to kill any cultivators and destroy the bones. Since Hei Yu and her were soul-linked, the spirit Qi would naturally head toward her.
With this, Xue Yueliang felt free to store all this treasure; she carefully picked up the crates and stowed them away in her storage ring.
She would have preferred if she could keep it all away at once, but storage artefacts followed a simple rule: if you can not pick it up, you can not store it. When Xue Yueliang was about to finish, a group of three walked in, freezing as they saw her and her last box of treasure.
"Give us back our treasure." One of them bellowed angrily.
"Yours? Then why don't you take it from me." Xue Yueliang mildly spoke as the crate in her hand disappeared, "I have places to be, so let's end this quickly."
She rushed toward the trio and appeared close to the one who first spoke, and he startlingly swung his sword toward her. Sadly it was too late for him, as her sword had already cleanly cut his head off.
The other two drew a certain distance from her and appeared to be preparing a spell.
"You are much too slow." Xue Yueliang laughed and cast her wind blade technique, which manifested almost instantaneously, shocking the two cultivators and ending with their death. Her previous warning wasn't enough to get these cultivators to fear her.
"Hei Yu, how did they get here?"
Xue Yueliang sent a disapproving mental link to him and awaited his response. Hei Yu was not intelligent enough to form coherent thoughts, but their close soul connection allowed her to understand his soul fluctuations to a certain extent. She heard fearful noises from the other end of her connection.
Her Hei Yu was in danger.
Shock filled Xue Yueliang's heart as she rushed toward his location; she had already warned him of the people he couldn't attack and was surprised there was someone she hadn't accounted for. When she reached Hei Yu's side, Xue Yueliang was stunned by the scene she saw.
Hei Yu had already turned into his giant form and attacked with all his might, but no matter what he did, his opponent was not fazed and was even suppressing Hei Yu. He was a young man dressed in light green robes, wielding a sabre and had a faint heroic bearing, this man was Lei Jian.
"Hei Yu, stop."
Xue Yueliang ordered, and he fell back to her side, still looking begrudgingly at Lei Jian.
"I'm sorry, Brother Lei, I have failed to train my spirit beast."
She politely said; from his fight, Xue Yueliang could tell that he was not an easy opponent, and she did not want to enter a difficult battle so early on.
Thankfully, he was an old friend.