It was like seeing a beast submerged in water suddenly surface, revealing its full body to be bigger than it seemed. This golden cage was the same. When she took her fourth step, two yellow eyes emerged from the ground, and the ground around the golden cage suddenly turned into sand. A huge crocodile head tried to surface from below.
The golden cage sat atop this crocodile's head like a hat, and the golden cage sprung into a flurry of movement like octopus tentacles. Each of its tentacles grew bigger; their tips had mouths, and they opened their mouths wide. At the same time, the crocodile also lunged from under the sand and opened its mouth wide, as if trying to swallow her whole.
Yang Liangyu didn't stop. The crocodile and the golden cage had qi that felt like a volcano to her. Their presence dwarfed her. Perhaps they were spirit beasts that had crossed into the Core Splitting realm, or even beyond. Their movement was swift, their qi surging like a huge torrent of water.
Yan Yu's qi surged from behind her. In the blink of an eye, ice pillars materialized in the air and immediately descended. Each ice spear struck the golden tentacles, and one, larger than the others, slammed into the upper part of the crocodile's mouth. They pushed down, pinning each of the incoming attacks to the sand, then ice bloomed from the impact points, anchoring them firmly to the ground.
Yang Liangyu leaped onto the crocodile's head. This head was as big as a log, and with only two steps, the candle was already in front of her. There were still golden tentacles between her and the candle, but the gap was so wide she could easily grab the candle between them.
Instead of grabbing it, though, Yang Liangyu closed the distance between her face and the candle, and with a gentle blow, she tried to extinguish the flame.
When the wind from her mouth hit the candle, the candle danced, and as easily as a normal candle flame, the fire died. One moment its yellow light was shining, the next it was gone, as if it had never existed. Upon seeing the candle had died, Yang Liangyu jumped backward. She knew that a trap would be activated, and she hoped to be as far as possible—and as close to Yan Yu as possible—so that she could survive.
The crocodile had successfully opened its mouth wide. The spear of ice that pinned it down had been shattered, but when Yang Liangyu landed in front of it, convinced that it would try to attack her, the crocodile just stared at her. Its yellow eyes looked at her with a hint of consciousness. Looking into its eyes was like looking at the most expressive human eyes she had ever witnessed. What came from its eyes was pity as well as deep sorrow, as if Yang Liangyu were the most pitiful human being in the history of this world.
"I have guarded this candle as long as I have lived," the crocodile said suddenly, making her eyes widen in surprise that it could actually talk. "It is a candle that my friend asked me to guard, which I failed to do twice."
The crocodile fixed its gaze on Yan Yu. "The first to make me fail was a demonic cultivator named Wei Yi. He deceived me, taking a portion of the flame and infusing the remainder with half of his own soul."
"All demonic cultivators are like that, despicable." Yan Yu's eyes narrowed slightly.
"I could argue with you about that, but in this specific case, you're right. He was indeed despicable, cunning, and cowardly. But the real issue here is not about him. The truth is, I'm not guarding the flame from people like you. I'm protecting people like you two from the flame. It's a foul flame, one with restrictions and capabilities that I've tried to chip away at for thousands of years. The fact that you didn't burst into flames when you looked at it proves I've done a decent job, though not good enough. Give me another thousand years, and I could extinguish the flame without anyone needing to blow it out. Sadly, the flame is cunning. It weakened my mind and body to the point where I became merely a beast. Now, after the flame has finally died, it gloated over me by restoring my ability to think, reason, and speak."
Yang Liangyu's heart quickened. What kind of flame did she just extinguish? What did it mean that it was not guarding the flame from the people but guarding people from the flame? Was this flame some kind of calamity? Or perhaps a prison that locked away a dangerous spirit beast?
The crocodile looked at her. "I felt pity for you, to be the one who blew the candle that has burned for thousands of years."
What was actually happening right now? What kind of fate had she been tangled into?
"You don't need to worry about it," Yan Yu said, "she can handle it."
Upon hearing Yan Yu, the crocodile looked at Yang Liangyu as if it were searching her soul, and after a moment of looking, a little smile bloomed on the crocodile's lips.
"It seems the heavens felt pity for me. It sent you to me, perhaps to ease my heart. Perhaps to give me the last chance to seek her forgiveness." The crocodile looked at Yan Yu. "I doubt you're right. While she has her blood, it's so thin. It's like trying to catch a large boulder with a silk thread. Moreover, there's also Wei Yi. I don't know how much he defiled the fire, but I assume he would try to take over her." Then, it looked at her. "But I hope the heavens favor you. I hope you can survive, then thrive. That way, my life is not meaningless anymore."
The crocodile now had a full-blown smile. Its eyes crinkled, and a content aura suddenly enveloped it, as if it had just achieved tranquility and was trying to pass to the next life. Then, the crocodile began to wither. Its rough skin became so dry, as if all the liquid in its body had evaporated. Its skin became as brittle as an old tree, a lot of its skin sagging before it crumbled into dust. The wind, as if trying to help the crocodile, sent a strong gust toward it, and its rate of crumbling intensified. The golden cage atop its head burst into golden dust, the white candle melted and evaporated into a white mist, and like a sandcastle hit by a ball, the crocodile burst into a cloud of dust. It flew, swirling with the wind, before ascending to the sky.
Yang Liangyu looked up; her mind had so many questions that she instinctively caressed her temples.
"What is actually happening? What is that crocodile? Is that a spirit beast?"
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Yang Liangyu turned toward Yan Yu, hoping that she would answer some of her questions.
Yan Yu spoke, her gaze also shifting upward. "I do not know him personally. I have never heard of him or his story. However, we share similar knowledge from the past, knowledge that will be important in the future." She looked at her. "For you, that's not important. Just know that you have inherited a will from a bygone era. If you succeed in inheriting it, in surviving it, you will thrive."
The gears in Yang Liangyu's head tried to piece all the information together. "An inheritance," Yang Liangyu's hand trembled.
An inheritance was something quite famous. All cultivators, especially those who came from lesser backgrounds, would have daydreamed about getting an inheritance from some old monster or a long-dead master. Even Yang Liangyu, as carefree as her life was, had daydreamed about what if she stumbled upon a pocket dimension or hidden palace and got an inheritance from it. She thought it must be wonderful to connect with an ancient cultivator and to inherit their will, to bolster the strength of her empire, ushering it into an age of glory, with her as an empress. She was not serious, of course, but an inheritance was one that could flip a cultivator's life upside down.
But while stories about inheritance were abundant, the fact was, it was actually quite rare. Only the luckiest cultivators could stumble upon it.
And right here, right now, Yang Liangyu would receive one.
At first, she felt elated about it. After all, this inheritance had come at the right time. She had decided to pursue strength, to advance her cultivation so she could protect her empire. But all of that vanished when she remembered how the crocodile felt pity for her, how that flame was one that burned for thousands of years, one that had been defiled and contained a demonic cultivator's soul, as well as one that Yan Yu said would give her strength only if she survived.
And, considering her power and her life, there was no way for her to survive this.
The flame that she blew would likely become her death.
As Yang Liangyu's heart began to frantically beat itself, as if trying to pump all of her blood so it could dilute whatever that flame was from her body, an agonizing pain suddenly slammed into her. One so strong that she instantly crumpled to the ground as if a large boulder had just landed on her shoulder.
Then, she felt a fire suddenly burning her from the inside. Her blood began boiling, her skin turned red like a cooked lobster, but her veins turned black, as if her blood had been swapped with ink.
Yang Liangyu let out a blood-curdling scream, one that made the birds around the crater fly away as if they had just heard a foul beast that would emerge from the depths of hell.
"Infernal Sun Bloodline," Yan Yu said calmly, not that Yang Liangyu had heard her, what with her body boiling from the inside out, her brain cooked, and her qi and her cultivation felt like it would explode anytime. "It is a strong bloodline on paper. A bloodline that can host other bloodlines would give unlimited advantages. But as strong as it is, it also comes with a great disadvantage." Yang Liangyu paused for a moment. "The reason this bloodline was called Infernal Sun is because the one who awakens this bloodline would have a sun in their body along with their cultivation. The sun burns red, bright, and needs its energy channeled into the myriad of pockets of qi within their body. This pocket of qi needs to be filled with the essence of other bloodlines, making the bearer of this bloodline able to activate and use myriad bloodlines. The disadvantage of it is simple. The red sun despises its bearer, and it would try to burn the bearer into ash. There is not a single bearer of this bloodline who has mastered the sun. All of them live in agony. All of them want to try to kill themselves. You are also the same, Iron Queen, you are also the same."
Yang Liangyu screamed.
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While Yan Yu and Yang Liangyu traveled to the cave where the candle was guarded by the crocodile, Liu Xing was busy with Wei Yi and his own breakthrough, and concentrating on making the turtle bigger with each passing second.
Inside the giant's upper stomach, Liu Xing wielded a lightning blade in his right hand while the gun on his left hand blasted the backs of the surrounding abominations. He dodged a series of lasers that traced the walls and the ground and tried to burn him to ashes. One of the lasers focused on his tortoise. Although the turtle could withstand the beam, the force of the laser pushed it away from its position hovering above the main core. Liu Xing strained with all his might to hold it in place. Fortunately, the turtle's immense size, now larger than ten elephants combined, made it difficult to move.
With his core spinning and vibrating faster and faster, his heart quickened more and more. There were so many things he needed to do that he hoped for a second, third, and fourth head. He needed to juggle his focus so much, that he wanted to focus on one thing and one thing only. But it was impossible to do. At most, he could focus on two, three if he wanted to do all of them half-heartedly.
Fortunately, his gun is still spreading invisibility through his body. Once he had successfully become invisible and his presence thinner, it would be harder for Wei Yi to attack him.
As Liu Xing moved like a strike of lightning, his gun destroying the backs of the abominations and occasionally shooting some bullets toward the giant yellow eye, his brain was working hard to conjure good ideas. After all, relying on his invisibility alone was not wise. Wei Yi already knew that Liu Xing was here, so even if he turned invisible, Wei Yi wouldn't stop attacking, and at that time, he needed a different strategy.
His thoughts circled back to the obvious: eliminating Wei Yi would solve a lot of his problems. But how? Then, a spark ignited in his mind. A truly viable idea. If he couldn't manage multiple tasks simultaneously, why not merge them into one?
Liu Xing assessed his situation once more, but right now with a more calm mind. He was now dodging Wei Yi's attacks, as well as trying to attack Wei Yi.
He could actually stop attacking Wei Yi. His attacks had never connected anyway. Holding the blade in his right hand now felt instinctive, but the fact was his lightning blade was actually idle, so he dismissed it and freed his right hand.
Then, about dodging. Since his turtle could hold the laser, didn't that mean that he didn't need to dodge? He could just hide behind the turtle. In addition to not dodging too much, hiding behind the turtle would make it easier for Liu Xing to send it potent qi. It would become harder to attack the backs and reap their potent qi, but since his Ethereal Pearl was brimming with potent qi, he still had quite a lot of it.
Now, about breaking through, it would be hard, and there was a high possibility that even if he succeeded, it would not be perfect, but there was no other way around it, so he just needed to make do about it.
"All right," as he finished thinking, the invisibility finally concealed his whole body. His presence became thinner, and he stopped his gun from attacking.
The inside of the giant suddenly fell into silence. The giant yellow eye looked around, trying to find Liu Xing. Each of its movements was actually making the backs around it squirm.
Liu Xing dashed silently toward his turtle, and a moment later, he stood atop it. He predicted that since Wei Yi could not see him, aside from attacking blindly and hoping to hit Liu Xing, his turtle was the next obvious target. But as he stood atop his turtle, he conjured another good idea. His invisibility could hide his body and his clothes, implying that objects in contact with him could turn invisible too. He had never explored this part of the invisibility too much, like trying to hold other people and make them also invisible, one that he needed to amend later.
But right now, he could experiment on the thing that truly mattered.
What if he held the turtle and made it invisible?