“A—after all that?” Hui asked, startled.
Bai Xue shrugged. “We can only enter this inheritance space once in our lives. We might as well take what we can.”
Hui hesitated. “That’s true. You can keep going?”
“I wouldn’t suggest it if I couldn't.” Bai Xue bent and slapped Huang Muwen. He startled and blinked, hazily taking in the scene.
He’s got a point. I want to know more about these red gems, about the ancestor, and about that blood mist boy and the soul-transfer reversal! There’s so many secrets I can learn in this inheritance realm.
Hui nodded firmly. “Let’s keep going.”
“Hong Xue, don’t! Remember yourself!” Huang Muwen shouted, jumping upright abruptly. He stared around, breathing raggedly, then pressed a hand to his chest.
“Don’t move so quickly. You’ll reopen your wounds,” Bai Xue said.
Huang Muwen blinked. “Eh? You’re… fine?”
“Xie Hao saved me. Come on, there’s more to this inheritance zone than just this chamber.” Tossing his hair, Bai Xue strode ahead.
Still slightly pale, Huang Muwen nodded and fell in behind him. Hui took up the rear, checking his talismans as he did so. Plenty of the lower level talismans. It’s bad to lose my most powerful talisman this early, but I can still use that technique once with my own power!
Bai Xue reached the door. It rolled open, no red light emerging this time. After it opened, Bai Xue hesitated, looking down the narrow passage ahead.
Hui bumped into his back and looked up, hurriedly stuffing his talismans back away. "What is it?"
Staring at the eye-shaped hole, Bai Xue glanced back and raised his eyebrows suggestively. "Hui, this..."
"Elder Brother, this small cultivator sees nothing strange about these corridors," Hui said swiftly.
"Eh? When did I ever say anything about the corridors?" Bai Xue asked, eyes twinkling with mischeif.
"There's something strange about the corridors?" Huang Muwen asked, alarmed. He reached for his sword.
Bai Xue chuckled. Under his breath, he muttered, "You're reaching for the wrong blade."
Hui nudged him in the back. "Hong Xue! There's nothing strange. Come on, let's press on!"
"Alright, alright." Shaking his head, Bai Xue walked on.
As they walked, Hui glanced at Huang Muwen. The fellow cultivator limped along, pale but striving to press on regardless. Huang Muwen glanced back, and their eyes met. A brief flash of gratitude appeared in Huang Muwen’s eyes, momentarily overpowering the disdain.
Hui nodded. I understand. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With us here, he can continue to seek an inheritance in this space. If we weren’t here, he’d have to give up to keep his life.
Though… it is Bai Xue’s fault that Huang Muwen is injured in the first place. Not that he seems to mind.
The chamber beyond stood empty. Shallow shelves cut into the walls held nothing but dusty outlines, their items long since taken. Moving on, they passed into the next chamber. As the door slid open, Bai Xue stumbled back. A mass of ghosts rushed at them, screaming madly. Thick death qi swirled around them, carrying an archaic aura and a thick miasma.
Huang Muwen’s eyes widened, and he pressed his wrist. A small silver shield appeared on his forearm. The ghosts dodged away from him and raged at Hui.
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“Go, my ghost beasts!” Hui declared firmly, furrowing his brows with pride and rage. Internally, he barely bit back the urge to play dead as he called the ducks out.
The ducks clashed with the ghosts. The two fought back and forth for a moment, but then the ducks rushed ahead and gobbled up the ghosts. A few of the ghosts in the rear turned and fled, but too slowly. Growing faster and stronger with every ghost they devoured, the ducks surged after them. Their beaks flashed, and they tore the ghosts to bits. Clacking their bills happily, tails flicking, the ducks flapped back into Hui and settled into his death dantian. His death dantian roiled with energy, surging back into the lowest realms of the third stage.
Startled, Huang Muwen stared at Hui. “Did… did you just break through a realm?”
Hui cleared his throat. Staring into the distance, he took on the attitude of an unfathomable elder. “I was injured before and forced down a realm by my injury. I didn’t want to reveal my injury to my fellow cultivators, so I kept quiet about my true realm.”
Ahead of him, Bai Xue snorted. “Ah… what a familiar-sounding story.”
The chamber opened before them. Four pillars held up the ceiling. At the rear of the chamber, a black dagger glittered atop a rack. Protective red light shimmered around the dagger.
Bai Xue ran ahead of the group, excited. He reached for the dagger.
“Elder brother—!” Hui shouted.
“Hong Xue! There’s danger!” Huang Muwen added.
Bai Xue thrust his hand through the red light. Fire burst around his fingertips and burned away the red light. A keening, high-pitched alarm shimmered through the realm as the spell broke.
Hui drew a pair of talismans. Beside him, Huang Muwen held out his hand, fingers splayed. A sword hovered above his arm, ready to dart out.
Grabbing the dagger, Bai Xue laughed. He flipped it in his hand casually, then glanced at them. “What are you two on edge for? This realm is a trap, but the trap has been sprung, and it failed. We’ve already suppressed the ancestor who built this realm. All that’s left is to loot it!”
Two bloody red lions burst out of the wall behind the dagger, significantly delayed from when the spell had gone off. Their bodies shone with a liquid sheen, entirely built from blood. Without looking, Bai Xue flipped the dagger around and flicked a fan into his other hand. Gesturing backward, he stabbed one of the lions in the face; a flick of his fan burned the second lion into an ashen blob.
“See? Without that soul that tried to suppress me around to power this zone, it’s significantly weaker. It’s a joke! But the loot is still as strong as before. It’s a rare chance to loot an entire realm before anyone else realizes the realm is weakened!”
Greed glinted in Huang Muwen’s eyes. Hui took a deep breath, unable to disguise a spark of the same. There’s significantly less danger! And the traps… if Bai Xue can’t handle them because they’re ghosts or undead, they’re easy for me to handle! This trap of a realm has turned into a holy land for us!
“I detected another two teams in the realm when we entered. We’ll have to be somewhat cautious,” Huang Muwen warned.
“But they ought to be more cautious than us, since they don’t know the realm has weakened,” Hui pointed out.
Bai Xue flashed a grin. “It’s time to charge ahead!”
With that, Bai Xue ran ahead. Hui and Huang Muwen chased after him, close at his heels. The next door glowed with a red light, and Hui felt the faint pull of a teleportation formation.
Before the formation could activate, Bai Xue lashed out with the black dagger. The formation crumbled, and they ran through. “Teleporting me out after I grab one piece of loot? You overestimate yourself!” Bai Xue crowed.
In the next chamber, a dozen pill bottles sat in recessed holes in the walls. Hui ran randomly for one bottle, while Bai Xue and Huang Muwen each ran for their own. He grabbed three bottles and thrust them into his storage ring before the trap activated. Ghosts spewed out of the walls, but their horrifying howls quickly turned to tragic cries as they rushed directly into the ducks’ bills. One ghost, stronger than the rest, shook off a duck and rushed at Hui. Sharp claws sliced the air apart, flying for Hui’s head.
Calmly, Hui lifted his arm again, uncurling his fingers. A single golden songbird burst from his opening palm and punched through the stronger ghost’s chest. The ghost collapsed in on itself, and the ducks made quick work of it.
Rushing along, they came to another chamber, then another. A small palm-sized ghost flag and a strange tiger’s-eye gem joined the rest of the items in Hui’s storage ring, while the other two also gained their fair share of loot. Three chambers in, they rushed into a chamber, and a group of four cultivators jumped, startled by their arrival.
One of them, a man with a narrow frame, stepped forward, smiling. “Fellow cultivators, how fortuitous. We should all join—”
The three of them rushed by, blasting past onto the next chamber.
The four cultivators’ eyes narrowed. Turning the way Hui and the others had come from, their faces wrinkled, the knowledge that the three had already looted the area heavy on their minds. The speed of the three passersby was beyond their imagination. It was as though the trio had complete confidence the inheritance realm would bow before them. Even as they watched, a bloody curtain at the exit to this chamber—the same one their leader had carefully parted with a spell formation—was slashed apart by a single blow from a shocking black dagger the most handsome of the trio carried.
Eyes wide, the four cultivators exchanged a glance. All four of them completed the same equation: four versus three. Their eyes glimmered as the numbers came out in their favor, and they wordlessly shot off in pursuit of the three.