"He fought the Taotie...and lived." Kalima whispered to herself, still not actually believing the news.

"Barely, but yes. He has earned the Inheritance." the Destiny Fan answered in a level voice. It was strange, as the odds were less than astronomic for such a feat to ever happen, and even the Fay Goddess had slim chances of emerging alive from the Mausoleum. But somehow, Pef managed. The requirements for the Inheritance had been fulfilled, either by strength or guile, and perhaps none of those.

"You have already transferred it then." Kalima concluded in a sad voice.

"I am no longer the wind in your sails, Lady Kalima. The river of destiny has a new sail, and as the Jade Emperor wanted, a successor is now driving that vessel. Plus, Lord Pef may be stronger than you already." the paper fan added in a wry voice.

"Maybe an equal, for now." the goddess injected with a frown.

"Maybe. But do you dare test that claim?" the artifact asked as its paper folds began to disperse into light and dark motes of qi. Soon, only the rims of the fan remained, and the scripture page vanished completely.

With a sad sob, the Fay Godmother stored the frame of Destiny, and held a long silence for this old friend, now fallen silent after trillions of years.

It would be hard staying sane now, as the madness of the Unreal would soon take over, once more.

Her diplomatic self was still engaged in mental landscaping with the visiting Elf King, who was indeed helping to repair her mind, while her motherly self was looking after Misty and Sunny, trying to keep them alive in this cruel universe.

And lastly, her friendly self was helping Lady Xie deal with her own problems, mostly caused by a troubled life in her mortal body. Here, she could indeed empathize with Pef's wife, as the trauma of capture and torture by a stronger enemy was still freshly vivid in her memories.

Live a hundred lives, and one of them would inevitably end bad.

In this, she had a lot in common with the General as well as the former Veridian Legion members. Being female in a cultivator world was always a harsh life, and much more so if you were weak.

"It is nothing special, Lady Kalima. Pef has always been this way, getting dragged out of trouble while missing limbs or broken in mind and soul. It wouldn't say he enjoys pain, but it does makes him strong." Xie said in a casual voice when she heard about the Mausoleum battle.

"And you, young Soldier? How do you get stronger?" the Fay Goddess asked her guest, and offered her another plate of rare fruits and spirit roots.

The purple haired Soldier just shrugged, and gulped another Golden Ginseng in a few bites. "I mooch from my husband, or his friends?" she admitted with a raised eyebrow.

"You have a chunk of your soul torn off, as if sliced...with a Legion Knife." Kalima observed out loud, and inwardly wondering how the woman even survived such a soul trauma, executed by a weapon and not a specialist soul surgeon. This also explained some of the more obvious flaws in Xie's behavior and cultivation.

Add that to her earlier body and mental damage, and it was a miracle she was actually walking.

However, Xie just nodded with a far away look. "I used to have a twin sister, Xia. She lived in my soul, when I was younger. She was also a True Devil and quite a scheming one. Then, she betrayed me...and she died for it."

Kalima sighed, mostly to herself. Give the Mirror free realm, and that would happen. Melding souls, or even bodies and minds, just to experiment.

And the current user was still only a Dian Realm, easily duped by the stronger Divine Artifact.

Not that even herself would be confident to control that Mirror. Managing the Unreal was hard enough, without a strong intellect fighting you.

As if she heard her, the Unreal self opened her eyes and stared at the raging river of Destiny. Currents of Fate twisted and flowed with immense speed, or languished gently in other places. All the same, untold destinies from all the multiverse were dragged along, unable to withstand the mighty river. Only a lucky few would float above the river, or at least change the current they rode on, if they had the right tools.

The Jade Emperor's gift had served her well, keeping her afloat and slightly able to correct her own course, but now that aid was over.

Then again, Pef will soon equal the Jade Emperor, now that he had the Inheritance. Things will change rapidly now.

---------------------------

'What is all this? Did you download again?' Pef muttered inward, as he felt his mind exploding from overload.

'You think I can download 63 percent of the Formation Dao? I wish!' the orange glove grumbled as the inner screen page ticked upwards once more, reaching 64 percent.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

'If not you...' Pef wondered while searching inside the virtual space.

Eventually he located a flying paper page keeping the World Tree company. Until a minute later, the paper merged into the Word Tree and vanished.

'Nine Shades? Is that what I think it is?' Pef asked to make sure.

'It was a part of me, that has just returned. But you knew it as the Destiny Fan, while it was processed into a scripture page.' the bamboo branch explained then curled into a seed once more, and fell asleep.

Pef gave up interrogating the ancient entity, since he partly figured out what happened, while other things remained mysterious once more. Dealing with such high Tier entities was never easy or fair, or even sane. Especially broken ones.

'You're not made of some Tree bark or something, right?' Pef asked his Heart Ruler instead.

'... Not that I know of. When are we fighting something?' the weapon asked without care. Then again, it was a weapon. It would be strange if it started to paint or something.

A group of Pef's Avatars raised their heads from the wine brewing vats. Even without tasting the new Divine Wine, Pef knew it would be something special.

Perhaps it was the violet cloud covering the first wine vat, or the gathering Tribulation clouds above his real body.

"I'll be back!" he told Vela as he opened his eyes.

"Pef! You're not healed yet..." the elf goddess exclaimed as her patient stood up and wrapped himself in a Blue Jade armor, and then a couple of extra Skills and shields.

"The Heavens wait for no one, my love. Try the wine." he said as he left a Taotie Wine bottle in her hands then Blinked away to receive his Ascension away from the billions of fragile cultivators near the Mausoleum.

He wasn't even surprised that half of the jade blockers exploded from the first lightning bolt. Ascending to Tier 8 was never supposed to be easy.

The second tribulation collapsed his Void Shield, and exploded the rest of the valuable Blue Jade blockers. Resources well-spent, in his opinion.

The third bolt encountered the Armor of Faith, and drained half his qi in a single moment. The Tribulation hit even harder than the Taotie.

Pef took the opportunity to sip some Divine Wine just then, and right on time, as the next bolt also shattered the armor skill and depleted all his energy.

But the wine began to rapidly recharge him, and he managed to power up his Void Shield once more, when the next Tribulation fell. Even at 90 percent, the Void Shield still shattered from a single lightning bolt.

'One bolt left?' Pef wondered inward, just as Rejin appeared a kilometer away, looking very worried. Pef simply urged him to collect some Tribulation Lightning. He wasn't worried at all about this Ascension. In fact, it seemed rather easy...

The Tribulation clouds shifted their colors and struck three times rapidly, burning out his hair and skin, while Rejin calmly collected some purple and indigo lightning into his Cauldron. Making more Tier 7 pills would be nice too, for his wives.

Pef sipped more wine and regenerated the damage, then turned on his armor and shield once more.

The extra lightning bolts must have a reason, he thought.

Beside Rejin, a white cloud appeared and a Fay Goddess crossed through it, this time lacking a paper fan to hide behind.

She looked wary and worried as well.

"Never seen someone fried to a crisp by Tribulation?" Pef quipped as the next trio of lightning bolts shattered his defenses again, and then burned off his skin.

Pef traced the lightning entering his body and dantian, and saw them bathe the Heart Ruler. Quite nice of the Heavens to upgrade his weapon during the Ascension.

"Stop joking you idiot!" Lady Kalima yelled and threw a pair of wooden sticks into the path of the next Tribulation.

The two frames of Destiny burned with Heavenly Lightning, and only the last bolt struck Pef, right into his grinning teeth as he turned his face towards the clouds. Something drained the lightning before it could reach the Icefire or the World Tree.

The Tribulation clouds dissipated afterwards, just as Pef spat out his broken teeth and gulped more Divine Wine. "There, I gave you face!" he muttered as his teeth and skin grew back. It was probably not the Heaven's intent to give him face, but he would take it anyways, even if it hurt like hell.

"You had your Inheritance, moron! Use the protection arrays, next time..." Kalima grumbled and vanished into her white cloud.

Pef scratched at his cheek and removed some crisped skin. No one said anything about any protection arrays...which begged the question.

'Yea, why didn't you tell me?' he asked his orange friend.

'I was busy Ascending. Plus, you were fine.' the glove muttered as it explored its new Tier 8 abilities.

'Hey, I Ascended too! I'm so strong now!' the Heart Ruler exclaimed with joy.

Pef sighed and summoned some Water to clean himself. It was time to break other people's teeth now.