As the 'sole student' and 'successor' of the Heaven Scheming Devil, Wuzhi knew better than most the power and influence that the Mu Household, being one of the Three Sovereign Powers of the world, represented.

To NOT compete for the position of its 'Heir' and future leader would be utterly foolish.

'The end goal of my 'Grand Scheme' is to unite the seven continents and bring them under the rule of a 'Supreme One.' To accomplish this goal, I would require unrivalled strength, boundless wealth, unquestionable authority and influence, and finally, an organization that helps me achieve all these while solely bending to my will.'

'To create such an organization from scratch is simply impossible. Not to mention the effort required, there simply isn't enough time for me to go down this route. Ideally, I would like to take over an already established organization and grow it to a position of supremacy. And since I happen to be a son of the Mu Family, why not take over the Mu Household?'

'Of course, the bigger the appetite, the greater the challenges; becoming the 'Heir' of the Mu Household is no easy task.'

'Any person with a working brain can assume that the race to become the 'Heir' is one of bloody competition. It would not be strange to see brothers killing brothers and fathers killing sons. Not only do I not have any discernible advantages in this competition but I also happen to have a very late starting point; overcoming the difference will not be easy.'

'If I want to emerge victorious, I will need to fight tooth and nail. I will have to employ all that I have learnt under the tutorship of my teacher. I will have to throw myself into this pit of snakes and become a snake myself!'

A battle of intrigue and wits was incomparably more exhaustive than a direct battle of fists. The battle for the title of 'Heir of the Mu Household' represented a battle of intrigue of the highest order. Any person would find themselves apprehensive of entering such a battle.

Any person except Wuzhi, that is. Facing the greatest battle of his life yet, Wuzhi was neither apprehensive nor fearful. Instead, he was full of excitement in every sense of the word.

"Hahaha!" Wuzhi laughed heartily upon returning to his residence after the dinner. "So many new people for me to exploit! So many different agendas for me to manipulate!! So many tricks for me to break and schemes for me to employ!!!"

The 1st Day of the First Month was the date of Wuzhi's birthday.

"Is this Heaven's gift for my twenty-first birthday? Glory! Glory to the will of the heavens!" He spread open his arms, faced the skies, and cheered at the top of his lungs.

"For I am its emissary and such is the will of the heavens!!!"

A maddened expression of pure joy and conviction coloured his face.

---

4th Day of the First Month in the Year 736.

Ancestral Hall, Mu Household, Miu Aisla City.

Dressed in simple and humble attire, Wuzhi stood in front of the towering mountain, situated in the northeast corner of the family lands, and gazed at its tall solemn figure. His face was absent of its usual smile and instead appeared respectful.

"Are you nervous?" asked Su Li, Second Madam of the Mu Household, as she stood next to him as his guide.

"Nervous? No," replied Wuzhi. "Feeling overwhelmed, on the other hand. Definitely."

Unable to source the answer, Su Li asked curiously, "Overwhelmed? Why?"

Wuzhi turned to face her with a serious look and said, "I've never done anything like this before." He returned to looking at the majestic silhouette of the looming mountain and continued, "I never knew of any ancestors before today. I never knew of any family except for my mother before today."

His answer appeared so straightforward that the Second Madam was caught off-guard. She gazed at his side profile and felt a feeling of melancholy. "Poor child," she whispered in a voice that went unheard by everybody except herself.

After a moment, Wuzhi asked, "So, what am I supposed to do? Scale the mountain and offer incense?"

"It is a bit more elaborate than that. You will follow the mountain path and scale the mountain with your bare feet. Rocks and thistles may scratch your feet but you are not allowed to use any Path Techniques to heal your injuries. This is tradition."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Wuzhi nodded his head.

"At the end of the mountain path, you will come across a circular stone door etched into the surface of the mountain wall. Here, you will have to smear your blood to open the door and reveal the passageway into the depths of the Ancestral Hall."

"Smear my blood? Is this some sort of identification test?" he asked.

Su Li nodded her head. "Indeed. The Mu Family's ancestors had built some sort of mechanism into the stone door that activates when a person with the Mu Bloodline smears their blood on its surface. Not only will it open the path to the depths of the Ancestral Hall but it will also etch your name into the 'Succession Stele.'"

Before Wuzhi had the opportunity to ask, the Second Madam explained. "The 'Succession Stele' is the device used by the Mu Family to select its successor and 'Heir.' You can think of it as a scoreboard wherein your 'contributions' to the Mu Family are recorded. When the stele believes that sufficient conditions have been met, it will name the 'Heir' for the generation."

Hearing her explanation, Wuzhi appeared immensely interested in this 'Succession Stele.' He immediately asked, "Wait, I only have to smear my blood and it automatically knows who I am? How does that work?"

"Yes, and I don't know."

"What counts as 'contributions'? How can I increase mine? Also, does the stele independently judge these so-called 'contributions'? How does it do so?" He rapid-fired a bunch of questions.

"Hold on. One question at a time," said Su Li. She then took a breath and explained. "I will not tell you what counts as 'contributions.' You will see it written on the stele for yourself at the depths of the Ancestral Hall. Simply do as instructed to increase your contributions."

"Yes, the stele is independent in its judgment. We believe it to be intelligent. As for how that works, we do not know."

Wuzhi almost couldn't help himself and asked, 'Why has no one taken it apart and studied it yet?' Fortunately, he managed to reign in his curiosity to not commit a faux pas.

"I see," he curtly replied.

Su Li also noticed the questioning look on his face. However, since he did not ask anything, she did not broach anything. Instead, she said, "You will run across some hallucinations on your path to the summit. You must face them and not use your Path Techniques. Once you enter the mountain, simply walk to the end of the hall, light incense, kowtow and offer your respect. That is it and good luck."

Cupping his fists in thanks, Wuzhi bowed. "Wuzhi thanks Second Mother for the guidance."

Su Li nodded her head and disappeared with a swipe of her hands.

Alone at the entrance of the rough and unbeaten path, Wuzhi gave the distant summit and looming mountain one final look before bravely stepping forward with his right leg.

---

Su Li appeared elsewhere atop a viewpoint that overlooked the entire trail to the summit of the Ancestral Mountain. She wasn't alone in this viewpoint as another familiar figure stood with her mysterious gaze bearing down into the distance.

"The Mu Family forces its young children to undertake the journey to the summit and the paying of respects before they reach five years of age. They do this because, before the age of five, the mind of a child is still formative and undeveloped, causing the hallucinations that they encounter during the journey to be minimal and harmless."

Third Madam, the woman with the strange eyes and a practitioner of the [Scrying Path], took a deep breath. "Of course, there are exceptions to this practice. Our husband, Wudi, for example, could only perform this tradition at sixteen years of age. To this day, he recounts it as being one of the most terrifying challenges that he had ever faced and refuses to speak about what he saw."

"A little deduction tells us that the crux of the difficulty lies in the memories, knowledge, and experience that we hold. The less one knows, the easier it is to complete the trail and vice-versa."

Lifting her gaze from Wuzhi's figure in the distance, she looked at Su Li and asked, "Second Sister, how does Wuzhi's wealth of knowledge compare to your own?"

"I do not understand how his mother has brought him up but the length and breadth of his knowledge is comparable to an ocean! There appears to be no topic that he does not know about and no matter where in his opinion cannot be stated. To call him a walking repository is not too far-fetched."

"Quite the high praise," commented Third Sister. She then turned back to look at the mountain path and said, "Doesn't that mean that he is doomed to fail?"

"Maybe," said Su Li. "However, I have a curious feeling that he will surprise us. There is something about this boy that I cannot exactly place my finger on."

"How strange. I also feel the same," agreed Third Sister.

The two of them stood quietly for a few minutes. Su Li then quietly said, "The people whom we sent over to the Isilda Continent to investigate Wuzhi's past have all seemed to have vanished from the face of this earth."

Third Sister frowned. "Vanished? As in, we cannot find any traces of them?"

"It is as if they never stepped foot on that continent at all."

The frown on Third Sister's face grew. The pupils in her eyes disappeared as she turned to look towards the skies. A mystical aura submerged her entire figure as she used her technique to scry.

Su Li raised her guard and protected her sister-wife while she searched the heavens for the truth. She knew that this moment was the latter's weakest state and would suffer disastrous consequences were she disturbed or attacked.

A few minutes later, Su Li suddenly felt her heart ring bells of warning. Before she could even make sense of the warning, Third Sister's aura boiled and crashed. Thick blood spurted out from all of the facial orifices as the face behind her mask grew more aged and wrinkled.

Her skin turned deathly pale and her body wobbled, almost falling to the ground. Fortunately, Su Li managed to react in time and catch her.

"What happened!? What went wrong!?" cried Su Li, asking the weakened Third Sister for an explanation.

She waited and waited and yet received no reply. Just as she was about to ask once again, Su Li's eyes caught a glimpse of Third Sister's twitching finger writing something on the ground next to it using her blood.

"Voyeurs will be punished?" read Su Li, astonishment, disbelief, and confusion colouring her face. Just as she was about to ask Third Sister what she meant, the latter lost consciousness and fell into a deep coma.