When Nalser said that he was in, the old man sighed in relief from the bottom of his heart. Deep down he had realized that if Nalser had backed out, his Legacy would have faded into memory. He held out his palm and upon it was the black crystal pendant.
He looked solemnly at Nalser and said, “This is the key to the dimension that holds my Legacy, without it, there is no way to enter it. However the key is split into two parts. First this pendant and second the method of entering. It isn’t as easy as “You have the pendant you can enter.” You also need to have the correct method of entering.” Hearing this Nalser fully realized why the Legacy would fade if the old man disappeared. It doesn’t matter if you have they key or not, if you don’t know the method of using it, it is a simple decoration. The old man passed the pendant over to Nalser and then gave him a step by step explanation on the method.
When Nalser heard the explanation he imprinted it deeply into his mind so that he would never forget it. What surprised him was that you don’t have to practise Qi in order to enter the pendant. Even a mortal with no idea what Qi is can use it. As he thought about it more closely, he understood the reason behind it. It was never guaranteed that the successor will have trained in Qi but if the persons foundations were solid enough, he could acquire it even if he was a mere mortal like himself.
As he followed the method to enter step by step, he suddenly felt his vision go blurry and when the blurriness passed, the surroundings had dramatically changed. He currently stood in front of a little stone bridge that led to an island in the middle of the lake. However, what filled the lake wasn’t water but what seemed to be a starry sky. As he stood there in a daze staring at the island that was floating in the middle of a starry sea, he heard a chuckle from next to him.
He turned his head and discovered that the old man was standing next to him. Since it was the first time he ever saw such a scene he was quite baffled, the old man understood that quite well. However, deep within the man’s eyes was a nostalgic gaze. With a sweep of his arm, he started leading the way towards the island. Nalser quickly followed him from behind and the closer they got to the island, the more clearly he could see the layout.
There seemed to be at least 4-5 different houses and the scenery all around was quite breathtaking, just laying down there and just staring at the starry sky would make someone feel as though they were a part of the Heavens and Earth. As they travelled along the bridge, they finally reached the little island. Between the houses and the bridge was a mossy cobblestone path. The old man stopped at the end of the bridge for a second and took a look around.
He heaved a huge breath as though he was firmly imprinting everything there into his very soul. As he released the breath he led Nalser towards a small cottage and pushed the door open. He gestured Nalser to enter first and as Nalser entered he was suddenly hit by the dizziness again. When the old man followed in after him, he was met with an angry glare, “Just how many times do I have to teleport in this damn thing?” The old man as shocked for a second before laughing heartily, “Every entrance on the island leads to a small pocket dimension inside the main one. The theory behind it is quite complex and it took me over a millennia to craft all the necessary rooms and dimensions, as for the dizziness you get used to it soon.” Nalser had no way of telling the old man off, so he stayed silent and started looking around.
He now understood why the pocket dimensions were needed. The room he was in was at least 500 cubic meters big but the house didn’t seem like it was even 30 cubic meters big. When Nalser was checking out his surroundings, the old man was looking at a small wooden door at the side of the hall. He was having his last doubts about whether he should really do this or not.
Not knowing what to say, he looked towards Nalser and gestured towards the door, “Inside that room is the formation that will allow me to reform your body and constitution, however I will ask one last time: Are you sure you want to do this? The pain you will feel will not be something simple or ordinary.” As he finished saying that, he saw the solemn look of determination in Nalser’s eyes. He didn’t even need to hear his answer to know that he was still going to go through it, so he started walking towards small wooden door. When they entered the room, it only had one thing, a giant circular altar upon which was a giant pentagram, carved into the stone.
The old man pointed at the altar and said, “Sit down cross legged at the center of the pentagram and we will begin shortly.” As the voice echoed out inside the empty stone room, Nalser started walking towards the giant altar. With a determined mind, he sat down directly in the center of the giant pentagram. He took a moment to breath in deeply and adjust his mind, when he breathed out, he opened his eyes and looked towards the old man. “I’m ready.”
As Nalser said that, the old man nodded his head and placed his hand on a stone plate that was connected to the altar. Black light shone out from his palm and as though it passed through the carvings of the formation it quickly flowed along to form the giant pentagram on the ground. When the entire pentagram was filled with the black light, the old man opened his mouth and said softly, “Let’s begin.” Just as his worded rang out, black fires started popping out of nowhere inside the pentagram. Nalser was alarmed but he grit his teeth and stayed where he was. In his mind however he thought this, “If the old man was lying and truly decides to take over my body, I have no one other than my poor sight to blame.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
As he thought that, he braced himself as the black flames that had formed slowly started floating towards the spot he was sitting at. He still didn’t trust the old man because even a three year old wouldn’t. To come out with such a generous offer at such a perfect timing was something that screamed “SUSPICIOUS” but since he didn’t have no other choice he had to go with this one. As he cleared his mind of all distracting thoughts he gazed at the black fires converging at his location. When the flames all reached the middle of the pentagram, they merged into one above Nalsers head and when the final piece of the flame had merged into the giant flame, it started pulsating.
As if forming a resonance with the pentagram, he felt an invisible force slowly but surely pushing him up from the ground and into the flame. When he first touched the flame, he thought that he would feel indescribable pain but when it didn’t arrive, he was a bit shocked. As he slowly rose from the ground to the flame, the old man’s eyes looked resolute as he murmured, “If you can withstand the baptism and reformation from the Nether Flames, you will leap from a carp to a dragon. However, the true ordeals come after that.” He resolutely watched as Nalser was rising to the middle of the flames.
When Nalser was completely submerged in the flames, the flames started pulsating again and as the pulsating grew stronger, he felt some kind of a force slowly infiltrating his body. In the beginning the feeling was faint but as time passed on the pain became more and more unbearable. In the beginning he would only grit his teeth as if the pain was from regular practise but as time slowly passed, he could help but sweat and after about 20 minutes he started groaning.
Another half an hours went past and now Nalser was screaming inside the flames, his voice was already hoarse from the screaming. The old man only winced at the screaming. There was nothing he could do to help Nalser. As the screams echoed out along the abandoned island, time slowly passed.
Soon 3 hours had gone by from the start and Nalser’s screams could no longer be heard from inside the stone room. That didn’t mean that the baptism was over, far from it. His meridians had been cleared and reformed. His constitution had also been raised but now came the true baptism of the Nether Flame. When before only his meridians were affected, now all of his body was being tempered by the black flames.
Nalser had no more energy left to scream. The pain had brought him closer and closer to the threshold of insanity. Only his last little inkling of willpower had been keeping him from crossing over the boundary and losing himself in insanity. As the flames kept on burning another 3 hours went by and this time, the baptism had truly ended. As the pentagram started dimming, Nalser’s now naked body had gently floated back to the floor.
On the outside, there were very few differences if you didn’t count his hair that had completely turned snow white. His body was still refined but the muscles were a bit more drawn out now. His features still stayed the same. Seeing this, the old man let out a breath of relief when he probed Nalser’s body. His body was now perfect for practising his Phantom Demon Close Combat arts. As Nalser was sleeping there, the old man used the very last remnant of his consciousness to imprint all the knowledge of the Starry Island into a jade slip. He even wrote a note on how to use the jade slip. As he finished all those preparations and had fetched a set of clothes for Nalser, his body started fading away.
Just as he was about to fade away completely he saw Nalser looking at him with blank eyes. All he did was smile before he completely faded away. When he had completely faded away, Nalser’s eyes closed again as he fell into a deep sleep. However, unknown to him, the changes from the baptism weren’t completely over yet as he continuously broke through the first three stages of Qi Gathering.
***
As Nalser had broken through to the first level of Qi Gathering in dozens of different worlds hundreds of people suddenly had an expression of astonishment. An old man sitting like a Buddha Statue, slowly opened his eyes as he looked towards the sky murmuring, “A person who follows the Ancient Path. I wonder whose Legacy did he obtain.” This was the same thought that ran through all the old experts minds.
The number of people who still followed the Ancient Path didn’t exceed 500 and every single one of those people were legendary Paragons. The modern worlds cultivators were a joke in their eyes. Even the lousiest talent from the Ancient Path could mop the floor with anyone at the same stage or one higher of the ones who follow the Modern Path.
On another planet that was filled with erupting volcanoes and lava, sat humanoid figure who could only be described as a Demon. He had a blood red body with sharp jagged teeth and a pair of horns on his head. The Demon gave ghastly smile as he said in an excited voice, “Finally, someone inherited the Phantom Demons Legacy. The next few centuries should be something exciting to look at.” AS he let out a laugh he started imagining the future.