A loud knocking on the door suddenly disturbed the quiet room. Astoria remained unmoved but Elena responded.
“Come in.”
The door opened and a middle-aged man dressed in gold and silver robes walked through – Cedric Ironheart.
He saw Astoria sitting up and sighed with relief.
“It seems you’re awake. How are you feeling now? Is everything okay?” he asked as he walked closer to the bed.
When the alchemist had brought her to the town’s infirmary and informed them that they were ambushed by dark mages who critically wounded her, word quickly got out to the town’s leaders.
While the infirmary’s healing mages did their best, they couldn’t cure her completely.
However, Elena decided to go personally to help Astoria. As a bishop of the Church, not only was helping and healing people part of her job, she needed Astoria alive to tell them about the dark mages. Plus, she had personally taken a liking to the girl after their first meeting as well.
So, with her abilities as a mage king, she was able to heal Astoria completely, and even restore her eye back to its normal condition.
But no matter how powerful she was, she couldn’t heal her heart.
“She’s fine now,” Elena replied on Astoria’s behalf, and then added, “Physically anyway.”
Cedric had also received a brief report of what happened from the alchemist so he understood the situation. He looked at Astoria with pity.
Cedric tried talking to her again but she didn’t respond.
She was lost in her thoughts, dreaming about the times she had with Sam. All the things they planned to do, she was living them in her imagination in this moment – a peaceful escape from an unbearable reality.
Astoria was fantasising about the two of them buying their dream home after working and saving up money for a while. They had several children and they were all sitting together around the dining table, joking, and laughing about various things.
It was her dream. Having lost her family, she wanted to make her own and live in a home filled with their love and happiness.
She was imagining and relishing such a scene now.
Astoria was eating and found the food extremely delicious. In her excitement, she took a spoonful of food and turned to Sam, wanting to feed him, but froze.
A trickle of blood dripped down Sam’s smiling cheek.
No!
As she watched, Sam started coughing; once, then twice, and then more and more, each time more violent, until he started coughing out blood.
Horrified, Astoria turned around to her other children, only to spot them all having blood flowing down their cheeks too.
No…! Oh no! What’s happening!?
She turned back to Sam who looked at her weakly.
“We could have had this…” he said. “We could have had it all… but it was taken away…” Sam’s face twisted from being in pain to one of malice. “Aren’t you going to avenge me?” he spoke, with a deep voice now.
“Aren’t you going to avenge us?” the children spoke now, with the same deep voice and twisted expression.
Astoria pushed against the table and stood up in a panic. Her family stood up along with her. She turned and ran towards the door and tried to open it but it was locked.
“Avenge us, avenge us, avenge us!” the hoarse voices of her children and Sam had combined into one and rapidly approached closer.
Astoria started banging on her door.
Help! Someone open this door!
She turned around to spot Sam’s bloody face inches from her own.
“AVENGE US!”
Astoria jerked back in her bed and pushed herself against the wall.
“What’s wrong with her?” Cedric asked as Elena went to grab and calm her down.
Her fantasy had turned into a nightmare. She watched in horror as the image of Sam and her children blurred and merged into one, black, glowing sphere. The same voice was emanating from that sphere but was incredibly loud now.
“AVENGE US! AVENGE US! AVENGE US!”
The black sphere entered her chest and the vision vanished.
Astoria stopped trashing around and relaxed, her face sunk in between her knees.
“Astoria! Astoria are you okay?” asked Elena, worried.
Astoria slowly raised her head and twisted it to look at Elena.
Her lips gradually perked into a light smile and she spoke.
“Yes… thank you… I’m fine now,” she said, her eyes twinkling with a new found darkness.
Cedric ordered some maids to bring her food which Astoria accepted gratefully. She only realised now how hungry she was and started eating the food rabidly.
Elena and Cedric shared a glance at her change in demeanour but decided to not say anything. They waited patiently for her to finish.
After finishing her meal, she thanked them once more for saving her, especially Elena.
“No problem,” replied Elena, and then looked at Cedric.
Cedric cleared his throat and tried to ask gently, “If it’s not too soon –”
“I’ll tell you everything,” she replied, interrupting him. She wasn’t stupid and knew that the reason why they had left all their duties and taken such an interest in helping her was because they wanted to know about the dark mages she had fought.
Hence, she told them everything.
She didn’t mention all the details of what happened between her and Henry but just told them that they had some bad blood between them initially, and he had later joined the dark mages.
“So, I think we can conclude now that Damon and his dark mages are the ones who have appeared in our town,” she said.
Cedric hesitated. “Actually, about that…”
Astoria looked at him and he sighed.
“We received some new information. The Myriad Sword Palace from the Holy Capital had sent some of their mages to investigate the Beast Woods incident and potentially arrest Damon Rogue if they found him,” he paused to look at Elena.
In order to save time, the mage kings had sent a report of their findings to Duskville and some other nearby forces through messenger spirits, while they were passing through.
Cedric continued. “They spotted the remains of a large battlefield and discovered the bodies of several powerful mages there. Judging by their corpses, attire, remanent aura, and everything else, it is highly likely that it was the dark mages.”
Astoria’s eyes widened.
He looked back at Astoria. “The two dark grand mages, and the mage king Damon Rogue who attacked your village, are all dead.”
“WHAT!?”
Astoria was in disbelief.
Damon was so powerful; how could he get killed so easily?
And if he was dead, then…
“How is Henry still…” she spoke the last part of her thoughts out loud before her voice trailed off again.
Stolen novel; please report.
It didn’t take a genius to figure it out.
Not only was Damon a mage king, but he also had powerful subordinates and an entire demon army behind him. Even other mage kings would not find it easy to deal with that. A mage emperor or a group of mage kings must have discovered the dark mages and killed them off, most likely the former as they now appeared here in a town protected by a mage emperor.
But for some reason, they didn’t kill Henry. It was unlikely that they would have just let him go. Given that he was now controlling the undead Jin Tong, who also appeared to be much stronger than before, the mage emperor had likely subdued Henry and forced him to work for them. That would also explain how Henry was brave enough to cause trouble here.
“I see you’ve figured it out,” Cedric smiled, seeing the realisation dawn on her face.
“So we are dealing with a mage emperor after all?” asked Astoria.
“It seems so,” replied Cedric. “It is quite likely that it is a mage emperor from the Hidden Venom Cult itself. They have thirteen mage emperors, each calling themselves an apostle of the Cult. Damon was a mage king who was previously part of the cult but had a falling out and fled. The most likely scenario is that his old enemies managed to find him and put him out of his misery.”
“I see…” Astoria said, contemplating this new information.
But that still left Henry. Why did the mage emperor recruit him and what were they doing here? Were they the ones who destroyed the wheatfield? Why would they do that? Or was there another group of dark mages operating in the town as well?
There were still many unanswered questions.
“I’ve decided,” Astoria spoke after a while.
Cedric and Elena glanced at her.
“What have you decided?” Elena asked.
She turned to them and spoke. “I am not going to the inheritance.”
“What? Why?” she asked surprised.
“Because, anyway my talent lies in magic cultivation, not martial arts, so I may not have much to gain from a primarily martial arts cultivators’ inheritance. And besides, I still have something to do…” Astoria stared at Elena with the same dark glint in her eyes.
“I need to find and kill Henry.”
…
While Astoria decided to work with Cedric and Elena to investigate the dark mages, another gathering of dark mages was occurring in some place within Basindale.
Dim light was cast onto a dark room by a small lantern. A mysterious figure with a neck tattoo of a black and white snake coiling around each other was standing facing two other figures.
The first was the red-haired Theo Vancouver. The second was another, older man, dressed in black robes. He was radiating an aura at the peak of the grand mage realm.
The mysterious figure with the snake tattoo held a mask-shaped artifact in his hands, the same artifact that the dark mage in purple had when he was confronted by Blaze and Drake in the town.
The figure handed the mask artifact to the grand mage. The grand mage accepted the artifact with a slight bow before putting it on. After pouring a bit of mana into the artifact, it seemed to merge with the grand mage’s face, transforming his appearance into that of a younger person. Not only that, but his grand mage aura became suppressed till it became just below that of a grand mage, at the very peak of warrior mage.
“Good, it works perfectly,” the grand mage said.
“Indeed,” the mysterious figure spoke. “With this, the inheritance is as good as ours.”
Everyone in the room seemed to find that funny and started laughing, giving the otherwise dark room a strangely uplifting atmosphere.
After a few seconds, they quietened.
“You know about the dragon boy and the dryad girl right?” the figure asked.
The dark grand mage nodded.
“Good,” the figure replied and then took out another artifact. This was in the shape of a horn. “It was not easy getting this, but you can use it to safely dispatch off the dragon’s party if you get the chance.”
“But, do not use it unless absolutely necessary. And if you do use it, make sure you kill.” Saying so, the figure handed the horn-shaped artifact to the grand mage.
The dark grand mage accepted the horn gratefully. He took a second to observe it and broke into a smile before speaking with a slight bow.
“Thank you, my lord. I promise that I will not disappoint you.” He then straightened his back to reveal a wicked grin.
“The dragon, the dryad, and the rest of their party will die at my hands.”
…
In the blink of an eye, the last month passed.
Over this time, many cultivators started pouring into Basindale, including disciples from the Myriad Sword Palace, the Silver Crane Sect, and the Ironheart family members.
Elwin and the rest of the Myriad Sword Palace disciples were granted special, private accommodation near the centre of the town so they didn’t discover Drake.
Various lone cultivators and cultivators belonging to smaller families and sects also appeared, wanting to try their luck with the inheritance.
An inheritance like this didn’t appear very often – it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. If they could obtain the inheritance, it would change the trajectory of their life forever. So, even if there was just a minute chance of obtaining it, people were willing to risk their lives for it.
Drake’s party also stopped going on missions and chose to cultivate independently and prepare for the upcoming inheritance as well. Drake practised alchemy like a madman, refining pills every waking hour.
His skills improved a lot. He now had an 80% success rate for rank two mana recovery pills, 70% for stamina recovery pills, and 60% for a number of healing pills. He estimated that he wasn’t very far from becoming a rank two alchemist.
After selling the excess pills as usual and some remaining demon materials, Drake managed to save up enough money to buy a commander class demon corpse.
With that, the only thing he needed to refine the three-leaf healing pill, was the leaves of the Celestial Willow.
Drake looked out the window to see the sun setting behind the horizon. Slowly replacing it, was a large moon glowing bright red.
‘So, it’s finally here,’ thought Drake and stood up. He walked to the door and took a deep breath. After calming himself, he opened the door and walked through.
The night of the blood moon had arrived.
Numerous forces had gathered, and the town was booming with a large number of cultivators.
They were all leaving town to make their way towards the location of the inheritance grounds.
In an area not too far away from Basindale, Drake’s party arrived together to meet a large crowd of cultivators.
Blaze with his large sword, Sylvia with her powerful bow, Drake with his numerous artifacts, and Helen, who herself had broken through to the steel body realm, had become something of a legend in Basindale. Tales of the epic dragon and mystical dryad slaying demons with the help of a mysterious young boy and another young woman, was often the talk of the town. Many people recognised the party and made way for them, whispering in hushed tones as they passed by.
“Is that the dragon?”
“The dryad girl is so cute!”
“I heard the boy is powerful too!”
“Are they entering the inheritance too? We’re all screwed!”
“Of course they are, they are also in the same realm as us!”
“It doesn’t matter. Even if they eat the bread, we might get some crumbs right?”
Many people started chit chatting as the group casually walked through. They were used to this kind of talk now so didn’t think much of it.
But soon, even those whispers came to a stop as they were interrupted by the sounds of loud whipping and neighing.
Two huge chariots pulled by large horses rushed towards the gathering.
“It’s the Blackthorne family and the Ironheart family!” someone shouted.
Immediately, the cultivators separated to create a large path for the chariots to pass through.
Just as the cultivators were startled by the appearance of the two families, a loud, piercing cry interrupted them again.
The cultivators looked up to spot a large, silver crane flying in the sky.
“It’s the Silver Crane Sect! The Silver Crane Sect disciples have arrived!”
The cultivators started speculating what disciples the Silver Crane Sect might have sent, and how powerful they might be.
Soon, an otherworldly hum echoed across the plains.
The cultivators looked up again, but this time, spotted a gigantic manta ray flying across the sky.
“It’s the Myriad Sword Palace!”
“All the forces have arrived!”
“They are going to open the inheritance grounds now!”
The cultivators became incredibly excited and started shouting and cheering.
Drake and his party were watching the scene calmly. He tried to observe the disciples of the other families and sects, but he couldn’t see them very clearly, especially the Myriad Sword Palace and the Silver Crane Sect disciples who were flying in the sky.
Likewise, Elwin was also observing the ground but couldn’t make out anyone clearly from his altitude. He gave up on trying to identify anyone and looked around him.
There were five disciples flying with him, and then two elders. One was a mage king controlling the manta ray, and the other was the shadow body martial artist who was sent to open the inheritance grounds.
After all four forces arrived, they landed on the ground and gathered together.
As the town lord, Eldric had appeared with the Blackthorne family and addressed the crowd with an incredibly loud voice, enhanced by an artifact.
“Everybody!” his voice boomed and the cultivators all became silent.
“I know you have all been waiting for this moment. Now that all the forces have arrived, we will be opening the inheritance grounds!”
Low murmurs of cheers and excitement rang throughout the crowd.
The four, shadow body martial artists gathered together and stood around twenty metres away from each other, forming a large square.
As if on command, the four martial artists gathered all their mana and punched the ground in front of them with all their might.
The force of the impact caused large craters to form. The ground reverberated as if an earthquake was occurring, pushing the crowd of cultivators back, and causing some of them to stumble and fall.
‘Is this the power of a shadow body martial artist?’ Drake wondered.
But something unexpected happened that interrupted his thoughts.
Cracks spread across the ground, connecting the four craters together, before starting to widen. The four martial artists jumped back, just in time, as the ground in front of them collapsed, forming a large square hole in the ground reaching infinitely deep.
An unbelievable amount of mana gathered from the atmosphere and poured into the hole. As mana entered the hole, it started spiralling. Within a few seconds, the small spiralling mana expanded into a large vortex of mana that was spinning rapidly.
It looked like a portal to the abyss.
But that wasn’t all.
The mana in the air became violent and the booming voices of a boy and a girl spoke together, echoing across the plains, as if it was coming from everywhere at once.
“The red moon shines on the rivers of blood,
Rising from its waters are the warriors of death.
Plunge into the abyss to face challenges untold.
Will you rise as the champion, or be felled by his sword?
Only time will tell but remember this.
Stare into the abyss, and fate you will meet,
Change it forever, or death you will greet.
Strength is second only to courage and wit.
Those who have all, may enter forthwith.”
The booming voice stopped speaking and the mana in the air settled down, leaving the large vortex spinning in the ground, but it now began glowing with a dark light.
Everybody gulped.
Drake remembered the inheritance that he found with Elwin. That inheritance was also that of a mage emperor, but the ancestor had created the inheritance close to the villages specifically for his descendants to explore. Hence, he did not make it very difficult or dangerous.
However, the twin astral body martial artists who had made this inheritance with their own foundation, and that of their entire sect, did not owe anyone anything. They would only want the worthiest individual to receive their inheritance.
Drake didn’t think about it much before. He assumed that even if the inheritance was different, it shouldn’t be much more difficult than the one that his ancestor had set up.
But looking at the large, shining vortex and hearing that voice now, Drake realised that he might have gravely underestimated this inheritance.
This is definitely… not going to be easy.
A couple of cultivators lost their patience and started walking towards the inheritance. They stepped into the vortex and immediately disappeared.
Seeing this, more cultivators quickly followed.
Drake’s party looked at each other.
“It’s time to do this!”