The sun was setting on the inheritance grounds. More than two hours had passed since Drake finished refining his three leaf healing pill and reached the middle stage true mage realm. During this time, two individuals had been fighting for their lives and were about to throw in the towel.
Blaze buried his huge sword into the ground and held onto its handle while panting for breath. His left arm was bigger and covered in dragon scales, however the rest of body was littered with cuts and bruises. His mana was pitifully low and he was barely able to maintain his dragon form. Standing against his back, Farisa was in no better shape. Despite the backlash she would later have to suffer, she had been consuming a large number of pills one after another, in order to stay standing.
Surrounding them was a large army of hundreds of shadow demons.
Their numbers had actually halved compared to when the dark mages had left, however, the duo were not in any shape to take on the army any longer. Fighting against the dark grand mage, Theo, Henry, and the rest of the dark mages had already exhausted most of their strength. Blaze was forced to reactivate his dragon form a second time to fight this army which would soon cause him to suffer a huge backlash. In fact, if not for his tremendous will power and Farisa’s support, he would have collapsed a long time ago.
“What are we… going… to do?” Blaze whispered while catching his breath.
Farisa took a few moments to gather her energy to respond when three humanoid shadow demons charged. She took a deep breath and poured mana into her pure white robes which she obtained from the maze inheritance a while back, and activated one of its runes.
“Spectral shield!”
A large barrier of light appeared before her, causing the shadow demons to crash into it. Taking this opportunity, she activated her martial technique.
Phantom charge!
Farisa moved like a phantom and appeared above the shadow demons in an instant. She raised her hammer high and brought it crashing down on all three of them.
“DIEEEEEEEE!!!!!” she screamed as she crushed the shadow demons with the weight of her hammer. The collision summoned powerful winds which swept at the nearby shadow demons, destroying their hopes of using this chance for a sneak attack. A few seconds later, she returned to Blaze’s side who had finished dealing with a couple more demons. The moment she stopped moving, she stumbled and almost fell, but caught herself at the last second.
“Are you okay?” Blaze asked worriedly.
“Just fine,” Farisa replied, but her voice was weak.
The demons were momentarily stunned by their ferocious attacks and would need a few seconds to recover. Farisa spoke quickly to make use of this time.
“I have a plan.”
“You do?” Blaze asked surprised.
“Yes,” she replied and continued hurriedly. “I have a number of artifacts given to me by my sect, and ones I found in this inheritance. I’m sure you do too. If we take them out and self-detonate them all at once, the resulting explosion may create a large enough opening for us to break through.”
“What!?” Blaze was stunned.
Detonating all the artifacts they had accumulated thus far would be a big loss. All the efforts they had put into the inheritance grounds so far would be wasted. Not to mention, they’d have to move very quickly and could easily get caught up in the explosion too. Even if they didn’t, they might still end up not being able to break through, at which point they’ll be completely defenceless when surrounded by the army.
It was a reckless plan, but… they didn’t have much choice.
Blaze knew he didn’t have a long time to deliberate as the shadow demons were inching closer for the next attack. Seeing them surround him in the hundreds, Blaze made up his mind.
“Okay, let’s do that,” he agreed firmly.
“Good,” Farisa smiled.
The two poured mana into their storage pouches and took out numerous artifacts. Apart from his sword and Farisa’s hammer, they were ready to detonate everything else. They looked at each other and though they didn’t speak, the same thought went through their minds.
Three…
Two…
One…
Suddenly, they heard a loud explosion, followed by several voices.
“Crane fist!”
“Crimson burst!”
“Thunder strike!”
Blaze watched dumbfounded as several dozen demons were casually thrown into the sky from the middle of the horde following each voice. He shared a glance with Farisa, stunned. They were both thinking the same thing.
This sounds like… Silver Crane Sect!
Meanwhile, two young men and a young woman were standing on top of a tall watchtower in a village ruin. With the sun setting, the dust storm was almost completely gone, and they could use these last rays of light to see far into the distance before it became nighttime.
One of these young men had emerald hair and ocean-blue eyes, which suddenly sparkled as he noticed something.
“Do you two see that?” asked Elwin.
“See what?” asked Cain.
“That,” replied Imogen, pointing into the distance.
Cain activated a martial technique which let him see into the distance more clearly and he spotted it. There was another ruin, almost a blur on the horizon. Judging from the distance, it’d probably take them past sunrise again to reach there, not to mention all the demons they’d have to fight along the way which would add several more hours. However, they couldn’t spot any other ruins nearby so this was their only option.
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“I see…” Cain mumbled.
“Well, then let’s finish taking the inheritance here and start making our way to those ruins before anyone else gets there,” said Elwin. The other two silently agreed and jumped off the watchtower before heading towards a large treasure chest.
Quite some time passed.
The sun set and rose once again on the inheritance grounds. No one knew how many unfortunate souls had passed away during this time. Nobody cared. The only thing on everyone’s mind was clearing as many inheritances as they could while rushing towards the final inheritance.
Separated from everyone else, but still within the inheritance grounds, was a young boy and girl, sitting crossed-legged in a circular clearing in what looked like some underground space. They were naturally Drake and Sylvia.
Drake’s mind was filled with the image of a translucent, humanoid being, sitting in a meditative pose, with rich mana flowing through its body in blue streaks of light. As the mana flowed through its body, it entered and exited its various bones, muscles, and tendons, breaking them down and rebuilding them anew, infused with mana.
As mana flowed through the image in his head, Drake felt mana coursing through his own body. He could feel his own body breaking down and rejuvenating, causing an unbelievable amount of pain. However, mixed with the pain was a sense of pleasure and delight; driven by the thought that he was getting stronger every second.
Drake was used to enduring this pain now so it wasn’t a big deal. He was determined to make full use of the dense mana in this space to catch up on his cultivation.
Several more minutes passed before Drake slowly opened his eyes. He took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly, calming down the mana within his body, and returning his mind to a normal state.
Drake looked at his left palm and clenched his fist, before relaxing. His strength had slightly increased.
‘I am very close to the middle stage steel body realm now,’ he thought to himself. Beyond that, when his mana core was restored, not only did he become a middle stage true mage, he was also extremely close to the late stage true mage realm as well. In fact, Drake was confident that he could break through both minor realms within a maximum of a few months once he returned to the outside world.
Drake was very pleased. He turned his hand to observe the fire dragon ring that was now on his index finger, and the figure of the dragon head at its centre.
‘Can’t believe this small ring is a rank four artifact,’ Drake thought. However, the four runes inscribed in the ring, as well as the aura it released earlier, left no room for doubt. This was indeed a rank four artifact. Drake was excited to try it out, but this wasn’t the place.
‘The time limit is… almost over right?’ he wondered as he looked around.
On the other side, Sylvia had also just awoken from her cultivation. ‘I’m quite close to the perfect stage warrior mage realm,’ she thought to herself. A second later, she looked at Drake curiously. Sylvia was still in disbelief at the revelation that Drake was now suddenly a mage, and was curious about what summons he could use as one.
At this moment, the winds suddenly shifted as a deep voice reverberated from the statue, drawing their attention.
“Young cultivators, the time is up. You will now return to main inheritance grounds.”
As soon as it finished speaking the last word, the statue’s eyes started to glow a brilliant golden light.
Drake felt a formless energy wash over him and he was once again reminded of the time he was transmigrated by the strange, Orion Immortal. However, he didn’t have much time to reminisce as his vision quickly turned white and, after a second, returned to normal.
Their visions were blurry at first and it took a few moments to adjust.
The first thing Drake felt was the scorching heat and the sharp winds of the dust storm. Looking to his side, he spotted Sylvia standing next to him and felt relieved. He was slightly worried that they may be split up during the teleportation again but it appeared that he was just overthinking things.
“Where are we, do you… know?” asked Drake.
Before he finished his question, Sylvia had already began summoning a few pixie spirits. Several orbs of green light flew out of her palm and shot into the surroundings. Sylvia closed her eyes and focused, gathering information from her spirits about their surroundings, mentally comparing it to the map she had previously drawn, in order to locate where they were.
A few seconds later, she replied. “The voice wasn’t wrong. We are much closer to the black structure now.”
Saying so, she opened her eyes and turned around, and Drake followed. The two were stunned by the sight of a ginormous black tower rising into the sky. Its image was obscured by the winds of the dust storm, but it was much taller than anything Drake had seen before - in both his previous life and now.
Both of them had the same thought.
There’s no doubt about it… that must be where the final inheritance is.
The two took a few moments to admire its splendour before Sylvia continued. “I can see the ruins of some mines in that direction. It is likely to be another inheritance. We can explore it before heading to the tower.”
“Okay,” Drake agreed.
Soon, the two started running towards the tower. Although they could see it more clearly now, that was only because the tower was huge. It was still quite far away.
Half an hour later.
With the help of Sylvia’s spirits, the duo were able to navigate around a lot of demon hordes. However, this close to the end of the inheritance, the density of the demons was much higher. So, despite their best efforts, they would often encounter and be forced to fight numerous demons. However, the two had fully recovered their strength and so were able to make quick work of them, even without using their newly gained rank four twin dragon rings.
All was going smoothly when one of Sylvia’s pixies suddenly alerted her to the presence of a large demon horde close by.
“Wait!” she yelled.
Close to their location, a group of cultivators were fighting against a horde of demons. One of them was a young man wearing leather armour and wielded a huge sword. Two black, spiral horns protruded from his head. Next to him, a young woman dressed in white robes wielded a purple hammer, smashing any demons that came close. Surrounding them were five, muscular men dressed in all sorts of armour and weapons.
They were, of course, Blaze and Farisa who were rescued by the Silver Crane Sect disciples in the nick of time from the shadow demon army, summoned by the dark grand mage. With their help, the duo defeated the army and barely managed to escape. Despite their previous disagreements, the Silver Crane Sect disciples knew they couldn’t let Blaze and Farisa die, least of all because they would need their strength to fight the dark mages for the final inheritance.
Unfortunately, due to pushing themselves past their limits so much, Blaze and Farisa had immediately collapsed. Derald volunteered to carry them while they recovered, and the rest of the Silver Crane Sect disciples protected them as they reached another inheritance. At this point, they laid Blaze and Farisa to rest while working to solve the challenges and obtain the inheritance. It took them several hours to reach the inheritance, and several more in order to obtain it.
During this time, Blaze and Farisa recovered consciousness but had no strength to even move, suffering from their severe backlashes. After thanking the Silver Crane Sect disciples for their help, the two worked on meditating and recovering from their injuries. By the time the Silver Crane Sect disciples obtained the inheritance, they had recovered enough strength to move on their own, although they were still much weaker than normal.
Luckily, there was another inheritance close by so the group had rushed towards its ruins. At this point, Blaze and Farisa, as well as the rest of the Silver Crane Sect disciples, spent a few more hours to recover their strength. Although they were still far from their peak, it was finally enough for Blaze and Farisa to feel better and hold their own in combat.
Everyone knew they couldn’t rest forever, so the group explored the inheritance and quickly obtained it. Blaze discovered ruler martial techniques which he gladly took, while everyone else found artifacts, martial techniques, or other treasures to their liking. Thankfully, there were no dispute regarding how to distribute the treasures.
After clearing the second inheritance, the group noticed the ruins of a mine and started making their way towards it. The number of demons in the area kept increasing forcing them to fight one horde after another, resulting in the current situation.
“Fire blade!”
“Crushing maelstorm!”
The two unleashed their techniques along with the rest of the Silver Crane Sect disciples. However, they suddenly heard two new, yet familiar voices.
“Solar barrage!”
“Rain!”
A large number of fireballs and arrows rained down on the demon horde, killing them in the dozens. Within a few seconds, two shadows cut a path through the horde and reached Blaze, Farisa, and the Silver Crane Sect disciples.
“Drake! Sylvia!” exclaimed Blaze.
“You guys!” Drake rejoiced to see Blaze and Farisa alive. The two groups wanted to catch up but were interrupted by half a dozen demon boars charging at them.
Sigh… “Let’s deal with them first,” said Blaze.