Behind the waterfall lay a vast limestone cavern. Spray made the entrance damp and mossy, but farther inside the cave was dry, with unmistakable traces of human workmanship.
Zhao Youdao led the way, signaling that the route contained no traps. The Xu brothers followed. After turning a corner, they emerged into a large open hall.
A tall black door stood inside the hall, with two young cultivators waiting beside it.
Xu Ziyan narrowed his eyes. Was it his imagination, or did the young man in front look familiar?
Once they drew closer, he finally saw the man’s face.
Holy hell! Wasn’t this one of Bai Hua’s lovers?!
How was he…? Right, of course. Lin Xiaotian was a disciple of Tianyu Sect’s master. Naturally he would have a place in an expedition like this.
When the sects camped on the small island, Tianyu Sect’s encampment had been some distance from Flowing Light Sect’s. Xu Ziyan had failed to notice Lin Xiaotian among the participants.
But he had no desire to become acquainted with the man. If they had not both wanted to explore this inheritance site, Xu Ziyan would have turned around immediately.
Behind Lin Xiaotian stood a girl in white, perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old, with a distinctly arrogant expression.
Xu Ziyan rubbed his chin. If he remembered the novel correctly, she was the notorious ‘vicious female supporting character.’ After she framed Bai Hua, an enraged Lin Xiaotian crippled her dantian. The loss of her cultivation drove her mad, and when her elder grandfather sought revenge, he too was killed.
Hmm… a terribly familiar plot.
“Fellow Daoist Xu, allow me to introduce you. This is Fellow Daoist Lin Xiaotian of Tianyu Sect, and his junior sister, Fellow Daoist Mo Xueyan.” Zhao Youdao then introduced the Xu brothers to them.
The moment Lin Xiaotian’s name was spoken, a murderous flash crossed Xu Zirong’s eyes. His fingers trembled, and he nearly attacked on the spot.
But Xu Ziyan happened to be standing in front of him, reminding him that this was no place to strike.
Xu Zirong slowly relaxed his hand and forced himself to calm down.
Not yet. The time had not come.
He would never forget the grievances of his previous life, but what mattered most in this life was remaining with his brother.
He lowered his head and hid his murderous intent beneath his long lashes, maintaining silence.
All five participants were assembled. Apart from Zhao Youdao, whose cultivation was late Foundation Establishment, the others were early Foundation Establishment.
The three groups were fairly balanced, which helped ensure their mutual safety.
Xu Ziyan politely greeted Lin Xiaotian. Mo Xueyan might be haughty, but she was favorably disposed toward disciples from a great sect like Flowing Light Sect.
After exchanging pleasantries, everyone turned back to the black door. Their chief objective was to obtain inheritances, and none had the patience to cultivate friendships now.
“Brother Xu, let’s get started without delay.”
“All right,” Xu Ziyan replied briskly. They had come for the inheritance, not to waste time.
“This way.” Zhao Youdao led them to one side of the door. Five colored stone slabs were embedded in the ground, inconspicuous from afar. Arranged in the order of the five elements, they formed a cycle. A small footprint was carved into each slab.
“Choose whichever one you like, Brother Xu. I’ve stood on every slab, and none is dangerous. But when there were only three of us, we couldn’t activate the formation,” Zhao Youdao explained.
Xu Ziyan stepped onto a red slab and Xu Zirong chose the green one. The others each took their places.
“Please channel your spiritual power into the slabs,” Zhao Youdao called.
The five cultivators obeyed, and each slab began to emit a faint glow.
The light grew brighter until it formed a pair of huge hands over their heads. The hands slowly reached forward and pressed against the black door, which opened onto a broad passage.
“It worked!” Zhao Youdao exclaimed. “Let’s go!”
Xu Ziyan and the others jumped from the slabs and ran toward the opening.
Without their spiritual power, the slabs dimmed again. The enormous hands faded, and the black door began to close.
All five dashed inside before the black door slammed shut behind them, leaving not even a crack.
“Ha! Excellent luck!” Zhao Youdao was delighted, and the others smiled as well.
Perhaps because the site was large and contained many inheritances, its entry requirement was relatively lax. It only needed five cultivators. If each slab had demanded a particular type of spiritual root, they might have been forced to abandon the opportunity.
“Now that we’re inside, let’s each seek our own opportunities,” Zhao Youdao proposed with a salute.
Lin Xiaotian and Xu Ziyan agreed. Inheritances were governed by compatibility and fate. If a cultivator did not meet the predecessor’s criteria, the inheritance could not simply be seized. That was why the sites rarely prompted struggles over the inheritances themselves, apart from existing grudges.
Zhao Youdao, a late Foundation Establishment cultivator, quickly set off alone. The passage was wide and well lit by everlasting lamps, with none of the oppressive feeling of the earlier cavern.
Not far ahead he found a side passage. He thought for a moment and went in. Soon the opening disappeared, leaving a smooth wall, while a new side passage opened in the wall opposite.
Lin Xiaotian and Xu Ziyan were strangers and had little to say to each other. Lin Xiaotian saluted him and departed with his junior sister. Xu Ziyan waited a little before continuing with Xu Zirong.
Everyone who had entered the Azure Spirit Secret Realm agreed that inheritance sites were free of danger.
Thus Xu Ziyan was in no hurry. He and his brother walked along admiring the murals on the passage walls.
Zhao Youdao and Lin Xiaotian wanted powerful inheritances and had ignored the pictures. Xu Ziyan, however, was interested, not because he understood art, but because the murals told the story of a cultivator with a lightning spiritual root.
From the first painting onward, the corridor depicted the cultivator’s eventful life. To Xu Ziyan it was a tale of a nobody rising to wealth and power, then winning a beautiful bride.
Naturally, the hero endured hardships and trials, but each crisis brought some spectacular opportunity. If these murals were turned into an online fantasy novel, they might attract an enormous readership.
Xu Ziyan would not have examined an ordinary success story so closely. From the first painting, however, he noticed a lightning-bolt symbol at the figure’s lower abdomen, no matter what clothes the cultivator wore.
He first assumed it was a decorative motif. But when the same mark appeared on every outfit, he grew suspicious.
Ordinary emblems were placed where people could see them. The lower abdomen was an odd location for an insignia, whatever clothes the man wore.
An image near the end provided the clue. In it, the cultivator fought a monstrous nine-tailed fox demon. The fox was so strong that he was barely holding out. A huge city filled with people stood behind him. He might have escaped if he lost, but the inhabitants would have perished.
As the hero of the mural, the cultivator could not flee. In the next picture he pressed a hand to his lower abdomen and drew out the lightning mark. He hurled it at the fox demon, which tried to dodge but was reduced to ashes.
In the following image the lightning mark was still present, though noticeably smaller than before. Defeating the fox had apparently consumed much of its power.
Later paintings showed the cultivator searching dangerous places for similar bolts of lightning, fusing them with his own to strengthen it.
Together the pictures reminded Xu Ziyan of the wisp of Azure Firmament Divine Lightning inside his dantian. Since Foundation Establishment, his divine lightning had not grown further. It was sufficient for him now, but as his cultivation improved it might eventually become inadequate.
Because of that divine lightning, he could not use spells of other attributes, which also limited his options.
These murals suggested that his Azure Firmament Divine Lightning might likewise devour other lightning-element powers to become stronger.