Tragedy

"Gave me a scare. Good thing it's just a dead snake." Xiao Yan took several deep breaths, trying to calm his violently pounding heart.

The python beneath his feet had likely died of old age. Its flesh and blood had completely decayed, and even its pressure had dissipated, leaving only a scaly snakeskin draped over an enormous skeleton.

Once he knew the python was dead, Xiao Yan immediately became bolder. He pulled Xiao Yi Xian along and crawled in through one of the python's eye sockets, hoping to find a magic core inside.

"Not bad luck." Xiao Yan's eyes lit up as he immediately spotted a glittering pale-red magic core.

Examining it in his hand, Xiao Yan found that it was a Fifth-tier Fire Attribute Magic Core. This python had likely been raised by the owner of the Stone Chamber to guard the true inheritance.

After putting away the magic core, the Magical Beast's corpse was nearly useless. Still, following the principle of making use of everything—even if it could only be buried in the soil to grow medicinal herbs—Xiao Yan carefully peeled away the snakeskin bit by bit and stored it in his Storage Ring.

As for the snake bones, his Storage Ring simply could not hold them. Xiao Yan planned to refine them with fire before leaving and see whether he could extract some marrow.

With the snakeskin no longer blocking his view, the entire Stone Chamber was laid bare before him.

This Stone Chamber was more than ten times larger than the one above. One corner was filled with Fire Attribute Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, while the other three corners were empty. Perhaps this python had broken through to the Fifth Grade by devouring these Fire Attribute medicinal herbs.

"Snake Vine Fire Mushroom, Earth Core Fire Ganoderma..."

Xiao Yan's eyes brightened. He found one of the medicinal ingredients needed for the Earth Spirit Pill among them.

After storing the medicinal herbs, Xiao Yan searched every corner of the Stone Chamber again. In the end, he found a Storage Ring lodged in a gap in the python's skull.

The Storage Ring was made of an extraordinary material. Its capacity was more than ten times greater than the low-grade Storage Ring Xiao Yan currently used, so it was likely a mid-grade Storage Ring.

Xiao Yan emptied everything from the Storage Ring. There was a scroll on Mechanism Arts, a manual for crafting Flying Dou Techniques, a Magical Beast Rearing manual, a Key, and a sheet of paper containing final words.

"I was foolish yet unaware of my own folly. I once obtained the inheritance of a Dou Sheng Expert. Among the three great inheritances—the Nightmare Heavenly Mist, the Heaven Refining Ancient Array, and the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame—I chose the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame and obtained a Gu Tu, yet I was never able to grasp its secrets."

"As my end approaches, I have failed to break through to the Dou Zong realm. I have divided the Gu Tu into four parts and released three of them, hoping that a fated person may gather the Gu Tu and comprehend its mysteries."

"The Dou Sheng Ruins lie within the mountain ravine. A fated person need not worry about insufficient cultivation; one need only hold the Key to undergo the trial. The inheritor will not be judged by cultivation, only by character. Remember: only character matters."

The final words were brief, consisting of only three passages, yet their contents left the two of them and one ghost utterly shocked.

Who could have imagined that a Dou Sheng Ruins was hidden within the mountain ravine?

And who could have imagined that someone who had obtained a Dou Sheng inheritance had failed to break through to the Dou Zong realm for his entire life?

"A Dou Sheng inheritance..." Xiao Yi Xian's expression was complicated. Too much had happened over the past two days, and she needed some time to process it.

Old Yao's voice also rang out in Xiao Yan's heart.

"Nether Flame Demon Saint was a peak expert from ten thousand years ago, with one foot already stepping into the Dou Emperor realm. He was at the peak of the late Nine-star Dou Sheng realm, unrivaled in his era."

"The Nightmare Heavenly Mist is a gaseous mist capable of trapping people in illusions forever. It was Nether Flame Demon Saint's unique ultimate technique. He once used this move to envelop an entire city, making its inhabitants feel as though they had lived within it for centuries. Only after the mist dispersed did they suddenly realize that those hundred years of experiences had been nothing more than a dream."

"The Heaven Refining Ancient Array is an even more legendary Formation. No one has ever seen what it truly looks like, because everyone who has seen it died."

"The Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame ranks third on the Heavenly Flame Ranking and can purify all things."

"The reason that lucky fellow chose the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame was likely because the Nightmare Heavenly Mist and the Heaven Refining Ancient Array were both Heavenly Tier Dou Techniques with extremely harsh cultivation requirements. They might require the cultivation of a Dou Sheng to use. Knowing he had no hope of becoming a Dou Sheng, he chose the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame instead."

"But how could he have known that for a Heavenly Flame on the level of the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame, anyone below the Dou Sheng level could forget about refining it?"

"Perhaps it was also fortunate that he failed to comprehend the Gu Tu's secrets. Otherwise, if he had truly found the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame, with his Dou Huang cultivation, he would likely have been reduced to ashes in an instant."

Xiao Yan listened in silence, then put the Key back into his Storage Ring and said to Xiao Yi Xian, "I won't give this one to you. Even if I can take the Key out, I still have to hand it over to my teacher."

Xiao Yi Xian nodded, not particularly surprised by this.

After confirming that nothing had been left behind in the Stone Chamber, Xiao Yan had Xiao Yi Xian climb out along the rope before asking Old Yao to refine the skeleton.

"You brat, you really don't let anything go to waste."

Old Yao smiled helplessly, but he did not refuse. The marrow of a Fifth Grade Magical Beast was indeed good material. Whether used for pill refining or to assist body tempering, it would be immensely useful to a Dou Zhe at Xiao Yan's stage.

Pale Bone Spirit Cold Flame surged forth. Under Old Yao's precise control, it covered every bone of the python.

Under the searing heat of the Heavenly Flame, the massive skeleton quickly shattered into small chunks, exposing the bone marrow within.

Old Yao fused the marrow into a fist-sized mass of white gelatin and handed it to Xiao Yan.

"What a pity. Most of the energy in this marrow has already dissipated, so it won't be of much use to a little calf like you—but it is more than enough to cleanse the marrow of that Blue Eagle."

Xiao Yan stored the marrow away, climbed out of the Stone Chamber along the rope, reunited with Xiao Yi Xian, and left the cave.

"Are you going deeper into the mountain ravine to accept the inheritance now?" Xiao Yi Xian asked.

"No. I still have a whole pile of cultivation tasks to finish. I'll talk about it after I complete them. Besides, the ruins are right here. They aren't going anywhere," Xiao Yan said.

"I didn't expect you to be able to restrain yourself even before a Dou Sheng inheritance," Xiao Yi Xian said with a sigh.

"This inheritance may not necessarily be useful. The fact that the senior who left these ruins failed to even break through to the Dou Zong realm proves that."

Xiao Yi Xian nodded and ordered Blue Eagle to fly toward Little Medicine Valley.

Little Medicine Valley lay deep within the basin where Myriad Medicine Hall gathered herbs, hidden amidst dense mist. Quite a few precious medicinal herbs grew within the valley.

"So? Not bad, right?" Xiao Yi Xian tilted her head and smiled sweetly.

"It really is nice. The World Energy is abundant, and it's also convenient to cleanse Xiao Lan's marrow here."

"Cleanse its marrow?"

"I'll use the marrow of that Fifth Grade python to cleanse Xiao Lan's marrow. At the very least, its Dou Qi needs to become purer and show a distinct Fire Attribute. That will make it easier to nurture later on."

As Xiao Yan spoke, he dug a large pit. He darted around the small valley, picking more than a dozen medicinal herbs, refining them into Medicinal Liquid with Beast Flame, then mixing them with the python marrow before pouring everything into the pit.

"That should do it. Communicate with Xiao Lan and have it soak in this, absorbing all of the Medicinal Liquid. The process will be very painful, so you'll need to soothe it the entire time. But if it succeeds, its aptitude will improve tremendously, and the energy within will be enough for it to break through directly to the second tier."