"Leave immediately after three days. You are solely responsible for any damage to anything inside the ancestral home!"
As soon as the words were spoken, the two old men turned and left.
"The progenitor of the Dou Di? That must be the Dou Emperor who founded the Flame Clan..."
"But... why does this so-called inheritance exist?"
Huo Xuan was completely baffled by this. He knew the plot inside and out, recalling everything he knew, but he truly had no recollection of this particular inheritance!
In the original work, it was only mentioned that the Flame Clan had inherited Strange Fire from their ancestors. For example, the Eight Desolations Destruction Flame on his body was obtained by a Dou Sheng Expert who had passed away long ago. By chance, he managed to subdue it. After that predecessor passed away, the Eight Desolations Destruction Flame became the clan's inherited Strange Fire and was passed down from generation to generation.
As for the inheritance of the Dou Di ancestor?
It might be something not mentioned in the original work, or it could be a product of the butterfly effect...
When these two ideas first came to mind, Huo Xuan leaned more towards the second one.
Because of the butterfly effect, my arrival slightly altered the original story. This butterfly, with its gentle flapping of wings, caused changes in the original narrative, resulting in elements not present in the original work...
Although he believed in the second idea, Huo Xuan could not deny the first one. But in any case, the change was good overall. If he obtained the mysterious inheritance from the progenitor, he would definitely benefit greatly!
"We only have three days. Let's leave it to fate!"
Passing through the thick fog, Huo Xuan arrived at the so-called ancestral home.
This bamboo house is very simple and has nothing special about it.
If the two seniors hadn't informed him beforehand, Huo Xuan would never have believed that this was the former residence of Dou Emperor.
"Creak..."
The tightly closed bamboo door was gently pushed open by Huo Xuan, and as soon as it was opened, a lot of dust fell out...
Upon entering the bamboo house, Huo Xuan found the interior decoration to be very simple. Stepping inside, Huo Xuan discovered that the hall was empty except for a portrait hanging on the wall.
The portrait depicts an old man dressed in a crimson robe, surrounded by endless flames. The painting is incredibly lifelike. Huo Xuan had seen him in the clan's ancient books. He was the first Dou Emperor of the Flame Clan and the ancestor who founded the Flame Clan!
Ancestor Yan! Yan Li!
Huo Xuan faced the portrait of Ancestor Yan and bowed respectfully.
Looking around, Huo Xuan saw a spacious hall with a room on each side. He examined them one by one. The room on the left was a study, and the room on the right was a living room.
However, because it hadn't been cleaned for a long time, the hall and the rooms on both sides were covered in a lot of dust...
"Don't damage it. Could you please clean it up? That should be fine, right?"
This ancestral home is uninhabitable without cleaning. Even someone without obsessive-compulsive disorder would find it unbearable to live in a house that may not have been cleaned for hundreds, even thousands of years.
The sun sets in the west.
Huo Xuan finally finished cleaning the entire house. Looking at the house, which could be described as clean and tidy, Huo Xuan wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"This is a house that people can live in."
As the sun sets, a red sun hangs obliquely in the west, about to disappear, and the earth will once again be plunged into darkness.
"Let's rest for today. We'll look for a successor tomorrow."
Huo Xuan went to the room on the right, lay down on the bed, and fell into a deep sleep...
The sun rises in the east.
Before we knew it, the second day arrived.
As dawn broke, Huo Xuan was already up. He hadn't slept all night, and Huo Xuan mind had been preoccupied with the matter of inheritance.
The inheritance spoken of by the two elders has never been obtained by any of the previous clan leaders; only a destined person can receive it...
A destined person?
What kind of destined person?
Huo Xuan had read a lot of novels in his previous life. In some of these novels, the protagonist was initially a good-for-nothing or an ordinary person with mediocre talent who was looked down upon by everyone. However, after they obtained certain opportunities, they began to have an extraordinary life.
There are probably only a few ways to obtain opportunities.
One possibility is that you stumble upon something strange by chance, which can be simply referred to as a "golden finger" or encountering a powerful old man.
Secondly, due to certain accidents, they may awaken a heaven-defying physique or a powerful bloodline.
Thirdly, if faced with a desperate situation, jump off a cliff. If you survive this ordeal, you're sure to have good fortune later. You might successfully find some unparalleled secret manuals or techniques left behind by masters, or you might encounter some reclusive masters and successfully become their apprentices.
Huo Xuan began to carefully analyze where the inheritance was hidden. This is the Dou Qi Continent. When some ancestors perished, they should have hidden their inheritance in certain items.
The Purifying Lotus Demon Saint hid a remnant of his soul within the Demon Fire Remnant Map, while the Yellow Spring Demon Saint hid his inheritance within the Yellow Spring Stone Tablet.
"We can only look for clues in these books."
Huo Xuan went to the study on the left and carefully selected books from the bookshelf.
Without clues, even knowing the whereabouts of the inheritance will be of no use. This place lacks everything except books. For now, we can only try to find any clues about the inheritance in these books.
"Hmm? This is something from the ancestor?"
Huo Xuan, who was carefully selecting books, was suddenly drawn to a thick book on the bookshelf.
On the book was a somewhat blurry signature, which was none other than Yan Li!
After a moment's thought, Huo Xuan put the books he had previously selected back on the bookshelf, took the book that might contain the story of the ancestor, and left the study.
Huo Xuan turned the yellowed pages and began to read carefully.
Day three.
Huo Xuan closed the book, put it back where it belonged, feeling slightly disheartened...
That book was indeed written by our ancestor; it records his experiences traveling the continent in his youth and some insights into cultivation...
However, it turned out that the ancestor didn't have a habit of writing a diary regularly. At the beginning of his cultivation, he wrote every three to five days, then every ten days or so, and later every few months. After reaching the Dou Zong, there were no more entries, only his reflections on cultivation...
Huo Xuan searched the entire book, but found absolutely nothing about the whereabouts of the inheritance. Two whole days passed without a single clue...
"Today is the last day. Is this tradition real or a hoax?"
If what our predecessors said is true, and if the legacy truly exists, it's unlikely to be hidden elsewhere; it's highly probable that it's hidden somewhere within this bamboo house...
For many years, no one has received the inheritance. That inheritance may be hidden in some unusual place, or it may be hidden in a place so obvious that no one can doubt it.
Huo Xuan suddenly turned his gaze to the lifelike portrait of the ancestor in the hall!
In the entire bamboo house, this portrait was the most eye-catching and also the most unusual thing...
Huo Xuan ran his fingers lightly over the portrait; not a speck of dust remained. He had considered cleaning the portrait while tidying the house, but since it was spotless, Huo Xuan gave up...
Huo Xuan initially thought that the two seniors would clean the portraits regularly, which was why the portraits were so clean. But now, thinking about it more carefully, if they really did clean them regularly, why only clean the portraits? Why not clean the house as well?
Moreover, our ancestor lived ten thousand years ago. It's not unreasonable to say that these items from the same era are made of high-quality materials and are durable. However, after ten thousand years, those books have yellowed, and some have even become moldy...
Why is it that the portrait, having been preserved for so many years, remains unchanged and still so lifelike?
"Could it really be hidden within the portrait?"