Instance: Path of Inheritance

Wang Ji returned to the Magic City Military Camp.

It was the nation's largest military camp in a Wilderness Zone, guarding the Yangtze River estuary and preventing sea monsters from traveling upstream and threatening the safety of the entire inland region. In the world after the Great Nirvana, the greatest danger came from the ocean.

More than 100,000 regular troops were stationed at the Magic City Military Camp year-round.

The next day, Wang Ji followed a squad of soldiers to the Reed Marsh ruins.

Wang Ji's mouth fell open and his eyes widened. "This is the Reed Marsh ruins?"

The colonel in charge of meeting him nodded with a broad grin, his Northeastern accent thick as mud. "That's right!"

If Wang Ji hadn't scanned this place with his Spiritual Force earlier, he might really have believed him. No wonder his request had been approved! They'd already cleared the place out!

It looked like a sunken hotel from a later era. The water had long since disappeared, and a magnificent spaceship lay completely exposed aboveground. All the surrounding earth had been excavated.

The spaceship was over 300 meters long and more than a hundred meters wide. It was plain to see, though, that the inside was completely empty. Apparently, the nation had taken everything they could remove. All that remained was an empty shell. No wonder his application had gone through so easily.

Seeing Wang Ji's troubled expression, the colonel said with a broad grin, "Don't worry. Haha. First, take a look and see if there's anything here that attracts you, like you said. If not, we'll head back to the Jiangnan Military Region. Everything taken from here is over there. We can try it all, one thing at a time."

Wang Ji understood. There was no way they'd let an outside consultant like him take part in exploring an uncharted ruin, even if he was an honorary major.

Now that the exploration was over, though, letting Wang Ji come by and try his luck was no big deal. Maybe he could discover something new.

It made sense! It made perfect sense!

Wang Ji walked toward the spaceship.

"Ding! Instance discovered: Path of Inheritance. Please move within entry range."

Wang Ji entered the spaceship, then sat down on its metal floor and said, "Enter!"

Of course, he entered with his mind.

"Ding! You have entered the instance: Path of Inheritance. Mission: Pass the Path of Inheritance trial. Remaining entries: 2/3."

This instance space also allowed three entries. Fortunately, the instance was still here. It seemed its anchor was either the spaceship, this location, or this space.

Wang Ji appeared aboard a spaceship that had just landed.

"Quick! Get off the ship!" a squad of black-clad men roared. Their auras were terrifying, like those of primordial beasts.

The black-clad men were all over three meters tall, their muscles bulging beneath black metal armor patterned with fiery red lines. Just one look into their eyes made people's hearts tremble.

There were over a thousand youths aboard the ship, all between their teens and early twenties. Some wore animal hides, others metal armor, and still others modern clothing. They looked like a hodgepodge, a fashion show spanning prehistory, the present, and the future.

Wang Ji followed the others off the ship and found himself in a vast plaza covering hundreds of thousands of square meters. It was spacious and imposing, paved with enormous stone slabs, each two meters square. The paving stretched thousands of meters into the distance, but weeds grew thick between the slabs.

Several other spaceships were parked nearby, and squads of youths were disembarking from them as well. The place felt both primitive and futuristic.

More than half an hour later, a burly man in black armor, over five meters tall, flew into the air at the front. A pressure like that of a primordial beast swept across the entire plaza. Every youth's mind went blank. It felt as if a beast had fixed its eyes on them and would kill them in the next instant.

"You were handpicked as the elite of ordinary planets. But here, you're nothing! Only by passing the Path of Inheritance can you join the organization's outer ranks! Then treasures, secret manuals, beauties, and wealth will all be within your grasp! If you're good enough, you can even buy the continent or planet you call home and make it your territory!"

"The Path of Inheritance is your first step toward joining the organization! I look forward to seeing you succeed!"

"I don't care whether you've trained with proper secret manuals before. You have one month! Learn the sixth stage of the sixth layer of 36-Fold Waves, the first level of the Path of Inheritance, and you'll pass the first trial! Then pass the Illusion Sea and the Heart-Questioning Ladder, and you'll be able to join the organization. Simple, right? Then get started! Those who fail can fend for themselves on this planet!"

As he spoke, at a point ten thousand meters ahead, the ground rumbled and a hundred massive structures rose up, each resembling the entrance to an underground passage. Those were the trial entrances.

Wang Ji didn't waste any time. He was the first to head for a passage. It took him two minutes to cover the ten-thousand-meter distance. Some who had set off after him entered sooner. It seemed his strength wasn't all that impressive.

Wang Ji entered a passage with several other youths. A dim silver glow filled it, and soon he could no longer see the youths beside him. In the blink of an eye, he had reached a sealed chamber.

Wang Ji turned around and realized he couldn't even see the way back. It was a huge room, a hundred meters long, wide, and high. Softly glowing, silvery-gray walls surrounded him. There wasn't a door or window anywhere, yet the air was fresh.

"Mission: Master the fifth layer of 36-Fold Waves within 20 days!"

A metal platform rose up ahead, bearing a thick book. The words 36-Fold Waves were written on its cover in bold, striking strokes. As Wang Ji looked at them, it felt like an endless sea of waves was crashing toward him—surging without pause, growing stronger with each wave, as if it would keep pounding him until it crushed him to death!

Wang Ji's mind suddenly cleared, shutting out all the illusions. He looked at the cover again. It still held a certain artistic resonance, but it could no longer shake his mind.

"Iron Will! Iron Will protected my mind!" Wang Ji understood. Iron Will truly was a wondrous treasure. Its value was far beyond what he'd imagined.

Wang Ji opened the manual and read it carefully. After a while, he began to understand. "This is a force amplitude manual. It has thirty-six layers. The first layer gives you onefold force. The second, twofold! All the way to the thirty-sixth, which gives you thirty-sixfold force!"

This force amplification applied to the whole body. It multiplied speed and defense, too! This was a proper force-amplification manual from the universe! Earth's manuals were nothing like it. They'd taken the wrong path, gone astray.

Wouldn't a manual like this be worth trillions? Wang Ji thought happily.

But how was he supposed to take it outside?

He couldn't exactly memorize the whole thing, could he? Wang Ji felt a headache coming on.

He thought through all the treasures he had, but none of them seemed capable of storing memories.

"Could Iron Will do it?" Wang Ji suddenly wondered.