"Whew."
Lei Zhan slowly let out a breath of stale air. His black robe was already soaked through with blood.
The seemingly endless Three-Eyed Warriors had all been formed from wisps of gray mist, so naturally, not a drop of blood had spilled from them. The blood covering Lei Zhan, however, was his own.
"Is it over?" A smile appeared on Lei Zhan's face. He glanced around. The area was quiet, utterly silent. Only the many weapons controlled by his Divine Sense hovered in the air, slowly turning with the Water-Fire Grinding Disc.
"Hahaha!" Lei Zhan seemed to realize something, and the smile on his lips widened at once. He laughed heartily. "Hahaha! I, Lei Zhan... passed the Divine Ability Hall's trial!"
Lei Zhan knew all too well how difficult the trial had been. If he hadn't comprehended the Domain Realm of the Way of Blazing Fire today, obtaining the Divine Ability Hall's first divine ability, Star-Plucking Hand, would have been a bit of a stretch.
Even so, his robe, soaked through with blood from head to toe, spoke volumes.
Fortunately, it was all over.
Whoosh.
Just then,
a figure suddenly appeared beside Lei Zhan. It was the Yellow-Haired Great Bear.
The Yellow-Haired Great Bear looked at Lei Zhan, a rare, gentle smile on his face. "Lei Zhan, congratulations on passing the Divine Ability Hall's trial."
"I passed..." Lei Zhan murmured, then slowly nodded. "Senior Big Bear, now I can obtain the divine ability left behind by the cave abode's first master."
"Of course. You killed every warrior in the Divine Ability Hall, so naturally, you passed the trial. And my master's first divine ability is yours." The Yellow-Haired Great Bear looked Lei Zhan up and down. "Lei Zhan, do you have any divine power left?"
"Divine power? Less than one-tenth," Lei Zhan replied.
"Hmm. With less than a tenth left, it'll be difficult to heal all your injuries."
The Yellow-Haired Great Bear continued, "Rest here, then. Once you've healed your wounds and recovered some divine power, I'll take you to receive the divine ability inheritance."
Lei Zhan nodded. After that brutal battle, he felt exhausted.
His depleted divine power and nearly exhausted soul force would both take time to recover. As for his injuries, they were a minor matter for a God-Devil Body Refining cultivator at the Rebirth from a Drop of Blood level.
The Yellow-Haired Great Bear reminded him, "What you're about to learn is one of the most powerful divine abilities in all the Three Realms. Its inheritance is extremely complicated; it won't be over in a short while. So you need to restore yourself to peak condition."
"Understood." Lei Zhan nodded, then withdrew his divine ability and sat cross-legged right where he was.
Rumble...
As Lei Zhan sat down, his control over the many weapons through Divine Sense ceased. In an instant, all the weapons hanging in the air around them plunged down like a sudden rainstorm.
"This little fellow..." The Yellow-Haired Great Bear blinked at the wreckage all around him, then turned to look at Lei Zhan. Lei Zhan had already closed his eyes.
In less than half a day, Lei Zhan had restored himself to peak condition.
With God-Devil Body Refining, a cultivator could achieve Rebirth from a Drop of Blood at the Purple Mansion level. As long as he had enough divine power, the minor wounds left by battle would vanish as soon as he circulated it.
All Lei Zhan needed to recover was his nearly exhausted divine power and soul force.
"Come with me." The Yellow-Haired Great Bear looked at Lei Zhan and willed it.
Whoosh!
At once,
the gray, misty space around them began to tremble, even twisting out of shape.
"Have we... been transported somewhere again?" Lei Zhan sensed the strange feeling that had suddenly come over him and immediately understood.
"That's right. The divine ability inheritance is a major matter. My master's divine ability is of great significance, so we must be especially careful. We're entering a mysterious place now," the Yellow-Haired Great Bear explained patiently. He had always treated Lei Zhan well, and after Lei Zhan passed the Divine Ability Hall's trial, his manner had grown even gentler.
"A mysterious place?" Lei Zhan nodded. During the transfer, he had felt something unusual, as if time and space around him had gone awry. One moment, a day felt like a year; the next, time seemed to fly.
Time passed. It seemed that only an instant had gone by, and yet it also felt as though a long while had passed.
Only after that strange, uncanny sensation had completely faded did Lei Zhan look around.
The twisted time and space had settled, and he and the Yellow-Haired Great Bear were standing atop the mist.
"Up ahead is the inheritance my master left behind." The Yellow-Haired Great Bear gazed into the distance and raised a paw to point far ahead.
In the distant reaches of the boundless, mist-filled void stood a towering structure radiating dazzling golden light, much like an altar. From afar, tier upon tier of steps could be seen, leading all the way to the top.
"It's over there?" Lei Zhan looked toward it from afar.
"Let's go." The Yellow-Haired Great Bear grabbed Lei Zhan by the arm and headed straight toward it.
The Yellow-Haired Great Bear seemed to stroll with every step, yet each stride carried him several miles.
As Lei Zhan and the Yellow-Haired Great Bear drew nearer, the towering structure grew clearer and its golden light brighter. At last, an endless pressure emanated from it, making Lei Zhan's heart tremble.
In less than a moment,
Lei Zhan and the Yellow-Haired Great Bear arrived at the very foot of the towering altar.
Lei Zhan looked up at the tiers of steps. At a glance, there seemed to be thousands upon thousands, climbing to the summit.
"Go on." The Yellow-Haired Great Bear looked up at the altar's peak. "Climb the steps one by one and receive my master's divine ability inheritance."
"Mm." Lei Zhan nodded.
The top divine ability Star-Plucking Hand, left behind by True God of Chaos Daoist Sanshou, was about to become his. He had waited a long time for this.
Lei Zhan immediately stepped onto the altar's stairs.
Boom!
The moment his foot touched down, it was as if heaven and earth had been split apart. Lei Zhan felt his entire soul—inside and out, right down to its deepest reaches—rumble.
In an instant, standing on the first step, Lei Zhan felt as though he had become connected to the Inheritance Altar.
A vast stream of unfathomably profound information surged directly from the altar beneath his feet into his soul, merging into his memories through an incredible and powerful means.
The inheritance of Star-Plucking Hand, one of the top ten divine abilities in the Three Realms, had begun!
"Truly wondrous. No wonder it's one of the most supreme divine abilities!" Lei Zhan remained immersed in it for a long time before coming back to himself. Such methods, the divine abilities left behind by a True God Dao Ancestor, were far beyond the understanding of a lowly Purple Mansion cultivator like him.
A moment later,
whew.
Lei Zhan took a deep breath, then stepped onto the second stair. Once more, an immense torrent of profound, complex information flowed from the altar beneath his feet into the depths of his soul.
One step, two steps, three steps...
Time passed.
Star-Plucking Hand was a divine ability of immense power, and it was also extraordinarily complex. That meant it contained an immense volume of information.
If the recipient of the inheritance were powerful, with an exceptionally strong soul, they would naturally absorb it at great speed.
But the recipient here was only a Purple Mansion cultivator. Though his soul was far stronger than that of others at the same level, it was still only at the Divine Sense stage. He could only receive the inheritance little by little, as the altar's steps transmitted it to him.
"The day has finally come."
At the foot of the Inheritance Altar, the Yellow-Haired Great Bear gazed up at the handsome young man in black climbing the steps one by one. Excitement and anticipation shone in his eyes.
After his master went off to take part in that great battle, he had never returned. Following his master's instructions, the Yellow-Haired Great Bear had guarded this cave abode and waited for countless years.
Countless years had passed...
The Ancient World had been destroyed. The Three Realms had settled into peace, the three thousand major worlds had gradually stabilized, and countless minor worlds had begun to form. Yet his master—the valiant, battle-hardened master who could hold up the heavens and earth—had never returned to this cave abode.
Though uneasy, the Yellow-Haired Great Bear had chosen to keep waiting.
"Master, do you still remember Little Bear?" the Yellow-Haired Great Bear murmured. "Today, I found a suitable successor for the divine ability you left behind."
Ten steps.
A hundred steps.
A thousand steps.
Lei Zhan climbed higher and higher, one step at a time. He didn't know how long had passed when at last he reached the very top of the Inheritance Altar.
"Is it over?" Lei Zhan suddenly came to himself and looked around. There were no more steps ahead. When he looked back, he saw that he had reached the summit.
"The entire method has been transmitted into the depths of my soul and completely fused with my memories..." Lei Zhan sensed the profound divine ability, its memories containing an immense volume of information, and felt boundless joy.
In his memories, vivid images flickered past one after another, like scenes in a turning zoetrope.
Deep in the boundless void, a radiant hand, as brilliant as jade, stretched through space. The hand seemed to be hundreds of millions of miles long, and effortlessly seized a massive star floating in the void. Its clearly defined fingers merely tightened a little, and the enormous star was crushed to pieces.
The visions continued.
Above a vast, boundless sea, towering figures of gods and devils exuded powerful auras. A hand hundreds of millions of miles long descended, and with a single slap, turned those roaring gods and devils into nothingness.
Within one world, dozens of hideous fire gods and devils lurked. The hand seized that world... The world shattered, and every one of the fire gods and devils perished.
Scene after scene played on...
"This divine ability, Star-Plucking Hand... is truly powerful." The thought flashed through Lei Zhan's mind. "Seize the sun and grasp the moon, pluck the stars with one hand... One day, I may be able to do the same."
Please keep reading, brothers!
Thanks to Hengxing Wudao for the Qidian coin tip.