SS-Class Sublimation Path—Dragon-Slaying Swordsman!

At the front entrance, Li Chenfeng's team had already ventured deep into the heart of the ruins.

Things had gone fairly smoothly at first.

Several A-class warriors took the lead, working with Li Chenfeng, an S-class archer, to suppress enemies from afar. The low-level monsters along the way posed no threat at all.

In less than fifteen minutes, they had safely passed through the outer corridors.

Ahead lay a trap zone.

Li Chenfeng stopped, lowered his head to check the map, then casually pointed at two people. "You two, go scout the path ahead."

The two men's faces instantly turned pale.

The human race's annual death rate of ninety-two percent in the Starry Sky Temple was no joke.

Scouts and cannon fodder like them had an eighty percent chance of walking straight to their deaths.

They had thought they could ride someone else's coattails and muddle through.

They had never expected it.

They would be the first ones chosen.

The two exchanged glances, seeing deep regret and fear in each other's eyes.

Just moments ago, they had joined in mocking Jiang Chuan for heading to the rear entrance to die. But now that it was their turn to test the path, not one person stepped forward to say a word for them.

At the back of the team, Su Yao silently watched the scene, an indescribable chill rising in her heart.

Li Chenfeng glanced back indifferently. He did not even know the names of the two people he had sent to scout ahead.

He casually asked, "Anything happening at the rear entrance?"

Wang Tong immediately sidled over. "What could be happening? That kid is probably dead already. In a little while, the beauty beside him might come crying to Young Master Li for help!"

Li Chenfeng's lips curled slightly at that.

However, before the smile on his face could fully bloom, a low rumble suddenly came from the deepest part of the ruins.

The sound was incredibly muffled, as though some colossal creature had turned over underground. Dust rained down from the entire passage, and everyone froze at the sudden disturbance.

"The main hall!"

Li Chenfeng's expression abruptly changed. "Someone got here before us! The seal has been triggered—we can't let anyone beat us to it! Full speed ahead!"

The instant he finished speaking, he became a blur and charged toward the depths.

At the rear entrance of the ruins.

Jiang Chuan surveyed his surroundings as he advanced at an unhurried pace.

Whoosh!

A poison-coated arrow shot from a crack in the wall, so fast its trajectory was nearly invisible.

Ling Aoshuang casually waved a hand, and an ice shield appeared out of thin air, freezing both the bolt and the entire wall into a lump of ice.

After rounding a corner, four stone guardian statues over three meters tall activated simultaneously from all directions, their massive hammers crashing down with howling force.

Ling Aoshuang did not even raise her hand. With a light tap of her toe, an icy-blue shockwave erupted outward from her.

The four stone guardians froze mid-motion in the air.

The next second.

They exploded into a sky full of ice shards.

The current Ling Aoshuang was no longer the young girl from the tournament arena who would be exhausted after eighteen consecutive battles.

With the boost from Emperor's Oath, she shared Jiang Chuan's full 1,500 base attributes. Combined with her frost talent, which had broken through to SS-class and increased tenfold in power—

It was no exaggeration to say that a casual strike from her now could unleash the power of a peak seventh-rank expert.

Even against an eighth-rank powerhouse head-on, she would not be the least bit intimidated.

The traps and monsters in these ruins were exceedingly dangerous to ordinary first-rank professionals, but before her, they were no different from monsters in a beginner village.

"Master."

Ling Aoshuang suddenly stopped, her icy-blue eyes looking ahead. "There's no path forward."

Jiang Chuan looked up. Before him stood a massive stone wall covered in black patterns. At its center was embedded a fist-sized, dark-purple crystal core that radiated an ominous glow.

He opened the notes Qin Tianheng had given him, flipped through a couple of pages, and found the relevant entry.

"It's an Inheritance Stone. Only when someone who meets the inheritance requirements appears will this door open..."

Jiang Chuan thought for less than two seconds before telling Ling Aoshuang, "Break it."

Ling Aoshuang nodded. She lightly raised her slender hand, and a spear formed in the air, its entire body condensed from icy-blue frost.

The temperature plummeted. A thick layer of frost instantly covered the surrounding walls.

The black patterns on the stone wall crackled and shattered from the cold.

She gripped the spear shaft and threw it casually.

Boom!!!

The entire ruin shook violently.

A hole several meters wide was blasted straight through the stone wall. Billowing cold air poured from the opening, with glittering ice fragments clinging to its edges.

Jiang Chuan stepped over the rubble and entered the space behind the wall.

Before him stood a vast main hall.

Its dome soared overhead, while dense star totems covered all four walls. The floor was black as a mirror, reflecting the entire hall in an atmosphere of depth and solemnity.

At the very center of the hall floated a dark-purple cocoon of light several meters across.

Its surface continuously squirmed, as though something was being bred within it.

Before the two could approach, the cocoon of light suddenly exploded.

Accompanied by an ear-splitting roar, a humanoid monster over three meters tall crashed onto the ground.

Its entire body was covered in dark teal scales. Its limbs were long and covered in barbs, while its huge mouth, split all the way to its ears, was packed with saw-like fangs. Six blood-red eyes fixed themselves on the intruders at once.

[Inheritance Guardian (Boss): LV10, HP 300000, Attack 1200, Defense 800]

It was only level ten, but this thing's attributes were far beyond what an ordinary level ten professional could handle.

Even third- or fourth-rank professionals would likely find it troublesome to face.

"Roar!!"

The temple guardian dropped to all fours and lunged forward like a streak of dark teal lightning, so fast it tore out a piercing sonic boom in the air.

Ling Aoshuang let out a soft shout and raised her slender hand. An icy-blue spear condensed in her palm, and she swept it sideways.

Crack!

The ice spear swept across the temple guardian's waist. Its tough dark teal scales were more fragile than paper before the spearhead, instantly ripping open a savage gash through scale and flesh.

Cold energy surged madly through the wound, freezing more than half its body into an ice sculpture in the blink of an eye.

The temple guardian released an utterly miserable shriek.

Fear appeared in all six of its eyes.

It turned to flee, but its lower body had already frozen to the ground, unable to move in the slightest.

With a flick of her wrist, Ling Aoshuang sent the ice spear flying. It became a streak of icy-blue light that shot precisely into its gaping mouth, pierced through its skull, and blew its ugly head apart into a spray of ice fragments.

With a thunderous crash.

The monster's massive body fell to the ground and shattered into ice shards.

An instant kill!

The temple guardian's corpse dissolved into motes of light. Two pillars of light in different colors shot into the sky from where it vanished, illuminating the entire main hall.

Within the pillar on the left was a dark-gold longsword. Its blade was slender, and a pulsing ruby was embedded in its crossguard. One look was enough to tell it was no ordinary item.

Within the pillar on the right, a palm-sized bronze key floated quietly, engraved with mystical star patterns.

Jiang Chuan's eyelids twitched. "That's it."

But.

This monster had not dropped any professional inheritance?

According to the notes, the ruins within the Starry Sky Temple were similar to secret realms. They refreshed once every year, and each time a gatekeeping monster was slain, there was a chance for it to drop an inheritance.

The reason this ruin had been judged S-class by the human predecessors was because—

An S-class Sublimation inheritance had once dropped here.

Clearly, their luck was not very good. Forget an S-class inheritance—they had not even seen an A-class one.

But what did bad luck have to do with Jiang Chuan?

He stepped forward.

A golden light surged into his hand.

Universal Extraction!

Activate!

Whoosh!!

[Extraction successful! Strength +20! As your Strength has reached the Extremum of your current realm, it has automatically been converted into talent proficiency!]

[Extraction successful! Obtained Sublimation inheritance—Dragon-Slaying Swordsman (SS-class)!]

A dense orange radiance gathered in Jiang Chuan's hand. Anyone could sense the indescribable fluctuations of power contained within it.

"Not bad."

Jiang Chuan nodded slightly. Just as he was about to put away the inheritance, the arched doorway on the other side of the main hall burst open.

Li Chenfeng led his team charging in from the direction of the front entrance.

His head was covered in sweat, and dust clung to his breastplate. He had clearly expended no small amount of effort sprinting here.

But the moment he saw the sight within the main hall, all his exhaustion was instantly thrown to the winds.

Three pillars of light! A dark-gold weapon! An SS-class inheritance!

His pupils contracted sharply, and his heart began pounding uncontrollably.

Either one of those items.

Would be an enormous stroke of fortune if taken outside!

Especially that SS-class inheritance. His greatest goal in coming here had only been an S-class Sublimation path. An SS-class one was something he had never even dared to dream of!

Then his gaze fell upon the two people on the other side of the main hall.

Jiang Chuan was spotless from head to toe. Ling Aoshuang stood beside him, expressionless and as coldly beautiful as ever, without even a single strand of hair out of place.

"You..."

His Adam's apple bobbed, and his voice was filled with disbelief. "How did you get here before us?! Impossible! The rear entrance area is more than ten times as dangerous as the front entrance. We took the main route and still weren't as fast as you. How could you possibly..."

His words came to an abrupt stop.

Because he finally saw the corpse on the ground that was still dissipating.

The guardian of an S-class ruin had been taken down just like that? It was a formidable creature with the strength of a fourth-rank professional. Just who were these two?!