The narrow passage was a trial. Only those who safely walk through it will have the requirements to inherit the legacy of Immortal Riverrat.
Tianyi didn’t walk past the gate, and instead, he brought out various treasures and tested them first. If his treasures worked, then he would have no problems, but if they didn’t, then he would have to be warier. Luckily, the late immortal probably didn’t expect a moving treasure vault, like Tianyi.
Full of confidence, Tianyi walked past the doorless gate.
Once he neared the first two statues, they moved to block his way like real gate guardians. The two statues were the color of stone, but they wore impressive scale mail and wielded long stone spears. Tianyi couldn’t help but think of Bai Tiezi, who also specialized in the spear.
“I couldn’t have stolen his fortune, right? Pei! He willingly gave it to me. How is this stealing?”
Tianyi chuckled before he made a slapping motion with his hands and directly crushed them into dust. Although they seemed impressive, the two stone soldiers were only at the Spiritual Pillar stage of the Foundation Establishment realm. To Tianyi’s surprise, once they disappeared, two new stone soldiers stood at either side of the road. But as Tianyi neared, they did not move at all.
“This means I passed the first stage, right?” Tianyi continued walking and was soon met with the next trial.
Two Spiritual Altar Foundation Establishments stone soldiers.
After that were two Spiritual Crucible Foundation Establishment stone soldiers.
And then two stone soldiers at the early Core Formation realm that had not passed the Wind Tribulation.
Then it was two Core Formation realm soldiers that had passed the Wind tribulation.
After that were two stone soldiers that had passed the Fire Tribulation.
This continued all the way until peak Nascent Soul realm stone soldiers. At this point, Tianyi had already brought out the talisman his mother had given him.
“Geez, is this really an inheritance site? Unless you’re in the Unity realm, it doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to pass.” Tianyi said, complaint evident in his voice. What is the point of setting up such a hard trial at this tiny island for? The chances of any locals passing this are so minuscule. Unless I’m doing the trial wrong?
As Tianyi had expected the next two stone soldiers were at the early Unity realm. Tianyi didn’t want to waste any more of the talisman and tapped the jade pendant on his waist. Although the jade pendant was more powerful, it was also easily reusable. Unlike the talisman, which disappeared after one use.
Instantly nine illusionary mountains and seas descended onto the world, one of the mountains exuded great pressure that caused the silvery river below the road to tremble. This was the First Mountain, created from absorbing the spiritual mountain from the fragment of the Immortal Court. Once the formation descended, the two stone soldiers that had been moving were instantly frozen and under Tianyi’s will, they were crushed into dust. Tianyi continued his path on the road, but the stone soldiers along the way didn’t move and instead were crushed by Tianyi using the formation.
“Counting all of them, these last two should be the one at the Transcending Mortality?” Tianyi said as he looked back at the crushed stone soldiers that hadn’t reformed under the might of his formation.
Tianyi released the formation, but he still was prepared to unleash it again should anything unexpected occur. But only the stone soldiers reformed, and there was no other movement.
“This feels like cheating.” Tianyi couldn’t help but mutter. “But it also feels really refreshing!”
Tianyi clicked his tongue as he made his way towards the steles. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be made of an unknown white material and exuded an archaic aura as if they had existed since the beginning of time.
On the first stele were words engraved upon it, it seemed to be the last will of the Immortal Riverrat.
All my years I did not expect that I, Immortal Riverrat, would fall at the hands of an outsider.
I do not know which realm they came from, but my slayer is a man with golden hair and eyes like the sky. He wore strange clothing of unknown origins, and his cultivation was abnormal.
Whoever sees this, I hope you can deliver my words to the Cultivator’s Alliance. The payment will be all the treasures I have left in the chest on me and my inheritance.
There were more words describing the exact circumstances and what techniques they and the outsider used, as well as a good deal of other information. But the most important was the fact that it had a map that detailed where Tianwei Continent was in relation to the Three Continents.
“An outsider with gold hair and blue eyes?” Tianyi’s eyes flashed with an unknown light. “Could it be someone from the other pantheons? And judging by the name, this Immortal Riverrat should be one of the Twelve Zodiacs of the Cultivator’s Alliance. Just that I don’t know is it the Cultivator’s Alliance yore before they were ousted by the Saint Scholar School or the current one.”
Since the creation of the Cultivator’s Alliance, there were twelve Grand Elders that led them called the Twelve Zodiacs. Each of the Zodiac corresponded to an animal of the zodiac, and they had the animal name in their title.
Immortal Riverrat should have held the title of the Rat Zodiac based on his name. But the current Rat Zodiac was an immortal known as Immortal Fisherrat.
“Judging by his prefix, Immortal Riverrat should be a member of the current Loose Cultivator’s Alliance. After all, when the Cultivator’s Alliance held hegemony over the Mortal Continent, the members of the Zodiacs were titled Monarchs instead of just Immortal.” Tianyi’s brows furrowed at the implication.
If Immortal Riverrat was a member of the current Loose Cultivator’s Alliance, then how did an outsider come inside the Huang Realm and kill an immortal without making any waves? Although the Loose Cultivator’s Alliance had fallen from power, they were still above many first-rate sects. Yet Tianyi hadn’t heard of such an event. Of course, there was a possibility that it was something from a long time ago and the cause and effect had already been solved.
The most Tianyi could do was report it to his sect and allow them to handle the aftermath.
Tianyi looked at the chest at the base of the stele. He was actually quite excited at getting the wealth of a dead immortal. He had been given everything nearly at his beck and call and so he had long lost any semblance of understanding of wealth.
“Ah, I should give my thanks first.” Tianyi stopped moments before opening his chest. Directly opening the chest and attaining the immortal’s wealth would be a bit too ungrateful. Besides, it was a small gesture in the grand scheme of things. Tianyi kneeled onto the ground and kowtowed before the stele.
“Thank you senior for your kindness, junior will help you report your fall and words to the Cultivator’s Alliance.
Tianyi got up with a refreshed smile. No longer held back by anything. He happily opened the chest before stiffening. The inside of the chest was empty, and Tianyi’s dream of possessing the wealth of an immortal disappeared along with the contents of the chest.
“Someone else appeared here before me?” Tianyi’s first thought was that the Bliss Earth Sect had already taken everything, but he quickly shot that down that idea. If the Bliss Earth Sect had taken the inheritance and the wealth, they would no longer need to guard the inheritance site. Unless they wanted to keep the techniques from the other people.
Tianyi sank into deep thought before he shrugged. Although he was disappointed at not getting the wealth, his main goal was the space related techniques and manual left behind. He walked towards the second stele and he felt a stifling feeling bind his chest.
Worldly Ubiquitous Spear Art
It was a spear art created by Immortal Riverrat that allowed the user to appear to be everywhere at the same time. Judging from the techniques, its specialty was having the user face off against many foes who were of similar strength or lower.
Just one look would, Tianyi knew that it was perfect for Bai Tiezi. Bai Tiezi planned to rebel against the Bliss Earth Sect, Tianwei Continent’s largest and most powerful organization. Having the Wordly Ubiquitous Spear Art would allow him to fight many people at once.
Compared to the Unwavering Dragon Spear Art Tianyi gave him, this suited Bai Tiezi far more. Unwavering Dragon Spear Art was a technique that focused more on a single opponent at a time, it allowed the user to bring forth a sudden burst of strength to defeat a stronger opponent. The cost was that it would lower the user’s strength for a period of time.
Tianyi suddenly had the feeling that he had kidnapped someone else’s bride.
“Forget it, this is still a good spear art. It would be a waste not to learn it. But first…” Tianyi moved to the third stele. But once he saw what Dao the techniques were related to, he felt blood rising up to his throat.
“Cough, cough, cough,” Tianyi covered his mouth once more and quickly calmed his agitated state.
The reason for Tianyi’s agitation was very simple.
Spring Autumn Scripture.
Broadly speaking, even Tianyi had heard of the Spring Autumn Scripture as it was one of the most powerful manuals that had been lost in time. It was said to have been the cultivation the Yellow Emperor had used to ascend to immortality. The Spring Autumn Scripture embodied the concept of spacetime, exactly what Tianyi needed.
The problem?
The Spring Autumn Scripture recorded by Immortal Riverrat was incomplete. And worse was that it contained only the portion related to time!
As Tianyi skimmed through it, he came to understand many things. The Worldly Ubiquitous Spear Art was something Immortal Riverrat created out of his understanding of the Dao of time. The omnipresent ability of the spear art was the user summoning force the attack of his future or past self.
Not only that, but the silver river below the floating landmass was also Immortal Riverrat’s attempt at creating a miniature River of Time. It’s true form once it was refined was to transform into the immortal realm artifact, River Spear of Time.
Tianyi took several deep breaths before a complicated look appeared on his face.
“Time and space can be combined into spacetime, in fact back on Earth they are intrinsically linked on a universal scale. I can derive spatial techniques from the Spring Autumn Scripture and form a martial cultivation that uses Spacetime as its base. In the end, it will be equal to the true qi chaos.” There was an unresigned expression on Tianyi’s face. He knew this was only him, consoling himself. How many people wanted to comprehend spacetime, yet how failed?
But learning the Spring Autumn Scripture would at least broaden his horizon, and there was no downside. Besides, Immortal Riverrat had derived many simpler time techniques and even some spatial techniques. Tianyi brought out the lotus artifact from his spatial ring and sat atop it before and began to comprehend the Spring Autumn Scripture.
