Bai Zihan’s fingers trembled as he acted like he was reaching into his inner robe.
[“System!”]
He went to the System store and quickly bought a Grade-4 Revival Pill which cost him 1000 System Points.
Normally, he wouldn’t waste money buying such low-grade pills since he could have his clan bring hundreds of such pills, but without his storage ring, he could only rely on the System now.
The Grade-4 Revival Pill didn’t just restore wounds—it burned life itself to forcibly awaken Qi, flooding the user with raw power for a brief time.
Well, since it wasn’t his real body, burning life force wasn’t his concern. All he needed was the power.
He gritted his teeth and swallowed it whole.
Crack!
It didn’t melt gently.
It erupted.
“AGHHHH—!”
Bai Zihan let out a strangled scream as the pill detonated inside his dantian like a miniature sun.
He didn’t expect that with his Qi Refining Body, it would be this difficult to handle the power of a Grade-4 pill.
Well, since the situation was urgent, he didn’t think much about it, but it seemed like he made a mistake in choosing what he believed was a low-level pill—which was quite high-level for his current body to handle.
But he held on. Compared to the pain he suffered, this was nothing, not to mention that he couldn’t give up when the Inheritance of the Immortal Emperor was on the line.
Qi surged through his meridians, tearing through blockages, boiling blood, and igniting his spirit.
His veins glowed faintly through his skin, lines of light racing like lightning beneath his flesh.
Even the Devil paused mid-step, frowning.
“Hoh? What did you do—”
BOOM!
The ground beneath Bai Zihan cracked in a perfect circle as his aura exploded outward, a vortex of pure force spiraling around him.
He stood up, his previous injuries almost healed, but more importantly, overflowing with a huge amount of Qi.
“Let’s see how you can handle this!”
Bai Zihan muttered.
“Nine Shadows Flowing Light Sword–Flickering Shadow Step!”
In that instant, he disappeared.
The Devil’s expression darkened, unable to believe that Bai Zihan, who was almost dead, was now so fast that he couldn’t even see him.
“Your trick won’t work again!”
The Devil said, trying to quickly find Bai Zihan.
“Here!”
The Devil made his move when he spotted Bai Zihan.
BOOM!
“Keke… I told you so.”
The Devil laughed, thinking that he killed Bai Zihan, but all he did was strike one of his shadows.
“Third Form: Nine Shadows Flowing Light!”
“What—”
When the Devil realized that, it was too late.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
A thin crimson line opened across the Devil’s torso.
Then another.
And another.
However, despite catching the Devil off guard, Bai Zihan lacked the power to kill him immediately.
It took him a full second to react—too slow.
He roared, lashing out blindly—but Bai Zihan was already behind him, blade wreathed in Qi, burning the very air it passed through.
The Devil spun, bringing both claws down in a vicious arc.
CLANG!!!
Their clash shattered the floor entirely.
But Bai Zihan didn’t yield. He poured all of his stolen power into a single move.
He slashed upward with everything he had—Qi, blood, will, soul—channeling it through the blade until it screamed like a dying god.
KRAAAAAAANG!
The sword strike carved a blinding arc into the air.
It split the Devil’s left arm from his shoulder and carved halfway through his chest—flesh, bone, and demonic mist torn asunder by pure rage-fueled power.
BWOOM!
The explosion that followed sent shockwaves through the throne hall, blowing out what little remained of the walls and ripping fire through the sky above.
When the smoke cleared, the Devil lay crushed in a crater of molten stone, his body twitching, bleeding black and red ichor.
One arm gone.
His chest split wide.
His breathing ragged.
“Y-You…”
He gasped, staring at Bai Zihan with disbelief.
“You’re… just a Qi Refining brat…”
Bai Zihan stood on shaking legs, his sword lodged into the ground like a crutch, his breathing shallow, his robe torn and soaked in blood.
“When I get back, I must definitely learn a one-move and end-it-all technique.”
Bai Zihan muttered, barely holding onto his consciousness.
And then he collapsed to one knee, coughing up blood.
“Damn it!”
His body couldn’t hold on after all that.
However, it didn’t seem he was the only one struggling.
The Devil howled in pain, flailing, trying to rise—but even he had to acknowledge it.
He had been severely wounded.
By a human who wasn’t even supposed to be worth noticing.
“You trash!”
The Devil had wanted to end it all and Bai Zihan was in no condition to resist.
Just when the Devil raised its right claw, the air around them froze.
Not in temperature—but in time.
Everything stopped.
The flames licking the palace walls… the falling debris mid-air… even the Devil, still snarling with his claws raised, was locked in place like a statue of rage.
Bai Zihan blinked slowly, his vision swimming with pain and exhaustion.
He could barely lift his head, but he sensed it—a shift in the world, like some divine presence had just stepped into the illusion.
And then…
She appeared.
A translucent figure, faint like moonlight and shrouded in ethereal robes, hovered above the ruined throne.
Even the Devil’s demonic aura dimmed under her gaze.
She looked stunned.
Her ethereal form hovered silently above the battlefield, eyes drifting from Bai Zihan’s bloodied figure… to the ruined throne hall… to the crater where the Devil still twitched, half-destroyed.
She didn’t speak at first.
Her gaze lingered on the scorched walls, the broken pillars, the molten stone, and finally returned to Bai Zihan—as if unable to believe what she was seeing.
“You…”
She narrowed her eyes, expression unreadable. Her lips parted slightly, but the words didn’t come.
Instead, she slowly floated downward, stopping just a few steps from him.
Bai Zihan coughed again, crimson spattering the ground, then forced a crooked smirk.
“So, did I pass or fail?”
The question hung in the still air.
The remnant soul finally let out a long breath—she hadn’t thought that she would say these words when Bai Zihan first entered this Trial.
“…You passed!”
She said it slowly, like she was still wrapping her mind around it.
“You weren’t supposed to. Not with that cultivation… not with that body… not on the first try.”
Her voice trailed off again. She turned to glance at the Devil, then at the ruined illusion-city beyond the shattered palace.
Her gaze returned to Bai Zihan.
“To bring a Devil to its knees… while on the brink of death… you went far beyond what this trial was meant to test.”
A pause.
Then, softer:
“You shouldn’t have been able to.”
Bai Zihan chuckled hoarsely.
Well, in reality, he was able to do so because of his cheat of having the System and also because of his knowledge on Earth.
Otherwise, he didn’t think that he would have been able to survive that invasion from the Grade-3 Demonic Beast, not to mention the Devil.
Even then, he was going to die. No amount of preparation and planning was enough for such a surprise.
The remnant soul began to shimmer, cracks spreading through the frozen world like spiderwebs across glass.
She looked at Bai Zihan, and was a bit regretful—or perhaps guilty.
“However, you will not get my Inheritance!”
The Remnant Soul announced.
Bai Zihan was surprised but thought that perhaps someone else was able to clear the Trial faster than him.
Well, if that was the case, there wasn’t anything that he could do—though the same cannot be said after leaving this place.
“Who cleared the Trial first?”
Bai Zihan asked.
The Remnant Soul shook her head.
“No one has yet. You are the first one to clear all of my trials!”
The Remnant Soul answered, which was unexpected and confused Bai Zihan.
He cleared all the trials first, so then what was the problem?
Wasn’t the one who cleared the trials first supposed to get the inheritance?
“Then why?”
Bai Zihan asked, a bit annoyed.
“…”
The Remnant Soul stayed silent for a bit before giving her answer.
“Because of fate!”
???
Bai Zihan didn’t understand what she meant.
Not that he didn’t understand what she was saying, but what was the use of the Trials if it all depended on Fate?
“Fate? Are you sure that you’re not just giving me an excuse because you don’t like me?”
Bai Zihan asked.
Time and again, he had disrespected her, so it wouldn’t be weird if she held it against him and chose not to give him the inheritance because of that.
The Remnant Soul shook her head.
“I am not one to hold a grudge over trivial things like that. But what I say holds the truth,” she replied.
“So you’re saying that I went through all that bullshit, just to not get my reward because of fate? You don’t expect me to accept this, do you?”