The door creaked open with a groan that echoed through the vast chamber, and Bai Zihan instinctively slowed his steps.
Even before he entered, he felt it—the dense Qi leaking from within.
It was so pure and rich that his pores tingled, and his soul felt like it was floating.
The Remnant Soul floated beside him silently as they stepped in.
Then Bai Zihan saw it.
And for the first time in a long while, he was speechless.
“…Holy shit!”
The chamber wasn’t massive—at least not by cultivation standards.
But what it lacked in size, it made up for in sheer weight. Not physical weight—but the weight of value.
To the left were spirit weapons—one of them radiating such intense sword Qi that Bai Zihan felt like it might slice him just by looking at it too long.
It was definitely a Heaven-Grade Sword or perhaps higher.
To the right were pill furnaces, ancient yet pristine. Behind them?
Bottles of elixirs glowing faintly—some of which looked like they had transcended regular alchemy and become what is called Divine Pills.
And then there were the materials—rows and rows of spatial rings, boxes of glowing ores, roots of ancient herbs suspended in time, even a few chunks of what looked like Grade-9 Monster Bones.
There were more than enough resources for him to refine his body multiple times through the Primordial Chaos Body Refinement Technique and also for his Eternal Spirit Sword.
“I was expecting… a few nice artifacts, maybe a cultivation technique.”
Bai Zihan muttered.
“This… This is on a whole other level.”
The Remnant Soul nodded, her expression still serene.
“These are leftover treasures that I was left with.”
She then gestured at the jade slips.
“There are nine manuals—from Heaven Grade to even one incomplete Immortal Grade technique.”
Bai Zihan’s mouth twitched.
(Immortal Grade?)
(Incomplete or not, that’s already enough to cause wars.)
“Can I take all this?”
“Yes,” the Remnant Soul replied. “Everything in this chamber is yours. Consider it compensation for what I cannot give.”
Bai Zihan took a deep breath and grinned.
“Well, damn. I thought I was getting screwed. But this… this is a better haul than I expected.”
Though he got so many things, human greed is limitless.
He still thought that if he got all of these as compensation, then the true Inheritance would be even more precious.
It would definitely be more valuable than everything he had gotten.
“But you can also keep a few things for other participants if you want.”
The Remnant Soul added.
But Bai Zihan acted like he didn’t hear her last sentence.
He whipped out storage rings—high-capacity ones—and began sweeping everything in with clinical precision.
Pill bottles, ores, manuals, weapons—everything.
Still, there were too many things. Fortunately, there were also many high-quality storage rings in the treasury.
Damn, he felt like he was carrying all the wealth of a nation, and truth be told, he could very well say that he was the richest after getting all these treasures.
As for keeping a few treasures for others?
Well, good luck finding such a good samaritan.
After about ten minutes, most of the room had been cleared.
“…”
The Remnant Soul just watched as her entire treasure was emptied—not that she held it against Bai Zihan, as she herself had offered them.
“Well, that’s it!”
Bai Zihan said like there was anything else to take.
“So, now what? Can I leave the Ancient Ruins?”
Bai Zihan asked.
Since he couldn’t get the Inheritance and had gotten the treasures, now he could use that time to refine his body with the material he has obtained.
“You can’t! Until my Inheritance is inherited by the Fated person, no one can leave the Ancient Ruins.”
The Remnant Soul answered.
“Is that so?”
Bai Zihan didn’t mind waiting—not with all the treasure he obtained.
“Anyway, are these all the participants? Shouldn’t there be more?”
Bai Zihan asked.
There were still only around 10 or so who were in the Third Trial, while those who entered the ancient ruins numbered in the thousands.
“The requirement for passing the Second Trial isn’t just to reach the Minor Realm in any Martial technique—it must be a Heaven-Grade Technique. Those who choose lower grade techniques are deemed unqualified.”
The Remnant Soul answered.
“That makes sense!”
No wonder there were only 10 participants who had managed to reach the Third Trial despite the Trial having gone on for months.
If the condition was for the participants to choose a Heaven-Grade technique, there should be others as well—but apart from these ten, others weren’t really capable of comprehending Heaven-Grade techniques, at least not in a month.
Well, the Ninth Princess, Yu Feiyan, did surprise Bai Zihan though.
She—the one thought to be the weakest among the Royal Family—was the only one in the Third Trial.
“Then what was the condition for passing the Third Trial?”
Bai Zihan asked. He had been wondering about this for quite a while.
Killing the Devil shouldn’t be it—because he would have definitely failed that.
If it was to save the City, then he definitely failed.
He couldn’t beat the Devil, and the Devil was more than capable of destroying Ironmist after his death.
“There are many ways for one to pass the Trial.”
The Remnant Soul said.
“One is to defend Ironmist from the Demonic Beasts, but that should have been impossible… which you did.”
The Remnant Soul looked at Bai Zihan strangely.
Indeed, without guns and black powder, even Bai Zihan wouldn’t have been able to pass. It could be said that it’s all thanks to the knowledge from his Earth life.
(But wait a minute!)
“Then shouldn’t I have passed the Trial way before? Don’t tell me that you prevented me from passing quickly because I wasn’t the fated person?”
Bai Zihan said after hearing the answer. He had spent many more weeks—but why, when he had already passed?
“…To see what the result of your actions would have been.”
The Remnant Soul replied.
“Tsk! So, it was all for your amusement.”
“…”
She didn’t answer.
“Then what are other ways to pass?”
“Second, for my younger self to leave Ironmist. Which was also completed.”
(So she escaped?)
When he was fighting the Devil, he made her leave—and it seemed like she was successful.
There were few more ways including saving the City which is yet another impossible condition.
Bai Zihan narrowed his eyes slightly as he crossed his arms.
“Alright then… there’s something I’ve been wondering.”
The Remnant Soul tilted her head, silently urging him to continue.
“Why that trial?”
He asked bluntly.
The First and Second Trials he could understand, as those were meant to filter talent—but the Third Trial didn’t make much sense for the Inheritance.
His voice wasn’t accusatory. Just curious.
The Remnant Soul hovered there quietly for a few seconds, her ethereal form flickering faintly like a dying flame.
She looked away—toward the empty air where the illusionary city once existed.
Then she spoke.
“Because I wanted to know.”
Her voice was soft now, distant and old.
“To know whether it could’ve been different.”
She turned her gaze back to Bai Zihan, her eyes heavy with a thousand regrets.
“Ironmist… was real. It was the first place I ever called home. I was powerless then—just a naive girl with dreams of cultivation and protecting the legacy of my parents.”
She paused.
“But dreams mean nothing when you don’t possess any power.”
Bai Zihan said nothing, letting her speak.
“I watched that city burn. I watched people I cared about—friends, mentors, children—get torn apart by beasts while I hid. Not because I wanted to, but because I couldn’t do anything else.”
Her hands clenched at her sides.
“So I made this trial not for you,” she continued, voice sharp with buried emotion. “Not for any participant. It was for me.”
A bitter smile curled on her lips.
“Just once, I wanted to see—if someone else, the Fated person… could they have saved Ironmist? Could they have done what I couldn’t?”
The Remnant Soul chuckled faintly.
“Call it… self-satisfaction. A final indulgence of someone who lived too long and died with too many regrets.”
He looked at her, and for the first time, didn’t feel like he was talking to some ancient, aloof Immortal Emperor—but just a human being.
“I didn’t think that anyone could change the result, not until I saw you.”
She then glanced toward the others still trapped in the trial.
“You know what’s more shocking? You passed my Third Trial without dying once.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Third Trial isn’t something I anticipated to be completed in one go. Participants would die—and had died. Those who have power, now stripped of their strength, overestimate themselves and couldn’t survive in that place.”
She looked at Bai Xinyue subtly.
“Even the person who died the least still died once—though she seemed to be much closer to passing than any other person. Even so, she had to die once to understand the situation of the trial and learn how to navigate the place.”