Chương 347: Inheritance ground

Zhou Zheng didn't wait for anyone's reply. He said his piece and left without wasting a moment more. Long Feng watched him leave with different thoughts spiralling through his mind.

"Those true essence pills… consuming one should give me a pleasant surprise and boost my cultivation. And he seemed shocked and excited when he went through the jade. I wonder what is in it…" he frowned deeply. He really wanted to get one in the true essence pills, and that feeling had only grown stronger after he just witnessed Zhou Zheng's strength. What he wanted the most now was to become stronger at all cost.

He was still having some doubts about absorbing another low grade essence stone after it nearly killed him back then. He wanted to wait till he was at least a rank five Imperial before he tried that again. As for Imperial crystals, they would soon stop being of much use to his cultivation considering the shocking amount of energy he required.

A true essence pill wasn't as berserk as an essence stone, it contained a much greater amount of energy than an Imperial crystal and it also had more benefits that he wasn't sure of. If Zhou Zheng hadn't interfered and scattered everything, Long Feng was confident that one of the true essence pills would've ended up with him.

"Forget that. I can always find other ways to get stronger. Going after Zhou Zheng for the true essence pills would be suicide." He sighed and buried that thought.

"He mentioned the serene heaven inheritance ground… It sounds like an important place. I shouldn't miss out on it. Perhaps I can find another way to raise my cultivation there." As he thought of this, a frown once again appeared on his face.

"Ah, it's so unfortunate that I don't have a map of this place nor do I have even the slightest understanding. I should ask someone about the inheritance ground." He quickly looked around and spotted one of the youths he had teamed up with to get here. The team was pretty much useless and had collapsed before anything even happened just as he predicted, but they still brought him over here and he was a bit grateful for that.

He quickly rushed over and blocked the path of the youth who was about to fly away in frustration. The youth paused with a frown but after recognizing Long Feng, he calmed down and forced a smile on his face.

"It's you? You can go wherever you want now. The team is disbanded."

"I'm not here about that. Do you happen to know what the serene heaven inheritance ground is?" He went straight to the point and asked. The youth raised an eyebrow and stared at Long Feng strangely. He was honestly feeling confused. Wasn't this common knowledge? He still replied though.

"The serene heaven inheritance ground is the actual core of this mystic realm. Rumors say that the most important inheritance of a powerful Dao realm master is sealed there along with other accompanying treasures."

"Rumors?" Long Feng noticed that word precisely and expressed his curiosity.

"That's right. Rumors. Because no one has ever confirmed it, and it is unknown what that core inheritance actually is. Peak Imperials who try to head there never return. They lose their lives ten out of ten times. After a while, it became an unwritten rule that only deities could attempt to get the inheritance because only they can survive. We Imperials settle for opportunities around the mystic realm like this spitting dragon fountain. More things like it exist with different opportunities.

But the actual fortuitous encounter, the serene heaven inheritance was left to the deities. Even then, no deity has ever succeeded, mostly because they're all early stage deities." The youth explained. Long Feng finally understood it all. His first thought was that the inheritance ground should definitely have something he could use to increase his cultivation, perhaps the core inheritance itself could do it. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

But then he realized two huge problems. One was the inheritance itself. Peak Imperials had apparently never gone there and lived to tell the tale. He had to carefully consider that. Also, the actual problem would be the deities themselves. The top ten geniuses would be there, and they were all powerful deities that could kill Long Feng with a serious attack. And even if the others wouldn't bother to attack him, Bai Zijun was a different story entirely. Long Feng would be walking into his palm by going there.

The hatred Bai Zijun had for Long Feng was such that he could even give up the core inheritance to kill the latter if he had it in his hands. All things pointed to the inheritance ground being extremely dangerous for Long Feng. But… He wanted to become strong! He needed to increase his cultivation! There was this famous saying… there was no gain without risks. And true to that, anytime he took risks, he would gain something if he survived. If he died, then that would be the end.

The youth noticed Long Feng's fluctuating expression and he couldn't help but exclaim in disbelief.

"You aren't thinking of going there are you?" Long Feng blinked and smiled faintly.

"Profits and risk exist hand in hand right?" The youth shook his head.

"You're crazy. This isn't a risk. It's death itself! Unless you're a deity, I wouldn't advise you to go there for your own sake. It's not worth it. No one even knows what's actually there. It could be a worthless piece of stone for all we know!" Long Feng considered the youth's words and agreed that he did have a point. But, Long Feng wanted to increase his cultivation so much that he was similarly willing to take a huge risk even if there was only a small chance.

Otherwise if he left this mystic realm without having the strength to at least keep his life even in a head on fight against a deity like Bai Zijun, then he would have to keep hiding away. That thought alone left a bad taste in his mouth. Moreover, he would likely fail the inner peak test if he didn't get stronger. And he must do that before leaving this mystic realm; he wouldn't have another opportunity before the test. Most importantly…

'I have a pending battle with Huang Fang Hao, I need to get strong enough to travel to other regions and find Yue'er and Liuli, and I'm still far from being able to kill Liu Shan!'

"I just want to take a look. Do you mind showing me the way?" He smiled and asked. The youth stared at Long Feng blankly for a minute then he shrugged.

"It's no flesh off my skin anyway." He reached into his void ring and took out a white jade then threw it over at Long Feng.

"I've already memorized the map. You can use it to get to the inheritance ground. I hope you're only taking a look as you said, otherwise you're as good as dead. Remember, the inheritance ground doesn't appear until half of the month is gone and it only opens a few days to the closing of the mystic realm." Saying that, he changed direction and flew away. He naturally had no reason to care if Long Feng wanted to throw his life away. He merely tried to dissuade him as a fellow disciple and a former teammate.

He had done his part. He couldn't care less whatever happened next. Long Feng watched him fly away and gripped the map tightly. He quickly left the area as well and sent his consciousness into the jade. A rough map appeared in his mind. The map didn't have much markings at all save for several spots with different colors. One of them has the words; Spitting dragon fountain written above blue colour. The areas marked blue were only few and it was one of them. More areas were marked green and even more were white.

Long Feng had a rough understanding after thinking. The white areas were plenty and they meant safe areas. The green areas probably meant slight danger and some opportunities. The blue marked areas meant high opportunities and equally high danger. There was only a single spot in the map that stood out glaringly. A blood red spot. The red looked like dripping blood, chilling a person's heart at a glance. It was located in the center of the map and was the only red marked area in the map.

"This must be the inheritance ground. I should be somewhere around here on the map." Long Feng deduced his rough location and glanced up.

"If I head straight in this direction, I will reach the inheritance ground." Now, he had to decide whether to go or not. With everything considered, the logical choice was for him to roam around the blue areas and try his luck. It would be much safer and he was more assured to gain one or two things. That was what all peak Imperials did. But the logical choice wasn't always the best choice. He didn't want to be safe temporarily. He wanted to have the strength to keep himself safe at all times.

If he considered the future, then the best choice was to go. And if he decided to act recklessly and not rationally, then… he would definitely join the excitement for the inheritance. And since when had he ever acted rationally? He shook his head with a light smile and put the jade away then began to fly towards the inheritance ground at full speed.

"Now that the inheritance ground won't even appear till half a month later and it will only open a week before the closing of the realm, what should I do in the meantime? I can either roam around the surrounding blue areas or try to breakthrough to rank two Imperial realm. If I absorb many Imperial crystals, I should be able to break through just before the inheritance ground opens." He quickly came to a decision.

"There's nothing much to gain from roaming around. It'd be better to raise my cultivation even a bit in preparation for the hot water I'm about to swim in. I'll find a suitable place to hide." He spread out his soul power and located a forest after two days. He beamed and flew into the forest where he set up some concealment formations before taking out dozens of Imperial crystals to cultivate.

"At rank two Imperial realm, I should be stronger than any peak Imperial there is in the sect." He didn't know if there had ever been an anomaly like him in the Imperial realm. It was very possible that he would be able to fight deities fully even before reaching the peak Imperial realm. That had to be something only heaven grade talents and above could achieve.

"Who knows, I might end up becoming the strongest Imperial there is." He smiled and cleared his mind of all thoughts before diving into cultivation. He controlled five Imperial crystals to float before him at once and he shattered them with a thought before absorbing all of the energy at once. Compared to when he was a spirit realm warrior, it was several times easier for him to do this. One Imperial crystal had injured him back then, but now he was absorbing five at the same time without a hitch.

He began a cycle of absorb, circulate and refine while his cultivation began to increase and make steady progress towards the next level. All the while, his spirit cyclone revolved in a never ending circle, appearing like an abyss of laws that devoured energy without end.