Chương 348: A new deity

Days passed slowly and the serene heaven mystic realm became rather silent. Many of the green and blue marked areas would only open once each time like the spitting dragon fountain and they were already closed for this time. The disciples mostly began to go into secluded cultivation to digest whatever benefits they acquired. In the state of cultivation, one usually lost track of time. Long Feng was completely immersed in his cultivation for several days.

At his level, cultivating to make a breakthrough would usually take time. If one cultivation normally without any external aid, then it could take months to make a breakthrough. Cultivation manuals usually increased the cultivation speed drastically and the effect was more pronounced the higher the grade of the manual. But without a manual, Long Feng would sooner or later find himself cultivating at a ridiculously slow speed compared to other geniuses. Days passed without his knowledge.

The inheritance ground appeared a few days ago and all of the top ten outer peak disciples gathered outside the inheritance ground and waited for it to open. As for everyone else, they all kept their distances. Even those who originally didn't believe that the inheritance ground was dangerous didn't dare to go there after going once. An ominous aura filled the area and a peak Imperial would instinctively have a sense of danger and impending death just by being there.

This experience terrified anyone stubborn enough to head there until they fled. Three days before the inheritance ground opened, Long Feng finally exited his cultivation. He strolled through the forest while sensing the energy flowing through his veins.

"Rank two Imperial realm... I'm definitely much stronger than before. I don't exactly know how I'll fare against crimson Chen if he's not injured." Back then, crimson Chen became a deity in the middle of the fight. He was easily among the weakest deities at that time and he was severely injured, yet he still suppressed several peak Imperials from the supreme heaven sect and the Cao clan. Long Feng was still a spirit realm warrior then. He was nowhere as strong as he was now.

If he had to fight crimson Chen again, Long Feng was likely to win if the former was injured. And if he was at full strength, Long Feng should still be able to fight back as long as he didn't have true essence. In short, true essence was practically a major cheat and boost for deities. Without true essence, a group of peak Imperials could fight against a deity and if they were numerous enough, they could even defeat the deity. But when true essence was brought into the equation, everything changed.

Imperial energy would be suppressed to just sixty percent of it's full power and even lower before true essence. That meant for a group of peak Imperials to defeat a deity who was using his true essence, they would need to hold extreme numerical advantage to stand a chance. Long Feng suddenly paused and his chain of thought was broken. He looked around and noticed the shocking destruction all around him. He was in the center of the forest right now and a huge swathe of land was completely barren.

There was not a single lifeform or tree for as far as his eyes could see. As for the trees at the very edge of this area, they appeared to have been burnt by flames that reduced them to logs of wood. Most of them didn't exist anymore, but a few stubborn trees still had part of their trunks that was completely burnt. As for the branches and leaves, nothing was left. Long Feng was shocked by the damage. As he looked closely, he could tell that all of these was caused by a flame. Was there a fire outbreak recently?

What happened here? He trod forward cautiously but there was no danger at all. He had since noticed that there was not the usual sounds of wild beasts in the forest and other noises. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Moreover, not a since beast had attacked him in the forest center. Now he could imagine why. The destruction had terrified even the local beasts and they probably fled out of the place entirely.

It was a completely instinctive thing that even humans would do.

"If it was someone who caused this damage, then they are very strong. Perhaps even stronger than Zhou Zheng. Who knows? It's probably caused by a fight by others before us and the forest still hasn't recovered." He casually formed a rather reasonable explanation for this. After spending a bit more time to observe the forest, he found nothing of interest and he quickly flew into the air and exited the forest completely.

Looking down from above, the forest was large but the very center of the forest was empty with nothing but ashes of whatever used to be there. Marveling at this scene, Long Feng flew away in the direction of the inheritance ground. He was already not very far from it. A single day would suffice for him to arrive if he travelled at full speed. But that wasn't what he wanted. If he went early and met Bai Zijun also waiting there, then it would be a tragedy.

He would rather enter one or two days after the top ten geniuses had gone in. Even though he would be making himself even more disadvantaged, it was still better than losing his life. He slowed down and flew at an extremely leisure pace, even taking his time to pause and rest occasionally or branch in different directions suddenly for a while before returning on track. He did literally everything he could to endure that he would reach the inheritance ground after everyone had gone in.

Thus, the original one day journey quickly stretched out to three days. This was the day the inheritance ground would finally open. The top ten geniuses had long since been waiting for this day as they gathered together outside the place. The so called inheritance ground itself was just a really large palace that was surrounded by impenetrable defenses and a bizarrely ominous aura that could terrify the souls of Imperials.

Ten youths were gathered before the palace, looking utterly tiny compared to the massive structure. Each of the youths occupied a seperate area to sit for the past several days and they barely exchanged words. Suddenly, the entire mystic realm began to shake as though an earthquake had struck. Everyone in the realm was startled but they soon relaxed.

"The inheritance ground is about to open!" Yang Qian rose to his feet and stared at the palace with twinkling eyes, completely unbothered by the shaking. The others also stood up and watched as the palace began to emit faint rays of light that spread to every corner of the realm. This lasted for a few seconds before it vanished and the formations surrounding the palace also vanished. The ten youths exchanged brief glances before averting their gazes away.

This was exactly what was described in the information they received. The inheritance ground was now open and they could go ahead and try to obtain the inheritance. After a few seconds, Qiu Yushi grinned.

"Everyone, I'll be heading in first." He took a step forward and appeared before the gigantic palace doors. The doors seemed to sense his presence and creaked loudly as they parted open a little bit, just enough for one person to go in at a time. Qiu Yushi strolled in and his figure was swallowed into the darkness behind the doors. Next, the top ten geniuses began to enter the palace one by one until only Bai Zijun was left standing outside with a slight frown on his face.

His gaze alternated between the giant palace and the opposite direction where he came from. He was feeling a bit troubled at the moment. The serene heaven mystic realm was almost getting closed and he was yet to find Long Feng to kill him. And now he wanted to enter the inheritance ground. By the time he came out, he was not likely to have enough time to find Long Feng. He was actually tempted to not enter the inheritance ground.

He didn't even know if there was actually anything in the inheritance ground worth the effort, but his uncle had warned him repeatedly that he must ensure that he entered the inheritance ground.

"Zijun, remember, that brat Long Feng isn't worth losing this wonderful opportunity for. The inheritance ground contains a single thing that even we Dao realm masters would want to possess. If you get it, you path to the Dao realm would be paved. Try your best to claim it!" These were the exact words his uncle uttered to him before he entered the mystic realm. After weighing his choices, Bai Zijun huffed slightly before walking into the palace.

Not even he ever imagined that Long Feng was actually on his way to compete for the inheritance as well. Otherwise he just might have laughed out of excitement. No one was left within a few miles of the gigantic palace but the doors stayed slightly open. The place remained utterly silent for two whole days before a figure flew over in a beam of light from the distance. As the figure came to a halt just before the palace doors, Long Feng's face was revealed.

He took a quick look around and took in the sights while confirming that everyone who could join the fray had gone in already. Even then, Long Feng didn't immediately enter. He sat down cross legged and rested his chin up his open palm while waiting for more time to pass.

"This place is suffused with a strange aura. My Imperial energy is being suppressed As he waited, he stared at the palace and tried to guess what he would gain from it.

"Two, no, three breakthroughs should be enough to satisfy me. My sword Dao is at the minor Intent stage. It's not realistic to reach the major intent stage soon. But I can still push my demon and light Daos to the Minor intent stage as well. I haven't been using them much lately." He adjusted his posture and looked up with a glow in his eyes.

"It would be good if I can make one or two breakthroughs, three would be great. And I'll keep trying to learn the third step of the nine firmament steps, perfect the heaven firmament and comprehend the next move, Supporting the Firmament!" Supporting the Firmament was the next move among the seven Firmament Sword Skills after the Heaven Firmament. It's power didn't need to be explained. By the fact that it was above the heaven firmament skill, one could tell how strong it would be.

But Long Feng wasn't able to comprehend it at all. Although he didn't know exactly why, he had a few guesses. One was that his cultivation was too low to handle the move, thus even understanding it was impossible. Two was that he needed to fully perfect the heaven firmament skill which he hadn't done. As for the third guess, it was actually more reasonable. Supporting the Firmament was a move that required true essence to be unleashed, or at least an energy on par with true essence.

That meant Long Feng needed to be at the deity realm to comprehend it. Thinking of this Supporting the Firmament skill caused a tiny smile to dance on Long Feng's lips.

"There's my true secret trump card. I have never used it, but I am confident that if I use it right now, someone like crimson Chen will die without doubt even though I will be severely injured. Who am I kidding, I might even die as well." He rubbed his nose and continued.

"Bai Zijun would be severely injured if I use it on him, but it shouldn't be enough to kill him." He would rather not ever use it though until he was strong enough to do so without nearly killing himself. It was severely flawed currently, otherwise not even Qiu Yushi should be able to survive it. A wave of energy suddenly passed through this area, startling Long Feng. He turned towards a certain direction and slight surprise appeared on his face.

"This… someone is breaking through to become a deity!"