Chương 353: Dao heart!

The top ten outer peak disciples trudged through the silent hall with exhausted and bitter expressions. Each of them had different injuries on their bodies, and their auras were nearly non-existent. They walked on in silence for a long time before Yang Qian sighed.

"Everyone, I'm afraid Zhou Zheng is right. We really should be returning or at least resting by now."

"We've been walking for six whole days! The inheritance ground is closing tomorrow. Do you all still think there's an end to this damn trap?!" Zhou Zheng snorted grumpily.

"I can only unleash the strength of a rank eight Imperial. If this continues, we'll lose our lives to one of these deity stage puppets." Another youth added hesitantly.

"Some of us would already be dead if it wasn't for senior brother Qiu!" He added with fear in his voice. His gaze which was directed at Qiu Yushi was filled with respect and awe. Others stared at Qiu Yushi with shock and fear in their eyes. There was a simple reason to that. They all knew he was strong. What they didn't know was to what extent exactly. All of them could only unleash the strength of rank seven and eight Imperials, all except three.

Bai Zijun and Situ Hong could both still unleash the strength of peak Imperials, which showed the difference between them and the others. But even they couldn't compare to Qiu Yushi. When they faced several deity stage puppets, a few of them could've died. Luckily for them, Qiu Yushi took the lead, unleashing his full strength. Even with the extreme suppression, he was still able to suppress a single puppet all on his own and hold two or three back by himself! All the other top ten geniuses were shaken by his feat.

Weren't they all early stage deities? Why was the difference between them so huge? This hallway made them all aware that Qiu Yushi fully deserved his title as the strongest outer peak disciple and one of the strongest early stage deities even in the inner peak. Their respect and fear for him grew to new heights, and most of them took him as the leader of this group. Even though Bai Zijun and Situ Hong were disgruntled by that, they didn't react at all.

"You all should be patient. We're extremely close... I can feel it." Qiu Yushi narrowed his eyes and gently replied. Everyone instantly listened to him and they ceased their complaints.

"Say, have any of you noticed that the puppets haven't appeared for a while?" Situ Hong suddenly inquired. Everyone immediately realized that not a single puppet had attacked them for a while now. Compared to just yesterday when they were attacked almost every ten feet, the difference was too good to be true.

"What's going on? Have we destroyed all the puppets?" Someone asked.

"I doubt that. If it could be cleared, then the puppets wouldn't exist. Past generations of deities would've done the job." Qiu Yushi replied thoughtfully. Considering that they weren't fools, they had all noticed the same anomalies that Long Feng noticed. No corpses, the puppets' appearances which shouldn't be possible as well as the strange suppressive aura. But they didn't really bother with all those. Their main focus was to clear the trail and get the inheritance. Nothing else concerned them.

Qiu Yushi continued.

"My guess is that we've cleared the trail so there'll be no more puppet attacks. But I have a feeling it's not that simple." He frowned slightly then shrugged.

"Whatever it is, we'll soon find out. Let's keep going." A few minutes later, Situ Hong glanced at Bai Zijun with a smirk.

"Now that I think of it, I seem to recall that your uncle is the head warden. And he supervises all of the mystic realms in the outer peak right?" Bai Zijun didn't even glance back at him not to mention responding. Situ Hong's smirk widened.

"The head warden must surely know what the inheritance here actually is for it to be the best inheritance in the outer peak. If it's so hard to clear for the past generations, it should be something shocking don't you think?" Bai Zijun finally glanced at him coldly.

"What are you trying to say?"

"What I'm saying is that you seriously don't expect us to believe that you are also unaware of what exactly the inheritance is right? Your darling uncle must've told you what it is and how to get it." Situ Hong replied audibly. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. His words pulled at the heart strings of all the others and caused their gazes to be directed at Bai Zijun. Bai Zijun's eyes flickered coldly for a second before he moved his gaze away.

"I don't know what you're talking about. The head warden is impartial. He wouldn't do something like that." Situ Hong began to laugh.

"Impartial you say? Hehehehe, do you take us all for fools? We're all in this together. It'll be impossible for one person to take the inheritance after all this struggle, so why not just tell us what it is. We can start preparing how to share it amongst ourselves." Everyone's eyes instantly lit up. Even Qiu Yushi briefly glanced back at Bai Zijun curiously. Situ Hong's words made perfect sense, and if Bai Zijun remained silent, his actions would be taken as trying to keep the inheritance for himself.

Doing that here was a bad decision, especially when pressured subtly by all other nine deities. Bai Zijun's expression turned ugly as he stared at Situ Hong coldly.

"I know what you're trying to do. Turning everyone against me is a good plan, but I don't know what the inheritance is." He replied as calmly as he could.

"Don't bullshit us! We all know who the head warden is!" Zhou Zheng shouted.

"Indeed. He looks righteous and proper but he's really just a selfish person. He wouldn't want the inheritance to fall into any of our hands if he can help it!" Someone piped in. Bai Zijun's eyes turned frosty as he glared at Situ Hong, the cause of this. Situ Hong wasn't bothered by the hostility in Bai Zijun's eyes. He grinned and tilted his head.

"It won't be wise of you to keep hiding it from us all. We aren't fools. Tell us what the inheritance is and you'll have a share. Otherwise you won't get anything if we acquire it." Bai Zijun's energy began to bubble and the heat subtly rose. Situ Hong snorted and began to revolve his own energy as well. The tension between them rose drastically and they looked like they would exchange blows at any moment.

"Both of you should calm down. Situ Hong, we're all in danger. Do not try to cause trouble otherwise I'll be forced to react." Qiu Yushi calmly interrupted, breaking the tense atmosphere with these few words. Bai Zijun and Situ Hong glared at each other before looking away, but none of them dared to defy the calm Qiu Yushi.

"Zijun, I'm not trying to force you, but we've all come this far together. Keeping such secrets wouldn't bode well for you later on. As Situ Hong said, at this point, one person can't hoard the inheritance. We'll inevitably have to divide it no matter what." Qiu Yushi added once again and glanced at Bai Zijun from the corners of his eyes. A smile faintly lit up Situ Hong's face while Bai Zijun's face turned black. He frowned deeply for a minute while the silence prevailed, then he sighed.

"My uncle isn't sure of what it is, but he has an idea. The previous head warden was a powerful Dao realm master who was obsessed with leaving his mark in the sect. Unfortunately, he was never able to achieve that until the time of this death. Feeling aggrieved and unreconciled with what he called an unworthy death, he did something crazy." He lowered his gaze and stared at the floor as he spoke. Everyone listened attentively to his words and waited to know what the inheritance was exactly.

"We all know what a Dao heart is. That is the final form of perfection of our spirit cores. Breaking through to the Dao realm is extremely complicated. One would need to gain heaven's recognition, go through the Dao baptism and transform their very state of being to a higher stage. At the end, a Dao heart would be formed, containing the shockingly powerful true essence of Dao realm masters as well as their lifetime of Dao comprehensions." Bai Zijun explained and they all nodded.

Everyone was aware of the process of becoming a Dao realm master. It wasn't the knowledge that was hard. It was the process itself. Out of a hundred peak deities, not even ten might succeed in becoming Dao realm masters.

"How does that explains the inheritance?" Situ Hong asked with a frown. Bai Zijun coldly glanced at him then continued.

"The previous head warden was on his death bed. He was required to leave behind something for the future generations. That made him excited. His one chance to actually leave a mark in the sect that would be remembered for generations. He thought for a long time before he made a decision and did something crazy." Bai Zijun lifted his head and swept his gaze across everyone, noting their focused expressions.

"He severed his Dao heart from his body, causing himself to fall from the Dao realm back to the deity realm and hastening his death. The Dao heart should've vanished after he severed it, but he used a mysterious method to preserve it." Everyone froze. The top ten geniuses all had disbelief on their faces as they stared at Bai Zijun and their breathing all began to surge.

"Y-you can't be serious!" Situ Hong exclaimed. Bai Zijun didn't bother to reply to him. He simply continued speaking.

"The Dao heart existed even after he died, but it slowly weakened with time. Within some years, it would finally disperse if no one refined it. But a change occurred. As it weakened, the Dao heart actually formed a very basic consciousness, unstable and fragmented but still a consciousness. Like all consciousness, it didn't want to die, nor did it want to be absorbed by anyone. So it spread out it's energy, filling the inheritance ground with weakened Dao true essence.

After that, it turned the place into a death ground for Imperials. No Imperial can survive under the aura of a Dao realm master. Moreover, the Dao heart had a different plan. Instead of just killing the imperials who came to refine it, it refined them and absorbed them as energy to keep itself alive. Sometimes, it could even kill one or two early stage deities and refine them, greatly boosting it's life." Bai Zijun paused and smiled faintly.

"That true essence aura it released is this aura that suppresses us. At the same time, it refines all imperials alive into energy for the Dao heart. That's how it has been able to exist until now." By now, they had all stopped moving entirely and simply stared at Bai Zijun blankly. Even Qiu Yushi had the same blank expression. A Dao heart! They could only imagine what it would feel like to refine one as a deity.

They could directly breakthrough one or two levels, increase their understanding of Daos and their techniques. Their true essence would gain some of the Dao realm properties, making them stronger than their peers. The main advantage was that their path to the Dao realm would be much easier. Their original ten percent would surge to thirty or even fifty percent chances. To any deity, that was worth the world. Bai Zijun could tell what was on their minds. He calmly continued.

"My uncle was a bit confident that we can clear the inheritance because the Dao heart is much weaker than it ever was. If we're lucky, we can acquire it and refine it. The Dao heart would try it's best to resist but it's own personal strength is rather weak after so long. In short, it is weak. As long as we can reach it's location, we can easily erase its consciousness and refine it. There will be no threat once we get there." Everyone's breathing was haggard at this point.

Their eyes were all red with greed as they imagined the benefits they would gain from refining a Dao heart. They couldn't help but send praises to that wise Dao realm master who was kind enough to leave such a massive opportunity for the later generations.

"Let's keep moving. We're very close to the Dao heart." Bai Zijun nudged, bringing them all back to their senses. Situ Hong began to laugh uproariously and patted Bai Zijun's shoulder.

"You should've said this much earlier. Right now, I wouldn't retreat even if I was faced with a hundred other deities! The Dao heart must be ours!" They all beat their chests and agreed. This information was like a surge of adrenaline to them. They all felt completely energized as they practically began to run down the hallway, impatient to find the Dao heart. Qiu Yushi lagged behind and watched them rush ahead with a frown.

"A Dao heart... something doesn't feel right. It sounds too good to be true. I've never heard of a Dao realm master who severs their own Dao heart." He rubbed his chin.

"Perhaps it's my own experience that is lacking. But then again, if it really is a Dao heart, how can it be that weak and it's consciousness be so easy to erase? Zijun, you're still wet behind the ears in scheming." He smiled faintly before rushing ahead as well, catching up to the others. Without their knowledge, they inched closer to the end of the hallway, the center of the huge palace. They rushed through the hallway for half a day before they all came to a sudden halt with excitement surging in their hearts.

Right there just several meters before them was the end of the hall. It appeared to be a huge door shaped portal that led to an unknown destination and have off an extremely unusual aura. Qiu Yushi frowned slightly as he stared at the portal, but he wasn't able to pinpoint what exactly was wrong. Before he could speak up, a few of the deities had already went ahead and rushed through the portal without warning. Zhou Zheng, Yang Qian, Bai Zijun and Situ Hong all didn't hesitate to pass through the portal as well.

Seeing that, Qiu Yushi shrugged.

"I'm probably being too cautious. Let's go see what this Dao heart thing is all about." He strode forward with a confident yet caution smile and walked into the portal, sensing the darkness that submerged him for a second before it vanished. The next second, a sensation of weightlessness impacted him and it took a second for him to get used to the feeling. At the same time, he frowned when he noticed that the suppression had drastically increased.

Even he was now suppressed to roughly rank eight Imperial realm, which meant it was only worse for the others. Then he finally looked up and he froze with his pupils shrinking.