Chapter 45 - The Ruthlessness of a Demonic Inheritance

Yaan sat there with wide eyes, staring at the Elder whom’s entire demeanour underwent a dramatic shift when he mentioned the 9 Northern factions. He was a bit startled, but quickly calmed himself down as he thought about why the Elder was being so confrontational, realising quickly that it was just a misunderstanding.

Yaan nodded calmly, confirming that he did indeed have a connection to the Northern factions, but showing that he had no issue with admitting this. He forced himself to relax, since he really did have nothing to hide from the Ghu Clan regarding his past. Seeing his calm agreement, the Elder paused for a second. He retracted his aura and decided to first allow Yaan to explain himself.

“Before I start, Elder, could you tell me how your Ghu Clan’s relationship is with the Northern factions?” Yaan asked with a tired sigh.

“We have a strong business relationship with the Undead Coffin Sect, but the rest are basically just shields to us. My Ghu Clan allows them to exist within that mountain range because they provide a defensive barrier against the beasts in the Northern wildness. If they stay within their mountain range then it’s fine, but if they started to expand South, we would crush them without mercy.” A cold glint flashed through the Elder’s eyes as he said this. This was the chillingly ruthless gaze of a Demon Core realm powerhouse, yet Yaan still kept his cool.

From start to finish, the Elder hadn’t stopped watching Yaan. He was trying to see through him, to work out what link he had with the Northern factions. In the past, Yaan might have felt pressured by the gaze of a Demon Core realm Elder of the Ghu Province’s ruling clan. Now though, things were different. He was accustomed to dealing with such people when conducting his corpse trade business by now, he knew how to avoid trouble by choosing his words carefully.

Well, there really was no need to lie right now, though. This fact was also responsible for his calm attitude, because he genuinely should have nothing to worry about. The Elder’s concern was that Yaan might actually be a valued member of one of those groups, which would essentially make him an enemy of the Ghu Clan, due to his high potential for growth. However, Yaan no longer had such a good relationship with the Heavenly Path Sect, he cut ties with the sect when he fled almost 3 years ago.

“I was originally from a mortal village at the foot of Heavenly Path Mountain. A Qi master from the Heavenly Path Sect killed my family, then took me away to become a disciple…”

Yaan started by clearly expressing his lack of good feelings towards the sect. He paused briefly, but then just sighed, shook his head and continued.

“As you know, I became a fiend due to a stroke of luck. Things happened, I ended up in the core sect, where my teacher hid my identity from the Sect Lord. I cultivated diligently so that I could become strong enough to obtain revenge. Only…the sect was all but destroyed by a beast horde, and the Elder I hated so much was killed. My teacher also died, and without him hiding my identity, I needed to flee or else they would most likely have killed me for being a member of the demonic races. So, I ended up here.”

Elder Jishi fell silent for a while. The cold light disappeared from his eyes. After studying Yaan’s facial expression, mannerisms and tone of voice, he determined that Yaan was telling the truth.

“So, you feel nothing towards the Heavenly Path Sect or the Northern factions?” The Elder asked seriously once more, just to confirm this matter.

“No. I no longer hate the sect, but I don’t care about them either.” Yaan shook his head slowly.

“So you would feel nothing if the Heavenly Path Sect was massacred without a single survivor?”

Yaan looked up at the Elder oddly.

“Are you planning on wiping out the Heavenly Path Sect…?”

“No, not for now.” He chuckled. “But I can feel in you aura that something in that sect remains dear in your heart.”

“There is a single person within the sect whom I care for…” Yaan finally said after a long pause. He would prefer not to mention this, but the Elder was still eyeing him with suspicion in his gaze. It seemed like Elder Jishi wouldn’t drop the subject until he understood the full picture, so Yaan reluctantly revealed this.

“I see…this person-”

“I’m not going to describe them to you.” Yaan cut in firmly. His gaze was resolute, he absolutely wouldn’t back down on this point. He had already put Elia through enough. Making her known to the infamous Ghu Clan was just a step too far, he refused to stoop this low.

In fact, he was aware that even revealing this much to the Ghu Clan wasn’t exactly a good thing. This demonic clan would have no problem using this weakness against him in the future if they had need of doing so.

Honestly, Yaan revealed all of this only because he had no other choice. Whilst Yaan was able to maintain his calm before the older man, he knew that this Ghu Clan Elder wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if he genuinely believed that Yaan was going to grow up to become a supporting pillar of the Heavenly Path Sect. Yaan also knew that the Ghu Clan would learn of his past in time anyway; their information network was somewhat terrifying.

“Fine, fine, I just wanted to make sure that you’re not a spy. Well, that last bit was just my own curiosity though.” The Elder laughed care-freely.

Yaan rolled his eyes, not trusting him at all. Demonic Qi masters could be your friend one minute, then using your loved ones to blackmail you the next.

Even if the Elder really was just confirming that Yaan wasn’t a spy, and he really was invested in creating a cordial relationship with a Yaan, a potential future powerhouse…for many followers of the demonic path, gathering useful information about everyone they met was only natural to them, it was something they did without even thinking about it. Building up their understanding of a person would help them develop a method of easily dealing with said person, should they ever need to do so. The Elder had no plan of using this information against Yaan right now, but there was no harm in learning about his weaknesses in case they ever crossed swords in the future.

Well, Yaan had no plan to make an enemy of the Ghu Clan either. The Ghu Clan had actually treated him quite well, especially Nadda. Yaan had no reason to destroy such a powerful connection.

Actually, if possible, Yaan would prefer to get along with people. This might not sound like something a demon would say, but he just didn’t see the need to create conflict if there was another possible resolution. Of course, oftentimes, fighting and killing was necessary. Yaan himself had killed so many people just to increase his cultivation, but that was only because his lacking talent made it impossible for him to ever achieve anything using orthodox cultivation.

After clearing up his background, Elder Jishi continued with his explanation to Yaan regarding the inheritance. Honestly, since Yaan knew so little, every detail surrounding this inheritance left him feeling shocked.

This inheritance opened once every ten years and remained open for three days, but this was only the entrance, a stone archway. The exit would appear separately as a giant red vortex above the lands.

Perhaps the most shocking fact that nobody was able to explain about this inheritance, was that the passage of time within that place was accelerated by a factor of 10. This meant that you could actually spend 5 years within the inheritance, whilst only 6 months would pass in the outside world! This was an extremely mysterious phenomena that nobody was able to explain, even after nearly 200 openings over the past 1,800 years.

Usually, around 5-10,000 cultivators would enter at each opening. The Ghu Clan only sent 100-200 of their own clansmen, but also up to 100 clan guests. Of course, they also gathered thousands of unsuspecting Qi masters who didn’t fully appreciate the true dangers within. When these people were approached by the Ghu Clan and asked if they would like to join the ‘Ghu Clan scouting group’ or the ‘Ghu Clan clearing group’, they felt overjoyed and believed that they would definitely be able to keep their lives by joining forces with the all powerful Ghu Clan!

Naturally, these people were used as trap detectors, bait and human meat shields, resulting in a casualty rate above 90% every time. The Qi Gathering and True Yuan Qi realm Qi masters fell for it every decade though, probably because the Ghu Clan ‘silenced’ anyone who slandered their name within their ‘peaceful and free’ cities. Their cities were peaceful so long as you stuck to their rules. Naturally, speaking badly about the Ghu Clan broke their rules.

These meat shields made up at least two thirds of the participants every year. There were also other big factions from across the province, as well as faction-less cultivators who entered alone to try their luck.

The Ghu Clan was the undisputed overlord of Ghu Province, but there were still many other groups led by Spirit Core realm and Origin Soul realm powerhouses. These factions obviously didn’t lack lower realm Qi masters to send in.

The 9 Northern factions were significant contenders, as was the Aque Clan. The Aque Clan was a clan situated on the Western coast, slightly further South than North Ghu City. In fact, this clan occupied an archipelago of 19 small islands, a few miles away from the Ghu Province mainland. Though, the Aque Clan only attended once every two or three openings.

There were of course many other groups which Yaan tried his best to memorise, but the Ghu Clan, the 9 Northern factions and the Aque Clan were the biggest participants. Occasionally a larger group would make the journey from further South to attend, but travelling thousands of miles was no casual trip, so they would visit maybe once every century.

In the end, there were so many groups that Yaan stopped caring about 95% of them. As he already somewhat expected, the second strongest after the Ghu Clan, was the Yuso Clan. The other three mountain clans were also bigger players than the Northern sects and schools, since they were led by Origin Soul realm powerhouses. The Aque Clan was too led by an Origin Soul realm ancestor, as were another 5 factions across the province, but they were unlikely to make an appearance.

When the Ghu Clansmen talked about other factions ‘across the province’, what they really meant was ‘along the borders’. Aside from the Ghu Clan, all groups led by Origin Soul realm Qi masters were situated at the provincial border, where they were stationed to deter the neighbouring provinces or beasts. The Ghu Clan did not allow powerful organisations to set up base within the Ghu Province, unless they were willing to accept their role as a defensive shield at the border.

Seeing as North Ghu City was situated in the North of the province, it was to be expected that the powerful factions to attend most often were those across the Northern border. Travelling across the province every ten years was something that most couldn’t be bothered to do, especially since they had spent generations trying to complete this inheritance, but still didn’t even know how to do this.

“All we know for sure is that demonic race cultivators, particularly demonic body cultivators, are heavily favoured throughout the trial. The spiritual energy density in the atmosphere is awful, even worse than an abandoned and over-farmed mortal field. This means that within the trial lands, Qi masters’ spells are weakened, as is their rate of recovery. We can more or less confirm that the inheritance is some sort of body cultivation inheritance, we just have no idea what kind. There are also demonic transformation techniques scattered throughout the trial…they’re difficult to find, but one is discovered every few openings. This is a bit strange though. It’s unknown why there are demonic transformation techniques not related to body cultivation, if the inheritance is a body cultivator’s own…”

Yaan now understood why the Ghu Clan had access to multiple demonic transformation techniques, they were probably all discovered within this trial! He also now understood why this esteemed Elder of the Ghu Clan was eager to rope him in to their side.

Yaan possessed an Early 3-Star demonic body. Combined with his exquisite sword arts and extensive combat experience, he could definitely become one of the top contenders within the trial lands!

After Elder Jishi departed, Yaan felt like he had developed a much better picture of this mysterious inheritance site and what the trials within might entail.

The only guarantee was that it would be an absolute blood bath.

Whilst almost all of the trials changed with each opening, the 1st trial was always the same. The entrants, a maximum of 10,000 people, were locked inside a giant cavern. It was large enough to feel spacious even with 10,000 people present, but small enough that hiding was near impossible. At least, hiding from Qi Temple realm Qi masters was certainly impossible with their detection abilities.

The biggest kept secret amongst all factions involved with this inheritance, was regarding the contents of the 1st trial. Nobody wanted this information to leak, because not only would it make them look like demons for knowingly sending people in every decade, but it would also scare people away from the inheritance.

To pass the 1st trial, 1,000 of the entrants must die. No matter how many entered, 1,000 must die.

This was why the Ghu Clan never tried to stop others from sending people in, they needed more people, or else their own clansmen would fall in the 1st trial.

If only 2,000 were sent in, then half of the entrants needed to die in the 1st trial! If 10,000 entered, only 10% of them would be removed. It was the same number of deaths, but it gave those who entered a better chance of survival.

After the 1st trial, it was anyone’s guess what might happen. Sometimes the survivors from round 1 were split into large or small groups. Sometimes everyone was separated and they were sent to tackle separate trials alone. Sometimes, there was no separation at all.

Apparently, 70 years ago, the 2nd trial transported the 7,800 survivors from round 1 to the base of a giant, 100 mile tall mountain. The trial was simple, but also horrifying.

Firstly, everyone’s cultivation was suppressed to that of a mortal. Even body cultivators had their vital energy thoroughly suppressed. That said, their physical flesh was unaffected, giving them an extreme advantage over everyone else.

You could earn one point for every person you beat to the top of the mountain. You could earn one point for every person you killed before reaching the summit. After 250 people reached the summit, the top 500 scoring participants would be able to proceed to the next trial. If there were not 500 people with at least 1 point, then only those people who earned points would proceed to the next round.

Everyone else was executed, or rather, they were refined into energy, which was then absorbed into the inheritance site for some unknown purpose. This was also thought to be the fate of those who died in the 1st trial.

This was a fairly extreme trial that encouraged mindless slaughter for the sake of survival. Such trials weren’t exactly unheard of in this inheritance, but for 7,300 people to be executed by the trial itself, just for failing the trial, was a terrifying thought indeed.

Usually, there would be hundreds of deaths in each round. After passing the 3rd round, it was possible to either continue on to round 4, or to leave. There were also known to be secret hidden exits that appeared throughout every round 3 trial, otherwise the death rate would be much higher. To this day, nobody had ever returned after entering round 4!

However, it was exactly this fact that enticed the leaders of the Ghu Province factions. Since nobody had ever returned from the 4th round, it must still be filled to the brim with treasures!

When they initially explored the first three rounds, the treasures found within were shocking. So shocking in fact, that the Ghu Clan’s monopoly over the 3rd round prizes, was largely responsible for their current power and status!

Prizes still appeared in each round, but only for those who achieved exceptional feats. In the past, simply entering each trial would be like walking into a treasure trove, with treasures, techniques historical artefacts and other such priceless things scattered across the ground. Now, pretty much every trial had been entered and raided at some point in the past 1,800 years, leaving far fewer treasures to be found in the earlier stages.

That said, Elder Jishi mentioned something that filled Yaan’s heart with hope and desire. Apparently, body cultivators tended to be rewarded with more treasures compared to Qi masters, whilst their rewards were also far more valuable compared to those received by others! Clearly, this was another reason that the Elder wanted Yaan to be prepared for this inheritance, since Yaan would be exploring with the old man’s disciple.

After filling his mind with this knowledge, Yaan was more than satisfied. Now that he understood just how much he could potentially earn in this inheritance, he was more motivated than ever to train hard in preparation for the upcoming opening.