Chapter 140 The Trial of Inheritance: Not Refining an Eighth-Grade Pill? ...
"The incense stick's time is almost up," Shen Yuzhu said, calculating the time.
Xia Xining paced anxiously, trying to comfort everyone and herself, saying, "It's okay if we can't wait for her; she'll definitely leave the illusion before us."
Shi Heming appeared to be resting with his eyes closed in the corner, but in reality, his divine sense was constantly being extended, and he was always paying attention to the situation around him.
"You're all here." After Song Yin came out of Langhuan Cave, she was teleported to a new place, and to her surprise, everyone was there.
"Yinyin." Shi Heming opened his eyes abruptly.
The appearance of Song Yin immediately put the three anxious and uneasy people at ease.
Shi Heming: "The three of us were teleported here at the same time. You came out later than us. Did you encounter trouble in the illusion?"
Song Yin: "Illusion? All the illusions you experienced were the same? When did you emerge from them?"
She thought everyone appeared in different places.
If that's the case, they might also discover the existence of the spiritual vein, but since Langhuan Cave Heaven was refined and bound by itself, the others definitely didn't find the spiritual vein.
Shi Heming: "We chatted and checked after we came out. There were thatched huts and large fields of spiritual herbs in the illusion. The things inside were fake. All the spiritual herbs we picked after we came out were gone."
Fake? Song Yin was distracted as she checked the Langhuan Cave Heaven that now belonged to her.
The thatched hut had collapsed, and the field behind it was empty. Only the crystal-armored giant elephant was real, lying peacefully beside the collapsed thatched hut.
Song Yin gasped, "My spirit herb is gone too." It was there before she came out, but it was gone after she came out.
While feeling heartbroken and regretful, she comforted herself that it was alright, as long as the grotto-heaven and the spiritual vein remained, she could still grow spiritual herbs herself.
Shen Yuzhu: "Elder Fu has already been teleported away, and many more people have been teleported away since then. We need to speed things up as well."
Song Yin: "There are others? Elder Fu came in too?"
If that's the case, they'll all appear near the thatched hut.
And yet, she managed to obtain the Langhuan Cave Heaven; the feeling is truly... awesome!
Shen Yuzhu: "Yes, quite a few people came in, but we estimate that only Elder Fu from our sect came in."
Song Yin didn't intend to tell them about the existence of Langhuan Cave Heaven, and directly called them to stand on the teleportation array together.
“Hold each other’s hands to avoid being teleported away again,” Song Yin suggested.
Shen Yuzhu: "Okay."
The group formed a circle, and the teleportation array flashed.
They were then transported to different places.
After Xia Xining looked around, she slapped her thigh and exclaimed, "Oh no, we've gotten separated from everyone again!" However, there was still a female cultivator from the Immortal Alliance she had met once before.
"Fellow Daoist, have you been here all this time?" Xia Xining asked tentatively.
The female cultivator from the Immortal Alliance knelt on the ground, with many refining materials in front of her, only refining materials.
She had her back to Xia Xining and did not respond to her.
Xia Xining approached and gently patted the other person's shoulder: "Fellow Daoist?"
The female cultivator from the Immortal Alliance fell to the left.
Xia Xining was startled to see that the female cultivator from the Immortal Alliance was bleeding from all seven orifices and had already lost her breath.
The place was no longer magnificent and beautiful; it resembled an ordinary stone chamber, with several large wooden shelves on both sides, each shelf empty. Looking at the refining materials in front of the female cultivator from the Immortal Alliance, it was likely that these materials had always been placed on the wooden shelves.
Just then, several lines of golden words appeared floating in the air in front of Xia Xining.
"Those who enter this place may accept the inheritance. If they refuse, they can leave safely. If they accept the test and fail, they will die..." She looked at the female cultivator from the Immortal Alliance again, "So she died because she failed the test."
Seeing the miserable state of the female cultivators in the Immortal Alliance, Xia Xining had the idea of backing down and refusing the inheritance test, but then she thought of Song Yin, "If she were here, she definitely wouldn't back down at the last minute... I'll do it, I can't be too much worse than my sisters."
Xia Xining faces the test of passing on her skills.
The same situation is playing out with Song Yin as well.
After Song Yin appeared in the stone chamber, there was also a dead person in front of her.
The man was not bleeding from his seven orifices; instead, he had a smile on his lips, as if he had been relieved.
She went over to examine the cause of death of the person in front of her. "It doesn't seem like homicide, but rather suicide. But why would he choose to commit suicide in this space?"
There were wooden shelves on both sides, filled with many spiritual herbs. In front of the deceased cultivator, there were not only spiritual herbs, but also an enormous alchemy furnace.
"Do those who enter this place accept the inheritance...?" Song Yin answered without hesitation, "Yes, yes."
The golden lettering in front of me has changed again.
Song Yin: "Within three years, refine all the pill formulas on the alchemy furnace and pass the test."
Does the alchemical furnace have the recipe for the elixir?
Song Yin first moved the dead person to a corner of the wall at a distance, and then went closer to look at the alchemy furnace.
"There really are pill formulas engraved on the alchemy furnace." The next second, Song Yin's smile vanished. "No way, are you kidding me? There are pill formulas from grade one to grade eight, grade eight?!"
Eighth-grade pills would require other alchemists to reach the Mahayana stage to refine, and even someone like myself, who can refine pills beyond their level, would need to reach the Tribulation Transcending stage to have any hope of refining them.
This isn't a test of her refining an eighth-grade pill in three years; it's clearly a test of her cultivating from the Nascent Soul stage to the Divine Transformation stage in three years.
"whee."
Song Yin's ears twitched; she thought she heard laughter. She spread her divine sense to search, but she was the only living person there. She had no idea where the souls of the dead cultivators had gone.
"Could it be a hallucination?" Song Yin fell into self-doubt. Looking at the large alchemy furnace again, she didn't rush to refine pills but thought about everything that was happening.
Whether it's the Langhuan Cave or the Trial of Inheritance, it seems as if there are two invisible hands pushing them forward.
And what if that auditory hallucination wasn't a hallucination?
After the ten gates appeared, the first three people to enter were near the lake. Unlike the others, they did not keep entering new spaces.
The three hid in a secluded spot, crouching on a branch with abundant foliage, taking in the entire lakeside view.
"Last time the Nine Heavens Secret Realm was opened, no one entered. This time, the higher-ups specifically instructed the three of us to lead them in. Does that mean we've completed the mission?"
"I really don't know what the Dao Lords above are thinking. They want these cultivators in the cultivation world to receive the inheritance, but they also want them to fail the test. Tsk tsk tsk, the difficulty is so high, too few people pass the test, most of them are high-level cultivators."
"We're already high-level cultivators, so whether we need these inheritances or not is irrelevant. Taking them would just be icing on the cake."
The three chatted leisurely.
"Many Nascent Soul cultivators came to the Nine Heavens Secret Realm this year, dozens of them, but only a handful actually entered the gate. It's really tragic; these few Nascent Soul cultivators are likely to fail the test."
Do you think there will be any unlucky souls who refuse to pass on their skills?
"Pfft, there definitely is. Others may not know the nature of the spirit of the secret realm, but do you think we don't? It's too wicked, deliberately giving the opposite and wrong information. Refusing is a dead end, but if you accept the test and fail, you can still save your life."
"I really want to know how the trials inside the gate are going. It's a pity that during the opening of the Nine Heavens Secret Realm, with the Dao Lord above observing, the spirit of the secret realm cannot communicate with us."
"The time behind the door is different from the outside. When they come out, we will focus on those cultivators with high cultivation levels. As for the few Nascent Soul stage cultivators, we don't need to worry too much about them. I don't think they will take the inheritance."
"We're so wicked! We're so wicked! We deliberately steal the inheritances that others have received, leaving them with nothing."
"It's alright, we're the final test after all. Oh? Someone's coming out."
At that moment, someone flew out of the door and landed in front of the crowd by the lake.
The surrounding cultivators all gathered around, asking questions all at once.
"Fellow Daoist, what's the situation inside?"
"Why is it just you, fellow Daoist? Haven't the others come out?"
The cultivator who emerged lay down by the lake, panting heavily. "There's a legacy inside. I failed the test but was lucky enough to escape with my life."
There is a tradition within it.
With just a few words, the crowd surrounding the cultivator immediately rushed to fly into the door.
"Elder Pei, are you still going in? If you're not, Elder Feng, Elder Cang, and I will go in," Elder Wen said.
Elder Cang waved his hand, "I won't go in. With so many people going, I might not be able to get one." He had already obtained a legacy, so he didn't need to fight for a new one.
Everyone rushed inside, leaving fewer people outside, giving him the perfect opportunity to thoroughly search the Nine Heavens Secret Realm once more. Such a vast secret realm—even if the obvious treasures were taken, there were bound to be others hidden in the shadows.
Elder Pei: "This..." She glanced at Han Wuyue, then touched her storage bag, "I'm not going." She decided to play it safe.
Han Wuyue shared the same thought as Elder Cang: she had already received the inheritance, so whether or not she received the inheritance from the sect was irrelevant.
The three people hiding in the tree watched the excitement with a vengeance.
"It's a pity that the person who came out didn't get the inheritance, otherwise we could have made a move."
"There are only a few people left by the lake. These people are really cowardly."
"It's going to be lively behind the door. Guess how many people will die."
...
Inside the gate, Shi Heming was surrounded by both the dead and the living, all of whom were talisman cultivators; the same was true for Shen Yuzhu, who was surrounded by sword cultivators; and Fu Jishu was surrounded by magic cultivators.
Even Xia Xining's side has seen a steady stream of people arrive, all of them weapon cultivators.
There were few people at the beginning, but more people came later.
Song Yin decided to refine the first to fifth grade pills first, and then deal with the sixth to eighth grade pills later. She would deal with what she could solve first, and then try other methods for the rest.
Song Yin looked at the pill formula on the alchemy furnace, took down the spiritual herbs written on the formula from the tall wooden shelves on both sides, processed the spiritual herbs, and then set the furnace to refine the pills.
The pills from grade one to grade four were successfully refined, until two uninvited guests arrived when it came time to refine the grade five pills.
Mingzhu and Cao Yannian are two old acquaintances.
"Song Yin?"
"Song Yin!"
The tone that began with surprise was Mingzhu's, while the tone that followed with anger was Cao Yannian's.
Song Yin: Tsk, Mingzhu is here, fine, but why is Cao Yannian here too? Shameless old man, he probably used the spot that Qi Chengfeng risked his life to get into the Nine Heavens Secret Realm.
Cao Yannian laughed: "You've come at a good price. There's no one here who can protect you."
Song Yin continued adding spiritual herbs to the alchemy furnace, saying, "Don't dream about it. I'm a sword cultivator; you can't beat me."
Cao Yannian: ...
Mingzhu: "Pfft."
Cao Yannian glared at Mingzhu.
Mingzhu quickly approached Song Yin, her meaning clear: she was on Song Yin's side.
Song Yin glanced back and forth between Mingzhu and Cao Yannian, and finally said to Cao Yannian, "Two against one, don't even think about it."
Despite his anger, Cao Yannian had to suppress his rage because Song Yin's words made sense.
Song Yin continued refining pills and asked Mingzhu, who was standing beside her, "When did you all come in?"
Mingzhu: "Just now, I saw you as soon as I came in."
Song Yin paused, "Didn't you see the teleportation array?"
Mingzhu asked doubtfully, "After entering... is there a teleportation array?"
They didn't see any teleportation arrays, so it seems they don't know about the thatched huts in Langhuan Cave.
This place is unremarkable, but the area with the teleportation array is breathtakingly beautiful. Is there really only the teleportation array there and nothing else?
Song Yin: "You guys are pretty lucky. After we came in, we first encountered an illusion, then a teleportation array, and finally we were teleported here by the teleportation array."
"Tch." Cao Yannian scoffed.
"Why did you decide to come in from the back?" Song Yin asked casually, but Mingzhu's answer left her completely stunned.
"Someone came out from inside the door and said there was a legacy behind it, but he didn't pass through. After hearing that, everyone rushed in like a swarm of bees." This isn't a secret, so it's fine to tell Song Yin.
Song Yin was stunned. "You mean someone got out alive, but didn't pass the inheritance test?"
Mingzhu: "Yes."
Where exactly did things go wrong? Song Yin recalled the golden text from earlier: refusing the inheritance test guarantees survival, while failing the test results in death. How did the person Mingzhu mentioned manage to get out alive?
Mingzhu: "Do those who enter this place receive the inheritance...?"
After careful consideration, Mingzhu realized that with Song Yin and the Qingxuan Sect elders around, it would be difficult for her to obtain the inheritance. She decided it would be better to betray Song Yin and refuse to compete with her for the inheritance.
"Perhaps I should refuse."
Song Yin immediately stopped her: "Wait a minute!"
Song Yin's reminder came too late.
After Mingzhu finished speaking, she collapsed to the ground, bleeding from all seven orifices, before she could even react.
A chill ran down Song Yin's spine, and she broke out in a cold sweat. This was a Nascent Soul stage cultivator, gone just like that...
Song Yin was startled, and Cao Yannian was no different, breaking out in a cold sweat as well.
"In the blink of an eye, a Nascent Soul cultivator is gone." Cao Yannian no longer had time to care about Song Yin. If this inheritance could so easily take the life of a Nascent Soul cultivator, then there was probably no difference between a Deity Transformation cultivator and a Nascent Soul cultivator.
Mingzhu's soul flew out uncontrollably, but Song Yin noticed and captured it.
Mingzhu was stunned, staring at her own body on the ground, realizing she was dead. "I'm dead??"
Song Yin felt a headache coming on. She had captured Mingzhu's soul, but she couldn't revive her. The Nine-Turn Rejuvenation Pill certainly wouldn't be given up for Mingzhu. All she could do was protect her intact soul and then hand it over to the Wuji Sect.
As for how to arrange Mingzhu's soul later, let the Wuji Sect worry about that.
Song Yin cast a spell on Mingzhu's body: "Try to stabilize yourself and don't let your soul dissipate. Your soul is intact now, and I will also preserve your physical body and send your soul and body back to Wuji Sect together."
Mingzhu's greatest strength is her ability to assess situations. Given the current situation, it is already a great blessing that Song Yin has helped her get to the Wuji Sect. Even if she is internally collapsing, she must keep her emotions in check and not let Song Yin feel annoyed.
"Thanks, it's good to have you as a friend. My martial uncle is also in the Nine Heavens Secret Realm. If you run into him outside, you can hand me over to him, and he will take me back to the sect."
With Mingzhu as a precedent, Cao Yannian chose to accept the test of succession.
After undergoing the test of inheritance, Cao Yannian finally understood why Song Yin was refining elixirs here.
From first to eighth grade, at his Nascent Soul stage, he can only refine fifth-grade pills at most.
Cao Yannian remained motionless for a long time. Song Yin summoned the Qingyang Sword to protect her side. No matter whether she was looking down or turning around, the tip of the Qingyang Sword was always pointed at Cao Yannian.
Cao Yannian: ...
I have never seen such a cautious person.
"Stop! Take another step closer, or swords will have no eyes!" Song Yin stopped Cao Yannian.
Cao Yannian: "The formula for the pill is on the alchemy furnace. I need to know the formula. I can refrain from attacking you until the inheritance test is over."
"I almost forgot if you hadn't mentioned it." Song Yin pointed and put a barrier around the large alchemy furnace, preventing Cao Yannian from seeing the pill formula engraved on it.
Cao Yannian was so angry at Song Yin's outrageous actions that he almost vomited blood: "You despicable and shameless scoundrel, you are unworthy of being a disciple of the Xianxiao Sect."
Song Yin remained calm and was not angered at all. "I know, you despicable and shameless adult, you are unworthy of being an elder of the Qingxuan Sect."
Not wanting to be led by the nose by Song Yin, Cao Yannian made a move to seize the alchemy furnace.
Whoosh!
A whooshing sound rang out as the Qingyang Sword blocked Cao Yannian's attack.
Cao Yannian wiped the blood from his face with his thumb, refraining from making any further rash moves. His earlier probing attack had proven that Song Yin indeed possessed the ability to kill him.
If the hard approach doesn't work, we have to try the soft one.
Cao Yannian softened his tone, feigning pitifulness and playing the emotional card: "My two disciples died because of you. I won't pursue the matter with you. If you have any conscience, shouldn't you feel guilty? Besides, your master and I have been friends for many years. Do you really want to keep the elixir formula for yourself?"
Song Yin extinguished the fire, and the fifth-grade pill flew out of the furnace and into the pill bottle, which she then sealed with a cap.
“It’s not that you’re not going to pursue the trouble with me, it’s that you’ve realized you can’t beat me. If you truly cared about the friendship between you and your master, you wouldn’t have arranged for two disciples to kill me in the competition, or even used your inner energy to destroy my cultivation foundation.”
Cao Yannian: "How did you know?!" Then he realized, "It's normal that you knew, it must have been your master who told you."
Song Yin stood beside the alchemy furnace: "If I had a disciple, and someone killed him, I would definitely not let them get away with it. You think I wouldn't make trouble for you? Nobody would believe that."
Mingzhu weakly said, "I'm a ghost now, I don't believe it."
"Ahem." Song Yin said softly, "Let's not speak at a time like this."
Mingzhu shut up, and after a while she said again, "There is no pill formula on the alchemy furnace."
Song Yin: "You can't see it? Perhaps it's because you haven't undergone the test of inheritance that you can't see it."
Cao Yannian was completely ignored.
As a Nascent Soul cultivator and an elder of the Qingxuan Sect, he was the object of everyone's flattery and fawning. Yet, in front of Song Yin, he was completely ignored, and what was even more frustrating was that a Nascent Soul cultivator couldn't defeat a Spirit Core cultivator.
Song Yin appeared to be ignoring Cao Yannian, but in reality, she was plotting how to kill the old man here. She had already offended him, and there were two lives between them; they were destined to be on completely different paths.
There's also the matter of inheritance; even if you can't have it yourself, you can't let him have it either.
A ruthless glint flashed in Song Yin's eyes as she took out a Five-Turn Illusionary Heart Demon Pill from her spatial storage and hid it in her hand.
Cao Yannian was helpless against Song Yin, but if he couldn't obtain the inheritance, Song Yin shouldn't even think about getting it either.
"Spiritual Fire!" Two flames appeared in Cao Yannian's hands, spreading and sweeping away the spiritual herbs on the wooden shelves on both sides. At the same time, spiritual energy surged and crashed, and the wooden shelves on both sides were blown down.
Right now.
Song Yin crushed the Five-Turn Illusionary Heart Demon Pill, sending the powdered pill towards Cao Yannian with her spiritual energy. Cao Yannian would only think that she wanted to extinguish the flames and save the spiritual herbs on the two shelves.
In fact, it didn't matter to Cao Yannian that she destroyed the spiritual herbs on the wooden shelf. She had many spiritual herbs that she had collected in the Nine Heavens Secret Realm in her storage bag, and she had all the spiritual herbs on the shelf in her own storage bag.
With a flick of Song Yin's fingertips, the Qingyang Sword seemed to come alive, humming as it launched an attack with unstoppable force.
Cao Yannian immediately steadied himself, mobilized his spiritual energy, and used magic to stop the Qingyang Sword's attack.
The Azure Sun Sword was blocked by Cao Yannian's spiritual energy, resulting in a stalemate. Song Yin had the Azure Sun Sword create a clone, which then changed direction and attacked from the side.
With limited space, Cao Yannian was soon cornered with nowhere to retreat.
"Seven Star Banner, break!" Cao Yannian summoned his magical artifact.
The room shone brightly as seven attacks simultaneously rushed towards Song Yin.
Song Yin also unleashed her magical artifact, the Flying Smoke Demon Blade, shouting, "Go!"
Cao Yannian was furious: "Fine! Fine! You actually dare to use Hongluan's magic weapon to attack me."
The Flying Smoke Demon Blade flexibly changed its trajectory, instantly intercepting all of the Seven Star Banner's attacks.
The flames burning the spiritual herbs on both sides continued to burn, and the indoor temperature gradually rose. Song Yin threw out a few ice-condensing talismans to both sides, and soon the flames went out and the temperature dropped.
After intercepting the Seven Star Banner's attack with the Flying Smoke Demon Blade, it immediately launched an offensive against Cao Yannian in conjunction with the Azure Sun Sword.
Whether in terms of personal combat strength or control over magical artifacts, Cao Yannian was no match for Song Yin.
He felt powerless and immediately used a defensive magical artifact.
Song Yin, however, put an invisibility talisman on herself and disappeared right under Cao Yannian's nose.
Cao Yannian immediately unleashed his divine sense!
When he used his divine sense to search for Song Yin, Song Yin was already close by, and the Qingyang Sword had returned to Song Yin's hand.
"There's no escaping it." Song Yin's voice was gentle, but her sword was already at Cao Yannian's neck.
Mingzhu's spirit clung to the other corner of the wall, witnessing Song Yin cleanly and decisively behead Cao Yannian.
Previously, I watched Song Yin's duel with her opponent through the water mirror in the arena. Today, I can watch Song Yin fight up close, and her opponent is a Nascent Soul stage cultivator.
Mingzhu: "W-So fast?" Completely suppressing the enemy, she didn't even give them a chance to speak at the last moment, and killed them directly.
Killing them wasn't enough; they then captured and obliterated their souls.
Song Yin, her hands still stained with blood, turned back to look at Mingzhu, raised her index finger, and said, "Shh, once we get out, you'll know what you should and shouldn't say, right?"
Mingzhu nodded, still reeling from what had just happened.
Very competitive.
Song Yin looked down at the corpse on the ground again, summoned the Purple Sun Spirit Fire with her fingertips, and the small flame landed on the corpse, grew bigger with a bang, and quickly burned it to ashes.
"Cremation, you're welcome," Song Yin said to the ashes.
After saying that, she walked to the fallen wooden frame. The raging fire had only burned the spiritual herbs, but the wooden frame was completely intact.
The test is not over yet. We need to find a way to break through the cultivation limit and refine higher-grade pills, or find a way to break through the Tribulation Transcending stage.
Neither the first nor the second method is feasible.
Originally, Song Yin thought that failing the test was a dead end, but Mingzhu brought her good news: failing the test did not necessarily mean death, which relieved Song Yin's pressure a little.
Song Yin squatted down to study the wooden frame.
Because the wooden frame collapsed, the bottom was exposed.
Song Yin's gaze sharpened as she touched the bottom of the wooden frame.
Like the large alchemy furnace, the bottom of the wooden frame was engraved with text. If Cao Yannian hadn't overturned the frame, she certainly wouldn't have thought to check its bottom.
Song Yin read the text word by word, and Mingzhu, curious, drifted over to watch from the corner of the wall in the distance.
Mingzhu: "There's nothing down there, what are you looking at?"
Song Yin: "No, there's something underneath."
Mingzhu thought to herself, "It's probably because she refused the test that she can't see what's at the bottom."
After reading the text on the bottom of one wooden frame, Song Yin ran to the second wooden frame to look at it... After reading the bottom of all the wooden frames, Song Yin got up and strode towards the alchemy furnace.
"Cao Yannian, Cao Yannian, I really have to thank you this time."
The text at the bottom of the wooden frame turned out to be a complete alchemy manual, which is the most core part of a legacy.
The last sentence of the manual states: Those who master this method are not limited by their cultivation level and can freely refine pills of various grades.
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Author's Note: It's not that a Nascent Soul cultivator can't defeat a Spirit Core cultivator, but rather that Cao Yannian's combat strength is too weak, while Song Aotian's is too strong. [Noob]
Song Aotian: I'm already Aotian, killing enemies above my level is basic stuff for me [sunglasses]
Actually, in the previous chapter, Song Aotian couldn't have defeated the Crystal Armored Giant Elephant by brute force; it was only thanks to the thatched hut turning into a protective talisman that he was able to win.
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[Empty bowl]
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