"Ten days!" Clan Leader Hua Gu slammed his heavy palm against the solid wooden table. The sharp crack echoed between the massive stone pillars of the grand hall. "Ten full days have passed! The elders even deployed the Investigation Dog Spirit!"
A Rank Three investigation spirit, that granted its user the enhanced senses of a hound.
"Yet, even after catching the scent of the boy’s personal belongings, they found absolutely nothing!" Hua Gu raged, his voice thick with frustration at the elders’ incompetence, entirely devoid of sorrow for his missing son.
Stepping forward from the shadows of the hall, Elder Mo bowed stiffly, his expression grim. "Clan Leader, the trail vanishes into the deepest, most treacherous reaches of the bamboo forest. Beasts prowl those mists, and the terrain itself swallows the living whole. We must face the harsh reality. Hua Ke is dead."
Hua Gu’s eyes narrowed, his knuckles whitening as he leaned forward. "Dead? Until I see his broken bones or his lifeless corpse, he is not dead."
"Father, this is a complete outrage," Hua Ge stepped forward from the right side of the hall.
As the eldest brother and the leading candidate for the next clan leader, his eyes burned with fierce ambition and poorly faked sorrow. "My youngest brother traveled outside the sect with Hua Luo and Hua Jiing. They were fully responsible for his safety. Yet they return shamelessly without him, claiming they merely lost track of him? They must face severe punishment for this grave negligence!"
Hua Luo gritted his teeth, his knuckles turning white. He stood tall next to his younger brother, Hua Jiing, refusing to show any weakness in front of the elders. "Eldest Brother, do not twist the truth. The dense forest is vast and highly unpredictable. We encountered a sudden beast attack. In the violent chaos, we were forcefully separated. Are you truly suggesting we maliciously plotted against our own flesh and blood?"
Hua Jiing stepped up, crossing his arms with a defiant glare. "Eldest Brother speaks as if he cares, but we all know you only care about suppressing our faction. The youngest brother was weak. He could not keep up with our pace. We tried to find him, but risking our own lives for a lost cause would be foolish for the clan’s future."
"I am suggesting you are both incompetent," Hua Ge sneered, ignoring Hua Jiing and glaring directly at Hua Luo. "If you cannot even protect a weak boy who shares your blood, how can you possibly claim you are fit to lead the entire Hua Clan?"
Hua Luo kept his facial expression perfectly blank, but his heart pounded heavily against his ribs.
He knew exactly what this disaster was doing to his political power. His supporters were whispering. His faction was crumbling under Hua Ge’s relentless pressure. Yet, deep down, he did not regret leaving Hua Ke to the ravenous beasts.
No one else in this grand hall knew the real truth. They thought this was just a tragic accident, but Hua Luo remembered the secret visit he made with his mother, Hua Lingxi.
They had gone to see his maternal grandmother, Hua Mingzhu. She was a highly famous Rank Three Spirit Master, widely respected for her core spirit. The Eyes of Samsara.
It was a terrifying divination spirit that allowed the user to peek into the mysterious threads of destiny. It did not show a clear picture, but rather conjured a prophetic sentence.
Using such a heaven defying ability took a heavy toll. It was extremely dangerous to use it on the same person again within ten years, meaning they could not verify if the future had changed.
He had gone to seek guidance for his own future. But the divination had not shown his glorious rise to power. Instead, grandmother Hua Mingzhu bled profusely from her eyes, her body trembling as she gasped a horrifying prophecy.
*A great power will rise from the lowest and strangest in the family, and it shall swallow you whole.*
The lowest. The youngest. The weakest of the family.
It perfectly described the youngest young master, Hua Ke. They could not let him live. The risk of being swallowed whole by a rising monster was far too great.
"Enough bickering," Clan Leader Hua Gu commanded, releasing a heavy wave of Spirit Essence that silenced the room. "We won’t stop until we find his corpse or his bones. Dismissed! Elders keep searching for him."
Hua Luo turned around to leave the hall.
’Let Elder Brother bark all he wants,’ he thought with a cold smirk. ’The future of our faction is secured. The threat is dead in the dirt.’
***
Far away from the scheming, political halls of the Hua Clan, the supposedly dead young master was walking.
Hua Ke shivered lightly, not from the cold, but from the strange, heavy energy of the underground cavern.
He was completely naked. His clothes had been torn away long ago. Yet, strangely, he felt no hunger in his stomach. He felt no sleepiness in his eyes.
An unknown, vital force pulsed through the damp air, invigorating his weak body with endless stamina.
"Just how long have I been walking down here?" he muttered out loud, his voice echoing endlessly down the dark stone pathways.
The branching paths of the cave seemed absolutely endless, but eventually, a faint red glow caught his attention. He cautiously followed the light until he stepped into a massive, breathtaking chamber.
In the very center stood a huge stone sculpture.
Hua Ke caught his breath in sheer shock. The statue was a woman, carved with extremely erotic and exaggerated body. She possessed a terrifying, otherworldly beauty that made his heart race. Embedded right between her massive stone breasts with nipple was a real, glowing flower.
A beautiful red lotus.
"An inheritance ground," Hua Ke realized immediately.
Powerful Spirit Masters often left behind their rich legacies before death. They desperately wanted someone suitable to inherit their unique paths, or they wanted to pass down spirits they had spent a lifetime creating.
A thick, confusing fog clouded his memories.
"It really is that simple, isn’t it?" he whispered to himself.
"The elders make it sound like sacred poetry, but Spirits... Spirits are just the tools. Like appliances in a workshop. A sword spirit cuts, an armor spirit shields, an investigation spirit tracks. None of it is divine favor. They are just implements built to perform a task."
He closed his eyes, sensing the faint, stagnant warmth pooling inside his chest.
"And Spirit Essence? That is the electricity. The raw current that makes the machine run. If you plug a massive device into a weak current, nothing happens. If you push too much current through fragile wires, the entire system fries. That explains why weak cultivators burn out when they try to force higher rank techniques. They just blew a fuse."
A slow smile crept across his bruised face as he touched a hand to his chest, feeling the quiet expanse of his inner consciousness.
"Then what does that make the Soul? It is the house itself. The structure where the wiring runs and where the appliances are kept. If the foundation is weak, the building collapses under the load. If the space is tiny, you can barely fit one or two tools inside before running out of room. Strengthen the frame, expand the walls, and you can hold an entire power grid."
He opened his eyes, the confusion gone. "What an interesting concept, I can’t understand. What are these memories?"
He shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and kept walking.
Hua Ke stared intently at the glowing red lotus. "This is a spirit. I cannot tell the exact rank, but judging by the dense aura it emits, it is definitely higher than Rank Two. Perhaps it is a rare Rank Three or even Rank Four spirit."
He stepped closer to the erotic statue. His mind raced with dangerous possibilities.
"If I claim this inheritance, I might gain the strength to survive this place," he thought. "But should I go back to the clan? Mother is still there. And she is there too."
He clenched his fists tightly. If he went back as a weak nobody, he could not protect them.
In fact, if he just stayed dead, his murderous brothers would have absolutely no reason to target his loved ones. But the deep longing in his heart was painful. He truly wanted to see them again.
"I need immense power," he decided firmly, his eyes turning resolute. "I need this red lotus whatever it is."
He carefully examined the erotic stone statue. The woman held her hands together just below her chest, cupping them perfectly as if she was begging for something, or getting ready to drink a liquid. Her stone lips were slightly parted.
"A tribute," Hua Ke murmured softly. "Inheritances like this always require a tribute or a test. A severe test of blood, or spiritual essence, or rare spirit stones. But I have absolutely nothing on me."
He looked down at his naked body in frustration. He did not even have a sharp dagger to cut his palm and offer fresh blood. He only had his own life.
Suddenly, a bizarre and incredibly intense heat flared deep within his lower abdomen. The sensation was completely overwhelming.
The erotic statue seemed to emit an invisible, enchanting fragrance that directly attacked his senses. Hua Ke gasped loudly, his knees buckling slightly. The boiling heat traveled downward rapidly.
Before his rational mind could even understand what was happening, his physical body reacted entirely on its own. A sudden surge of thick white liquid shot forward from his lower body, flying through the air and landing perfectly into the cupped stone palms of the erotic woman statue.
Hua Ke breathed heavily, his face flushed red with confusion and embarrassment. "What... what exactly was that? Was that my...?"
The stone hands of the statue slowly, mechanically tilted upward. The white tribute flowed smoothly into the parted lips of the sculpture. She drank it.
A deafening cracking sound echoed violently through the silent chamber.
The stone eyelids of the sculpture snapped open, revealing striking eyes that glowed with a blinding crimson light. The red lotus pulsed wildly, matching the rhythm of a beating heart.
Hua Ke felt a massive, invisible force latch securely onto his soul. He tried desperately to step back, but his feet moved forward completely against his will.
The awakened statue was pulling him in with an irresistible attraction. He automatically stepped closer, realizing exactly what was going on.
The inheritance was officially starting, and there was absolutely no turning back now.
"Whatever this crazy trial is," Hua Ke growled through gritted teeth, his eyes locking fiercely onto the glowing red lotus. "I will face it head on. I refuse to die in this damp cave!"