Chương 138: Chapter 31: Arrival at the Wood Marquis Kingdom

In the depths of the cavern, the phantom of Xu Kongzi, which had remained as motionless as a tombstone for an eternity, suddenly convulsed. A tremor rippled through his translucent form, followed by a rasping, disjointed murmur that seemed to drift from the very dawn of time.

"This aura... so potent... yet so hauntingly familiar... I cannot recall... I cannot remember where I first sensed it..."

"Who am I? I am Xu Kongzi... my existence is bound to the legacy... to the inheritance... This youth carries that item upon his person... I cannot name it... but I know its weight... With it, he is destined to stand atop the clouds... to command the winds and rain... to safeguard my sect's eternal flame..."

"Yes... it must be... the inheritance..." With a sudden, violent snap of his head, the phantom looked up. He extended a spectral finger, and the boundless, suffocating primordial haze within the void began to churn. It condensed with frantic speed, manifesting into foot-long characters that glowed with an ancient, divine light. These runes, resembling a scripture from a forgotten era, began to orbit Reyn in a slow, rhythmic dance of power.

"Inheritance!" The old man let out a low, guttural roar, a sound thick with the bittersweet taste of liberation. At his command, the swirling runes accelerated into a blinding vortex. In a heartbeat, they reversed their trajectory, surging into Reyn's soul with the force of a tidal wave before vanishing entirely. As the runes merged with the youth's essence, the phantom of Xu Kongzi grew increasingly transparent, his features blurring into the mist.

"I, Xu Kongzi, dominated my era and walked the world without peer. To fall in this place... it is my life's greatest regret." With a final, lingering sigh that echoed through the silence, the phantom dissolved into nothingness. Inside the stone chamber, Reyn's body jerked. His eyes snapped open, the lingering shock of the divine revelation still burning in his pupils. Crack!

The jade slip in his hand suddenly webbed with fractures before disintegrating into a fine, crystalline powder that slipped through his fingers like sand.

"The Heaven-Turning Seal!" Reyn felt the surge of information within his soul—a profound, ancient method for refining a supreme artifact. His heart hammered against his ribs in a fit of pure, unadulterated ecstasy. This wasn't just a weapon; it was a path to absolute dominance.

"Use an earth-attribute treasure as the foundation... and as my cultivation ascends, I can fuse more materials to enhance its weight and power. It is a growth-type artifact!" Reyn's breath hitched.

"With enough fortune, this treasure can evolve into a Heaven-Reaching Spirit Treasure. A single strike could expand to ten thousand zhang, blotting out the sun and moon, capable of annihilating every living soul in a world with a single downward flip of the palm!" Reyn's eyes flashed with a predatory light.

"I finally understand why Mo Shuaishao was so desperate for those earth-attribute inner cores. He must have gleaned a mere fragment of this technique from the jade slip. But he never could have imagined that the true, complete legacy would fall into my hands!" Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. He looked at the four-sided golden seal he already possessed.

"My current seal is clearly an imitation, but even as a copy, it is a high-grade magic treasure with immense power. Since it is already a pure earth-attribute vessel, I will use it as the root. I will forge a True Heaven-Turning Seal that can suppress the very heavens!" Reyn spent the next hour meticulously dissecting the refinement logic in his mind. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he produced the imitation seal and the two high-level inner cores—the Earth Turtle and the Pangolin cores.

His gaze was molten with ambition.

"Heaven-Turning Seal, refine!" He threw a series of complex hand seals, his spiritual energy erupting. The two earth-attribute cores began to soften, liquefying into a viscous, amber-colored fluid that dripped onto the golden seal. Within breaths, the liquid was absorbed, and the artifact's aura began to swell, growing more oppressive and heavy with every passing second.

A full day passed. Reyn stared at the treasure in his hand—it had shifted into a rectangular block, resembling a massive, golden brick of solid authority. He could feel the raw, crushing weight vibrating within it. With a surge of light, he took to the sky, hovering high above the mountains. He tossed the refined seal upward.

"Go!" He pointed a finger. The Heaven-Turning Seal expanded violently, swelling until it was thirty zhang wide. It hung in the air like a falling mountain before crashing down with the weight of a collapsing star! BOOM! The earth screamed. Amidst a storm of pulverized rock and dust, the entire hillside was erased. Where the mountain had stood, there was now a massive, sunken basin dozens of zhang deep. Every trace of his presence, every stone of the cavern, was utterly obliterated. Reyn's eyes shone with triumph.

The power of the seal had more than doubled!

"From this day forth, you are the True Heaven-Turning Seal! I hope that one day, I shall hold you and look down upon all living beings with a smile of absolute disdain!" A moment later, a streak of azure light tore through the clouds, vanishing toward the horizon. Within the light, Reyn examined two identity jade plates he had looted. They looked different on the surface, but both contained a strange, sealed aura—a mark of their respective sects.

"Keeping these might prove useful at a critical moment," he mused, a cold smirk playing on his lips. He sealed them in a jade box, applied several restrictive talismans, and stowed them away. He then pressed a map-slip to his forehead, his expression turning solemn.

"The Mu Family is still a great distance away. I must push my speed to the limit to ensure I don't miss the deadline." He activated the Demon Flash Escape. His speed exploded, turning him into a blur of green and red that pierced the sky. The Mu Family of Huizhou was the undisputed titan of the Zhao Kingdom's eight provinces. Not only was their ancestor, Mu Daguang, a legendary Nascent Soul cultivator, but the clan boasted over a dozen Golden Core experts.

They were so powerful that they didn't even bother with the petty squabbles of the cultivation world. Instead, they ruled a five-thousand-mile territory centered around their ancestral home—a region known as the Wood Marquis Kingdom. It was a nation within a nation, where no outsider dared tread without permission. Eight gateway cities guarded the borders, each overseen by a Mu Family Golden Core master. Any cultivator wishing to enter had to report their business and receive a formal pass.

The penalty for trespassing was absolute: death. Decades ago, two arrogant Golden Core outsiders had ignored the decree. That day, the sky had turned black as a 'Sky-Shattering Hand' descended from the heavens, swatting the two experts like flies. Since then, the name Mu Daguang had become a synonym for terror in the Zhao Kingdom. Today, ten miles outside the Eastern City of the Wood Marquis Kingdom, a streak of green light descended. Reyn landed among a crowd of arriving cultivators.

He looked up at the massive city walls, which stood a hundred zhang tall, piercing the clouds. The words 'Eastern City' were carved into the gate in an ancient, overbearing script that exerted a natural pressure on all who saw it.

"So this is the Wood Marquis Kingdom," Reyn whispered, his face a mask of cold indifference as he joined the queue.

"The strongest power in Zhao... let's see if they live up to the legend."