212-220

Chapter 212 - A Puzzle That Drives One Crazy

The runic lines on each runic plate on the inheritance building was very noticeable as it stood together as a whole, but it was overshadowed by the runic plates itself like looking at a brick wall, an uneducated and ignorant person would only look at the sturdiness of each brick, believing the toughness of the bricks was what made a brick wall strong and not the cement in the gaps between that holds it together.

However, once the runic lines around the perimeter of the jade lit up, the situation was reversed with the runic lines completely overshadowed the runic plates. The glowing runic lines on the runic plate by itself were more intricate than any character of the ancient language, and when it conjoined with the others surrounding the power jade, it formed a more complex but incomplete system than spider webs.

Just as Leon had anticipated, once the inheritance building was powered up, the runic plates became moveable. Unfortunately, he was the only one that got to witness such a fantastic sight.

Elder Evergreen had returned to his dwelling. Believing that even if Leon could solve the puzzle, it would still take a long time. He wasn't interested in watching through this entire process. As a semi-treant and a particularly aged one at that, He wasn't usually this active. Their entire group usually spends most of their time sleeping.

Leon had noticed that one of the glowing runic lines ran all the to the bottom of the inheritance building's jade side. Using his divine sense, he found that the bottom side of the inheritance building was already fully lit. This means, of the six sides of the giant cube-like puzzle, he only needed to solve the other five sides.

'These runes are actually quite simple. I didn't expect that difficulty of this test to be set this low.' Leon thought simply.

As he twists and turns a few plates, the number of glowing runic lines steadily increased. Leon was surprised by the fact that solving the puzzle would be this smooth.

While Leon had assumed that Arden wouldn't set a very high bar for runic understanding, he wouldn't set such an exceedingly low requirement that any Tom, Dick, and Harry could also solve it. After all, he, himself had yet to cover all the basics of the [Introduction to Runes for Dummies]. The knowledge was there but had yet to digest it all.

'I thought this inheritance was made for finding a good successor with great talents, but maybe it was only meant for the fated one? After all, the prerequisite for solving the puzzle is to have the dragon phoenix jade, and half the jade was given to me since birth... Everything seems... fixed.' Leon began to feel doubtful.

However, after he finished lighting up one-fifth of the jade side, he finally encountered his first problem. No matter how Leon turned his current plate, or go back and rearrange the previous ones, one of the glowing runic lines on the plate will always run into a dead end.

Each runic plate was square in shape and three of the sides would end with a connector, while the last side would be blank.

At any given time, a runic plate will always be surrounded by 4 other runic plates, but only 3 will be connected by their runic lines. To turn the runic plates, he had to first press into it and sink the plate inwards before space is created for it to turn, even the runic plate with the jade slotted can be pressed and turned.

'I see, no wonder it's called a puzzle and not a test. Even if the runic lines light up, it might not be the correct combination. Only one answer is correct in the truest sense, while the others will eventually cause a connector to run into a dead-end down the track…"

Leon began to sweat. Although one side was already solved for him, also given a starting point, and even realized the problem early, this still didn't make Leon feel better and his expression turned for the worse very quickly. This was because the puzzle was almost impossible to solve without knowing the answer from the start!

This wasn't a simple puzzle where connecting two plates was a simple 3 plus 3 equal 6, but 3 times 3 equal 9! And with each plate added, the number of possible solutions increases exponentially!

There were 100 plates on each side, for a grand total of 600 plates! 100 plates solved means he still has 500 plates to solve. Within these 500 plates, there were some black plates that Leon deemed as dead plates. It didn't have any connectors and wasn't meant to light up at all.

But what did close to 500 plates mean? It means the number of possible combinations was almost equivalent to 3 to the power of 500!

Within this seemingly infinite number of possible solutions, there was only one true solution! The rest will eventually create a dead end at some point!

'Fuck!'

Leon cursed.

What kind of inhuman mental calculation and memory was required to solve this!? The number was enough to make anyone with the hopes of solving the puzzle easily despair! Who would be able to remember all the possible combinations and mistakes they make while solving this!?

Even if he goes back 3 steps in order to go 4 steps forward, he might him running into a different dead end!

Let's say he even manage to light up the entire jade side on his first try only to find a new dead end, he wouldn't even know at which point in the combination sequence went wrong. Perhaps it was wrong from the start!

Even if he manages to solve four sides and get very close to completion but ended running into a dead-end that traced him all the way back to the start, the setback will make him go crazy! Or anyone for that matter!

Solving the puzzle through trial and error is like walking through an infinitely large maze of crystal-clear glass, even if they can see the endpoint, without a guide, they would just keep banging their heads into the glass.

'There's still something missing. Even a hint will be useful at this point.' Leon contemplated.

He spent the following six hours through trial and error and managed to light up four-fifths of the jade side. He had already lost count of the times he had to retrace his steps to get this far and even then, it didn't guarantee that the current combination sequence was the most correct one.

'The more runic lines lit, the greater the difficulty. As I thought, try to solve this puzzle purely through trial and error is a pointless endeavor.'

Leon frowned and rubbed his sore temples. After discovering the problem, just the thought of solving the puzzle was enough to give him a headache.

He had no choice but to give up on the puzzle for now and return to Elder Evergreen's dwelling in defeat. The elder had his eyes closed in hibernation, but upon hearing nearby footsteps, he was roused awake. It could be seen that he was very alert despite his idleness.

"What's wrong, child? Given up so soon? I thought you found the way to solve it." The elder chuckled at Leon's defeated look.

Hearing this, Leon sighed, "Knowing the way and actually solving it are two completely different concepts. For the specifics, you should go take a look, then you'll understand, elder."

"Oh?"

Elder Evergreen was taken aback, before he said with interest, "Then I better take a look."

Leon followed after the elder back to back to the site and told the elder his general understanding in solving the puzzle. He mischievously chose not to mention the endless possibilities of the puzzle that made him despair. He wanted to see how the elder reacts upon realization for his own amusement.

After learning the method, the elder's long extinguished hope of solving the puzzle was reignited and said, "That sounds pretty simple. How hard can lighting up all these lines be?"

But within 10 minutes of fiddling around with the arrangements of the runic plates, he also figured out the problem and decisively washed his hands of the matter with a simple statement, "Yeah, Nah. That puzzle is fucked up. It's all you, child."

Leon was taken surprise by the elder's language but laughed right after.

After a while, Leon calmed down and casually ask, "Do you know if your great ancestor left behind any words or hints regarding the puzzle, or anything outside of the puzzle in general at all, elder?"

Although Leon was not expecting a positive answer, he was still disappointed when the elder shook his head.

'Did Arden really leave nothing else behind other than his inheritance building? How did he expect people to solve his puzzle? It would take hundreds if not thousands of years to input all the possible combinations unless there was a clue to aid them or godly luck to solve it by a fluke.'

'No, that's not right. He did leave something else behind. His diary!' Leon's eyes flickered with hope. Perhaps the hint was contained within the diary!

Leon had a strong hunch that this line of thinking was correct.

It didn't make sense for Arden, who was supposedly mortal to survive the crash of the floating city. There were many floating cities built in that era. A floating city that crashes on land would create an exceptionally large area of devastation but not enough to end the world. A floating city crash on the ocean was a different story, however. The Boundless Sea had enough water to sweep the world!

Surviving the first crash wouldn't help him survive what was to come after, not unless he had something to rely on! A secret that wasn't recorded in the diary, but most likely holds the key to unlocking that secret!

Why else would a diary that accompanied Arden throughout his life be left behind even though Arden, himself had survived that disaster?

Chapter 213 - Three Stages Of Transcendence

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The space around the elder tree shook and rumbled at the force of its tree roots slamming into the ground. The sudden eruption of battle immediately startled Lilith, Zorbek, and the palace guards as they shot up abruptly from their resting spots in alarm.

The treants on the other hand, simply open their eyes for a brief moment before closing them and continued their hibernation. Since the 'birds' didn't cackle alarmingly, it meant there weren't any intruders. Evidently, they were used to the ant's persistent assaults on a regular basis.

However, it hadn't been a full 9 hours since the last battle between the elder tree and ants. Even if the ants attack frequently, it shouldn't be this frequent, right? Their kind would eventually be killed off at this rate, especially when the elder tree was slaughtering them like ants in both the metaphoric and literal sense.

"Do ants usually attack this frequent, elder?" Leon asked curiously.

"No. There is usually a day to three day's rest between their attacks. This is the first time they've attacked within the same day. Most likely it had something to do with your arrivals." Elder Evergreen responded, before inputting his assumption.

Leon smiled wryly when he heard this. "You won't blame me for this, right elder?"

"No, it doesn't matter. Whether those ants attack frequently or less frequently, the result will still be the same, that is to become nutrients for the elder tree."

Towards this opinion, Elder Evergreen displayed irrefutable confidence in the tree spirit. He had witnessed many battles and not once had the elder tree's defenses ever been breached. It was a one-sided massacre.

Leon nodded in agreement. The elder tree's strength was unimaginable. But then he remembered the figure of the humanoid ant. It's strength also couldn't be measured from that distance, but just based on the pressure and aura exuded, it was exceedingly dangerous and beyond any ordinary Transcendents, he had seen.

Catching a glimpse of Elder Evergreen's profile, Leon thought that the elder was also not ordinary among Transcendents, although it was sealed and vaguely sensed.

"Elder, I have a request to make."

Leon pondered for a moment before he stated.

Elder Evergreen gestured for him to continue, neither expressing his acceptance nor denial of the request and implied that the elder was willing to listen first before deciding after hearing his request.

"Can you explain to me about Transcendence and the different levels of the Transcendent Realm?"

The reason he asked was that he was sure that from the vague mentions in Arden's Diary, Celestial was an existence that could traverse among the stars, something only Divine Origin Realm practitioners were capable of.

Considering the elder was a descendent of the Nova Empire, he would definitely know much more about the awakening cultivation system than the current him, or anyone from the Human Domain for that matter.

He understood that the leap in power from breaking through to Divine State will generally be big, but he felt the leap from Transcendent to Celestial was far, far too big of a leap. If it was to compare awakening cultivation to divine cultivation, it was like a divine practitioner leaping from the Revolving Core Realm directly to Divine Origin Realm, skipping Heaven Ascension and Void Realm.

The gap was just that big. Which is why he suspected there were different levels or stages within the Transcendent Realm.

"So that was your request?" Elder Evergreen was surprised before shaking his head in a self-deprecating manner. "And here I thought it was going to be some difficult request. Sure, I'll explain it to you. But first, I want to hear why know. Such a thing should be considered general knowledge, no?"

Leon smiled bitterly when he heard this. If it was considered general knowledge, then humanity wouldn't have fallen to such dire straits.

He began to explain the power structures of the Human Domain and the strongest awakeners he was aware of, before proceeding to further explain the beast's side with his limited knowledge. The best person to explain this part would be Lilith, but that girl wasn't willing to divulge much information about the Wildlands.

After Leon finished his explanation, Elder Evergreen could not help but sigh. Because Leon didn't mention the current strength of humanity and only talked about their situation in their prior conversation, he had been under the false impression that the foundation of humanity's cultivation was still as strong.

Elder Evergreen could not be blamed for having this misunderstanding. He had lived underground his whole and had been told that the surface was too dangerous for humans to live.

With his limited and outdated understanding of the world, he had naturally assumed the animals on the surface had grown in the same proportions of the ants, which was around 2000 times.

2000 times was enough for any animals to become a colossal being among colossal beings. And when Elder Evergreen follows that train of thought, the fact that humans were still alive on the surface made him believe that the western frontier was like a constant battlefield between titans and gods.

Elder Evergreen was silent for a long time before he recovered with a wry smile of his own.

"Pardon me, Child. I didn't expect the cultivation heritage of humanity to have regressed to such point." The elder apologizes beginning his explanation on Transcendents.

"There are three minor realms that exist within the Transcendent Realm, namely; the Preliminary Accession, Seeking Insight, and Acknowledged Paragon. Transcendence is the process of exceeding human boundaries and gaining the world's recognition for it."

"This recognition comes in the form of some authority over the worldly energies. With the energy of heaven and earth at your beck and call, it is very easy to begin training in other elements. However, it is also more important that you don't do that though."

"I've been told that all those who have chosen to train in dual-element, had never succeeded in their Celestial Tribulation... Ah, Celestial Tribulation is a test issued by the world when your strength and comprehension reach the peak of Transcendents if you also didn't."

Leon nodded. he did learn about this vaguely through the diary.

"If you pass it, the Celestial Tribulation will become part of your strength and grant you full authority over the worldly energy, becoming a venerated Celestial. If you don't, well… you will die. It's as simple as that. The Celestial Tribulation will destroy your body if you cannot bear it."

"Dual-element Transcendents will have to face a Celestial Tribulation twice as powerful as single-element Transcendents. Even Transcendents with a single element aren't guaranteed of overcoming their Celestial Tribulation, so you can imagine just how overwhelming it'll be for dual-element Transcendents."

When Elder Evergreen finished his explanation up to this point, Leon paled with a single thought on his mind. He was fucked.

He already has five elemental seed of lightning, fire, ice, metal, and earth revolving around his soul core. He was still expecting to collect the wood elemental seed to complete his cycle of five elements, albeit with an extra lightningseed.

Wouldn't that mean if he ended up reaching the peak stage of Acknowledge Paragon, he would have to face a Celestial Tribulation six times more powerful than the regular Celestial Tribulation!? His body might just be grinded down to the last atom!

"Very overwhelming," Leon said dryly.

"Don't worry. With your talents, you can still hope to become the most powerful Acknowledged Paragon within the Transcendent Realm." Elder Evergreen comforted.

Leon gave a forced smile at the elder's words. He still wasn't sure whether he would be able to achieve transcendence, but at least he still had divine cultivation to lean back on. In fact, he had never expected to have great success in awakening cultivation. It was only a tool to aid him in mastering the five-element stage of [Hegemon of Primal Chaos].

Elder Evergreen soon left and returned to his dwelling. Leon did not take this time to whip out Arden's Diary to study immediately, but when to check up on the others.

When he arrived at the designated accommodation allocated to their group. He found that apart from the palace guards being present, both Lilith and Zorbek had gone missing.

Asking around, he found that Lilith went to play with the 'bird-like' creatures while Zorbek went to check on the situation at the crown of the elder tree. Perhaps, the captain felt a hint of urgency to return to the surface due to the ant's repeated assault, but Leon was pleased that the captain remembered their objective for climbing up here.

After suggesting the palace guards follow after their captain and begin work on the top, he went to see Lilith. He had already received approval from Elder Evergreen to dig a hole to the surface from the top of their village.

Leon soon spotted the petite figure squatting by the grotesque bird-like creatures, poking and tickling them while laughing.

"What's are you doing?"

Leon snuck up and whispered behind her ears abruptly, making jump her in retreat.

"Whaa…? Oh, it's you, Leon. Don't sneak up on me like that again, or else you can't blame me if I accidentally swing a fist at your face next time, hmph!" Lilith pouted, before asking with adoration, "As you can see, I'm playing with these little birdies. Aren't they actually the cutest thing ever?"

Leon looked at the ugly thing briefly before giving his honest opinion without mincing his words to please her.

"Yeah… Nah… It's ugly as fuckkk."

Perhaps, Lilith found it cute because they both belong to bird species, but he did not find it remotely pleasing to the eye at all.

The ones shown to him were newborns, but they look like featherless and crude wooden puppet baby birds with big round eyes that look like they'll fall out of their sockets at any time.

After saying his piece, he fled the scene without waiting for Lilith's enrage response.

Leon returned to the inheritance building at the back of the village and found himself a nice and suitable spot to seat himself, before pulling out Arden's Diary and flipped to the first page.

As expected, there was something hidden in Arden's Diary that he had not noticed the first time he looked at it. Under his second but more focused scrutiny, he found that occasionally, there would be words with singular bold characters within them.

For a great artificer like Arden Gilardi, Leon highly doubted that the person would make such mistakes consistently with the high level of dexterity he would have gained from the profession. Also, the bold characters looked relatively newer than the rest like it was edited.

'There's a hidden message..' Leon concluded.

Chapter 214 - Unveiled Dagger

The bold characters within the diary didn't make much sense on their own, but once he places them together, something interesting will be found. Leon flipped through the pages of the diary from beginning to end. The bold characters could be found throughout.

Leon pulled out a spare notebook and ink pen and prepared to record down the bold characters from start in sequence, however, his hand paused on the first character before he proceeded to store everything away in his Worldspace.

Entering the Whitespace, he summoned the Worldspace projection and scanned the diary before creating a copy in the archive.

Under his will, Leon used the power of the Whitespace to filter out all the unnecessary contents of the copied version of the diary and only kept the bold characters.

The bold characters were subsequently placed in a new book he formed with his will. However, he was still not done. The bold characters were compacted together and didn't make any sense as a single entity.

Leon took the time to personally peruse the filtered content at this specific point to separate the compacted characters before words began to form and the hidden message slowly revealed itself.

What would have taken him hours through the tedious handwritten method or the mentally draining simulation method of his mind, was complete in under an incense worth of time. The entire process was smooth and at ease.

The convenience and prowess of the Whitespace could be seen at this point. It was like delegating all your work to a super-smart subordinate that completely understands what you wanted with a single command.

Leon sighed. How many functions did the [Divine Book of Life] had left that he had yet to uncover? He didn't know, but the artifact spirit definitely would.

'The [Divine Book of Life] had existed since the time of antiquity unknown to the denizens of the Divine Realm. However, one thing for sure is the artifact spirit of such a peerless treasure would have definitely accumulated a lot of wisdom of the long years since the beginning of its existence.'

'Knowledge pertaining to cultivation techniques, martial skills, spirit arts, divine arts, and other professions had not been recorded in the [Divine Book of Life], but perhaps the artifact spirit had them all stored in its own memory bank…'

Leon shook his head and focused on the deciphered hidden message Arden left behind in his diary.

"Life is like a puzzle. There is always a start and an ending. In life, people will be forced to make choices. Some are positive, some are not and fatal even. Even if the endpoint could be seen, it is uncertain whether they will be able to reach it until the path ahead had been tread."

"If the solution to realizing one's goal was given, how many would actually choose to believe it and blindly follow through the designs of others? How many can stay true to their conviction? How many would waver?"

Leon wasn't sure what Arden was trying to convey in his message but if someone told him he could kill all the divine kings by following that they say, he would think the person was crazy and a fraud that would screw him over.

Following the message that seemed to contain hidden meanings was a single character 'jade' that represents the Dragon Phoenix Jade, the starting point of the puzzle.

Below the 'jade' character were there directional words of left, right, and upward. Each direction was attached with a string of 'T' characters that could be seen flipped upside down, rotated sideways, or simply just 'T'.

It didn't take Leon hard to guess that these 'T' characters were referring to the positioning of the runic plates. Leon followed the instructions and turned the runic plates accordingly. After he was done, three runic lines connected the center plate on the front entrance of the inheritance building and the jade plate.

Ignoring the complexity of the runic lines itself, the runic plates formed a straight line to the entrance plate without any interruption of dead plates on each side of the cubic puzzle.

Leon waited afterward, but nothing special seems to happen after. However, the hidden clue didn't end with that set of instructions.

There was another set of messages afterward that stated, "A teacher points the way, but it is ultimately dependent on the student on how they tread their path."

Leon smiled wryly at this point. Of course, Arden wouldn't leave behind something that would solve the puzzle for him outright.

Arden was still expecting his successor to be able to solve the puzzle himself, but at least he was given a framework to work with and only needed to fill in the blanks.

By having a set of correct runic plates provided for him, the seemingly difficult puzzle became extremely easy with its infinite possibilities narrowed down to an extremely low number. This was the difference between working blindly and having something to work with.

It was like taking a multiple-choice test that you haven't learned about nor studied for. Even if you managed to guess the answer correctly, you might go back and second guess yourself and end up with the incorrect one.

Of course, these were just Leon's assumptions. Nothing was proven until he starts solving the puzzle.

Once he did though, everything became a lot smoother as he expected. Although mistakes were still made, it wasn't as bad as before.

Runic lines began lighting up one after the other and after an unknown period of time, every runic line had been lit up before he knew it.

When the last runic plate was rotated into position with a click, the pale purple light from the lit runic lines grew with increasing intensity, before it faded. No, it was more accurate to say that it congregated elsewhere, the sealed entrance at the front.

Heading over, Leon was soon absorbed when he began watching the fascinating mechanism of the inheritance building at work as the first layer of the seal entrance unraveled itself.

What was left behind in its place was a new layer. The entrance had not been opened. However, at the center of the second layer was a new runic plate.

This runic plate differentiated itself from any other runic plate he had seen. There were no runic lines on it, nor was it a dead plate for the entire plate itself was enshrouded in purple light.

Leon had a feeling that if he pushed on this plate with the palm of his hand, it would open the seal entrance before him, or at least something that would allow him inside would happen.

Just as he placed his hand on it, his body screamed danger! The danger didn't come from the inheritance building itself but from behind him!

He quickly attempted to steer his body away from the danger by dodging sideways, but his palm was surprisingly stuck to the plate shrouded in purple light like it has been fused with it, forcing his attempt to fail.

'Fuck.'

At that moment, he knew it was in trouble as his expression turned ghastly. A sharp object penetrated his body from behind.

He had grown complacent, believing that with the tree spirit's omnipotent divine sense, even if there was another spy in the group, they would not make a move until they had left the elder tree's range. The price he had to pay for that mistake was overwhelming.

Leon paled as he stared down at the tip of the steel sword sticking out of his chest. The sword was of the same designs like the ones carried by every palace guard.

The sword strike missed his heart due to his quick reaction, but it did not improve his situation. One of his lungs was punctured and strength slowly slipped from his body along with shortness of breath.

The next strike probably won't miss. He was trapped and despair gripped his heart. Why did this have to happen here?

"Che."

The assailant uttered, seemingly disappointed that his strike missed its intended target. Leon wanted to catch a glimpse of the assailant as he turned his head. When he actually saw the person, he only had one question.

"Why?"

Faced with Leon's question, the assailant did not show any guilt. Only a foreign look filled with coldness, a contrast from his stern but usually warm expression.

Zorbek cracked a cold smile and mockingly responded, "Birds will flock to greener trees. Thanks for the hard work."

'Thanks for the hard work?'

Leon glanced up to where the other palace guards were seen busy digging through the earthen ceiling and realized that Zorbek didn't go up there before to study the difficulty of their objective but to get a good vantage point to observe him!

Zorbek must've waited for him to complete whatever it was he was trying to do before taking action when the time was right.

Leon laughed self-deprecatingly at his own naivety and carelessness. He still had much to learn.

"What are you laughing nothing at?"

"Nothing. Don't expect things will go your way." Leon shook his head and said icily with determination. Excessive words were unneeded against an enemy.

Zorbek wasn't sure what Leon was about to do but he wasn't planning on waiting to find out. He pulled his sword out of Leon's body to deliver the finished blow, but he still wasn't quick enough.

Leon exerted some force with his palm that was glued to the bright purple plate, hoping for a miracle.

Once the plate was pressed inwards, a magical scene happened. Leon's body glowed with the same light before his entire body dissipated into particles of purple light before disappearing into the inheritance building.

Lilith had a hunch that something bad was going to happen and went to find Leon. However, she came too late, only enough to watch Leon disappear into particles of light as Zorbek hacked at nothing.

Zorbek's expression turned ugly. He took momentary delight in his victim's look of betrayal and despair and ended up failing his mission. He broke the ultimate rule for killing; To be merciless and relentless. Don't give your opponent chances to make a comeback.

"What the hell did you just do!?" Lilith shouted.

Zorbek smirked at her and tossed the bloodied sword in his hand over to her. Lilith caught it subconsciously, but her expression swiftly changed as she realized what the other person intended to do.

"Palace guards, to me!!!"

Sure enough. In the next moment, Zorbek issued a mighty angry roar to summon all the palace guards.

'Bastard!'

Lilith cursed. The person was planning to frame her!

She quickly turned around darted away before the palace guards arrive. Her explanations would be useless because she was considered an outsider.

The palace guards would rather believe the words of their captain than a beast.

Chapter 215 - Dilemma

Zorbek didn't chase after Lilith but waited for the palace guard's arrival. They had all be startled by the sudden call, but within moments, they had all appeared in front of their captain.

Although they didn't understand what was going on and had questioning looks, they asked, "What are your orders, Captain!?"

"The beast girl plotted to assassinate the prince with the sword she stole from me. Luckily, I discovered in time and managed to stop her, but she managed to escape! Quickly go capture her! Dead or alive!" Zorbek commanded.

'What!'

The palace guards were easily roused in anger. Just when they were beginning to trust that beastkin, the person attempted to kill their prince!? That was the same as trying to kill all of them!

Half the palace guards immediately complied and gave chase after Lilith, who had already escaped with the steel sword. She didn't have a weapon and since Zorbek was so gracious as to bestow her one, she wasn't going to toss it back. She needed a weapon to defend herself.

Meanwhile, the other half didn't move immediately. Suspicion and doubts hung over their faces.

How did the beast girl even manage to steal the sword from their captain? What would she gain from killing their prince? No matter how they thought about it, she doesn't stand to gain anything from doing so.

However, the shelved the thoughts to the back of their minds. The more important thing to worry about was the condition of their prince.

"Where is his Highness?" They asked.

"The prince has been swallowed by this building after receiving a stab. His condition is currently unknown. I will stay here and find a way to get his Highness out. The rest of you should quickly give chase. Don't let the person escape." Zorbek said sternly.

The palace guards frowned but complied. Orders were orders.

"Yes, Captain."

"Wait."

Zorbek suddenly said.

"Yes, Captain?"

The palace guards paused their steps.

Zorbek pointed at them and said, "I don't have a weapon. One of you, pass me yours."

One of the palace guards volunteered and offered his sword to Zorbek, before they all left. Few had offered to stay, but Zorbek rejected.

With only Zorbek left behind in front of the sealed entrance of the inheritance building, he reverted back to a cold person and began studying the entrance.

'The brat seemed to have placed his hand here before he disappeared…' Zorbek mused as he glanced at a specific runic plate.

Gripping the new sword, Zorbek placed his hand on the runic plate and pushed!

However, nothing happened. The runic plate had already lost its glow and was devoid of power. The entire inheritance building had reverted to its previous lifeless state like nothing had ever happened.

Zorbek's expression turned ugly and pushed several more times. His efforts were futile.

"Shit!"

He cursed and hacked the building anger with all his strength, but no damage was caused to building whatsoever. Not even a white scratch. In fact, it seemed like it was the sword that got chipped instead.

…

Lilith was distressed while she was fleeing the scene. There was nowhere to run. She obviously couldn't leave the elder tree's protection and fight her way through the ants by herself nor could she stay. She would have to confront the palace guards.

Although she didn't fear a one on one with any of the palace guards, if they all come at her, she still wouldn't stand. In the end, her best bet was the treants as she made her way to Elder Evergreen's dwelling.

No one could communicate with the treants in the ancient tongue other than Leon. She could only do her best to convey her message across with hand gestures.

Elder Evergreen was awoken and baffled when the girl barged into his home and started making a bunch of gestures. It didn't take long before his home became livelier as the palace guards arrived and started spewing a bunch of words.

He didn't understand what they were talking about, but it seemed like they wanted to harm the girl and it became apparent to him that the girl sought him for protection.

Since that was the case, he would not allow any harm to befall her before he fully understood the situation and the best way to understand the situation was to seek the boy.

The old treant stood in front of Lilith and shielded her, while the palace guards back off slightly as they were intimidated by Elder Evergreen's pressure.

Elder Evergreen might have had his Transcendental powers sealed; it was not lost. His body was more powerful than any other treants and a slap from him would end them.

When he took a step forward, the palace guards took a step back in fear. They glanced at each other with dismay.

What should they do?

When the prince met up with them, the prince didn't say much but he did mention establishing an alliance with the treants. If that was the case, they shouldn't attack their allies, but they also couldn't let the girl go after harming their prince. They were stuck in a dilemma.

In the end, they could only follow the old treant from a distance as Elder Evergreen brought Lilith with him back to the back of the village to seek the boy.

Seeing everyone returning with the beast girl still in one piece, Zorbek's expression turned dark at once.

"Why haven't you killed the beast that harmed his Highness!?"

"The beast girl is protected by the old Treant, Captain!"

The palace guards answered when the captain barked at him.

'These useless guards!'

Zorbek secretly gnashed teeth. He drew his sword and charged at Lilith.

Elder Evergreen frowned at this and swatted the person flying with a pa!

Zorbek's body drew an arc through the air before landing with a thud some 30-odd yards. Zorbek got back up with a cooled head and glanced at the large dent on his armor, before glancing back at the old Treant warily while cold sweat began to form.

Lilith looked on with smugness before a light bulb lit up in her head. Clearly, the person was anxious to silence witnesses. She should take this time to expose the culprit since the palace guards weren't attacking her and had time to think when their heads are cooled.

"You all shouldn't be pointing your swords at me. The one who harmed your prince is him!" Lilith pointed.

"Nonsense! Do you think my men will believe you? What reason do I, a human subject under the Crawford sovereignty have to harm a Crawford royalty, that you, a beast don't?"

Her claim was immediately refuted furiously by Zorbek. The palace guards quickly joined and jeered at her.

"Like we will believe you when the captain's sword is in your hand!"

"Yeah! The captain told us you stole his sword to kill our prince!"

"Do you think you can commit such treachery and push the blame on our captain that we've known for years?

"Do you seriously treat us like idiots!?"

Although Lilith was aggrieved, she did not lose her temper. Anger would not help her. She had to remain calm.

"Does it even make sense that I am able to steal your captain's sword from right under his nose when it is strapped to his side at all times? Had it never crossed your minds that your captain passed the sword to me so he can frame me after I witnessed his transgression against your prince?" Lilith questioned them calmly.

The palace guard who refuted with whether she was treating them like idiots immediately kept mum. His face burned, while the rest kept silent and ruminated over her words. Although they didn't believe, her words did make sense and voiced a few doubts they had.

Sensing that his men were being swayed by Lilith's words, Zorbek angrily barked, "What the hell are you all doing!? Don't let her words sway you! Have you forgotten who I am? I am your captain for god's sake!"

The palace guards glanced back and forth between the two sides helplessly. This was a problematic situation. If only their prince was present to clarify who the culprit that attacked him was.

Elder Evergreen picked a spot and sat down in a casual yet domineering way. He didn't say anything, and neither would they understand, but his meaning was clear through his body language. He was going to sit there and wait for their prince to come out.

Elder Evergreen had faintly guessed that the boy already went inside the inheritance building when he couldn't find the boy at the site.

"Pardon our insubordination, Captain, but we are unable to listen to any of your commands from this point onwards until his Highness's situation is made known and the real culprit is determined." A palace guard said.

Zorbek almost exploded on the spot as his already ugly expression went from bad to worse. As he thought, assassins and spies only have one chance. Once they fail, it was hard to avoid death.

However, he didn't plan on waiting for death. He didn't doubt that the prince would survive his sword strike he missed the heart and the prince was known for his miraculous medicines. Once the prince exits the buildings, it would be the end of him. He had to escape.

Zorbek forced himself to remain calm and said, "That's fine. You will all know once his Highness comes out. However, we all can't be waiting here. We still have a job to do. Who will follow me in opening up the path to the surface?"

The palace guards thought for a moment and agreed. They didn't want to push their captain too far.

Shortly after, three-quarters of the palace guards immediately followed Zorbek to continue their job, while the rest stayed to watch the beast girl and wait for the prince's return. Lilith didn't add anything and just watch them leave. The fewer people present, the less pressure on her.

Among the 15 palace guards that followed Zorbek, not every one of them followed him because they believe in him, but because his words rang true. They had a job to do. However, there were some that followed in order to monitor Zorbek. If their captain was truly the culprit and was finding an opportunity to escape.

They would never let him get away for harming their prince even if he was their captain! They would rather abandon brotherly sentiments than face the queen's wrath, not to mention that their captain might not give a shit about their so-called brotherly sentiments at all if he truly was the culprit!

If so, why would they spare him!? Oh, you tried to screw us over, but we will let you go because we've known you for years? Fuck that!

Chapter 216 - Body Runes

Within the inheritance building, Leon had anticipated it would be a building filled with books on the study of runes, artificer techniques, and everything related to Arden Gilardi's lifetime of research. But what he didn't expect to actually find was a single empty large room.

Neither did he expect that of the ways he would enter the inheritance room, it would be directly through spatial manipulations. Spatial manipulations that were created through the power of runes!

Leon's eyes glowed at the endless possibilities this discovery entails.

If a difficult law of higher-order like space can be commanded through the use of runes, then it should be even more possible for primary laws like fire, water, earth, and the like...

Since an artificer can manipulate the laws with runes, it was also possible to be used for battle and not remain purely as a production-type profession…

After a moment, Leon shook his head with a wry smile. He was profaning an amazing technology with ill thoughts.

Whether it was the past, present, or future, when it came to the introduction of amazing new technology, people would always think about whether it can be weaponized for military usage. Leon wasn't an exception from this, especially when he was currently the prince of a kingdom within turbulent times.

Bringing his thoughts back to the present, Leon felt a little blank and at a loss as he stared around the room. The room was like the starry skies of the night, cold and dark but filled with various tiny spots of light that give color and life to the void.

If not for the feeling of his feet touching the ground, he would have actually thought he had been sent into the outer world, beyond the boundaries of Gaia.

The reason he could tell the room was void of any books or the bookshelves that may contain it was not because he had swept the place with his divine sense, but the tiny spots of light in the room provided him with enough visibility to understand that it was for a fact, empty.

"Where is the inheritance? The books? The knowledge? The research?" Leon frowned. Did he get scammed?

Leon took some steps forward and studied the room of the starry sky. It wasn't something that was seen on the ground, the walls, and the ceiling but in the air as well. It was a three-dimensional starry sky.

If this starry sky was meant to be all the inheritance Arden had to offer for the future generation then it couldn't be as simple as it appears to be.

Although Leon was disappointed that he didn't find books filled with runic knowledge, he didn't dwell on it and began to ponder about the starry sky room.

After a moment, his eyes lit up with a thought. "Could this actually be a star map?"

Leon became excited just thinking about it. He sent out his divine sense and zeroed in one a single spot of light and his mind, that spotlight was enlarged by several thousands of times and found it to be a star with 4 planets orbiting it.

When he focused even further, he found that these projections of celestial bodies were made with runes, runes that didn't require engraving on a runic plate. It was able to exist on its own as a body of energy like a living rune…

Some words could also be found above the celestial bodies.

"Gnabestea Star Realm…"

"It really is a star map! Maybe I can finally find out with part of the universe I've been sent to for transmigration."

Leon had seen multiple star maps before back in the Divine Realm. Whether it was the Eastern Region, Western Region, Northern Region, or Southern Region, he had seen them all. As for the Desolate Region that exists outside the Divine Realm, he had not seen much about it.

But as long as the star map contained even a section that belonged to the Divine Realm, he would be able to recognize which region it was a part of, given some time.

Leon glanced at each spot of light that represented a star. Each star that was capable of nurturing life in its system was called a star realm. Thankfully, the star map was relatively detailed with names listed.

After a while, he scrunched his brows together. He did not recognize any of these star realms nor the region was located in for that matter It wasn't a big star map. There only around 100-star realms in this star map.

"Could Gaia be in the deepest part of the Desolate Region?"

The location of Gaia on the star map, Leon had already found it. It was at his original spot when he teleported inside the room, which was at the outer rims. Gaia was found in the Vandelheim Star Realm.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the center of the star map, which drew Leon's suspicion. Usually, star maps are made with the star realm it made in as its center unless the star map represented an entire starfield with no other star realms within its nearby vicinity.

To Leon's knowledge, the smallest starfield had at least 300 stars, but this one only had 100. Furthermore, at its center wasn't another star realm but a big ball of light that was hundreds of times larger than any other spots of light that represented stars and star realms.

Leon didn't know what it was, but he immediately ruled the possibility of it being a star. No star could possibly be that big. The outer world around it would never be dark with such a large star in existence, but most of all, it wouldn't have gone unnoticed until now. It would have outshined their own sun!

"Since it wasn't a star then what was it? The congregation of energy, a divine realm? Surely not, right?"

"Divine realms were the central region of an entire galaxy, a supercluster. There would be a giant black hole at its center that draws the energy towards it, but this one had no such dark spot."

Leon's hand subconsciously clenched into a fist. If he couldn't even find out where he was, how would he be able to find his way back to the Divine Realm to take revenge for his father?

Leon made his way over to the center of the room to study the big ball of light. However, by the time he reached the center, he accidentally triggered something surprising.

Runic lines lit up on the ground beneath his feet in the form of a formation circle and the star map retracted and disappeared into the big ball of light. The darkroom became a brightly lit one.

Before Leon could comprehend what was happening, the ball of light shrank in size and shot into his. Information flooded his mind and assaulted it like a headache, throbbing with each wave.

Leon could feel his consciousness slipping, but it was times like these when he had to persevere through it. There was a big difference between receiving an influx of information conscious and receiving unconsciously.

Consciously, he would understand the kind of contents transmitted to him and be easier to recall, while unconsciously, if he did not know what he wanted to recall then he would naturally not be able to recall it.

"Dammit, there really was an inheritance." Leon gritted his teeth and endured the influx of knowledge. He was not prepared for this at all. Shouldn't there at least be some heads up or warning!?

However, Leon was shaken by the knowledge flowing into his mind. It wasn't just the star map being engraved into his memory, there was Arden's understanding of the runic knowledge, his artificer techniques, but most importantly his life's research, the secret to his survival.

Leon did his best to digest everything quickly. He began to understand how Arden Gilardi survived the disaster. In truth, Arden had never given up on cultivation even though others had told him that he could not cultivate.

Arden possessed a divine body called the [Astral Tyrant Physique]. If he had been born in the Divine Realm and cultivated the [Astral Tyrant Emperor Technique], he would have become an overlord of an era.

It was an overbearing physique that allows one to directly absorb the astral energy of the universe to temper his own body. Pity he was born in a world that didn't practice divine cultivation and had no access to such a divine technique.

Although Arden didn't know all of this, he never gave up. He had managed to forge his own cultivation path with his rich knowledge as an artificer.

He never had the [Astral Tyrant Emperor Technique], but he understood that his body needed astral energy to improve. As such, he developed a method that would allow his body to draw in astral energy quicker.

By engraving runes on his own body, he managed to borrow the power of runes to draw in the energy from the universe and temper his body to terrifying heights.

It was unimaginable what kind of steel resolve was needed to through themselves through such an experience. To use their own body as the runic plate and carve into their flesh.

Through this method, Arden had gone through untold suffering and pain, but he was also able to gain a body that was vastly more powerful than any other wondrous physique known to man.

Leon's eyes flickered. Strictly speaking, this was a body forging method that belongs to the body cultivation system. He had lamented about not having a body forging method, and now one had suddenly fallen into his lap.

Although the method was unconventional, it was still a body forging method nevertheless.

If he could strengthen his own body through the power of runes, it might not be impossible to endure the Celestial Tribulation. But he was a divine practitioner. He should be worrying about Divine Damnation instead.

Celestial Tribulations bless those that overcome it, but Divine Damnation seeks to destroy those that incur it, both body and soul. After all, divine practice was an act that went against the heavens.

After receiving all the influx of information, Leon spent an unknown period of time to digest it all.

Chapter 217 - A Startling Thought In Confinement

Within the inheritance room, time seemed to have flowed at a very quick rate, but in truth, time had always been constant. The only thing that changed was Leon's perception of it.

Leon wasn't sure when he had seated him in a meditative position nor how long he had been digesting the information poured into his mind, but it had felt like a whole lifetime. The moment he opened his eyes, they glowed with newfound wisdom.

"Truly magical. This feeling… it's like I, myself have practiced artifact forging, and studied runes for decades and not just some foreign knowledge instilled into me… To think the power of runes was capable of all this…"

"Runes, this mystical language was filled with limitless applications. The only limitation is one's own imagination in applying it."

Leon sighed sentimentally. What he received wasn't just knowledge of artificers, but the entirety of Arden's study into the runic language.

Arden's attainments in the runic language were so profound, he had also dabbled in formations and spiritual arrays.

While they all seemed like different professions, they all stemmed from the same source like different sides to the same coin, they were all based on the runic language and the power of runes. The only thing that differed and set them apart was their application of it.

Leon didn't know much about spiritual arrays, but from the inheritance he had received, spiritual arrays were very complex and compacted runic circles, constructed for single-use purposes by spiritual array masters.

If one wanted to construct a spiritual array, they are required a greater understanding of the runic language than artificers and formation masters. Also, only a spiritual array master can construct a spiritual array, but not just anyone can become a spiritual array master.

A spiritual array master can become an artificer or a formation master, but an artificer or formation master cannot become a spiritual array master.

To be a spiritual array master, the most fundamental requirement was to be able to manifest their will, an ability that people with great inherent mental strength had a chance of awakening but not guaranteed.

'Mind over matter,' people call it.

The ability was crucial for shaping spirit energy in the world into runic circles with their mental energy to form the spiritual array, something only possible with mental energy due to its formless and illusory nature.

Any other form of energy would either directly or indirectly interfere with the construction of the spiritual array.

It was a delicate process that required the greatest degree of control and concentration from the spiritual array master. The slightest mistake would render the whole process useless and one would have to restart from scratch.

However, it was said that spiritual arrays were immensely powerful, capable of rendering the heavens asunder.

No one knows whether this was true though. Spiritual array master was a profession that had died out since the spirit energy in Gaia had almost thinned into non-existence and had never regained popularity during Gaia's revitalization period.

"False Tribulation Array…"

Leon frowned.

False Tribulation Array was supposedly an array capable of summoning the wrath of the heavens to smite one's enemies. The array was Arden's own invention and had never been tested.

Although Leon's interest in the array was piqued, neither the current him nor Arden of the past was spiritual array masters. He was currently incapable of proving whether the array was grandiose as it was described or whether it even works.

"Spiritual arrays are currently out of the question, but what should I practice first? Body Runes or artifact forging?"

Leon mused.

"Artifact forging is the safer route. Let's go with that. Engraving runes on one's body is a dangerous and delicate process. Although I have inherited the knowledge and the skill to carry it out, I won't know if this feeling is real or illusory until proven through practice."

Leon decided with a frown. He was definitely not avoiding Body Runes because it was also a painful process… definitely not…

"But to begin artifact forging, it goes without saying that materials are needed, but more importantly… an artificer cannot do without his scribing pen."

A scribing pen was the most important tool for an artificer. Without it, they cannot engrave runes. An artificer's scribing pen was made with impeccable sharpness to carve runic lines on any object. These lines on its own are just ordinarily carved lines and a scribing pen would be no different to a carving knife.

What makes a scribing pen a scribing pen and distinguish runic lines from ordinary lines is its 'ink'. Anything conducive to energy can be used as the 'ink' of an artificer's scribing pen.

In the Divine Realm, blood from high-level divine beasts was the most ideal 'ink', while the most common was liquified spirit energy.

Leon didn't want to seem ungrateful, but how can an artificer's inheritance not come with a scribing pen? The scribing pen of a great artificer like Arden Gilardi would definitely be a shabby one.

Glancing around, Leon was at a loss. The room was like a white canvas. It could not be any more blank and empty…

"Hmm?"

Or perhaps not. Leon noticed an inconspicuous white wooden box that managed to blend with the background in one corner of the inheritance room. It was rectangular in shape and the size was quite appropriate for a…

Leon's breathing became haggard from excitement.

'Perhaps…?'

Leon quickly went over and picked it up before opening it.

'Sure enough, it really was a scribing pen.'

Leon began to study the scribing pen. It looked like fountain pens found in every stationery store within the Human Domain.

The body was made of star meteorite and was filled with a black luster. The surface was smooth and plain with no runic engravings in sight, making it unremarkably ordinary at a glance.

However, the butt of the pen was eye-catching due to a spherical purple jade that was embedded into it and held in place by five claws like a dragon's grip. In addition, the scribing pen was in pristine condition and hadn't been eroded by time, making it anything but ordinary.

"Ravenous Black."

Leon found the engraved name on the nib's body. He presumed the interior of Ravenous Black was where the runic characters and circles can be found, and the tough exterior was designed to protect the delicate runes.

When Leon swept it with his divine sense, he was still caught by surprise. The number of runes found inside had exceeded his expectation.

There were defense runes, sharpness runes, toughness runes, shock absorbant runes, anti-erosion. Basically, every rune that improves Ravenous Black's defensive and carving capability was added.

In addition, there was a bunch of runic circles that formed a miniature formation inside the purple jade point to gather, compress and condense energy to be used as magical ink.

This was a scribing pen that would never run out of ink so long as there was spirit energy in the world to absorb. Leon began to see where the name came from. Not very creative he must say.

Within the white box, other than Ravenous Black, there was also a note that stated, "The destined one is not one who receives but one who uses effectively, the inheritance. Prove thy's worth and thou shall leave, or prove thee not and thou shall be forever buried here for the next fated one."

"Son of a…"

Leon wanted to curse out loud when he read the note. His expression darkened like the looming clouds over one's head. He looked around but an exit did not exist. The inheritance room was fully enclosed and sealed off by white walls in all four directions.

He came inside through the power of spatial runes. Most likely, he would also have to get out the same way.

On that note, he was required to find the spatial rune's activation point, or worse, create a spatial rune himself in order to himself get out.

"Ugh… like getting inside wasn't enough trouble. Now getting out is going to be difficult too."

"I can't stay here for long. There are people waiting for me outside and an unsettled business to attend to. I cannot let that bastard escape!"

"Hm…? Something's not right."

Suddenly, Leon became stunned as his eyes slowly widened. He had just remembered something significant. It was so significant that he shouldn't have forgotten it, and yet he had forgotten it anyway.

"What happened to my chest wound?"

Leon furrowed his brows when he tried to recall the stab he received previously. If memory served him right, he had yet to tend to his wounds since arriving in this space.

However, there was no such wound when he inspected himself.

"Not even a scar was left behind… it's like the wound never existed… What is going?"

Leon began to shake his head. Things were getting more bizarre by the moment.

"Why does the event feel like a distant memory that had happened decades ago when it should have only happened a day ago…?" Leon's frown deepened in self-doubt.

He began to recall the inheritance process that felt like a lifetime, reliving Arden's experience and making it his own…

Leon began to pale at a possibility.

"Don't tell me I actually did spend decades absorbing the inheritance!?"

The further he thought about it, the more he felt that was likely the case!

Absorbing the information from a book or two from the Whitespace was already enough to jam his head full for a period. If the full inheritance was jammed into his head at once, his mind wouldn't have been able to handle the burden and gone crazy.

But if he had really spent decades in this space, what had happened to the outside world during this time? How was the kingdom? His parents? His women?

Leon slumped to the ground with a blank look.

'How can this be…?'

Chapter 218 - Waiting

Wait!

Leon had been very panicky at the notion of suddenly having spent decades in the inheritance space, but upon calming down somewhat, he realized that made not be the case after all.

He was still in the Energy Condensation realm with a 200-year lifespan. A few decades would age his appearance considerably.

Leon conjured a water mirage to look at his own reflection with uneasy tension, but the moment he laid eyes upon himself, all uneasiness was dispelled with a big sigh of relief. He was still the same as before. His appearance had not changed.

'I don't think the feeling of spending decades was fake though…" Leon uttered doubtfully. In truth, he wasn't too confident that he had experienced decades of time absorbing Arden's inheritance that was like a filtered memory package.

'Decades of time spent, but an appearance without change. An altered perception? Or perhaps…'

Leon began to brainstorming while rubbing his chin for a moment before his eyes lit up and blurted, "A temporal space?"

However, it was but a fleeting thought as his eyes soon dimmed again.

"No, it can't be a temporal space. A temporal would allow for time flow differently to the outside, but it would not stop my body from aging…"

At this point, Leon heaved another sigh of relief.

"Thankfully, that did not happen though. I can't imagine how my parents will react if they suddenly found out that their son had become older than them, nor how the ladies would feel about me… They might not like me anymore."

Leon chuckled lightly at the thought. They might not even recognize him if he had truly turned into a middle-aged man.

Glancing at his woundless chest, Leon began to ponder.

His body was unaffected by time, but his soul definitely was. At the same time, it had something to do with the inheritance room he was in, but it was not a temporal space.

As if to help him think better, Leon began fiddling with Ravenous Black by twirling it with his fingers and tapping his feet on the ground repeatedly.

He began to ponder deeply.

'It seems to have something to do with my soul, but how did my wound disappear without notice… hm?'

Suddenly, Leon smacked his own head in understanding.

"It was true that I received a sword wound on my chest, and it was also true that I did not tend to it, nor was there any form of restorative powers that acted upon me when I entered this space. Yet here I am in perfect condition. This could only mean one thing."

"I did not enter this space with my real body, but my soul. The body formed by my soul would always be the spitting image of my most perfect state unless I had suffered a soul attack that would in terms, cause cracks to appear on my soul body, but not any fleshly wounds like on my real body."

Once Leon was aware that it was his soul that was brought into the inheritance space, he began to survey the surroundings more seriously.

'Everything should be fake, but it feels real to the touch. I don't know where my soul was sent off to, but my real body should be inside the real inheritance building.'

'As for this place… this is not the inheritance building's interior. It seems more like a dreamscape…'

The walls were white and plain, yes, but if it was the interior of the inheritance building, he expected it to at least be filled with many runic mechanisms.

Although the runic mechanism could be hidden behind the walls for the interior aesthetics, Leon's divine sense did not bounce off the wall like it did when he was outside the inheritance building and directly penetrated through.

Within the walls, he found nothing. But outside of it, temporal runes covered the entire place like a sort of time bubble.

What Leon found surprising was beyond the walls was absolutely nothing but a deathly monochromatic void that threatens to swallow everything and cease all from existence.

'The temporal runes not only alter the flow of time inside but also serves to protect the space within from being swallowed by the void…'

'This is like the spiritual world of a dead person. The spiritual world collapses when they die and return everything to nothingness, everything except that which is protected…' Leon mused before his eyes flickered with understanding.

'I understand now. I am inside of the dreamscape constructed by Arden within his dead spiritual world.'

Arden was very thorough in his passing his inheritance to the future generation and his methods filled Leon with admiration.

While he had just inherited all of Arden's knowledge and skill, he was still far from being at the same height as Arden as an artificer.

It was like learning how to run before he could walk. Even if he mastered all runes, it was meaningless if he did not know how to mesh them together to create something amazing like the dreamscape time chamber, he was in.

'It seems this fake Ravenous Black is the key to getting out of this dreamscape and returning to my real body. The real Ravenous Black should be with my real body…' Leon thought.

At the same time, he couldn't help but twitch his lips when he thought that his body might be lying next to Arden's corpse.

The inheritance building wasn't just the place of Arden's inheritance but also his resting place…

"Wait a minute!"

Leon widened his eyes at a shocking revelation.

The dreamscape time chamber is able to alter the flow of time, but it wouldn't be able to stop it!

Perhaps, a few minutes or hours had passed outside during the decades he spent inside, but these few minutes to hours were crucial to his survival! He could be bleeding to death right now if he hadn't already did!

'Shit...'

Even if he was able to get out of Arden's dreamscape, he might not have a body to return to…

Leon became very nervous and anxious when he realized this point.

That would be the most unjustified death!

'I hope my own body's regenerative capabilities had been enough to slow the bleeding and allow me to hold out until now…'

'I have no time to waste! The later I get out, the grimmer my chances will be!'

…

"Captain, you don't look so good. Is everything alright? It does feel a bit humid suddenly, doesn't it?" A palace guard asked out of concern. He had noticed that his captain had been sweating profusely.

When Zorbek heard this, he gave a self-ridiculing smile. He didn't doubt that the palace guard was testing him.

"What do you want me to say exactly? Do you even still see me as your captain?" He responded sternly.

"I…" The palace guard became stumped for words for a moment before he lowered his head guiltily in apology. "Sorry, Captain."

The palace guards had their doubts. They would have been more willing to believe in their captain if their captain had acted more calmly and less suspiciously.

"Just get back to work."

Zorbek said, unwilling to continue further. The sooner they drill their hole to the surface, the quicker he would be able to find his opportunity to escape.

Several hours had passed had really put him on edge. He did not know when the prince would recover from his wound and exit the cube building.

Once that happens, it would be the end of him.

While he was the strongest in the group was capable of killing all the palace guards, he could not guarantee that the Old Treant would not step in to stop him. Thus, his only choice was to escape before the prince comes out.

'Almost there… just need to weaken this last layer and the rest of the earth can be moved with my ability alone. I will be able to make my escape then…'

'Once I get to the surface, I should be close to the eastern borders… I should continue to flee east and rendezvous with those people in the Durham Kingdom…' Zorbek quietly made his plans.

After his commitment to his betrayal, he had cut off all ties with the kingdom. There was no longer a place for him in the Crawford Kingdom, nor were there any attachments in that kingdom holding him back.

Only by joining the Durham Kingdom, will he be able to further his path. The Crawford Kingdom would soon be done for.

At the back of the treant's village, Lilith continued to wait for Leon's exit under the palace guard's watchful eyes. While they doubted their captain, they didn't believe her either. Everything would only be clear when their prince returns.

Their heartless gazes reminded her that she was alone in this kingdom. She curled up and began to miss home. While her home wasn't exactly filled with fond memories, there were still people that care about her there.

It was only because of their strict expectations that she became rebellious and ran away in pursuit of her own dream and happiness.

The Wildlands was filled with their own records and remnants of the ancient civilization, but such records and remnants were very few and controlled by major tribes.

However, from the clues gathered, it pointed out that a larger part of the ancient civilization's remnants and records were all located in the Human Domain. If not for the treaty of twelve tribes, the Human Domain would have long been swarmed by beasts.

Her curiosity to understand history was what led to her arrival at the unruly Skysilver Tribe, which was the closest and only tribe in a conflict with the Human Domain before joining the scout force with her clansmen.

'Hurry up and come out.' Lilith pursed her lips.

Chapter 219 - Getting Out

Within the dreamscape, Leon sat cross-legged on the floor with his arms crossed, his brows furrowed and his gaze piercing. In front of him were the Ravenous Black he had placed on the ground and the object of his gaze.

'To create a fake replica to such degree of fine details, it must serve a purpose. Obviously, this purpose is to create a new runic mechanism that will allow me to escape back to my real body, but…'

Leon frown deepened. He didn't know where to begin. If the dreamscape was his, he would be able to create anything with the power of his imagination. He would just need to simply will a portal to the real world to return.

After all, a dreamscape is like the world of one's dream and anyone can be the god of their own dream, dictating what can and what can't happen.

Nothing needed to make sense behind the power to create anything, nor did the logic and reasoning needed to be understood for it to happen. If they will it with their imagination, it will happen.

Alas, this wasn't his dreamscape, but someone else's dreamscape. His will had no power over it.

Given time though, he might be able to come up with his own unique method of leaving the dreamscape, but time was the one thing he didn't have right now.

Instead of coming up with a new method, it would be much quicker if he could just replicate an existing method, Arden's method.

At this point, Leon paused for a moment.

"That's right, I can just replicate Arden's method. All the pieces of the puzzle had been given to me. I just have to put them together, while the picture can be found in my memory."

Leon smacked himself in understanding. He just needed to recall all the details of how he got himself inside in the first place, reverse-engineer it and he will be able to get himself out quickly.

'I might not have understood what was happening before, but now that I have inherited Arden's knowledge and skill, it should be a piece of cake for me.'

Having thought that, Leon closed his eyes and recalled his memories of the moment. However, the memory had become a bit blurry and indistinct after he had spent decades in the dreamscape.

This might not have been a problem for other stuff, but he was trying to recall great details from the moment the runes activated, the purple pulsated and transformed his own body into a body of light, and the instantaneous moment of his transference into the dreamscape.

He needed details of everything.

His eyes snapped open and frowned.

"I can't miss anything. I probably only have one chance to get out. If I accidentally fail but tear a hole through the temporal rune barrier protecting the dreamscape, the void will swallow my soul."

"What should I do?"

"If my memory is blurry, I just have to reinforce it."

Leon didn't even take a moment before he answered his own question. He had a plethora of herbs in his Worldspace.

'Fortunately, I took the time to build a small biome and planted the yin-element related herbs. These are all herbs with nourishing aspects for the soul.'

'Also, I should still have some Soul Enhancing Pills from the last batch I refined. Previously, I had only ingested one to strengthen my divine sense…'

'Although these Soul Enhancing Pills are mainly used to strengthen the soul, it does have some memory reinforcement effects. After all, strengthening the soul covers many aspects including but not limited to information processing, reaction speed, visualization, etc.'

Leon could have ingested all 9 Soul Enhancing Pills he had previously refined, but he was perhaps too cautious for his own good when it came to the topic of souls.

The soul was the most mysterious part of the human body that even left Divine Kings pondering for millenniums without fully comprehending, yet all Divine Kings seem to place great emphasis on the aspect of their souls once their cultivation reached the Divine King realm.

If Leon had to make a wild guess why this was the case, it is because the key to advancing beyond the Divine King realm was related to the soul.

Leon does not know what kind of soul requirement was needed to break through the Divine King realm, but if he did not want to cut his own path short, he had to treat his soul cultivation carefully.

Improving his soul too quickly might leave lifelong adverse effects that impede his future cultivation.

Like stretching a dry rubber band, there was a limit to how much it can stretch. Stretch it too far and it will snap. Even if it does not, cracks will appear, and it will never be the same again.

Until he gets his hand on a soul cultivation technique, he will use Soul Enhancing Pills to improve his own soul at a very controlled pace.

'Wait a minute.'

Leon's mind froze for a moment.

'I should still be able to access the [Divine Book of Life], right?'

With a single thought, he disappeared from dreamscape room and reappeared in the Worldspace.

Glancing around at the familiar surroundings and freshly grown herbs, Leon heaved a sigh of relief.

'Figures. The [Divine Book of Life] is bound to my soul after all... but then again, nothing is absolute so one can never be too sure. Overconfidence can be one's downfall.'

Leon did not linger in the Worldspace for long before hopping into the Whitespace and searched the Archive for related books.

After doing a double check on his available herbs, he settled on a single pill recipe, the Never Forget Pill that met herb requirements. His previous efforts were now paying off.

He didn't know who came up with such a name, but he wasn't going to be picky about trivial matters. In fact, he felt the name was quite simple and straightforward, free of bullshit and not overexaggerating.

The reason he chose the Never Forget Pill over a Soul Enhancing Pill was due to it being the most suitable pill for his cause.

The Soul Enhancing Pill provides minor memory reinforcement, but the Never Forget Pill will allow him to search through his subconscious memory and pick a section to be photographically reinforced.

Although all memory declines over time, the efficacy of the pill will allow the user to retain the memory for longer periods of time.

Since he was using Tier-3 Spirit Herbs, a Tier-3 Never Forget Pill will allow him to retain 1 days' worth of memory photographically for up to 6 months before it starts to decline.

Although Leon was refining the Never Forget Pill for the first time, the process was smooth without any mishap.

Never Forget Pill was a tier-1 spirit pill, but it has risen to tier-3 due to the tier-3 spirit herbs used.

If he could not even refine a tier-1 spirit pill, he would be an incompetent alchemist no matter how high he had already achieved in alchemy.

Nine sparkling white pills were revealed, the moment Leon lifted the substitute pill cauldron lid as the medicinal fragrance washed over him.

With a simple whiff, he had easily gauged each of their quality.

'7 mid-ranks and 2 high-rank pills, huh?'

Leon nodded impassively, neither satisfied nor disappointed. It was all within his expectations. Alternatively, if there had been any low-rank pills or even medicinal dregs, he would have been ashamed.

Glancing at the 9 Tier-3 Never Forget Pills, Leon had mixed feelings.

"If I had such pills in my previous life, I wouldn't have spent countless hours and headaches each day memorizing the plethora of herbs, their properties, and usage."

"Heck, I just had to read everything once and ingest a single pill to memorize everything. I would have been able to ace every written exam during the alchemy tier advancement exam with something like this."

"Haiz, my father been keeping all the good stuff to himself."

Leon secretly complained before he lowered his head dejectedly. His father was no longer with him. As for the king, his current father who shares the spitting image of his late father, they were not the same person.

They had yet to talk, but he had secretly observed his king father for a short period of time. The mannerisms, speech, and behavior were all different.

Same appearance, but completely different. Even his own appearance was the same as his previous life's one. Such coincidence baffled him.

He never really understood what kind of world he had landed in, but it matters not. He will eventually find out in due time.

"Father…"

Leon was only downcast for a short while before his dejected eyes were replaced with strong decisiveness.

"I will make them all pay eventually…"

Revenge was best served cold, not because it granted the greatest satisfaction but because it was more likely to succeed.

If satisfaction were felt after successfully enacting vengeance, that is when a person know they had not been avenging others but themselves, because avenging others would not make them any happier. It would not bring the dead back to life.

Without further thoughts, Leon popped the pill in his mouth, selected his memory, and return to the dreamscape.

Seated at the center in silence with his eyes closed, he replayed the memory repeatedly.

Once became tens, and tens became hundreds of times. After replaying the short 30-second memory 327 times, he had picked up a total of 300 different runes that had activated during that short moment from the point he touched the runic plate to entering the dreamscape.

'This should be all of them…'

Leon soon returned to the Whitespace and borrowed the computational power of the Archive to visually project the 300 runes instead of using his own mental simulation.

Under the guidance of his will, he watched as the 300 runes fell into place and connected to each other, forming multiple runic circles, both big and small in sizes, and each with their own set function.

Some of these functions had nothing to do with the spatial teleportation and soul transference but were part of the runic plate puzzle of the inheritance building.

Leon removed the irrelevant runic circles from the equation and what was left was 1 big spatial runic circle and 2 smaller runic circles related to the aspect of the soul.

After slight modification on his part for the return trip, a single but more intricately designed runic circle laid before him.

Leon firmly memorized the image in his mind, before he returned to the dreamscape for the last time to pick up Ravenous Black and draw his runic circle on the white floor.

The sharp gib easily carved away the tough yet illusory marbled floor as lines quickly formed with Leon's steady hand as he drew. Starting from the outer layer, he worked his way inwards towards the center.

The lines slowly weaved together to form an exact replica of the runic circle imprinted in his mind. At the heart of the runic circle where four runic lines met, Leon finished off with a half-spherical socket carving.

The progress seemed smooth and quick, but actually, it took longer than Leon anticipated. Nevertheless, after checking his work thrice, he didn't find any problem with it and nodded.

"Time to go back."

Standing inside the runic circle, the Ravenous Black in his hand was flipped on its jade end before it was jammed into the empty socket at the heart of the big runic circle, lighting it up before his own body transformed into light particles and disappeared from the spot.

Chapter 220 - The Struggle Is Real

Infinite darkness filled Leon's field of vision. He could not see anything. He seemed to have been robbed of all his senses, all except his own existence.

He felt incredibly cold, not from his body but from the recess of his soul like he was fading away from existence. He felt helpless and couldn't do anything. He was just like a subconscious thought mindlessly drifting through the endless cold void without control.

'Did I fail?' Leon thought.

He could fill his own consciousness slowly slipping away.

'No, that shouldn't be the case… This dark void is different from that deathly monochrome void. I should have already left the dreamscape and returned to my real body.'

'…Then was I too late?'

Leon could not think of any other reasonable explanation for his current state. It seems like his perception of the outside world has been sealed off and he was trapped in his own subconscious space.

He was still conscious of his own thoughts, but it was waning with time.

'This must be the moment of clarity before death…'

Leon was disappointed. It seems his body had already died. The reason he was still conscious of his own thoughts was that he had just returned to his body. It was just a matter of time before he was dead in both mind and body.

'I did what I could… There's no use crying over spilled milk now…'

Leon felt death creeping closer to him with open arms, but he did not repulse it, nor did he have the strength to. He was tired. He just wants to sleep for eternity.

His soul shook when he thought along such dangerous lines.

'No! I cannot fall asleep! If I give up now, it will really be over!'

His mind screamed. His journey had barely started. He still had people to see and things to do! He refuses to be laid to rest here!

'Fight it! I must fight against this feeling!'

Leon thought determinedly. He would grit his teeth if he could.

'If there's a will, there's a way!'

What he needed to do right now was think, think of a solution to get himself out of his current predicament!

Leon began wracking his head anxiously. It was a race against time.

One should remain calm in dire situations to make clearheaded and correct choices, but how can he do that when he knows he will die if he does not do something?

In Leon's anxiety, he had forgotten one simple truth. His body was mortal. Only after overcoming Divine Damnation and reaching the Divine Origin Realm, would his soul be strong enough to survive without a living body for a period of time.

Although his current soul had a higher starting point and he had retained his divine sense ability, he was far from the same level as when he was still in the Divine Origin Realm.

Death would have claimed him very shortly if his mortal body was already dead. He wouldn't even have a fighting chance to hold out as long as he was doing right now.

Drip…

The sound was very soft and sudden, but within the quiet subconscious space of his mind, Leon heard it clearly no matter how subtle it was. It was just a single drop of blood, but it was like the thin veil over his eyes had been lifted.

His blood had not run dry just yet. It was still bleeding. Leon was pleasantly surprised. For him to only hear a drop of blood now implies that his body was bleeding at an incredibly slowly.

Furthermore, it also would not have been possible to hear his blood dripping if his body wasn't positioned in a way that allows for it to happen.

'Should I say my luck is good for such a coincidence? Or should I say it's bad for landing myself in such a situation in the first place?'

Leon despondently thought. Nevertheless, he was pleased to know he was still alive.

'It seems my perception to the outside has not been completely cut off and had only been sealed inside as a form of self-preservation mechanism of the body, allowing me to hold out longer by conserving energy."

'This should be what it feels like to be in a pseudo-death state... but the chances of a person being conscious in a pseudo-death state, I'm probably the first due to a strange string of events and happenstance.'

Leon continued wryly. He didn't want to sound arrogant, but he had not heard of such precedents in all his time as a doctor.

Maybe one day when he had settled down somewhere, he should write a book about his life experience…

Leon shook his mind.

'While I am not dead yet, I'm also not far from it and eventually will be if nothing is done to stop it. I cannot wait for someone to come save me; I can only rely on myself. I doubt anyone else can enter after I succeeded in escaping the dreamscape.'

Arden was very thorough in passing his inheritance. There can be multiple candidates, but only one true successor.

If he had died inside the dreamscape, the inheritance building would reset itself for the next challenger, but since he managed to escape, the dreamscape most likely no longer exists.

But no matter how thorough Arden was, the great genius would have never guessed that his successor was about to die after passing his final trial, ending his legacy.

Leon could imagine Arden rolling in his grave and cursing his nine generations, should he fail at this point.

At this moment, what he needed to do was reestablish his connection to the outside world and regain control of his body. This was the hard part. What followed after was the easy part.

However, Leon did not have any good methods to go about tackling this problem. Everything was dependent on his will.

Like a person in a vegetative state trapped in a beautiful dream, they would be really unwilling for it to end. Unless they were willing or received strong outside stimulus that aroused their emotion, they would never wake up.

'I'm obviously conscious and clear of my reasons and desire to get out… but it's not working. Why is this so?'

'What's also concerning is I can still feel my elemental seeds, but I can't tap into their power. Something feels different.'

'What is happening to my body?'

He was supposed to be an expert when it comes to human anatomy but mixed with a cultivation system he was still exploring and limited senses, it was like trying to understand something with his eyes covered and hands and feet tied. He did not have a clue.

He could only guess that this change was brought by his Five Element Body.

Time trickled by but no matter how hard Leon willed it, it was to no avail. He could not escape his own subconscious space.

He began losing track of time. A long time seemed to have passed and the sound of his blood dripping could no longer be heard for some time.

Did his body run out of blood or did his wound finally closed up?

He didn't know. His mental strength was slipping away, and his consciousness began fading in and out. He had lost count of how many times this had happened.

The next time he came to, he was very weak, very cold. His sense of sight seemed to have returned but darkness filled his vision. The room was dark and gloomy.

His body was laid on top of a stone coffin and his blood that dripped down from it had already solidified.

"I'm… back?"

Leon said feebly with parched lips. He had lost too much blood and his body refused to move.

He didn't have time to celebrate. Although he came back, he didn't know when he was going to lapse in unconsciousness again and perhaps for the last time at that. He knew what he had to do.

Despite his body's objection to moving, Leon fished out a pill bottle with the highest tier of healing he had with shaky hands.

The next hurdle was not one he would have imagined until this day, removing the lid from the pill bottle. It was a real struggle.

It was like an internal battle between two monkies, representing his mind and body each. They wrestled and one screamed 'noooo', while the other screamed, 'yessss' repeatedly.

A long and arduous battle was fought before the mind won.

Leon didn't count how many tier-3 healing pills he had plopped into his mouth afterward before he lapsed back into unconsciousness due to exhaustion.

Half an hour later, he regained consciousness again for the Nth time. This time, although he was still weak, he had finally overcome death and his life was no longer in danger.

Leon got the chance to finally observe the real interior of the inheritance building. Looking around, he noticed that high-level plants had grown inside here around the stone coffin.

However, they had all wilted and died. It seemed really recent.

On the ground, piles of dust filled the place. Or rather, they were all crystal fragments. Judging by the amount, there were at least several thousand crystals when it was still intact.

"Are these all from transcendent crystals?!"

Leon became shocked at once. What happened here!? Did Arden leave a bunch of scraps to tell him something? Or did something else happened here that he doesn't know about!?

"It's impossible for my own body to have absorbed so much energy. It would explode from overloading."

Leon frowned before his pale face suddenly paled even more.

"My cultivation… what happened to all my cultivation!?"