The Legacy

Seeing that Jiang Lu actually doubted him, he huffed and puffed, his face turning red with frustration, though Jiang Lu couldn't see it.

His figure flickered slightly, appearing a bit translucent from anger. Gritting his teeth, he said, “No! I swear to the heavens, this opportunity is gifted to you free of charge.”

Jiang Lu stared at him for a few minutes before slowly nodding in agreement.

“Since that's the case, I'll accept it. Rest assured, Senior, I will certainly not let your legacy end with me,” Jiang Lu said with a proud huff. Hehehe, she was certain that this little old man's consciousness was on the verge of dissipating, which was why he was so eager to find someone to accept his legacy.

Seeing this, Venerable Xiaoyao let out a sigh, but then the corners of his mouth curled upward. At any rate, his legacy had been passed down, making his ten-thousand-year wait here worthwhile.

Besides, looking at this girl, her mind was pure; she was neither wicked nor weak-willed, so he could rest easy.

Jiang Lu sat down cross-legged. As several incantations fell from Daoist Xiaoyao's lips, the stone statue suddenly lit up brightly. Countless characters emerged around it, representing spells and martial moves. They continuously rotated around the statue, eventually filling the entire hall.

Seeing this, Daoist Xiaoyao's phantom slowly drifted before Jiang Lu. Crossing his hands over his chest, he sent a beam of white light toward her.

Jiang Lu felt an immense wave of information flood her sea of consciousness. With her mind overwhelmed by the massive influx, her brow furrowed slightly.

In an instant, her body was filled with spiritual energy. The orb inside her immediately began to spin rapidly, quickly purifying the spiritual energy and sending the resulting liquid flowing through her meridians and into her dantian.

Daoist Xiaoyao smiled gently at the sight. His phantom gradually dissolved into starlight, completely vanishing.

“Now that you have accepted my legacy, I hope you will carry on my will and seek the Great Dao in the future...”

After a long while, Jiang Lu's furrowed brow gradually relaxed. The runes swirling throughout the hall had all entered her divine sense.

Under this high-intensity pressure, her divine sense expanded once again, now at least twice as vast as before.

Spiritual energy continuously accumulated in her dantian. Jiang Lu struggled to compress it, but the energy flowed too quickly. She could only feel one barrier after another being broken.

Second layer of Foundation Establishment!

Third layer of Foundation Establishment!

Fourth layer of Foundation Establishment!

...

Great perfection of Foundation Establishment!

Jiang Lu's face turned pale for a brief moment. She gritted her teeth and compressed the spiritual energy tightly. The turbulent energy within her dantian stopped churning and gradually calmed down.

However, right in the center, a clump of white spiritual liquid was faintly forming. It spun continuously, gradually compressing itself.

Once she went outside and underwent the heavenly tribulation, she would be able to advance to a Golden Core cultivator.

Jiang Lu slowly opened her eyes. There was no longer any sign of Venerable Xiaoyao before her.

She felt this spiritual energy was barely enough to get her to the Golden Core realm; she wouldn't even be able to reach the Nascent Soul realm.

But...

Jiang Lu let out a sigh. This cultivation speed was honestly a bit too fast, completely disrupting her plans.

She was only thirteen, yet she was already about to reach the Golden Core realm. This wouldn't do.

She wanted to maintain her youthful beauty. Her peak appearance would be at nineteen, so she absolutely could not advance to the Nascent Soul realm before then.

Other cultivators: Drag her out! Off with her head!

Furthermore, she had jumped straight from the early stage of Foundation Establishment to the great perfection of Foundation Establishment. Once she went outside, she could immediately advance to the Golden Core realm.

Her foundation would be unstable. She still needed to train and gain more experience.

Standing in place, she digested all the newly acquired information. Her mind was filled with a wealth of knowledge, including details about the golden age ten thousand years ago, and the reason why no cultivators could ascend to the upper realm nowadays.

Connecting all the dots, she formed a few theories, which only remained to be verified in the future.

She climbed up from the ground and looked at the empty hall, which seemed to have grown much dimmer.

“Master, the dense concentration of spiritual energy I felt earlier is gone,” Mengbao's voice rang out.

Jiang Lu was taken aback. Could the spiritual energy Mengbao had sensed be the very energy she had just absorbed?

After a moment of thought, she took a deep breath, walked up to the statue, and bowed deeply. Looking at the stone statue with a resolute gaze, she vowed that since she had accepted the legacy, she would pass it on for Venerable Xiaoyao, ensuring his lifelong pursuit would not be in vain.

As if sensing her vow, the statue seemed to offer a faint smile, and then the empty hall began to collapse.

Seeing this, Jiang Lu immediately dashed toward the exit from her memory.

Once she emerged, she saw that the area previously covered in brambles had completely caved in, leaving a massive crater.

It probably wouldn't take long for the dense brambles to cover the traces of this place, making it disappear forever.

“Master!”

“Master!”

Sensing Jiang Lu's aura, Cang Chen immediately ran over.

It hadn't been able to contact its master for the past month and had wondered where she had gone.

“Cang Chen, why is it only you? Where is Chi Li?”

Seeing only one of the usually inseparable pair, Jiang Lu was somewhat puzzled.

“Master, Chi Li headed to Mount Qi ahead of us.”

“What happened?”

Jiang Lu was quite curious. Chi Li didn't seem like the type to act on its own.

“Master, Chi Li said it felt the aura of a divine beast within the secret realm. It suspected that the divine beast on Mount Qi is hatching early, so it rushed over ahead of time.”

“How did it get there?”

“Uh...”

Cang Chen paused for a moment before explaining.

Hearing this, the corner of Jiang Lu's mouth twitched. Overturning someone else's nest and then forcing them to be a mount was truly quite wicked.

“There's less than half a month left. We should hurry over as well.”

Jiang Lu took out her large leaf and immediately headed toward Mount Qi.

Before they even got close, they noticed many cultivators heading in the same direction.

As they approached the vicinity of Mount Qi, she saw a crimson sky with seven-colored light swirling in the air.

A heavenly phenomenon!

A heavenly phenomenon caused by the birth of a divine beast. No wonder so many cultivators had gathered.

It was a pity, though. At a glance, this was clearly prepared for Liu Qingqing; everyone else was merely here to watch the show.

After confirming Chi Li's position, she carefully avoided the crowd and made her way down.

“How is it, Chi Li? Did you find anything?”

She asked in a low voice, stuffing Chi Li into her pouch.

The surrounding area was already packed with cultivators, all staring intently at the nearby mountaintop. The heavenly phenomenon was emanating from there. Judging by the intensity, the divine beast would be born in just a few hours!

“Master, this is the aura of a semi-divine beast. It must have awakened its bloodline power,” Chi Li replied.

Furthermore, this semi-divine beast was not born from the union of a divine beast and a spirit beast; rather, it was a spirit beast that had awakened its divine bloodline.

Any divine beast left in the lower realm was bound to be abandoned. Because the lower realm lacked sufficient spiritual energy and bloodline power to nourish them, a divine beast wouldn't even survive until the day of its birth.

In cases like this, it was usually a spirit beast that had awakened a divine beast's bloodline. Given the right opportunity, such a semi-divine beast could grow into a true divine beast, though its bloodline would still be inferior to a genuine one.

The two of them, however, were pure anomalies.

“Can you tell what kind of semi-divine beast it is?”

“It has the bloodline of the divine bird Qingluan. Master, don't look down on this trace of bloodline; it's far superior to those pseudo-divine beasts born from the crossbreeding of divine and spirit beasts.”