The Whispering Wastes had seen many strange and violent phenomena over the passing epochs but it had rarely witnessed it rain people.

  With a deafening, thunderous CRACK that echoed for miles, the spatial arrays of the Gore Forged Clan ruins inverted. Tens of thousands of cultivators, demons and beasts were violently expelled from the massive bronze doors in a single, chaotic instant. They were launched through the air like discarded waste and were tumbling head over heels into the coarse sand of the massive crater.

  The swirling, blood red runes that had adorned the pillars flared brilliantly for a fraction of a second before dying out completely. They quickly returned to the dull, lifeless stone that had slept for thousands of years.

  The supreme inheritance was sealed once more. For a long moment the only sound in the crater was the howling wind and the groans of thousands of bruised and battered cultivators picking themselves up from the dirt.

  Then, the absolute uproar began.

  "What happened?!" Roared a massive, four armed demon. It was spitting a mouthful of gray sand onto the ground. It was the same demon who had so proudly passed the first physical test. "I was sitting in the viewing gallery! I saw the disciple reach the end! Why did it spit us all out?!"

  "He rejected it!" Shouted a rogue cultivator who had been sitting closer to the front of the stands. He was dusting off his robes. His face was a mask of utter disbelief. "The ancient spirit told him to renounce his master to take the bloodline and he said no! He told the ancient array to keep its rocks and walked away!"

  A wave of collective outrage and confusion swept through the massive horde.

  "He rejected a supreme bloodline?!"

  "Is he insane?! That was the legacy of a Second Epoch clan!"

  "Who cares why he did it? The doors are locked! The array is dead! We waited for so long and got absolutely nothing! And why were there two farming tests?!"

  The makeshift town that ringed the crater instantly descended into a state of frustrated mourning. The tension that had been building finally snapped but there was no treasure to fight over, no artifacts to steal and no supreme techniques to claim. There was only the bitter taste of a wasted journey.

  Li Yu and Demon Lord Malos were deposited on a gentle slope of sand near the outer edge of the crater. Li Yu casually brushed some dust off his shoulder. Malos, however, was laughing. It was a rich, booming laugh of joy.

  "Oh, magnificent!" Malos declared as he picked up his burlap sack of goods and shook the sand out of it. "To strive with all one's might, to brave ancient dangers and endure the judgment of the ancients, only to be unceremoniously dumped into the dirt because the victor decided it wasn't a good decision! The sheer absurdity of the path! What a conclusion."

  Li Yu couldn't help but smile and shake his head at the Sovereign's enthusiasm. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, Malos. I think you might be the only person here who did."

  He wasn't wrong. As they walked up the dune toward where they had left their travel pavilion, they were surrounded by the heated and bitter arguments of the ejected horde.

  "The whole trial was completely dumb!" An armored warlord bellowed while slamming his fist against a wooden merchant stall. "What kind of demonic clan tests a warrior's ability to grow radishes and cabbages? We are conquerors! We should have been tested on our ability to slaughter armies, not our knowledge of soil acidity!"

  "You're an idiot, Ghol," snapped an older, heavily scarred demoness standing nearby. She was leaning on a staff and was looking at the closed bronze doors with a mix of respect and disappointment. "That is exactly why the Gore Forged Clan built empires while you live in a mud tent and raid caravans for scraps. An army marches on its stomach. A true Sovereign understands the logistics of survival. They were looking for a leader, not a mindless butcher."

  "A leader?!" Scoffed a human rogue cultivator who was nursing a bloody nose from the soul pressure test. "They threw me out because my soul wasn't 'heavy' enough. I've studied the blade for two hundred years! The test was fundamentally flawed. It didn't account for piercing lethality!"

  "The test wasn't flawed, your foundation is just garbage," another demon mocked loudly. "The ancient array doesn't care about your excuses, human!"

  All across the crater, similar debates were raging. Some viewed the trials as a ridiculous and unfair joke designed to humiliate cultivators. They couldn't reconcile their chaotic demonic philosophy with the highly structured, pragmatic and heavily agricultural demands of an ancient clan.

  Others, however, were more philosophical.

  "That's just how ancient inheritances go," muttered a Nascent Soul sect master to his disciples while packing up their camp. "The creators of these realms aren't looking to hand out free charity. They are looking for a very specific type of successor. Someone who matches their exact philosophy, their exact needs and their exact temperament. If nobody fits the mold or if the one who does refuses... the clan would rather let their legacy rot in the dark than hand it to someone unworthy. It is a matter of ancient pride."

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  Down in the center of the crater a tense situation was unfolding. Noss, the fiery haired disciple who had rejected the inheritance was standing alone. A group of heavily armed and furious warlords had surrounded him. Their eyes were burning with greed and misplaced anger.

  "You selfish brat," hissed a large scaled demon with a battleaxe. "You could have taken the inheritance and shared the wealth. You could have brought the Gore Forged techniques back to the current era. Instead, you insulted the ancestors and got us all thrown out. If we can't have the inheritance, we'll just take your head as compensation!"

  Noss didn't draw a weapon. He didn't even take a defensive stance. He just looked at the encircling warlords with a look of exhausted pity.

  "I didn't insult the ancestors," Noss said calmly. "I simply made a choice. And if you take one step closer to me, you are going to learn exactly why I made it."

  Before the scaled demon could swing his axe, the ambient temperature in the massive crater spiked by a hundred degrees. The gray sand beneath their feet began to instantly fuse into glass. The heavy, ash laden clouds above the Whispering Wastes violently parted. It was entirely burned away by a sudden column of white hot flame that descended from the heavens.

  The pillar of fire slammed into the ground directly behind Noss. It didn't burn him. Instead, the flames swirled and coalesced into a towering projection of a woman wreathed in absolute destruction. Her eyes were twin suns and her aura was so suffocatingly powerful that several of the surrounding warlords were instantly forced to their knees as their armor began to melt.

  Demon Lord Ignis.

  The Sovereign of Flame did not speak to the crowd. She didn't even look at the warlords who were currently weeping in terror. She looked down at her disciple. When she spoke, her voice was the roar of a forest fire. It commanded absolute authority yet was filled with a terrifying possessive pride.

  "You chose well, little ember," Ignis’s projection rumbled. The heat caused the very air to distort and warp. "The dead scraps of a forgotten clan are beneath my lineage. You did not choose wrongly. Return to my domain. We have much to discuss regarding your advancement."

  Noss offered a deep bow to the fiery projection. "Yes, Master."

  The projection of Ignis flickered. Before vanishing, she finally cast a single, dismissive glance at the terrified warlords kneeling in the molten sand. "If a single hair on his head is singed before he returns to my borders, I will turn the Whispering Wastes into a sea of glass and boil every drop of blood in your veins."

  With that absolute promise of annihilation, the projection vanished. The oppressive heat lifted and only left only the fused glass around Noss as a reminder of her presence. No one moved. No one dared to speak. The warlords who had threatened him slowly backed away. Their weapons were completely forgotten and their eyes wide with horror.

  Noss merely adjusted his robes, turned and began the long walk south. He could have flown but it seemed like he was trying to enjoy the moment and let everyone see him. Not only could he have gotten the inheritance, he was also a disciple of Lord Ignis. He was enjoying both glories. The crowd parted for him like the sea and people were giving the disciple of Ignis a path a hundred yards wide.

  Li Yu and Malos watched the entire spectacle from the comfort of their dune.

  "Fascinating," Malos noted as he was rubbing his chin. "A grand display of territorial affection. Ignis always was fiercely protective of her possessions. I suppose the boy made the correct calculation after all. A living, highly volatile Sovereign is indeed a better backer than a dead ruin."

  "It certainly saved his life just now," Li Yu agreed. The display of power was a reminder for him that there were beings much stronger than he was. Even though he was the one responsible for the death of five of the strongest beings in this realm, it wasn’t his own power. It was borrowed power. Power he didn’t truly have. The being next to him could kill him and Lord Ignis just now as well. A great reminder of how weak he truly was.

  The two reached their travel pavilion, which Malos quickly dismantled and stored in his spatial ring. The massive makeshift town around them was already beginning to rapidly dissolve. Without the lure of the ruins there was no reason to stay in the miserable wasteland. Merchants were frantically packing their tortoises and sects were recalling their disciples. The great gathering was over. It concluded with a whimper rather than a bang.

  "That was a pretty interesting thing to take part in, though," Malos said as he was looking back at the sealed bronze doors one last time. "To be judged, to fail, to watch another succeed and then reject the prize... it is a beautiful tapestry. I am very glad we stopped here."

  Li Yu smiled and was leaning against a nearby rock. "It reminds me of the very first time I entered a trial like this. The tension, the weird tests and the sheer unpredictability of what the trail wanted. It’s a good experience."

  Malos looked at Li Yu and his eyes narrowed slightly in amusement. "You know, Li Yu, for a man of your hidden strength, I have noticed a rather amusing pattern. You failed on the fifth test. Tell me. In all your travels, have you ever actually been the legitimate, ultimate winner of one of these inheritance tests?"

  Li Yu paused. He thought back to the few trails he had experience with.

  "Now that you mention it," Li Yu said as he was rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish grin, "no. I don't think I have ever been the ultimate winner of a trial. I wonder why that is. I guess my luck is not good."

  Malos let out a loud bark of laughter. "Truly? Your luck is truly terrible, my friend."

  "I wouldn't say my luck is terrible," Li Yu defended himself mildly. "I've obtained a few supreme treasures in my time."

  "Ah," Malos smirked while leaning in closer. "And how, exactly, did you obtain them if you did not pass the tests?"

  Li Yu coughed into his fist and looked away. He was lying to save some face but the Demon Lord kept calling him out.

  Malos’s grin widening into something almost predatory in its amusement. Malos chuckled. "Well, my friend, the grand event has ended. The people here are emptying. Where does our humble journey take us next?"

  Li Yu looked out across the dispersing crowd and his eyes tracked the path that Noss, the fiery haired disciple, had taken. Demon Lord Ignis.

  "The winner was from Ignis’s lineage," Li Yu said thoughtfully. "And we have no real direction. I’ve heard the volcanic regions are quite a sight."

  "The searing ash! The rivers of magma! The constant looming threat of spontaneous incineration!" Malos clapped his hands together. "A brilliant choice for the next destination! Let us make for the territory of Demon Lord Ignis. I am sure we will find plenty of experiences there."

  Li Yu nodded. They joined the dispersing crowd. They returned to two ordinary travelers walking step for step into the sprawling expanse of the demonic realms. Li Yu was growing stronger each day as he continued to further understand the laws and his body and souls absorbing the large sphere within his inner world.