Spirit Cultivation

'I guess I'm only left with Artefact Crafting. I will have to ask Xiao Feng to teach me later,' Xuefeng muttered to himself as he left Lisa's mansion. 

Even though he could perform alchemy with Ling's help, he wanted to find something that he could do on his own. Maybe it was his own ego that suffered each time he required help from others or maybe it was his ambition that forced him to become more independent. 

'But first, it's time to visit some Inheritance Trials. Let's see how dangerous they really are…' Xuefeng decided and launched himself into the sky, heading back to the palace to fetch his women. 

'Ling, do you think we can speedrun those Inheritances? How much time is required to finish them?' Xuefeng asked curiously, wanting to go through all nine as fast as he could. 'You should have some experience about it from Thunder Goddess.'

'Indeed, I do, but only for Lightning Inheritance Trial,' Ling reported. 'First of all, It's not that easy as you think it is. There is a reason why many fail it. If you had to fight multiple opponents that are mostly above your stage then it wouldn't be a problem but each Inheritance Trial have a different tests. You can't just use your battle skills to pass them.'

'Well, I already expected it,' Xuefeng nodded, not expecting it to be easy. 

'Second of all, once you die inside the Inheritance Trial, you will die in real life. Thankfully, you can resign anytime and save yourself in dire situations. Each trial takes place in a different space and once you break the token you receive, you are sent back outside. The only limit is that you only have nine tries,' Ling explained further. 

'Nine tries?' Xuefeng got surprised, not expecting so many. 'We don't have that much time so let's try to clear them all at the first try.' 

'Mhmm. We can try from the Lightning Trial if you want. It is very simple as the trial consists of Lightning Tribulation in the midst of battling lightning monsters. Knowing your resistance to elements with your Royal Forest Elf Bloodline, it shouldn't be that hard,' Ling proposed. 

Xuefeng was about to agree when Ming suddenly added, appearing out of nowhere, 'I will be teaching you skills in the middle of your Trials so choose something else. You already have a good Lightning skill so we can touch something else at first. My skills are much better compared to those you can find that those Inheritance Trials but they could be a good testing grounds for you.' 

"Oh!" Xuefeng exclaimed, recalling he actually has Ming who was supposed to teach him and asked, 'What do you suggest then?'

'Let's start from the Metal, Ether or Blood. You did not master those three yet so it's a good opportunity to try them.' Ming proposed. 'Other six can be finished afterwards as you won't need to use much effort for them.'

'Can I pass the trial if I don't have the particular element?' Xuefeng asked, noticing his Palace in the distance. He had to make up his mind. 

'You don't need to know any elements to pass the trial. The trial itself is used as a tool to master the element,' Ling explained. 'As a reward for passing, you receive the skills and an art to refine the Essence of that element. In addition, you get some Essence in a liquid form which is much easier to refine. It will be really beneficial for you as you can use it to make your Qi thicker, allowing your Dantain to store even more of it.' 

'That's really great! I will choose Metal Trail and then move onto Ether Element. I need to master them anyway if I want learn Artefact Crafting,' Xuefeng decided after hearing the explanation, already excited to try the trials. 

He was within the range of Tianshi's ability so he called out to inform the girls, 'Everyone, I finished early. Let's gather outside and visit some Inheritance Trials.' 

It turned out all of the girls were still connected in the link and he received back a mix of female voices. With all of them speaking at the same time, he didn't understand much but thankfully, Tianshi muffled everyone else and replied for them all, 'We will be ready in a second.' 

'Thank you,' Xuefeng responded with gratitude, rubbing his temple. 

He thought this will be a blessing but knowing how many women he had to handle at the same time, he was afraid his mind will explode. One should never underestimate the power of women's gossips. 

They didn't let him wait long as within minutes, everyone was ready and arrived next to him. He didn't want to hide anything from them so he decided to confess before it's too late. 

"I decided to recruit Lisa into our group," Xuefeng mentioned as they flew towards the inheritance grounds. "I am not suited for Alchemy so she will join our group just in case we need an Alchemist in the future." 

To his surprise, his wives were surprisingly quiet but he then realized they were just talking in private. "She will come to the palace tomorrow so you all can meet. She is not a bad person," he added before they finished their conference. 

Nuwa was the first one to comment, "It's okay. Tomorrow we were supposed to meet with Wu anyway so we will just take Lisa as well and have a women's only day." 

The rest nodded in agreement but Xuefeng questioned, "Wait, I can't join you all?" 

They only smiled and shook their heads. 

"Nope."

——— 

The nine Inheritance Grounds were all located in different places of the Capital. Knowing Xuefeng picked Metal Inheritance Trial, they decided to avoid splitting up and try it all at the same time. There was no limit to how many people could take part in the trials so it wasn't an issue. 

They arrived at the place, a big metal structure, a temple with three entrances. Naturally, there were many cultivators surrounding the temple, some were watching while the others were preparing themselves to take part in the trial. 

Xiao Wen was the most knowledge person about the matter so she was the one explaining as they traveled. 

"The Metal Inheritance Trial belongs to one of the hardest but it's also the safest. The rules are simple. You have to control a metal golem to beat your opponents. Once your golem is destroyed, you will be automatically ejected from the Trial. We can all try it without worrying about our lives," Xiao described. 

Xuefeng immediately liked this idea. He didn't need to worry about leaving them alone which was perfect. 

"Why are there three entrances?" Yiren asked curiously with Xuefeng nodding, also wanting to know. 

"The middle one is the real entrance while the other two are exits. The right one is for winners and the left one is for losers," Xiao Wen answered and just as she said it, one man left through the right exit, having a grin on his face. 

Xiao Wen gathered their attention and pointed at metal board next to the temple, explaining, "Look, someone passed the trial. Whenever one does, their name appears on the leaderboard and their score is calculated. Top one hundred all-time best scores are stored for new generation to beat. No one knows how the score is calculated but people proved the faster you clear the trial, the better score you will achieve." 

The man was also looking at the leaderboard where his name appeared at the top with his name on it. The score was still zero but in the next second, it started going up until it stopped around three hundred. Even through his number was too low to spot on the top one hundred, he still looked happy, getting back pats from his buddies. 

Xiao Wen shrugged as if she expected it and commented, "The lowest score in top one hundred is one thousand and thirty eight. You need to know that when I went through the trial for the first time, I failed. I only passed on the second try but my score only reached five hundred plus. It's really hard to get on the leaderboard." 

"Alright. Let's do this," Xuefeng called out all fired up to give it a try. Looking at the leaderboard, he suddenly thought of an idea. 

"If any of you pass the Trial, I want you to do something for me. You should—" Xuefeng spoke out loud while finishing the rest of the sentence in his mind. 

Tianshi passed the message to everyone and they all nodded, grinning. 

"Sure!"