The golden cage was like a submerged beast finally surfacing, its true size far greater than it first appeared. As Yang Liangyu took her fourth step, two yellow eyes opened in the dirt. The ground dissolved into sand, and a huge crocodile head surfaced. The cage sat on the crocodile's head like a crown. Its golden bars writhed and expanded like octopus tentacles, each one sprouting a gaping mouth at its tip. The crocodile itself lunged from the sand, its jaws opening wide enough to swallow her whole. Yang Liangyu did not stop. The qi rolling off the crocodile and the cage felt like the heat from a volcano, a power that made her feel as if she was a mere ant in front of an erupting mountain. It had to be a spirit beast at the Core Splitting realm, or perhaps even beyond.

Yan Yu's qi flared behind her. In the blink of an eye, ice pillars materialized in the air and shot downward. The pillars struck the golden tentacles one by one, while a much larger one slammed into the crocodile's upper jaw. The force of the impacts pinned the attacks to the ground as ice spread from the impact points. Yang Liangyu leaped onto the crocodile's head. It was as wide as a fallen log, and two quick steps brought her right before the candle. Golden tentacles were still pinned by the ice pillars and thrashed between her and her target, but the gap was wide enough for her to reach through.

Instead of grabbing it, Yang Liangyu leaned close to the candle and blew gently. Her breath struck the flame, which danced for a moment before dying as easily as any normal candle. One moment the yellow light shone, the next it was gone, as if it had never existed. The instant the flame went out, Yang Liangyu leaped backward. She knew a trap would be sprung and wanted to be as far away as possible—and as close to Yan Yu as she could get.

The crocodile shattered the ice spear and finally wrenched its jaws apart. But as Yang Liangyu landed before it, the beast only stared. Its yellow eyes held a startling consciousness, an expression of profound pity and sorrow. It looked at her as if she were the most tragic creature it had ever seen.

"I have guarded this candle as long as I have lived," the crocodile said suddenly. Yang Liangyu's eyes widened in surprise; it could talk! "It is a candle that my friend asked me to guard, which I failed to do twice."

The crocodile fixed its gaze on Yan Yu. "The first to make me fail was a demonic cultivator named Wei Yi. He deceived me, taking a portion of the flame and infusing the remainder with half of his own soul."

"All demonic cultivators are like that, despicable." Yan Yu's eyes narrowed slightly.

"I could argue with you, but in this case, you are right. He was despicable, cunning, and cowardly. But he is not the real issue. The truth is, I was not guarding the flame from people like you. I was protecting people like you from the flame. It is a foul thing, with restrictions and capabilities I have tried to chip away at for thousands of years. The fact that you did not burst into flames just by looking at it proves I did a decent job, though not good enough. Give me another thousand years, and I could have extinguished it myself. Sadly, the flame is cunning. It weakened my mind and body until I was little more than a beast. Now that the flame has died, it gloats by restoring my ability to think, reason, and speak."

Yang Liangyu's heart hammered in her chest. What kind of flame had she just extinguished? What did it mean to guard people from the flame, not the other way around? Was it a calamity? A prison for some dangerous beast?

The crocodile looked at her. "I pity you for being the one to blow out the candle that has burned for thousands of years."

What was happening? What fate had she stumbled into?

"You don't need to worry about it," Yan Yu said, "she can handle it."

At Yan Yu's words, the crocodile studied Yang Liangyu as if searching her very soul. After a moment, a faint smile touched its lips.

"It seems the heaven pitied me. It sent you, perhaps to ease my heart or to give me one last chance to seek her forgiveness." The crocodile looked at Yan Yu. "I doubt you are right. While she has the blood, it is so thin. It's like trying to catch a boulder with a silk thread. And then there is Wei Yi. I do not know how much he defiled the fire, but I assume he will try to take her over." Then, it looked back at Yang Liangyu. "But I hope the heavens favor you. I hope you survive and then thrive. That way, my life will not have been meaningless."

The crocodile gave a full, genuine smile. Its eyes crinkled, and an aura of contentment settled over it. Then, the great beast began to wither. Its rough hide dried out, the moisture evaporating from its body until its skin grew as brittle as old bark. It sagged, then crumbled. A gust of wind seemed to hasten the process. The golden cage on its head burst into golden dust, the white candle melted into a fine mist, and the crocodile itself collapsed like a sandcastle struck by a gust. The dust swirled on the wind, rising toward the sky. Yang Liangyu stared up at the swirling dust, her mind reeling with so many questions that she pressed her fingers to her temples.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

"What is happening? What was that crocodile? Was it a spirit beast?"

Yan Yu spoke, her gaze fixed on the sky. "I did not know him personally. I have never heard of him or his story. However, we share knowledge about the past—knowledge that will be important in the future." She looked at Yang Liangyu. "That is not important for you now. Just know that you have inherited a will from a bygone era. If you can survive inheriting it, you will thrive."

The gears in Yang Liangyu's mind turned, trying to piece everything together. "An inheritance."

Her hand trembled. An inheritance. It was the dream of every cultivator from a lesser background to stumble upon the legacy of some old monster or long-dead master. Even Yang Liangyu, for all her carefree life, had daydreamed of finding a hidden palace or pocket dimension and receiving such a gift. She imagined connecting with an ancient power, inheriting its will, and using that strength to usher her empire into a new age of glory with her as its empress. It was just a fantasy, of course, but an inheritance could turn a cultivator's life upside down.

But while stories were common, inheritances were rare. Only the luckiest of cultivators ever found one. And now, she was about to receive one. A wave of elation washed over her. It had come at the perfect time, just as she had resolved to seek greater strength to protect her empire. But the feeling vanished as she remembered the crocodile's pity. She remembered the flame had burned for thousands of years, that it was defiled by a demonic cultivator's soul, and that Yan Yu had said she would only thrive if she survived. And considering her current power, the flame she had extinguished would likely be the death of her.

Her heart began to beat frantically, as if trying to outrun the poison now in her veins. Then, suddenly a slam of agonizing pain hit her, so powerful it drove her to her knees as if a boulder had dropped on her shoulders. A fire ignited within her. Her blood boiled, her skin turned as red as a cooked lobster, and her veins blackened as if they were filled with ink. Yang Liangyu let out a blood-curdling scream, a sound so foul that birds scattered from the crater's edge, as if fleeing the cry of a beast emerging from hell.

"Infernal Sun Bloodline," Yan Yu said calmly.

Yang Liangyu did not hear her. Her body was boiling, her brain felt cooked, and her qi threatened to explode.

"It is a strong bloodline on paper," Yan Yu continued, her voice even. "A bloodline that can host other bloodlines offers unlimited advantages. But its strength comes with a great disadvantage." She paused. "It is called the Infernal Sun because whoever awakens it gains a sun inside their body, alongside their core. This sun burns hot and red, and its energy must be channeled into the many pockets of qi within the body. These pockets must be filled with the essence of other bloodlines, allowing the bearer to use countless powers. The disadvantage is simple. The sun despises its host. It will try to burn its bearer to ash. No one has ever mastered it. All who have carried it lived in agony, all of them wished for death. You are the same, Iron Queen. You are the same."

Yang Liangyu screamed.

***

Inside the giant's upper stomach, Liu Xing wielded a lightning blade while his gun blasted the back of the abominations surrounding him. He dodged a web of lasers that seared the fleshy walls. One beam struck the shell of his turtle statue. The shell withstood the blast, but the force shoved it away from its position above the main core of the giant. Liu Xing strained, pouring his will into holding it steady. At the size of ten elephants, the statue was difficult to move, but the laser was relentless.

Inside, his core spun faster, vibrating on the cusp of a breakthrough. His heart hammered in his chest. He was juggling too many tasks at once. Attacking, defending, and managing his breakthrough. Doing everything at once meant doing it all poorly. Fortunately, the invisibility from his gun was still spreading over his body. Once the concealment was complete and his presence faded, it would be much harder for Wei Yi to target him.

Liu Xing moved like a bolt of lightning, his gun blasting abominations and firing occasional shots at the giant yellow eye. But he needed a better plan. Invisibility alone wouldn't be enough. Wei Yi knew he was in here and would just start firing blindly. His thoughts circled back to the obvious solution to kill Wei Yi. But how?

Liu Xing assessed the situation again. He was dodging Wei Yi's attacks while trying to land his own. He could stop attacking Wei Yi. His shots weren't connecting anyway. The lightning blade in his right hand felt instinctive, but it was useless so he dismissed it, freeing his hand. Next, dodging. The turtle shell could block the lasers, so why was he still dodging? He could hide behind it. Hiding would also make it easier to channel potent qi into the shell. It would be harder to shoot the abominations and harvest their qi, but his Ethereal Pearl was already brimming. He had enough. As for the breakthrough, it would be difficult. He might not achieve a perfect breakthrough, but he had no other choice. He would have to make do.

As he finalized his plan, the invisibility finally enveloped him completely. His presence thinned to almost nothing. He stopped firing his gun. Silence fell inside the giant's stomach. The huge yellow eye scanned the chamber, searching for him. Its movements made the surrounding back of the abominations squirm.

Liu Xing dashed silently toward his turtle shell and leaped on top of it. He predicted Wei Yi would target the shell next.

As he stood there, a brilliant idea suddenly struck him.

His invisibility concealed his body and clothes, which meant it could likely hide anything he was touching. He had never explored this aspect of the power before—whether he could make other people invisible, for instance. That was an experiment for another time. But right now, he would experiment on the one thing that mattered.

What if he made the statue invisible too?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.