Chapter 2858 — Failed Inheritance

Kang Jingming likewise dared not linger. He hurried back in the direction of the teleportation array—after all, he was the managing elder here, and after trading a few tender words with Little Peach Blossom, he ran back.

Tianchan let her thoughts wander for a while, never expecting footsteps to come again from the entrance of the traveling palace's side courtyard. This time, however, there was no knock—the door was pushed open directly. The side courtyard was never locked, but ordinarily even elders of the Xuandan Sect would not dare push the door open at will.

Tianchan quickly opened her eyes, rose, and went out to greet them. Anyone who could enter like that had to be one of those important figures!

Sure enough, the visitors were Ancestor Xuanzhen and Ancestor Xuanchen! Ancestor Xuanzhen was no stranger to Tianchan, but Ancestor Xuanchen she knew far less well. His sudden appearance at this moment made her heart tighten slightly!

Only a handful of people knew of her relationship with Ancestor Xuanzhen, and this matter had always been kept hidden from Ancestor Xuanzhen himself! Of course, Tianchan did not yet know that while she was away taking part in the trial, Ancestor Xuanchen had already pointed out to Ancestor Xuanzhen that he knew Tianchan was his disciple—and that he knew of Ancestor Xuanzhen's connections within the Xuandan Sect!

Tianchan and Tianbian outwardly obeyed Ancestor Xuanchen in all things, but in secret they still revered Ancestor Xuanzhen as their master. Some things simply had to be concealed—otherwise not only she and her younger brother Tianbian would suffer, but Ancestor Xuanzhen as well.

"Chan'er pays her respects to Ancestor Xuanzhen and Ancestor Xuanchen!" Tianchan bowed cautiously in greeting.

"Tianchan, call us Master and Martial Uncle." Ancestor Xuanzhen waved a hand. Some things he had believed were done in secret had in fact never escaped Ancestor Xuanchen's eyes and ears, so there was no longer any need to hide the master-disciple relationship between him and Tianchan.

"Yes..." Tianchan's heart jumped. So Ancestor Xuanchen did know everything after all! But she was, after all, the young sect mistress of the Xuandan Sect, and she greeted them again without betraying a thing. "Chan'er pays her respects to Master and Martial Uncle!"

"No need for such formality!" Ancestor Xuanchen did not dwell on the matter. He waved his hand—he was currently the acting sect master of the Five Luminaries Sect, so although Tianchan was Ancestor Xuanzhen's disciple, it was Xuanchen whose word carried the most weight. "Sit. I have brought the Five Luminaries Sect's ancestral physique-testing orb. Place your hand upon it and check whether the inheritance succeeded!"

In Ancestor Xuanchen's eyes, Tianchan was nothing but a chess piece. His sole measure of a person was whether that person was of use to him. Those who were useless were kicked aside.

"Yes!" Tianchan sat down on the floor of the reception hall as instructed, while Ancestor Xuanchen produced a box, took out a round orb from within, and set it before her. "This is not your first time testing. Try it again."

"Yes!" Tianchan hastily extended her hand and placed it on the physique-testing orb.

In an instant, five rays of light appeared upon the orb. Four of them shone especially bright, but one was somewhat dim—and hollow at its center.

Had Wei Zhao been present, he would surely have been astonished that the Five Luminaries Sect possessed such a physique-testing orb as well! And Tianchan was indeed of four true-attribute systems and one false-attribute system!

"What!? She did not receive the inheritance of the origin power? Still four true-attribute systems?" Ancestor Xuanchen's expression changed at once, and Tianchan was startled as well. Her inheritance of the origin power had actually failed?

"Tianchan, did you not say that everything had been arranged inside the cave and the Five Baleful origin power of the Five Baleful Mountains had been activated?" Ancestor Xuanzhen's face was grave as he pressed her. "This time everything was prepared so thoroughly, and you even took the Marrow-Cleansing Bone-Transforming Pill—how could it fail?"

"Indeed. Did anything else happen while you were receiving the inheritance?" Ancestor Xuanchen asked.

"That..." Tianchan's heart lurched. Her first thought was of Wei Zhao, but if she told the truth, then even if this matter had nothing to do with Wei Zhao, given Ancestor Xuanchen's temperament he would likely vent his anger on the man. Though he would not dare move against Wei Zhao openly out of deference to the White Leader, he might well scheme in the shadows.

"What is it? Did something truly happen?" Ancestor Xuanchen raised an eyebrow.

"After I finished the preparatory work and was about to receive the inheritance, the Five Baleful Dragon returned..." Tianchan said after a moment's hesitation.

"What? The Five Baleful Dragon came after you had made your preparations?" Ancestor Xuanchen was briefly taken aback, then frowned. "That makes no sense. By all reason, when so many cultivators above the Earth rank entered the Five Baleful Wastes all at once, it should have alerted the Five Baleful Dragon, drawn him from his cave, and set him to deploy all the spirit beasts of the Wastes and issue his commands for them to resist these Earth-rank cultivators together. How could the Five Baleful Dragon have returned so quickly?"

So it was that the change in the Xuandan Sect's trial rules this time had been engineered by Ancestor Xuanchen of the Five Luminaries Sect—all of it so that Tianchan could receive the inheritance without hindrance!

The Five Baleful Wastes were the domain of spirit beasts. Human cultivators who entered were naturally regarded as enemies, yet from the Xuandan Sect's explorations over these thousand-odd years they had discovered that cultivators below the Earth rank were the limit the spirit beasts would tolerate.

When Yellow-rank and Mystic-rank cultivators entered the Five Baleful Wastes to gather trial spirit herbs, there was danger, yes, but only from chance encounters with spirit beasts—the beasts would not hunt them down in packs. In truth, the spirit beasts of the Wastes looked down on cultivators of such strength; they did not welcome their arrival, but neither would they muster a great force to slaughter them.

But once cultivators who intruded into the Five Baleful Wastes were above the Earth rank, they were deemed invaders. Then the Five Baleful Dragon would be roused to issue his commands to every spirit beast of the Wastes, to join together and destroy these cultivators, defending his territory from human intrusion.

This time, to lure the Five Baleful Dragon out of his cave to issue those commands, Ancestor Xuanchen had not hesitated to sacrifice the lives of so many Earth-rank cultivators and above—proof enough that he was a ruthless, vicious man. No wonder he had a daughter as cruel as Little Eleven; indeed, even his daughter was not as venomous at heart as he.

This was the reason for the spirit beast riots in the Five Baleful Wastes. In the first few days, the Five Baleful Dragon only sent word to the spirit beasts near the Five Baleful Mountains, and since the beasts had a language among themselves, those who received the command would immediately seek out the flying spirit beasts skilled at transmitting sound! (To be continued)