37 Inheritance

'Is this how I'm going to die?'

As Caol was getting deeper and deeper into the sea bed and the water pressure crushing him, everything suddenly disappeared.

Caol felt light and when he opened his eyes, he couldn't see anything. There was no light at all, but he felt like he could move.

"What is happening?"

There were serious wounds and injuries on his body. His right elbow was broken, at least two of ribs were smashed, and he was suffering from internal hemorrhage.

'System, how bad are my injuries?'

[The host has serious injuries, but the host will live as there is only a 2% chance of dying with the host's physique and regenerative powers.]

'My god, where did that thing come from?! That was ridiculous, appearing just like that. It's not like I killed its baby or something.' Caol was cursing under his breath while consuming high grade medicinal pills to help him recover. A Senzu Bean is a bit expensive for this kind of treatment, and should only be used for the more important ones.

'By the way, where am I?' Caol was walking around as he can barely see anything, but this was not a problem for him as he went blindfolded for years. He was aimlessly walking when suddenly, the walls were kindled with fire.

At this point, Caol could see that he was in some sort of a cave with mysterious fire floating along the walls. There was only one direction he can walk to, and he did.

The cave wasn't dampy, which was kind of weird as Caol clearly knew this was just under the sea bed. The path Caol was walking was a bit long, but after a few minutes, there was someone sitting in front of him.

Caol stopped and felt the other party's aura. He couldn't feel it and this only meant that it was dead. Caol was inching closer, when suddenly the corpse raised its head.

The corpse was a man without any eyes. It brought chills on Caol, but the corpse suddenly attacked him.

The corpse was very agile and formed a knife hand and slashed Caol. He saw the corpse coming and bobbed his head from its hands. Caol grabbed the chance to counter attack and did an uppercut towards its gut.

The corpse was sent tumbling down, but after a second, it stood up like it was nothing. A huge chunk of its stomach was blown away by Caol's powerful strike, but the corpse still continued attacking him.

Caol assessed the corpse to be as strong as a Martial Ancestor, just by its powerful body. It clearly didn't have any qi so the improved scouter did not work.

Caol was too strong for this corpse and easily abused it. Caol punched and kicked at different angles, taking away some body parts in the process.

The corpse really did turn into a corpse, only now it was dismembered, not looking like a human figure at all. After it died, a red light went out from it and made its way to Caol's left chest, on top of his heart. Caol could not dodge it as it was too fast even for him to react.

He was very nervous on what this light meant and took out his gi to look at his chest. The light solidified into something like a tattoo on his chest. It was just a vertical line that was about an inch long.

'System, can you identify what this means?'

[The mark on the host's chest is very mysterious. It appears that it is not harmful to the host's body, and it seems that the host is under a formation that was triggered when you went near the corpse.]

'Not clear, huh? Oh well, only one way to find out!' Caol decided to head deeper into the cave. Every few minutes, he would encounter a corpse stronger than the one before it. It was the same as the first one, as they released a red light and put some marks on Caol's body. On some instances, the corpses were so strong that Caol had to activate Kaio-ken.

This time, Caol confronted a corpse that was giving him a hard time. It was a bit different from the other ones by the color of the corpse. This one had eyes but they were completely red. It was much stronger too and Caol had been fighting this one under Kaio-ken x10.

Caol ducked a kick to his head and rotated on his right foot before executing a horizontal leg sweep onto the corpse's hip. This strike was blocked by the corpse and held onto his foot. Caol couldn't take his leg back and was forced to do Qi Blasts on the corpse.

The corpse stumbled back and let go of Caol's leg. Caol's body was having a hard time as the wounds from earlier wasn't fully healed yet. The muscles were still mending, but he can fight. He needed to.

The corpse rushed on Caol with its full speed. Caol had to finish this fight so he waited for the corpse to near him. It was just a blink of an eye when the corpse was upon him.

Caol focused his whole body and gathered qi onto his left leg. As the corpse was in his range, he suddenly did a push kick onto the head of the corpse with his left leg.

The corpse couldn't stop its acceleration and could only watch as Caol's foot stomped on its face and breaking its neck from its body.

Fortunately, this strike ended the battle. Caol didn't leave unscathed, as his left leg was broken after that strike. It was an enormous amount of pressure that he needed to withstand.

After the corpse died, it released a huge red light that pinned itself onto Caol. The mark entered his left hand, and now, his left chest going all the way to his left shoulder and arm was covered with the tattoo marks. This corpse was the 50th one he had to battle, and was significantly stronger than the previous ones combined.

As he received the mark, a wall suddenly opened up in front of him. It created a door-like entrance with a hazy fog covering it. With nowhere else to go, Caol decided to go in.

Caol passed through the hazy fog and felt uncomfortable. It seemed like it observed every nook and cranny of his body.

The only thing Caol could see inside the door was a giant statue sitting in a meditative pose.

The statue was red all over its body, with the only difference being its eyes. They were the deepest of blue, which formed a contrast with its body color. The statue was looking at Caol's direction, and he could sense that something sentient was inside the statue.

As Caol was just thinking this, the statue moved its eyes onto the marks on Caol's body.

Caol was surprised by this, but the surprise didn't end there.

"50 marks. Very impressive!"

The statue didn't move its lips but the sound went directly into Caol's mind. Caol shook and took a step back, but was blocked by the door.

At this time, Caol readied himself for a fight as he could sense a very powerful battle intent within the statue.

"Do not be afraid, little one. If I wanted to fight you, you would be dead before you even went inside this room."

Caol still didn't relax after the statue said these words.

"Who are you, and what are these marks?"

"Very impatient aren't we? Well, I suppose I can let you know about some things. Those marks are something I put in here as a trial to choose an inheritor. The corpses you battled were my puppets and everyone that goes through my trial will receive a reward based on how many marks they get. As you are the only one to get 50 marks, I shall pass on my inheritance to you."

The statue didn't give Caol any time to think as the marks on Caol covered every inch of his body. Before he knew it, he felt pain he had never felt before.

"AAAAAAHH!!"

Caol was writhing in pain on the ground as the marks were doing something to his body. His skin, muscles, bones, and internal organs were covered by the marks, mixing with it some red aura. Everything was changing drastically as filth and excresence was released.

"Oh, and did I forget to tell you it will be a bit painful?" The statue was clearly enjoying Caol's misery.

His shouts and cries were like songs to the statue's ears.