Reward from the Dangerous Path

  Amidst the boulder exploding, Ryker put several qi barriers to protect himself. He was glad he had great instincts as he avoided and blocked most of the boulder. There are some scraps and gashes on him but it was mostly small ones.

  What he was more focused on was the swirling death energy heading towards the body of the expert. Worries filled him as he knew he couldn't let such a powerful expert be revived so he did one of the dumbest things he ever did.

  He pushed the body to the side, using his body to accept the death energy instead. He put a qi barrier, which quickly shattered but bought enough time for him to circulate the Withering Death Scripture. Using the Cultivation Art, he absorbed the abundance of death energy, his Inner Realm began to be filled at a terrifying rate.

  Using the energy he gathered and refined, he quickly raised his cultivation to the 2nd Stage, the 3rd, and the 4th. By the time he broke to the 5th Stage, the death energy quickly headed towards the body.

  Ryker, already feeling his Inner Realm getting unstable due to his quick rise in the cultivation realm began to meditate, refining and stabilizing his cultivation. While he was stabilizing his cultivation, it took all of his will to not feel worried about the body of the expert.

  As cultivation requires great focus, one must maintain their concentration, if not a backlash could occur. He could only pray that it won't cause any harm in the future. He opened his eyes to see a powerful aura swirling around the body.

  He gulped, calming his nerves. He knew he couldn't do anything to an expert who likely reached the Spirit Grand realm. He watched with trepidation as the body moved towards him. For some reason, his instinct didn't tell him to run away despite his mind telling him to get away as far as possible.

  He decided to wait, watching as the body walked towards him. When it reached close enough, the body moved its hand, a finger pointed as it poked his forehead. After it poked his forehead, the body stopped moving. As for Ryker, he felt a tremendous force enter his body before he blacked out.

-x-

  Ryker opened his eyes to see the forest again. However this time, the expert was with another group of experts, even the one responsible for his death.

  "Alright, we agree. The rumored treasures are in the area. Fighting each other is allowed, along with killing. Teaming up is also allowed. With this basic rule, you can do everything except destroy any nearby village.

However, a fight between all of us would lead to a huge amount of destruction in the area. To compensate for it, everyone should prepare to create an inheritance. If they at badly injured and going to die, they can go create their inheritance, allowing any lucky young ones a chance to ascend to the Spirit Grand realm.

  If one person was killed without being able to set up their inheritance, the one who killed them must help set the inheritance. Do you all agree? Anyone who doesn't agree should back off as we want to make this as fair as possible," a powerful expert, even stronger than the gathered group said.

  While Ryker couldn't sense the ringleader cultivation because it was a memory, he guessed the person cultivation likely reached the Source Grand realm. After the powerful expert was done, the gathered experts waited patiently, no one backing away.

From their reaction, he could have guessed the treasures must be truly precious for them to even prepare themselves to give their inheritance. When he saw no one backing away, the ringleader nodded before hitting a drum, the sound made every expert enter the area.

  While he couldn't see every single expert, he could guess the Rock Valley and the bandit hideout was where two of the experts present put their inheritance. He wondered what kind of treasures would make Spirit Grand realm experts fight.

  However he does have a better question, how large was the area from what he could infer, the number of experts that died during the event might have reached the double digit, or maybe even half their numbers fell during the time.

If that were the case, the barony might not be the only location with inheritances. Maybe the surrounding nation and vassal kingdom also have the inheritance of experts. In the end, it was merely a possibility. Even if he knew where it was, he would only take a look if it was nearby.

  He turned around, almost jumping in fright when he saw a person looking at him intently. From the body shape, he guessed the person in front of him was what the owner of the body looked like.

  "To think you survive my challenge. Not only that, you reached where my true body is," the expert said, looking at him with a kind smile, totally not what one would expect the cultivators excelled in Law of Death to act.

  "I'm just a soul remaining, only strong enough to give a message. I won't possess you," the expert assured Ryker, though he still didn't let his guard down from mere words alone.

  "Cautious. A good trait to have. As I said, you pass the trial I prepared, or at least written in advance. Those guys keep their word," he let out a sigh.

"As I said, I'm going to give you a cultivation art. It should be an Intermediate Spirit Grade Art, plus the excessive death energy, currently my body is refining and transforming it to death essence so it will be more beneficial for you.

  I also prepared a storage ring with a box that was able to hold the dead essence. That's all I'm going to leave to you. I'm hoping you can use it to the full extent," the expert said before disappearing.

Ryker was about to ask something when he realized he was slowly disappearing too.

-x-

  He opened his eyes to see the body of the expert stopped moving. He walked closer, still cautious when he saw a large orb of liquid, death essence, floating. He remembered what the expert said, searching for the storage ring on the expert body.

  He found it and took out a silver box with yin energy coating it. He opened the box, storing the death essence. He also looked around for the Cultivation Art but couldn't fight it. He thought about it before remembering how the expert touched his forehead.

  He scanned through his memory before finding the art. He took a quick look, his expression changed as he read through it.

  "It's not good at all. It can even be compared to the Withering Death Scripture," he said out loud. He decided against using it, after all, he had better Art to use.

  He looked at the corpse and decided to increase his comprehension of the Law of Death. Because the expert had already imparted most of his comprehension, it took him only a while to achieve the Elementary Understanding.

  He smiled, the trip through the dangerous path had been worth it. Unknown to him, a small black cloud emitting an aura of death resided inside his Inner Realm, next to the small ball of fire.