Villain Seduces to Rise in Status

Although these people acted normally with Cale, they wouldn’t hesitate to betray or kill him in a second. They only acted friendly, possibly thinking he came here arrogantly with low cultivation and weaker talent. He was only a Grandmaster stage after all.

While jumping across the platforms, the old ones started conversing.

Black Sire: ”Kid, you’re new to this, but such tests are new to us too.”

Liushen laughed. ”Indeed. Most times we don’t have things like entrance tests, we just enter. It’s likely this realm was a prosperous one.”

Cale focused on the word ’was.’

”Was? Does that mean—”

Morton agreed. ”Yes, it was. Since it’s turned into an inheritance realm, it was likely a world destroyed or its ’Will’ was used by a godly being. Even for me, it’s a first to experience such a thing.”

Song Chenxi nodded. ”From what I’ve known, inheritance caves open when worlds are about to be destroyed. It’s meant to share remnant energy with others, it’s a concept of Equivalent exchange.”

Cale was learning things these people had lived through across lifetimes spanning both his own lives combined.

Black Sire looked at Cale’s half-open robes, the tattoos on his chest.

”Strange runes you’ve got there, kid. I can’t even guess half of them.”

Cale replied, ”Ah... it’s my family’s technique passed down. Maybe that’s why.”

Black Sire nodded. ”Seems like so.”

Suddenly, Cale’s senses picked up an eerie presence. It was definitely something strong, possibly stronger than all of them combined.

Liushen: ”Don’t mind those creatures, Leon. If you stare at them too much, they might attack. Just let them be.”

Cale: ”...Alright.”

But as they went further, the presence haunted him more.

Right as he looked again—

A huge amount of flames shot at him, like a dragon’s breath. So hot and full of murderous intent.

”Move!”

Chenxi pushed Cale aside. He balanced himself as the others looked down at what formed below them.

They all froze for a few seconds.

A suffocating heat gripped the air.

A single point of absolute vacuum tore open directly in front of them. A violent vortex of gold and crimson sparks ignited, spinning so rapidly they blurred into a blinding sphere of energy. The ambient light vanished, swallowed by the fierce crackling radiance of a miniature sun taking shape.

With a deafening, musical cry that vibrated through Cale’s ribs, the sphere burst outward in a wave of harmless heat, unfurling into a magnificent pair of wings woven entirely from living flame.

The fire crested and solidified.

A phoenix hovered in the agitated air, its eyes burning like molten gold as it fixed its gaze on Cale.

Black Sire’s eyes flared with awe despite the fear.

”A... A phoenix! It’s a phoenix! Not mature enough to burn everything or take human form, but still—a legendary phoenix!”

Everyone stared with awe and terror.

They had to escape.

The phoenix let out a deafening roar, nearly shattering their eardrums.

Cale quickened his pace. ”R-run! We have to run!”

And ran, they did. They jumped through the track so fast—a kilometer passed in under half a minute. But the phoenix pursued like a lion on hunt.

An hour passed in running.

Song Chenxi was somehow last one, with Cale second-to-last.

Using his qi as a rope, Chenxi pulled Cale’s ankle, making him fall on his knee for a second.

”Sorry, kid. I can’t lose here.”

In under a few seconds, he was ahead.

Now Cale was the target of the phoenix and its flames.

With chaos qi covering his body, it was still bearable. Chaos flame was one of the strongest forces of the cosmos after all.

’This son of a— sigh. What can I expect? I would’ve done the same.’

Then an idea came in haste to save himself.

Didn’t he get an ability to absorb the flames of others?

’Let’s use that while keeping safe distance.’

Although he was slowly absorbing and analyzing the phoenix’s flames, he still needed to preserve his body. He didn’t have dormant souls nearby to help heal his physical form. Though with three soul bodies, healing would take an hour or two.

The phoenix shot flame balls that could literally erase the platform itself.

It continued its pursuit.

Cale was stronger than nearly every Grandmaster Stage cultivator out there, but these people were way above that. They came from martial families and sects and were Emperors and Sages at that. Cale came from an aristocratic continent.

Their continent had more mages than cultivators. His father was a 4th Circle mage first, then a cultivator. That’s how he could easily kill Emperor Stage ones—his battle experience as a mage easily accelerated his cultivation.

And their king, Sirius Einhorn Velard, was possibly a 5th or 6th Circle mage too.

’Now that I think about it, the one at my coming-of-age ceremony might’ve been just his avatar. Meaning that guy was already Emperor Stage back then, with avatars that high. The future is diverging too much now.’

All he could hope was that information from future documents was true.

Tombs and various other things. Those documents were released a decade after the Maleficent realm opened. Who knew they’d be useful? They didn’t write what the legacy was, but it had to be something good.

Then a system message popped.

[True Phoenix Annihilating Flames have been registered.]

[Absorption has started... 0.2%]

’Fuck! It’s slow...’

If his understanding stayed this slow, it would take two hours or more. But what other choice did he have?

Ten minutes passed. Fifteen. Thirty. Fifty.

Cale’s energy was dwindling.

Before he could cover his body with chaos qi to save himself from burning, his qi would finish. That would be bad.

So he started consuming pills for more spiritual energy.

Although he’d never understood whether he used intent, laws, paths, or dao in his attacks, now that he was literally depleted, he could feel them.

Separate yet singular entities along with his qi.

’I—if I can master using them properly in the inheritance, it would be quite beneficial.’

He would learn how to use them and integrate them with every single body movement. So even if qi depleted, these things would give him a slight boost to his physical body.

The phoenix’s flames intensified.

His skin burned.

Pills dissolved on his tongue, flooding his meridians with energy.

And still—he ran.