A man with long black hair tied into a ponytail sat cross legged on the ground of his clan's ancestral shrine. His youthful appearance was deceptive, given that he'd lived for over ten thousand years.

Along the walls of the shrine there were rows of wooden tokens placed. Each of them bore a name which glowed with bright blue light.

The man's eyes were closed in meditation and with every breath the energy within his body whirled and twisted before settling into his dantian. Suddenly one of the tokens shattered, the light fading as it did.

His eyes shot open and he checked which of his descendants had died. When he saw that it was the third young master, his gaze darkened.

"How did that fool manage to fail at the first step? I thought letting him oversee a harvest might allow him to temper that arrogance of his, but clearly I was mistaken. I shall have to see what pathetic excuse he has concocted for his failure this time," the man said as he rose to his feet.

With a wave of his hand, the shards of wood were incinerated. All that remained was a gap in the rows of wooden tokens. He debated whether he would bestow another soulbound shrine on the reckless young fool.

Having him truly risk his life might be the push the boy needed to finally stop behaving like a reckless idiot and wasting his talents. While debating the punishment he would give, the man made his way out of the ancestral shrine and towards the Soul Hearth, where the third young master's body would have been brought.

The two clan members on guard duty stiffened up and gave him a deep bow and a martial salute as he passed through the entrance.

"Patriarch, to what do I owe the honour of your presence," a petite woman with ash grey hair said with a smile as the man entered the Soul Hearth.

It was a towering building of wood and stone, bereft of decoration or ornamentation. That was a purposeful design, intended to represent that the soul was pure of any decoration, the only true representation of a cultivator.

"Elder Liqing, I have come to collect the third young master. His shrine was destroyed," the man replied, his stormy expression growing worse with every word.

"What? That can't be, the hearth has been quiet ever since…" her voice trailed off and her face went pale as she looked towards the centre of the building and felt the presence of another person.

"Don't worry, it's not you that my anger is reserved for. Make sure that no one enters until I say so," he ordered her before striding inside.

Inside the soul hearth there was only a single main room. All of the space was taken up by a grand array carved into plain stone, yet every inch was embedded with powerful spirit stones.

In the centre of the circle a young man wearing nothing but a black robe was standing still. His face was still frozen in shock—eyes as wide as saucers and a slack jaw.

"Give me one reason I shouldn't strip you of your position and cast you out of the clan you damn fool," the patriarch spat when he saw the pathetic figure of his third son.

"What, father you can't! It was a lower realm, they were all supposed to be trash to stomp under my feet. I don't understand. That bastard, he was able to heal!" the youth began to splutter. "It shouldn't have been possible."

For most of his third son's rambling the patriarch wanted to slap the boy silly. However, at the last part his eyes narrowed and his annoyance grew to unprecedented levels.

"Don't lie to me, brat. Are you telling the truth? Did that little rat break the oath he made when we put him on the throne?"

When the third young master fell to his knees and kowtowed to his father, the patriarch knew he was telling the truth. That arrogant son of his would never lower himself like this unless something truly terrifying had happened to him.

If one of the clan's rats had spilled the secrets they'd been entrusted with, it was a matter of grave consequence. He might have to send one of the elders instead of the clan's youths.

On the bright side, whatever had happened down there had taken the edge off his son's arrogance. Given some time to reflect on his past actions, this might be the catalyst for positive growth.

"Get up, brat. You will spend a century in secluded cultivation to reflect on what you've learned and as punishment for losing your soul shrine. Only after you return will I grant you another," the man said with a cold voice.

To his shock, the boy didn't utter a single word of complaint. "Yes Patriarch. My only request is that you allow me to return for the final harvest in that place. I wish to understand what went wrong," he said while bowing.

"We will see. Give me your spatial ring, you will only have your mind and body to accompany you."

The third young master reached down to his hand to take off his spatial ring, albeit reluctantly. When his fingers brushed against smooth skin, finding no trace of the plain metal ring, he inwardly cursed.

Shit! I'm already in enough trouble thanks to my failure, but if father finds out I lost my spatial ring too he might really banish me.

Unfortunately there was no way to hide the truth. The patriarch had seen his son's actions and noticed the lack of a ring on his finger.

Usually he would have beaten the boy until he was just a quivering lump of flesh for making such a colossal mistake, but seeing the change in his son's attitude made him more forgiving than usual.

"You will not receive a single pill during your cultivation as punishment. Rely only on yourself and reflect on your misdeeds, my foolish son. Go," he sighed before he changed his mind.

"Yes, father. I will make up for my past errors and return stronger than before," the black-robed youth said before rushing out of the Soul Hearth.

****

The closest comparison I had for the sudden shift in the weather was a monsoon season similar to what some countries on Earth would experience. The sky seemed to split open as a torrential downpour began.

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It had been six days since we entered the Blossoming Heavens and we had found plenty of treasures. I had read through the Soul Binding Empress' diary and started to decode the insights I'd received from her.

I practiced expelling qi from my body and maintaining control over it, hoping to improve all of my techniques. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts I wasn't able to use my healing technique at range.

No matter how many times I attempted to do it, the medicinal qi seemed to lose its properties as it left my body. Even though I could keep my grasp on the energy, it would no longer heal the target.

I gave up on it once the rain started, resolving to try again once we left. I had all the time in the world to practice. The rains lasted for almost a full day and night. During that time we didn't find any more places of interest, although we continued moving forward.

After a full day of downpour, the rains finally started to abate. As it lessened, I felt a resonance from inside my spatial bag. It was the artifact I'd received from that old geezer in the cave.

The last time it had become active it had led me to the ruins with the Soul Binding Empress' apparition, so I hoped another treasure haul awaited me. I was excited to see what it would be this time.

We met other groups of cultivators more and more often. All of them were extremely wary of us, but only a few tried to attack.

"Why are they so violent?" I asked Meng Hou after the fourth or fifth time we'd been ambushed. "Wouldn't it make more sense to focus on finding treasures?"

He looked at me like I was an idiot and scratched his head before answering. "They find treasure. Less effort to take from someone than search."

Ah. Of course. Why would they use their own knowledge and expertise to scour the Blossoming Heavens when they could just wait for others to do it for them, before taking all the fruits of their hard work.

Even so, none of the attackers had succeeded in bringing us down. Each of the beasts fought with the ferocity of ten men to defend their hoard. I was reminded of the greed of dragons in fantasy stories.

Wang Ren was equally enthusiastic, glad for any opportunity to test his glaive skills. I was less excited, but wasn't going to let some lazy bastard steal my treasures.

The majestic phenomenon that occurred as the rains abated made certain I wouldn't be the only one competing for whatever the artifact was pointing me to. Ahead of us, in what I believed to be the centre of the secret realm, hundreds of gold and jade spires started to rise towards the sky.

They took the form of a majestic palace that put even the one in Celestial Jade City to shame. Compared to this place, the city lord's palace in Three River City was like a provincial hut.

It continued to rise until the spires appeared like great tears in the world, splitting apart heaven and earth. When it finished rising from the ground, a rumbling chime resounded through the air.

Everyone in the secret realm would have heard it. The peal of the bells rang out three times before fading.

"I suppose we should make our way towards that palace," I said dryly.

"Yes, the key that the ancestor desires should be inside it. There are plenty of other treasures as well. It is the main event of the Blossoming Heavens. The appearance of the Spring and Autumn Palace," Shuanghu explained for my benefit.

Our adventure inside this secret realm was drawing to an end, but I was certain that this final stage would be the most brutal. Every cultivator inside would be fighting to claim the greatest treasures of the Blossoming Heavens.

"You find treasure inside, you keep it," Meng Hou announced to the group. "Unless it's key. Then you give to ancestor. Let's go."

We all nodded and followed after him. I found the beasts easy to get along with. In a strange way, they were more honest and less cruel than the human cultivators I'd met.

Not everyone was that bad, of course, but it was the general rule. I wondered if learning about beast cultivation could help with my unique situation.

I still needed to figure out a method to break through to the Foundation Building Realm. It wasn't as complex as the Qi Gathering Realm, but it was still a major step forward.

With the growing pressure in my dantian, I felt that I might not be able to hold off for much longer. It might even happen inside the Spring and Autumn Palace. Only time would tell.

When we reached the palace, we realised that the way in was blocked by a thick wall of mist. It wasn't only us, but every single cultivator who had gathered there that was unable to enter.

Surprisingly, there were very few fights that had broken out. Instead everyone had separated into individual groups and were trying to figure out how to get inside.

The appearance of the palace made everyone greedy. It was almost certain that the treasures inside would dwarf anything they'd found so far.

It meant that even those who preferred to rob others rather than hunt on their own had decided to change their strategy. As for my group, we were left in the dark like everyone else.

"Didn't your ancestor tell you anything about how to get inside?" I asked Meng Huo and Shuanghu with a frown.

Given how much those old beasts knew about this place I expected them to be able to share the method for getting past all the barriers we'd encountered. Unfortunately that didn't seem to be the case.

"It's impossible. Even if they wanted to tell us, they wouldn't be able to. There is a special restriction on anyone who enters the Blossoming Heavens. It allows you to share only limited information about what you experienced within. That's why we know about the palace, but not how to enter. We will need to figure this out ourselves," Shuanghu explained while shaking her head.

That was disappointing, but all it meant was that we were on a level playing field with the other cultivators. We'd had plenty of advantages until now, so I wasn't too annoyed.

Besides, I was sure with our combined efforts we would figure out how to get inside before too long. Arriving later than others gave us the benefit of being able to see their failed attempts to enter and learn from them.

Many cultivators tried to pass through the wall of mist while we watched. One man attempted to summon a gale and blow the mist apart, but it vanished as soon as it made contact.

Another female cultivator tried using fire to blow it open, but that was a complete failure too. The closest to success we saw was a sword cultivator whose slash split the air, but only left a gash in the mist.

Unlike the rage of the others who failed, he simply sheathed his sword and returned to seated meditation with his eyes closed. I admired his calm mindset.

"What do you think?" I asked the group.

Anyone's insights would help here. The mist reminded me of the dead forest we'd arrived in and also of the Soul Binding Empress' trial. It seemed to be a theme of the Blossoming Heavens.

"Shuanghu can split the mist," Meng Hou confidently said, leaving everyone stunned in surprise including Shuanghu herself.

"I can?" she muttered.

"Azure technique," the monkey replied with a nod.

"You dolt, that won't work here. It barely worked back in the forest and that mist was devoid of qi. This is no natural phenomenon, but an array!" she replied, smacking the monkey with her paw.

He rubbed the bruise with a frown, looking dejected. I chuckled at the amusing scene, but we were no closer than when we'd started.

All of a sudden I heard gasps of surprise and shouts passing through the crowd of gathered cultivators. When I looked up I saw a solitary woman standing in front of the wall of mist.

She had shiny black hair that fell to her waist and wore a blue robe. Her skin was pale and her eyes a sparkling blue. She drew a sword from her waist and raised it above her head with both hands.

The blade became almost pure white as she slashed downwards. Her sword slash was beautiful. Every movement was perfectly controlled as though moving in accordance with the world's will.

When the sword touched the mist, the thick fog actually started to freeze! It was this that had made everyone gasp in surprise. We all watched with rapt attention as she froze a section of the mist.

Then, she walked forwards. Every step was taken with grace. She placed a palm against the frozen mist and pushed it forwards. The ice shattered, opening a tunnel through the mist.

She vanished into the opening she'd created. The first person had successfully entered the Spring and Autumn Palace.

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