Chapter 119 - The Start

The battlefield erupted in chaos as hundreds, no thousands watched the engagement unfold.

The Celestial Wang Family’s assault force descended like locusts, their formations overwhelming. But not a single neutral party moved to intervene.

How could they? The Wang Family was a upper middle-tier celestial clan, powerful enough to crush nations.

Fiora stood at the center of the maelstrom, her movements fluid and defensive.

But Cale, observing from the battlefield’s outer edge, recognized the pattern immediately. She wasn’t fighting to win.

The Wang Family’s commander, an Apex-stage cultivator radiating overbearing confidence, approached her directly.

"With your looks, our lord Yunfeng wouldn’t mind taking you as a dual cultivation partner," he announced loudly enough for all to hear. "Rejoice, you’ll be able to satisfy such a figure."

Fiora’s response was almost bored: "I’m already engaged."

The Apex-stage cultivator laughed.

"Haah, you think such a thing matters to Lord Vice Patriarch? You’ll only be his sex partner. You think he can’t kill an ant or two?"

Fiora sighed. She was dealing with a particularly slow student.

"I doubt that very much so. Try to kill his father first. Given that your lord can’t even show his face here, I doubt he can even fight either here, or in the bed. He won’t be able to handle me."

The words hung in the air, then the laughter started rippling through the assembled spectators. This woman was brazenly mocking one of the top rankers of the Wang Family, a middle-tier celestial clan that is respected across half the world. And she was doing it in front of hundreds of witnesses.

The Apex-stage cultivator’s face flushed crimson with rage.

"Y-you wench! You all go catch this bitch!" he roared, pointing at Fiora. "Don’t let her escape!"

But a brilliant light suddenly flashed—bright enough to temporarily blind everyone in the immediate vicinity. A flashbang of energy.

When vision cleared, Fiora had vanished completely.

"Huh, where did she go?"

"She used something to escape!"

"Go run and search! She won’t have gone far!"

The search would prove fruitless. Fiora was already miles away, having used a high-tier escape artifact Cale had provided for exactly this scenario. She’d fought just long enough to establish the Wang Family’s hostile intent publicly, then disappeared to safety.

Mission accomplished. One of the goals Cale had was to cut off as much of their power.

Meanwhile, in a different section of Maleficent Realms, Li Zhan’s expedition was having remarkable success.

They’d killed numerous Emperor level beasts, collected three separate inheritances, though none of them the Bone Fiend Emperor’s tomb, but valuable nonetheless.

Li Zhan had been given a specific task by his clan: locate and claim the Bone Fiend Emperor’s inheritance, the one inheritance that was apparently "destined" for the Li clan specifically.

But he had no idea which tomb it was.

So he decided to collect every inheritance available and hope the destined one was among them.

Ruo Wan and Niva arrived together after he finished dispatching the latest beast, both looking somewhat exhausted from their own encounters.

"What happened?" Ruo Wan asked, her tone slightly strained.

"Ah... I guess there’s another tomb here," he replied casually, his attention focused on something in his hand; a jade stone given to him by his clan, now glowing brilliantly, this was it.

This was the Bone Fiend Emperor’s tomb.

Niva quickly excused herself, pulling out a talisman and tearing it apart. A signal talisman that would alert Cale to the discovery. She watched the desperate excitement on Li Zhan’s face as he moved toward the tomb entrance, understanding immediately that this was the target.

’They found it,’ she thought, releasing the signal.

Across many hundred kilometers, Cale received the signal.

"Hmm, so they’ve found it," he murmured to himself, "I should start moving."

During their journey toward the tomb, Niva continued her performance flawlessly. She hugged Li Zhan’s arm when "frightened," blushed at his casual compliments, acted shy and vulnerable and entirely dependent on his strength. The perfect damsel in distress.

Ruo Wan, watching this display from nearby, felt her blood pressure rise.

’This bitch, and that bastard, both of them!’ she swore internally, her hands clenching into fists. ’Just wait. I’m going to complain to the Li clan head about this shameless behavior. This engagement won’t stand!’

But she kept her silence for now.

The news of the challenge was spreading like wildfire.

Wang Yunfeng the Vice Patriarch of the Celestial Wang Family, an Emperor-stage cultivator of legendary power had apparently decided to personally eliminate a nobody from the desolate continent who’d caused him repeated embarrassment.

First by killing Wang Xin, then by eliminating Wang Youhei, and most insulting of all, by seducing away a woman the Wang Family had been coveting as a future political marriage alliance. This was planned for the future, when they would have control over half of Vaeloria thus asking a political marriage to make the unreasonable look reasonable.

Every major and minor clan received word through many watchers. The excitement was palpable.

Fiora rested comfortably in a secluded location, having successfully escaped the Wang Family’s assault. Cale had told her previously to push all battles onto him if possible, and she’d followed that advice. But he had also asked for a reward for taking on her battles.

She had no idea what he wanted. Probably cultivation supplies, or rare artifacts, or perhaps money. Something material that would benefit his power growth. She simply accepted his terms without question.

She had no way of knowing the true price he would eventually demand.

Cale stood in the exact center of the formation he’d spent weeks constructing across the realm.

The array was a masterpiece of dark cultivation theory, a trap designed to harvest souls on a huge scale. He could see the formations spreading outward from where he stood, extending for kilometers in all directions, so subtle and integrated into the natural landscape that none of the passing cultivators had noticed.

In exactly two days, Li Zhan, Niva, and their expedition would enter the Bone Fiend Emperor’s tomb. That would be the signal.

And then, he would need forty minutes of uninterrupted protection from the three women he’d arranged to be here.

Fiora, Rexa, and Emma arrived at his location as evening fell, their presences announcing themselves instantly. The moment they saw each other the tension increased.

They stared at each other like three beasts coveting the same piece of meat.

Cale, sensing the brewing conflict, quickly stepped to the side and focused entirely on his array preparations.

Rexa sighed, attempting to defuse the situation before it escalated into actual combat.

"Please don’t fight," she said quietly. If their fighting caused even the slightest disruption to Cale’s work, she would have to kill them.

Emma laughed at the attempt at peacekeeping, her elf eyes gleaming with amusement.

"Hmph... auntie~"

"Mere concubines," Fiora said with indifference, so what if she was her uncle’s daughter.

Cale sighed even deeper than before.

’I didn’t want all three of them here together, but what can I do, I need them here for my own protection.’

Niva would receive purified remnant souls transferred directly to her, allowing her to breakthrough two to three minor realms in a single day and dramatically increase her magical and cultivation understanding.

Zenith... well, he’d admittedly forgotten to count her in the original plan. But he’d make it up to her eventually. Help her unlock her own personal Sword Intent in the future, which was arguably an even greater gift than direct power.

As for these three, they would stand as his shields while he performed the final phase of the ritual.

Cale murmured to himself with a dark smile: "Gods shall be benevolent, how else would they fool the commoners~"

He took out the final flag and placed it directly beneath him. The moment it touched the ground, the entire formation activated fully.

What the array did passively for the first ten minutes was broadcast a false aura. It simulated the unmistakable resonance of a Divine-tier inheritance.

It was bait, an irresistible bait.

Every major clan would receive the signal. Every ambitious cultivator would race toward this location. And they would walk directly into the trap without realizing until it was far too late.

’I guess it’s about time,’ Cale thought, surveying his work.

For the first five to six hours, he would lure the "rats"—all the powerful cultivators and clan members who believed they’d discovered an unguarded Divine inheritance. They would surround the formation, attempt to breach it, exhaust themselves trying to break through.

Then, in the final forty minutes, when the souls were properly weakened and vulnerable, he would activate the true mechanism of the array.

100,000 to 200,000 souls would be sucked into the formation simultaneously. Their bodies would be consumed by the Four-Winged Frost Centipede, converted into a Talent Inheritance which he would consume. Their talents, their bloodlines, their accumulated potential all of it would flow into Cale’s being, multiplying his capabilities exponentially.

Everything except his Intent, his Dao, and his Laws would increase many levels. His bloodlines would surge forward dramatically. His physical capabilities would transcend what was considered possible for his current realm.