Chapter 148 - New Trouble

"Let’s go! Finally," Cale smiled,

[Your fate has increased significantly!]

’Oh... is it because of this?’

[Lightning Attribute Specialized ’Lightning Aura’ Technique Has Been Added.]

[With this technique, the lightning in the surroundings will respond to the Host’s will far more readily than normal.]

[The Host can also exert a limited degree of control over lightning wielded by enemies, allowing him to interfere with and redirect their attacks.]

As he claimed the rewards, Cale quickly retreated from the chamber, gathering other artifacts and weapons scattered throughout the inheritance space.

Xiong followed him, practically throwing her body at him in desperation. She seemed to believe that if he became infatuated with her, he might keep her alive... a pathetic gambit from someone grasping at survival.

Half an hour passed.

Cale’s senses detected movement, there were cultivators approaching from the direction of the sect encampment.

’Ah, it’s people from this girl’s clan.’

A group emerged from the forest, led by a cultivator bearing the insignia of the Soaring Crane Sect. The leader’s expression was tense, almost desperate.

"We need to find the young miss quickly or the sect leader won’t let us live! We’ve already let him down by letting her wander alone," he commanded urgently.

"Yes, sir!" the others chimed in unison.

Xiong immediately shouted right after seeing them.

"Senior Luo, I’m here!"

Cale retreated silently into the shadows, his presence vanishing like mist.

The group leader’s expression transformed instantly... relief flooding his features as he realized he could potentially keep his life intact.

He rushed to Xiong, pressing high-tier healing items into her hands.

"M-miss, are you alright?"

"Yes, my lady. You suddenly disappeared from the group," another chimed.

"We should hurry and inform the sect leader too. He will surely be overjoyed to see you alive!"

But Xiong’s expression suddenly twisted into something ugly.

Her veins popped visibly, anger and desperation warring across her features.

She pointed toward where Cale was concealed and shouted with venom in her voice.

"Kill him! I order you to kill this man! He has tried to rape me and even killed all my teammates! We have to kill him to hide this matter!"

Cale smiled from the shadows, genuine amusement coloring his expression.

"Would you look at that. Kindness is never rewarded. I saved you from that bastard, and you do this," he said, stepping out slightly. "Oh, heavens above, how much more are you going to test me?"

The Thorned Lotus’s blades flew up into the air, eighteen of them manifesting around him in perfect formation — ready to kill at a moment’s notice.

Xiong’s face paled as the reality of his power was shown.

"Oh... oh no! We should first meet up with Lord Father!" she cried out,

"But miss—" one of her supposed saviors attempted to protest.

"Shut up! I know that man is way stronger than any of us. Father is at Sage realm, only he can help us!"

They retreated hastily, Xiong’s attempts at manipulation having completely failed.

On the other side of the island, the two sect leaders were engaged in heated discussion.

The Soaring Crane Sect leader and his vice sect leader stood before an ornate stone gate — one of the inheritance doors that led to the same one that Cale had already claimed rewards from.

"Sect leader, this gate isn’t opening. What should we do?" the vice leader asked with frustration.

"We need this treasure! This is what we came here for! Keep going! You think I would go back after suffering so many losses?" the sect leader roared, pushing even more qi into the gate’s mechanism.

"But the young miss—"

"Leave her! I have many other children who are actually competent compared to her. If she dies, we can avenge her later!"

The disciples sitting at the encampment’s rear sighed heavily, their expressions reflecting exhaustion and disillusionment.

"This whole journey was a problem of its own," one muttered.

"Seriously, we shouldn’t have come here. There’s no profit at all. Even the Sage Stage cultivators haven’t obtained any treasures or rewards," another added.

But then the world shook.

"ROARRR!"

The sound was absolutely terrifying—a shrill that made spines tingle and bodies go numb just from the reverberation. Although they couldn’t identify the creature, their cultivator instincts allowed them to sense its approximate size and power.

Whatever this creature was, it was massive. It was absolutely beyond their capacity to fight.

"Quickly! Hurry up and let’s break this cave door!" someone shouted in panic.

"Yes! Inside the inheritance cave, no monster can enter!" another cried.

But fate, as always, was cruel.

Before they could even make significant progress on opening the gate, the monster appeared.

It was a blue triceratops like monster — a nightmare standing twenty meters tall. It crushed entire trees beneath its massive feet as it walked, its thundering footsteps leaving craters in the earth. It trampled any monster unfortunate enough to cross its path, treating them as if they were insects.

"Ah! No! Let’s run away!" disciples screamed.

"Retreat! Retreat!"

The sect leader’s face went pale as he assessed the situation. His years of cultivation and authority meant nothing against a creature of this kind.

"Tsk!" he cursed, his pride warring with survival instinct. "We will retreat now and take this inheritance later! As long as we are alive, we can take it!"

He ran, and the rest of the sect members followed without hesitation, scrambling for the safety of their ships.

Within the hour, all cultivators had evacuated the island, leaving it to the massive creatures that roamed its depths.

Cale sat in the cave of the inheritance he’d already claimed... a natural cavern that wouldn’t crumble when the inheritor departed.

’I should quickly cultivate the Beast Phantom Technique and get accustomed to it. Else I won’t get time later on.’

He spent the next two months immersed in cultivation and physical training.

The Beast Phantom Technique required deep understanding and constant practice. By the end of the second month, he’d grasped the basics, he could slightly strengthen himself by manifesting a beast phantom, feeling the power of his chosen creatures flowing through his body.

Though minimal at this stage, every increment mattered. In his fight with Wang Yunfeng, if he’d possessed just slightly more strength, he could have won with significantly fewer injuries.

The technique itself was elegant in design. It required selecting a primary beast that would receive the bulk of the user’s dedication and power, while secondary beasts would provide supporting enhancements.

The Beast Phantom’s strength scaled directly with whether the user possessed attributes matching the chosen beast.

Cale had all of them.

With the Dragon as his primary Beast Phantom, his own dragon bloodline made the manifested creature’s strength nearly unimaginable. And his passive beasts, the Divine Kunpeng and the True Phoenix were far from weak either. Each one brought distinct advantages and power synergies.

"Truly, if we’re talking about bloodlines, I might just be the strongest one, or at least one of the strongest," Cale mused aloud. "But the bloodline I’m aiming for... I don’t know where I can find a Fiend Celestial bloodline."

During these two months, he’d invested all his soul-cultivation energy into developing his system’s personality... refining what had been barely conscious into something with genuine emotional capacity and understanding, albeit not at a high level.

To his surprise, the system began providing additional help without being asked, offering suggestions and insights that went beyond simple notifications.

Cale felt satisfied by this development.

All that soul cultivation energy, enough to advance an entire realm in soul cultivation hadn’t gone to waste. But now that he had made this investment, it would likely take years before he could upgrade it again. The energy cost was astronomically insane.

In these final days, Cale literally drained every last drop of residual energy from the inheritance cave, converting it into his own cultivation reserves. This much essence could normally allow someone to ascend an entire minor realm in just a single day.

The cave that had held such ancient power gradually dimmed, its reserves completely exhausted.

By the time Cale emerged, the inheritance site had become just another natural cavern... stripped of its significance.

He stood at the cave’s entrance, looking out across the island where monsters still roamed freely. The Soaring Crane Sect and Myriad Sword Sect were long gone, their ships having fled at the first sign of the great triceratops.