Sheng Feilong looked into the pathway the old lion king had bocked before. He couldn"t see anything down the way, nor could he feel anything. It was as if there was nothing in there, yet the lion king seemed incredibly solemn about the matter.Taking a deep breath, Sheng Feilong put on a stern expression and looked at the lion king with determination in his eyes before bowing lightly. "I will not disappoint you, Senior." The lion king only stared at him in response, choosing to stay silent, while Sheng Feilong walked into the cave with firm steps.
Soon, the silhouette of Sheng Feilong vanished in the darkness of the pathway, causing the lion king to finally avert his eyes from the cave. He laid his head back down, closing his eyes, still following Sheng Feilong with his own spiritual senses, unknown and invisible to not let Sheng Feilong catch wind of it.
Amidst the darkness, Sheng Feilong was unable to see anything. The path he was walking down on was entirely black, with no source of light available; Even the dim light coming from the chamber where the lion king rests had already vanished. Yet, Sheng Feilong could follow the winding path instinctively.
He walked for a few minutes in complete darkness until he finally saw a dim light at the horizon; One that seemed to come from another chamber, the deepest part of the mountains cave the lion king spoke of. Sheng Feilong hastened his steps, nearly running down the last bit of the path.
He stepped into the chamber, only to stop as soon as he saw what was inside; A dome of solid light, encapsulating a 20 metres radius in the middle of the chamber. Sheng Feilong"s eyes quickly adapted to the changed lighting, and with a bit of focus, he could clearly see the winding patterns on the dome"s surface. "This is... A sealing formation?"
Sheng Feilong had read many book while he was in school, and even more while training under Song Weihan. These days, things that needed to be sealed would utilize special pieces of machinery, such as the metal cases Song Weihan stored Spirit Souls, that were about to be sold, in. However, a sealing formation like the one in front of him, was a technique that was used only thousands - if not tens of thousands of years ago.
Still, now that he was staring at the formation, he felt a strange familiarity with it. As if something inside was calling for him to proceed. Calmly, but carefully, Sheng Feilong walked up to the dome, now standing a mere step away from it. Then, he unconsciously stretched out his hand, touching the dome.
The winding patterns seemed to gather around his hand, twisting and turning around for a few moments before lighting up brighter than before. Sheng Feilong had to quint his eyes, but just as he did, he felt the resistance of the dome vanishing, his hand simply pushing through the wall of light.
He didn"t hesitate and started calmly pushing forward, his arm, shoulder and finally, his whole body, pushing through the wall of light with a feeling of pa.s.sing through a curtain. Inside, Sheng Feilong once again stopped in his tracks, carefully looking around. A calming, pleasant aroma wafted around inside the dome, causing him to relax slightly.
The ground was still the same, grey rock he had seen outside and in the rest of the cave, yet it seemed to have been flattened and polished slightly. Engraved into the surface were various arcana symbols that Sheng Feilong had never seen before, forming a circle that followed along the borders of the dome. A bit closer to the centre stood a stone with a flat surface, on it, a delicate, small chest.
Sheng Feilong took a few steps forward, carefully inspecting the box before opening it. Inside, was a single piece of paper – a letter, written in an old style of the Douluo Continent"s script. Sheng Feilong"s heart started beating faster again as he understood that the only one who could have left this letter was Sheng Wuyong.
He picked it up, carefully unfolding it before started to read with a bit of difficulty due to the old type of wording. "I, who does not possess a name; Born as a Beast, I dedicated my life to the pursuit of strength – Only to fail my brethren, fleeing in shame. On top of this mountain, I spent a 30.000 years in solitude, the sun and moon my only companions. I accepted the power of the sun, rejecting the moon that spites me so."
Again, Sheng Feilong"s heart started beating faster; This was truly a letter left behind by his Ancestor. He quickly tried to calm himself down, reading the next paragraph. "I, who calls himself Sheng Wuyong; Reborn as a human, I dedicated my life to the prosperity of my Clan. As the leader of a family, I spent 400 years tending to its needs. I rejected my brethren, accepting the Clan that loved me so."
Although it was just a written letter, Sheng Feilong could feel how regretful Sheng Wuyong was about abandoning the pride of Three-Eyed Golden Lions. Still, this wasn"t the end of the letter Sheng Wuyong left behind. "As my life neared its end, my regret climbed higher. I brought my brethren to a new home, gave them a new future, yet my aching heart remains."
The letter suddenly ended there. Sheng Feilong frowned, trying to find anything special about the letter. "This isn"t the end... There"s got to be more. A... drop of blood?" He only gave the letter a quick glance, but a suddenly spotted a discolouration at the bottom right corner; A round, browinsh-red area.
Without thinking too much about it, Sheng Feilong quickly understood what he had to do. He bit his finger, drawing some blood and pressed the bleeding wound onto the paper, directly at the brownish-red spot. Moments later, the brownish red spot turned into what seemed to be some kind of runes, unfurling from the spot.
The spot vanished, turning into words that arranged themselves as a new paragraph underneath the letter"s text. "Oh, descendant of mine; How have I hoped for one to come. For you to read this, you must have received the approval of my dear brother. As as human, I have sinned, for I have learned sinister arts. Descendant of mine, step into the indention beyond this podium and drop your blood into its centre. You shall receive my life"s worth of inheritance.
Though a sinner I might be, to the Heavens I swear by the life I have laid down that I have not brought disaster about anyone in my pursuits of sinister arts. Descendant of mine, accept my heritage and a dead man"s wish with it; Please, protect my brethren, for I have failed them."
Sheng Feilong stared at the latter for a moment. He didn"t know what sinister arts Sheng Wuyong was talking about, but for him to call them as such felt weird to him. He looked around again; At the dome, the strange markings on the ground as well as the aforementioned indention in the ground, but he couldn"t understand what sinister arts Sheng Wuyong meant.
Taking another deep breath, he placed the letter back into the small box, the stepped into the indention. It was about two metres deep and about six metres in diameter. Again, simply carved into the grey stone, possessing a smooth surface, void of any new markings. Sheng Feilong frowned lightly, but shook his head mere moments later, deciding to just trust Sheng Wuyong.
He bit his finger again, widening the wound so that more blood would flow from it and let it drop down, dead into the centre of the indention. At first nothing happened, but soon after, the blood was seemingly absorbed into the stone before the smooth surface cracked.
Slowly, deep crimson blood started seeping out from the cracks, causing Sheng Feilong to jump out of the indention with a shocked expression. Blood continuously seeped out from the cracks, forming a puddle at the bottom of then indention. "...These are the sinister arts Ancestor Wuyongwas talking about?"
Sheng Feilong couldn"t avert his eyes from the spectacle, not just because of the weirdness, but even more so because of the blood itself; Just looking at it caused his heart beat to fasten and his own blood to boil. He felt an intricate connection to this blood, much stronger than what he felt when meeting the old lion king. "This is... Ancestor Wuyong"s blood? Is that what he meant by "laying his life down"..?"
Within minutes, the whole indention was filled with blood. By this point, Sheng Feilong could barely contain his own blood; It was rampaging wildly through his body, a need to jump into the pool arising from within him. His face was lightly flushed already and his limbs lightly shaking, but he still remained clear enough to not act rashly.
A while later, the blood in the pool stopped rising and Sheng Feilong carefully approached it. With each step he drew closer, his heartbeat and the blood in his veins become more frenzied. Staring at it for a while, Sheng Feilong let out a long sigh, determination flashing across his eyes.
"If this is the inheritance Ancestor Wuyong has prepared for me, then I"ll take it all." His posture became more relaxed and he started removing his clothing, storing it in his s.p.a.cial Ring before putting the ring itself next to the small box containing the letter. Now stark naked, he looked at the pool of blood again, before calmly leaping into the middle of it, even his head submerging in the ominously glowing, crimson fluid.