Lind was slow to come back to consciousness. He had muddled thoughts but when he tried to get up, he was restrained and it snapped his mind back to the present. Before he did anything else, he looked himself over and was stunned at what he saw.
His cores were all at the very peak of tier 8, his foundation was at the peak of tier7, his body was not only unharmed but seemed to be in better shape then before, but the thing that really shocked him was his meridians.
Unlike tempering a body or mind as pills and some baths could do, Lind had only heard of things that could improve meridians. In a way, they were a weakness for a lot of cultivators as if damaged, they can be near impossible to completely restore.
Now, however, Lind's meridians seemed more profound and far more sturdy than he had ever seen in anyone before. How was that done? What had his mind been exposed to? Lind tried to recall the information pushed into his mind but he found nothing. That fact distrubed him, but he could do nothing strapped in.
Lind infused his Qi into the correct array and a quick snap followed by the hatch flying away found Lind blinking into the sunlight. He quickly sent out a sweep with his Touch but no beasts were nearby. In fact, there was no forest as he was told to expect.
As he blinked his eyes, a structure came into view. His tube was laying perfectly flat on dark gray stone tile in some kind of road or path that was surrounded by what Lind would call a western castle.
As he stood up, he felt his instincts warning him. A quick sweep with his Eyes revealed a terrifying formation laid out all around him. He was actually sitting in the only safe place! Lind did not know what was going on as Nadia had not mentioned anything like this. He did recall the voice, however, before he blacked out.
Lind scanned the surroundings and realized that while the formation was clearly powerful, it was no longer hurting him to look at it. Lind analyzed the quality of Qi but he could not place it. It was far stronger than anything he had ever felt, but it was not hurting him.
"A trial cannot be impossible. Yet, why was I brought here?" Lind spoke out loud as a kind of comfort but he nearly jumped when a voice spoke back.
"You meet criteria set by my creator." Lind looked around but he saw nothing. What was going on? Lind looked inside himself again, but saw nothing else out of the ordinary.
"Where are you?" Lind really hoped he was wrong about the information put into his head earlier, but his hopes were dashed instantly.
"I am within your mind. Currently you are connected to what I believe you would call the Ruin Spirit of this Ruin." Lind nearly began yelling. He had been invaded! He assumed the lotus position on the tube and cultivated to calm himself down.
His eyes opened wide as he realized how high the quality of the Qi was now. He nearly broke through instantly in just a breath, but he held back. Extending his staff, he moved through his tempering routine and was frustrated that his cores did move even one iota from the peak of 8th tier.
"You have done well to cultivate so far in the Soul Ream in a stable fashion but your Divine cores are peak cores. It will take a massive amount of elemental Qi to break through to the final tier and to the peak of the Soul Realm." Lind had known that already to an extent but he had hoped the higher quality Qi would make up for the limits of his technique.
"What do you want from me, Ruin Spirit?" Lind decided to be direct. It seemed the creator of this place had set up a condition he met. He would like to know why, but it would likely be revealed one way or the other. The only thing Lind could do was to ensure his own survival.
"The Inheritance has been reduced to a Ruin. The main trial was plundered against the rules so the final rewards were moved as the Inheritance construct collapsed." Lind was stunned at the Ruin Spirit's revelation. An Inheritance was killed? Was that possible?
"Could you explain how that is possible?" Lind hoped this spirit was flexible as it was a potential moment to learn more about Inheritances he had yet to truly encounter. Ruins were the corpses of an Inheritance so while dangerous, it could bypass the true challenge intended by their makers.
"An Inheritance can become a Ruin in 1 of 3 ways, the resources maintaining it run out, the legacy is claimed normally, and plundering against the rules." Lind instantly grasped this and had studied part of it. The place he got his staff from was likely one that had run out of resources as it was fairly intact and simply run down. The anti-element one was harder to call as there had been a Ruin Spirit but the level of devastation had been far greater.
"So why do I, a 6 elemental, meet any criteria for an Inheritance?" This was something Lind had hoped was more like the 6 primordials but was now sounding like a security feature instead. The question remained, however, why?
"When a Ruin falls, it has a high chance of falling into a Mortal Realm. All 6 elements are needed to overcome the trial, but only a 6 elemental meets this requirement in the mortal realm." Lind was stunned and felt small at the words of the Ruin Spirit. There was no choice.
An Immortal Inheritance would, of course, include all 6 elements as he had learned the whole point of Heaven Realm was to add the missing elements and cultivate them to reach the Immortal Realm.
If a smart Immortal took into account malicious attacks and that their Inheritance would become a Ruin, it was a rather ingenious way to protect their legacy from mortal world branches of those powers as most would discard a 6 elemental due to their severe cultivation limits.
On one hand, it was pretty smart, on the other, it made Lind frustrated that any 6 elemental would do. A tier 1 Soul Realm would have been welcomed to this place!
"What if someone simply used a 6 elemental to try again?" Lind had to ask but this time he felt a pressure on his mind. It was momentary, but it gave him an idea of where the connection had been made.
"You have been analyzed and determined to be acceptable. What you do with the legacy will be up to you." Lind sighed as he realized the possibility had been accounted for. If he had malicious intentions, he would have just been fried alive.
"Well how do I move from this place as you put me in the middle of a massive trap field?" Lind wanted to move but he could see no safe path from his current position. If he was at the beginning of this trial, maybe he could piece something together, but as it was he was stuck!
As if in answer to his thoughts, the flow of Qi stopped in the stone tile at least. Lind noticed the walls stayed lit up. He cautiously stepped his foot out and was glad nothing happened. He prepared air and water to save himself as earth was likely to be blocked in this place.
Nothing lit up but Lind walked away from his tube and followed the open air path. The castle structures seemed very solid and new, but the place was empty. The whole event seemed far different from any Ruin he had read about, but then again, who would reveal they got an inheritance for nothing?
It took 3 days for Lind to finally reach the end of the path. There had been some turns but all of those were lit up like Christmas trees with traps. Lind stayed on the clear path and found the massive fortress at the center towering in front of him.
If the Ruin Spirit was telling the truth, this was not the main trial, but a backup place created for when it became a Ruin. While it sounded considerate, it also meant the trials must have been brutal. Lind gulped as he slowly made his way into the dark entrance in front of him.
The complete lack of traps or puzzles began to wear on his nerves as he truly doubted it would be that easy to reach in Immortal Legacy. He was so very right about that!
There was a massive maze inside the castle. Lind loved puzzles but he despised mazes. Mazes were designed to drive people insane! Even so, this one was made a little easier as he had only 1 safe path to follow.
His sense of direction became useless after a week. It was lucky that he had food stored in his ring as he would have starved to death otherwise. Lind made a point to always keep food on him in the future!
Water was a bigger problem. He was ok at first with a few barrels, but as time went on, those barrels began to empty. He also was starting to stink as he had not bathed in almost a week and a half.
Of all the ways he had imagined passing the month inside the Ruin this had not been anywhere on the list! Lind was frustrated and saw no end in sight as his Touch was restricted inside the path he followed. His Eyes only told him to be wary of the walls and the Ruin Spirit was immensely unhelpful with the 'Follow the path' advice!
Lind did note that the quality of the stone around him seemed simple but when he looked at it with his Eyes and saw it was just as profound as the formations. It meant the very material was from the Immortal Realm but he compared it to the confirmed Immortal Ruins he had been in before and this one was far more powerful.
He wondered what the difference was, but that Realm was far beyond him. Lind kept walking as his now scraggly bearded face and lanky hair covered his filthy skin. A World Realm would not be in such dire straits but Soul Realms were not much better than mortals in the regard of food and cleanliness.
After 2 weeks in the Ruin, Lind finally came to a massive door.
It was made of stone and metal from what Lind could make out, unlike everything else, his Eyes and Touch could not pierce its secrets but he saw the design and smiled. There was a massive array physically mounted on the door that was incomplete.
The empty spaces required the 6 elements but he despaired at the quality of the arrays. His Soul Realm Qi would be pathetic compared to what it needed.
He assumed the lotus position to clear his mind and restore his Qi to peak condition. His tempering had not moved since his entry but Lind still did tempering everyday and had made a few elixirs with the ingredients he had left.
After 2 weeks, he was running low on beast cores, but herbs and Qi stones were fine. Lind could still make recovery or restoration elixirs fairly easily, but experimentation was impossible.
Once he was ready, he began to channel all 6 of his elements through his staff into the door. He watched as the 6 nodes very slowly began to fill. Despair filled him as he saw how slowly they were filling, but he focused and persevered.
Unexpectedly, the strain came with the benefit of what he had never dreamed would be possible. Qi flowed into Lind constantly as he carefully regulated the 6 flows of each element until he suddenly felt his cores break through!
He was finally at low tier 9 of the Soul Realm with his cores! A smile crossed his filthy face but the sheer joy could not be denied. It had been nearly 9 years of slaving away but Lind saw a light at the end of his tunnel in one aspect at last.
Compared to other Soul Realms, he was at least 5 years behind but his dream was not dead. His harmony was bright emerald and Lind continued to push himself. He wanted to stop but one break revealed how quickly the formation would drain quickly.
He had to set up a few Qi gathering arrays at his feet and push himself beyond any sane level to fill the 6 nodes. He had crossed 2 weeks of a maze that was handed to him and only had 2 weeks left. He would be damned if he came this far and got nothing.
Lind became an automaton as gathered and pushed Qi into the array until at long last a loud thunk came 4 days later and it opened wide.
"Congratulations, 6 elemental, you have opened the Legacy of the Immortal Artificer." Lind nearly passed out but pushed his body to at least fall inside the doorway in case it closed. The last thing he saw was a massive formation surrounding piles of treasure and artifacts so profound it made his head hurt to look at them.
"Wake me up in a few days." He mumbled in a daze as darkness closed in.