By the time I finished with the first set, I needed a break. I had a dull headache that made me want to take a nap. The information inside was fascinating though. The Chimeric Forest was once a part of the Verdant Fields sect. It was their beast research domain. It was effectively an area where beast masters, tamers, and breeders would drop their creatures to train them.

  According to a map on the fifth slip, this place should be five times larger than it is. There also should be other zones not just forests. This meant the System likely changed the area or at least shrunk it down. I just didn't know why. If it just wanted a place for us to fight it could have made an arena. Did it want us to find this place? Are there similar places throughout? I glanced at the rest of the slips and sighed.

  By the time I consumed the rest of the crystals, my headache felt like someone had taken a hammer and chisel to my skull. My vision was blurry and I wanted nothing more than a good nap. Unfortunately, there was no time for that. This place wasn't a research facility like I thought. It was a type of prison. It was designed to hold a single person. None of the crystals explained who they were or what they did to get trapped here which only made me nervous. Logically they should be dead.

  I couldn't tell just how long this place had been here but it should have been what a year at least? That estimate was based on things I knew were wrong but still best case they should be dead. Yet a part of me didn't feel like that was true. A little voice in the back of my mind said that if I traveled down those stairs I would encounter something insane.

  "Welp let's go and see what awaits us at the bottom of the abandoned prison." I gestured to Xerxes who let out a low growl. He got to his feet and we restarted our journey. When we reached the next level my irritation had reached the point where I was ready to try blowing a whole out of here. Thankfully there were no more stairs. This room was the same size as the one above and had two doors. One looked normal and was to our right. The door was made out of unadorned wood. The second door was much more imposing. It was closer to twenty feet in height and had a second array engraved in its wood.

  The energy was still there which only made me more nervous. Whatever was trapped here was not nice. I decided to open that door last. "Stay close," I muttered before I checked behind me. Ever since we entered this room. I couldn't help this feeling. It was like someone was reaching out of the darkness for the back of my neck. I sighed and circulated the Tao of Adamance for a few moments. When I was calmed down enough to focus I stepped up and opened the other door.

  The room was empty except for an array on the ground. The array resembled a ritual circle with a mat in the center and four spots at each of the cardinal directions. It took me a minute to piece it together but when I did I chuckled. This was a cultivation chamber. Which meant the floors above were guard stations. I took the time to commit the array to memory. I couldn't tell if it would be better than the one I already had but more the merrier. I only wished the materials for it were still here.

  I scanned the room for anything worth taking but there was nothing. I considered breaking the array but it was more complicated than the one on the tree. There was no reason to do it. I looked back and forth between the array and Xerxes for a moment before I got an idea. "Hey, body. You want to cultivate for a bit?"

  "?"

  I nodded. "We don't have enough for all four spots but we should be able to get two. I could probably supplement the other spots with spirit stones."

  Xerxes looked at the array as if deep in thought and then walked over and lay down. Once he was in position I removed things from my bag. I placed the two beast cores and the other weird thing he wanted. The last spot got a set of five spirit stones. Once everything was in place I made my way to the exit. "If you get in trouble feel free to tell me. I know not everyone can handle a lot of energy at once." I flashed him a grin. He then growled at me.

  I pretended to be aggrieved and stepped out of the room. Once I was out I sent a bit of energy into the array and activated it. I bit back my anxiety as the array powered up. The array lit up like a long-dead city. I watched the energy spread through it from all four points. It was a bit like watching the energy flow through a labyrinth. At first, I didn't get why the pathway was so complicated. It wasn't until the first bit of energy got to Xerxes that I figured out why. It both staggered the energy and refined it. The energy that came from each of the items was stronger when it reached him.

  By the time he was dealing with the full force of it, I wasn't sure he could handle it. I was half a step away from stopping the array when he sent reassurances down the bond. It wasn't words, more like a determination not to miss the opportunity. I grinned and nodded. "Sorry about that buddy. I guess I forgot just who you were."

  I moved my gaze from the array and turned toward the creepy door. I stepped up to it and pushed a bit of energy into its array. The array unraveled like a work of art. Each part connected to and undid the next as if they were a massive set of dominoes. When the array finally opened a part of me wished it hadn't. I ignored that part and pushed open the door. I stepped inside and five flame lights lit up the chamber.

  What I saw made my heart skip a beat. The room was probably two or even three times the size of the others. In the middle was a person who was knelt as if in supplication. They had dark black skin and long jet-black hair. Their back was bare and covered in so many sigils that my head hurt. They were covered in an array that spanned the entire room. To even compare this thing to the other arrays would be like comparing an abacus to a supercomputer. There were a myriad of components. I wasn't sure I could solve any one part before the trial was over let alone all of it.

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  Furthermore, when I stared at the figure with the Eye of Heaven I nearly ran from the room. I had no idea what level of cultivation they were at. If my level felt like a flame then this person was a supernova. It was like their power was truly limitless. I was about to step away when the figure spoke. Their voice was hoarse like they hadn't used it in years.

  "Another come to continue my torture. No, no you are different. Have the ages finally consumed them?" The figure made a horrible sound. It was like a cross between a smoker's cough and a witch's laugh. It made me want to turn around and run as far from here as possible. "Speak boy. I can not hurt you nor will I"

  "W-what are you?"

  The figure took in a mouthful of air and laughed. The act caused their body to shiver and then the array intensified. After that their body seized as if lightning had shot through them. I bit back a gasp as I traced the energy that flowed into the array. It was terrifying. I was sure that even one discharge of that could kill me. "To think there would come an age where someone would not be able to recognize us by sight. The river of time indeed comes for us all."

  "You have more energy than anyone I have ever seen. What realm are you in? 2nd? Third?" I asked with a bit more confidence than last time.

  "No child. When I was alive I was an exalted Exarch. That would be the peak of the fourth realm."

  My eyes widened at that. "How did you get stuck here?"

  "I was imprisoned by the Verdant Field Sect several millennia ago. Their sect master wanted to take something I refused to give."

  My eyes spread to the array. I resisted the urge to flinch away. "Was it worth it? You've been here for thousands of years."

  Once again the person laughed and my skin crawled. "This is what it means to cultivate. What I had was mine by birth and by deed. I would not bend but I suppose it matters not now. I outlasted him and he has killed me."

  "You look fine. I don't know if I could undo the array but maybe if we work—"

  "No child the array and I are one. To break it would kill me the same as plunging a blade into my heart."

  "Why would someone make an array like that?" I figured out the answer before I finished the question. What better way to torture or imprison someone? I had no idea what happened the sect but this place was still here. This person was still here.

  "Tell me child where did you get that eye?"

  The question caught me off guard and I flinched back a step. Something that earned me a mocking laugh. "I ate a fruit and got it."

  "Ahhh has this place become a demi plane? And one connected to a baby world? The irony. And people say Heaven lacks a sense of humor. Tell me child is this place a trial ground? Does it belong to you?"

  I shook my head. "No, it's not connected to my world either. I got a token along with a few others. It brought us here to compete."

  "Yes, the System I should have assumed. Tell me boy are you able to shape your spiritual energy?" I nodded and formed a blade the size of my forearm. "Good, good come here. I want you to end this journey. I am ready for my soul to leave this place."

  I didn't move. "No offense but that sounds like the thing you would say to get me to come near you so you could rip my head off or something. Why should I trust you. Now that I think about it why should I trust this story? For all I know you are some evil creature that was imprisoned for breaking the law." The person laughed and I took another half step back.

  "Where is your heart? You won't get anywhere if you step with such light feet." The figure fell into a coughing fit that made me think they were going to lose a lung. "I am going to give it to you. Assuming you aren't afraid."

  Greed and curiosity warred with commonsense as I stared at the figure. "You want to give me the thing that was worth trapping you here forever? And I am supposed to be happy about it?"

  "I can see the greed in your eyes child. Power is always a sin if you can't hold onto it. What will you do? Let the opportunity fade in favor of safety or seize opportunity?" The figure laughed and began to move. The array trembled and the sound of dangling chains filled the air. Suddenly killing intent flooded the chamber. The figure in front me transformed until they were thousands of feet tall.

  My danger sense deafened me as my spiritual energy turned to sludge in my channels. Intellect Fortress

  "So what will it be child? Fear or Possibility?" For the first time, their voice changed. It was not filled with majesty, power and danger. If this person was an arrow at the end of its flight before then they had become a full quiver. I thought about it for a moment before I unleashed my own aura and killing intent. It pushed back against the tsunami that came at me but it wasn't enough. I was like a child against a proper warrior. I took a step forward. The murderous aura seemed to double in power.

  My teeth ground together as I took another step and then another. The short distance between us felt like a football field but I had made my decision. I had no idea who this person was or why they were here but I would take what was mine. I lost count of how many steps it took before I was in front of them. The chamber fell away and there was nothing beside them and I. I raised my blade and plunged into his chest.

  For a moment the world ground to a halt. I felt their soul shatter and their body go slack. Just as I was about to step back the world shifted. We were no longer in the chamber but floating inside a white void. The person had transformed. Instead of their bedraggled and half-dead appearance, they looked like a celestial warrior. They wore a resplendent golden robe. Their eyes twinkled like stars. They looked androgynous but ethereally beautiful.

  "Thank you. I do not have much more time so I will be brief. You can consider this my inheritance. I do not know what form it will take." He then reached out with a hand that seemed both impossibly powerful and incredibly ethereal. As if touching it would break it or it would break the world. I tried to flinch away only to realize I was paralyzed.

  Their hand reached through my chest and grabbed my soul. My eyes widened as a primordial fear flooded my body. I opened my mouth to beg, to plead to say anything but no words came out. The person laughed and a foreign energy surged into me. It spread out from my soul and into every part of my body. Golden energy sufficed my body until it drained out of every pore in my body. "A Deva must not beg whether for life or death. A Deva forges their path. Your road won't be easy child. I wonder if you will view me as a hero or monster by your end."

  There was pity in the resplendent figure's eyes. Pity and relief as they let me go. The figure's last words were lost as their voice began to fade as if I was deep within an ocean. I pushed with every ounce of strength I had. Nothing responded. Slowly every one of my senses abandoned me. I lost connection to the energy in my dantian. Eventually, even the Eye of Heaven