Chapter 4: Rainy Marsh (Part 1)

Guo Shier said, “I wonder how many points we’ll get this time?”
Eagle Demon laughed, “It won’t be too high or too low. We’ve killed quite a few Golden Beetles after all.”
Guo Shier added, “I wonder if we can obtain an inheritance. If we have enough points, Uncle Luo might be able to get the Fire Sect’s inheritance.”
Eagle Demon nodded. “This could be a chance. Let’s see if there’s any opportunity when we hand in the token later.”
Xu Yan, who had been with Guo Shier and the others, smiled upon hearing this. “It’s not hard to get an inheritance. I think you all have enough points. Together, you can not only obtain the inheritance but also exchange it for some materials.”
Guo Shier was overjoyed. The Fire Sect’s inheritance must be excellent. He said with a smile, “Uncle Luo, you’re really lucky. Hehe, you don’t even need to return to Haimen… to get the inheritance.”
Luo Zhan was also happy. With the inheritance, he could truly possess the strength of a Mad Master. He said, “I never expected… to encounter such a fierce swarm of Golden Beetles right after arriving on the Earth Fire Continent. Hehe, it’s also our good luck. If the Ancestor hadn’t appeared, we might not have survived this time.”
Xu Yan said, “Whenever the safety of the sect is at stake, the Ancestor will definitely show up. Even if the Ancestor can’t make it back in time, the sect has other elders who can still protect it. It’s just that this swarm of Golden Beetles appeared too suddenly, leaving no time to react, otherwise the losses wouldn’t have been so severe.”
It was only later that Guo Shier learned that the Fire Sect lost seventeen towns in this incident, with millions of deaths—most of them ordinary people. Tens of thousands of low-level professionals also died in the swarm, but this didn’t severely weaken the Fire Sect.
Xu Yan’s face was full of smiles. Guo Shier, puzzled, asked, “Why are you so happy?” So many people had died, yet Xu Yan was beaming. Guo Shier noticed that many others also had smiles on their faces. Xu Yan said with a laugh, “I just heard news that the inner sect is going to recruit many disciples this time. Hehe, I might get a spot too… It’s not easy, but I’ll finally be able to become an inner sect disciple.”
Han Yan walked over, calling out as he went, “Shier, Shier! Come here.”
Guo Shier stepped forward a few steps and asked, “Elder Han, is there something?”
Han Yan said, “Shier, I remember you guys are wandering professionals.”
Guo Shier nodded. “Yes.”

Han Yan said, “This time, the Inner Sect is expanding its recruitment of professionals. Do you want to join? You’re quite skilled and young. If a senior Grand Sage takes a liking to you, you can become an direct disciple of the Inner Sect.”
This offer was extremely tempting. The Fire Sect was the most powerful sect on the Earth Fire Continent. If one could enter the Inner Sect, traveling across the various advanced continents would be like having an amulet for protection. Although there were many skilled professionals among the wandering ones, most of them had no status and were easily targeted and killed while on the road. But professionals from major sects were different; unless there was a special reason, no one dared to provoke them, making the chances of being killed even lower.
There were many other advantages to belonging to a major sect—access to various heritages and talisman-making materials. During any activities, senior professionals would also lead them. Guo Shieru clearly understood that such an opportunity was extremely rare. After hesitating for a moment, he ultimately decided to decline.
Guo Shieru said, “Elder Han, thank you for your concern. Hehe, I’m more used to being free.”
Han Yan shook his head and said, “It’s fine. Everyone has their own aspirations. If you come to the Fire Sect in the future, you can come find me. Xu Yan, take care of Shieru while he’s here.”
Xu Yan was surprised. He didn’t expect Guo Shieru to refuse to join the Fire Sect. He said, “Oh, Shieru, you don’t realize what you’re missing! The Inner Sect… even we outer sect disciples long for it. How could you refuse?”
Guo Shieru smiled and said, “I’m used to traveling around. Staying in one place… would be very uncomfortable for me.”
Eagle Demon knew that without finding Luo Jie, Guo Shieru wouldn’t join any sect. Moreover, he wasn’t suitable to join any sect at the moment, as his family was still part of the Chenxiao Sect.
The corpse of the Level 13 Abnormal Golden Armor was as big as a mountain. Dozens of Grand Sages were dividing and collecting its materials, with no one else allowed to approach. This creature was extremely rare and difficult to hunt. Even a major sect like the Fire Sect found it hard to obtain such materials.
Guo Shieru glanced at it covetously and whispered, “Abnormal Talisman Worms…”
Eagle Demon laughed and said, “Don’t dream too much. It has nothing to do with us.”
After the defensive talisman array was deactivated, Guo Shieru found that his Cross-Dimensional Talisman could be used again, which relieved him a bit. As long as the Cross-Dimensional Talisman worked, he wouldn’t be trapped in one place.
A large number of professionals returned to their sects, and Guo Shieru followed them back to the Inner Sect of the Fire Sect via flying vehicles.

With Han Yan’s support and Xu Yan’s help, Guo Shier and the others moved into Hengfeng Villa, the inner sect’s guest residence. The three of them rented a small courtyard with four guest rooms and a living room.

Guo Shier didn’t want servants or maids; their lives were simple, with meals delivered to them. In their free time, they all practiced and studied. Luo Zhan was currently learning from Eagle Demon. Having an inheritance was good, but it was still possible to learn even without one—the only downside was that progress was slow, as one had to memorize a lot before gradually understanding and mastering the skills. With an inheritance, however, that first step could be skipped, allowing direct entry into the learning phase.

The points the three of them had earned were enough to secure an opportunity for Luo Zhan to obtain an inheritance, but there were many candidates, and it was impossible for them all to go to the Soul Altar at once, so they would have to wait for a while.

During this time, Guo Shier often took Eagle Demon or Luo Zhan to the market to search for materials. The materials available in the inner sect’s market were extremely abundant, and Guo Shier found many of the materials he needed. Fortunately, he already had a decent collection of his own. Although he didn’t dare use top-tier materials like Anluo Stone or Zhuling Wood for exchanges, he still had various other rare materials, allowing him to obtain many urgently needed items.

The Ancient Flamesparrow, Dark-Wing Demon Scorpion, and Blade Shadow Mantis were all in a state of slumber and could not be awakened from their beast talismans or insect talismans for now. Forcing them to wake up might result in losing the chance to advance, making it difficult to progress further in the future—something Guo Shier would never do. Thus, he wasn’t in a hurry to leave the Fire Sect, as traveling to the secret realm without these three aids would be dangerous.

Guo Shier was also trying to find out news about Luo Jie, but there seemed to be no rumors of Black Talisman People appearing here, which left him both worried and slightly relieved. After searching for a long time with no results, he had to put it aside for now.

Guo Shier had been living relatively relaxed lately. He had been constantly traveling between the continent and the secret realms, rarely staying in one place. Even after obtaining an inheritance, he had spent the two years at Chenxiao Sect studying and practicing under intense pressure. It was only now that he could truly relax. He stayed there for over three months.

One day, Xu Yan came to visit Guo Shier. He was now a disciple of the inner sect, with a much higher status than before. He asked, “Shier, since you’ve gotten an opportunity to choose an inheritance from a sect, who are you planning to send?”

Guo Shier replied, “I’ll send Uncle Luo! Have we finally reached our turn?”

Xu Yan nodded and said, “Yes, I’ll take them there. Guo Shier, I’m very sorry, but the two of you can’t go in. Hehe, that’s a restricted area within the inner sect; only Lao Luo can enter.”
Guo Shier felt slightly disappointed. He had wanted to see what the altar used for inheritance by the Fire Sect looked like. He said, “Alright. How many days will it take?”
Xu Yan smiled and replied, “The time required for inheritance varies—there’s no fixed amount. But since Lao Luo is undergoing theCrazy Master inheritance, it shouldn’t take too long. You’ll just have to wait patiently.”
Guo Shier and Eagle Demon stepped forward to express their gratitude, and Xu Yan led Luo Zhan away.
Sects on the lower continents hardly had any systems for inheritance; they relied on oral teaching and hands-on guidance to learn spellcraft. On the intermediate continents, there were various methods of inheritance, such as tools like the Void Mist Dao. A few sects on the intermediate continents might also possess basic soul altars, and these were usually the top sects there.
Sects on the higher continents generally had basic soul altars for inheritance, while some larger sects had intermediate soul altars, and extremely rare ones even had advanced soul altars. They were relatively open to inheritance for those at lower levels—any professional who had contributed to the sect by earning sect points could get the chance to inherit knowledge.
As a result, professionals on the higher continents had far more opportunities than those on the lower continents. It wasn’t very difficult for professionals there to advance to the master level.
Guo Shier returned to his room and began purifying materials. These tasks, like reciting scriptures, were daily necessities. He had a large amount of material to purify, as the most fundamental job of a spellcaster was to refine materials. Ever since he received the inheritance, he knew that without materials, a spellcaster’s career development would be greatly restricted.
After advancing to the Saint level, Guo Shier realized that mere virtual spells were far from enough. Virtual spells needed to be supported by real spells, especially as recorded in the inheritance memories of ancient soul altars, where all virtual spells were achieved through real spells. While modern professionals could skip this step, the virtual spells they cast directly still lacked sufficient power.
Guo Shier had studied this carefully and found that most professionals had abandoned the process of converting real spells into virtual spells, as it required a high level of foundation and a large number of real spells as support. These real spells weren’t the ordinary attack or defense spells in use today, but specially crafted rune spells. In his understanding, a rune was like a character or a definition—by embedding this definition into the soul and then using it, virtual spells could become extremely powerful.

It’s like writing a rune dictionary in the soul, from which one can directly retrieve the corresponding characters when needed. There are two forms of such dictionaries: one is the inherited soul memory, which consists of virtual runes, and the other is realized through physical runes. Thus, transitioning from virtual runes to virtual runes is one method, while transitioning from physical runes to virtual runes is another, with the latter method being significantly more powerful.