Chapter 3: Soul of Heaven and Earth (Part 1)

After delivering three slaps with her delicate hands, Xian Ruidai calmed down. After all, she was still young and lacked the ruthless intent of professionals; she wouldn’t kill just because of a disagreement. She merely destroyed a thatched cottage and sent a few burly men flying.
Eagle Demon stepped forward and said, “We are just passing travelers; we didn’t provoke you.”
One of the burly men asked, “Then why attack?”
Xian Ruidai replied, “That guy kept shouting randomly… scaring me!”
A man who had been flung by Xian Ruidai got up and said, “Chieftain… they want to use the water from the pond.”
Eagle Demon asked, “Can’t we use that water?”
The chieftain, holding a spear and looking wary, said, “No, we can’t. This is our village’s pond!”
Guo Shier saw that the people here were extremely suspicious of outsiders. Not wanting to get entangled with them, he said, “Uncle Eagle Demon, enough. Let’s go.” With their strength, any one of them could easily eliminate these people, but he didn’t want to kill them nor explain further.
Guo Shier took off into the air and said, “Let’s go!” The others followed him into the sky.
Before leaving, Xian Ruidai huffed, but she didn’t attack again. She pulled Zhou Xiaoling up into the air and said, “Sister Dingding, the people here are really stingy!”
The chieftain watched helplessly as everyone flew away, collapsing to the ground in fear. The burly men also looked pale, especially the one who had been flung by Xian Ruidai. He covered his mouth and stared upward at the direction where they disappeared, secretly relieved to have saved his life.
…
Flying forward, Guo Shier soon led the group to land. It was a small hill surrounded by ordinary wild animals, with few tall plants on the barren land. He said, “We’ll stop here and set up camp.”
After summoning the Talisman House, Guo Shier said, “Uncle Eagle Demon, you take care of guarding while I need some time to cultivate.” With that, he went to the second floor of the Talisman House.
When the Ancient Ink Lotus was summoned, a handsome old man appeared. He said, “If you stay here for a while longer, I can help you construct your own virtual altar. Since you want to use the Ancient Ink Lotus as the foundation for your virtual altar, heh, you basically don’t need to worry. Whether it’s a virtual or a physical altar… there’s no bottleneck for you.”
Guo Shier was delighted. “That’s great. What do I need to do?”
The handsome old man replied, “You need to do many things. Part of your original inheritance can no longer be used. You must follow my methods to construct a soul altar…”

Guo Shier said, “No problem. What I originally received was the inheritance of the ancient Miluo family.”
The handsome old man pondered and said, “The ancient Miluo family? I seem to have some memory of it. It wasn’t very strong, was it? How did you get their inheritance?”
Guo Shier was speechless for a moment before saying, “It’s one of the four ancient families. If that’s not strong, then what kind of inheritance would be considered strong?”
The handsome old man replied, “I don’t know. What I know are the truly powerful inheritances—there are only three: Heaven, Earth, and Soul. All others are not as good. Well, these three are all high-level inheritances.”
Guo Shier asked, “What are Heaven, Earth, and Soul?” He quickly searched his memories of the inheritance but found no mention of them. He said, “There’s no record of these in my inheritance.”
The handsome old man sat cross-legged on the ancient Mo Lotus and said, “The so-called Heaven refers to the Heaven Altar inheritance, Earth refers to the Earth Altar inheritance, and Soul refers to the Soul Altar inheritance. The most powerful is the Heaven Altar, followed by the Earth Altar, with the Soul Altar being the weakest among the three… Even the Soul Altar is much stronger than other altars. For example, the Black Talisman People, who are the best at creating Soul Altars, have a very powerful inheritance.”
Guo Shier asked, “Do the Black Talisman People belong to the Soul Altar? But aren’t they the public enemies of professionals?” He remembered that Qi Nan Shan had obtained the Black Talisman People’s inheritance, allowing him to challenge opponents beyond his rank directly—truly extremely powerful.
The handsome old man was stunned and said, “Since when have the Black Talisman People become the public enemies of professionals? Even in our era, they were masters who roamed the secret realms. There are also several types of Soul Altar inheritances. In fact, your inheritance contains quite a few Soul Altar elements. For example, using Spirit Beasts as sacrifices is common now, but it wasn’t that widespread before.”
Guo Shier asked, “What about the Heaven Altar inheritance? Your altar can’t be the Heaven Altar, right?”
The handsome old man sighed and said, “Joking. If I had the Heaven Altar, I wouldn’t have died in that unfortunate secret realm. Even if I had the Earth Altar, I wouldn’t have died… Sigh, back then…” He suddenly stopped and said, “Let’s not talk about that. After obtaining the ancient Mo Lotus, you now have the possibility to construct a Heaven Altar.”
Guo Shier was surprised and said, “What? I can construct a Heaven Altar?”
The handsome old man replied, “To be precise… it’s not yet a Heaven Altar. I just mean you have the possibility to construct one because you have the ancient Mo Lotus—a very good foundation that gives you some of the characteristics of a Heaven Altar. Of course, even with the ancient Mo Lotus, constructing a Heaven Altar is an extremely difficult task.”
Guo Shier smiled and said, “Then let’s construct an Earth Altar instead.”

The handsome old man sneered, “Nonsense! Your Ancient Ink Lotus doesn’t have a single trace of the characteristics of the Heavenly Altar—how can you construct it?”
Guo Shier knew he had assumed too much. He smiled and said, “The Heavenly Altar… it’s not simple.” Then he frowned and added, “I only learned about the concept of the Heavenly Altar today—how can I succeed in constructing it?”
The handsome old man chuckled. “I know, but even I don’t know everything… If you have the Ancient Ink Lotus, you might succeed in constructing it. The Ancient Ink Lotus possesses the characteristics of the Heavenly Altar. As long as we pay attention to these characteristics during construction and preserve them, you’ll be able to gain some of the skills of the Heavenly Altar. Even if they’re incomplete, they’ll still be far stronger than most altars.”
Guo Shier said, “The Heavenly Altar… I never thought there was such a way to classify soul altars. It seems this concept no longer exists nowadays…”
The handsome old man replied, “Actually, back in our time, we had already largely abandoned this method of classification. There were very few altars capable of reaching the level of heaven, earth, and soul. For example, many experts knew how to construct a Heavenly Altar, but the materials and souls required were beyond the reach of even the most advanced grand masters. Especially the various rare treasures needed to construct a Heavenly or Earthly Altar were extremely difficult to obtain. To avoid delaying their own altar construction, most people chose not to build a Heavenly Altar.”
He added, “Even if they obtained these materials, many still couldn’t succeed in construction because their souls weren’t strong enough. If they forced it, the chances of failure were extremely high.”
Guo Shier nodded. “Yes, when it’s impossible to construct a Heavenly Altar, it’s wise to choose to build an ordinary altar instead.”
The handsome old man said, “We were originally short of some materials, but this time we got many fragments of sacrificial treasures in the secret realm. Together with your fifth-grade sacrificial treasure, which can be broken down into various rare materials… Your luck is absolutely insane! Saying I’m not envious would be a lie!”
Guo Shier couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m lucky… so are you!”
The handsome old man thought about it and agreed. He nodded. “Yes, otherwise… I wouldn’t even bother.”
Guo Shier said, “Then let’s get started!”
The handsome old man replied, “Wait a moment. I’ll pass on a piece of memory inheritance to you.” A strand of inheritance entered Guo Shier’s soul through the Ancient Ink Lotus. He said, “Kid, study this first, and then we’ll begin.”
This inheritance was long, containing a great deal to learn. After taking a quick look, Guo Shier was shocked. He said, “Handsome Old Man, it will take dozens of days just to become familiar with this inheritance. To master it, more time for practice is needed.”

The handsome old man said, “Nonsense! Do you think it’s easy to construct a virtual altar? If it weren’t for you having the Ancient Ink Lotus and my help, humph, you wouldn’t even be able to do it in dozens of years! At this pace… it’s already terrifying. Don’t be greedy.”
Guo Shieru knew the handsome old man was right. He smiled and said, “It’s because of you here, otherwise I wouldn’t be in such a hurry to build the altar.” This flattery made the handsome old man extremely pleased; his mood instantly improved greatly.
The handsome old man said, “Hurry up and get familiar with the inheritance. We don’t have much time here. Also, remember… I need your help every night… My soul is in chaos right now and needs to be stabilized.” What he looked forward to the most was Guo Shieru’s soul fluctuations—such fluctuations were more powerful than any cultivation techniques. The main reason for staying here was precisely this, although he claimed it was to prepare for constructing a soul altar.
Learning from an inheritance was completely different from studying from books. Everything seemed to be engraved in the soul and wouldn’t disappear, but it couldn’t become one’s own knowledge unless the owner deliberately looked at it. One had to slowly explore the inheritance memories and understand them thoroughly. Only by fully understanding could one turn the inheritance into one’s own knowledge.
It wasn’t the first time Guo Shieru had received an inheritance, so he learned it with ease. However, this inheritance was vast in volume, requiring a lot of time to digest. The advantage of an inheritance was that there was no such thing as not being able to learn—it depended on whether one was willing to learn and their comprehension ability. As long as one was willing to learn and had good comprehension and understanding skills, the inheritance could basically become their own.
Thus, the level of comprehension and understanding ability determined a person’s achievements. If two people received the same inheritance, one with higher comprehension and understanding skills and the other with lower ones would end up with completely different results. Another important limiting factor was the power of the soul—those with insufficient soul power wouldn’t achieve much.
Whether it was soul power or comprehension and understanding ability, Guo Shieru was at the top tier. So he just needed to study and understand diligently. A month later, Guo Shieru had fully mastered this inheritance, much to the handsome old man’s surprise, as the speed exceeded his expectations.

Over the course of about thirty days, Guo Shier dedicated himself wholeheartedly to immersing himself in the ancestral knowledge, spending almost all his time on it aside from eating, reciting scriptures, and getting a little sleep. With a solid foundation and exceptional comprehension skills, he quickly mastered this part of the inherited knowledge. This was also thanks to the help of Old Shuai; whenever he encountered something he didn’t understand, he could simply ask Old Shuai. With someone to explain things to him, he wouldn’t get stuck on any particular concept.