Heritage Rune

"No way. You say summon, so I summon? On what grounds?"

Tang Waner finally found an opportunity for revenge, rolling her eyes directly at Long Chen before showing him the back of her head.

"No way, really? You eat my food, drink my drink, and you won't even show off a little skill? You flip your face faster than turning a page," Long Chen said, eyes widening.

It seemed like Long Chen had a point; after all, eating someone else's food makes you soft-spoken, and since she had not only eaten but also drunk, she said somewhat embarrassedly, "Fine, speak. What do you want to see?"

Long Chen originally wanted to say, "Will you show me whatever I want to see?" But after thinking about it, he decided against it.

He figured that if he said that, not only would he get beaten up, but the opportunity he had just created would likely be wasted.

Long Chen said solemnly, "Just summon an ordinary Wind Blade; I want to see it."

Long Chen was very curious about the Wind Blade. Tang Waner's Wind Blade was different from Little Snow's; it could actually divide, serving both offense and defense, and was infinitely profound.

"Whoosh."

Tang Waner extended her jade-like hand, and upon her snow-white palm floated a Wind Blade, spinning rapidly.

Long Chen had wanted to ask Tang Waner to stop the Wind Blade, but he swallowed the words back, nearly making a fool of himself.

As the saying goes, water has no constant form, and wind has no fixed shape; wind cannot stop, or it would dissipate.

The Wind Blade Tang Waner had summoned now belonged to the most ordinary type of Wind Blade, not a weapon.

"Tang Waner is truly worthy of being a Wind Spirit Body; summoning a Wind Blade is as easy as breathing for her," Ye Zhiqiu praised.

One had to know that if Ye Zhiqiu wanted to summon an Ice Blade, she needed to silently circulate her Spiritual Qi in advance; she couldn't do it as effortlessly as Tang Waner.

Long Chen carefully observed the Wind Blade. He could sense that within this Wind Blade was a trace of Soul power; with just a movement of her Soul, it could fly out and injure someone.

"You aren't trying to steal my Wind Blade technique, are you?" Tang Waner asked tentatively, looking at the pensive Long Chen.

"You must be joking," Ye Zhiqiu said, looking at Long Chen in astonishment, then back at Tang Waner.

"This guy is very weird. He can even steal Lei Qianshang's lightning power; there's nothing he can't do," Tang Waner laughed.

Long Chen rolled his eyes. "Can I take that as a compliment?"

"Heehee, if you think it is, then it is," Tang Waner laughed indifferently.

During their conversation, Ye Zhiqiu was shocked beyond measure; it seemed what Tang Waner said was true.

"Can you change its form?" Long Chen asked.

Tang Waner nodded, and the Wind Blade in her hand rapidly grew larger, resembling a long sword held in her hand.

However, even though it had changed into the form of a long sword and appeared static on the outside, Long Chen could still feel the wind energy within the Wind Blade flowing rapidly, even faster than before.

At this moment, the Wind Blade held in Tang Waner's hand caused the Void Realm to slightly distort, and the energy began to turn violent, greatly increasing the pressure on others.

Long Chen nodded. This was a method of application that he could learn from; although he didn't have wind power, he had fire power, so he could use it just the same.

Although Long Chen possessed the memories of the Pill Emperor, those memories were incomplete. Aside from some methods for refining Medicinal Pills and the identification of herbs, everything else was fragmented.

Therefore, if Long Chen wanted to control fire, he still needed to explore it himself. He hoped to gain some inspiration from Tang Waner.

"What was that pattern I saw appear within your Wind Blade just now?" Long Chen asked.

"That is our Family's ancestral rune, a skill that only our direct-line Disciples can use."

After Tang Waner finished speaking, the Wind Blade in her hand continued to grow, suddenly surging to a height of a zhang. A terrifying aura tore through the Void Realm, causing it to distort constantly, while a terrifying storm swept up, cutting people's faces like knives.

"Whoosh."

The Wind Blade in Tang Waner's hand vanished, and everything returned to calm. Tang Waner said, "Using a Wind Blade like that consumes my Origin power. I cannot maintain it for too long, otherwise, my combat strength will be affected during the final assessment."

Origin power was extremely powerful, but it recovered very slowly, so Tang Waner could only give Long Chen a brief demonstration.

Long Chen nodded and fell into deep thought. This time, under Tang Waner's demonstration, Long Chen had thoroughly seen through the mysteries of the Wind Blade.

However, he didn't care much about the previous parts. Only the final move, where a faint pattern appeared within the Wind Blade, causing the Wind Blade's power to surge tenfold in an instant, was truly terrifying.

Previously, when fighting Qi Xin, Qi Xin had used a move like this to blast Long Chen away. That kind of power was simply irresistible.

"Whoosh."

A flame appeared in Long Chen's hand, causing Tang Waner and Ye Zhiqiu to be slightly startled. Then, their beautiful eyes stared at Long Chen, wanting to see what on earth he was going to do.

After the flame appeared, it was slowly compressed into a crescent shape, no different from Tang Waner's Wind Blade, but it was floating on Long Chen's palm, unable to rotate.

Long Chen shook his head, and the fire blade immediately turned into a fist-sized fireball. The fireball grew rapidly, from its original fist-size, it immediately surged to a diameter of three feet, and terrifying heat waves kept burning the Void Realm.

The massive fireball rotated rapidly in Long Chen's hand, with terrifying energy surging back and forth inside.

"What powerful Soul power."

Tang Waner was startled. She hadn't expected Long Chen's Soul power to be as vast as the sea; otherwise, compressing the fireball like that would have caused it to explode long ago.

"Whoosh." The fireball vanished, and Long Chen shook his head in frustration.

He wanted to see if he could condense a rune like Tang Waner's, but he failed. Although he had learned the basic techniques Tang Waner used to operate it, he just couldn't condense the rune.

"Long Chen, there's no way around it. First, your fire's Rank isn't high, and second, that isn't your Origin fire, so it's impossible to condense a rune to strengthen it.

That rune is deeply imprinted in our Bloodline; even if an outsider knows how to use it, it's useless. It's like learning how to cook a dish, but after you learn it, you find you have no pot to use—it's all in vain," Tang Waner consoled.

She could see that Long Chen wanted to borrow her method and apply it to his own fire, but Long Chen was different from them.

She could tell at a glance that what Long Chen possessed was a type of Beast Fire, not his own flame, so wanting to summon a rune was impossible.

Her Family was a great clan that had been passed down for countless years. Among their ancestors had appeared experts who poured wind power into their Bloodline, which allowed this energy to be passed down through the Bloodline.

"Although I'm a bit unconvinced, what you said is the truth. This is my fate," Long Chen said with a bitter smile. A concept having been strangled in the cradle, no one would feel comfortable with that.

Besides, he was cultivating the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, and his greatest strength was his Physical Body; he couldn't focus on becoming a Pill Cultivator, so this matter had to be dropped.

"Don't be discouraged. There are plenty of Cultivation Techniques in the Branch Courtyard. As long as you work hard, you don't necessarily have to stare only at the path of fire," Tang Waner consoled.

"Thank you for the consolation, Young Miss Tang Waner. Of course, if you could give me a hug, I believe it would immediately heal the trauma to my heart," Long Chen said with an expectant face.

"Get lost."

Tang Waner immediately gritted her teeth and sent one word to Long Chen.

She also secretly hated herself for being so stupid. How could a shameless guy like Long Chen be discouraged? She was definitely worrying about nothing.

Long Chen laughed. After teasing the beauty, he felt his depressed mood improve a lot.

Although he couldn't condense the rune, by following Tang Waner's method, he could increase the power of his Pill fire by quite a bit, so it could be considered a gain.

Moreover, Long Chen wasn't truly discouraged. The Beast Fire in his hand came from a Flame Leopard, which was only a Rank 2 Demonic Beast, so its power wasn't strong.

Once he refined the inner core of the Fire Lizard Beast, he could upgrade his equipment, and when the time came to try again, it might not be impossible.

After pulling himself together, Long Chen asked how they had suddenly joined forces and what that offensive and defensive alliance was all about.

Tang Waner told Long Chen that after entering the Branch Courtyard, the resources allocated by the Branch Courtyard were limited. If one wanted to obtain resources, one needed to fight for them oneself.

And to fight for them, one needed strength. As long as it complied with the Branch Courtyard's regulations, the Branch Courtyard didn't care how you fought for resources.

Therefore, after entering the Branch Courtyard, the competition would become exceptionally fierce. Cultivation was just that cruel; if you didn't step on others, others would come to step on you. This was something unavoidable.

Tang Waner was the first to arrive beside the Profound Spirit Wonder Fruit, but at that time, the fruit wasn't ripe yet, so she had to wait. The second person to arrive was Lei Qianshang.

The two had fought fiercely before. Given Lei Qianshang's personality, having suffered a great loss last time, he naturally wanted to get back at her. At the same time, he wanted to prove his strength to Tang Waner, so the two fought fiercely.

As the two fought, everyone else arrived one after another. Tang Waner took the initiative to rope in Ye Zhiqiu, hoping to form an offensive and defensive alliance, and Ye Zhiqiu agreed.

After all, the competition would become increasingly fierce in the future. Ye Zhiqiu was cold by nature and difficult to get along with, but she felt a bit closer to Tang Waner, so naturally, she wouldn't refuse. Thus, the scene of the two joining forces against the three came to be.

It turned out that Yue Zifeng was the last to arrive, at which time Lei Qianshang and Qi Xin had already begun to collude.

And Tang Waner and Ye Zhiqiu didn't want to form an alliance with Yue Zifeng, so Yue Zifeng was just like that pulled into Lei Qianshang's camp.

However, Tang Waner said afterwards that Yue Zifeng had a lot of pride; although he had temporarily joined their camp, he hadn't attacked with full force, otherwise, they would have had an even harder time holding on.

Long Chen recalled that when Yue Zifeng left, he was calm and free-spirited; he truly had the demeanor of an expert, which was very different from Lei Qianshang and Qi Xin.

Only a person with a broad mind can hold on and let go; such a person can go further on the Martial Dao.

At the same time, Tang Waner and Ye Zhiqiu also solemnly warned Long Chen that he must be careful of Lei Qianshang and Qi Xin. Now, the two of them hated Long Chen to death.

Although they wouldn't go so far as to kill him, if they caught an opportunity, they might severely injure or even cripple him, because the Branch Courtyard's rules weren't perfect and still had loopholes.

Otherwise, after Long Chen killed Zhao Wu, he wouldn't have been able to continue the assessment as if nothing had happened.

The Branch Courtyard's rules were mostly favorable to the strong; the losers only had the right to find a place where no one was around to complain and cry to themselves. This was the cruelty of the Branch Courtyard.

Seeing that they had eaten and drunk enough, Tang Waner said, "Let's go. Calculating the time, we shouldn't separate; let's head to the assessment site together."

Long Chen naturally wouldn't refuse this fragrant and beautiful proposal. With two stunning beauties for company, he didn't know how many people would be envious to death along the way.