On the circular platforms, three inner cores lay quietly, each shrouded by a transparent barrier of light that sealed off the fluctuations of power within. To the eye, they appeared utterly identical — not a shred of difference between them.
A hundred zhang was no great distance. The cultivators on the shore could strain their eyes and make things out clearly enough, yet no one could tell what grade the inner cores were. Even the disciple from the Great Thousand Blood Lands standing on the first isle had no way of judging — he was merely stroking his chin, studying the three platforms with open curiosity.
"Is this… a reward?" someone asked, voice tinged with uncertainty.
That disciple from the Great Thousand Blood Lands had stepped onto the first isle, and these things had materialized before him out of nowhere. It was plainly a reward of some kind — though whether one received all three inner cores at once or could only choose one, no one could say.
Everyone stared over in a daze. After a moment, the disciple from the Great Thousand Blood Lands made his choice, reaching toward the platform on the right.
His hand met no resistance — it slipped straight through the light barrier, and he plucked the inner core free. In that instant, a restless itch spread through the crowd. Everyone desperately wanted to know what grade the core was and what attribute it carried!
But the disciple simply pocketed it without hesitation, giving no one else the faintest chance to examine it. Then, moving with lightning speed, he struck toward the center platform.
This time he was thwarted. The light barrier covering the platform might have looked thin as cicada wings, but in reality it was immensely hard. Without breaking through that barrier, there was simply no way to seize the core.
During that brief delay, all three platforms suddenly sank into the ground and vanished without a trace.
Seeing this, everyone understood at once — the inner cores really were rewards. The only catch was that only those who had set foot on the isle were eligible to claim them. It was just a single inner core, to be sure, but it was enough to set every heart racing.
The cultivators who had come here were drawn by the Blood Demon Sovereign's Blood Path inheritance. After witnessing the terror and strangeness of the Blood Lake, more than a few had been ready to cut their losses and withdraw.
Yet the appearance of this inner core reward set a whole new wave of cultivators buzzing with anticipation. If they could walk away with a sixth-grade, seventh-grade, or even eighth-grade inner core, they would never want for anything again — it would be enough to last them a lifetime.
After the disciple from the Great Thousand Blood Lands took the inner core, a deep rumbling suddenly echoed from the exact center of the isle. Moments later, a colossal stone stele burst from the earth and stood towering in the middle of the island.
"There really is a second chapter!" Qu Huashang's beautiful eyes lit up.
She had told Yang Kai before that the Blood Radiance Scripture had a second chapter, possibly even a third — pure speculation on her part. Now, seeing this stele emerge, her conjecture was immediately confirmed.
The cultivators on shore strained their eyes to their utmost, eager to catch a glimpse of what was inscribed on the second stele. Unfortunately, a layer of mist seemed to cling to its surface, rendering the writing completely invisible. They quickly realized that to learn the contents of the second chapter of the Blood Radiance Scripture, one would have to set foot on the first isle.
The Blood Demon Sovereign's inheritance was designed with interlocking stages, each building upon the last — it really did seem as though he meant to choose a successor. Otherwise, there would have been no need to make things so complicated.
The disciple from the Great Thousand Blood Lands walked up to the stele, gazed upward for a time, then settled into a cross-legged seat once more, motionless, to contemplate the mysteries of the second chapter.
"Young Brother Yang, care to give it a try?" Qu Huashang turned to look at him.
"Naturally." Yang Kai nodded. He had come all this way — standing before such an opportunity, how could he not try? He had never delved into the Blood Path before, but most of the cultivators here were probably in the same boat. If the Blood Demon Sovereign had set these trials here, he surely accounted for that.
If the selection truly hinged on one's foundation in the Blood Path, then the disciple from the Great Thousand Blood Lands had it in the bag, which would have made the whole trial pointless.
Yang Kai vaguely sensed that the test would not be quite so simple.
Bu Lianzhong and the others raised no objections. The group scattered to find seats, settled in, and immersed their minds in the stele to begin their contemplation.
Yang Kai did not immediately turn his mind to the stele's mysteries. Instead, he quietly activated his Laws of Space, probing to see whether he could simply teleport directly to the first isle — or even to the palace at the lake's heart.
If teleportation worked, there would be no need to study any stele at all.
But the moment he made the attempt, a crushing sense of crisis flooded his mind, as though actually teleporting there would invite certain disaster.
The feeling startled him into aborting at once, and the ominous dread dissipated as quickly as it had come. He let out a resigned sigh. He should have known it wouldn't be that easy. The Blood Demon Sovereign's inheritance was deliberately designed to leave no loopholes — deviate from his method, and even if you managed to set foot on the isle or reach the lake palace, things would not end well.
With the Laws of Space off the table, Yang Kai had no choice but to sit down and contemplate properly.
Just as before, his mind was drawn by some invisible force into the stele, where the myriad mysteries of the Blood Radiance Scripture unfolded before him.
The first time Yang Kai had only caught a passing glimpse, so he hadn't gained much. Now, settling in with focused intent, he discovered that the Blood Radiance Scripture was not quite so abstruse after all — at least the first chapter wasn't. As for what lay beyond, he had no way of knowing.
As long as one's foundations and comprehension weren't too lacking, fathoming the mysteries of the first chapter was no great feat. Yang Kai's spirits lifted, and he immersed himself even more deeply in contemplation.
Time trickled onward. One by one, cultivators rose from before the stele and made their way toward the first isle. In steady succession, quite a few managed to set foot on the island — and their numbers were by no means small.