The Mystic mind cherries still tingled in my bloodstream, my awareness stretching wider, sharper, more precise. Each swarm shifted in intricate patterns now, they no longer just randomly shifted. They hummed with intelligence now, not mere instinct but thought. It was time to test it further—time to re-enter the Firefly King's legacy.
I sat cross-legged at the edge of the rainbow-lit waterfall pool, my body rooted like stone while my Animus surged outward. Silver and blue light flickered along my Solar Pyre veins, Frostfire flames licking across my feathers in rhythm with my breath.
Then I let go.
The Spirit Man technique unraveled me, peeling soul from flesh, refining it into a luminous projection of Animus. My body remained still on the black stones, but I drifted upward—weightless, clear, unshackled. The jungle dimmed, blurred, fading into something both more real and less tangible at once.
When I looked back, I saw the impossible sight again. The inheritance pagoda—rested on the shoulders of my physical body like a mountain of light. Each floor gleamed faintly, an echo of power pressing down, yet my body bore it without buckling. The sight made even my Spirit Man form shiver. To carry the pagoda was not symbolic—it was a literal blessing, fused to my destiny.
I turned, the Spirit Man's form glimmering, and raised a hand in farewell. "You know the drill, Felicity. Keep watch until I return."
She didn't look up at once—too busy kneeling in the rich soil beside the pool, silver tendrils dancing from her palms as she coaxed sprouts from the ground. Fruits of radiant colors swelled in response, some already dangling ripe and heavy on newly grown vines.
Finally, she tilted her head, eyes flashing up at me with a sly glimmer. "Of course, my horse!" she chirped, her voice bubbling with playful cheer, popping like silver chimes. Her grin was full of fangs, but her tone carried something sweet and sing-song.
I couldn't help but smile at her absurd phrasing. Felicity always twisted the Silver-Blooded aura of elegance into something mischievous.
With that, I turned back toward the pagoda. The great bronze gates of the first floor opened without a sound, light spilling out like a river of fireflies into the Spirit realm.
I stepped forward, the world around me folding, swallowing me whole.
The Firefly King's inheritance awaited.
I approached the three firefly-wrought altars, each humming with its own hidden pulse. For now, I set my will upon the Starlit Chain and the Flickering Spear of Dawn.
When my hand closed around the spear, its power did not greet me—it assaulted me. A geyser of flame and dawn light tried to crush my meridians, to brand me as unworthy. I answered with my Vestigium Force, a bulwark forged from every victory I had claimed. The clash was like two beasts tearing at each other's throats. This was an Earth-Grade inheritance weapon, a true sovereign among arms, and it demanded a ruler's spirit. Only after I refused to bend—only after I forced my essence to roar back into its core—did the spear relent.
The legendary Earth-Grade Spear dissolved into a fine mist that I inhaled, I could feel the weapon store itself in one of the ponds of my scattered dantian! The Flickering Spear of dawn was an inheritance weapon, only granting me a small reserve of its power until I could cultivate it further.
The Starlit Chain, however, was unlike the spear. It slid from my grasp, elusive and slippery as an eel darting through moonlit waters. Whenever I thought I had anchored it, it would unravel again, scattering through my fingers. This was no test of brute willpower. This was a dance, an endless flowing trial of agility, precision, and adaptability.
A smirk tugged at my lips. Then let's dance together.
I split my essence, calling forth three Swarm copies—each one sharpened by the Mystic mind Cherry Felicity had gifted me. These were no dull echoes. They thought, they adapted, they learned.
"Three copies should suffice," I murmured to myself.
Together, we circled the chain, each doppelgänger mirroring the serpent's motions, cutting off its routes of escape. One clone lunged, another flowed in perfect synchrony, and the third leapt overhead, intercepting the chain's inevitable slip.
At last, I closed my fingers around its shifting length. This time, it did not slither away. Instead, it pulsed once in my grasp, a soft starlit thrum, as though acknowledging me. Not full surrender, no—but respect.
The Firefly King's laughter echoed through the chamber, pleased. "Well done, my pupil. To master the chain, one must move as many—yet act as one. You have taken your first step."
The Starlit chain dissolved into my dantian in streaking rays, it too storing itself in one of my spiritual ponds.
I could feel the deep Spiritual senses of the Firefly king inspecting my spiritual body. "My pupil, you have done exceedingly well! In the crucible of battle, you forged not one, but two new Firefly arts!"
From the swirling mass of frost-flame fireflies, two glowing tomes fluttered forth. One bore the title Firefly King's Homing Fist, the other, Swarm Travel. Both tomes drifted gracefully into the library alcove, where the inheritance's techniques were stored, their runes merging into the ever-growing archive.
"Your new cultivation level grants you passage to the second floor," the King's voice intoned with pride.
The second floor of the Firefly King's inheritance pagoda unfolded in a hush of golden light. Unlike the first, which crackled with martial intent, this chamber breathed of patience, of thought, of study. Rows upon rows of shelves carved from living fireflies stretched outward, every tome a heartbeat of knowledge preserved across centuries.
Where the first floor had tested my fists and will, this place tested the mind. Scrolls glowed with diagrams of mechanisms, ancient arrays, and formation schematics. Codices whispered of alchemy and concoction, of roots that healed and leaves that killed. Here, scholarship was strength.
As I stepped deeper, the Firefly King's voice stirred like an ember in the air.
"My pupil, I see you remember the Mind Pearl."
I reached instinctively for the jade-smooth item tucked into my spirit ring. The moment my fingers brushed it, clarity surged through me—my thoughts flowing sharper, swifter. Ideas connected like constellations. The King chuckled warmly.
"Good. This place rewards the prepared."
He gestured—or rather, the whole library seemed to bend, guiding my gaze toward a single volume suspended above a pedestal. The cover was wrought in emerald veins of Animus light. Its title shimmered across its surface:
"The Tome of Ten-Thousand Rare Plants and Herbs."
I approached reverently, the very air humming around it. When I laid my hand on the binding, a rush of knowledge nearly staggered me—roots that only grew beneath starlight, fruits birthed from thunder, petals that drank moonlight dew. Secrets of the world unfolded like blossoms before me.
"Time works differently here," the Firefly King intoned, his voice deep and patient. "In this spiritual pagoda, you may spend years sharpening your intellect, while but days—sometimes mere hours—slip by in the mortal coil below. Use this wisely, pupil. Power of the body is fleeting. Power of the mind endures."
I glanced once toward the glowing tome in my hands, then toward the shelves brimming with treasures of knowledge. A slow grin touched my lips.
"Then let's see just how far I can push this mind of mine."
At first, I went slow. Reverent.
I picked up the Tome of Ten-Thousand Plants and Herbs, letting its emerald light spill across my face.
The moment I touched it, the Mind Pearl in my palm pulsed, linking thought and memory as one. I flipped through the first page. Then another. Then another.
Every word stayed etched into my mind. Every image of a leaf, every note of a root, every whispered property of a flower—perfectly captured. Page after page fell to me like drops into a basin, filling me, not spilling.
And yet…
I frowned. Even with time dilation here, this inheritance tower was vast. Hundreds of tomes. Thousands of scrolls. A lifetime's worth of study.
Too long, I thought. Far, far too long.
Then the idea struck. A reckless, audacious thought that made the Animus in my veins shiver.
"Why stop at one?" I muttered aloud.
I let my essence split. Silver light flickered across my form, and with a thought, a second Ash stood beside me. Then a third. A fifth. A tenth. Each of them sharp-eyed, each of them already reaching for books.
The Firefly King's chuckle rang through the chamber. "Ahhh… so that's your answer. Swarm even your mind…"
I bared my teeth in a grin and kept going.
Dozens of me. Then hundreds. The entire floor filled with Ashes, each one thumbing through tomes, each one burning knowledge straight into memory. The Mind Pearl in my hand blazed so brightly it was nearly molten, threads of runes racing across its surface as though rewriting itself.
Then, with a resonant pop, it transformed.
The smooth jade sphere cracked open, light spilling out, condensing into a crystalline fire opal gem that throbbed with brilliance. Its surface shimmered with shifting symbols, neither stone nor jewel, but something higher—something eternal.
The Firefly King's voice swelled with pride. "Behold! Your Mind Pearl has transcended into the Philosopher's Stone—the vessel of endless thought. With it, you are no longer a mere reader of wisdom, but a forger of knowledge itself."
Every Ash looked up from their reading, one voice speaking through many mouths. "Eternal knowledge of the Firefly, lets forge a library that never dies."