A secluded mountain path deep within the ruined sect.
Qin Fenxing finally slowed down.
After confirming that nobody had followed him, he entered a collapsed pavilion before activating several concealment formation flags with a flick of his wrist.
Buzz—
Several formation runes appeared before fading into the surroundings.
Only after ensuring complete safety did he finally allow himself to smile.
No...
He laughed.
"Hahaha..."
His laughter echoed softly within the ruined pavilion.
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined such fortune would descend upon him.
With a flip of his wrist, an ancient jade slip appeared in his palm.
Its surface was covered with countless complicated sealing runes, and faint spiritual fluctuations continuously flowed through it.
Looking at it, Qin Fenxing's eyes were filled with excitement.
"It finally wasn't in vain..."
Within the Qin Family...
He was considered a genius.
Countless outsiders envied his position.
They envied his status.
His resources.
His backing.
But only Qin Fenxing himself understood the bitterness behind that title.
His childhood had never been glorious.
When he was tested for spiritual roots, the result had been announced before the entire main branch.
Mid Grade Spiritual Roots.
To ordinary cultivators...
That was already an excellent talent.
One capable of reaching Foundation Establishment with enough opportunities.
Many small families would treat such descendants as future pillars.
Unfortunately...
He wasn't born into a small family.
He was born into the Qin Family.
A Rank Four power that ruled Geng Feather Province.
Within the main branch...
Mid Grade Spiritual Roots were ordinary.
Completely ordinary.
He watched cousin after cousin awaken High Grade Spiritual Roots.
Some even possessed Earth Grade Spiritual Roots.
The elders praised them endlessly.
Resources flowed toward them.
The strongest masters accepted them as disciples.
Meanwhile...
He struggled through bottleneck after bottleneck.
Every advancement required several times more effort than those around him.
He had watched people younger than himself surpass him repeatedly.
That feeling...
He had never forgotten it.
Slowly...
His mentality changed.
If cultivation talent wasn't enough...
Then he would seek another path.
Thus, he chose one of the most difficult Daos among the Hundred Paths.
The Dao of Formations.
A path that almost everyone advised him against taking.
Array Masters.
Formation Masters.
The requirements were terrifying.
Unlike Spiritual Roots, comprehension couldn't be measured immediately.
Many cultivators devoted years...
Sometimes decades...
Only to eventually discover they possessed no talent whatsoever.
By then...
Those years could never be recovered.
Resources.
Time.
Youth.
Everything vanished.
That was why formation masters remained so rare.
The risk was simply too great.
Fortunately...
Luck finally smiled upon him once.
His comprehension...
Was sufficient.
Not monstrous.
Not heaven-defying.
But enough.
Enough to understand formation principles.
Enough to decipher runes.
Enough to become a genuine Formation Master.
He still remembered the day he successfully refined his first Rank-1 formation.
For the first time in years...
His father had smiled at him.
That smile alone became enough motivation for him to continue walking this path.
Years later...
He officially became a Rank-2 Formation Master.
From then onward, everything changed.
Formation masters were respected everywhere.
Whether refining formations...
Repairing ancient ruins...
Breaking restrictions...
Or constructing defensive arrays...
Someone always required their services.
Spirit Stones flowed endlessly into his storage pouch.
He no longer relied entirely upon family resources.
Instead...
He supported his own cultivation.
Eventually...
He successfully reached Foundation Establishment.
Even more importantly—
His talent in formations finally attracted the attention of an elder from the Qin Family Formation Hall.
A genuine Rank-3 Formation Grandmaster.
That elder accepted him as a disciple.
From that day onward, Qin Fenxing finally gained access to the Qin Family's true formation inheritance.
Ancient records.
Rare techniques.
Lost theories.
Even incomplete legacies dating back thousands of years.
His attainments advanced rapidly.
Eventually...
He reached the Peak of Rank-2.
Unfortunately...
There he stopped.
No matter how hard he studied...
No matter how many ancient books he read...
He couldn't cross into Rank-3.
It felt as though an invisible wall stood before him.
After remaining trapped for several years, Qin Fenxing finally made a decision.
He would leave the family.
Travel.
Seek opportunities.
Formation Masters improved fastest by exploring ancient ruins.
Thus...
He departed Geng Feather Province.
He visited countless cities.
Countless auctions.
Countless ancient battlefields.
Sometimes he profited.
Sometimes he suffered losses.
Until one particular day...
Within the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
One of the largest auction houses in the surronding provinces
A seemingly worthless jade slip appeared.
Most cultivators ignored it completely.
The auctioneer merely introduced it as an unidentified ancient jade slip recovered from an old ruin.
Its material was extraordinary.
Unfortunately...
Nobody could decipher the information sealed within.
Several Formation Masters had attempted.
All failed.
Most people believed it was merely an ancient collector's item.
Only Qin Fenxing purchased it.
Not because he knew what it contained.
Simply because...
The sealing technique upon its surface intrigued him.
After returning to his residence, he spent nearly half a year studying nothing else.
Countless attempts failed.
Dozens of formation theories were overturned.
Until finally...
He succeeded.
The outer sealing formation gradually opened.
The information within revealed itself.
The jade slip...
Had once belonged to a Core Disciple.
Not from an ordinary sect.
But from an ancient sect known as the Heaven Seal Gate.
According to the surviving records...
The Heaven Seal Gate had once possessed at least a Golden Core cultivator.
Perhaps even stronger.
Unlike many sects that specialized in swordsmanship or alchemy...
The Heaven Seal Gate followed the Dao of Formations.
More specifically—
The Dao of Sealing.
Their disciples specialized in suppressing dangerous existences.
Evil cultivators.
Demonic cultivators.
Rampaging yao beasts.
Ancient evil spirits.
Whenever terrifying beings threatened nearby regions...
The Heaven Seal Gate would dispatch experts.
Rather than killing their enemies...
They sealed them.
Some terrifying creatures from the ancient era had disappeared because of them.
Unfortunately...
Like countless ancient inheritances...
The Heaven Seal Gate eventually vanished.
Whether destroyed during war...
Or wiped out by some catastrophe...
Even the jade slip contained no answer.
At first...
Qin Fenxing had been ecstatic.
A Core Disciple's jade slip.
What incredible fortune!
Unfortunately...
His excitement didn't last long.
The jade slip contained only ordinary records.
Formation notes.
Several permissions.
A disciple identity mark.
Nothing more.
There was no cultivation technique.
No inheritance.
No treasure map.
Nothing capable of changing his fate.
It became another dead end.
At least...
That's what he believed.
Until fate intervened once again.
Several years later...
While passing through Dragon Yuan Province...
He happened to visit a small mortal village.
Nothing about that village appeared remarkable.
Simple houses.
Simple people.
Simple lives.
Then...
The jade slip suddenly trembled.
At first...
He thought he imagined it.
Then it trembled again.
The disciple token continuously pointed toward a weathered stone slab standing at the center of the village.
The moment the jade slip touched the slab—
Boom!
Heaven and earth shook.
Ancient formation runes illuminated the sky.
A celestial phenomenon appeared.
The entire Dragon Yuan Province witnessed the birth of the secret realm.
Only then did Qin Fenxing finally understand.
The jade slip...
Wasn't merely an identity token.
It was...
A key.
A key left behind for Heaven Seal Gate disciples.
The secret realm before him...
Was none other than one of the Heaven Seal Gate's hidden sect grounds.
Perhaps...
One of their branch headquarters.
Perhaps...
Even their main sect.
Whatever the truth...
Possessing a Core Disciple's identity token gave him an advantage nobody else possessed.
He slowly caressed the ancient jade slip.
His smile gradually widened.
"The Lin Family..."
"They think this secret realm belongs to everyone."
"The other cultivators think they're competing equally."
He shook his head.
"They're all mistaken."
His eyes shone with unconcealed confidence.
"With this Core Disciple token..."
"I'm a fish swimming in water."
"While everyone else..."
"They're merely blind people searching in the dark."
Clenching the jade slip tightly, Qin Fenxing looked toward the depths of the ruined sect.
Somewhere ahead...
The true inheritance of the Heaven Seal Gate awaited.
And unlike the others...
He already possessed the key to open its doors.