Chapter 203: The Inheritance Trial

Chapter 203: Chapter 203: The Inheritance Trial

The forbidden land of the Valmont family.

Jeremy knew that the second Mark awakening was absolutely not an easy matter, but this process was clearly more arduous than he had anticipated.

The entrance to the forbidden land lay behind three layers of magic arrays beneath the floor of the old shrine, a place the entire family only opened exactly once a year. No one was allowed to accompany him, not even the butler. Melson only escorted Jeremy to the final step, then retreated exactly three paces, standing there until the stone doors closed.

After stepping into the forbidden land and using his heart’s blood and magic power to activate the inheritance stone, Jeremy was immediately sucked into another space.

The scenery was extremely bizarre.

As far as the eye could see, the boundary was clearly defined. On the left side was a darkness so dead it reached the extreme, devoid of even a speck of vitality, containing only an endless night.

On the right side was a realm of brilliant, unmelting light, like an eternal spring day; just getting close, one could feel its warmth.

Jeremy observed where he was standing.

He had been teleported to the front of a fork in the road—dark on the left, bright on the right.

On both sides stood a divine statue.

One statue was the incarnation of the Light Dragon God; the other was shrouded in black mist, making it difficult to see clearly.

Jeremy tried sweeping his magic power across the mist. The mist did not dissipate, but parted and instantly closed back up, like water sealing over oil. Only in that brief, exposed moment did Jeremy see a stone hand reaching down, its palm facing up, completely empty.

There wasn’t the slightest hint, but this was definitely a multiple-choice question.

He stood between the two diverging paths, counting his own breaths exactly ten times.

The right side was warm, but warm in an overly accommodating way, as if someone had already prepared a seat for him. The left side was cold, so cold it didn’t even bother to pretend.

The left side brought a chilling, eerie feeling like a venomous snake wrapping around one’s body; Jeremy chose the right side without hesitation.

The moment he stepped onto the path on the right, the boundary between light and darkness completely vanished, leaving only light.

Jeremy tried summoning his Sacred Weapon, but it was restricted.

An ominous premonition swelled in his heart.

After testing it out a bit, as expected... not only his Sacred Weapon, but even all the items in his spatial ring could not be taken out, and magic tools could not be used either.

He gave his right hand an experimental clench. His magic power still flowed, his meridians were still clear, but everything external he was used to relying on had been stripped clean.

Before Jeremy had time to think, the road surface began to tremble. The path he had just walked... was disappearing at breakneck speed.

It wasn’t shattering, nor was it collapsing. Each stone slab simply vanished, as if erased from a painting by someone, gradually being deleted from where he had just set foot moving forward.

And beneath that disappearance was an endless dark void.

Left with no other choice, he had to dash forward.

He originally intended to flap his wings to accelerate, but the moment his wings spread, countless golden threads lunged toward him from all directions.

The threads were as thin as hair, but wherever they swept across the stone surface, a clean, sunken slice was left behind.

In a weaponless state, Jeremy could only use his magic power to defend.

He condensed his magic power into a thin membrane clinging tightly to his skin, deflecting as he ran, changing direction three consecutive times to dodge the thickest clusters of threads. The membrane was sliced open twice, and each time Jeremy managed to patch it back up just before the threads touched his bones.

But the path was disappearing faster than he could run. The remaining stone surface gradually shrank to a patch the size of two feet, then down to a single foot.

Unfortunately, after a period of resistance... ultimately, he still fell into the abyss.

His wings were forcibly dispersed by a power; Jeremy could feel his body constantly plunging into the depths.

The sensation of weightlessness was incredibly distinct, so vivid that it struck fear into a person’s heart.

Right at this moment, mirror-like fragments appeared before him.

There were memories from when he was on Earth, and also memories from the Sylvanor continent.

One fragment showed a stark white mourning hall and a black-and-white portrait of an old man. Another fragment displayed the freshman tournament arena, blood splattered on the granite floor. Another fragment revealed the sea surface in the Wasteland, with the shadow of a ghost gliding toward the horizon. And one fragment was of a late-night balcony, two earthen planters, and a silver seed that had just been buried.

The golden threads pierced through the countless image fragments, tightly surrounding them. It was as if they were... devouring them.

The moment this word surfaced in his mind, Jeremy astutely realized that his memories were disappearing.

Yet, he didn’t have the slightest strength to resist, nor could he stop it.

Losing his memories... Was this also part of the trial?

Starting the trial with a blank state, what if he lost his way midway... then he’d be doomed.

Jeremy’s heart sank. He originally intended to forcefully struggle free, but the threads bound him even tighter, completely denying him even half a chance to resist and escape.

Before his body was enveloped by the black mist, the word "trial" echoed repeatedly in Jeremy’s head.

"..."

The sensation of free fall, the sensation of freezing cold, the sensation of suffocation... and finally, breathing easily.

"!"

The cold sensation touching his skin was extremely clear; Jeremy abruptly opened his eyes.

Propping his hands on the ground to sit up, his first reaction was to observe his surroundings.

A water surface like a mirror, a brilliant Milky Way.

Twin lotus flowers grew everywhere; in the center, there was also a door of light formed from lotus elements.

This wasn’t anywhere else, but exactly... his own consciousness space.

Previously, before returning to his own body, he had also stepped into this consciousness space.

But right now, to be precise, although this place looked exactly identical to his consciousness space, he could feel it was a scene constructed from fiction.

The water surface beneath his feet didn’t ripple, nor did it reflect anything. The Milky Way overhead was so beautiful it was overly uniform, without a single star straying from its place.

At this moment, he wasn’t actually existing inside his own consciousness.

His head throbbed with a slight pain.

Jeremy massaged his temples.

All his memories were crystal clear. Could it be those golden threads were merely reading his memories, rather than devouring them?

He tried recalling a few of the smallest, most fragmented details: the name of the previous generation’s butler, the number of steps leading down to the shrine, the smell of medicine in his mother’s room. They were all still there.

However, not losing his memory was a good thing; otherwise, there was no telling how terrible the situation would have become.

There was nothing strange around here either. What on earth was the inheritance trial?

The door of light in the middle of the water mirror radiated a pale blue glow; Jeremy stepped forward to inspect it.

But when he got close, he discovered that unlike before, the current door was not locked at all.

His hand could even pass right through the closed door to reach a disparate space that led who-knows-where.

His fingertips brushed across the edge of the door. It wasn’t hot, wasn’t cold, and offered no resistance; it just felt like touching a body of water standing vertically.

This tunnel... was actually open?

Could this be considered guiding him to proceed?

Hesitating for a moment, Jeremy ultimately still decided to move forward.