Chapter 10: Jade Forest’s Inheritance pt 1

Once Jacob and Reina went inside the citadel, the large metal door closed leaving them without light. Jacob was a cultivator so he was able to see in the dark to some extent and Reina was a phoenix so she lit her wings on flower acting as a torch.

"Guess we have no choice but to get the inheritance if we wanna leave" Jacob started walking through the long hallway cautious of traps as this place looked like it would be full of them.

'Where are the traps?' Jacob had been walking for around 15 minutes and he had not spotted a single trap 'maybe it's some sort of test?' He continued walking paying closer attention to his surroundings

"You realize we've been walking right under a bunch of hosts right?" Reina looked at Jacob confused which caused Jacob to look up with a slightly frightened look in his eyes 'there must be dozens of them!' Jacob started using his stealth techniques silencing his steps and blending with the shadows. He then told Reina to extinguish her flames and she did. He then grabbed her and started speeding down the hallway silently.

He ran like this for around 20 minutes before stopping when he realized that this place definitely had another illusion in it 'should have known' he rolled his eyes at how much the Jade Forest liked their illusions.

"Reina, I think we need to fight the hosts to be able to pass this trial." Reina looked frightened when she heard him as she had never killed a host before and did not know how strong they would be "O-ok.." she was visibly nervous 'I can't let her fight in that condition' Jacob shook his head as he grabbed Reina again.

He started stroking her feathers gently "These hosts are weak, against a mighty phoenix they stand no chance" Jacob said reassuringly and Reina shuddered with each stroke of her feathers, she looked to be drooling while being pet.

Reina barely processed his words as she was entirely focused on the heavenly pleasure from Jacob's pets and strokes "y-yeah you're r-r-right" she stuttered barely able to get the words out her mouth "then let's do this my mighty phoenix" Jacob gave her more encouragement 'did he just say I was his?! I'm his..? That doesn't sound too bad…' Reina started fantasizing as Jacob let her go "let's go" Jacob smiled as he pulled out his axe from his waistband.

Jacob then started to use the technique that he used against Charles which was called [Berserk Aura] which allowed Jacob to manifest his aura into a physical attack with tyrannical force. He then released his technique against the hosts on the ceiling that looked like human sized bats with the trademark deformities of the hosts.

BOOOOOOOOM!

Jacob's attack landed and killed around 10 hosts at the beginning. He gave no chance for the hosts to awaken as he threw his axe into the head of another and appeared in front of the bats head, taking the axe and then throwing it again killing another host and teleporting to it. This technique was called [Bond Blink] which allowed the user to create a "bond" with an object or a person allowing the user to teleport to said person or object. This allowed Jacob to perform range attacks even without ethereal spells, he was a close combat type fighter after all so of course he would need a counter to range attacks.

Jacob used this technique killing another 5 hosts before the hosts started screeching alerting the other hosts on the ceiling. About 3 dozen pairs of bright red eyes appeared in the darkness and the sound of multiple flapping wings resounded. The hosts were awake finally and launched their attack in unison.

'All of them are in the Centaurus realm except for one that's in the early stages of Draco so this should be relatively easy' Jacob noted that these types of bat like hosts cultivated energy instead of cultivating the body. Although you could cultivate both paths as a human, the hosts wouldn't do the same as cultivating one path was already the extent of their brain power.

The bats then swooped down and started clawing at Jacob trying to rip off limbs and immobilize their prey. Jacob deflected the abnormally sharp talons with his axe and sometimes had to redirect the attack with his arm causing some scratches and bruising to form 'I won't last long if I continue to let them attack in waves' Jacob retreated after the last attack while throwing the axe in the air above the bats.

He then used [Bond Blink] and appeared high in the air grabbing the axe and using [Berserk Aura] causing a loud *BOOM* along with the screeches of multiple hosts. The attack killed about a third as it surprised them and it injured a few more. Reina who has been watching Jacob fight was in awe as she realized that he was very strong and skilled 'how is he this strong when he's only in the late stage of the first realms' (realms, plural, because he cultivates both paths) breaking out her stupor she realized she has not done anything to contribute to the battle.

Reina then hurried to fight as she didn't want to disappoint Jacob as he 'claimed' her which made her think that he was her master. She burst into flames and started throwing basic fire attack like a fireball, fire arrow, etc., which was able to injure many hosts causing 3rd degree burns at least. Some of the hosts could be seen with their wings slowly melting as they were on fire.

'Need to make sure not to ever get hit by Reina' Jacob made a mental note as melting alive was something he didn't want to experience. The duo continued their onslaught, Jacob was using basic attacks hacking away at the creatures this time as it was a good fight to gain some experience against multiple enemies.

The fight continued with Jacob decapitating and amputating limbs causing blood and guts to splattered on the walls and floor. Jacob was using his Golden eyes to locate the parasites in the hosts bodies eliminating them in one strike.

This continued for another 5 minutes before the screeching sounds stopped. There was a mini hill of corpses on the ground, all of them being the hosts of course. Jacob had slight sweat roll down his face as the fight was just a bit tiring, Reina's flames also contributed because of the heat that emanated off the hosts burnt bodies.

Jacob pulled out a knife from his trusty bag and started cutting the parasites out of the limbs and heads of the hosts 'only about 8 intact parasites' Jacob was a little disappointed but remembered the amount of burning and slashing that occurred which charred and eviscerated the parasites making them useless, including the one in the Draco realm which caused Jacob heartache. He needed a fully intact parasite to perform his cultivation.

Reina flew towards Jacob and perched on his shoulders "Did I do good?! I thought I did pretty good helping master out!" Reina seemed proud of herself but Jacob looked at her in shock "…Master?" He said confused and caused Reina to figuratively blush in embarrassment "Y-you s-said that I-I was y-y…yours" Reina stuttered cutely trying to find a reason why she would call him master

"I did indeed say that but I don't have to be your master, I can just be your friend." Jacob looked innocent as he said that. He never had any friends before the Litwarth girls and he liked the feeling "Of course you don't have to be either if you don't want to" Jacob looked a little downcast as he said that "Well if you say so then I guess I can do that…friend." Reina was in a similar situation as Jacob, she was completely alone and Jacob made her heart feel warmer when they talked and bickered.

*cough cough* Jacob cleared his throat to relieve the awkward atmosphere "let's hurry and find the illusion rune so we can move on and get out of this place" Jacob said as he awkwardly walked away 'I have no idea what friends actually do!' Jacob was inexperienced and he remembered that he only ever trained and bathed with the two girls previously and never got to actually know them which led Jacob to contemplate while searching for the rune

The rune in question was on the ceiling where the hosts were originally and he slashed through it. His eyes then finally felt open as he spotted another door down the long hallway 'if this is the first trial of many then this might be more difficult than I thought, maybe I should cultivate with the parasites'

Jacob sat in front of the large metal door in a lotus position as he grabbed the gross parasites out of his pockets. He looked at them in disgust and remembered he had to eat them which caused him to cringe and shiver 'here goes nothing…' this would be Jacob's first time eating and cultivating with the parasite as he was helped by his father the first time.

He then popped one parasite in his mouth which almost caused Reina to explode as she flew at a crazy speed headfirst into Jacob's back "Son of a bitch! What was that for?!" Jacob yelled angrily at the delinquent phoenix "You just ate a host parasite you fucking mentally challenged motherfucker!" She sounded like a gangster from those ancient tv shows called "anime".

"Thanks for being concerned" Jacob realized his mistake as he should've warned her before doing this "I have a special physique so don't worry, you're the only one who knows this so keep it a secret" Jacob was serious and waited for Reina who seemed to be dazed 'he trusts me so much!' She was touched by how her new friend entrusted such an important secret to her "If you say so then I won't interfere, sorry" Reina then flew a little bit away to give Jacob some space to do his thing.

He then grabbed the parasite that he had spit out and threw it back into his mouth and started chewing as it made crunching sounds 'hmm, tastes like chicken' Jacob nodded to himself as if evaluating a food dish as a food critic.

Jacob then felt a burst of energy in his body and started circulating it through his meridians into his dantian where the energy for energy cultivating was stored. This only lasted about 10 minutes before Jacob needed to do it again. This went on for about an hour and a half before Jacob opened his eyes feeling a little more energetic than normal.

"I can definitely feel that my energy cultivation went up at least two levels which is pretty good, but I'm still not in the Draco realm" Jacob was happy with his small advancement "I didn't cultivate any for my body though. I wonder if since these hosts were energy cultivators then the parasites must only give energy cultivation a boost" he was correct, it would not make sense if an energy cultivator gave a boost to body cultivation "a good thing to note and remember" Jacob was happy with his finding as it would help contribute to his understanding of his physique.

Reina saw his small advancement and was shocked 'not even the most talented in the sect could move up two levels in less than two hours. It would take them at least two weeks to make that much progress and that's only because they have so many resources from a top sect like the Jade Forest was' she moved towards Jacob and perched on his shoulder "let's go?" She asked tilting her head towards the door "yeah let's continue to fuck em up" Jacob was filled with battle intent as he wanted to get even more parasites to up his cultivation, it was a euphoric feeling to him.

The door then opened as if listening to the two and they started to walk in only for the door to slam right behind them signaling for the start of the next trial.

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