Hou lay on the table, almost being killed by the phantom welding a blade. Just as his head was to be chopped off, he experienced the inheritance.
Time slowed infinitely, Hou watch as the blade swung down and slowed to a stop. He was suddenly sent into memories, not of his own but of everything.
He became an old man, a young man, a child, a plant, an animal. He became all sorts of different life forms with whole different lives.
He experienced the downfall of them all. The plant harvested, dying and early life. A betrayal by a beat friend. The wallowing in rage and desperate attempt at revenge only to amount to nothing.
He became an animal, a small hare. Born from a dead mother, killed yet abandoned by predators. Growing up in an unforgiving nature, hunted but never dying. Never being released from a life of misery.
Only as an old hare did he slowly die, an arrow pierced his body. As he ran away, the arrow wore him down slowly, draining his blood.
The hare's final breath became the old man's meal. A beggar taking even a dying starved hare as a meal, raw.
He became an old man, the same one he became in the last inheritance. He experienced his life in chunks, unconnected and not in order. Hou could patch together that from the start of his life, the wise old man lived with pain. He was poor, not just poor but destitute.
He starved often, and could not grow properly. Everyday, he lived in excruciating pain, every second a misery.
He watched as each of his family died, dropping like flies and leaving him alone. Being beaten for begging, being harassed by nature itself.
All these memories were from the age of spirits, the old man lived tormented by spirits. They gave him pain, took away his family, not letting his rest at all.
Then in his final moments, he offended a spirit master and he could not escape the consequences. In that final moment, he looked up at the man he offended.
Hou thought he was familiar and as he experienced the man's life, he realised who it was. This was Zhou Tian!
The very first spirit master, Hou saw as he angrily harassed the wise old man. Using his ultimate power over spirits to sustain his life while he tortured him. The wise old man thought to himself,
"If anyone can hear me, listen closely..."
Then the memory cut off, as if Hou ran out of time or it was stopping him from hearing what the wise old man wanted to say.
Then Hou jolted to wakefulness, he saw time speed back up. The phantom holding the blade continued, Hou's head was cleaved cleanly off.
"Death is the first step to unchaining the soul…" The phantom muttered as Hou's head fell and rolled on the ground.
Then Hou's entire body went limp. He did not feel anything, this was his final moments, he was dead. As he felt his consciousness start to break down, it was pulled back.
Suddenly, Hou could feel everything. His mind comprehended the whole temple. Inside he saw a figure, a shady silhouette. It reminded him off... the very phantom which had killed him!
It stared at Hou, he could feel it piercing his very being. Then it grabbed Hou's fading consciousness, giving it power.
Hou felt his consciousness expand and heal, he could understand all that happened. The temple was the temple to the spirits in the olden days, and the table he lay upon was a sacrificial alter.
Hou was sacrificed, not to a spirit whose very existence was removed by Yao Tian, but the remnant spirit of Sovereign Sky Monarch.
He was the one that created all these inheritances, and now he saved Hou from his death. He gave Hou his approval, not allowing his consciousness to be given back to the world.
He took it and slammed it back into Hou's body. He jolted awake, his head and body separated. Then suddenly, Hou's vision spun.
His head jumped of the ground, carried by bloody tentacles and it reattached to his body. Hou felt his body and head attach, his whole body shook and he sat up.
Hou felt his consciousness and could feel it's changes. It was expanded and combined with his soul. It wasn't yet a Nascent Soul, but it wasn't far. Sovereign Sky Monarch gave Hou a boost.
Hou then understood,
"That is the function of these inheritances! To find someone who can inherit Sovereign Sky Monarch's Nascent Soul and develop it! That is what it has been going for from the start, ancestry, birth, growth, degradation, death and rebirth. That is the meaning of the inheritances, but going by this... Shouldn't death and rebirth be different inheritances?"
Then Hou used his consciousness and noticed it was no longer restricted, he could move freely. He stood up and spread his consciousness far, using his intuition to explore the temple.
He noticed a small room inside with a tablet. Hou walked through the degrading stone temple, it's magnificence now only seen and not felt.
It seems when Hou finished his inheritance the uniqueness of the temple left, leaving only it's structure. As he walked through the structure, he could feel rumbling and hear the occasional rock falling.
'I should leave quick, this place seems to want to fall apart'
He found the room and walking in he saw a single stone tablet on a table. Hou walked over and looked over the table.
It was written in unknown characters and Hou could not understand them. This was evidently made before True Sage of Celestial Ink creating the flowing script.
Hou picked up the tablet and it then crumbled in his hands. As it crumbled, the dust falling onto the floor, a speech entered Hou's mind.
"If you are hearing this, you must be my inheritor. The one chosen by me to create a Nascent Soul. You must've died in the inheritance, do not worry that was a path for everyone else. Your death was essential to your new rebirth. If you were chosen now, you must have some uniqueness that makes you compatible, congratulations. I should explain what I've done, I have combined your soul and consciousness. This is a step in the formation of the Nascent Soul, forget about the body. The body is just a tool, disregard it. A Nascent Soul is the self unchained. Flesh decays, but the soul… the consciousness and soul can ascend through all. Go through my inheritances, with your qualifications you should be able to form the Nascent Soul. I only have one purpose in this, freeing you. I could not do it, but I hope you can. This world is fake, just a fancy experiment by a stronger being. Escape this world, escape and show them the strength of the Sovereign Sky! I could not do it, I was still chained to this world, but you. You are free now, free this world from the clutches of useless 'gods'!"
Hou dropped the final junks of the stone tablet he was holding. he felt the ground rumble, a rock hitting his head. He rand out, jumping off the temple and sliding down the muddy ground surrounding it.
Just as he escaped, the temple collapsed. The rocks falling inwards, releasing a cloud of ash and dust. Hou stood up, just in time for a boulder to fly off and lacerate his arm. It stripping flesh to bone, his Celestial Law Amplifying Physique stitching it back, slowly but noticeably.
He looked up and took a deep breath,
'Sovereign Sky Monarch... Sect ancestor, I must admire you. You were right, this world is fake. Too bad I encountered Araxis already and found out about this...'
Then he spoke aloud as he limped away,
"Don't worry, I'll become the strongest and I'll show them, show them all the strength of the Sovereign Sky!"