Thunder rumbled in the clouds and mist.

Lightning flickered, shaped like living thunder dragons and electric serpents, roaming and roaring within the clouds and mist.

This sudden clap of thunder startled Henry Sutton to his core, instantly snapping him out of his dazed and confused state.

And ahead, after a burst of thunder and lightning, a dazzling white light suddenly appeared in the mist.

“Flame?”

“A white flame?”

From that mist-like white light, Henry Sutton sensed a scorching aura.

Grayish-white mist and blue-white thunder gave birth to a hazy, gauzy white glow.

Then, within the white light, a Daoist approached, wearing a tailcoat, a bright red robe, and holding an ancient, mottled red gourd in his hand.

“Back in the day, after the Investiture of the Gods, the various sages transcended. I, a poor Daoist, have cultivated for many years, and now also seek the path of transcendence. Yet, upon reflection, I have never taken a disciple in this life, and have no successor, so I pass down my Daoist lineage.”

The Daoist suddenly spoke, his voice echoing in all directions, saying in a deep tone: “Whoever receives this inheritance shall be my true disciple.”

Henry Sutton looked astonished.

Investiture of the Gods?

The sages?

Daoist lineage?

Disciple?

True transmission?

“Immortal?”

Henry Sutton stood dumbfounded for a while.

Who is this Daoist?

Which immortal?

Yuanshi Tianzun? Taishang Laojun? Tongtian Jiaozhu?

Taiyi Zhenren? Yuding Zhenren?

Yang Jian? Nezha? Lei Zhenzi?

Henry Sutton snapped out of it, and upon closer inspection, felt that this person’s attire was very familiar, especially the gourd in his hand.

This outfit might not be recognizable to most people, but as someone well-versed in Classical Chinese and who had read many ancient texts, Henry Sutton immediately recalled a figure from ancient Chinese legends.

But just then, the Daoist suddenly spoke.

“I, a poor Daoist!”

“A hermit of West Kunlun!”

The Daoist said in a deep voice: “Edward Clark!”

As his words fell, the world shook and heaven and earth seemed to turn upside down.

The endless white clouds and mist suddenly boiled and churned violently.

Henry Sutton’s vision once again fell into confusion.

In the mist before his eyes, a flash of red light suddenly appeared.

A gourd shot out from the mist, appearing before him.

In an instant, it was right in front of his face.

Henry Sutton was suddenly shocked and wanted to dodge, but his whole body was stiff and he couldn’t move.

Then there was a crisp sound as it struck Henry Sutton right on the forehead.

A familiar feeling, a familiar sensation.

It was as if he had returned to that ancient tomb deep in the mountains where he first encountered this.

Aside from the headache, there was only darkness.

……

Chapter 2: Inheritance

Morning.

Blue sky, white clouds, the weather was fresh and clear.

In a clean little courtyard, a young man raised both hands upward, then lowered them from both sides, cupping them below his abdomen, knees slightly bent, exhaling gently.

“That place shrouded in mist and clouds is probably my sea of consciousness, also known in legend as the ancestral aperture, or sometimes called the Heavenly Court, Jade Chamber, Mount Sumeru, and so on.”

“As for the red flame that appeared later, and that patch of white light, those should be the manifestations of Master Clark.”

“So the thunder that was triggered by Master Clark was…”

Henry Sutton closed his eyes and thought to himself, “Talisman water? The divine talisman my cousin got from the Temple of the Thunder God?”

He sorted out the sequence of events and let out a breath in his heart.

That day, he had just shaken his head and fainted, giving his cousin quite a scare. In the end, when she realized there was no real harm, she poured the talisman water down his throat.

If his guess was correct, it was this talisman water from the Thunder God’s temple that turned into a bolt of lightning in his sea of consciousness.

“This lightning drew out the fire hidden deep in my sea of consciousness, which then manifested Master Clark, and I received the inheritance?”

By now, Henry Sutton could understand that the reason he was able to obtain Master Clark’s inheritance was most likely because of that chipped stone gourd from the ancient tomb of the Western Zhou.

The fire hidden deep in his sea of consciousness came from that mottled gourd.

And that was also the culprit that brought him to this world!

“An immortal’s inheritance is a good thing, but this inheritance is a bit strange.”

Henry Sutton looked up at the sky, full of helplessness. “I have countless wondrous arts and methods for refining treasures, but there’s no cultivation technique?”

Within Master Clark’s inheritance, there were many methods that shocked him—some famous in his previous life, others unknown to the world.

These various methods were endlessly varied and awe-inspiring, but despite the countless wondrous arts, there was not a single cultivation technique.

In other words, he possessed endless spells, but could not truly cultivate.

It was like being given a mountain of gold and a treasury of treasures, but not the key to open it.

In the end, he was still a poor man, struggling to get by.

So, in the end, does he still have nothing?

“No cultivation technique, no way to cultivate, in the end I’m still a mortal.”

“All these methods for refining magical treasures, all these ways to cast spells—even if they could move mountains and fill seas, shake heaven and earth—they are just the means of Daoist cultivators… For me, a mere mortal, they are completely useless.”

“Could it be that Master Clark assumed that anyone who received his inheritance would already be a cultivator, and didn’t need to add a cultivation method?”

“But I’m just a mortal, with no way to cultivate. Faced with all these methods, what can I do?”