Chapter 144 - Inkarsia

Skill: Arsenal of the Infinite Heavens

[Arsenal of the Infinite Heavens]

[A supreme spatial technique that connects the host to an extradimensional armory containing countless weapons.]

[The host may open spatial gates within his perception and summon weapons through them.]

[Weapons may be fired through the gates at extreme velocity, allowing attacks from multiple directions simultaneously.]

[The armory contains weapons collected, created, or stored by the host and of the enemies killed.]

[The number of gates and weapons manifested depends on the host’s spatial comprehension and spiritual energy.]

Cale read the skill description,

"Hmm, so it can help me use shadows... meaning I will have to keep stocking it up with either artifacts or enemies’ weapons. Although that is tedious, this technique can be used for long-ranged attacks... like shooting spears and polearms," he mused aloud, a satisfied smile crossing his face.

He was quite pleased with such a powerful technique. This was definitely better than receiving a few random low-level techniques that wouldn’t scale with his cultivation.

But his main goal in claiming this inheritance wasn’t to obtain this reward anyway.

What he truly wanted was to use the final teleportation gate.

All major inheritances came with a teleportation token assigned to the inheritor — a safety measure against immediate attacks upon leaving the inheritance realm. Many inheritors could be vulnerable the moment they emerged, and this safeguard ensured they had a means of escape.

The tablet itself served as the teleportation anchor.

Cale willed his intention, channeling his essence through his newly marked palm.

’I want to go to... Inkarsia.’

Whoosh!

The transition was instantaneous. His body simply vanished from the cave, leaving it to crumble behind him as the inheritor’s presence departed. Without the energy sustaining it, the ancient structure began to collapse in on itself, sealing away the inheritance site for the next few centuries.

As his body traveled through the void on its own, Cale’s consciousness remained active, thoughts drifting across possibilities.

’What kind of people would I meet? I’ve only visited that place once, and that too as a small-time merchant.’

The sensation of traversal through dimensions was disorienting but not painful.

His body existed in multiple states simultaneously, traveling and already arrived, suspended between worlds.

Then, his eyes opened.

Above him hung a half-moon in a sky full of brilliant stars, each one seeming closer and brighter than those over the Velard continent. A light breeze caressed his face, carrying with it the salt-tinged scent of ocean water.

In front of him stretched an endless expanse of water — an ocean that seemed to stretch to the edges of the world itself. He was standing on the outer coast of one of four continents. If its Inkarsia, then it would be good, and it likely was.

The water hit his boots gently... Once... Twice.

"This is indeed a different place," he observed extending his senses outward. "The qi is richer here."

The ambient spiritual energy was denser than even the Velard Empire’s most cultivated regions.

He flew upward, scanning the coastline for settlements.

What he found made him pause.

A small village was under active attack.

The settlement below was being besieged by cultivators in distinctive white and silver robes that bore the emblem of a soaring crane with its wings spread wide in flight.

Cale’s eyes narrowed with recognition.

"The Soaring Crane Sect... one of the five sects which go to that inheritance site and try to claim it. But they only obtain it on their third attempt, if I remember correctly. Today, it seems like they’re here to enslave commoners for tedious work."

The Soaring Crane Sect was here on a resource-gathering expedition, using local commoners as expendable labor.

He needed to know the exact location where the inheritance would appear, but these cultivators would never willingly provide such information. And it was equally impractical to make enemies of each of the five competing sects just to gain access to this particular inheritance.

’Guess I will join the slaves.’

Cale descended toward the settlement and approached several low-tier cultivators of the Soaring Crane Sect.

He begged them to let him join as a laborer.

The cultivators were thoroughly shocked by this development. Normally, commoners would deny, cry in protest, and fight desperately to avoid being forced into such work. Yet here was this man, literally begging to join them.

Their thoughts aligned: ’There’s definitely something wrong with his brain.’

’To think someone is literally begging us to accept him? Is he in desperate need of money, or has he offended someone powerful and wants to run away?’

One of them placed a hand on Cale’s shoulder, grinning widely.

"Hahaha, we won’t deny your earnest request, lad. To think our sect’s fame has risen this much that people are volunteering!"

Cale smiled, bowing respectfully.

"Ah... yes, yes, thank you, my lord."

They brought him to the main settlement, where hundreds of other enslaved commoners had been gathered. As Cale observed the crowd, his eye picked out the power levels among the Soaring Crane Sect members present.

’So there are Expert Stage and Apex Stage people too, although it seems they’re only a few in number.’

The majority of the sect’s presence consisted of lower-stage cultivators, with only a handful of powerhouses present to maintain control over the gathered slaves.

They were herded into a flying ship’s lower compartment; a cramped, poorly ventilated space where hundreds of others had already been confined. Most looked malnourished, their bodies bearing the marks of previous labor. Some were crying quietly in corners, while others simply lay on the filthy floor.

One of the guards at the door sighed heavily to his companion.

"Why do we have to bring these beggars every few days? Are there so many monsters in there?"

The other guard laughed without humor.

"It’s not just monsters, you fool. The other sects’ people are fighting each other too! And they’re only mundane people, so what if a few thousand die? Haha."

Cale leaned back against the wooden wall of the compartment.

’Sigh... I have to sit in this ship for a month now? I should’ve just flown my way there if only I knew the location.’

The entire next month, Cale spent every spare moment learning how to open the rifts to the Arsenal of the Infinite Heavens.

And surprisingly, accessing it and firing weapons through it proved to be far easier than he’d expected. It was like shooting enemies in a game with a sniper.

He still remembered Gilgamesh, how that guy possessed a similar technique, manifesting countless weapons from some infinite armory.

As for how he maintained his deception as a mortal, he hid his cultivation entirely.

Although he couldn’t consciously decide which stage it should appear as, he could turn the masking on and off with a thought, suppressing his aura completely until any observer would mistake him for a completely ordinary human.

’I still don’t know which corner of Inkarsia I’m in,’ he thought during the long journey, watching the sky through the small gaps in the compartment’s wooden boards.

After a month at sea, the ship finally landed.