The strongest forces on the island now consisted of Core Forming experts.
Big sects formed a temporary base on the island, sparing no efforts in trying to find the clues to enter the pyramid.
They weren't the only ones, all the cultivators inside tried their best to find ways to enter the pyramid but failed. If it was before, their first plan would be to make a hole in the pyramid to enter but what happened with the Grand Elder of Blood Spear Sect served as an example for them, making them quickly give up on this plan.
At this time, a man in a purple-blue robe was staring at the eye like a symbol on top of the pyramid from afar.
The man was a beastman, his body was almost twice as big as an adult human, he had pale green eyes and long but thick green hair reaching his waist, these traits showed the forest elven blood flowing through his veins.
Pure elves prefer to live in the forest filled with the essence of nature but it wasn't the same case for the hybrids.
The man was Clad, an elder of Temple Of War, at present he was in charge of the team sent by Temple Of War. His task was naturally aimed at finding a way to enter the inheritance ground and secure the treasures inside but like others, he failed to find a single clue so far.
"If everything goes with the flow then tomorrow by the end of the day, the barrier will remove the restriction from Golden Core stage experts and we will lose our advantage," A beastman standing beside him said.
"Hmm…" Clad knew that the man beside him was desperate just like him, this was a chance for them to make a huge contribution to the sect, if they really find a clue and managed to enter the pyramid then their status in the sect would rise, at that time they can get the resources from the sect to prepare for the breakthrough to the higher stage. But this was only possible if they succeeded in their task.
Clad kept staring at the eye-like symbol on top of the pyramid, he had a feeling that the symbol wasn't simple and it might be the key to enter the pyramid.
"There is something I want to try, bring me a prisoner," Clad said then slowly flew to the symbol on top of the pyramid.
The man beside him didn't understand the reason behind his request but he still followed the order without any question.
When the other people who were investigating the pyramid saw Clad flying above, near the eye symbol, it caught their interest. They too had seen the strangeness in the symbol, whenever a cultivator with a low cultivation base looks at it they get lost in a daze, becoming completely unaware of their surrounding, so they had also tried things like touching it and find some hidden mechanism but failed to discover anything special.
Sect like Temple Of War had a lot of territory in their control so managing it naturally became their responsibility. They had to deal with spies, bandits, wanted criminals that ran amok in their area, sometimes when they caught big groups of such kind of people they couldn't blindly slaughter them all because this behaviour was not suitable for the righteous path sect, as a result, such people would become their prisoners that are then sorted out depending on their crimes.
The luckiest becomes the handyman disciple's slaves that have a chance to free themselves in the future, becoming the handyman disciples of their sect, and the most unfortunate are treated as cannon fodders to test traps in dangerous places like the pyramid in front.
The prisoner brought belonged to the latter category who had committed enough crimes that no one had the least bit of mercy for him.
In the cultivation world, killing someone was already taken as a common thing and in such an environment those who can be labeled as criminals were mostly those whose actions had gone beyond what someone with a humane nature could do.
"Bring him here," Clad said while signaling him to handover the prisoner.
The man obeyed and handed over the prisoner he was carrying like a chicken. The prisoner had his cultivation base completely sealed, he only looked at both the beast-man with deeply hidden killing intent in his eyes but didn't utter a single word.
"Reel do you remember the inheritance ground that evil Burning Heaven Ancestor had left behind?" Clad asked in a solemn tone.
When Reel heard the words 'Burning Heaven Ancestor' his face turned stiff. The righteous faction has heroes that were respected and revered by countless cultivators but the Evil faction also had villains that were feared as much as how much the heroes from the righteous faction were respected.
Burning Heaven Ancestor was such a person, rumors have it that he was a man who killed his two loving sons and a daughter to refine a 9th-grade spirit rank dan Parent-Child-Sacrifice dan to increase his chances of breakthrough to Sky Body Formation stage.
From this incident, he was already taken as a True Devil cultivator, if not for his human appearance then he was already worse than most True Devil Cultivators.
Fortunately, the powerhouses from the righteous faction allied and killed him soon after he reached the Sky Body Formation Stage but the price paid was huge. He was the reason after which Temple Of War stopped its quest of conquering the whole continent and led low to recover their strength.
Even after Burning Heaven Ancestor was killed, the number of inheritance he left behind was not small, Temple Of War and other Overlords were tracing them down destroying them till this day.
"Why are you mentioning that right now?" Reel asked in an uncertain tone.
"This pyramid gives me the same feeling as the inheritance ground of that villain, I'm not sure why, but if it is really true then we cannot let it fall in the hands of other people no matter the cost," Clad said as he tightly grabbed the neck of the prisoner.
The prisoner's eyes bulged out, his face turned pale, he wanted to resist but he couldn't.
"What are you saying, I don't understand, this place does have a slightly gloomy presence but it's very different, and even if is an evil inheritance what does it has to do with Burning Heaven Ancestor?" Reel asked in confusion.
'If the inheritance is similar, then the method to open them couldn't be so far apart,' Clad thought, he then put all his strength in his right hand and threw the prisoner towards the eye at lightning speed, with such force if the prisoner with his sealed cultivation base made contact with the solid walls of the pyramid then there was no doubt that his body would be turned into a meat paste.
What Clad wanted to do was simple, he was offering a sacrifice, the evil inheritance grounds of Burning Heaven Inheritance had a simple pattern, if one person wanted to go in then they had to kill another person beside them and offer its blood, meaning if the blood of the prisoner was absorbed by the eye symbol after the collision then his hypothesis would be proven right.
But at this time, something unexpected happened, the criminal didn't collide with the eye symbol on the wall but passed through it and disappeared.
Clad was dumbfounded.
Reel was dumbfounded.
Others were the same, the situation was out of their expectations.
"He... He discovered the way... how?"
"That Clad... I knew it, a cunning old man was hiding behind his naive temperament,"
"As expected of Temple Of War,"
"Overlord Sects are Overlord Sects after all,"
All the onlookers praised without any reservations as they showed their bootlicking skills, now that Clad had a way to let them in, they could not care about their face anymore.
"Incredible! I congratulate leader for being promoted to Inner Elder," Reel quickly said, he was jealous but didn't show it on his face, even blind could see that with this contribution, Clad was going to be promoted soon.
Clad nodded but didn't avert his gaze from the eye symbol, in truth he was the most shocked person in the vicinity.
'What the heck just happened?' Clad thought inwardly. According to his hypothesis, the prisoner would die first, his blood would get absorbed then he could enter but things didn't seem to be the same as he guessed.
'Whatever who cares, maybe this inheritance is different and I met some hidden requirement to open it, I already contributed enough to become an Inner Elder, if I can also retrieve a treasure inside... Hehe...' As Clad thought of this, his heart bloomed, he didn't delay anymore and dashed towards the eye symbol.
Everyone forgot to breathe when they saw this, Clad knew the method to enter the inheritance ground if he went in without saying anything then they would need to waste more time in figuring out the way.
..Thudd....
They were filled with anxiousness, thinking about what to do, just when they were about to move Clad hit his head on the solid walls of the pyramid and started flying around like a headless fly, his head felt dizzy and he was able to see the stars spinning above his head.
Clad gave out a low howl before falling to the ground, he then directly lost consciousness.
"..." (Reel)
"..." (Everyone)
Everyone looked at each other, they were at a loss. They could now guess that the scene before was just a fluke.
But they were still happy, after all, they now had a clue.
They all started doing some experiments and soon found a way to enter the pyramid. When they found the way, they didn't know whether to laugh or cry because it was too simple.
All they had to do was completely seal their cultivation base and dive into the eye.
The Human Venerable stage cultivators were the most depressed creatures at the moment, they felt extreme regret for not trying such a simple thing before.
But who could blame them, when they failed to use a similar method to enter the barrier, they already stopped thinking about using such tricks, more importantly, they had to dive into the eye symbol or else they won't succeed.
The news soon reached Rex's ears. Sung Lee personally came this time to discuss their next move.
"By the end of tomorrow, the barrier will let the Golden Core stage experts in. I was thinking of sending in the Grand Elder to explore," Sung Lee said.
Rex nodded, this time he didn't stop because it would sound somewhat unreasonable and suspicious to still do that.
'From the entryway of the tomb, the restriction inside is related to cultivation base, excellent it's a good thing for the current me. Sky Body Formation might have a strong physique but my body is not weak either, as long as I don't meet body cultivator at this stage I should be fine,' Rex thought.
Zakiya had taught him a lot of things about the tombs, that's why Rex knew that just the entryway could tell a lot of things about the restrictions present inside.
A tomb is like a playground set by the powerhouses to choose their inheritor, those who want to become the inheritor have to play the game on this playground while following their rules, the winner will become the inheritor while the loser's fate will depend on the temperament of the powerhouse who set the playground.
'I cannot enter until it's time for Calamity Lords, or I would become an interesting test subject in the eyes of other Calamity Lords,' Rex thought.
Posing as a top powerhouse had its advantages and disadvantages, he had taken the advantages, Lerna was beside him and still, no Calamity Lord approached them because according to them, her partner was Rex but now it was time to face the disadvantage. He has to wait until other Calamity Lords enter the inheritance ground.
Sung Lee was about to speak when his talisman flickered and he received a message, his expression changed afterward.
Rex noticed the frown on his face.
"Green Mantis Sect?" He asked.