"You can kill ghosts? Truly?" The so-called Demon Emperor asked, sounding interested.

  Lin Fei just nodded. He had killed so many ghosts in the Tower's arrays that he lost count. "Easily." Lin Fei answered in a firm voice.

  "Then, he can join us. Should be useful to cross the third stage." the Demon Emperor decided, and the rest of the Divine Realm

  cultivators agreed.

  Lin Fei looked around, as 52 more Saints and 5 Divine cultivators were assembled in front of the Chaotic Broken Stars, which were in fact not stars, but strange boulders imbued with Chaos energy, floating and rotating to create a powerful Formation.

  He couldn't break through alone, but this is why he 'recruited' an army of demonic cultivators.

  "There seem to be eight Formation eyes, that require Divine Crystals to be slotted in." A Divine cultivator covered in bubonic pustules noted in a smart voice.

  "I can provide 2 crystals." Lord Peng offered, and threw 2 crystals into the slots. Two beams of light appeared on the Formation, showing the array still worked, but needed more crystals to complete the octagon.

  Lin Fei had 100 such Divine Crystals in his storage rings (gifted by his Young Master), but waited until 7 beams lit up before he took one crystal and flicked it into the last slot.

  "Hmmm. You're not that simple, after all. A little Saint that can afford a Divine Crystal..." the poison cultivator mused in a sly voice, gazing towards Lin Fei with a greedy look.

  Luckily, the Formation activated just then, creating a portal towards the first stage of the inheritance.

  It seemed the local cultivators from the Sea of Devils had known about and tried to enter the inheritance trial many times, but always failed in the third stage, where hungry ghosts forced the survivors to retreat.

  Lin Fei waited patiently for the 'meat shields' to rush inside the portal, then buried a locator beacon with his foot, and jumped into the portal. Ideally, all the others explorers will die and let him obtain the inheritance easily, but demonic cultivators were resourceful too.

  The first stage shouldn't be too hard, except for sudden and inevitable betrayals from the other demonic cultivators.

  There was only a long bridge, meandering through void space, with a stone tablet naming it the Road of No Return.

  Two demonic Saints with poor concealment artifacts jumped him at the middle of the way, but Lin Fei barely looked at them, before storing their corpses into a space ring. Who knows, maybe Grandpa could make more Saint puppets out of them.

  "Lin Fei! I agree to marry you!" he heard Ming Yue proclaim in a lovely voice from behind.

  "...Such poor taste. Try harder!" he grumbled and ignored the illusion.

  "I admit you're better than me! Let me shake your hand!" he heard Pef, with his special tone of humble arrogance.

  Lin Fei just sighed and walked forward. Pef would never say a thing like that. Tease him, annoy him, and rile him up, but in his foolish good-natured way meant to make him better. Stronger.

  The Tower's Master was never an adversary, despite what the silly inner demon claimed.

  Bai and Feng followed with enticing offers, even his three maids came to life and called him back.

  "You should have agreed to join the Tower. All of you would be close to Divinity now, not meat puppets..." he muttered in a sad voice.

  "Lin Fei! Remus is hurt, come back and help!" he heard Romulus yell in a desperate voice.

  He just snorted. As if anything could happen to the boys, inside the Tower and under the watchful gaze of Grandpa Heavengaze. The Tower's Spirit could match wits with Buddha himself.

  "You can touch my tails. Look at me!" Meadows offered, in a kind voice, just behind. The tails swished, making a warm gust of wind.

  Lin Fei laughed a bit too hard. Not even Pef's wives got that privilege.

  Still laughing, he crossed into the next portal and entered the second trial. He pitied those that failed such an easy test.

  ----------

  Meadows crawled swiftly through the brush, eyes locked on the glowing herb. The Divine Serpent coiled around the herb seemed asleep, but she wasn't a foolish beast.

  Too bad that her shadow hands weren't as dextrous as real hands. Anyway, she managed to roll a Fireball Talisman around a spirit stone, then flicked it towards the herb.

  The serpent opened a lazy eye and flicked its tongue, touching the rolling object, when it promptly exploded.

  Meadows was running away, herb already stored in her arm brace. Illusions could fool the Divine Sense, she had tested them on the two Divine newbies that joined the Tower. Pef, that stinky human was still immune to any mental illusion, but nothing he did was normal.

  A few minutes later, she stopped to rest a minute, and covered the patch of forest in a peaceful illusion, so quiet and peaceful that any beast would avoid it by instinct. Things being so quiet meant a powerful predator was around, and watching.

  Which was kinda true, in a way. Meadows was here.

  She took out the glowing herb and licked it, trying to sense a resonance with her bloodline. Sadly, nothing. No matter, the kids could use it, or maybe Pef could boil it into a special pill.

  The Jade Forest was quite large, and there were hundreds of more herbs to loot. Pef had trained her well.

  -----------

  I sniffed and snorted, although I just bathed under the waterfall. Maybe someone was badmouthing me? Always possible.

  Grandpa appeared beside me, and measured me with his inscrutable gaze. Might be why he was called Heavengaze.

  "The little Phoenix is hungry. You need to find some Earth Fire for it." he warned me.

  Feng has managed to make the Phoenix egg hatch into a little Phoenix bird, but now that it ate the egg shell, the poor bird wouldn't eat anything else. Grandpa held it locked inside an array for now, until we found some proper food.

  "Are there more alternatives?" I asked with a helpless voice. I couldn't find any Earth Fire for sale. This stuff was highly treasured by Alchemists.

  The old ghost frowned, then glanced towards the mountains. "Bits of Dragon might work too."

  Did Phoenixes feed on Dragons? I had no idea, but Grandpa was always right. This should work.

  "The damn Dragon is not willing to Ascend. Not yet." I answered with a shrug. Perhaps we should go back to the first plan and just force-feed it pills like a goose.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Grandpa tugged his beard. "Go and harvest its Pure Yin then. The anger of being helpless will make it ascend anyway."

  "Just make sure it doesn't escape." I muttered and flew towards the prison.

  Romulus and Remus didn't manage to trick the pink Dragon with the Saint pills, not that that plan had a big chance of working. Like most beasts in captivity, the Dragon refused to comply with any demands.

  I was even willing to wait 2000 days, which made the Dragon a young woman over 20 years old now, but it seemed that she couldn't grow stronger in captivity, or we just weren't feeding it enough human hearts.

  A privacy array had already risen around the Dragon's prison, leaving the boys on the outside.

  "Go back to the main Tower, guys. Your plan has failed, so I'll do it my way." I told the boys, who seemed reluctant to leave.

  "...Can we watch?" Romulus asked bravely.

  "You want to watch me torture and dismantle the murder Dragon?" I wondered in real surprise.

  "No, we don't!" Remus yelled and dragged his brother away.

  "I'll save a roasted leg for you." I promised in a mild voice.

  I entered the prison to find the Dragon hanging from chains, with an incense burner lit to provide a mating scent. The pink Dragon's pink pussy was already dripping like a spring, and her face was covered with a blindfold. I suspected Grandpa had quite some experience with setting up dungeons.

  "Brother Long, take me already!" the Dragon pleaded in induced horniness.

  Oh well. Might as well give her something to enjoy before sending her to float on the death river.

  Her human body was perfectly shaped, so I slapped her breast, only to watch it bounce back. "Ah, you're here! Take me already!" she yelled in desperation.

  I took my time, playing with her body for a few minutes, then I plunged into her pink spring, and began pounding. I've never experienced hate sex in either life, but it felt quite good. Conan was right, there was something great about hearing the moans of their women.

  I began to build up, feeling my balls ready to burst. "Feels good, being taken by a human?" I asked curious, then released my Yang to absorb her Pure Yin.

  The Dragon froze for a second, then screamed in outrage and started glowing, shattering the Crimson Iron chains as it shifted shape into a 50 meters Dragon with a pink mane. I hid under Concealment and waited, as black clouds gathered over the prison.

  "You're dead! More than dead! I'll crack your bones and eat the marrow!" the Dragon promised, while golden lightning bolts fell from the sky. She might be a bit angry.

  I jumped back, landing beside Grandpa ghost, who watched the Tribulation with glinting eyes. "Truly, a Dragon's Ascension is a wonderful show." he spoke in a reminiscent tone.

  "I sense a story here, about dungeons and dragons." I added with a smirk.

  Grandpa laughed. "The Artisan only dreamed about it, but you made his dream come true. Of course, his dream was about a certain Celestial Dragon lady, but everyone has to start small."

  "Maybe I will meet this Dragon lady in the future. Make another dream come true." I mused in low voice. Taking a Dragon was indeed a great experience. Might do it again.

  The old ghost sighed, and pinched his fingers to grab the Divine Dragon with a gravity array, then twisted his hand to crack its spine.

  "I'll start harvesting it for parts, you go back and train. And bring a bigger one next time!" Grandpa told me as Dragon scales began to float away from the fresh corpse.

  "Wait, I wanted to take the Dragon soul..." I exclaimed, running my Soul mantra to find the soul was gone already.

  Grandpa glanced at me like I was a small child. "Harvesting for parts. Of course I grabbed the soul first." he muttered in a gentle tone, like a was a bit retarded.

  Right. Grandpa was badass, and I was still a little Saint.

  I flew back to the main plaza, and nodded at the red headed kids. Well, they were adults now, but I still thought of them as kids. "It's done. Back to training." I ordered in a stern voice.

  "Yes, Boss!" Remus exclaimed, and dragged his brother towards the Sword arrays. They were barely at 40 ghost kills after so many days in the Tower, I was a bit disappointed. Perhaps red hair was simply red hair.

  I stepped into the familiar Soul Array, and watched in wonder as the Divine Demon's shout broke on my soul aura, even before I summoned the Aegis armor.

  What? Did something...I kept fighting the weak Demons, finding them almost as easy as the ghost Saints.

  When 64 Demons appeared in front of me, I shouted back at them, and half of them broke into small bits.

  My soul must have advanced into the Divine Realm, likely from taking the Dragon's Pure Yin.

  My body also felt stronger and faster. I watched a Demon slice me with a polearm, and my skin barely gained a white line, which vanished in a second.

  In a few seconds, I massacred the rest of the corporals, leaving only the Demon veteran with its special scared armor.

  "You and me, buddy. Take your best shot." I provoked the veteran.

  The creature shouted, then stuck me a dozen times with a halberd, doing mostly nothing. Curious, I grabbed his arm and ripped it off, leaving the Demon confused.

  Then it screamed even louder, so I kept ripping bits off, wings and legs and horns, until the Demon could only gurgle and flop like a fish on the sidewalk. "We're going to need a bigger Soul array." I mused to myself, while stepping on the Demon's head until it burst.

  Grandpa appeared inside the array, and frowned at me. "If that's your will, Young Master. Next layer will be a demonic invasion."

  And with that, a red portal appeared in the sky of the red desert world, and countless Demons flew through it.

  I pointed my fingers and two triple-barrel Stormbolters appeared, so I began firing.

  Hundreds of Demons died before reaching me, and hundreds more after that, but they never seemed to end.

  I guess my score won't be so easy to beat now, even if Ming Yue had reached 100 Demon kills after her ascension.