Dawn and Edifice soon arrive back at the marked location of the inheritance, the cave's entrance.
Before the opening in the wall of a cliff, the damage from a recent battle marred the land.
The nearby trees lost their vitality, and even the soil and stones seemed more brittle than usual.
But this was not something Dawn was concerned with.
She had assumed that this was the battlefield of Edifice's battle with that hideous beast.
'That hideous beast's body isn't around...'
'Could it have made it inside the cave?'
There was no need to ask; the two of them moved into the cave, which was similarly scarred and ruined.
...
Running through the long trail of ruined stone and rock, Dawn is welcomed to the sight of strewn, splintered wood.
Carriages smashed apart, and crimson stains on the walls and floors.
It was a gruesome scene; the cold air preserved the wetness of the blood, which pervaded its foul scent.
Dawn furrowed her brows at the scene of splattered corpses. Edifice carried the same solemnity in her eyes, but began to move to one of the wrecked carriages.
"Selene?"
Hidden behind the broken mass was her pale, Junior Sister, limp against the stone wall.
"You're back...?"
Her speech was slurred, and her voice was quiet. Selene was still recovering from the prior ordeal.
Although her eyes seemed tired, a hint of relief flickered as another person came into her view.
"Dawn."
"Selene...? What happened to you!?"
"What happened to you? Someone tore into your face...!"
Dawn ignored Selene's concern and went to her side.
Falling to her knees, Dawn examined her friend with gentle care, finding nothing but marks seared into her skin.
Most of her skin seemed boiled.
Through Immersion, Dawn could sense the weakness in her muscles; Selene's Qi Cores seemed to be borderline empty, too.
"Can you take in Qi, Selene? We need to get you back in health."
"Edifice, what happened here? Where is that hideous beast?"
"..."
Stepping towards the edge of the cave, Edifice looked down the dropoff and towards the silvery pool below.
"It's down there, sunk to the bottom of this natural Spirit Spring."
"Was it that fierce? I didn't expect it to make it this far, let alone past you..."
"...Well. It revealed a myriad abilities that made it a difficult opponent, not only that..."
"..."
Sighing, Edifice grabbed another Dao Art medium from her robes.
She looked at it for a moment before activating a Dao Art.
Dao Art -- Great Qi Hand!
Wisps condensed to summon a large, pale hand.
Falling, it plunged into the murky silver depths and retrieved the hideous beast's corpse.
Raising it by the neck, Edifice lifted it to their level.
Reaching out, she brushed away the curtain of hair which covered its human-like face.
"The human qualities of this beast are sickening, but I might be able to deduce its origins, or relations to the inheritance."
"What do you mean?"
Turning the beast, Edifice retrieved the Dao Art medium within its head, the one she used to kill it.
"This hideous beast had four Qi Cores, each had a unique Dao Art assimilated into them, as opposed to wielding a singular Dao Art."
"Two of them are ones that I am not familiar with, but one is a Dao Art that can mask one's presence, the other is a Dao Art which allows one to devour Qi from their surroundings."
"As for the other two, they seem similar to two of the Dao Arts that were supposed to be within the Inheritance."
Edifice kept her eyes on the hideous beast's face.
One eye was fully intact, the one that was usually revealed between its parted hair.
The other was scarred, intact, but likely blinded.
"Friend Edifice... It possessed some of the Dao Arts of the scriptures you were looking for?"
"Yes. Tiger's Ferocity and Fallen Sovereign's Tenacity, those were two of the Dao Arts this beast was using."
Initially, this thought was only an assumption, but looking back at their fight, the intense pressure and the abrupt increase in strength, it was undeniable.
"Considering its human-like visage, the presence of Qi Cores, and the Dao Arts it used, there must be some relation to the inheritance."
"Otherwise... this might be the State Cultivator who left the inheritance we were after..."
"...!"
Dawn spared the hideous beast a glance, furrowing her brow at Edifice's words.
"If that is true, then that is a terrible fate for such a figure."
"I'm not sure how intelligent this beast was, but it seemed to rely mostly on instinct when fighting."
"Instinct...? So it was more akin to beast than human?"
"That may be so, but it doesn't make the thought any better..."
"..."
A quiet sigh broke through their contemplative silence.
"Wouldn't that mean that this expedition was a failure?"
Edifice turned around to her Junior Sister, her quiet words seemed to echo in this otherwise silent cave.
"A failure..."
Turning to the ruined carriages and bloodstains, there were only a few corpses intact.
Relitively intact, that is; smooshed corpses strewn there, and a splattered body there.
The others were dissolved in the hideous beast's hurl of Qi, leaving nothing to bury.
"A failure it was..."
Gritting her teeth, Edifice slammed the beast's body into the far wall of the dome-like cave.
She crushed it into one of the ledges above the Spirit Spring.
Edifice moved towards the ledge and sat, sighing exasperatedly as she looked at the silver pool, murky and dyed a slight crimson hue.
'I lost so many people here... Too many... Damn it...'
"What do we do now?"
Knocking Edifice out of her thoughts, Selene questioned as she tried to stand up.
"We can't idle around here forever..."
"..."
Edifice turned back to Selene, who reminded her of their orders.
"What do you mean, Selene?
Dawn questions as the words of that arrogant man rises in her mind again.
'As a matter of fact, she won't be around for much longer. I suggest you enjoy your time with your 'friend' while you still can.'
"Oh... Master Immortal Adamant sent us a message, 'Return to Great River Bank Settlement' is all she said; she didn't leave a reason, but we can't deny the order..."
"Is that so...?"
Dawn stood silently in thought.
"You look more confused than concerned. Did something happen, Friend Dawn?"
"It has to do with the man I was fighting. Could you not see him through Immersion?"
"...!"