As Qin Ruqing moved forward, she happened to see Ming Ying and Dan Qing finishing their battle.

This was a coincidental encounter. The Path of Inheritance widened as one progressed, with six different colored pillars representing six different doctrines, located in different directions along the path.

Qin Ruqing was in the intersection of the Genesis and Xuanming doctrines, so encountering Dan Qing and Fifth Youlin was quite normal.

Dan Qing, known for his sword madness, fought recklessly, not caring about Ming Ying’s decorum.

His fight had torn her skirt and even cut off several strands of her beautiful long hair.

Ming Ying was furious and couldn’t hold back any longer. “I’m done! I knew it would be impossible to fight against sword cultivators…”

Qin Ruqing was about to laugh at the predictable turn of events when she suddenly noticed a significant change in the spatial rules.

Pausing for a moment, Qin Ruqing gathered the green energy of her Dao Physique in her eyes and activated her spiritual vision, which allowed her to clearly see the distribution of rule power around her.

When her spiritual vision was activated, Qin Ruqing was shocked to see that the rule power in this space was gathering in large quantities!

From Qin Ruqing’s experience, the distribution of rule power, like spiritual energy, was uneven, but it wasn’t usually so extreme that all the power would accumulate in one spot while being completely absent elsewhere.

To describe the situation metaphorically: it was as if the entire sky was clear and sunny, but directly above where she stood, dark clouds had gathered, as if a thunderstorm was about to strike at any moment.

This must be artificially caused!

Qin Ruqing wasn’t far away and wasn’t being subtle about it.

She was soon noticed by Ming Ying and Dan Qing. Both were old acquaintances of Qin Ruqing, and upon seeing her, their first reaction was one of joy.

Ming Ying immediately wanted to wave and call out to Qin Ruqing.

After fighting with a crazy sword cultivator like Dan Qing, seeing Qin Ruqing seemed to brighten her mood.

Ming Ying was about to greet Qin Ruqing with a smile but then realized it might be too enthusiastic.

She paused and adopted a more aloof approach.

With her fingers gathered, she lightly cast a spell towards Qin Ruqing, not really intending to attack, but more like a casual greeting.

Qin Ruqing easily dodged the spell and looked up to see Ming Ying puffing her chest and raising her chin in a haughty manner.

“Cut it out, if you want me to come over, just say so. No need to be so pretentious.”

Qin Ruqing leaped over and first greeted Dan Qing. With a cupped fist salute, she said, “Dan Qing, long time no see.”

Dan Qing, seizing the opportunity, immediately crossed his sword in front of his chest with an excited expression. “Does Fairy Ruqing wish to battle with me?”

On the Path of Inheritance, what’s the point if there’s no fighting?

Dan Qing stood upright, his eyes shining with excitement, ready for combat.

Qin Ruqing let out an awkward laugh and waved her hand dismissively. “Brother Dan just won, he should take a rest.”

However, as soon as Ming Ying heard the word “won,” she let out a heavy snort through her nose.

Saying that Dan Qing won was the same as implying that she lost.

Qin Ruqing turned her head with a cheerful smile, “Why are you snorting? Did you want to challenge me as soon as we met?”

Ming Ying gave Qin Ruqing a disdainful look and turned away, “I wouldn’t compete with you.”

Ming Ying considered her best qualities to be her beauty and knowing when to back down.

She wasn’t about to challenge someone like Qin Ruqing, who had the ability to take down top-tier geniuses.

Competing with a top-tier genius was something she could handle since she wasn’t that far off in skill.

But competing with someone like Qin Ruqing, who had a knack for humiliating people, would only damage her self-confidence.

Ming Ying said, “By the way, what were you doing just standing there in a daze earlier?”

Hearing this, Qin Ruqing’s expression became serious.

Instead of answering, she asked, “How did you two end up fighting?”

Ming Ying was momentarily confused and found the question odd. “What do you mean, how? We just started fighting!”

Dan Qing noticed Qin Ruqing’s unusual expression and explained, “It was my doing. I saw that Fairy Ming Ying was undergoing a rule trial, so I challenged her. Since no one else was willing to fight me, only Fairy Ming Ying hesitated for a moment before agreeing. That’s how we ended up fighting.”

“No one else was willing to fight you…” Qin Ruqing turned to look at Ming Ying, her expression slightly curious.

If no one else was willing to fight him, why did you agree?

Ming Ying averted her gaze, knowing it was just her pride getting in the way.

Qin Ruqing sighed and shook her head, her keen senses picking up on a key detail from Dan Qing’s explanation:

“You said that when you challenged Ming Ying, she was in the middle of a rule trial? And after she agreed to fight, did she continue to deal with the rule trial while fighting you?”

Both of them were taken aback, as Qin Ruqing’s question brought up a perspective they hadn’t considered.

Ming Ying thought about it and replied, “No, after I agreed to the challenge, the rule trial seemed to mysteriously disappear. That’s why I felt that the inheritance path was encouraging us to fight each other.”

“Mysteriously disappeared…” Qin Ruqing had found the root of the problem and said cryptically, “That doesn’t necessarily mean it disappeared…”

Dang Qing frowned, “What do you mean by that?”

“I used a secret technique earlier and discovered that the rule trial you were in the middle of didn’t actually disappear. The rule’s power gathered in large quantities above your heads during the fight.” Qin Ruqing added, gesturing above her head for emphasis.

Dan Qing instinctively gripped the hilt of his sword, and Ming Ying straightened her back.

“Is the gathering of rule power right above us? Does that mean the attacks might soon double against us?” Ming Ying asked, concerned.

Qin Ruqing also had a puzzled expression. “So far, it doesn’t seem like it’s directly affecting us, but it might have some influence.”

Recalling the earlier leg weakness caused by watching the battle of the small powder flower and combining it with the current situation, Qin Ruqing came to a realization.

It wasn’t the small powder flower’s use of fate power that caused the issue.

The problem was with the Path of Inheritance itself!

In battles like the one against the Buddha’s disciple, the rules of the path had been interrupted.

After these interruptions, the rule power that wasn’t used up didn’t dissipate but rather gathered in large amounts!

For someone like Qin Ruqing, who was already extremely unlucky, the concentration of such rule power would immediately have an effect.

Thus, even though her bones were harder than steel and she had just been through a fierce ordeal, she had experienced a rare moment of weakness in her legs.

Dan Qing took Qin Ruqing’s words seriously and said, “The large accumulation of rule power, while not affecting us now, is not a good thing in the long run.”

Ming Ying pouted, “Isn’t this Path of Inheritance strange? It seems to encourage us to fight, yet doesn’t want us to keep fighting.”

Qin Ruqing wondered what the Path of Inheritance was really trying to achieve but couldn’t grasp the full picture.

At this moment, Dan Qing suggested, “Why don’t we check the situation at the other pillars of light?”

Qin Ruqing pulled herself out of her thoughts and agreed, “That sounds good.”

This was indeed worth paying attention to.

Dan Qing and Ming Ying wanted to know the outcome as well but didn’t have Qin Ruqing’s sharp ability to sense rule power, so they followed along.

They visited three more colored pillars, and after each visit, their brows remained furrowed.

Qin Ruqing said solemnly, “The phenomenon of interrupted rule trials is very common. The rule power from unfinished trials has gathered together. The difference is just the amount of accumulation—some places have more, some less.”

Ming Ying said, “This phenomenon is hard to avoid. The Path of Inheritance doesn’t have a direct trial standard, and it seems endless. The idea of who reaches the end first doesn’t work. If you wanted to prove yourself, you’d have to find another way. If your fight with Fang Zhejun had gone better, your name might have started shining brightly after that. Doesn’t that suggest that the Path encourages us to battle?”

“Focusing on that doesn’t help us now,” Qin Ruqing shook her head. “The key is understanding what impact this accumulation of rule power will have.”

Dan Qing said, “Perhaps we’re overthinking it. The rule power is only gathered in blocks, not forming a continuous field.”

“Not forming a continuous field…” Qin Ruqing was about to respond but suddenly seemed to realize something. She muttered, “From points to lines, from lines to surfaces, and after surfaces, it’s the entire Path of Inheritance!”

Just as Qin Ruqing finished speaking, the leaderboard updated with a new battle match:

“Feng Mingyue vs. Fifth Lingyu”

Qin Ruqing’s eyes sharpened, and she exclaimed, “—We can’t let them fight!!”