# Chapter 14: The Power of Inheritance
"Master, this is..."
Unlike the knowledgeable Joshua, Ying had never seen such a peculiar sight. Before her eyes, a deep blue light formed a doorway, beyond which lay a blurry black earth and a distant pale sky. Countless gray stone tombstones and damaged weapons stood in silence, while outside the blue glow remained the same dusty, ancient church. The two realms were clearly demarcated, neither affecting the other.
Vaguely, she felt a sense of familiarity traveling through space, emanating from those weapons. This intimate feeling made the Divine Mechanism girl take a step forward, wanting to touch the blue light.
"It's a space-time door."
Reaching out, Joshua pulled back the silver-haired girl and rubbed her little head, then added another sentence under her confused gaze: "A space-time door leading to some space-time corridor. It's currently sealed by some kind of power. Touching it would hurt."
Looking at this deep blue door, the warrior now had a clear feeling. Behind this sealed teleportation gate, where the family cemetery lay, some power was calling to him. Just as in the memories of this body's childhood, when he attended his grandfather's funeral in this small church, the impression was so profound that he could not forget it for a long time, and could still recall it clearly even now.
It was a resonance of bloodline, a feeling as if the blood throughout his body was about to boil.
But Joshua forcefully suppressed the resonance in his body. Memories could always be flawed. In the warrior's past memories, his grandfather was buried in a cemetery near the church, but in reality, it should be behind the space-time door.
He calmly observed the deep blue door before him.
"This is the Far South Mage Association's twelve-pivot space-time door, developed by Grand Mentor Schwenpol. It requires three Gold-rank mages above level forty to establish. Although the initial mana consumption is enormous, its advantage lies in stability. If the location is chosen well, it can even last for over a decade."
His eyes swept over, and the former Legendary warrior quickly discerned the ins and outs of the teleportation passage before him. With his rich experience, over twenty methods to rapidly destroy it had already appeared in his mind, and his hands even twitched with eagerness: "The design looks somewhat outdated, but it should be cutting-edge technology for this era. The one I used as a child shouldn't have been this. When was it updated?"
It should have been during his time in the military.
Thinking of this, Joshua shook his head, feeling that the old count who had passed away without a sound had truly departed with ease. Without the personal teachings of the previous family head, even after accepting the information contained in the altar, there were still many things he did not understand. For example, why was the family cemetery established in a space-time corridor? What was the sealing power in the church about?
Space-time corridors were peculiar domains between worlds. They came in various sizes, each different from the other. They were named for their existence mostly in the narrow gaps between two worlds. If certain space-time corridors were stable enough and existed long enough, they could even nurture soil and sky, and have unique life forms, like a true small world.
In his previous life, during the later period of the Continent of Strife, many high-level bosses and factions had their own space-time corridors. Many dungeons and battles took place within them. The most famous among them was the [Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground Connecting All Worlds], whose entrance was in the Astral Void. This passage between multiple worlds had already become vast and stable enough to be called a new world.
At that time, to block monster retreats or disrupt enemy surprise attacks, almost everyone had to learn how to rapidly destroy various space-time doors and teleportation omens. That was why Joshua was so familiar with all kinds of teleportation passages and had developed the occupational disease of wanting to destroy any blue door he saw.
Interrupting teleportation is everyone's responsibility.
But these were not important matters. Processing the information granted by the altar in his mind, the warrior immediately knew how to pass through this space-time door.
"Just sacrifice the bloodline of the Radcliffe family on the altar, or a part of the Divine Mechanism psionic body, and you can pass through smoothly... Simple."
Joshua decisively bit a small wound on his finger with his teeth. Black-red blood dripped onto the center of the stone altar and quickly seeped in. With his current physical strength, apart from his own teeth, the small knife and other items he carried could no longer cut through his outer skin.
A few seconds later, accompanied by the fluctuation of mana, the seal hidden within the space-time door was removed. Behind the deep blue glow, the originally blurry earth and sky suddenly became clear, and that ethereal, distant feeling completely disappeared.
Joshua did not hesitate and immediately stepped through the space-time door, with Ying following closely behind.
As he passed through the deep blue door, Joshua felt a dizzying sensation as if the world were spinning. But having long been accustomed to teleportation in his previous life, he quickly regained his balance, even having enough strength to reach out and catch Ying, who almost fell to her knees.
Standing on the black soil, he released the silver-haired girl who had already regained her balance. Breathing air completely different from the original world, Joshua looked around this small world behind the teleportation passage. Its diameter was about twelve hundred meters. He could clearly see the chaotic light membrane at its edge, seemingly containing everything, yet with a mesmerizing luster of no particular color flowing upon it.
"Father, and Fan, should be here."
Speaking softly, Joshua recalled that cloudy day two months ago. At that time, heavy snow had just begun to fall. The wind blowing from the eternal ice layers of the Extreme North Sea of Bewilderment was not yet so cold. Before the main city of Moldavia, the white-haired old man smiled and bid him farewell, then departed into the distance, disappearing beyond the horizon.
Now, was he here?
The gray stone tombstones before him were of various types, about forty or fifty in number. This already exceeded the count of successive family heads. Joshua slowly approached the nearest grave, wanting to see the inscription on it.
A broken spear lay before a square stone tablet. On the smooth surface of the tablet, a line of brief text was carved. But perhaps due to the passage of time, it had long become blurry and unclear. To see what was written on it, Joshua slowly walked over and touched it with his hand—a cold sensation came through, and he also brushed away the dust that had settled on it.
— Simos Radcliffe - 541~
— Divine Mechanism · Luo - 541~
[The knight's life gallops past, casting a cold glance at death.]
After a moment of silence, turning his head, the warrior looked at several other adjacent graves.
A curved blade with a broken edge was thrust into the soil, its hilt covered in black blood scabs that had coagulated for who knows how long.
— Altman Radcliffe - 692~
— Divine Mechanism · Ya - 692~
[Before dawn, thirteen black tides, twelve victories.]
A tower shield with a huge crack splitting from its center leaned against the grave.
— Ivan Radcliffe - 479~
— Divine Mechanism · An - 479~
[Death is not without meaning; at least it brought the dawn of success.]
Walking before many stone tablets, some had inscriptions, some did not. Some even had the entire life of the owner carved upon them, densely packed and impossible to read clearly. But regardless of whose grave it was, Joshua felt sincere respect for these ancestors in his heart.
From the birth and death dates and the inscriptions on the tablets, it could be known that all those buried here had died in battle. Not one of them had died a natural death. On average, they replaced each other every forty years or so per generation. Some even had entire families fall at the same time.
Hundreds of years ago, to guard the space-time passage, the ancestors of the Radcliffe family came to this ice field where cold currents surged, pioneering the frontier of civilization. They built cities, constructed fortresses, used gray-white strongholds to cut off the mountains and the Black Forest, and with their flesh and blood, blocked the tide of ten thousand beasts that surged like angry waves from invading the human world.
Under their leadership, countless warriors with hot blood in their hearts guarded this frontier far from civilization. Some returned to their homeland with full honors, but more left behind a dry, cold corpse buried by family and comrades.
Sacrifice has always been worthy of respect.
"Master, come quickly and see..."
Joshua heard the somewhat bewildered voice of his Divine Mechanism not far away.
He turned to look and found the silver-haired girl standing before an obelisk carved from hard rock. Blinking her green eyes, she stared at it with a puzzled expression.
Sensing the warrior approaching quickly, the Divine Mechanism girl opened her mouth slightly but didn't know where to begin. She simply pointed at a gigantic sword as large as a door panel, thrust upside down beside the tombstone, and then said softly: "Is this... Fan?"
Walking to Ying's side, the moment Joshua saw the black sword with gold patterns, he took a deep breath. He furrowed his brow, then revealed a bitter smile that was hard to describe.
"...Ah, yes, that's right."
So it was here.
The black Divine Mechanism greatsword with gold patterns stood silently thrust into the black soil. There were some traces of cracks on its cold steel blade. As a former Legendary warrior, Joshua could tell that the core supporting this sword had completely shattered. Not to mention using it, if he swung it just once more, it might completely shatter into pieces.
Not daring to touch it, Joshua looked up at the nearby tombstone. A familiar name was inscribed upon it.
— Beluo Radcliffe - 785~
This was his father's name.
The warrior had finally found his father's grave.
On this hard stone tombstone was carved a long epitaph.
[Perhaps one day, civilization and order can transform the world into a more suitable place for survival, but that day is not today. Before then, someone must stand up to fight, and then sacrifice.]
This gray obelisk appeared to have been carved only in recent years. Unlike the other old tombstones, a crumpled paper ball was placed before it, seemingly containing something inside.
Bending down, Joshua reached out and picked up the paper ball. He unfolded it and found two hastily written sentences on it, while a green gem rolled out from within, landing in his right palm.
The warrior first looked at the note.
'To my offspring, Joshua Radcliffe.'
'I believe you can come here... I hope you can grasp the power of this inheritance.'
"Already dead, yet so confident in me... But, the power of inheritance?"
Murmuring in confusion, Joshua looked at the gem in his right hand. His red pupils slightly contracted: "Could it be this?"
He picked up this thumb-sized green gem and examined it seriously.
This inconspicuous gem was not flashy. At first glance, it could easily be mistaken for a similarly colored pebble and ignored. But if one focused and looked closely, one could see a bluish-green mist like a star river rotating unceasingly within.
Joshua tried to grip it.
Then, the moment he clenched the gem, a strange sensation like an electric current spread from his palm throughout his entire body. A huge prompt box suddenly appeared before the warrior's retina, with red bold text filling his entire field of vision.
A long-missed system prompt appeared before Joshua's eyes.
[You have obtained Origin Artifact · Special Job Change Item — Azure Orb of the Sealed Guardian.]
[You have passed the Will Judgment! You have passed the Alignment Judgment! You have passed the Aptitude Judgment!]
[Important! You have obtained information regarding job change to a new class —]
["Hereby swear — I shall guard all evil creations until the eternal doom of damnation."]
[You meet the conditions for job change.]
[Do you wish to change class to Heroic Class · Chaos Warden?]