He fell off a cliff but unexpectedly gained a cultivation inheritance.

The elation of breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage hadn't completely faded when Zhang Bufan's mind was already firmly occupied by another matter—the golden ring left behind by his master, Daoist Xuanqing. From the first day he entered the Xuanqing Secret Realm, he knew this ring was the key to leaving. For over a year, he had cultivated day and night, exerting all his strength to break through his realm, one of his core purposes being to successfully recognize this token carrying his master's legacy as his master. Now that he had successfully established his foundation and awakened his divine consciousness, he finally possessed the qualification to recognize it as his master, and the eagerness in his heart could no longer be suppressed.

The breeze in the Xuanqing Secret Realm was still gentle, and the sweet fragrance of peach blossoms lingered in the air, but Zhang Bufan had no heart to savor this tranquility. He turned and strode back to the wooden house, his gaze falling directly on the right middle finger of the green skull on the futon in the center of the room—the golden ring was quietly embedded in the gaps between the bones, entirely golden, without any patterns or decorations, looking no different from the most ordinary gold ring in the mortal world, yet it made his heart beat faster involuntarily.

Reaching the skeleton, Zhang Bufan straightened his clothes, knelt heavily on both knees, and respectfully kowtowed three times. The sound of his forehead striking the ground was deep and clear, each kowtow filled with his piety and gratitude. "Master," he said, "your disciple has successfully broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage. Today I have come to claim the ring you left behind, both to fulfill your last wish and to leave the secret realm as soon as possible, so that I may bring your remains and legacy back to the Xuanqing Immortal Sect. In this life, your disciple will never fail your trust!"

After bowing three times, he slowly straightened up, took a deep breath, suppressed his excitement and trepidation, and carefully extended his right hand, gently reaching for the golden ring on the middle finger of the skull's right hand. Afraid of disturbing his master's remains, his movements were extremely slow. His fingertips lightly brushed the surface of the ring; the cool, smooth touch was no different from ordinary gold, but the faint, swirling spatial fluctuations confirmed to him that this was no ordinary object.

The ring didn't fit snugly against the skull's finger bone, clearly an arrangement made by Xuanqing Daoist beforehand, so that a destined person could take it in the future. Zhang Bufan gently flicked it with his fingertip, and the golden ring slipped off the bone, landing steadily in his palm. The ring felt slightly heavy, weighing about an ounce, its surface smooth and flawless, gleaming with a faint golden light, exuding an indescribable ancient charm in its simplicity.

"Is this the spatial ring my master left behind? It looks so unremarkable," Zhang Bufan muttered to himself, holding the ring in his palm and examining it closely. He had seen various storage artifacts from the Pangu world in the memories passed down by Xuanqing Daoist. Whether it was the most basic storage bag or the high-end storage ring or bracelet, most of them would have simple spatial runes engraved on their surface to highlight their specialness. But this ring was completely plain, without any runes or markings. If it weren't for the fact that it was left by his master, it probably wouldn't even get a second glance if it were thrown into a market in the mortal realm.

But Zhang Bufan knew that the more ordinary a treasure seemed, the more extraordinary it often was. Without further delay, he sat cross-legged, placed the ring on the ground before him, closed his eyes, and, following the method of recognizing the ring as its owner recorded in his inherited memories, slowly released his divine sense. After breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage, his divine sense had formed a spiritual domain with a radius of one thousand meters, making it far more precise and gentle to control than during the Qi Refining stage. A wisp of condensed divine sense, like a tangible thread, slowly extended out and gently enveloped the golden ring.

The moment Zhang Bufan's divine sense touched the ring, he felt a faint repulsive force, a normal reaction of storage artifacts. He didn't force it; instead, following the guidance in the inheritance, he transformed his divine sense into a gentle, warm current, slowly seeping into the ring's surface. To his surprise, the repulsive force was far weaker than he had expected. After only a brief stalemate, his divine sense passed through the ring without any hindrance, as if piercing through a thin sheet of paper.

"Unowned!" Zhang Bufan was overjoyed. This meant that he could directly recognize the ring as his own without having to erase the mark of the previous owner. Clearly, when Xuanqing Daoist left the ring, he had already erased his own divine imprint, saving future generations the greatest trouble.

But this joy lasted less than a second before Zhang Bufan's consciousness was completely shocked by the scene inside the ring. His mouth gaped open uncontrollably, his eyes widened, and his blood seemed to freeze instantly; even his breath caught in his throat for a moment. He had originally thought this was just an ordinary storage ring, with at most a few hundred or a thousand cubic meters of space inside, storing a small amount of cultivation resources left by his master. But the scene before him completely overturned his understanding.

The inside of the ring is not a single space, but is clearly divided into two independent spaces, one large and one small, like two nested boxes, yet they are independent of each other and do not interfere with each other.

The smaller space caught his eye and stunned him instantly—it was the Xuanqing Secret Realm where he was currently!

He could clearly see every detail in the space: the wooden house, the peach grove, the spirit lake, the spirit stream, even the peach blossoms falling in the peach grove and the silver fish swimming in the spirit lake, all were lifelike. What made him even more strange and wonderful was that he also saw himself—sitting cross-legged in the wooden house, with the golden ring in front of him, his eyes closed, his consciousness immersed in the ring.

The feeling was extremely peculiar, like he was holding a phone and checking the surveillance footage on the ceiling of his room, only to see himself in the video, also holding a phone and checking the footage. Moreover, this wasn't a flat image, but a three-dimensional image from all angles, with no blind spots. He could switch perspectives at will, looking down from high above at the entire Xuanqing Secret Realm, or zooming in to see the subtle expressions on his face, and even seeing every grain of wood on the walls of the wooden house and every pore on the veins of the peach leaves.

"This...this ring actually contains the entire Xuanqing Secret Realm?" Zhang Bufan's consciousness trembled violently, and a monstrous wave surged within him. He finally understood that the secret realm he had been in for over a year was not a naturally formed space, but rather had been sealed within this ring by the Xuanqing Daoist using his great supernatural powers!

The inherited memories clearly record that in the cultivation world of Pangu, storage artifacts were strictly graded, and all shared a common limitation—they could not store living beings. The lowest-end storage bags had an internal space of only a few cubic meters, capable of storing inanimate items such as pills and spirit stones, and their spiritual energy was easily lost. Mid-range storage bracelets had a space of tens or hundreds of cubic meters and better sealing. Even the highest-end storage rings, worn by Nascent Soul elders, had an internal space that would not exceed a diameter of a hundred meters, approximately several thousand cubic meters, and still could not store living beings.

This ring actually contained the entire Xuanqing Secret Realm, which contained not only mountains and trees, but also silver fish in the spirit lake, spiritual energy in the air, and even a living person like him! This was no ordinary storage ring; it was a secret realm space ring that could be carried around, and a top-level spatial artifact capable of storing living things!

Zhang Bufan forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart and carefully explored the small space with his divine sense. He discovered that this space was completely synchronized with the Xuanqing Secret Realm. Every move he made in the secret realm was reflected in the ring space in real time; conversely, if he manipulated things through the ring space, he could also directly affect things in the secret realm—for example, he could use his divine sense to directly pluck a spirit peach from a peach tree and send it to himself. This sense of control gave rise to an indescribable and wonderful feeling in his heart.

He roughly estimated that the entire Xuanqing Secret Realm covered an area of ​​at least tens of square kilometers, which, when converted to cubic space, was an astronomical figure. This small space alone was already far more valuable than all known storage artifacts in the Pangu World, truly heaven-defying! If the secret of this ring were to be revealed, the entire cultivation world of the Pangu World would probably go crazy, with countless sects willing to pay any price to seize it, even if it meant mutual destruction.

After calming down for a long time, Zhang Bufan finally turned his gaze to the larger space inside the ring. If the shock of the small space had left him speechless, then the sight of this large space was enough to make him drop his jaw and lose his composure.

This is a regular cubic space. Zhang Bufan roughly measured it with his divine sense, and the side length was a full ten thousand meters! A ten-thousand-meter cube means that the internal space is as high as 10 billion cubic meters. With such a space, let alone storing ordinary cultivation resources, it would be more than enough to move all the high-rise buildings, streets and bridges of a large city in the mortal world, and it could even accommodate several more such cities.

The space was so vast that most areas were empty, making it seem exceptionally empty. But in one corner of the space, a mountain of cultivation resources made Zhang Bufan's breathing quicken again. He slowly moved his divine sense closer, carefully taking stock, and the more he looked, the more shocked and excited he became.

The alchemy furnaces alone occupy several thousand square meters, numbering over five hundred. These furnaces vary in size, from small ones only the size of a fist, suitable for refining small quantities of precious pills, to large ones tens of meters high, resembling small palaces, clearly used for large-scale refining of ordinary pills. The materials used for the furnaces also differ, ranging from ordinary hematite and refined steel to spiritually imbued Crimson Sun Stone and Blazing Fire Jade, and even several top-tier furnaces crafted entirely of purple gold with intricate flame runes engraved on their surfaces—clearly not ordinary items.

Beside the alchemy furnace lay a mountain of refining materials. Various colored ores shimmered with different lights: there was refined iron and black gold radiating a metallic sheen; jade and agate imbued with spiritual energy; and some top-tier refining materials he had only seen in his inherited memories—such as celestial crystals that could enhance the sharpness of magical artifacts, and Xuan Turtle Shells that could improve their defensive capabilities. These materials were numerous and diverse.

Further to the side were rows of neatly arranged jade boxes and bottles, filled with various spiritual herb seeds. Most of these seeds were sealed with special formations, maintaining their freshness. Among them were top-tier spiritual herb seeds that had long since disappeared from the Pangu World, such as the Thousand-Year Snow Lotus Seed, which could enhance cultivation; the Dragon Blood Grass Seed, which could strengthen the body; and the Marrow Cleansing Flower Seed, which could assist in breaking through bottlenecks. Zhang Bufan roughly counted; there were over a thousand different kinds of spiritual herb seeds alone, and each type was present in considerable quantities.

What excited him most were the books and jade slips piled up in the corners of the space. Most of these books were made of special animal hides or paper, waterproof and fireproof, and were extremely well-preserved; the jade slips were crafted from pure jade and contained a vast amount of information. Zhang Bufan scanned them with his divine sense and instantly perceived the sheer number of books and jade slips—tens of thousands!

He casually used his divine sense to retrieve several jade slips and examined them, discovering that they contained extremely rich content, covering all aspects of the cultivation world: there were cultivation techniques of various levels; there were detailed alchemy insights and pill formulas, from ordinary healing pills to top-tier Foundation Establishment pills; there were exquisite weapon-refining techniques and weapon manuals, all with detailed refining methods; in addition, there was knowledge about various cultivation-related topics such as formations, talismans, beast taming, and treasure hunting, making it a complete encyclopedia of cultivation.

Beyond these resources, countless magical artifacts were piled up, mostly common weapons such as swords, axes, and halberds, as well as some defensive magical artifacts such as shields and jade pendants. There were a vast number of these magical artifacts, at least several thousand, although most of them were low to mid-level magical artifacts.

Zhang Bufan's mind was completely immersed in this ocean of resources, unable to extricate himself for a long time. Although he didn't know the specific value of these resources, based solely on his inherited memories, he could judge that the resources in this corner alone exceeded the total treasures of most first-class sects in the Pangu World. Even the Immortal Sword Sect, as a top sect in the Huashan region, probably didn't possess even a tenth of the resources here.

However, he also noticed a strange phenomenon—among this vast amount of resources, there wasn't a single spirit stone, not even a low-grade, mid-grade, or high-grade one. Combining this with Xuanqing Daoist's inherited memories, he instantly understood the reason: Back then, Xuanqing Daoist was besieged by his enemies and self-destructed his dantian. Only a wisp of his remnant soul, along with his body, fell into the Pangu World. To open this Xuanqing Secret Realm, he exhausted his last bit of immortal essence. It's likely that all the spirit stones were consumed during that battle and the setup of the secret realm. Even so, the fact that such a massive amount of other resources remained was enough to demonstrate how profound Xuanqing Daoist's foundation was back then.

"Master..." Zhang Bufan's heart was filled with boundless gratitude, his eyes slightly reddening. Xuanqing Daoist not only gave him a second chance at life and led him onto the path of cultivation, but also left him with such a heaven-defying legacy and a vast amount of resources. With these resources, after leaving the secret realm, he would never have to worry about cultivation resources; he could achieve complete freedom in his cultivation, receiving ample support for everything—cultivation, alchemy, and weapon crafting. He could never repay this kindness in his lifetime.

After calming down a bit, Zhang Bufan began the formal process of recognizing the ring as his owner. He picked up the gold ring from the ground and carefully put it on the index finger of his right hand—the size of the ring seemed to adjust automatically, fitting snugly against his finger as soon as it was on, neither too big nor too small, just right.

Following the guidance of his inherited memories, he then probed the ring with his divine sense once more, leaving his divine mark in the core area. The moment the mark was successfully imprinted, the ring trembled slightly, its surface radiating a dazzling golden light. Immediately afterward, a massive flow of information, like a burst dam, surged wildly into his mind.

"Buzz—"

Zhang Bufan felt a violent roar in his mind, as if countless steel needles were piercing his brain at the same time, causing unbearable pain.

He endured the excruciating pain and used his divine sense to examine the information. He discovered that it was all cultivation knowledge related to the Foundation Establishment stage: there were cultivation insights for the Foundation Establishment stage, explaining in detail how to stabilize one's Foundation Establishment cultivation, how to quickly increase spiritual fluid reserves, and how to deal with cultivation bottlenecks in the Foundation Establishment stage; there were spells and supernatural abilities that could be cultivated in the Foundation Establishment stage, including advanced versions of offensive spells such as Fireball and Lightning, defensive spells such as Shield and Barrier, and supportive spells such as Wind Control and Breath Concealment; there was also practical knowledge about survival skills for Foundation Establishment cultivators, precautions for exploring secret realms, and how to get along with other cultivators.

This information was extremely vast and detailed, with each point explained in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. It was clearly prepared by Daoist Xuanqing specifically for his disciples who had just broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage. Zhang Bufan knew that this information was crucial to his future cultivation, allowing him to avoid countless detours.

However, the torrent of information was simply too overwhelming. Even though he had broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage and his mental strength far exceeded that of the Qi Refining stage, he could hardly withstand such a massive information shock. He only managed to hold on for a moment before his consciousness began to blur, his head throbbed with pain, he was drenched in cold sweat, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

"I can't force myself to keep going!" Zhang Bufan's heart tightened, and he immediately gave up forcibly receiving information. He quickly withdrew his divine sense, sat cross-legged, and began to circulate the "Mysterious Purity Dao Inquiry Technique." As soon as the technique was activated, the spiritual fluid in his body began to circulate slowly, emitting a gentle energy that flowed into his sea of ​​consciousness along his meridians, nourishing his weary spirit.

As the cultivation technique circulated, the excruciating pain in his mind gradually subsided, and his consciousness returned to clarity. Zhang Bufan breathed a sigh of relief, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. He secretly rejoiced that he had reacted in time; otherwise, he might have damaged the foundation of his consciousness. He knew that this Foundation Establishment stage information needed to be digested slowly and could not be rushed. What he needed to do next was to first stabilize his Foundation Establishment cultivation before gradually absorbing this valuable knowledge.

He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze falling on the golden ring on his right index finger. The golden light on the ring's surface had faded, restoring its simple appearance, yet it subtly emitted a fluctuation connected to his aura. He could clearly feel a wondrous connection established between himself and the ring. With a mere thought, he could enter the ring's inner space at any time and control everything within it. Furthermore, Zhang Bufan sensed that the ring contained hidden spaces. The current items were all suitable for those at the Foundation Establishment stage and below; none were found for those above the Core Formation stage. He needed to improve his cultivation and further strengthen his divine sense to unlock them. His master had considered everything very carefully.

"With this ring and these resources, my path to immortality will be much smoother!" Zhang Bufan's eyes gleamed with determination, his heart filled with anticipation for the future. He knew that the ring was just the beginning; next, he needed to quickly solidify his Foundation Establishment cultivation before leaving the secret realm. Once he left, he would officially step into the cultivation world of Pangu World, embarking on a brand new journey of cultivation full of challenges and opportunities.

He looked again at the green skull in the center of the room, and bowed respectfully: "Master, rest assured, your disciple will make good use of the inheritance and resources you left behind, cultivate diligently, grow up as soon as possible, fulfill your last wish, and bring your remains and inheritance back to the Xuanqing Immortal Sect!"

After bowing, Zhang Bufan no longer hesitated. He closed his eyes again, calmed his mind, and focused all his energy on circulating the "Mysterious Purity Dao Inquiry Technique" to solidify his Foundation Establishment cultivation. The spiritual energy of the Mysterious Purity Secret Realm seemed to be drawn in, continuously flowing into his body, transformed by the technique into pure spiritual liquid, and flowing into the spiritual liquid pool in his dantian. Inside and outside the wooden house, tranquility returned once more, with only the subtle sounds of flowing spiritual energy and Zhang Bufan's steady breathing echoing slowly in the air.