The three known locations of the external inheritances were all far apart from one another. This suggested that the fourth one wouldn’t be anywhere near them.
At first, Su Ze had wondered if the distribution of the inheritance sites was related to the three major human settlements.
For instance, the third inheritance site was in the Myriad Beast Mountain Range, near Lin Hua Continent, while the second site, revealed by the Shadowless Divine Thief, was closer to the Flame Emperor Continent.
Yet, the first inheritance site, discovered by Lin Hua’s Legend, wasn’t near the Snowfield Continent. Instead, it was in a plains region, quite a distance away.
This debunked Su Ze’s theory. Apparently, the inheritance grounds weren’t distributed based on the locations of the three major continents.
Su Ze paced back and forth inside his base, lost in thought.
The mysterious inheritance had been left behind by an equally mysterious Human Race expert. This expert had established various restrictions: one had to pass the trials of the external inheritances and collect four puzzle pieces.
This process tested an inheritor’s strength, potential, and more. It also had racial restrictions and even excluded the "defiled."
’This means he wants a pure-blooded member of the Human Race, someone with exceptional talent and immense strength, to receive his inheritance.’
’He must have scattered the four inheritance sites to give more Human Race experts a chance to face the trials. It’s like casting a wide net to attract more competitors, ensuring the final victor is truly the most outstanding.’
’So, what was his primary consideration when choosing the locations for the four sites?’
’Population, of course!’
’He would definitely establish them in densely populated areas.’
That was why Su Ze had initially guessed the sites would be located on the three major continents.
After all, they were currently the most populous regions on Blue Star.
Wait a minute...
Su Ze suddenly slapped his forehead. ’I’ve been overlooking the most obvious point!’
The Human Race expert who left the inheritance came to Blue Star a thousand years ago. At that time, the Era of Evolution hadn’t started yet; it was still the age of technology, when humanity ruled.
Back then, Blue Star was home to hundreds of nations, large and small. People were everywhere, and the population distribution was completely different from what it is today!
’If he established the sites based on population, he would have used the distribution from his own time, not the present day.’
After five hundred years of the Evolution War, over ninety-nine percent of nations had been destroyed, and human territory had shrunk continuously. No matter how powerful that Human Race expert was, he couldn’t possibly have predicted the population distribution five hundred years into the future.
’So, I need to use Blue Star’s population distribution from a thousand years ago to deduce the location of the fourth inheritance site.’
He pulled out his phone, searching for a map of Blue Star from a thousand years ago and looking up related historical information.
Soon, the results confirmed his theory.
Lin Hua Continent, Flame Emperor Continent, and their surrounding areas were all densely populated regions a thousand years ago. It made perfect sense for each to have an inheritance site.
The Snowfield Continent, on the other hand, was an ice field. Covered in ice and snow with a harsh climate, it was sparsely populated a thousand years ago.
Therefore, it was perfectly normal that there was no inheritance site in or around the Snowfield Continent.
As for the location of the first inheritance site discovered by Lin Hua’s Legend, it was once the territory of Blue Star’s largest nation a millennium ago—another densely populated area.
"In that case, the fourth inheritance site is likely in one of these two locations..."
Su Ze’s gaze fell upon the upper-left and central regions of the map. A thousand years ago, the upper-left region had been a cluster of several powerful nations, while the central region was Blue Star’s largest island.
Comparatively, the upper-left region was the more likely candidate, as its population had been larger a millennium ago.
If he couldn’t find any information about the fourth puzzle piece, Su Ze decided he would have to travel to both of these areas and explore them himself.
There were only three large-scale human settlements on Blue Star at present, but there were countless smaller ones. The larger ones were the size of a city, while the smaller ones were more like a village.
Both of those regions should have small human settlements as well.
Su Ze set the matter aside for now and continued to search through Pulamon’s memories.
Aside from the puzzle pieces, he was also very interested in information about the Filth Earth Organization, including its headquarters and its mysterious leader.
Pulamon had been the second-strongest master in the Filth Earth Organization. It was safe to say that, aside from the mysterious leader, no one knew the organization better than he did.
Su Ze quickly found what he was looking for in those memories.
First, the Filth Earth Organization Headquarters was indeed mobile. It was something quite miraculous: a "Shadow Palace," built entirely of shadows and existing somewhere between the physical and ethereal realms.
The Shadow Palace had existed ever since Pulamon joined the Filth Earth Organization. However, he later learned from some internal documents that the organization’s earliest headquarters had been located in a natural cave in the wilderness known as the "Shadow Abyss."
It was a natural cave several thousand meters deep, inhabited by all sorts of strange creatures. After the Era of Evolution began, these animals evolved into exotic beasts. Unlike the beasts on the surface, those that evolved there commonly mastered shadow-type powers.
For example, the Shadow Clone skill that Mr. Ya possessed came from one of the beasts there.
Beasts like the Abyssal Shadow Demon and the Abyss Shadow Lord were unique to the Shadow Abyss. Su Ze had seen many powerful members of the Filth Earth Organization use skills derived from them.
The Shadow Abyss seemed to be the source of all shadow-based power. It was there that the leader of the Filth Earth Organization had forged the Shadow Palace.
Once the Shadow Palace was complete, the Filth Earth Organization moved its headquarters into the mobile structure.