The mont the lid lifted and he saw what was inside, he couldn’t help but gasp audibly in shock.
Sitting in the center of the box, cushioned on white silk, was what looked like a dried-up seed roughly the size of a baby’s fist. It resembled an oversized sesa seed, wrinkled and brown.
"This is a legendary sesa seed?" Vogue said with obvious sarcasm, though his racing pulse suggested he had recognized what he was actually looking at.
Sean rolled his eyes, knowing full well that Vogue was joking. "Very funny. Let explain what you’re actually holding."
Mr. White spoke up in a serious tone, gently reaching over to lift the seed from its box with careful, reverent hands.
"This is called a Creation Seed," the elder explained quietly. "It’s one of the rarest spiritual treasures in existence. This particular seed has the capability to grow an entire independent world inside the body of a cultivator who successfully bonds with it."
He paused to let that sink in before continuing. "I’m sure you understand the incredible benefits of possessing a complete internal world."
Mr. White began listing the advantages: "You can shape and design the world however you want, creating the optimal environnt for your specific cultivation path. You can transfer physical items directly into the world for safe storage with no spatial limitations. You can redirect killing attacks or severe damage from your actual body into the internal world, essentially giving yourself an extra life. You can plant spiritual herbs and raise spirit beasts inside with accelerated ti flow. And most importantly..."
The elder’s eyes beca intense. "When your internal world reaches a sufficient level of developnt and stability, you can actually manifest it externally and create an entirely new dinsion in reality itself. That’s the true ultimate potential of a Creation Seed."
Vogue’s pupils constricted as he processed this information. An internal world was sothing that Luminous Realm and higher cultivators spent decades or centuries trying to develop through arduous ditation and resource consumption. But this seed would grant that capability imdiately, and at a far higher quality than normal cultivation could achieve.
He looked up from the seed to et Sean’s eyes, then glanced at Mr. White. His expression beca guarded and suspicious.
"This Creation Seed is vastly more valuable than a Heaven Grade technique," Vogue stated bluntly. "Probably worth ten Heaven Grade techniques at minimum, maybe more. So what’s the real catch here? What do you actually want from ?"
Sean smiled wryly at being seen through so quickly. "You’re extrely sharp, Vogue. I appreciate that quality."
He leaned forward with his elbows on the table. "To be completely honest with you—we want you to do sothing for us. Sothing dangerous that requires your specific talents and abilities."
Vogue leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "What exactly?"
Mr. White took over the explanation, his expression becoming deadly serious.
"We want you to help us open and explore a secret ancient ruin that we’ve recently discovered the location of."
Vogue imdiately shook his head firmly. "I’m only interested in a simple exchange of techniques. Going into dangerous secret domains and ruins isn’t in my interest at all. Too many variables, too many ways to die unexpectedly."
Sean opened his mouth to try persuading him, but Mr. White raised one hand to stop his nephew from speaking.
The elder looked directly into Vogue’s eyes and spoke three words that changed everything.
"It’s a Saint’s ruin."
Vogue’s entire body went rigid. His pupils constricted to pinpoints as the implications hit him like a physical blow.
Saints were the stuff of absolute legends. The cultivation hierarchy went: Stellar Knight realm, then Luminous Realm, then Eternal Star Realm, and finally the mythical Saint Realm.
Even in this entire continent, there had only been one confird person in all of recorded history who had successfully broken through to achieve Sainthood—the legendary Saint Christopher, who had lived over a thousand years ago and whose exploits were still taught in every cultivation academy.
A Saint’s ruin would contain treasures, techniques, and resources so far beyond normal comprehension that even a single minor item from such a place could transform soone’s entire cultivation path.
"There’s also a credible rumor," Mr. White continued quietly, "that the corpse of a divine Phoenix is sealed sowhere inside this particular ruin."
Vogue’s hands clenched.
A Phoenix corpse. Phoenix blood. Phoenix essence.
If he could obtain even a small amount of authentic Phoenix blood, he would be able to awaken the remaining five dragon heads of his physique almost instantly, jumping from four heads to potentially all nine in one massive breakthrough.
That would catapult his power to levels that even most Luminous Realm experts couldn’t match.
There were countless other treasures that would likely be present in a Saint’s ruin as well. Ancient techniques, divine weapons, spiritual herbs that had been extinct for millennia, formation knowledge, bloodline refinent thods.
The opportunities were almost limitless.
But so were the dangers.
Saint-level ruins were notorious for having death traps that could kill even Luminous Realm cultivators instantly. Protective formations that had lasted a thousand years. Guardian beasts at impossible power levels. Spatial distortions.
Vogue sat in silence for a long mont, weighing the incredible potential rewards against the very real possibility of permanent death.
Finally, he looked up and t Mr. White’s patient gaze.
"Tell more about this ruin."
Sean and Mr. White exchanged satisfied glances.
Mr. White’s expression beca distant as he began recounting the history behind this particular ruin, his voice taking on the quality of soone telling an ancient legend.
"About three hundred years ago," the elder began, "there was a Saint-level cultivator who had reached the absolute peak of power in this world. His na has been lost to ti, but records suggest he was approaching the threshold of transcending beyond even the Saint Realm into sothing higher."
He paused for emphasis.
"This Saint encountered a divine Phoenix—an actual god-beast from the higher realms that had descended to our world for reasons unknown. The two beings fought each other with such devastating intensity that an entire country was rendered completely uninhabitable."
Vogue leaned forward with intense interest, completely absorbed in the story.
"The battle lasted for seven days and seven nights without pause," Mr. White continued. "Mountains were leveled. Rivers were boiled dry. The very fabric of space itself was torn apart in multiple locations. Witnesses who observed from a safe distance said the sky turned blood red and lightning fell like rain."
Sean added quietly, "There are still areas in the Eastern Wastes where nothing will grow because the land was so thoroughly destroyed by their combat. The ground is permanently scorched and lifeless even three centuries later."
Mr. White nodded gravely.
"It was said that both combatants fought until their very last breath, pushing each other to complete mutual destruction. In the end, both the Saint and the divine Phoenix fell simultaneously, their life forces extinguished."
The elder’s eyes beca more intense.
"But using his final dying breath and the last remnants of his Saint-level power, this cultivator created a hidden ruin. He poured his remaining energy into constructing a sealed dinsional space where he placed his complete inheritance—all his techniques, all his treasures, all his knowledge—for whoever possessed the talent and capability to claim it."
"The entrance was designed to only open for soone eting very specific criteria that the dying Saint established. We believe he wanted to ensure his legacy went to a worthy successor rather than being plundered by tomb raiders."
Vogue absorbed all this information carefully, his mind already calculating possibilities and risks.
"And you’ve managed to locate this ruin after all these centuries?"
"Yes," Mr. White confird. "We discovered the approximate position of the ruin about one hundred years ago through a combination of ancient texts, spatial readings, and investigative work. But we’ve been completely unable to actually open the entrance despite nurous attempts."
Sean leaned forward.
"So we’ve kept the location absolutely secret for the past century, waiting and hoping to eventually encounter a dual-talent individual who might be able to activate the opening chanism."
Vogue furrowed his brow with skepticism.
"But dual talents aren’t exactly rare, are they? Uncommon, yes, but not so rare that you’d need to wait a hundred years to find one."
Sean smiled bitterly, and there was genuine frustration in his expression.
"You don’t fully understand the political situation, Vogue. Let explain sothing important."
He counted off on his fingers.
"Every single dual-talent individual who awakens and reveals themselves publicly is imdiately snatched up and recruited by major forces within days or even hours. The Great Families compete for them. The top-tier universities offer full scholarships and benefits. The Citadel Administration tries to bind them with contracts. Criminal organizations sotis try to kidnap them."
"By the ti anyone even hears about a new dual talent awakening, that person has already been acquired by so powerful faction or institution."
Mr. White added,
"If we were to hire one of these already-affiliated dual talents to help us open the ruin, their backing forces would imdiately want their share of whatever treasures we found inside. And they wouldn’t be satisfied with just a percentage—they would try to take control of the entire ruin."
His expression beca grim.
"We Klein Family are prominent and influential in the outer rings, certainly. We have wealth and connections. But compared to the major academies like Valor University, or compared to the inner ring Great Families, or compared to the Citadel Administration? We’re nothing. We’re ants trying to negotiate with dragons."
"The mont a major power learned about this Saint’s ruin, they would either force us into an unequal partnership where we get almost nothing, or they would simply take it from us entirely through political or military pressure. We lack the strength to protect such a discovery from truly powerful organizations."
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