Marcus gestured toward several individuals standing nearby. "Let introduce you to the key mbers of our team—the specialists who will be crucial to our success."
He first indicated a middle-aged woman who stood with perfect posture and sharp, observant eyes.
She was tall and athletic, dressed in fitted combat gear with dark hair streaks of silver, tied back in a bun. She was also a Luminous Realm expert.
"This is Madam Violet," Marcus said, his tone carrying a note of profound respect. "She specializes in identifying and neutralizing traps of all kinds. She is one of my oldest comrades; in all our years, I’ve yet to see a chanism she couldn’t unravel."
Madam Violet glanced at Vogue, her gaze sweeping over him to weigh his aura and temperant in a single, cold look. She offered a slight nod of acknowledgnt, her lips remaining pressed in a silent line.
"Madam Violet," Vogue greeted, inclining his head respectfully.
Marcus moved to the second introduction, gesturing toward a dwarf who stood barely four feet tall. The man possessed a physique so densely muscled it bordered on the absurd. Most striking, however, was the colossal slab of a sword strapped to his back—a blade at least twice his height that should have been impossible to lift, yet he carried it with effortless grace.
"And this is Sir Collins," Marcus continued. "A master of matrix formations. He will be responsible for deconstructing the protective arrays within the ruin. Matrices are his life’s work; he reads spatial energy the way we read ink on a page."
Sir Collins grinned, flashing several gold teeth. "Pleasure to et you, lad!" he bood in a voice surprisingly deep for his stature, his accent thick and earthy. "I hear you’re the dual-talent who’s going to crack the shell for us. Good! I’ve been waiting a century to see what’s behind that damned seal!"
"Nice to et you, Sir Collins," Vogue replied, finding himself chard by the dwarf’s boisterous energy. "I’ll do my part to get us inside."
Finally, Marcus clapped a hand onto the shoulder of a remarkably handso man in his late thirties. He had refined, aristocratic features and immaculately styled dark hair, dressed in robes so luxurious they practically radiated status. His smile was warm, but Vogue caught a flicker of sothing sharp and calculating behind his eyes.
"And this is my dearest friend, Mr. Trent," Marcus said with genuine affection. "We’ve walked the path together for over fifty years, since we were both young cultivators struggling to find our feet. It was actually Trent who discovered this ruin a century ago. Rather than selling the secret to the highest bidder, he brought it to . We all owe him our thanks for this opportunity."
Mr. Trent shook his head modestly. "Co now, Marcus, you flatter . What good is a sealed ruin to a man who can’t open it? I knew you had the resources to see this through. Besides, what are friends for if not to share in the greatest of fortunes?"
He extended a hand toward Vogue. "A pleasure, Young Master Vogue. I’ve heard fascinating rumors regarding your Ultimate Evolution. You are the final piece of a puzzle we’ve been trying to solve for a very long ti."
Vogue shook his hand, noting the grip was firm but practiced. "Thank you, Mr. Trent. I’m looking forward to seeing what a Saint’s inheritance looks like."
Marcus then addressed the entire group, his voice echoing through the cavern. "Everyone gathered here is family—either by blood or by the bonds forged in struggle. Now that Young Master Vogue has joined us, he is family as well. We succeed together, or we fail together. Is that understood?"
A chorus of affirmation thundered back from the assembled Klein Family mbers.
As the cheers died down, Vogue took the mont to subtly probe the group with his enhanced senses. His brow furrowed as his focus landed on Marcus. The Family Head’s aura was clearly at the Peak of the Stellar Knight realm—the absolute ceiling before the Luminous Realm, and technically the sa tier as Vogue.
Yet, the discrepancy was glaring. Madam Violet was Luminous Realm. Sir Collins was Half-Step Luminous. Mr. Trent’s spiritual pressure suggested he, too, was in the Luminous Realm. Even the hooded figure standing like a shadow behind Marcus emanated a staggering aura—at least the Fifth Sun of the Luminous Realm.
*It makes no sense,* Vogue thought. A family head didn’t lead subordinates who significantly outclassed him. The power hierarchy of the cultivation world wouldn’t allow it.
*He’s hiding it,* Vogue concluded. Marcus was likely using a high-level suppression technique to mask his true strength, appearing as a Stellar Knight while likely being the most powerful person in the room. Vogue filed the observation away; Marcus was a man of layers, and layers ant danger.
"Co," Sean said, breaking Vogue’s train of thought. "Let’s show you the prize."
They descended deeper into the mountain through a natural tunnel that sloped sharply downward. After ten minutes of walking, the path opened into a final, titanic chamber. Vogue stopped dead, his breath hitching.
A door stood before them—though "door" felt like a pathetic word for it. It towered four hundred ters high, a monolith of dark, light-eating tal that stretched from the cavern floor to the distant ceiling. Intricate carvings swirled across its surface, depicting celestial wars and cosmic phenona.
Locked over the tal was a glowing spiderweb of golden energy. The matrix was so dense and complex that the lines of light blurred into a blinding geotric sh. This was a Saint-level seal—a masterpiece of ancient security.
Sir Collins stepped forward, his jovial nature vanishing into a mask of intense focus. He reached into his storage ring and produced an ornate chessboard made of jade and gold.
"A Matrix Breaking Board," Collins muttered, noting Vogue’s curiosity. "It allows to map spatial formations into a physical proxy. I turn the seal into a ga, and then I win the ga."
The dwarf began placing pieces—pawns, rooks, knights—at specific coordinates on the board. Each piece pulsed with light as it touched the jade. He muttered feverish calculations, shifting pieces by fractions of a milliter. Finally, he placed two pieces—a King and a Queen—directly at the center seam where the two halves of the massive door t. They radiated a fierce, blinding gold.
"There!" Collins barked. "The core nodes are anchored. Everyone, listen up!"
He surged his spiritual energy into the board. Thin filants of light connected the pieces, forming a miniature, glowing replica of the Great Seal.
"On my mark, everyone except Young Master Vogue and Young Master Sean will strike! You must attack the King and Queen pieces on this board with everything you have! The sympathetic resonance will shatter the formation’s core on the door itself. Ready?"
The Klein Family experts dropped into combat stances, their various elental energies Beginning to hiss and crackle in the air.
"Now!" Collins roared.
The cavern exploded. Beams of sword intent, torrents of fla, and bolts of lightning converged on the two small chess pieces. The resulting flash was so violent that Vogue had to shield his eyes. With a sound like shattering glass magnified a thousand tis, the King and Queen pieces disintegrated, and the golden web on the four-hundred-ter door began to fracture.
On the massive door four hundred ters away, the golden matrix formation flickered, sparked, and then shattered like breaking glass. Fragnts of golden light rained down and dissolved before reaching the ground.
"Crack!"
A trendous splitting sound echoed through the cavern as the protective seal was destroyed, leaving only the physical door intact but now unsealed.
Collins clenched his fist in joy. "Yes! The formation is down!"
Family Head Marcus turned to Vogue with an expectant expression. "Now cos your part, Young Master Vogue. According to our research, this door can only be opened by soone possessing dual talents—the resonance of two different elental affinities from the sa soul is required to activate the opening chanism. Once you successfully open it, we’ll imdiately be faced with whatever trap system the Saint established inside. That’s when Madam Violet will take point to guide us through safely."
Marcus’s expression beca more serious. "I won’t lie to you. This place is extrely dangerous. A Saint wouldn’t leave his inheritance accessible to just anyone. But the potential rewards make the risk worthwhile."
He looked around at the assembled team. "Is everyone prepared? Once we enter, there’s no guarantee we’ll all make it out alive. This is your last chance to back out if you’re having second thoughts."
No one moved or spoke. Everyone present had already committed to this expedition.
Marcus nodded with satisfaction and turned back to Vogue. "Then let’s see what secrets a Saint left behind three hundred years ago. Young Master Vogue, if you would do the honors?"
Vogue stepped forward toward the enormous sealed door, feeling the weight of twenty pairs of eyes watching his every movent.
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