Chapter 1224 - Taming the Old World - Lead - 3

Chapter 1224: Chapter 1224 - Taming the Old World - Lead - 3

Larissa scrutinized the ancient metal with profound suspicion. "If she already possessed a functional core, why isn’t the threshold open? Did Selthia simply run out of time before the core was fully made?"

"That is exactly the variable that doesn’t align with her profile." Wei pointed a golden glowing finger at the embedded core. "Look closely at the accumulation of dust. It has been resting in that specific slot for a significant amount of time. If she had simply abandoned the operation halfway through, why in the world would she leave a highly valuable, functional crystal actively draining its reserves all this time?"

"Furthermore, if she aborted before completion," Ren added, seamlessly picking up the analytical thread, "why leave it embedded in the door instead of extracting it for later use? A synthetic core of this density possesses a massive volume of raw ether. Selthia does not waste resources that she can throw to our faces."

They stood in silence before the ancient door, the three minds meticulously assembling the scattered pieces of the puzzle.

It was Wei who finally connected the dots.

"The biometric handprint," Wei stated, his eyes widening slightly. "Perhaps that is the precise reason the corruption was incapable of deceiving the door’s encryption. Perhaps the runic architecture explicitly demands the physical presence of a true, sovereign biological vessel to initiate the sequence. And Selthia’s true, original vessel remains permanently frozen deep within that sprawling subterranean network, the exact one anchored to the capital via the primordial mana vein." He looked directly at Ren. "The exact same network that we still haven’t located the true core of."

Ren followed the terrifying logic to its absolute conclusion.

"Then they needed to shatter the vault beneath the Yino castle first," Ren reasoned slowly, his voice dropping to a whisper. "They needed to physically liberate Selthia’s true vessel. Only by securing that body could they hope to bypass this biometric lock. And they deliberately left the crystal embedded here, actively draining its power, maybe because they fully intended to return the second they succeeded." He nodded slowly. "They meticulously primed the lock, patiently waiting for the moment they finally secured the key. Only, they never managed to get the key, and they were trapped."

"It remains a hypothesis," Wei cautioned.

"It is the most sound hypothesis we possess." Ren slowly extended his right hand toward the corrupted crystal. "I am going to extract it now."

"I will extract it for you."

It was Li.

The young man had been standing silently in the back of the formation, absorbing the entire exchange without uttering a word. Now, he stepped forward, carrying that exact same unyielding, ironclad resolve he had displayed since boarding the avian transport. Ren immediately opened his mouth to protest, but Li was already speaking.

"If this mechanism possesses a localized crystallization trap, I am perfectly capable of serving as a statue for a few weeks or months. Just like Sir Sirius did." He offered a brief, respectful glance toward Luna, silently apologizing for the blunt comparison, before locking eyes with Ren again. "You absolutely cannot afford to suffer that consequence with your damaged system right now. I can."

"Li, I told you, using your core would feel..."

"And executing the extraction this way allows you to seamlessly utilize my core for the harvest, no need to be shy. Wood affinity, Gold 3." Li flatly refused to let him finish the argument. "As compensation for this service, I explicitly demand the right to pursue a dual-fusion. Alongside Anuar and Tao. So we can actually be tactically useful on the frontlines, unlike that miserable day on the Great Wall when I was forced to retreat... Exactly as I previously negotiated with Lady Selphira; granting us administrative access to three of the highly classified potions stockpiled for the future. We had absolutely not earned that privilege back then. By executing this maneuver, I earn it for our group today."

Ren let out a long, exhausted sigh.

They had already engaged in this exact, infuriating conversation... Countless times.

A long time ago, Ren had explicitly promised to leverage his own unprecedented military achievements to secure priority access for Li. He wanted to effortlessly hand the young man a double potion, demanding absolutely nothing in return. He had offered the gift directly to his 3 friends, without hesitation.

And Li had flatly refused.

Exactly as he always refused. Instead, he had stubbornly demanded that Ren reallocate those massive political favors as resources toward vastly more critical endeavors; injecting crystals and fortifying their territory, reinforcing the defensive perimeter, absolutely anything other than accelerating his personal power. This infuriating young man, born into the exact same suffocating, absolute poverty that had forged Ren, was exactly as relentlessly, agonizingly stubborn as the Glorious General himself.

Anuar and Tao would have happily accepted the gift without a second thought if Li hadn’t firmly adopted this unyielding stance from the very beginning, forcefully dragging his friends along with his ironclad principles.

And now, Li had engineered a scenario to secure the power exactly the way he wanted: by bleeding for it. By taking risks instead of too important Ren. By willingly laying his own core and his own body on the line to ensure the upgrade was a genuine, hard-fought achievement, rather than a charitable handout.

Ren stared at him for a long, heavy moment. He recognized that specific brand of infuriating stubbornness perfectly. He saw it every single time he looked in a mirror.

"You are impossible," Ren finally muttered.

Li almost smiled. "I learned from the absolute best."

Ren stepped back, yielding the floor, allowing Li to approach the ancient door, walking straight toward the half-consumed crystal that had spent who knows how many centuries patiently waiting for a hand that never arrived.

Li extended his right hand, gripped the corrupted crystal, and began to pull.

♢♢♢♢

Li pulled out the crystal...

And one of the things they had foreseen as a possible consequence came to pass.

A beam shot from the doorway and struck him full force. Crystallization raced up Li’s body in an instant, freezing him with his hand still outstretched; simultaneously, his wooden core slotted itself into the opening, taking the place of the crystal he had just removed. The heartless statue, now motionless, was drawn downward, sinking into the ground until it vanished.

Ren sighed.

He had seen it coming... That didn’t make it any easier.