Death… And Me

Chapter 4393: The Light Pillar

The airplane crossed into the new area and continued flying toward the pillar of light in the distance. As they moved closer, several enormous ruins gradually came into view. Judging by the countless marks left by time, it was obvious those structures hadn’t been disturbed for an unimaginably long period.

Vines climbed over broken walls, bird nests occupied the tops of ancient canopies, and all sorts of small animals had made homes inside the abandoned buildings. Nature had reclaimed much of the place, yet despite that, the central structure stood in almost pristine condition. The pillar of light shot straight into the sky from its center, and surrounding it floated countless cores...

”No...” Harksha narrowed her eyes. ”Those aren’t the same.”

She was right.

Instead of perfectly spherical guardian cores, these resembled small stars. Countless pointed rays extended from their bodies, giving them an entirely different appearance.

Rean slowed the airplane and brought several live images onto the main display while the sensors gathered more information.

”They’re some kind of worker cores,” he commented after studying the readings for a moment. Then he enlarged one of the images. ”Take a look. This one is repairing one of the ancient runes carved into the outside of the barrier structure.”

Kentucky preferred looking through the window instead of at the displays.

”You’re right, but there are normal guardian cores floating around too. They aren’t repairing anything, though. It looks more like they’re patrolling the area while the worker cores do all the actual work.”

Senkiyu checked Rean’s Godly Pressure Detection Radar, where red dots practically covered the screen.

”That’s... actually pretty terrifying. The guardian cores are still the minority here, but there are already several hundred of them within the radar’s range alone.”

Rean glanced at the display before nodding.

”The difference is obvious too. The guardian cores still release Godly Pressure comparable to a Godly Predator. As for these worker cores...” He zoomed in on one of them. ”Their Godly Pressure isn’t even close to that of an ordinary Godly Spawn. My radar can barely detect they’re there.”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

”Looks like the stronger the core, the more Godly Pressure is needed to maintain both its control and its combat capabilities.”

Just then, several guardian cores suddenly drifted toward the airplane.

Everyone instinctively became alert, but none of the cores showed any intention of attacking. Instead, countless green-and-golden symbols appeared inside them, all displaying the same repeating message.

Rean immediately captured the images and ran them through the airplane’s translation database.

-Unable to update Core #9992853R-

-Unable to update Core #9992853R-

-Unable to update Core #9992853R-

-Unable to updat...-

Every single one displayed exactly the same warning.

Everyone’s eyes immediately shifted toward the main guardian core powering the disguise array.

There was no doubt.

Core #9992853R was the very same core they had inside the airplane.

”Do you think they’ll eventually react because of that?” Cantra asked.

Rean shrugged.

”Your guess is as good as mine. So far they haven’t shown any hostility, but I think this confirms something else.”

Roan immediately understood what Rean meant.

”There probably aren’t any sentient beings inside these ruins anymore,” he said. ”If someone were actively controlling these guardian cores and monitoring everything happening here, they would’ve ordered an attack long ago. Rean’s airplane isn’t exactly subtle.”

Harksha wasn’t completely convinced.

”What if there is someone watching us, but they’re deliberately choosing not to interfere?”

Roan shook his head.

”I won’t say it’s impossible, but it’s extremely unlikely. If someone had really been supervising everything from the start, the guardian cores wouldn’t have kept attacking after we entered the ruins. Instead, everything we’ve seen points toward an automated system simply following predetermined rules.”

”I suppose that question isn’t the important one right now,” Rico’the interrupted while manipulating one of the live images. ”Forget the guardian cores for a second. Look at what those worker cores are repairing.”

Everyone followed the highlighted image.

Almost immediately, they recognized the familiar patterns.

”Those are the same type of runes used to maintain the Sacred Relic!” Senkiyu exclaimed.

”Exactly!” Rico’the couldn’t hide his excitement. ”And there are countless examples of them covering this entire structure. If there are this many on the outside, imagine how many must exist inside.”

Rean, however, barely looked at the runes themselves.

Instead, his attention remained completely fixed on the worker cores.

”You’re all looking at the wrong thing,” he said. ”Forget the runes for a moment. Those worker cores know how to build them.”

Everyone suddenly froze.

That simple sentence completely changed the way they looked at the ruins.

The greatest problem surrounding every Sacred Relic wasn’t protecting it.

It was maintaining it.

Nobody alive knew how to create those ancient runes anymore. Whenever one became damaged, cultivators had no choice but to search ancient ruins in the hope of finding compatible replacements.

Yet the worker cores floating before them clearly possessed that knowledge.

Rean continued before anyone could interrupt.

”For Besgol... actually, for every region in existence... obtaining these worker cores, or even just discovering the blueprint they’re following, would be far more valuable than obtaining a handful of ancient runes.”

Everyone unconsciously drew in a deep breath.

He was absolutely right.

If they could reproduce those worker cores—or even understand how they worked—they would no longer need to depend on ancient ruins just to maintain existing Sacred Relics.

Better yet...

They might even be capable of creating entirely new Sacred Relics someday.

After all, the Sacred Relics had existed long before cultivators ever appeared in this Great Void. To this day, nobody truly understood how they functioned.

Roan looked toward the enormous pillar of light once more.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind.

”The energy source maintaining this barrier...” he said slowly. ”Could it be the same kind of source powering the Sacred Relic?”

Back when Rean and Celis had entered the Sacred Relic, they had both seen the enormous sphere of white-and-golden light resting at its center. The entire Sacred Relic operated by interacting with that mysterious core, and everyone believed the Sacred Relic’s Influence—the energy affecting the Godly Creatures—originated from it.

If this structure possessed another one...

Harksha took a long breath before speaking.

”The more we discover...” she admitted, ”the more I think we should go back.”

Everyone looked toward her.

”With information like this, even suffering heavy casualties to retrieve it would be worth it. If we report everything we’ve found, Besgol could probably request assistance from every neighboring region. I wouldn’t be surprised if Law Gods from all over gathered here to uncover this place’s secrets.”

Roan folded his arms.

”And then what?”

Harksha blinked.

”There are countless guardian cores here,” Roan continued. ”Don’t forget that every single one of them is stronger than Tobao or Arcis. Even if every neighboring region agreed to help, how many Law Gods could realistically arrive? Fifty? Sixty? Maybe.”

He looked toward the endless sea of red dots covering the radar.

”Against this many guardian cores, they’d be wiped out before accomplishing anything.”

Harksha couldn’t deny it.

The only reason they had made it this far was because of Rean’s disguise array.

”What if...” she began before stopping herself. ”No... not airplanes specifically. What if we built many different devices using your disguise arrays?”

Rean could only smile bitterly.

”If only it were that simple.”

He shook his head.

”This guardian core is unique. I can’t create another one like it. Even if I extracted its Godly Pressure and distributed it among multiple devices, it wouldn’t work.”

He pointed toward the guardian core floating inside its compartment.

”Think about it. From the ruins’ perspective, the exact same guardian core would suddenly appear in multiple places at once. Whatever system controls these ruins would notice that immediately.”

Harksha narrowed her eyes.

”Then why can’t you repeat whatever you did with this one on another guardian core?”

Rean immediately sensed where that question was leading.

She was becoming suspicious.

He couldn’t really blame her.

More and more evidence suggested his group had done something very unusual to make this particular guardian core behave differently.

”That’s... a little secret from my time back in the Vinx Great Void,” Rean answered with a shrug. ”Just trust me when I say I can’t repeat the same process.”

Harksha clearly wasn’t satisfied with that explanation.

Even so, Rean had already made one thing clear.

Whatever method he had used, it wasn’t something he could simply reproduce.

At least...

That was what everyone else believed.

In reality, if Rean used the Sanctuary again, there was a good chance he could strip the controlling energy from another guardian core and create another disguise core, several even.

The problem wasn’t whether it could be done.

The problem was everything that would have to be explained afterward.

For now, neither Rean nor the others had any intention of revealing the Sanctuary’s existence unless they had absolutely no other choice.

”Tch...”

Harksha finally sighed.

”Fine. Forget multiple devices. Then we’ll just keep this guardian core and use your airplane instead. If necessary, we can even transfer everything into a much larger aircraft and move our forces that way.”

”Hmph.”

Roan snorted.

”So your plan is to gather every Law God from several regions inside one giant airplane, fly them into the middle of an army of guardian cores stronger than most of them, and simply hope nothing unexpected happens?”

”This...” Harksha immediately realized how ridiculous that sounded once someone else said it aloud. ”...Alright. I didn’t think that through.”

She rubbed her forehead. ”Relying on a single guardian core really isn’t a viable strategy.”

Senkiyu looked between everyone before finally speaking. ”So... are we going back, or are we investigating further?”

Rean looked toward the massive structure again. ”That’s the difficult part. We could try getting closer and studying those ancient runes, or even remove them... but will the guardian cores allow it? Will they react the moment we approach? At the end of the day... is the risk worth taking?”

Roan let out a small sigh. ”This discussion isn’t getting us anywhere.”

Right after, he turned toward Harksha. ”Your idea of gathering reinforcements still has merit. But before we leave, I think we should test our luck now while this disguise is still working. We don’t know how long it’ll continue fooling the ruins. By the time we return, the entire system may have updated itself, and getting anywhere near this place might become impossible.”

He looked straight into her eyes. ”The decision is yours.”

Harksha remained silent for several seconds before finally clenching her fist. ”Fuck it.” Her hesitation disappeared. ”We’ve already come this far.”

She turned toward Rean. ”Go ahead. Let’s test it.”

A grin immediately spread across Rean’s face. ”Now we’re talking.”

He pushed the controls forward, and the airplane accelerated toward the central structure beneath the pillar of light. ”Here we go.”