Sovereign of the Ashes

HALL-E vaguely recognized this towering skyscraper and felt something deep within its memory banks was quietly resurfacing.

Yet over the past tens of millions of years, especially after awakening its self-awareness, it had never once considered approaching this place. That alone was highly unusual!

PAL’s body began trembling involuntarily as soon as it entered the skyscraper with HALL-E.

It felt as though some terrifying presence lurked deep within the structure.

Most of the time, however, the electronic cockroach remained hidden within the crevices of HALL-E’s body, so Sein and the others did not notice its reaction.

The lower levels of the skyscraper were in a state of severe ruin.

From roughly the seventieth floor downward, everything had been reduced to rubble. Between the seventieth and two-hundredth floors, decay and debris dominated the interior, and Sein’s group found little of value.

Gilbert had previously mentioned that this skyscraper contained an immense reserve of inert crystals.

At first, Sein had assumed these reserves lay beneath the building’s foundation, and he had even worried about how they would excavate through the incredibly hard surface of the ruins.

However, once they entered, they discovered that the true concentration of inert crystals lay entirely above them—more precisely, in the upper-middle sections of the skyscraper.

A mineral vein suspended in midair? The discoveries within the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization’s ruins had truly shattered everyone’s preconceived notions.

“The corrosion and deterioration of items within this building are indeed far less severe than what we have observed in previous research institutes. It seems that some fundamental energy circulation system here is still functioning,” Grethel commented as she dusted the metallic sphere she had just uncovered, carefully examining its properties.

Roth, who was equally skilled in archaeology, had already crouched down in a corner of the building.

Based on his recent studies of the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization’s ruins, he knew that beings of that civilization typically arranged energy circuits along the corners of structures or beneath the ground.

“We’re at the heart of this secret realm. It’s possible that every energy barrier throughout the entire subspace is connected to this place. We must tread carefully,” Sein warned.

Given the sheer scale of this subspace, Sein’s group was effectively standing at the very core of a large world.

This place undoubtedly concealed countless secrets.

In fact, ever since entering the towering skyscraper, the Magic Cube had been sending Sein a steady stream of prompts.

For fragments of secret treasures bearing only faint traces of law power alone, it had already identified dozens scattered throughout the building!

As for those with law energies that stood out most clearly and had already reached the level of complete world-class secret treasures rather than mere fragments, there were three such sources in total!

One was located beneath the towering skyscraper, at least ten thousand meters underground.

The other two lay directly above them, precisely in the direction Sein and his group were ascending.

After entering the skyscraper, Sein’s group did not immediately attempt to explore downward, simply because they could not find any way to access the underground levels.

Qixiu had already tried. With his sharp scales, claws, and the unique horn on his forehead fitted with a world-class diamond drill, he unleashed immense destructive and excavation power.

Even so, he had only managed to dig a few meters before breaking one of his own claws.

After considering this, Sein said, “Millions of years ago, as the core of the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization, this skyscraper must have been designed to withstand attacks from overlord-level beings. Anything less would have been unworthy of their reputation as a top-tier civilization.”

“Although the erosion of time has left this building in a state of serious disrepair, it’s clearly not something we can destroy easily. We should just follow the internal passages and continue our exploration upward,” he decided.

It was this decision that led Sein and his group to abandon the idea of flying directly to the top from outside the structure.

No one knew what dangers or dormant weapons might be hidden on the tower’s uppermost levels.

Given that this structure had once served as the primary domain of the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization’s high-ranking beings, it made little sense for them to orient their defenses inward rather than outward.

Even if risks still existed, they were undoubtedly far smaller than those involved in attempting an external breach.

Grethel and Roth, both of whom possessed extensive experience studying ancient civilization ruins, strongly supported Sein’s decision.

At the same time, they could not help but feel some regret at being unable to explore downward and locate that world-class secret-treasure fluctuation point, along with the dozen or so other fragments.

Upon reaching the 271st floor, Sein and the others finally discovered a secret treasure fragment emitting an extremely faint energy fluctuation.

At first glance, it resembled nothing more than an iron door.

In truth, it was the outer protective barrier once used by the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization to store vital items.

Unfortunately, those items had either been reduced to nothing by the passage of time or taken away by the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization’s beings.

All that remained was this solitary iron door, left behind amidst the ruins.

The moment Sein laid eyes on this secret treasure fragment, his mind immediately leapt to the idea of forging it into a knight’s shield.

Since Sein’s Magic Cube was currently in an upgrade hibernation state and he could not have it absorb the law energy contained within the iron door, he could only stow the heavy iron door away for now.

“How many floors do you think this towering structure has?” Sein asked, lifting his gaze upward.

“Perhaps thousands, maybe even tens of thousands,” Grethel replied. “After all, it was a building that could rival the soul towers of our Magus World.”

“The interior clearly makes use of spatial folding technology. The space inside is vastly more expansive than what we perceive from the outside. Reaching the very top alone would take an enormous amount of time,” Roth added.

Master Gilbert was also looking up toward the tower’s summit, holding an extremely complex-looking experimental apparatus in his hands.

Although Valerie was still recovering from her injuries, she traced the outlines of an elemental array with her finger, apparently immersed in constant calculations.

By the time Sein had painstakingly excavated the iron door from the tower wall with the help of Black Oblivion and his cousins, Gilbert and Valerie had finally completed their measurements and computations.

“Based on the height we have climbed per level and the steadily increasing concentration of inert energy, we should encounter the inert crystal vein within this building around the 742nd floor,” Gilbert reported to Sein.

Sein nodded. With the Gallant Federation’s forces already entering the subspace, he urgently needed to secure several more top-grade crystals to craft elemental bombs.

Possessing such super bombs, capable of threatening Rank Six beings, would provide Sein with much-needed reassurance.