Chapter 1225 - Taming the Old World - Lead - 4

Chapter 1225: Chapter 1225 - Taming the Old World - Lead - 4

Two hands dropped onto Ren’s shoulders at the exact same moment.

Mayo on his left; Min on his right.

"This is exactly what he wanted, boss," Mayo said, her voice surprisingly gentle, completely dropping her usual theatrical quality. "You didn’t force him to sacrifice his arm. He volunteered completely on his own, and just the other day he explicitly told us he was perfectly ready to forfeit years of his life for the cause... It would actually be a brilliant joke if..."

"And it absolutely does not matter as long as you possess the capacity to thaw him out later," Min interjected, smoothly cutting Mayo off before she ruined her previous decent line, wielding that unique brand of easy levity he always deployed whenever the atmosphere grew too suffocating.

Then he failed to not ruin his own...

"Luna’s mother flawlessly preserved her youth for the entire duration she was entombed in the crystal, correct? For Li, the process will be exactly the same. You can see the experience as an extreme, highly exclusive skincare treatment. If you take your time taking him out, he emerges ten years younger without a single extra wrinkle."

Mayo let out a sharp, genuine laugh. "Now I’m actually a little envious. I demand my own free, Platinum-tier spa treatment."

"You could certainly use the help to keep that young face; come find me in ten years," Min fired back.

"Excuse me?! I’ll also be as beautiful when old than...!"

Luna swiftly stepped forward before the duo could fully launch into their usual comedic routine.

"Li was absolutely correct to protect you," she stated softly, her eyes locked onto Ren. "We cannot guarantee your biological system can successfully repel the crystallization trap in its current, heavily compromised state. You successfully analyzed and bypassed the mechanism in the previous ruin, yes. But today, with those shards actively obstructing your flow, you cannot be certain of your immunity. Taking the absolute safest route was the correct decision. He understood that reality better than anyone else."

Ren offered no argument, simply because he knew her logic was flawless.

♢♢♢♢

"Wei, take the vanguard," Ren commanded, letting out another long sigh, fully accepting his frustrating position as the critical asset who absolutely had to remain operational to save everyone else, and therefore, could not risk his own neck. "If we are going to proceed with extreme caution, we will maintain that protocol until the end. But stay vigilant; I absolutely do not want anyone else turning into décor simply because we grew overconfident."

Wei cautiously approached the threshold. With Li’s core crystal now fully installed and pulsating in the receptacle, the new fungal expert deployed his golden network across the metal. He established a superficial uplink with Ren, allowing the Glorious General to safely analyze the intricate runic architecture from a distance. Working in tandem, they began to decipher the activation parameters.

Piece by piece, the ancient encrypted details emerged.

The mechanism was remarkably similar to the impenetrable vault resting beneath the Yano and Yino castles, even down to its specific biometric requirements. The door responded exclusively to a sovereign authority permanently encoded into the user’s mana system; a distinct right that both Ren and Luna currently possessed.

Either one of them could theoretically trigger the activation sequence.

Ren found the revelation simultaneously bizarre and deeply fascinating. There had to be a profound, historical reason why an ancient system explicitly designed, according to the encrypted data, to resurrect a sovereign dragon was actively granting administrative access to human vessels.

However, this was absolutely not the time to indulge in wild, conspiratorial hypotheses.

He mentally shelved the anomaly, assuming for the moment that it was merely a stroke of blind luck that the human Tamer system proved so biologically compatible with the ancient draconic architecture...

Both of them met the fundamental criteria, but Ren remained the absolute highest-value VIP on the board, requiring maximum protection at all costs.

So, Luna confidently stepped forward.

Once again, employing the exact same flawless logic as before, but this time, the decision grated on Ren significantly more...

"Perhaps I should take the lead on this..."

"You possess the unique capacity to pull anyone out of a catastrophic situation," Luna interrupted, moving into position and fixing him with a fierce, determined glare. "Except yourself. If a lethal anomaly triggers during the activation sequence, I vastly prefer you remaining completely free to save me, rather than you getting trapped while the rest of us stand around completely useless."

Min and Mayo nodded slowly in unison, exchanged a quick, highly exaggerated glance, and then nodded even more vigorously, silently validating her airtight logic.

Ren desperately wanted to protest. He couldn’t; it was the exact same unassailable argument he could never counter.

"Fine," he conceded, crossing his arms. "But this time, I demand a comprehensive view of the entire sequence..."

♢♢♢♢

They utilized Wei’s fungal network to establish a superficial, highly monitored uplink directly to Luna’s mana system.

By employing this method, while the ancient door initiated its sequence, Ren could meticulously analyze the energetic exchange in real-time. He actively monitored Luna’s vitals and the door’s runic output, watching every single microsecond of the process, ready to sever the connection if anything was skewed. If the door attempted to deploy a secondary trap, Ren would detect the anomaly and intervene before it could inflict any physical damage.

Luna finally pressed her slender hand firmly into the ancient indentation.

The door fully activated. It officially recognized her sovereign right, the massive internal mechanisms grinding to life with a deep, resonant hum that vibrated up through the very roots of the sanctuary.

In that exact microsecond, riding the wave of the activation sequence through his connection to Luna, Ren registered a distinct anomaly he hadn’t encountered in the other three ruins.

It was a localized data injection.

It was remarkably similar to the massive knowledge dumps he received from the Brain, but on a significantly smaller scale. A concentrated pulse of information washed over the ethereal tether. The translated message was explicitly clear:

’This is the first of four sanctuaries leading to the ultimate knowledge that shall aid in the ascension of the worthy.

Those deemed unworthy shall pay a tithe of faith to the resurrection of the god.’