The Aier Mechanical Ruins Acknowledges a Master

Before a two-thousand-meter tower in the Central Floating City, Huo Tianhua and a handful of human Chief Grade geniuses stared at the message on their Communication Crystals, utterly speechless.

After a stunned silence, a black-haired youth cried out in disbelief:

"Holy shit!! What kind of monsters are those two humans?! They actually turned the tables and killed King Grade warriors?!"

Because the higher the gene quality, the greater the boost to one's power — King Grade genes were far superior to Lord Grade. The idea that Lord Grade geniuses could reverse-kill King Grade geniuses seemed like pure fantasy.

And yet the Night King and her two Lord Grade companions had managed exactly that.

"Even with the Night King involved, the enemy still had two King Grade warriors fighting together. Either those two Lord Grade companions have terrifyingly exceptional combat power, or they've gotten their hands on some remarkably powerful treasure. Either way, their group can now do as they please in this Central Floating City."

Huo Tianhua's eyes flickered, traces of shock still visible in them.

"Less than a day left. If we run into them, we fall back — the last thing we need is for them to decide to sweep us out along with the rest."

The others all nodded.

Throughout the Central Floating City, every genius gradually received the news.

Word spread that Lu Yuan's group had driven Bai Lin, Barton, and an entire host of Lord Grade geniuses out of the Aier Mechanical Ruins, sending shockwaves through everyone who heard it. Without exception, they all arrived at the same conclusion: if they crossed paths with Lu Yuan's group, they would give them a wide berth and avoid conflict at all costs.

Meanwhile, the three of them were busy dividing the spoils dropped by Barton, Bai Lin, and the assorted Lord and Chief Grade geniuses.

As King Grade talents, Barton and Bai Lin had accumulated the most. The bulk of it was First-rank material, though the core zone had also yielded a fair share of Second-rank items. Each of them had amassed wealth equivalent to roughly ten billion or more in Second-rank Spirit Crystals.

Combined, their two hauls barely rivaled a single ten-thousand-meter tower's worth — which said everything about why everyone fought so desperately to reach the Central Floating City. This was the most resource-rich zone in all of the Aier Mechanical Ruins.

Even Bai Lin and Barton — two King Grade warriors — had scraped together everything they could from the iron city below and still couldn't match what a single ten-thousand-meter tower held. As for the rest of the fallen geniuses, every Lord and Chief combined fell short of a single King Grade warrior's haul.

For Lu Yuan's group, who had already cleared nearly ten of those towers, the pickings were decent enough, if unspectacular.

What genuinely delighted Lu Yuan was that every fallen enemy had dropped Aier Core Fragments. The total came to over three hundred.

He had never accumulated so many at once. For Amy and Yeye, the fragments held no particular value — but for Lu Yuan, they were quite useful. He claimed them all.

He began absorbing them one by one.

The more he absorbed, the deeper his connection to the Aier Mechanical Ruins grew.

After absorbing nearly a hundred fragments, the Evolution Cube inside him suddenly shuddered.

**Boom!!**

A thunderous resonance rang through his mind.

The invisible threads he had sensed before reappeared. But unlike the last time, when he had been inside one of the towers, Lu Yuan was standing in the open air now — and those threads were reaching toward the Iron Throne at the center of the city, straining to connect with it.

He stared at it, genuinely puzzled.

*What happens when those threads actually link up?*

Curious, he kept absorbing.

When the fragment count neared three hundred, the invisible threads finally reached the Iron Throne and locked in.

**BOOM!!!**

The entire Central Floating City shuddered.

Everyone inside jolted to a halt, eyes going wide.

"What?!"

"What's going on?! Is the Central Floating City actually shaking?!"

"An earthquake?!"

"..."

Amy and Yeye, still sorting through their loot, both froze and looked up.

"What happened?" Amy asked, startled. "Did the Floating City just... shake?"

Yeye's eyes held the same unease. She had never once heard of the Central Floating City trembling.

Lu Yuan was just as stunned — but his shock ran far deeper than theirs.

He could feel it: his bond with the Aier Mechanical Ruins had just grown immeasurably stronger. More than that — he seemed to be connected to its very core.

The sensation was eerily familiar.

It was exactly like the moment a spirit object acknowledged its master.

*Wait.*

*Is this serious? The Aier Mechanical Ruins can acknowledge a master — the same as a spirit object?*

*And if it's acknowledging me... does that mean I control the entire Aier Mechanical Ruins?*

He didn't know the full scope of what that entailed. But one thing was already clear: even after the trial ended and he left, he would be able to use his bond with the Iron Throne to return here whenever he wished.

That alone was enough to leave him reeling.

The Aier Mechanical Ruins overflowed with resources. If he could come back freely, then everything here was essentially his alone.

The highest-grade items in the ruins only reached Third-rank — Battle General level. But this was the entire world of the Aier Mechanical Ruins. One ten-thousand-meter tower alone held two to three billion Second-rank Spirit Crystals. What about the towers in the central zone? What about the Iron Throne itself?

Wealth like that would put him on equal footing with a Battle King — maybe even a Battle Sovereign.

The sheer scale of it left him dazed.

*So this was what Aier Core Fragments were really for. Absorb enough of them, and you become the master of the entire ruins.*

And it was only possible because the Evolution Cube had let him absorb multiple fragments — something no one else could do.

He had no doubt that countless people had researched Aier Core Fragments before him. They must have. And every single one of them had hit the same wall: one fragment at most, no more.

*What in the world is this Evolution Cube?*

Lu Yuan took a slow, steadying breath and buried the question. He forced his excitement back down.

This could never get out. Not a single word.

If anyone found out he could freely enter and exit the Aier Mechanical Ruins, Battle Sovereigns — Battle Emperors — would come hunting him personally.

He kept his expression neutral, as though nothing had happened at all.

The trembling faded as the invisible threads settled into place around the Iron Throne and went still.

Amy and Yeye looked around, uncertainty still etched across their faces.

Once it was clear the shaking had stopped, Amy asked carefully: "What was that?"

Yeye shook her head.

Lu Yuan smiled. "Probably just some anomaly in the ruins. Let's keep going — there are more towers to explore."

Amy and Yeye exchanged a glance, then nodded.

With less than a day remaining, the three of them boarded Black Bear No. 1 and resumed sweeping the Central Floating City's outer ring.

Even at full speed, a single circuit of the outer perimeter took several hours. But at their current strength, the Mechanical Guardians posted before the ten-thousand-meter towers were no match for them, and they cleared every last one in short order.

After finishing the ten-thousand-meter towers, they pushed carefully into the central zone — and immediately ran into a wall. Even the roaming patrols out there were Third-rank Boss Grade Mechanical Guardians. Handling the patrols alone would have pushed them to their limits; the actual tower sentinels were out of the question. There was nothing for it.

They fell back and settled for what they could reach: the eight-thousand-meter, five-thousand-meter, and three-thousand-meter towers around the outer ring.

One thing puzzled Lu Yuan: without fail, every Gene Warrior they spotted bolted the moment Black Bear No. 1 came into view. Not one was willing to risk even a sighting.

He thought about it. *News of Bai Lin and Barton must have spread. Some of those Lords didn't come to the fight — they must have noticed Barton and Bai Lin were gone from the ruins and pieced it together.*

He didn't mind. If anything, the emptied corridors were a relief.

Tens of thousands of light-years from Great Qi Star lay a world called White Frost Star.

A planet draped almost entirely in ice and snow, its surface scoured year-round by howling gales, temperatures plunging to inhospitable extremes. High on a glacial peak several thousand meters tall stood a palace carved from pure ice crystal.

In a room inside that palace, white light pulsed — and Bai Lin materialized.

His face was carved with cold, murderous fury.

"AAAHHHH!!!"

All that icy composure shattered. He threw his head back and roared, white frost energy erupting from his body in a torrent — furniture shattered in every direction, every surface coated in thick ice crystal in an instant.

The noise brought footsteps. The door opened, and two beautiful girls in flowing white dresses stepped through.

The moment they saw Bai Lin, they froze, eyes wide.

"Young Master?"

They looked at each other, at a loss. *Shouldn't Young Master still be in the Land of Origin? The time to return hasn't come yet, has it?* Neither of them dared voice it.

Bai Lin dragged in a slow breath, forced the rage down, and gave them a curt nod. "I'm fine."

At that moment, a cold mist bloomed from nowhere at the center of the room. The white vapor curled and thickened, and from it emerged a strikingly handsome man with white hair.

His gaze swept over the wreckage. A frown settled between his brows, and he turned it on Bai Lin.

"At this hour, you should be in the Aier Mechanical Ruins."

He studied Bai Lin more closely. The frown deepened.

"And your cultivation shouldn't still be at First-rank."

Bai Lin's expression shifted. He clenched his jaw, and the words came out like they'd been carved out of him.

"...I was killed."

The handsome man's presence sharpened. Cold energy rolled off him in waves; the two white-haired maids nearby trembled and dropped to their knees.

He held Bai Lin's gaze steadily. "Who killed you?"

Bai Lin thought of lightning filling the sky from horizon to horizon. His jaw twitched.

"...The Tianming Princess. And two humans."

"Yemu's daughter." A slight tilt of the head. "I've heard of her — she inherited the Shadow Walker gene from the Night Nether Saint, which makes her a rare genius within the White Cloud Star Domain. But..."

His gaze settled back on Bai Lin, flat and cold.

"But you carry an Innate King Grade gene. Losing to a peer of the same rank is a profound disappointment."

Bai Lin's face went rigid. He bit down hard. "I didn't lose to the Tianming Princess! They simply entered the Central Floating City a few hours ahead of me!"

The man paused. Something shifted in his eyes. "Entered the Central Floating City early?"

"Yes! The Tianming Princess and those two human Lords were working together. One of the human Lords had obtained a special treasure capable of controlling mechanical lifeforms. On top of that, they had a flying vehicle. Put those two advantages together, and they managed to get into the Central Floating City before the rest of us. If not for that head start, I would not have lost!"

The handsome man listened in silence. His eyes narrowed slightly, a gleam cutting through them.

"A special treasure that controls mechanical lifeforms. What level can it reach?"

Bai Lin considered. "Mid-tier Second-rank, I believe — Lord Grade Mechanical Guardians at most. Anything above that was beyond it."

The man gave a small shake of his head. "A pity. At higher levels, something like that could be genuinely formidable against the mechanical race."

At his tier of power, Second-rank creatures could be erased without a second thought. A treasure like that held no practical value for him.

After a moment, his voice came out quiet and measured.

"Fortune is part of strength. A defeat is a defeat. If you cannot even bring yourself to admit it, how do you ever intend to claw back from it? Failure is nothing to fear — what you should fear is not having the spine to face it."

Bai Lin bowed his head. The words came out low and hard.

"...I understand. I will win it back."

The handsome man gave a single nod. "Mm."

His body dissolved into white mist and quietly dispersed.

In another direction from Great Qi Star, hundreds of thousands of light-years away, lay a world called Green Demon Star.

Its surface was pocked with eerie green lakes, green vapor drifting lazily through the air. The land was barren, the earth cracked and lifeless.

Somewhere beneath that wasteland, in an underground palace of rough, brutal construction, white light flashed — and Barton materialized amid a chamber full of enormous beast skulls.

His face was savage. His eyes blazed with raw violence.

An instant later, blood-red flames ignited across his body.

**BOOM!!**

A battleaxe materialized in his grip, and he brought it down, splitting a massive ox skull clean in two.

"AAAAAHHH!! You filthy humans!! You worthless Night King!! I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!!"

Barton's roar shook the walls.

Then, without warning, a crushing force slammed him into the ground as if a mountain had landed on his spine. His body caved into the stone floor, forming a shallow crater.

**BOOM!!**

The stone door disintegrated. A Green Demon in brutal bone armor stepped through the frame.

His blood-red eyes swept over Barton, face-down in the dust. His voice came out raw and hoarse.

"Trash. You actually got yourself killed out of the Land of Origin. In the Aier Mechanical Ruins, no less."

His eyes flared crimson. Another invisible impact thundered down, driving Barton deeper into the stone.

All the color drained from Barton's face. His bones groaned and cracked; blood poured from his mouth.

But his expression never softened. His eyes stayed feral and savage — and he did not look away.

The blood-eyed Green Demon watched him in silence for a long stretch, then let out a cold snort.

"Trash. Train. Then go back and kill them."

He turned and walked out, dropping a golden orb of light onto the floor as he went.

Strange lines of power coiled through the orb like living things.

A King Grade Transcendent Gene.

The moment the Green Demon was gone, the crushing pressure vanished. Barton coughed up another mouthful of blood, dragged himself out of the crater, and crawled to the golden orb. He closed his fingers around it. His blood-soaked face twisted into something that barely resembled a human expression.

Back inside the Aier Mechanical Ruins, the final day burned down to its last moments — and then it was over.

White light erupted in cascading waves across the entire ruins.

Every person inside, regardless of cultivation level, regardless of whether their Light Gate had already been repaired — the white light swept over them all and restored every gate completely.

An instant later, a massive pull took hold, dragging them out of the ruins and out of the Land of Origin itself.

Lu Yuan's group was stepping out of an eight-thousand-meter tower when they felt it.

Their expressions shifted. Amy looked almost reluctant.

"Already? That went fast."

Yeye gave a quiet nod. "Mm."

Lu Yuan smiled. "Looks like everyone's being sent out at the same time."

Amy glanced over at him. "We still have resources to divide. Let's handle it the next time we enter the Land of Origin."

Yeye spoke in her usual measured tone. "When we go back in, let's gather in White Cloud City."

"Works for me," Lu Yuan agreed.

There were still items unaccounted for — the Civilization Inheritance Crystals most of all. Those were precious enough to start a fight between Yeye and Amy.

In total, they had cleared twenty-two ten-thousand-meter towers and fifteen eight-thousand-meter towers, and had collected nine Inheritance Crystals between them — an extraordinary wealth of knowledge by any measure.

They agreed on White Cloud City for the next gathering, then stopped resisting the pull and let it sweep them out of the Aier Mechanical Ruins.

As he went, Lu Yuan looked back one last time at the Iron Throne.

In his eyes, an invisible thread stretched out through the air — and at its far end, the Iron Throne held fast.