Death... and me

Zandolf then told Rean, Essefy, and Kentucky how he got his injuries. "In the end, it seems like controlled units can't activate the gate's defense mechanism. Perhaps there is something that checks one cultivation or some other requirement for the gate to attack."

Rean and Essefy looked at the door and had absolutely no intention whatsoever to get close to it. Zandolf almost died, which meant they would die for sure if the door attacked them. "Have you seen any other we could take, senior Zandolf?" Rean asked

Zandolf shook his head. "No. But then again, you can see what appears in our Divine Senses. Perhaps I simply missed some other hidden passage since I couldn't use it."

Well, on their way here, Kentucky was with them. If there was something that could be seen with the eyes, Kentucky would probably have noticed. Rean then contacted Sister Orb, asking her about the issue. 'What do you think, Sister Orb? Is it some formation?'

[If it is, it is way above what the system can detect,] Sister Orb said. [I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, though. I mean, this gate almost killed Zandolf. A formation capable of making the Divinity Realm Middle Stage cultivator die in an instant is definitely above the Divine Level. Obviously, that would be a Legendary Level one.]

'What about you, Roan?' Rean knew Roan was watching, so he asked.

'Hard to say,' Roan answered. 'For now, try asking Zandolf about these cubic images. They are colored, just like the colored flames of the Essence Race, but it is a cube. Perhaps there is a clue behind it.'

Rean didn't waste time. "Senior Zandolf. We have seen ever since we entered this place that instead of the flame symbols, there are now these colored cubes, including the two on th door. What can you tell us about it?"

Unfortunately, Zandolf was clueless. "I wish to know that myself."

"Then how did you find the clues that led to these ruins?" Rean continued his questions.

Zandolf pondered a bit and started to tell what he knew. "After the war started, I finally had the chance to explore the Essence Race Ruins in several locations. Through my research, several times I saw these specific ruins being mentioned... No, to be more specific, it wasn't the ruins themselves. Instead, it was a member of the Essence Race that lived here."

He continued. "This Essence Race member was called Huban. From what I found, and also the reason for my research, he was an Essence Race being that almost succeeded in surpassing the Divinity Realm. I don't know about the details, but I do believe this Essence Race found some alternative way to make this attempt. That's what I'm looking for."

"Knowing that this Essence Race called Huban lived here, I waited until our army finally advanced enough. Now that we are close, I came to check. I spent quite a long time in these ruins, looking for the clues of Huban. I went into pretty much all the main buildings... or what was left of them. But in the end, I found nothing."

"It was then that I had an idea. If such a secret really existed, I wouldn't really leave it where anyone could find it. But then again, where could I even start? There are hundreds of kilometers of ruins, after all. Finally, I found a clue in one of the ruins that said that Huban didn't only stay in his confinements. He often went out to talk with the cultivators, demon beasts, spirits, and his own Essence Race members who lived in these ruins back when it was a city. He seemed to have no prejudice against anyone."

"The rest you can probably imagine. If Huban even spent time with the weak beings, perhaps there was something where these weak beings lived in the past. I checked quite a few thousand still-standing residences until I finally saw that table. Now, here I am."

Rean and Kentucky weren't that surprised. All Divinity Realm experts have been looking for a way to surpass the Divinity Realm itself. They just didn't expect the Essence Race to have almost succeeded in it. "Sigh... I can understand why you are here, but that gives us no clues of how to get past this gate."

Rean then looked at Essefy, who seemed to be in deep thought. "Have you figured something out?"

"Ah!" Essefy was taken aback for a moment. "Well... the Essence Race has been wiped out such a long time ago. I was just wondering why this gate's protection mechanism is still working. Can a formation really last this long? Besides, we can't forget that the environment has been changed by the Devils. There is plenty of Devilish Energy and high concentration of Dark Element in the air."

Rean understood. "That's weird indeed."

Zandolf, still feeling lost, asked. "What are you talking about?"

Rean then explained. "What Essefy meant was that talking about was that with the environment as it is, any formation from back then would have long since deteriorated. It truly has been too long, and the Devilish Energy and Dark Element would make even the best of formations crumble down by now. After all, if the formation isn't made with these two energies in mind, they would absorb these energies and get damaged after a while."

Essefy nodded. "But this gate still has the power to kill senior Zandolf. Isn't that weird?"

Zandolf narrowed his eyes. "Could you mean..."

Rean nodded, seeing that Zandolf understood. "The only way for it to still be working... is that someone kept up with its maintenance." Of course, Rean didn't mention that Sister Orb couldn't feel the presence of any formation in this place. However, he didn't discard the possibility that there is a Legendary Level formation that the system can't detect.

Zandolf found it hard to believe. "Could it really be there some Essence Race members are alive on the other side of this thing?"

"Perhaps..." Rean shrugged his shoulders. But in any case, he might have found exactly what he was looking for.