72: Chapter 10 Deep Within the Ruins

Lu Li descended the ancient stone steps steadily. About a quarter of an hour later, the changes in the surrounding environment became clearly perceptible.

The spiritual particles floating in the air grew denser. The spiritual detection needle in his hand had long since faded from the pale blue it held when he first entered the ruins, turning completely into a deep, dark blue. At this moment, the needle rested steadily on the edge of the deep purple zone.

The stone walls on both sides were densely engraved with the ancient history of the Antigonus Family. Winding, intertwined snake-like characters stretched from the entrance of the ruins to the end of his line of sight, and within every crevice of the strokes, thread-like filaments of dark silver light were embedded.

Sensing the lingering warmth of the jiaowei, countless filaments of light lit up in succession, appearing like pairs of cold snake eyes suddenly opening in the pitch-black, dim passageway.

At the end of the passage, a bronze door stood half-ajar, engraved with the exact same snake-like circular pattern as the entrance to the ruins.

Behind the door was a vast circular hall with a high, empty dome. In the center of the hall stood a heavy stone altar.

On the surface of the altar sat an open bronze box. The box was empty, save for a very thin layer of grayish-white dust settled at the bottom.

The moment the spiritual detection light swept over it, the fine dust rippled with a faint silver glow. This was the ash left after the finger bone had been incinerated.

Lu Li understood. At the end of the fourth epoch, it was here that Roselle Gustav had mortgaged his right index finger to the Snake of Fate. The ritual from back then would, upon the activation of the token, completely decompose the mortgaged finger bone into spiritual dust, leaving behind only this thin layer of residual ash.

The ground surrounding the altar was carved with dense, intricate Hermes script. The entire content matched perfectly with the encrypted information on the back of the pendant and brooch he carried; it was the debt contract of fate, engraved by Roselle Gustav himself.

Lu Li crouched down and checked it line by line with the detection light, quickly discovering an anomaly. The last line of the contract had been precisely crossed out by a sharp ritual dagger. The scratch was fresh and clean, with a wisp of faint spiritual luster lingering at the edges; it had clearly been altered recently.

The erasure of the last line of the contract meant that the original repayment conditions of this ancient debt, which had continued for a thousand years, had been unilaterally tampered with.

"You have come." A low, steady human voice suddenly rang out from behind the altar. It was not a spiritual whisper, nor was it mental communication; it was a real sound wave. The voice echoed back and forth in the empty hall, taking a long time to slowly dissipate.

Lu Li looked up to see a figure wearing a dark gray cloak walking slowly out from the shadows behind the altar. The person was of medium build, with a hood pulled low, obscuring most of their face, revealing only a jawline with cold, hard lines and a pair of hands wearing pure black gloves.

In their hand, they held a ritual dagger with a special design; the blade was covered in familiar snake-like patterns—it was the very one Ince Zangwill had lost in the ruins of the Textile Factory.

Lu Li locked his gaze on the shadow beneath the hood, his tone firm, every word clear: "You prepared all the materials I needed for Sequence 7 in the locker in advance, told me the timing for boarding the ghost ship, and the deadline for Old Kohler's debt."

"Every step of your layout has been guiding me to step into these Antigonus Ruins to settle a thousand-year-old debt."

"You are not a member of the Aurora Order, not Ince, and not Roy King."

"You are the manager in charge of this debt of fate."

The cloaked figure did not deny it, tacitly accepting his deduction. He placed the ritual dagger gently on the altar surface, then took out a silver snake-shaped pendant from inside his cloak. The shape and patterns were identical to the one Lu Li carried with him. The only difference was that the Hermes script on the back of the pendant was in a completely mirrored, reversed state. The two pendants were originally two halves of the same token of fate. One belonged to the debtor, the other to the creditor; they were paired, and neither could be missing.

Lu Li instantly pieced together the backstory. The Snake of Fate had gifted Roselle Gustav a complete token back then. Roselle Gustav had split it into two halves, keeping one as proof of the debt and entrusting the other to someone he absolutely trusted. And the person before him was the descendant of the person entrusted back then, the legitimate successor and executor of this ancient debt.

Lu Li took out the snake emblem token, which he had pieced together in his pocket, and placed the Sealed Artifact box containing the jiaowei gently on one side of the altar, asking in a deep voice: "You are not hiding under the guise of the client; you are the descendant of the person Roselle Gustav entrusted the token to, having come specifically to complete this thousand-year-long repayment finale."

"But you crossed out the clause for the 'equivalent item' in the last line of the contract."

"What exactly did you change?"

The cloaked figure tapped his fingertip on the incomplete contract on the altar, his tone calm and waveless: "The original contract rules were simple: Roselle Gustav mortgaged a finger to pay the debt, and his descendants could use an item of equivalent value to repay it on his behalf."

"As a Grade 3 Sealed Artifact, the jiaowei's spiritual weight and Sequence status are fully up to standard, sufficient to replace the value of a finger."

"If you use the jiaowei to repay the debt, the old debt will be cleared, the token will be destroyed, and the seal of these ruins will be closed permanently."

He changed the subject, revealing the core truth: "But what the Snake of Fate demanded was never a mortal finger."

"What it wanted was the source that the finger carried—the Angel-level advancement qualification for the 'Door' of the Apprentice Pathway."

"The jiaowei can cover the mundane spiritual difference, but it can never replace the unique source of the 'Door' status."

Lu Li's eyes narrowed slightly: "So, it must be completely repaid with power related to the 'Door'?"

"Or, make up the difference with a source infinitely close to the 'Door'." The cloaked figure slowly revealed the final solution, "The jiaowei offsets the vast majority of the debt; the remaining small gap will be made up with the Sequence 9 characteristic fragment of the Apprentice Pathway within you."

"I have repeatedly calculated based on the rules of spiritual equivalence; the power of the Sealed Artifact plus the initial Apprentice characteristic, the combined status weight of the two, is exactly equal to the advancement source Roselle Gustav mortgaged back then, fully meeting the repayment standard."

Lu Li pondered silently for a moment, quickly weighing the pros and cons. The Sequence 9 characteristic of the Apprentice Pathway was the core foundation of his secondary Pathway. Once stripped away, all his Apprentice-related spatial perception and Lock Picking capabilities would temporarily reset to zero until he re-advanced to Sequence 9. However, his main Pathway was Marauder, and he was now a Sequence 7 Swindler; his core abilities would not be damaged in the slightest.

On the other hand, the jiaowei, although a Sealed Artifact that had been with him for a long time, had already completed its mission. He had long since completely digested the Prometheus potion, and now that he had advanced to Swindler, the jiaowei was no longer an indispensable foundation for advancement. To settle a shackle of fate that had continued since the fourth epoch with two non-core assets was a price well within an acceptable range.

"I agree." Lu Li looked up, making his decision. "But I have one condition."

"After the debt is settled and the seal of the ruins is completely closed, all Antigonus bloodline marks here will become completely invalid. The backup runes that the Aurora Order relies on to open the ruins are all derived from these bloodline marks."

"I want to witness with my own eyes all their backup runes disintegrating and becoming ineffective."

"That is part of the contract's inherent closing rules."

The cloaked figure said no more, raising the ritual dagger and lightly slicing his left index finger with the tip. A drop of bright red blood rolled off, falling precisely onto the carved lines of the ancient contract. The moment the blood drop touched the stone surface, it spread rapidly along the lines of the Hermes script, instantly staining the entire contract a dark, dull blood red. He then turned the hilt and handed the dagger, stained with spiritual blood, to Lu Li. Lu Li took the dagger, followed suit by slicing his index finger, and dripped his own blood into the center of the contract. The instant the two drops of blood from different holders merged, a sudden change occurred.

Inside the Sealed Artifact box, the unique silver-white flames of the jiaowei suddenly surged, breaking through the constraints of the furnace, and poured into the empty bronze box along the lines of the altar. At the same time, deep within Lu Li's spiritual circuit, a very thin thread of silver-white light was forced out. That was his core Sequence 9 characteristic fragment of the Apprentice, which flowed along the blood lines into the bronze box together with the flame power of the jiaowei. The words "Equivalent Item" that had been crossed out on the contract suddenly ignited with dark red flames. The fire spread rapidly along the dense carvings, instantly covering the entire altar. After the flames burned out, a new line of Hermes script slowly appeared on the mottled stone surface, clear and solemn: [Debt cleared. Token destroyed. Seal permanently solidified.]

The residual ash of Roselle Gustav's finger bone at the bottom of the bronze box completely dissolved in the dark red flames, turning into absolute nothingness. The two halves of the snake emblem token in Lu Li's and the other's hands simultaneously shattered on their own. The breaks were smooth and clean, with no trace of external damage; it was purely the result of the spiritual source that had carried the thousand-year debt being completely exhausted and disintegrating on its own. The two silver fragments slid down and fell gently onto the edge of the altar. The silver-white flames churning within the Sealed Artifact box extinguished completely, with only a thin wisp of white smoke slowly rising and drifting away, leaving no trace.

The will of the ruin's array, which had been silent for a long time, emitted a final, low, and distant hum. All the spiritual fluctuations, contract shackles, and bloodline marks that had remained for a thousand years fell into deathly silence. The heavy stone door slowly closed inward, cutting off the last glimmer of light in the hall. Just as the stone door was about to close completely, Lu Li raised his hand to pick up the two silver fragments from the side of the altar. They were no longer tokens of fate carrying destiny, but just ordinary silver pieces burned through by the thousand-year-old debt. He tucked the fragments properly into his inner pocket, picked up the completely empty Sealed Artifact box of the jiaowei, turned around, and followed the stone steps toward the exit of the ruins.

The cloaked figure followed silently behind him, saying nothing the entire time; only the steady footsteps of the two people echoed step by step throughout the ruins. The moment he stepped out of the ruins, the cold moonlight poured down, covering the gray sea of fog outside the entrance. The ghost ship that had originally been anchored in the Sea of Wraith had already departed; at the end of the pier, only the phantom image of the gangway formed by the fog remained, slowly dissipating bit by bit.

The fire of the jiaowei had been completely reclaimed, and his foundation for advancement at the Prometheus stage was indeed damaged. But this was the due price for mortgaging and repaying the debt; it was not about loss, but about fulfilling the contract. Fortunately, he had long since digested the Prometheus potion and stabilized his Sequence foundation as a Swindler; this loss did not affect his combat strength or subsequent advancement in the slightest.

Lu Li shouldered the empty Sealed Artifact box, stepped on the phantom image of the gangway made of fog that had not yet completely dissipated, and walked steadily toward the end of the pier. Although the ghost ship had gone far away, the full moon was approaching, and the tides of the Sea of Wraith were continuously moving closer to the real world. The surface of the Hoi River was shrouded in dense sea fog, and the faint residual spatial fluctuations were enough for him to rely on his remaining Apprentice perception to lock onto the direction back to Backlund.

Passing by the inner wall of the closed stone door, Lu Li caught a glimpse of his projected shadow. The edges of its outline were surrounded by a layer of very faint silver-white light, hazy and fragmented. It was unclear whether it was the last lingering warmth before the fire of the jiaowei dissipated, or the brief afterglow produced by his spiritual circuit self-adjusting after the Apprentice characteristic was stripped away. He did not stop to investigate.

The thousand-year-old debt had been settled, the seal of the ruins was completely solidified, and all the backup bloodline runes of the Aurora Order were rendered invalid. But the crisis had not yet ended. In the city of Backlund, the blood altar that the Aurora Order had been preparing for a long time would be fully activated by the night of the full moon at the latest. The night was deep, the road ahead was pressing, and he had to return as soon as possible.