"Luo Tian?" Gu Tian looked at the youth with slightly effeminate features, who seemed genuinely surprised to see her there.
She recognized him immediately. No wonder he arrived first, she thought, forcing a greeting to mask her unease.
"Brother Su Feng, it seems you have arrived before me," she said, adopting a respectful tone.
Su Feng nodded and moved toward her, but his eyes, which had once been warm, were now icy and vigilant.
"I have questions that I hope you can answer, Luo Tian," he declared, his right hand gripping the hilt of his sword firmly.
At the sight of the weapon, Gu Tian could not help but grow nervous. In her current state, Su Feng could kill her with a single strike without the slightest effort. Although she possessed the protective treasures the Gu family had given her to escape, she would still be trapped within the confines of this Secret Realm; it would only be a matter of time before he tracked her down again. She had to weigh every word with extreme caution if she wanted to avoid a fatal outcome just as she was one step away from achieving her goal.
Before she could articulate a response, Su Feng took a step forward, closing the distance.
"Coming to this place was no coincidence. You wanted to lead us away for a reason, didn't you?" Su Feng asked, his voice laced with sharp suspicion.
Gu Tian remained silent for a moment. Knowing that excuses would be futile against someone so perceptive, she decided to be direct.
"You are right. I came here with a clear purpose, and I possess knowledge regarding this Secret Realm," she replied immediately, meeting his gaze.
Su Feng did not seem surprised by the confession. "Then, do you know how to get out of here?" he inquired.
Gu Tian hesitated for a moment before communicating internally: Master...
"As soon as someone inherits the legacy of this Secret Realm, the exit will appear naturally," Luo Yan responded from within her mind, her tone listless and apathetic.
Gu Tian nodded slightly and repeated her master's words to Su Feng: "The exit will only manifest once someone claims the legacy of this place."
"A bit too convenient, don't you think?" Su Feng said as he advanced slowly.
Although the answer was what he expected, his hand did not move a single millimeter from the hilt of his sword. In truth, he didn't mind having been dragged to this place; he even considered it a small adventure. However, being led blindly by someone he had barely known for a few hours stirred a logical distrust. If that person obtained the inheritance and tried to dispose of him, what would happen to his sisters and elder brother waiting outside? Even if he managed to survive, he could not bear the guilt of having let them die through such a simple oversight.
Even so, he eventually lowered his sword. He didn't know how to leave or where the legacy was located; searching for it without a clear guide would take too much time.
"Where is the legacy, then?" Su Feng asked while sheathing his weapon.
Gu Tian, seeing the situation resolve itself, breathed a sigh of relief internally. "It is in this very place."
"Here? In this wrecked site?" he questioned, looking around. There seemed to be nothing but ash and ruins.
Master... Gu Tian called out mentally.
"Approach the center of the palace," Luo Yan explained. "The access is hidden because someone partially remodeled this place. You will have to break the floor a bit to reveal it."
Following her master's instructions, Gu Tian walked toward the center of the hall and pointed firmly at the ground. "It is right here," she declared.
Su Feng looked down, but found nothing out of the ordinary on the floor tiles. "What is that supposed to mean?" he asked. Though he had his own theories, he had no intention of getting lost in conjecture and sought a direct answer.
"This place was remodeled by someone other than the original creator of this Secret Realm. Whoever did it hid the key to access the legacy beneath this structure," Gu Tian explained.
"Why would they go to such trouble?" Su Feng inquired skeptically. If the goal was to hide the legacy, there were much simpler and more effective methods; such a display seemed quite inefficient to him.
"I don't know; perhaps they wanted to prevent a third party from obtaining it. Regardless, the only way to gain access is by breaking the floor."
Su Feng nodded and raised his sword. Immediately, a massive amount of spiritual energy began to converge on the blade, and with a single downward motion, he shattered the floor into a thousand pieces.
Gu Tian stood stunned by the magnitude of the impact. That strike... isn't it equivalent to the power of the Foundation Establishment stage? she asked herself.
"Impressive..." Her master, witnessing it, could not help but marvel. "Although this strength was common in the ancient era, finding something like this in this age is surprising..."
As the dust and debris cleared, the floor revealed not earth or rock, but a jet-black metallic surface engraved with runes that pulsed faintly with a crimson light.
"A sealing array?" Su Feng frowned, sheathing his sword as he observed how the cracks in the floor stopped right at the edge of the metal.
Gu Tian approached cautiously. Master, is this it?
"Yes... but something is wrong," Luo Yan's voice sounded unusually tense. "That seal is not mine. Someone placed a blood lock over my legacy. To open it, something more than brute force is required."
Gu Tian swallowed hard under the intense gaze of Su Feng, who was waiting for a clear explanation before making his next move.
"The person who made the modifications also added a formation array to prevent anyone from opening it," she explained, trying to remain calm.
Su Feng watched her intently, analyzing her every gesture. "Then, what needs to be done now?" he asked coldly.
"The mechanism requires a blood offering from someone with a pure spiritual lineage... or, failing that, the energy of a compatible core," Gu Tian replied.
Hearing this, Su Feng's eyes narrowed with suspicion, gleaming with a dangerous light.
"You want me to imbue my spiritual energy into that thing?" he asked directly, never taking his eyes off her. "Or is it my blood you truly want?"
The air in the palace seemed to grow heavier. Su Feng was no fool; he knew that in the world of cultivators, offering blood or energy to an unknown formation was often a death sentence or a way to become bound to a trap.
Gu Tian, who also knew this, could only swallow hard. "I…"