The resounding voice of the team's captain echoed through the air as he shouted, "Everyone! Check your equipment! We start moving in 30 minutes! "

...

As the group meticulously rechecked their gear, a team of twenty stood in perfect order, their gazes fixed upon the hazy silhouette of a city looming within a massive hole.

Among them was a solitary healing expert, three formation masters, three specialists in dealing with traps. While the remaining members possessed various skills, with the lowest cultivation at the Origin Transformation great realm, of them there was three at team captain's level making them the members with the highest cultivation in the group.

Standing at a distance from the group was an old man, so emaciated that he looked like nothing more than skin and bones, with just a hint of flesh, a feeble facade to ward off any remarks about his emaciated state.

Quinn, the elderly butler of the Aeon family, observed the city below with a glint of sharpness in his eyes. His gaze swept lightly but seemingly there was nothing that could escape that gaze,

" I have done as you requested.." Quinn spoke to the air. " There are no Ancient lifeforms within or any lifeform for what it matters. They only need to be wary of low-level traps, which the accompanying guards alone are more than capable of dealing with. I also neutralized any potential sources of danger within the ruins area that's beyond or at the limit of their capabilities.".

Suddenly another voice resounded " I myself am not sure...." with slight hesitation it continued,

" Its just a feeling of unease, I keep feeling something major is about to happened, My prediction had never failed me but there seem to be some kind of barrier that prevents me... I don't know, I'm not even sure if there is a barrier! ".

Listening to such words, old Quinn's eyes squinted, a sharp glint flashed in his eyes as if thinking of something a but dimmed abruptly as he said " I asked around and the reports says that the 1st born is cultivating in a secured location "

" The Saint Roses are accompanying her majesty as she cultivates, while his majesty is at the Imperial palace.... ".

" That leaves us with the youngest! " the voice continued Quinn's sentence.

With a hum the voice replied " Exactly, but nothing seems wrong in this side, who knows maybe I'm just over-reacting "

A silence settled between them as Quinn and the other person ceased their conversation, their expressions filled with contemplation.

Meanwhile, Allen's group began their descent along the edges of the gaping hole. After a few moments, they reached the bottom and stood firmly on the ground.

The air hung still, with a faint dampness. A subtle fluctuation of spiritual energy permeated the surroundings, emanating from beneath the ground.

...

The group split into three teams, with one of the captains leading the way, removing rubble and obstructions on their path with the help of his team members.

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After walking for a couple of hours and navigating through different routes, the group encountered several dead-ends due to giant collapsed rubble that couldn't be moved. eventually they reached the inner part of the city.

Venturing through a collapsed section of the inner city's wall that extended into the distance. The sight of the fallen stores and partially destroyed building alone was telling a story about the grand battle that broke in this land.

The deeper they went the more prominent were the scars of the battles within the inner section

Taking in the surroundings, one of the captains engaged in a brief discussion with the other two before speaking up, " Let's split into teams of at least three individuals each. Remember not to stray too far and exercise caution."

Another captain continued " We will reconvene at this point in four hours. be sure to manage your time efficiently and use the signals to inform us if anything happened. ".

While the others began to regroup and explore the remaining sections of the city, Allen, Charlotte and one of the captains form their own group.

Of the three captains the one accompanying Allen was called Thomas, of the three he specialized in spirit art with spirit cultivation being his main focus.

As the trio started talking to each other they opted for a random direction, embarking to see what the city street's had to hide.

As Allen and Charlotte strolled through the empty dilapidated streets, their heightened spiritual senses allowed them to scan their surroundings,

Through a spirit art Charlotte harnessed a condensed stream of spiritual sense that would penetrate the harder walls whish normal waves of spiritual senses can't go through, viewing within the buildings.

After walking for a long while with no harvest, Allen's enthusiasm was almost non-existent, looking at the dilapidated structures, a fairly preserved building caught his attention. " That building seems well preserved, maybe we can find something in that smith-shop," he remarked.

With renewed enthusiasm, Allen sprinted towards the smith-shop. Waving his hand, a burst of spiritual Origin energy cleared the fallen giant wooden board of the way, retracting his origin energy to his body it formed a thin shield of energy above his skin, as a measure of caution.

Entering the shop, Allen's spiritual sense spread through the space withing, his gaze inspecting the of shelfs on the walls, looking at the items that ranged from small knifes and daggers to bigger ones like spears.

With a number of the shelfs fallen on the ground, Allen looked around, picking one after another of the weapons as he inspected, Allen's renewed enthusiasm was reducing by the moment with each new weapon.

In a mix of annoyance and confusion Allen mused out loud " How can such low level weapons survive till now ? ".

" It should be because of this spirit formation " Came the reply from the side, as Thomas spoke spirit energy glow surrounded his hand that was holding a shelf like the ones holding mounted in the walls

Spirit energy in a semi-gaseous state entered the wooden shelf and an instant later an intricate spirit formation lines emerged in the surface of the wood.

A short distance on the side, Charlotte touched one of the wooden shelfs and similarly imbued it with Spirit energy, Looking at the formation lines that appeared in response to the energy running through it,

With a contemplative look she said " This is a protection formation that would maintain the state of the item it protects. its of a quiet a high rank.".

While talking, Charlotte smoothly removed the shelf and rotated it around then continued talking " However, It's not even that good, its a miracle for this much of weapons to survive. ".

suddenly Thomas voice could be heard " its of a high level but quite useless for anything else ".

Curiosity about the simple protection formation grabbed Allen, removing one of the shelfs from the wall Allen sent spirit energy to it, the spirit energy from Allen was noticeably different from Charlotte's and Thomas's, comparing the obvious bale colour, low density or dim glow, all indicated that Allen's Spirit energy was of a lower rank that the other two.

Moments later the spirit formation lines appeared faintly, enveloping the formation lines with his senses, Allen memorized the formation structure.

Five minutes later the trio left the weapon smith shop and continued their hunt for treasures through the streets of the royal capital

The trio walked through the street and after entering few buildings they ended with a bunch of interesting but not so valuable items.

Time passed as three hours went by, the groups that left to discover the city on their own all gathered back at the designated area.