Outside the freezer, the young disciples called for help from an Elder of a neighbor's sect. He was the leader of the squad responsible for the non-combat strategic missions.

Their job right now was to assess the area abandoned by the monsters.

"Here it is, Sir!" One of them pointed at the room.

They fiercely tried to open the door, but they couldn't. Two even suffered from some backlash.

At first, they didn't think much of it. But after failing repeatedly, some older disciples thought this was too suspicious. So, they decided to look for their leader.

The Elder's expression turned stern after seeing the marks on the door and wall. He estimated how much force that damage would take. And immediately considered the situation more dangerous than he expected.

"Who used their life-bound weapon?" He asked.

The young leader responded, "It was me, Josh, an Inner disciple of Hoog Creek. Second Step Foundation. The overlapping attack was from my Second Step Formation junior. After noticing the backlash, I did not allow her to use her life-bound weapon."

"She still suffered, anyway." The Elder remarked.

After feeling around, he didn't understand how a backlash could happen. There was just not enough energy.

"Step back."

He still didn't underestimate it. So, he prepared an attack of a similar level used by the young man and launched it.

He chose to test the grounds.

However, awkwardness filled the group as the attack effortlessly pierced the door.

But while the young were confused, the Elder became more careful. He had detected an unstable atmosphere inside.

"GET READY TO FIGHT!" He yelled after noticing that the disciples relaxed too much.

"The pieces from the door and wall flew through an invisible and fixed formation. That began melting. BE READY!" He yelled again, giving context.

The young ones were fast on their feet, getting into a supportive formation, ready to help Elder in anything he needed.

Their energy leaped to its most active level, causing many people in the surroundings to notice. And like a domino effect, the whole wing of their army flinched into a state of being ready to fight back.

Cold energy flew out of the room after the runes finally collapsed.

The Elder had his muscle tensed, his Spirit sharpened. Ready to fight.

However, nothing happened.

A dozen seconds passed by, yet, nothing happened.

Noticing that a few peers at his level arrived close by, the Elder slightly let go of his Spirit. He began examining the inside of the room by extending his sense.

It was empty. But not in a way that made him relaxed.

The remains of bodies on the floor held no energy at all. Neither did the pieces of gems, metals, or other rare materials. There was just this piercing coldness that they had all experienced before.

---

Ben had gotten away for now. But not in the way he wanted.

'Hot beaches. Hot beaches. Hot beaches.' He repeated while his whole body shivered.

Ben took the only other exit out. The small tunnel from where the coldness was coming. The diameter was small, so he could only drag himself on the floor. But that was easy. The issue was with the Spirit flow.

Ice formed on his face while his internal energy tried to break it apart, but it failed.

Yet, he pushed through, crawling at a considerable speed, running for his life.

He still couldn't see, hear, or speak, because specialized organs healed much slower. And now, with the coldness overstimulating his Spirit senses, he couldn't feel much either. The density was just too much.

But he kept moving while trying to adapt.

'This should be doable. Holy molly. Don't let it explode! FOCUS! Hot beaches. Hot beaches.' He recited inside his head constantly.

Ben believed he could find a balance since he did become an ice cultivator after building the dual-core.

'Am I becoming too daring?' He considered for a moment.

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He should be able to abuse the cold energy. Because his body got the ability to naturally flow that energy through his new core, which increased resistance against it.

But the density was just too much that even with Ben's level of manipulation mastery, it took way too long. Ben felt like a fish drowning.

After crawling for some time, Ben finally lost his ability to continue.

Laying on the floor, he regretted it.

'Perhaps, shooting a few nukes and running away would've been easier.'

He wanted to turn but couldn't. He could only try to stay focused on whatever position he ended. Since he couldn't see another way out of this, he decided to enter hibernation mode.

However, the density suddenly decreased just before he fell asleep. And Ben's body started moving forward involuntarily.

'WAIT!' Ben stopped his body from falling asleep. With struggle, he also stopped sliding.

'The flow reversed! Is a monster trying to break through?'

The change in density was more than enough for Ben to adapt fast.

He immediately found an equilibrium and started connecting with the flow. His focus was on preparing for if and when the density increased back.

As he kept crawling, he encountered a bifurcation. Going forwards was a tunnel going even deeper with a much higher density than before. To his right, something was sucking Spirit with ridiculous hunger.

'Isn't this unreasonably lucky? What's happening?'

Ben lay down there for a while, finishing his preparation. Since the flow wasn't as dense right now, he drew on his skin numerous runes and then took the time needed to strengthen them.

After finishing, he looked carefully at his hands. His eyes could finally see again.

The ice-blue armor looked beautiful, so he stayed mesmerized for a while, using the time to recover his mind slightly.

'This would fail anywhere else since it's just not efficient. Is this even armor if it can't hold against a First Step Foundation cultivator? Ha, this world must be laughing at me. So, do I need to understand that I need a whole Universe to protect myself against a common chicken? Then what? Will I need another Universe to cast my Fire Ball? Why is it so hard to have fried wings!'

Ben laughed at how from his whole arsenal, one of the worse failures found its use here. And it wasn't for lack of trying, as he tested everything he could remember.

'Well, ain't I lucky? Are the heavens playing a prank on me?' Ben wondered since this was too unusual.

Moving again, he finally arrived at the bifurcation. The flow was wild, but the more it soared, the more the armor solidified, becoming heavier and clunky.

'They dug through here, so this must go somewhere. Wow!'

After Ben extended his sense slightly, he felt many nodes like black holes sucking the coldness. He didn't probe further since he feared the monsters locating him. But he could more or less notice the situation by looking at the energy flow pattern.

It had been a few hours. So, Ben's Spirit sense became sharper around here, like eyes getting used to the dark.

'Well, I wouldn't dare try them out, but I should be able to help the ones outside.' Ben decided to conduct a prank.

He crawled forward, looking for the place this energy originated. However, as he wriggled forward, he began leaving a small imprint of corruption inside the cold.

A considerable amount of energy flowed through him and his armor, so it was bound to build into a spark that might cause deviation. Ben didn't think this would work, but the monsters shouldn't notice it. And if they weren't careful with their intake. Either due to hurriedness or too much trust in the purity of this vein. In that case, the prank would have catastrophic results.

Then, Ben just kept going forward, as he couldn't care more than this. Perhaps it would work, but if it didn't, then some god-like cultivator should come to visit this place. And if they didn't, that only meant the world decided to abandon this place and tag it as a Forbidden Ground.

---

Getting out of the tunnel, Ben was in awe.

"Is this your mother?" Ben joked while looking back at the smaller hole.

'Now, this is a tunnel. The details are just like above ground. So this must be part of their legacy.'

Looking in both directions, Ben could imagine how the whole system must form an ant-nest-like structure.

"A megastructure." The following silence was deafening.

Ben couldn't feel signs of the fight going above anymore. Nor was the monster's hunger noticeable once he began walking again. It was just him and this shadow of the past.

"Sunset must've had a unique technique." Ben talked out loud but almost couldn't hear himself.

'If they could move around in this place, no wonder the legends said they held for dozens of thousands of years. Whoever it was, they had a lot of conviction to spare. Now I get it. If people needed to swim in lava to use a geothermal generator, wouldn't such a plant be abandoned on Earth?'

Once Ben found architecture markings this deep, the whereabouts he could expect a Control Formation Array to be in dived down.

'Powerhouses at the top might be able to explore this to some degree. But if the structure is big enough, it's not worth it. If the control center is too deep, the city becomes a liability. The benefits are also not absolute. The Sunset Empire failing is the biggest proof.'

Ben kept walking, following the same strategy.

He would go toward where the flow came from until he reached his limit and had to return.

But today, he ended up pleasantly surprised.

'I'm becoming terrified. What's happening?'

He found a Formation Room. It might not be the only one around, but the monsters dug into the exact vein that would lead here.

Feeling the awe setting down, Ben paused. His appearance changed quite a bit as he became icy blue.

A loose crochet-like fragile-looking armor covered him.

His whole body was frozen, and any movement made cracking sounds.

'It's too dense, so I can't sense much. But despite the change, it doesn't feel as cold.'

Fortunately, this place was at least dim-lit, so he didn't go around blind. He could see this sight slightly.

At the center, an altar-like structure stood proudly. Around it, many small platforms formed circles, the type that people generally sat on and meditated on. Unfortunately, the place emitted a feeling of abandonment since the owners were long gone.

The whole room built a support formation. And Ben could guess that the main piece of it was likely inside the ground. Maybe, the complete system of veins was part of it.

'Did they truly die off? It's cold and hot. I'm frozen and not. While my ice node is singing happily, my fire node is cracking because of this place pressure. Where's all the heat going if not leaking above?'

Ben discovered that these Ruins used a Dual Spirit Vein. However, while two types came in, only one got out.

'Maybe throwing top-notch cultivator around here to get control of this would be worth it.'

Unfortunately, Ben couldn't discover the ins and outs of this system. The whole thing was too complicated and layered with all kinds of protections. Even guessing some stuff was too hard.

'Time eats everything. If even standing around is such a burden, how can I discover how this works?'

Tiredness washed his body as Ben's initial shock crumbled away.

But, while he could stay around doing guesswork, he would not.

Hopeful, Ben sat on one of the platforms closest to the center and began reshaping his dual node.

After almost five thousand years, he might finally become a complete First Step Formation Cultivator, having a core of his own.