‘There really isn’t much here…’

Zhang Dong, was now looking at a room that had been turned upside down. After going through the PC he attempted to find other information that could at least help him out of the current problem.

The person living here was probably the same that he saw after running into the first proper cube. At the twilight of his years, he decided to ascend to the immortal realm as he could not fully cut himself away from the system.

There were some possibilities here, the man could have been over-exaggerating of what happened after one ascended. He could have still been alive to this very day. This old man was convinced that there was something out there and that it was out to get him. If he transcended the nascent soul realm fully, he was done for.

From Zhang Dong’s perspective that was one of the possibilities. There were various other worlds out there besides this one. This person might have just been transported into the next stage of the adventure and with the increased realm could have lived to this day.

There were traces left of him in those energy cubes that were trying to contact him. While he wasn’t sure if it was the same person it pointed towards him. There was no new information in this room that he didn’t already know. If he didn’t visit the other world before coming here he would probably be shocked to make this discovery.

‘This guy probably didn’t keep many books or notes around…’

He started rubbing his chin after looking at the room that he turned upside down. The person he was dealing with was a system user. The system could store all the information in the user’s brain. There was no purpose of writing things down or keeping any outside data storage.

What he was looking, for now, was any old records about the war that this old system holder went through. The computer that was working the data was encrypted and corrupt. He had Bob try to examine it all but there was just too much to go through.

It wasn’t possible to divide the important information, he could only order Bob to decrypt from the start to the end. If he got anything worthwhile out of it that was unknown to him, the first batch of information could just give him a list of useless techniques that he already knew and not the historical records he needed.

He wanted to unplug this ancient computer and take it with him. There was a small problem as it was connected to the router which granted him access to the cameras in this place. It also could be used to open some previously hidden rooms that led out of this room. Thus for the time being he decided to leave it here, after he was done exploring he would decide if he would take it with him.

It seemed that everything had been plugged into this PC but it was an ancient treasure. It had probably been two hundred thousand years since this place had been constructed. This device could be just as old and it was slowly falling apart. The materials that they were made with were strange and unfamiliar to him.

‘I guess I can only continue, can’t put a teleportation point here. It was clear that this person didn’t want other system users to just be able to invade his home.’

After using the computer he was able to open a side room. The door slid to the side to reveal another corridor that he was now going through. This time around the journey was a lot shorter.

“Was this the rest of his home?”

When he walked out he was greeted to an overgrown mansion, it was covered in various plants and vines. This place had not been put into stasis which probably caused everything to continue growing. Besides the plants he could not spot any life signals though, not even insects existed.

This home looked like a regular house that would probably be able to contain a family of four or five. There was a wooden fence along with a garage that was open. In the garage, he could see a replica of an old car model that he once saw in a magazine.

“Did he remake his old family home here?”

It seemed that the cultivator that created this place had a longing for his old life, one that was stronger than Zhang Dong’s. He cherished his current new family more than the one he left. This made sense as this man did put himself through some kind of life-prolonging process.

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He clearly didn’t care that much about the people here, if he did growing old with them would probably be more important than leaving. To Zhang Dong doing something like outgrowing his children would feel strange, he would rather pave the way for them so that his kids had a brighter future.

But this did align with this person’s goals as well, he needed to know what was out there. A chance of this world being erased at a whim was a possibility. From what he could tell that only when a system user was dead or ascended was another one chosen. Thus if he killed Wang Long something that he had not planned could come to pass.

‘What if this world was reset or put into a new state of being by an overseer…’

This was one of the biggest fears that he had now. What if the death of Wang Long put everything at risk that he had fought for. What if instead of letting this world continue there would be a reset switch pressed and everyone that he loved disappeared?

Previously he was not sure about Wang Long’s origins but now after watching the videos it was clear. The man clearly stated that unless the original system user was somehow severed from the system a new one would not be summoned.

Through his encounter with this place, he had died and severed the connection to the system. He had become a free agent while Wang Long was now the current official system holder. When he died another one would be summoned but the second scenario was already playing out, the war between Empires had been started.

When the thread connecting him to the main system was erased he was still a core formation expert. There weren’t that many changes that he made to the world, there was no reason to reset the scenario. Wang Long could just start from another location as not even a year had passed since he was summoned to this world.

But now there was a big difference, if he died in the middle of this struggle would the world be altered by an outside force? This was a possibility, he needed more answers, for the time being containing Wang Long in a prison would be the better option but also harder to accomplish.

He finally continued inside, the whole place was overgrown with weeds and signs of corrosion was everywhere. This home looked like it had come from some kind of dystopian future. The moment he went to open the door the hinges came off and the whole thing fell down.

On the inside, grass and vines were everywhere. The stairs to the second level had collapsed and everything here certainly didn’t last the test of time. Nothing looked usable and it was clear that this was just a place that this person used to relax.

This was not why he came here, after going through that pc there was supposed to be a special chamber that he was looking for. There was supposed to be an entrance here. He finally found himself in what looked to be an office. Old destroyed books and a half-collapsed desk were there.

On the desk, he spotted a picture frame that depicted a family of four. Somehow the picture had survived to this very day, it had to have been made with more resistant materials. On it, he could see two kids with their parents. The boy that was next to the father reminded him somewhat of the old man that he saw in the videos.

“This must have been his previous family, he certainly longed for the good old times… the entrance should be behind the bookshelf…”

After glancing at the photo he moved to the wall, there he discovered another passage to a large white room. The walls looked to be made with the same hard material.

“Hm, perhaps this stuff can’t be made into anything else than this white wall?”

He hoped to find some indestructible weapons for the coming battles but perhaps these walls were specially made through some contrived way that didn’t translate into smaller items like swords. This room was large and down in the middle, there was some kind of container.

“This is…”

This container had many large tubes connecting to it which hadn’t aged that well either. From the PC he used this was clearly the stasis room which meant that this container had been used to prolong this man’s life.

He somewhat expected to see some old bones that were leftover but instead he only found some rags. The material had decomposed through the years but it was certainly something that was worn before.

“Was this the place where he also ascended?”

The container looked a bit more modern with its design, the metal it was crafted from was somewhat rusted over but the shape had been kept. This looked like some kind of cryogenic pod that the creator of this secret ground had probably used to sleep through many thousands of years.

The tubes that were connected to it had faint traces of spiritual energy in them. Zhang Dong thus theorized that this device was somehow absorbing spiritual energy from some kind of source.

“There it is!”

When he followed the residual spiritual energy he arrived at the wall, but this time around this wasn’t a dead end. With the help of Bob that came from this place, he was able to access a hidden panel that revealed a hidden power source.

“A nucleus.”

It was one of the cubes that he always looked for. These small treasures could store a lot of energy and last through the ages. His predecessor knew this well and certainly used it to power at least part of this place.

At first, he was planning to take it and absorb all of the spiritual energy it had. There was a small problem as he didn’t think that it would have much power left. If he removed it from here, the whole secret ground could collapse or become open to any invaders from the outside.

“I guess it's good to know that It’s here, I could use it as a trump card if I ever need it but for now it is probably safer here than in my possession.”

There were still some spirit stones for him to go through. Advancing too fast could also bring the ire of an overseer on him. Thus, for now, he would let this relic rest here while he sought after other options for the coming war.