Entering the Treasure Trove

  While the others focused on recovering their qi, the Genesis Foundation experts quickly formed a perimeter around the elites. After all, if something happened to them, it would mean that the gain their forces could get would be reduced.

  While the rest focused on protecting the experts, Ryker silently headed toward the entrance. His movement was only sensed by the Genesis Source expert, who didn't bother blocking him. After all, he knew of the young man and his purpose of coming close to the entrance.

  When he reached close enough, he went to Baron, who nodded at his presence. He gave the token to the Baron, who merely nodded. "Your part had already been sent to your group. The young master of the Hal Family will make sure they would receive it,"

  Ryker nodded, before he, once again, moved stealthily away from the Baron, heading towards where the group was at. With his job done, he could prepare himself for both gathering resources and dishing out vengeance for Era.

  -x-

  After an hour, the forces quickly head towards the entrance, where a large number of Genesis Source experts float near the entrance, with someone at the Genesis Spring realm even present.

  "Before we opened the entrance, I would want to put some ground rule," the Genesis Spring expert said, his very words even made some of the weaker cultivators fall on their knees. While setting some ground rules seemed to be ridiculous, they knew it was done to avoid excessive killing, leading to the weakening of some of the weaker vassal nations.

  "The first rule would be the resources located at the periphery would be on the basis, first come first serve. Do not fight over it, as our prodding had shown that most of the resources would be plentiful.

  The second rule is to avoid excessive killing. While we couldn't stop all of you from killing anyone, we would like for all of you to not kill indiscriminately. If you can get away with it, then we couldn't do anything. But if the forces behind the group you kill decided to take revenge, then we wouldn't stop them.

  Those are the two rules. Now we will open the entrance," as the Genesis Spring expert said it, he took out a token, which flew to the pillar blocking the entrance. When the token hit the pillar, it seemed to cause the entire area to shake.

  The shake lasted for a mere 10 seconds, but the effect had been instant. A huge gate, the size of a small hill appeared from where the pillar was. The gate then opened, showing an area that differed from the surroundings.

  The one that was about to enter could only let out awed voices, the realm inside making them question something and cementing their belief that the place was created by a Saint realm expert.

  "You can enter now," the voice of the Genesis Spring expert sounded like thunder, making every force run into the entrance, some even pushing one another as they tried to enter the place.

  As for the more powerful forces, they decided to wait for a bit. While there are treasures at the periphery, it would be at the lower level. They would save their energy for more precious resources.

  -x-

  The Genesis Spring expert watched as the last of the gathered people entered the secret realm. He looked at the Baron, "To think this place would have a secret realm belonging to an Earth Source realm expert,"

  The Baron nodded. The arrival of the Genesis Spring expert had been to confirm the level of inheritance. The only reason why they were even allowed to handle the competition instead of handing over the ownership to the kingdom was because of three reasons.

  One is that the secret realm is just a broken one. While a secret realm of an Earth Source expert when he fell would create treasures that could aid even Saint in breaking through, this was merely a part of it, akin to the hand of an entire body.

  While the treasures created would still be useful, they would only help those at the Genesis Grand realm as the secret realm couldn't even create treasures that were able to increase the cultivation realm of the Noble realm, making its value drop.

  Secondly, the infighting between the forces in Mariz Barony had weakened them, making them more susceptible to an invasion from another nation. To avoid such a thing, the kingdom had decided to use the secret realm as a way to boost the Barony's strength.

  The resources from the selling of the entry token, plus whatever resources the Barony main group was able to procure would be used to strengthen their forces without much aid from the kingdom. The kingdom would still send some help but it would help increase the barony's strength in the long run.

  As for the third reason, it was to avoid other forces from trying to covet the secret realm. While a Sovereign realm expert could only be found in the capital, mostly being at the top of the hierarchy, much less a Saint realm, the treasure trove left behind by such an expert is something the forces had as the area was renowned to be a former battleground.

  While it was still rare to find a treasure trove belonging to a Saint, every kingdom would have one or two such places, making it important but not as much. However, an expert at the Source Grand Realm inheritance would be a different story.

  Only one such place had been found, resulting in a horrible war that led to the destruction of many vassal nations and even some kingdoms. In the end, the Adventure Guild intervenes, creating a formation to prevent the local forces from entering with the exception of the specified time.

  They also created a restriction to prevent those above the Genesis Grand realm from entering. Making it a competition between those at the Genesis Grand realm, creating a proxy battle between them.

  If it was found out that the Birak Kingdom tried to monopolize such a thing, it would lead to a horrible war again, this time the Birak Kingdom would likely meet their end. To avoid such a fate, allowing one of the vassal nations to control the place would be the best.

  If they found clues of where the main body of the secret realm was, then it would be beneficial. They could explore the place first before giving it to the Adventure Guild, making other powerful forces stop coming after them.

  After all, they wouldn't want to earn the ire of the Adventure Guild.