"I went through all this trouble to come here — wasn't it all for you?"
The old man gazed at his grandson with tender affection.
"Your talent is the finest in our family. With just one more advanced Meditation Method and a magical artifact to support you, reaching the second or third rank will be child's play. You might even have a shot at Morning Star!"
The old man trembled with excitement, practically foaming at the mouth.
This immediately drew an eye-roll from Leilin, hidden in the shadows. As someone who understood the difficulty of advancing to Morning Star better than anyone, he knew the old man's claims were complete nonsense.
If good talent plus an advanced Meditation Method were enough to reach Morning Star, the continent wouldn't be littered with Crystallized Wizards who never managed to advance before their lifespans ran out.
But Leilin didn't dismiss the old man entirely — the other world was simply too vast. Who could say whether the ancestors truly possessed some secret method that could carry someone all the way to Morning Star without hindrance?
"But..." The young grandson hesitated, clearly not buying the old man's claims either. If the tomb hadn't been left by his own ancestors and if the person who'd brought him here wasn't his own grandfather, he would have turned around and left on the spot.
"With my blood, I awaken the soul and honor of the ancestors. The gate to success must lead through the depths of hell..."
The old man produced a silver-white dagger, slit open his wrist, and let the streaming blood fall upon the roots of the tree, all while chanting ceaselessly, as though performing a solemn rite.
But the heavy scent of blood spreading through the air, combined with the eerie surroundings, only made the boy shrink back further.
"Grandfather, look!" Suddenly, his pupils contracted. He tugged at the old man's sleeve and cried out.
Following his gaze, they could see that the blood pooling at the base of the tree roots was being absorbed into the soil and wood at tremendous speed — like water pouring into a sponge.
"This is a defensive formation our family set up. Only the direct bloodline, combined with the proper incantation, can open it..."
The old man explained slowly, but a flicker of doubt had already lit up in Leilin's eyes. "A Bloodline Lock! Another Bloodline Lock! Could they be a warlock family too? There's not a trace of warlock energy on them..."
Crash! After absorbing the old man's blood, the massive walnut tree's branches thrashed wildly and began to tremble, the entire trunk turning a vivid crimson.
Crack! The trunk suddenly split open down the middle, forming a hollow passage. Within it, a downward tunnel could just barely be seen materializing.
"Follow me!" The old man descended first, his grandson hurrying紧 behind, clutching the old man's sleeve tightly with both hands, clearly terrified.
Leilin tilted his head in thought for a moment, then followed.
The tunnel was short, and before long they arrived at a burial chamber.
The old man lit an oil lamp in the center. Under the dim, yellowish glow, everything in the chamber came into Leilin's view.
The chamber was small. On either side stood a gargoyle statue, silent sentinels standing guard.
And between the gargoyles, at the very center, sat a stone sarcophagus, its surface covered with numerous sealing runes.
"K-K-Keek! Keek!" The boy's teeth began chattering uncontrollably. He pulled even harder on his grandfather's sleeve. "There's nothing here... Let's leave quickly. I've got a terrible feeling about this..."
"What are you afraid of?" The old man flicked his sleeve impatiently. A current of air stirred, the breeze sweeping over the oil lamp and dimming the chamber another shade darker.
"Look closely!" The old man's voice was ethereal, laced with barely contained excitement. "I lit this lamp especially so you could see..."
The boy's eyes went wide, and then his pupils dilated.
Through the flickering yellow flame, he could see that the chamber walls were covered with elaborate murals. They depicted the journey of a Wizard Apprentice, from the first rank all the way to the third.
And beyond that came a battle straight out of mythology. The wizard in the mural — the tomb's original owner — had obtained something during the fight and promptly advanced to Morning Star.
The boy squinted as hard as he could, but aside from making out that the ancestor's opponent was a demon covered in scales with countless eyes and arms, he couldn't distinguish anything more.
"This is the most glorious chapter in our ancestor's history. It only appears when this oil lamp is lit..."
The old man's voice brimmed with pride. "If an outsider stumbled in here without knowing about this mechanism, it could very well trigger an attack!"
Leilin hovered in the shadows, and after seeing the murals, something stirred in his mind.
That demon — the one ultimately slain — he had seen before, though on a different set of paintings: "We meet again — Lord of Gluttony — Beilusebabu!"
Leilin's voice was soft, yet resolute.
In the ancient era, an avatar of the Lord of Gluttony descended upon the Wizard Continent, causing immense death and destruction before being slain, its body shattered into countless fragments.
One of those fragments had fallen into the hands of the Quicksand Organization, then passed to Robin, ultimately bringing about the tragedy of the Barber Family.