It was easy to figure out what had happened: someone had found the Feng Clan's artifact in Asia; they experimented on it; they found out it could be stimulated to release unique energy that could be harnessed and turned into electricity; an entrepreneur showed up.

  Thus, a nuclear power plant came to be, and the artifact was sapped for its energy.

  Shen didn't care whether the power plant was a front or if his clan's Last Will only complemented the energy production. He could do nothing about it either way. He was only glad it hadn't run dry yet.

  What truly mattered how was that he had found it.

  He could feel the source of the qi link with his aura coming from a hollow aluminum box underwater. It was pretty weird; he couldn't feel any qi in it beyond what a random G-tier object would have. Instead, he felt a lot of mana, as if it was enchanted.

  How could an item from his clan have mana? And how could mana produce a qi thread coming from?

  Shen pulled it out of the water with his aura and saw exactly what he had felt: a watermelon-sized gray metal box covered with exquisite bronze drawings of animals. Despite the intricate craftsmanship, the animals were small and standing side by side in rows, like some modern gift wrapping. The same pattern repeated itself vertically and horizontally: a phoenix, then a dragon, then a turtle, a tiger, a fish, a fox, a wyrm, a qilin, and a unicorn. He wouldn't give it a second glance if he saw the thing in someone's house.

  Yet, despite its simplicity, seeing it filled Shen with strong emotions—and that was after he had dampened his feelings.

  The mere existence of this artifact told him his clan was gone; they weren't supposed to leave Last Will for future generations otherwise—or so it should be.

  Shen had learned things somewhat went off track. Unexpected situations required one to adapt. What if instead of placing the Last Will there before they got destroyed, his people had been forewarned that they would leave the planet with the Immortal Emperor? What if they just wanted to leave an explanation behind for any clansman deployed elsewhere that might return to the wrong place?

  What's more, what did it mean for it to recognize his blood? His clan might have left something for him, specifically, or he was just one of many that the artifact would recognize. It might be a trap, contain demands, or only have generic instructions to rebuild the clan.

  Shen both dreaded and anticipated what he would find inside.

  Part of that was realized as a curiosity: what exactly was that box? He only knew how to use the Blood Resonance and the general workings of the Last Will so he could find it, but it clearly was more mysterious than he had expected.

  "Inspect," he said.

  And that's when the system provided him with the most complex and prolific Inspection window he had seen to date.

  Shen was dumbfounded. It was almost like the system was fanboying over the thing. He guessed that this antidron predating the item's first appearance in the Alliance made the system keen on explaining to Shen how marvelous it was in the hope that he would be tempted to sell it—hopefully to someone who could study it to make a mana counterpart.

  He wouldn't, of course. First, because it came from his clan. Second, it being such an incredible object meant either the Feng Clan was indeed gone for good, or the Immortal Emperor was involved.

  It was easy to reach that conclusion. Feng Yang had betrayed his clan and left it in debt to purchase a B++ coffin and many Time stones. According to the system, the antidron's cost was close to an A- item. The values involved should be similar enough. The Feng clan wouldn't have wasted that much to send Shen a message even if they could, much less when his survival was only a possibility.

  No, the antidron could only have come from them if they had invested everything they had into leaving a Last Will.

  Still, Shen held on to hope. Maybe the Immortal Emperor was involved. The man had contacted Shen before. He had predicted Shen would join the tutorial, so it was obvious Shen would leave it. What if he needed to say something important outside the tutorial?

  Either way, Shen was glad whoever had crafted the thing had seen it fitting to place an anti-domain camouflage enchantment on it. Otherwise, the Drow Maiden might've taken it already. He didn't think it would pass a close inspection from hers, not to mention if she had system-Inspected it, but it had been good enough to make her disregard it.

  To be fair to the Maiden, the thing could even pretend to have mana enchantments—relatively weak ones at that. Then again, she had to have felt the qi daggers coming from it if she knew this was what he was looking for.

  Had she been fooled? Or did she just not care about the supposedly expensive antidron? Or was it something else?

  Speaking of expensive things she could've felt, Shen wondered if the coffin was there or if someone had taken it, be it human or the drow.

  Shen immediately noticed his thoughts going into a tangent, which he had learned to do in his training—by himself, though undeniably under the drow's guidance—and focused back on the matter at hand.

  He took a deep breath, placed the hexahedron on the ground, and used a qi needle to cut his finger. Then, he made a blood drop float until it touched the box.

  If it was a trap, he might die. Still, he didn't get away from the object. He was supposed to accept his clan's punishments, including a capital one. His honor had adapted to some new perspectives, but it hadn't undergone a complete overhaul.

  Shen was of the Feng Clan; his life was their leadership's to reap if they wanted.

  So as his blood was absorbed and golden lines traveled throughout the cube, he kneeled to accept his ancestors' Last Will.

  The antidron floated a little and turned until one of its edges was downward. Then, its six faces disconnected from each other, dropping two items on the ground.

  That affected the thing's camouflage, or maybe its consciousness didn't think it needed to pretend to have mana anymore, for it stopped. Shen felt it was teeming with qi.

  Each floating face had a thick white gelatinous internal padding with millions of tiny golden metallic runes arranged eerily similar to a brain's nerves. Knowing the thing had artificial sentience, it might be just that.

  The cube floated up a few yards and reformed itself. The edges melted and superimposed on top of each other until it became a foot-wide gray sphere. The drawings also melted and flowed on the surface until the bronze metal solidified into a single thick character: Feng.

  It seemed the self-reforming enchantment could also be used to make it look cooler on top of rearranging the enchantments.

  Based on the Inspection's description, Shen could guess he was expected to use it to gain information. However, he first turned his attention to the two objects it had spit out. One was a fist-sized, round, white metal plate; a recorder like the one his father had left him. The other was a foot-sized metallic red pyramid with a black Feng character; the artifact that checked his qi frequency and sent the qi daggers.

  The qi thread came from the pyramid.

  "Inspect," he said.

  It being D- made sense if this was just a message instead of a Last Will, giving credit to the Immortal Emperor theory. Moreover, not only it probably only contained a message, but it also wasn't even that important. After all, the analyzer thing wouldn't be around after so long if it weren't for the antidron's preservation functions.

  Which led Shen to the question: how was it still working if it had been constantly drained of energy?

  He pulled it with his aura and grabbed it. The pyramid faces were barely glued together. He opened it. Inside, he found a qi formation made of uncountable tiny runes inscribed on the pyramid's base. Two things were inside the formation, in clearly delimited smaller circles: a fingernail-sized white crystal and a single blood drop.

  The crystal was the best Qi stone Shen had ever seen, considering how small it was and long it had taken for it to deplete. Even now, Shen felt much more qi inside it than he had in his body.

  "Inspect," he said.

  As simple as the Inspection window was, it contained important information. Someone had used a B- item to fuel the analyzer. It was another sign that the Immortal Emperor was involved.

  Or someone else, he guessed. Someone with a lot of means who happened to be interested in him. Shen didn't believe that was possible, though; the Drow Maiden had made it clear how not special he was. The Emperor was only a possibility because of the previous contact.

  Or... Or his clan was truly gone, and he was just being overly hopeful. Why create a better analyzer if they knew it would have a lot of fuel and be inside an antidron?

  The single drop of blood was telling in its own way. It meant the analyzer would only reply to him. Whatever was in the recorder was meant for his eyes and ears only. It corroborated both theories.

  Shen took another deep breath and picked it up.

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