Natalia heard the two old men talking and rolled her eyes. "You really know how to make a deal. You're raising so many people—does Logan not cost anything?"

Upon hearing the word "money," Philip and Darwin General both turned red in the face, feeling extremely embarrassed.

Garen City Lord stepped in quickly to ease the tension. "Natalia, don't push the two old generals too hard. You know how they are—they give whatever money they have to the families of fallen soldiers."

"Cut the crap. You two are broke, but you're the one who's fat and happy. Today, you have to actually pay up!" Natalia wouldn't back down and wanted to keep fighting with Garen City Lord for some benefits.

Logan, seeing the awkward situation, finally spoke up. "I agree."

At the same time, he added a condition: "I have one request. I want the right to suppress the Blood Cultivation Realm outside Saint Heart City. Any Blood Cultivation Realm outside the city that I or my subordinates set our eyes on, we will have the first right to explore. All the profits from the exploration will be ours, and we won't pay any taxes."

After hearing Logan's request, Garen City Lord first looked surprised, then laughed loudly. "I thought it was something big, but this one? I, on behalf of the federation, accept it!"

Natalia was upset to see Garen agree so easily.

But Garen City Lord still handed Logan a small box containing three soul crystals of different colors. "Logan, take it. These are all soul crystals of Legend-stage monsters. They can help your Master-stage familiars increase the chances of advancing to Legend stage. If you use them yourself, they can directly boost your Master stage by one star."

Logan took the box and nodded silently. "Thanks."

Since Legend-stage monsters were extremely rare, three of their soul crystals were the top resources in the federation.

Even Natalia probably couldn't come up with three of them to give away. So Logan was grateful for this favor.

According to their agreement, Darwin General would bring all the retired soldiers to the territory of Red Flower Guild in three days.

And since Genius Training Camp had no classes that week, Logan took Sawako, Yelena, Jessica, and others out of the city to the location of Red Flower Guild—Star Lake.

In fact, Star Lake was located behind Saint Heart City.

Many years ago, before humans had taken back Saint Heart City, the Red Flower Guild had already moved its headquarters to the front lines of the northern region.

Thinking about these old stories, Logan felt great respect for the courage of the Red Flower Guild's ancestors.

Now, with Saint Heart City in front of them, there were only a few weak monsters around Star Lake. Most of them were only at the Elite rank, and they were harmless and calm.

Logan and his group arrived at the lakeside and saw a broken bridge leading to the island in the middle of the lake.

On the island stood an abandoned manor, with broken houses and ruined streets everywhere.

Seeing the Red Flower Guild's headquarters, which was completely different from what they had imagined, everyone was shocked. It was way too poor and run-down.

"Logan, maybe we should find another place for our base. You come to Edo Castle, and I'll let you have a much bigger territory." said Sawako, sneezing after sniffing the air filled with dandelion fluff.

"Logan, this place is too ruined to use. Are we really going to build our power here?" Yelena didn't say no directly, but she still advised Logan to think it over again.

Jessica, on the other hand, stayed quiet and followed Logan without saying a word.

Natalia watched the girls' reactions, her eyes moving quickly.

She was curious to see how Logan would play the hand he had just received.

But instead of responding to the girls, Logan walked alone onto the island and started walking around it.

With his soul power, he had already sensed something strange the moment he stepped onto the island.

As he walked further inland, the strange feeling became even stronger.

Until Logan reached the center of the island, where a huge temple stood, he finally discovered the source of the strange feeling — it was coming from underground.

"You found something?" Natalia noticed Logan's odd behavior and asked.

"Wait and see." Logan replied, then summoned his black ant army.

These black ants were great at digging. Under Logan's command, they dug down to a depth of 500 meters in less than half an hour.

Logan led the girls down underground. When they saw the white bones in front of them, they were all shocked.

"My god, what kind of bones are these? They're so huge!" Sawako stared at a rib that was over ten meters long, her face full of surprise.

Yelena took out a tool to scrape a small piece off the bone, but even with her familiar's power, she couldn't even chip it.

"What kind of monster is this? It's way too hard!" Yelena looked at her already broken knife, totally amazed.

At that moment, Natalia walked up to the bone and looked serious. She extended her hand.

In an instant, her white hand turned into a sharp claw and shot toward the bone.

But the bone remained completely untouched.

Seeing this, Logan's eyes flickered slightly. "What the heck is this thing?"

Natalia ran her fingers over the bone and whispered, "This must be the skeleton of a Demigod-stage monster."

Hearing the words "Demigod-stage," Logan and the others all looked shocked.

Logan immediately called out Kerparos to check it too.

But Kerparos just sniffed the bone and then backed away in fear, shouting, "My god, Master, where did you find this thing?!"

After a few confused words, Logan finally understood from Kerparos that this was indeed the remains of a Demigod-stage monster.

And on the bones, there were also very complex Rune arrays engraved.

Under Kerparos' instructions, Logan summoned the black ant army again and ordered them to dig deeper.

After an hour of walking, Logan and his group finally reached the core of the skeleton — right in front of the giant monster skull.

Kerparos looked at the huge monster skull with excitement in his eyes. "Master, you hit the jackpot! This is a complete skeleton of a Demigod-stage monster, and it's been engraved with rune arrays by alchemists. With this, no one can break through Star Lake!"

Hearing that, Logan looked at the monster skull.

[Name: Yepera's Remains (Inscribed with 10086 ancient runes)]

[Race: Titan Python (World Serpent bloodline)]

[Stats: Light, Darkness, Stone, Inferno]

[Rank: S-level 5 stars]

[Stage: Demigod 1 star]

[Talent: Unknown]

[Skill: Unknown]

[Stats: Unknown]

[Usage Tip 1: If you master the 10086 ancient runes and arrange them in the right order, you can activate and absorb the original power of Yepera's remains. This will give you the chance to reach Saint stage.]

[Usage Tip 2: By using spatial fragments or space crystals, you can briefly activate the ancient runes on the remains. This will let it protect the Blood Cultivation Realm and block all attacks from below Saint level. Each spatial fragment can keep the runes active for one minute. Each space crystal can block one attack from a Saint-level being.]

...

Logan stood frozen in front of Yepera's remains.

Not only could it block Saint-level monsters, but it could also create Saint-stage warriors.

This skeleton was too important to be a coincidence. Logan didn't believe it was just luck.

At the very least, according to the geological information from the black ant army, this skeleton had been buried here for at least hundreds of years — maybe even longer than the time when the human federation was founded.

"Maybe that's why the Red Flower Guild chose this place as their headquarters." Logan said, touching the runes on the skeleton.

With the knowledge of runes he had learned from Kerparos, he only needed to look at them for a second to realize that these runes were way beyond his current level.

But it didn't matter. He didn't have to understand them — the dog did. "Kerparos, can you read these runes?"

Kerparos pulled at his mouth, looking a little embarrassed. "If I had ten days, I might be able to figure out one basic rune."

Hearing that, Logan's face turned dark.

Now he finally understood why no one had ever broken through to Saint level using this skeleton.

If even Kerparos, a rune master, found it so hard, how could humans possibly manage?

After all, rune arrays required a lot of experience and memory.

Theoretically, as long as you kept combining basic runes, you could learn more and more rune arrays.

So Logan didn't think anyone could be better than Kerparos at this skill.

After all, this old dog had lived for hundreds of years, spent a lot of time studying runes.

"Never mind. First, help me design the base on the island in the middle of the lake. I'm going to build a new [Red Flower Guild] under the lake." Logan said, gently patting Kerparos on the head. He had made up his mind to set the headquarters of the [Red Flower Guild] at Star Lake.

Thanks to Yepera's remains, Sawako and Yelena all agreed with Logan's decision.

Even Yelena and Sawako offered to help with the construction, saying that Storm Wind City and Edo Castle would provide workers and materials.

But Logan refused without hesitation. He wasn't ready to let anyone know about Yepera's remains yet.

So, buying building materials was handed off to Barzini from the Tattalia family. They were in charge of secretly transporting everything.

As for building the base itself, it was even easier — the black ant army made the perfect workers, and they didn't cost anything.

...

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