"How I found out, huh?" Grey paused, then recounted everything that had happened, carefully skipping over the Starcrest Continent's sealing and anything related to the Daoye Palace.

Everything he shared was limited strictly to how he discovered Brandon and the trail that had led him here.

He could also tell Valeria wasn't hiding anything from him. What she said was genuinely all she knew. She had even indirectly mentioned the Seal. If it were some taboo, world-shaking secret, she would never have let that slip, not even by accident.

Besides... Grey felt that the two of them had already stepped into a stage where trust came naturally. They could speak openly, rely on each other, and move forward without the old wariness.

"What?" Valeria stared at him in disbelief, her expression exceptionally lovely in its surprise. "This Secret Realm belonged to my Ancestor?"

"How is that possible?"

Could such a coincidence truly exist?

The secret realm once owned by her ancestor was the very one permanently linked to Ashspire City. Precisely where she had descended, out of every city in the entire southern region.

Had her ancestor's spirit been calling out to her all this time?

It was far-fetched... but how else could such a coincidence occur?

"My Ancestor... how did he look, Brother Grey?" Valeria leaned closer, eyes bright with hope. She truly wanted to see this ancestor of hers, especially after knowing that his lingering spirit might have been reaching out to his descendants from here.

"The way he looks?" Grey tilted his head, recalling as best as he could. "Let me think."

He hadn't created his mind palace back then, nor did he have access to the Blue Star Network. His Mind Interface had been practically useless at that time, so he couldn't record anything in detail.

Even so, describing someone's appearance was easy for him.

When he finished, Valeria was momentarily dazed.

What Grey described was a powerful man, broad-shouldered, sharp-eyed, with an aura that refused to fade even in death. His presence alone felt like a mountain pressing down, solemn yet dignified. A man born to command the heavens.

"A powerful man," Valeria whispered, her voice trembling ever so slightly. "Ancestor... you were really here..."

A faint warmth brushed past them, like a breeze moving through a place that should not have wind. Grey glanced up. The Secret Realm's fading core pulsed once, as though acknowledging their words.

Grey's expression changed.

'Was it actually his lingering spirit?' He was inwardly shocked.

The secret realm actually reacted to her words!

Considering Brandon owned this realm, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary if something related to him still existed in the core, and Grey noticed that lingering presence quietly leaving this world as if it had achieved something.

Then, a voice boomed into Grey's head. "Thank you!"

Grey was stupefied when he heard the voice.

It sounded like Brandon!

'It was really him!' Grey stood up from his spot, walked out of the small stone-built platform, and stared at the sky.

"This world is truly filled with unique people." Grey smiled.

To what extent must one's power reach to leave a lingering spirit and survive this long?

If he wasn't wrong, this was several thousand years after the sealing!

This was the extent of power Brandon had reached.

He also wanted to one day reach that level. Grey only became even more motivated to advance his rank.

If there was anything he learned today, it was that power dictated everything. Even the oppressive families had to kneel before absolute power, and one day, he would become strong enough to overlook everything, even the gods!

He wouldn't rest until then!

"Let's go back. I still need to go ahead and create the array." Grey glanced at Valeria and spoke.

...

With her approval, Grey directly left with her and went to the formation association.

There, the majority of the formation experts were already stationed and ready to act.

As soon as Grey entered the room, they all looked at him with reverence.

They had already seen his capabilities. Eliminating the Chickens Array! Destroying corruption fields!

There was no need to say more about his capabilities. Everyone present already understood that their city lord was an extremely powerful formation master, even outclassing Werner, who was a top-class formation master in the southern region.

"Grandmaster!" Meiling and Meiying immediately came forward wearing black and white slightly revealing cheongsams.

"You two are already here." Grey smiled as he greeted them. "Today, we will create a grand array. You both are to follow me and observe the way it's created more closely."

"It's time you both became 2-star formation masters."

"Yes!" The twins were excited. "We will follow the Grandmaster!"

The others in the area looked at Grey with jealousy when they saw how the twins acted so closely with him.

They were exceptional beauties from the eastern region, and in Ashspire City itself, they were top-class beauties. Perhaps not even the other three cities had beauties like them. It was only natural for men to try to woo them.

But the twins never paid any attention to anyone. They treated every suitor as air.

Yet it was different for the city lord.

They could only shake their heads helplessly.

The city lord who was handsome, enigmatic, and young was obviously a better choice. Women were naturally drawn to powerful people.

Then Grey began giving instructions. One by one, the formation experts boarded AVs and shot off toward all corners of the four cities with formation flags in hand.

They were already prepared by Werner, and all Grey had to do was inscribe the arrays into them one by one.

He added the Eliminating Chicken Array, the Dual Lock Barrier Formation, and also a Healing Formation in case anything went wrong. He also ensured the cosmic energy golden ratio diagram was embedded so the formation would power itself forever, growing stronger each passing moment.

As for the City Barrier Formation, he did not add it. The Eliminating Chicken Array already had the capability to filter out corruption energy, and the Dual Lock Barrier Formation could stop unauthorized entry even better than the standard city barrier.

He just had to set conditions and link the formation to the local network of the four cities. That way, all unidentified individuals would be detected and pushed out of the city space. The gangs, the mutated beasts, all of them would be ejected from the barrier. He added that function into the array as well.

Of course, it would only work if it had sufficient energy. Pushing entities out from a long distance inside the barrier required enormous energy, but he had plenty of cosmic ore from the secret realm. He would utilize it to power the array.

The cables of this era could conduct anything as long as it was energy, meaning they could read or write emerging patterns and frequencies within the formation. This way, he could effectively fuse the power of technology and formations together. That was how city barrier formations functioned in the first place.

Grey shot off into the sky with a formation flag in his hand. He activated his Mind Interface to pinpoint the center of the four cities, and to his surprise, it was located at the City Lord Mansion where Dorian once lived.

"This is better." Grey smiled. Putting the main formation flag in the center would keep the energy flow consistent, and he could utilize the mansion's computers to connect it with the formation!

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