"Scarlet Rift."
Lin Feng rolled the words around in his mouth twice, then turned to Zhang Qian.
"What did Headquarters say?"
Zhang Qian's communicator was still ringing. He answered it as he hurried toward the Command Center.
Lin Feng followed behind him, and the battalion commander came along too.
Three minutes later, Headquarters' second bulletin arrived.
As Zhang Qian read it aloud, his voice trembled.
"The Scarlet Rift has a dual repulsion effect. First, any living being with a bone age over twenty-five that approaches within thirty meters of the Rift's entrance will be torn apart by Spatial Turbulence. Second, anyone whose cultivation has reached Martial King or higher will trigger the same repulsion, with the same result."
"Even if they meet the first two conditions, the vital energy of anyone who enters will be suppressed."
The battalion commander didn't understand.
"What does that mean? People who are too old can't go in?"
"Right." Zhang Qian's face was deathly pale. "Headquarters sent a Martial King to test it. The moment he approached the entrance, Spatial Turbulence shredded his entire left arm. They sent someone else to test it after that, and eventually confirmed that only those under twenty-five with a cultivation level of Martial Ancestor or below could enter safely."
The battalion commander froze.
"Then what's inside the Rift? Why does it have such a bizarre set of rules?"
Zhang Qian flipped through the rest of the bulletin.
"Headquarters' detectors picked up energy fluctuations from the Ancient Ruins inside the Rift, along with the signal signature of the Lost Armory."
Ancient Ruins. Lost Armory.
Together, those words carried more weight than "Scarlet" itself.
Ancient Ruins meant inheritances left behind in ancient times, possibly containing cultivation methods and Martial Techniques lost long ago.
The Lost Armory needed no explanation. Any single