"Welco to the clan’s glory and its sha alike."
Kage’s eyes widened as he stepped into the vast, luminous chamber.
’I’ve never been to the Deep Vaults before! I never thought I would in my glorious life!’
Guren smiled as he watched Kage look around with sparkling eyes. No one, regardless of age, entered without being struck by the glory of this place.
The architecture alone was pure insanity made manifest. The ceiling was a patchwork of iron fragnts, each bearing significance in the clan’s history. They were held together by an invisible firmant connected to a Pure Armant that could never be moved—unless the Clan’s destruction was assured, and only the Patriarchs had access to it.
So the ceiling looked like a floating tapestry of tals that could plumt at any mont. But the truth was, they never could.
Kage stared up in awe.
Guren, feeling bold in that mont, cleared his throat.
"What if I told you that each of those iron fragnts represents an evolutionary map of the clan since its creation?"
Kage’s eyes widened.
"You don’t say!"
Guren coughed, incredibly shy and disappointed at his failed attempt to strike up conversation with the young lord.
anwhile, Kage looked away, admiring the chamber’s ethereal beauty.
Every Pure Armant, of all different kinds, was on full display inside a glass case.
Kage tilted his head in curiosity.
"Isn’t this just gonna break?"
Butler Guren moved closer.
"No. The glass is constructed so precisely that only the weapon it holds within can shatter it."
Kage stood before the glass box that held an old anvil. Despite its aged tal, the intricate patterns were alluring in a gentle, disturbing manner.
"That is Great Lord Ganlan’s anvil."
Kage’s eyes widened.
"Woah, the first Patriarch!"
Guren nodded.
Kage was stunned. If it belonged to the first patriarch, then this anvil had to be at least thirty thousand years old. How could the tal still be intact?
It was certainly a Pure Armant, but still... It was extraordinary to behold a relic from ages difficult to trace in the pages of history.
In his past life, Kage had searched five years for sothing from just ten thousand years ago, so this thrilled him in a good and amusing way.
He moved to the next glass box, which held a book, and Guren’s voice followed.
"That is the Blade Registry, an iron-bound book containing detailed records of every Pure Armant ever held by the Clan Patriarchs. Three hundred and twenty-seven total, with eighty-nine still active to date, including those wielded by the current Patriarch himself."
Kage looked around, nodding.
"That’s good... that’s good..."
Disappointnt crept across his face the more he looked around. At so point, he turned back to the Butler with a hesitant tone.
"Isn’t this place... too sparse? Were you guys robbed?"
Guren let out a short, silent laugh.
"Young Lord, it would be easier to swim across the continental sea than steal a pin from this sanctum."
[The Heretic Inquisitor of Eternal Truth is awestruck at Butler Guren’s words. He says swimming the continental sea is impossible—it takes almost eighteen months with the fastest route and strongest water vessel. He laughs awkwardly, saying swimming is impossible; he’d take his chances stealing sothing here.]
’Ooouu... Guren’s got jokes, alright.’
Guren glanced at Kage, who nodded at him in approval—not that he understood why the young lord was nodding. But he continued:
"This is the first level of the hall: ido, The Hall of Nas."
Guren pointed toward the wall that seed cracked and on the brink of collapse.
"Those are stone tablets recording every Ironstorm birth, death, and Pure Armant bonding since the Impure Resurgence, five to seven thousand years ago. Here you will find nas you can’t even find in the Forge of Knowledge—the clan’s secrets."
Kage studied the wall for a mont as he realized sothing. The existence of Shen Fengxi was known and permitted. The clan allowed him into the Forge of Knowledge, which Kage assud was an important records hall.
But the Forge of Knowledge wasn’t even the pinnacle. This was where the clan’s true secrets lay. No matter how restricted certain chambers beneath the Forge of Knowledge might be, they were nothing compared to this place.
The level of security was proof enough.
’And he allowed into such a place...’
Kage sighed and looked at Guren with a blank expression.
"Butler Guren, I’m not interested in who married a powerful piece of tal and when. Please take to where the treasures are."
Butler Guren looked like he’d broken a sweat. He sighed internally.
’Young Lord Kage would certainly have been a handful growing up. He’s sharp.’
"Follow ."
They crossed the chamber and entered a corner, soon descending a spiraling staircase.
They had walked over a hundred steps when Kage finally decided to ask.
"They put an elevation chanism in the Forge of Knowledge, but they can’t in this place that’s more important?"
"That’s rather the point. Besides, the Deep Vaults have existed far longer than the Forge of Knowledge. Back then, there weren’t these intriguing technologies that exist today. And a renovation, of course, would have been a costly mistake."
Kage agreed with the Butler.
"That makes perfect sense."
After a while, they reached another place flooded with white lights that flowed close to the ceiling like trapped clouds desperate to escape.
"This is the Armory of Lesser Blades. Jibuko, the second level."
Butler Guren pointed toward the vast hall held up by towering white pillars.
"You can pick any weapon of your choice!"
Kage stepped to the center of the hall and looked around with stars alight in his eyes.
"Now this is what I’m talking about."
Beside him, inside a glass chamber, Kage saw a silver curved blade that seed carved with the inspiration of the crescent moon. The inscription on it read: ’Severed Moon’.
Its beauty was enchanting. The silver radiance it emitted reflected for a second in the depth of his violet eyes, tempting him to hold it.
Guren imdiately touched his shoulder, bringing him back to reality.
Kage instantly recoiled from the weapon.
"The Pure Armants here are extrely dangerous, even though this is called the Armory of Lesser Blades and the strongest here is epic rank, they are certainly too dangerous for a non-purist like you."
Kage looked at the curved blade once more and gulped.
"I see that."
Kage looked around more. There were thirteen powerful needles, imperceptible and able to return to their wielders. There was a spear that wept blood since its previous Purist died and had refused to bond with any new Purist.
There was a katana sword that had rejected forty-seven Purists in eighty years. Guren even said it had refused three of Kage’s elder brothers, but didn’t say which. Of course, it would be stupid to pester him—there was an impression of himself Kage was trying to cultivate in the Butler’s mind.
There were also Pure Armants that grew corrupt even after purification but were too dangerous to be destroyed or released into the world.
There were notable Pure Armants that caught his eye, like Storm Caller—the staff that could control storms—and Patient Hunger—the bow that never missed as long as it was shot at the right mont.
There were also utility and support-type Pure Armants that would definitely be useful to him. But Kage was uninterested in all of them.
So of the Pure Armants were priceless, and would undoubtedly serve him for years to co. But there were two problems.
The first was that Kage wanted sothing that would serve him now. The second problem was that whatever he took would be reported to his father.
Kage didn’t want to waste such a precious opportunity choosing sothing that wouldn’t be useful imdiately just to throw his father off his trail. If he chose sothing useful... it would leave him under suspicion.
So instead, he was looking for sothing that could serve both purposes. One stone to kill two birds!
As Guren saw disappointnt creeping across Kage’s face again, he was stunned.
’What? All the incredible Armants here and he doesn’t like any of them? And here I thought Lord Corvane was picky.’
He cleared his throat.
"If you want... we can go to the third level. That, however, is the treasury—all that exists there is gold."
Kage’s attention was instantly caught, and his eyes sparked. He slowly turned to Guren.
"Money? How much money?"
"A lot... the reason why we are the second richest clan in the whole of the Tianlong continent."
Kage grinned darkly.
"Lead the way."
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