Instead of going to the Alice courtyard, Ray took his mother to the guest courtyard where he is currently living. He told Rena that if the third concubine comes to call him, she should inform him. Then he took his mother to his room. Diana created a protective formation so that their conversation would not be heard by anyone.
Ray then said, "I do not like this king. He is too greedy and ambitious. I will be taken to the king's vault—from the Qi Stage to the Iron Stage. After that, I will go to the library to get some knowledge from books related to ancient inventors."
Diana replied, "I have faced off with Daymond. I used a very strong formation that could harm a peak golden-level cultivation user. But he and his men managed to defend against the entire attack of the formation. I don't like him either."
Ray said, "The only way we can remain safe is at the crystal stone mine. I need to create something that could protect us from the king. Maybe a powerful killing formation that could blast the whole palace with energy."
He continued, "It has to be more powerful than the golden rank. Maybe the king's power is close to the peak of the golden rank. That is why he is not scared of anyone."
Diana nodded. "I have already created multiple peak-level golden formations, but it takes time to create them. If a powerful fighter like Daymond comes, we will be in trouble."
Ray then said, "I think I need to call all the inventors to my island and create a building called the 'Inventor Guild.' We need to become stronger. We need more people on our side."
As they were talking and thinking about more strategies and ideas, Alicia came to their courtyard instead of Rena calling them. Ray welcomed Alicia, sensing she had explosive news.
Alicia said, "The king has already guessed that you have created a communication device. And he will call Robert about this. I wanted to let you know ahead of time so you can be prepared. Now that you are free, let's quickly take you to the vaults and the library. Come with me to the vault."
Diana stopped Alicia and said, "Why should we listen to you and follow you? What if this is a trap that you and Daymond created?"
Alicia became sad and replied, "Daymond wasn't like this five years ago. Even you had heard of his reputation back then. He was kind, elegant, and a strong king. But something changed a few years ago. Something must have happened, but I cannot say what. Each of us six concubines has talked about it before."
She spoke with tears dropping as she said, "It's like he has become obsessed with inventors all of a sudden. He wants every inventor's new idea or something like that. The relationship between us and the inventors was never good to begin with, and his obsession has made the inventors wary of us. New inventors are leaving our country one after another."
Diana wasn't buying it, but Ray, who had spent two days with Alicia, knew she was not lying. Ray then said, "We will talk more about this later. We need to do everything quickly. We have to leave fast."
Diana nodded, and Alicia wanted to say something, but Ray said, "If you want to come with us, you can bring your children as well."
Alicia nodded but said, "You need to go to the vault and the library first. Take whatever you need, but you can only take five items from the Qi stage vault, four from the Wood stage vault, and one from the Iron stage vault. Then you need to go to the library to convince the library's safekeeper to join us. That librarian will be a great help. He had the same strength as Daymond back then, so you need to go to the library as well."
Ray nodded and said, "Then we need to move fast."
Alicia nodded and led Ray and Diana to the vault. Only Ray was allowed to enter and take the items. Alicia then explained that there is a spirit inside the vault, and it has been told by King Daymond what items Ray is allowed to take, so he must not take more than that. Ray nodded and went to the Qi vault first.
Inside the Qi vault, Ray found nothing interesting after looking around. But one thing caught his attention—the environment felt a bit ancient. It seemed the Richard family had been here for a very long time, judging by the vault's appearance.
Ray looked through some manuals meant for martial arts. He found that these martial arts were not strong enough for him. His sword master had given him better manuals, so he ignored these. He found other manuals as well, but they were not interesting.
So he took two formation disks, one talisman disk, and one pill that could increase the better awakening chance for becoming a future cultivator. This pill is good for non-cultivators; it increases their chances of having better talent during awakening. The last item he took was an ore that piqued his interest.
When he picked up the ore, he felt a connection to the matrix core inside him. Curious, he looked at it again to see if the connection would happen again. Suddenly, the ore went inside him. Ray almost lost consciousness. His head hurt as 'error' notifications appeared one after another:
[Warning: System Error]
[Rebooting]
[Warning: System Error]
[Rebooting]
[Warning: System Error]
[Rebooting]
[Fixing the Error]
After hundreds of errors and reboots, a new notification came saying the error was being fixed. Ray felt the pain lessen.
Another new tab appeared:
[Matrix System absorbing an ancient relic]
[The system completely absorbed the ancient relic.]
[Update Complete]
After absorbing the ancient technological relic, he reactivated his system to check for updates.
[Name: Ray Walker]
[Spiritual Cultivation: Not Awakened]
[Soul Cultivation: 6th Wood Stage]
[System: 2/3]
[Attributes:]
Strength: 8 (+3)
Stamina: 10 (+5)
Health: 135 (+20)
Agility: 15 (+3)
Intelligence: 18 (+3)
[Swordsmanship | Formation | Talisman | Library| Ancient Relic]
After clicking on the Ancient Relic tab, he saw more details that read:
[Ancient Relic: 1/9]
[Information: ???] [You need to learn an ancient language to understand this information.]
Finally, after absorbing the ancient relic, a new tab appeared with question marks. After reading it, Ray thought of learning it later from the library. He then saw that he had managed to break through after absorbing the relic to 6th Wood Soul Stage cultivation.