Azrael led Luo Bingqing and Elyara toward the tower shaped building.
"Why are we going there?" Luo Bingqing couldn't help but ask as even from a distance, he could see the tall structure trembling slightly, as though it might collapse at any moment.
"There is something valuable inside that building," Azrael answered calmly. His gaze shifted to Elyara, who wore a deep frown on her face.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
Elyara hesitated at his question, then finally spoke after a brief pause.
"That girl… what happened to her?"
Azrael's brows furrowed when Elyara mentioned No. 4. He subtly extended his senses, using his traits to gauge Elyara's emotions and intentions toward the girl.
Only after confirming that she harbored no malicious intent did he relax and respond in a low voice.
"The people of the Transcendent Organization were conducting experiments on humans. She was one of their victims."
"Scumbags," Elyara muttered under her breath, her voice laced with fury. "How could they abuse such a young child?"
Azrael raised an eyebrow as he sensed the killing intent radiating from her.
'It seems she is very fond of children.' He thought before shaking his head.
Before long, Azrael and the others once again stepped into the corridor of the tower-shaped building, where rows of tubes filled with green liquid lined both sides.
As their eyes fell on the grotesque sight of humans and monsters floating in the tubes, Luo Bingqing and Elyara's expressions hardened, their eyes narrowing in disgust and anger.
"Take all of these tubes out. Some of these people are still alive," Azrael said in a calm voice and quickly began to move the tubes containing humans outside.
Elyara and Luo Bingqing joined him, and in just a single minute, the three of them managed to move all the tubes out of the corridor.
Once the task was complete, Azrael activated his smart band and sent a message to Glen, informing him about the situation. After conveying all the details, he finally turned back to Luo Bingqing and Elyara.
"Did you guys feel it?" He asked.
Both of them nodded simultaneously.
"What are those strange energy fluctuations?" Luo Bingqing asked with a frown.
Azrael's eyes narrowed as he glanced back at the tower-shaped building. "There is a space rift in the underground section of this building. Those energy fluctuations are emanating from that rift."
Previously, because of the barrier covering the rift, its fluctuations had been completely concealed.
However, after Boris destroyed the barrier, the energy of the rift had begun to spread outward slowly. Before long, it would engulf the entire hideout.
This was why Azrael had not even attempted to conceal the rift for himself as sooner or later, both Luo Bingqing, Elyara, and even the incoming security forces would discover it.
"A space rift…" Elyara and Luo Bingqing's expressions shifted dramatically at his words.
"Could it be the entrance to the Ancient Ruins?" Elyara asked, her voice tinged with excitement.
"I am not certain," Azrael replied with a slight shake of his head. "I have never seen the entrance to an Ancient Ruin personally. But from what I have read in books, this rift does resemble one."
Luo Bingqing and Elyara's breaths quickened at his words, an excited gleam flashing in their eyes.
Yet after a moment, they calmed themselves, and Elyara asked in a more serious tone.
"Do you know what level it is?"
Azrael shook his head. "Earlier, I didn't examine it properly. But we can check now."
With that, he entered the tower-shaped building first. At the same time, he looked back at Luo Bingqing.
"Can you use your power to stabilize this structure for a while? If it collapses, the underground section, where the rift is located might also be affected."
Luo Bingqing frowned at his words, his gaze lingering on the cracked walls of the trembling building for several seconds. Finally, he nodded.
"I'll try."
A wave of cold energy surged from his body. Instantly, icy mist spread in all directions, and thick frost began sealing the damaged walls and within moments, the entire structure was reinforced by layers of hard ice.
Although Luo Bingqing's face paled from expending most of his cosmic energy, the creaking, splintering sounds of the building ceased once its walls were encased in ice.
"This should hold the collapse back for at least a day or two," Luo Bingqing said, retrieving an energy recovery potion and quickly downing it.
Azrael gave a brief nod when he saw the structure had stabilized, and soon the three of them reached the chamber housing the elevator to the underground section.
Stepping into the nearly broken lift, they began their descent.
"I hope the level of this ruin isn't too high," Luo Bingqing muttered under his breath.
Ancient Ruins were classified by levels. The lowest tier was Epic level, followed by Legend level, then Planetary level, and so on.
Epic-level ruins could only be entered by warriors of epic level and below. Likewise, Legend-level ruins only allowed entry to those at Legend level and beneath. The same principle applied to the higher levels.
The higher the level of the ruins, the more dangerous they became.
With their current strength, Azrael, Luo Bingqing, and Elyara could reasonably consider entering an Epic-level ruin.
But if the rift led to a higher-level one, exploring it would be extremely difficult for them, as the dangers inside would far exceed their abilities.
Although Azrael was not entirely certain, judging from the energy fluctuations he had felt earlier when he came down to kill Boris, he estimated that the rift was most likely Epic level.
The reason he had brought Luo Bingqing and Elyara with him was because he had already used his Absolute Decree skill and would be unable to activate it again for the next seven days.
Without it, while he could still contend with normal epic-level warriors, venturing alone into an epic-level ruin filled with high-ranked epic monsters and other powerful creatures would be reckless, even for him.
But with Luo Bingqing and Elyara, the three of them working together could potentially even defeat opponents above level 40.
'Let's hope I will be able to get my answers inside this rift...' Azrael thought inwardly and took a deep breath.
Before long, the elevator reached the underground floor, and as they stepped out, the energy fluctuations emitting from the rift surged around them.
Feeling them up close, Azrael and others finally confirmed the rift's level.