24 hours soon passed within the endless desert of the final trial. Damien broke through the sand and arrived on the surface once more, quickly moving towards the rendezvous point.
'The underground is far more expansive than I originally expected. Even after I found that ruin, there were still so many interesting things down there.'
Damien looked into his subspace with a smile. There, he saw a collection of assorted herbs and fruits that radiated unique mana signatures.
These were some of his finds during his time in the underground. Along with plenty of subterranean beasts, there were areas that were filled with vitality and unique plants just as he had expected.
But none of these areas were anywhere near as dangerous as the ruins he found first. That place, even if he could clear it alone, it would take a few days to do so.
It was part of the reason he wanted to meet up with Lunaria before exploring. A few days wasn't a long time, but when he was racing against others to find the Primordial Undying Tree, it was time he couldn't afford to waste.
Therefore, meeting up with Lunaria and clearing it together within a few hours or at most a day was the most solid option.
As for the fruits and herbs in his subspace, even he didn't have the necessary knowledge to say what they did yet. All he knew was that they all had interesting mana radiating from them, so he picked them up.
While he sorted his gains, he arrived at the point of rendezvous, where Lunaria was already waiting.
"Found anything?" He asked curiously.
Although the underground was packed with interesting stuff, it didn't mean the sky would be void of it. He wanted to know just how much treasure was packed into this endless desert realm.
Lunaria looked at him with a hint of annoyance in her gaze. After all, he had arrived an hour later than the promised time. However, she still answered his question.
"Nothing of note. While I did find some traces of floating constructs, there was nothing special on them. Either they had already been looted at some point, or they were barren from the start."
Damien's attention was piqued. "So the possibility of there being good stuff in the sky isn't nil. As for the location of the Primordial Undying Tree, I don't think it's there."
There was another discovery Damien had made when he was in the underground. He felt like something was calling to him from below.
At first, he didn't know where this feeling originated from, but as time passed, a conjecture began to form in his mind.
Of the things he had relation to within the Primordial Undying Realm as a whole, there were only two that could give him such a calling.
The Void Flames and the Primordial Undying Tree itself.
But the difference was in the source. If the Void Flames had found a flame it wanted to devour, it would fall out from within him. He would feel it within his body.
But the Primordial Undying Tree wasn't the same. He had refined its Essence, but the main body was still separate. Therefore, the calling would be external.
He surmised that this was the most likely situation. Unless it was something completely out of his thought process, the Primordial Undying Tree should be within the subterranean world.
Except, it was so incredibly deep that it would probably take at least a week to reach it.
Damien shook off his thoughts. First, he told Lunaria about the things he had discovered in the subterranean world.
"Besides the ruins, there were various pockets with different treasures within. Most of them are natural treasures that have grown and flourished over time like fruits and herbs, but there are also some rare ores and even man-made constructs."
As he continued explaining, even Lunaria couldn't hide her interest. Unexpectedly, he had found so much within the span of a day.
But it couldn't be helped. Damien could follow the tunnels and pathways already present in the underground from the movement of beasts that lived there. That way, he could maneuver much faster and with a clearer purpose.
Lunaria's situation was different. The sky was just as vast and expansive, but there was no way to leave a specific pathway in the sky unless one used mana or built sky-reaching constructs.
Since the flying beasts didn't need mana pathways to maneuver the sky, those didn't exist. And nothing needed to be said about the constructs.
In the end, all Lunaria could do was fly aimlessly in hopes of finding something. The fact that she had found anything at all, even if it was something useless, could be considered good luck.
But she stopped thinking about such trivial things quickly. Her attention was drawn to the icy ruins that Damien had mentioned.
"Why didn't you excavate the ruins yourself?" She asked. It was what any sane person would do.
Damien thought about answering with some benevolent bullshit, but he decided against it. He and Lunaria didn't know each other at all, and they still needed to build trust before he could act like his usual self. Otherwise, he'd just strain their already fragile relationship.
"It's a matter of time." He answered her honestly. "Clearing it with you means that I can finish faster, which in turn means I have more time to look for my main purpose of coming here."
Lunaria nodded. Although the treasures that littered the subterranean world were interesting, they couldn't compare to the Primordial Undying Fruits at all.
"Very well. Since it's like that, I shall help clear the ruins. However, I also want some of the treasures within."
"Sure." Damien immediately agreed. "As long as you let me have the main treasure, you can have everything else."
He had already felt it before. Perhaps because of the strange connection he had with Ruyue, he could instinctively feel that whatever the main treasure of that ruins was would be massively beneficial to her.
As for everything else? Even if they had extreme value, he was never a material person.
And perhaps him being like that was the reason he had avoided so many useless conflicts. After all, treasures make an innocent man guilty.
After mulling it over, Lunaria accepted his proposition. Despite the fact that she was curious about what kind of treasure the crowning treasure of the ruins was, she wasn't the type to be too greedy.
Since she was being given so much in return, it was only natural for her to agree.
The two soon departed and began traveling to the area Damien had found before. However, instead of taking the tedious path underground, Damien followed the trace of his space imprint to find the same area by traveling on the surface.
This way, he could easily and rapidly fly across the desert and reach that position within an hour instead of wasting more time digging.
When they reached the location, Damien used the same method to part the sand using space. And without delay, they dropped into the frozen cavern that he had found earlier.
"This…!"
Sensing the heavy frost aura, Lunaria lightly commented in surprise. She could now understand why Damien wanted her help to clear the ruins.
Meanwhile, Damien was frowning. 'The number of life auras I sensed has rapidly increased. It seems it won't be simple to get our hands on this cake.'
But it was still something he had to do. Turning to Lunaria, he nodded his head.
"Well then, let's go."
