In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

In the days that followed, life at the Lin residence gradually settled into a stable rhythm.

Lin Qiye's life was so regular it was as if it had been measured by a ruler—every morning he would circulate his Origin Qi in the cultivation chamber to consolidate the power he had gained from the Candle's inheritance, while simultaneously dismantling, digesting, and integrating the secret techniques from Yin He's memories into his own combat system. He discovered that after fusing with the Candle's residual will, his perception and control over Origin Qi had reached a completely new level. He could even condense offensive Origin Qi structures in the air with just his will, without the aid of any array symbols.

He tried it several times, and the results were amazing.

The dark golden light threads condensed from the primal energy within his body possessed greater penetrating power and faster flight speed than ordinary sword energy, and could change their trajectory in the air under his mental control, like a group of living beings with independent consciousness. He had never seen this ability in any ancient texts, nor had he seen any similar records in anyone's fighting style—this was a unique technique in the Candle's inheritance, a fighting style that the ancient demon god had independently developed over countless years.

He spent three days stabilizing this ability and gave it a name—Dark Gold Thread.

The name is simple and straightforward, without any fancy embellishments, just like the person he is.

Besides cultivation, he would also set aside about an hour each day to process the documents and intelligence sent by the Overwatch Council. His status as a Special Deacon granted him access to most of the intelligence within the arena, including core secrets that he had never been able to access before—the specific defensive arrangements of the arena's four gates, the organization and personnel list of the Overwatch Council's secret service, the catalog of research results from the Array Masters Guild, and historical exploration records of the forbidden area deep within the Canggu Mountains.

He spent a lot of time reading the exploration records, especially the descriptions of the "forbidden area" deep in the Canggu Mountains.

In the official archives of the arena, the Azure Bone Mountain Range is divided into three areas: the outer area, which is the area that ordinary exploration teams and low-level deacons can enter, roughly within a few dozen miles of the mountain's edge; the middle area, which requires high-level deacons or above to enter, covering most of the main body of the mountain range; and the core area—the basin where the Bone Tower is located, and some places deeper within the basin.

Official records about the core area are extremely limited, mostly consisting of vague descriptions and speculations, as if the authors were deliberately avoiding certain things. But a few files caught his attention—notes left about a hundred years ago by an unknown explorer, recording some of what he saw after venturing alone into the depths of the core area.

The person mentioned in their notes that deep beneath the Bone Tower lay an "independent space shrouded in dark golden light," with a "giant heart-shaped crystal" suspended in its center, its surface covered with "runes not belonging to this world." The explorer attempted to approach the crystal but was blocked by an invisible barrier. He tried for several days outside the barrier but could not break through, eventually having to return due to running out of supplies.

Upon his return, he submitted the notes to the then-Director-General of the Control Yuan, but after reviewing them, the Director-General sealed them away and ordered that no one be allowed to mention the matter again.

When Lin Qiye saw this journal, an extremely strong conjecture arose in his mind—that "huge heart-shaped crystal" was very likely the core carrier formed when the initial drop of blood from the candle fell. And that "independent space shrouded in dark golden light" should be the prototype of the inheritance space mentioned in Yin He's memory.

However, the inheritance space was not yet fully formed at that time. The drop of blood was still slowly absorbing the surrounding energy, waiting for the day it could give birth to an inheritor. The explorer, however, inadvertently touched the perception boundary of the candle's residual will and was thus blocked outside by that invisible barrier.

He put down the yellowed notebook, leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and compared the descriptions in the notebook with the information about the inheritance space in Yin He's memory, gradually sketching out a more complete picture in his mind.

After the drop of blood fell into the Azure Bone Mountains, it did not immediately condense into a space for inheritance. It first sank into the ground and established a symbiotic relationship with the sleeping ancient beast, using the beast's life energy to maintain its own stability. Then, over a long period of time, it gradually absorbed the surrounding source energy and mineral essence, condensing an independent space beneath the foundation of the Bone Tower. Finally, after reaching a certain critical point, it began to construct the inheritance carrier itself—that is, the transparent crystal.

During his long wait, Yin He attempted to enter that space many times, but he was always unable to break through the outer barrier, because that barrier was only open to those with the bloodline of the Candle. He tried to force his way through, but the backlash shattered his left arm and damaged his dantian, which could never be restored.

This also explains why Yin He completely lost his last hope after the collapse of the inheritance space—because that crystal was the only way for him to possess the body of the candle.

……

Half a month later, news came from deep within the Canggu Mountains.

That bone tower has completely collapsed.

According to reports from the outer outposts of the Overwatch Council, the collapse of the Bone Tower occurred late at night three days ago and lasted for nearly an hour. There were no abnormal energy fluctuations, loud noises, or earthquakes during the collapse; it was as if the tower, having completed some kind of mission, disintegrated on its own, turning into a pile of grayish-white bone fragments scattered in the center of the basin.

At the same time, the remaining fluorescent blue crystal clusters in the mountains shattered, turning into grayish-white powder. The fluorescent blue light that had once illuminated the entire mountain range at night as if it were daytime vanished completely.

The Canggu Mountains have become an ordinary, grayish-white, desolate mountain range littered with broken bones and fossils.

After receiving the report, Shangguan Lin remained silent for a moment, then said only one sentence: "Send people in to bring back all the recoverable crystal cluster fragments and bone samples, and send them to the Array Master Guild for analysis. There is no harmonic pollution this time, so we don't need to bring too much purification equipment."

……

Half a month later, deep within the Canggu Mountains, on the ruins of that gray-white bone tower, several figures were carefully moving among the scattered bone fragments.

They were the third exploration team dispatched by the Control Yuan, tasked with conducting a comprehensive survey of the collapsed bone tower area and recovering valuable crystal cluster fragments and bone samples.