Luke sighed. He didn't expect Lucian to say it so suddenly.
"Wait, wait, wait. Are you joking? Don't you know Luke? You both—"
Before Leo could finish, he looked at Luke with doubt.
Luke thought, 'Here we go.'
"Hey man, whatever you are thinking, it's wrong. I don't know this guy. Somehow, he knows me. Since we are talking about this, Lucian, can you tell me how you know me?"
Of course, the current Lucian didn't know Luke. But in his past life, he knew him very well.
"Well," Lucian said, "I saw you at the Silver Dragon Guild tavern. You were drunk and talking to a short girl with yellow hair. You talked about some conspiracy theory. I liked your ideas, so I listened secretly. And now, we meet here by chance."
Luke tried hard to remember. There were many times when he drank too much and talked nonsense.
Leo, on the other hand, was still shocked. He looked at the ceiling and held his head.
He was supposed to be part of one crime. Now, it was two crimes. It was too late to fix anything.
"I failed," he said.
"We are partners now," Lucian said with a smile. "Nice to work with you."
After some arguing, they continued collecting treasures. Luke and Leo took items that fit their element types and some spirit stones. Even a few stones were worth a lot.
Lucian got all the spirit stones and the rest of the treasures. It was a fortune greater than even the heirs of the Ten Families.
The most important things he found were pills to break through to the Golden Core Realm, and even the Void Realm.
After Foundation Establishment, each breakthrough needed a special pill. The Ten Families controlled these pills completely.
Luke and Leo also got some of those pills.
"This is enough to support a whole sect," Lucian thought. He planned to build an organization, like the Black Roots, using these resources. But that would take years. He would think about it after reaching his old power—Level 9 of the Void Realm.
He wondered if his recent power boost would help him reach the next level, something only the Ten Families could usually do.
After they left the vault, only the central building was unexplored.
"I think it's just an office building. I don't believe we'll find anything better than what we already got. Let's go," Leo said. He was ready to leave. Even if something good was inside, he had no space to carry more. He also still suspected a monster might be here.
"You can go. I want to study the formations here," Lucian said, giving a notebook to Leo.
"This has info about the monsters and the land you and Luke are assigned to. Leave now, so you arrive on time and avoid suspicion."
"I still can't believe you killed Raine. You look too nice for that."
"Well, I'm not the nice guy. And Raine wasn't either. It was just a scumbag killing another scumbag."
"I don't know what a 15-year-old kid did to you, but I guess you have your reasons."
"Enough talking, Leo. Staying longer will cause problems. Let's go," Luke interrupted.
"Wait!"
Leo followed him, then looked back at Lucian and said, "Thank you! I hope we don't meet again."
Lucian waved with a smile. But once they left, his face turned cold and emotionless.
Maybe the smart move was to kill them. But he didn't. He had plans to build an organization. He needed strong people.
Luke had proved himself in Lucian's past life. Leo was unknown, but Lucian let him go. With all the treasures they now had, Leo would become strong too.
They also now shared big secrets, which would make recruiting them easier later.
Lucian looked at the main building. He didn't enter. Instead, he checked the shelves and studied the formations.
Now that he had formation tools, it was much easier.
But over time, he felt the formation was too simple. The power came from something connected to it.
He followed the formation's power source and found it led to the main building.
Lucian looked at the building and thought, "Maybe I will find something inside?"
---
Outside, Leo and Luke ran from the underground hole toward their team's meeting point.
They were quiet until Leo spoke.
"Hey, Luke."
"Yeah?"
"Why didn't you say Lucian killed Raine?"
"Because he said he knew me—and you heard it. If you tell the Ten Families about Lucian saying that, I'll be killed, at best."
"Makes sense," Leo said. Then he asked again:
"Do you think Lucian is good or bad?"
Luke was silent for a moment, then said:
"A bad person."
"What makes you say that?"
"He killed a 15-year-old and fed him to wolves. What, are you feeling sorry for a criminal?"
"But he helped us for free."
"Trust me, there's a price. He just didn't take it yet. Expect him to contact you in the future."
After that, both were silent, thinking about what Lucian would want from them.