The massive bronze key turned inside the iron intake console, triggering a deep mechanical rumble that shook the bedrock beneath the subterranean foundations of the central peaks.
Caleb Conway stood before the reinforced gate of the Deep Earth Array, his gray coat draped over his arm, revealing the practical linen tunic beneath. Following the collapse of Elder Mane’s fraudulent audit, Caleb had not squandered his newly unfrozen capital on idle luxuries; he had taken six thousand Merit Points directly to the warden desk of the lower cultivation vaults, reserving three consecutive cycles in the most demanding pressure environment the Lunar Edge Sect possessed. The Deep Earth Array was an ancient facility carved directly into the basalt core of the mountain, utilizing four subterranean gravi
