Twenty minutes later.

The deputy of the formation department and Bloody Chariot stood at a spot as they observed the formation.

Because of their current position, the formation is barely reacting. It is neither vibrating heavily, nor is it stable and stagnant. It is right in the middle. The formation master has checked the formation several times, but he wasn't able to touch it until now.

He was sure that if he really tried it, the formation will collapse and explode along with everything that is inside.

So, he stayed at this position which he would like to call as the Reaction Threshold Point and studied the formation. Even though he couldn't get too much information from that point, he understood the formations purpose and its basic working.

"Sir, this is actually a security measure.

"

"Exploding a formation is a security measure?

"

"Yes, sir. Whoever laid down this formation, they were pretty adamant about the details of this formation not leaking out, at least the people of certain cultivation level cannot access it.

Only people of certain cultivation level and below can enter this formation. If anyone else does try to break it, or even decode it, the formation will trigger the self-destruction. In fact, they put in so many conditions to trigger its self-destruction that it is almost impossible to break past it.

Only people of certain cultivation level and below can enter this formation. If anyone else does try to break it, or even decode it, the formation will trigger the self-destruction. In fact, they put in so many conditions to trigger its self-destruction that it is almost impossible to break past it.

Like, if you attack it, it will explode. If you try to touch it, it will explode. If there are too many people of higher cultivation level around it, it will explode. If some body tries to tinker with it from afar, it will explode.

If the energy supply is messed with, it will explode.

If it cannot determine the cultivation level of the person, it will explode. In my opinion, it is not even worth it to try and breach this formation. We might as well play by the rules if you really want to check out what is actually inside.

"

"Are you sure, there is no other way?

"

"I am sure, sir. Any attempts might just lead for sudden explosion. It is better to just to play along the rules of the game they set.

"

"So, what is the cultivation threshold?

"

"From my tests, I can assume that people in Grade 1 and Grade 2 can enter this place. My personal opinion is to let the Grade 2 students take a shot at it. Grade 3 might be too much, but we can bring one and test it out.

"

Bloody Chariot nodded and sent him to do his work.

He went into a deep thought and started thinking about the announcement made by Gungnir and the Thor academy.

The special expedition was for the students of third grade. But this elder said that this is only for the second grade. He wondered if they made the mistake or if the Thor academy made the mistake.

Still, he decided that it is better to just test the theory and see what happens.

He waited until the formation team set up the space gate. Once it was done, he went back, while leaving the researchers behind. He brought the formation team away along with him.

The researchers were given clear instructions that they shouldn't go near the domes no matter how tempting they might look. They are only in charge of studying the crystals and the liquid that comes out of it.

Bloody Chariot went back to the academy and he started looking through the profiles of everyone. When he asked the elders to compile the list of the best students, he was surprised to see that the list is filled with people from Noble league.

And most of them are actually undergoing the twelve labors, courtesy of the cases filed by Icarus.

At first, he thought that the elders were still trying to curry favor the Noble league members, but after some time and his own research on all kinds of results from previous competitions, he learned that the noble league students of the second grade are indeed the best among their peers.

When they were in the first grade, Christos took the lead of the batch and led them upwards. Even though he is barely at the middle stage of the Divine Plane initiation, making his strength to be at the bottom of the barrel, he managed to influence the late and peak stage students as well.

Under his leadership they did improve leaps and bounds.

Particularly, when he saw their results after their training through the Hub, he felt even more impressed.

One thing is sure, whatever were the reasons behind establishing the hub, it never really skimped on actually training these people. It did help them improve and results were plain to see.

Even though he was reluctant, he couldn't do much. It is only right and fair to bring the people that are actually competent.

However, he didn't want to take them immediately. He wanted to get some more information on those crystals. They are weird and he needs to see if the energy on that planet and those crystals will have any adverse effects on the students.

Even if it is a treasure trove, if it is harmful, he has to take measures.

He believed that Gungnir also took the decision to stay behind because of this only.

While he was waiting for the results, the team that was left behind to decode the remaining chip, gave him the good news.

Since the first one is a success, the second one didn't take too long, even though they are different, the principle behind the making was similar. So, they managed to crack it sooner than they initially believed.

Bloody Chariot immediately called for the space gate formation team to construct another formation for this place.

Based on the coordinates, this place is also far away from their place and also quite some distance away from the first nest they found.

Within a few hours, the space gate was constructed.

He travelled without hesitation. He was actually expecting a similar scene as he did in the first one. A massive crystal planet, but to his surprise, when he arrived, he saw a completely different scene.

It is completely… normal?

It appeared extremely normal to a regular planet. He appeared in the middle of a forest and he couldn't see anything else other than the trees. The only weird thing about the place is that the energy of the planet is very less.

With that level of spiritual energy, he believed it could only product people of Astral Plane level. It would be near impossible to grow past that level in that planet.

He believed that if he forcefully cultivated there for a couple of years, the planet will be deprived of a lot of its vitality and spiritual energy to the point the ecosystem would be in complete shambles.

This intrigued him.

Why would there be such a stark difference between the first planet and this one?

He started exploring the surroundings with those thoughts and soon enough, he saw a similar scene as in the first one.

In front of him, was a formation dome with a translucent barrier. Inside the dome were a bunch of egg shaped energy containers that housed puppets of various kinds.

The most in number are the bird puppets, followed by the humanoid puppets that he has seen in Olympian realm. They are the same model as the one that was sent to deal with the Thor Academy kids.

He had sudden revelation.

The bird puppet that was given to him by Joker must have belonged to the fifth lineage that discovered the new method to fuse minerals and mines together. That explains the weird crystal in that planet.

After all, he hasn't see any humanoid puppets there. At least not for now, with his partial exploration of the place.

As for this planet, this could be the nest for one of the remaining four lineages. This nest's goal is to find the remnants of the fifth civilization and finding it, while the nest of the fifth lineage's goal is to spread their legacy.

He still didn't know how they are planning to do that, but it must have something to do with the threshold of cultivation.

When Bloody Chariot moved closer to the formation dome here, it started vibrating as well. He got the same image in his head.

This one will also explode if touched up on. The self-destruct mechanism is very similar.

He has to bring the formation master to examine this. Until now, apart from these domes, he didn't find anything weird about this place. Maybe the lack of any beasts could be a weird sign, but in his opinion, it is pretty normal for a set up like that to have no beasts. He just credited it to the lineage to clear the place up.

He went back using the token and brought the space gate team along with him to build the space gate on this planet as well.

There is nothing much to examine here, except for the formation dome's threshold.

After examination, it was determined that the threshold of this formation is indeed different from the first planet they visited. According to the formation master, the people with cultivation level of the third grade are much more suitable for this place.