Heiress Unmasked: Shaking the World With Geomancy novel Chapter 2209

"This array was designed as a life-saving mechanism in critical times. It holds the accumulated supernatural power of the Wynthorpe clan over ten thousand years.

"Breaking through it by force from the outside is nearly impossible. That path's a dead end, so I suggest giving it up."

Though Mike sounded discouraging, his eyes sparkled, and Shannon knew he had another plan.

"So, you do have another way?"

Mike was satisfied with how well Shannon understood him. Instead of beating around the bush, he pointed at a specific section of his sketch.

"Here. This part has a spatial reaction. I compared it with the clan layout Mr. Wynthorpe gave me, and this area should correspond with your clan's Soul Tree.

"You once mentioned traveling to another timeline through the Soul Tree and returning here through the chroyan branch of the underworld. That means there must be a direct link between the underworld's chroyan branch and the Soul Tree.

"If we can use the array to create a bridge between them, we can slip through the underworld and enter the barrier."

The only catch was… Someone in the underworld had to be willing to let them through the passage of the underworld.

Shannon digested the theory before asking, "How confident are you?"

Mike acted modest and eventually said, "70 to 80 percent. Mainly because there's an overlap with the array I just decoded, so it saved me a lot of time."

Mike had meant to tell her about the other discovery, but now clearly wasn't the time. She wasn't in the mood to listen to it either.

With Mike's reassurance, Shannon immediately contacted Zidane. He'd returned to see her and Benjamin once after they'd returned through the underworld passage.

By then, he'd long let go of the burdens of six thousand years past and reverted to the same old Zidane she'd known.

She hadn't expected to seek him out again so soon, but Zidane didn't hesitate and led them through the underworld once more.

Thanks to Shannon's Underworld Pass Token, entering wasn't the tough part. The challenge was borrowing the chroyan branch again.

Shannon had assumed Zidane would personally guide them again, but after seeing them off at the gates of Morvahn's Hall, he turned and walked back alone.

He met Morcedai's eyes and raised an eyebrow slightly. "I thought you'd be harder to sway."

He'd come fully prepared to leverage his identity as the former Morvahn to pressure Morcedai, but the latter's compliance had come far more easily than expected.

Though Morcedai hadn't technically said yes, it was still a green light.

Morcedai met Zidane's eyes and didn't bother hiding his reasoning.

"Over 400 years ago, there was once a nine-tailed fox who broke into the underworld and tried to retrieve a human's soul.

"I rejected her."

This time, he would consider it repaying that fox's debt.