The main reason she didn't go today was that she had already made an appointment with Bishop Electra seven days ago.
This morning, Bishop Electra would lead a Beyonder squad from the "Holy Cathedral" to her home to strengthen the seals on the vault.
If Altair went to "play" now, she would definitely end up covered in blood; even after washing up, the scent of blood would remain.
Once discovered by the Church of the Night's squad, she would have to go through the trouble of explaining.
If the explanation failed and the squad brought in some divine figure to judge her as a heretic and execute her, she would be in big trouble.
For all these reasons, Altair had no interest in going out to play today.
The two hadn't been sitting in the living room for long before Hahn led Bishop Electra and the others inside.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, everyone rose and made their way to the Sheffield Family vault.
After Altair used the key to open the first vault door, Bishop Electra, fearing that Altair—who was participating in vault maintenance for the first time—might not know the process, explained: "Countess Altair, if you wish to proceed with the maintenance of your family vault now, you will need to open the main vault door."
"If you don't open the vault door, the Beyonder squad from the Holy Cathedral won't be able to enter to perform the maintenance work."
"I wonder if the key is with you? It's a black metallic shard—"
Before Bishop Electra could finish his explanation, Altair smiled and politely interrupted, "It is indeed with me. I was just a bit lost in thought; I'll go open the vault door now."
As she spoke, Altair took the "key" from the pouch at the side of her dress. When passing by Hahn, she naturally took the dagger he handed her.
Looking at the two items in her hands, Altair shook her head with a sigh, thinking to herself, "It seems the bloodletting process is unavoidable." Without much further thought, she walked to the vault door.
With a sharp shink, Altair used the dagger to cut a slit in her palm, continuously forcing out blood to feed the black metallic shard, letting it drink her blood.
Only when the key began to glow with a bright red light did Altair press it against the door.
Upon contact with the blood-stained "key," the door let out a loud boom, and then colorful, peculiar "black mist" began to billow out continuously.
Out of curiosity, Altair reached out to touch the mist at the doorway. But the moment she made contact, her spirituality gave her a "warning."
Feeling the content of the warning, Altair suppressed her fear and slowly backed away two steps.
The captain of the vault maintenance squad walked over slowly, stood beside Altair, and explained, "Countess Altair, this must be your first time seeing such a scene."
"Yes," Altair replied casually, stopping her movement and taking out a potion bottle to begin treating herself.
Seeing her reaction, the squad captain shook his head and told her, "Actually, you don't need to worry about safety. This mist only serves a suppressive function. My squad and I are standing right here; even if you triggered the suppression, we could quickly get you out."
"Furthermore, I believe your family vault doesn't need large-scale repairs at all; its current operating state is still very good."
"It's just that the energy is too dense. In all my years of work, this situation is indeed quite rare."
"But I believe the root cause lies with you. You probably haven't opened the vault door many times in the past year—or rather, you haven't opened it at all."
"As far as I know, only in such a case would the energy concentration at the door accumulate to such a high level."
"Just use it regularly in the future."
"Energy accumulation too high?" Altair repeated softly, unable to help her curiosity. "What does that mean? And where does the vault's energy come from? I didn't know my family had such a thing."
"High energy concentration means exactly what it sounds like. The energy allocated to your family hasn't been used and has slowly accumulated, leading to this gathering of energy." The captain looked straight ahead and explained casually to Altair.
After saying this, he added, "Hmm... if I remember correctly, the energy source for your family vault should be Saint Samuel Cathedral. The vault door draws the Power of Faith from its believers directly."
"After all, Backlund is a metropolis with a permanent population of five million. The 'Power of Faith' at Saint Samuel Cathedral is almost inexhaustible."
"To prevent this energy from going to waste, the Church of the Night—no—not just the Church of the Night, but all the Orthodox Churches are doing this."
"They all sell a certain amount of 'Power of Faith' to Beyonder families to help them suppress their own Sealed Artifacts."
"To give a simple example: you should be aware that some Sealed Artifacts possess 'living' characteristics."
"If these kinds of Sealed Artifacts aren't suppressed and sealed, they often require someone to keep a constant eye on 'Them'."
"But doing so is too time-consuming and labor-intensive. So, Beyonder families ask the churches to build vaults and purchase energy for suppression and sealing. This is the simplest and most efficient solution."
"A Beyonder family only needs to pay a certain amount of money to seal their 'Sealed Artifacts.' It's a very good deal."
"Of course, if you don't want to use the church's method for sealing, you would need a large number of demigods or an Angel in your family. With such powerhouses, there's no need to ask the church for help. For example, the Augustus Family of the Loen Royalty—"
After a brief chat, the "black mist" at the vault door completely dissipated. Seeing this, the captain said to Altair, "We can go in now."
As soon as he finished speaking, the captain took the lead and entered the vault door.
Seeing the captain enter without any accidents, Altair relaxed and slowly walked inside.
After entering the vault, Altair slowly turned her head to look around. This completely enclosed vault was not dim and lightless as she had imagined; because the vault was filled with various glowing unknown minerals, the light was quite sufficient.
It had been nearly a year since her transmigration, and only now did Altair enter the true Core Vault of the Sheffield Family.
After observing, Altair became familiar with the layout of the vault. It was an enclosed space about a hundred square meters in size, similar to her room. The layout was relatively open, with frames made of "wood" placed around the perimeter.
Some spaces in the frames were empty, some held boxes, and others were sealed with walls of spirituality.
But perhaps because the seals were too advanced, Altair found she couldn't see through the sealed walls using her spirituality.
Following closely behind, the butler Hahn began rummaging near the entrance after coming in.
Before long, he pulled out an old-looking notebook.
Once he found the notebook, he slowly walked toward Altair.
Approaching her, Hahn handed the item directly to Altair.
He introduced, "Countess Altair, this is the Ledger for the core level of the family vault."
"It records the whereabouts of various Beyonder characteristics and materials in the Core Vault."
"
"The usage methods, effects, and side effects of the Sealed Artifacts—"
"Last year's vault entries were managed by Count Leif Strauss, with my assistance."
"This year, you will need to complete this task yourself. As far as I know, at the family's peak, the vault was packed full with very few empty spaces—"
"