A Hermit and a former Runaway talk under the moonlight

The Zhen Clan estate of Stone Claw City was buzzing with activity after the family meeting.

In a little under sixteen hours, the Zhen Clan elders and scions were going to raid the [Monkey's Temple], a wandering ruins that had popped up in their own backyard.

A set of ruins that were so dangerous that it's upper limit was somewhere pass the Aether Overlord stage!

But alas, the only way they would be able to access that kind of power was the main clan's matriarch and she was all the way on another continent, and paradoxically, the only way they could get her to come over was if the Zhen Clan raided the ruins ahead of time and gather up some rare aether treasures that could help them out.

In other words, the Zhen Clan were, using the parlance of another world, in a catch-22 situation.

They needed a lot more power to raid the ruins properly, but they needed to raid the ruins in order to get the power necessary to raid it.