While Wei Wuyin held zero pity for the thieves' situation, he still felt that letting the situation devolve further was a little too extreme.
After ascending to the sixth phase using pure yin and yang energies of the Yin-Yang God Sphere, Wei Wuyin's combat prowess was exceptional. Even if he ascended using normal means, he could still instantly kill any fourth phase expert easily.
Therefore, when he sent out his attack, it wasn't any qi art, but just the manifestation of yin-yang and metal qi in the form of a saber. Even he was taken aback by its strength and swiftness. In a blink of an eye, it had reached the commander from nearly two hundred meters away and severed his head before a reaction could be made.
"Is this why those at the sixth phase are considered gods to those below?" As he pondered this, he leisurely made his way over to the commander's beheaded corpse. When he arrived, he observed the three thieves who had opened mouths and bulging eyes.
They didn't even see how the commander died, and their souls had nearly left their bodies in shock. When they suddenly saw Wei Wuyin waltz over without a care, their expressions all changed. The girl and boy let out yelping sounds, while the female thief remained quiet.
Wei Wuyin praised her inwardly for being able to regain her calm so quickly.
He swept his spiritual sense through the commander and found two spatial rings. One of which was on his finger, the other was stored deep in his flesh, hidden away from prying eyes. "A secret ring?" As he noticed this, he couldn't help but wonder.
Spatial rings were gateways to off-site storage areas. Usually, they would be set up within the stronghold of a powerful force and made from incredibly durable materials with no way to enter except through the spatial ring.
His spatial ring was the same, connected to the Scarlet Solaris Sect's storage department. Only those who reached the Sublime Qi Phase had a chance to forcefully rip through those containers.
Therefore, keeping a secret spatial ring embedded inside one's flesh left him curious. He deduced that even if he was at the Fifth Stage of Qi Condensation, his spiritual sense would not be powerful enough to locate the ring. In fact, he wasn't confident normal sixth phase experts could either.
Only because he refined the purest of yin and yang energies, established a secondary Heart of Qi, did he have enough spiritual strength in his spiritual sense to recognize the spatial ring.
At first, he thought that the lucky chance was the City Lord's valuables in the thief's possession, but now he was rethinking things. "Could it be, the higher the karmic luck value decreases, the easier it is to obtain the maximum benefits for the lucky chance? The lower, such as with the Yin-Yang God Sphere, meant the harder it is?"
This crossed his mind as he decisively stabbed his finger into the commander's flesh, extracting the spatial ring stored inside his body. When he extracted it, his eyes flickered as he realized it had a unique spiritual formation embedded on its surface.
There were three types, and as he examined it more, he realized this ring had three different containers. Despite his incredibly powerful spiritual sense, he could only enter two of them, being decisively blocked by the third.
"This? Three layers, each requiring a stronger spiritual strength than before? That's…" This was his first time encountering a ring so odd. He could also tell that there was originally a gate-like formation that needed to be broken. There were traces of dense magma energies that seemed to originate from dozens of years of constant infusion.
He quickly realized the commander had used his spiritual sense and several decades to wear down and destroy the gate ahead of the required strength. The most recent infusion was about three years ago.
At this point, the pieces were now gathering together. The commander had found this ring and discovered the gate formation and its uniqueness when he had been at the Elemental Birth Phase. Slowly, he used his spiritual strength to wear down and destroy the gate formation preventing access. Then, three years ago, he gained entry and used whatever was in the first storage container.
He realized the first container in the first layer had been swept clean. "Could it be that his spiritual spell originated from this ring?"
He did find it odd that the second strongest soldier beneath the commander's elite soldiers was at the beginning of the Elemental Birth Phase, while the rest were at the Second Stage of Qi Condensation. The disparity was a little too great.
The ring likely contained resources too that helped the man reach the Yin Form Phase.
However, the spiritual sense of the commander hadn't reached the level of requirement to reach the second layer. He smiled, fortune truly comes in pairs.
He took the standard spatial ring from the commander's corpse and turned his attention to the three thieves.
"You can decide, I can kill you all here and now, or you can give me what you stole." He said with a faint smile. His handsome visage, black hair, and silver eyes left a heavy impression on all three.
The female thief struggled slightly. Through clenched teeth she said, "Help us and its yours!"
Help? Wei Wuyin found this hilarious.
"Fine, I'll just kill you all." As he said that, a flame was conjured in his palm. This was true fire made by fire qi and yin-yang energies. This qi could incinerate them all into ash and leave no evidence just like a normal fire would.
"Wait!" The young girl shouted with all her strength in a hoarse voice. She had barely been able to speak or move, but she forcefully did so by rapidly circulating her qi. Her eyes clearly revealed that she did not want to die like this.
She pulled out a badge and threw it on the ground.
Wei Wuyin looked at the tossed badge and examined it. It was made from a trace of wind qi. The image etched in it was of a white lotus in full bloom. It looked alive and pure.
"Jade Lotus Sect?" He realized that those two youngsters were members of the Jade Lotus Sect. How interesting.
"Spare us, and as members of the Jade Lotus Sect, we'll owe you our lives!" The girl cried.
It seemed all three were members of the sect. Looking at their cultivation bases and ages, if one used the standard of the Scarlet Solaris Sect, then these two were core disciples. As for the female thief, she was likely an inner elder subordinate to the two, or related to them.
With her Heart of Wind Qi, she could be a core elder. After all, the Jade Lotus Sect was slightly weaker than the Scarlet Solaris Sect. In fact, it was considered the weakest of the Five Great Sects.
In accordance with overall strength, from first to last, it would be the Sky Sword Sect, Aqua Echo Sect, Scarlet Solaris Sect, Earthly Titan Sect, and Jade Lotus Sect.
"To think the Jade Lotus Sect members are so brazen as to invade into the Earthly Titan Sect's Gaia State and rob one of their most prominent cities. Such gall! I give praise." He felt like clapping in applause. Of course, they failed horrendously, but it was still an 'A' for effort.
The expressions of the young girl shifted with fear seeing Wei Wuyin unmoved.
She asked, "Who...who are you?" The despair in her voice was tangible as she felt death looming.
"Scarlet Solaris Sect's Wei Wuyin," he answered without hesitation. Those words were like a bomb on all three of their minds. The Jade Lotus Sect and Scarlet Solaris Sect had entered into war several times. They were anything but allies.
"Here!" The female thief decisively extracted the spatial ring with a little bit of her recovered wind qi and sent it over. She had even thrown over her own. After realizing Wei Wuyin's status, her only chance was to give up the gains. It's not like she wanted to die.
However, the young girl felt a wave of hopelessness, unsure if this was enough after declaring their identities, and fiercely pleaded, "Please! I'll do anything, please don't kill us!" She bit her lips and forced an awkward smile as she once more said "anything" with meaning.
Wei Wuyin smiled, "Fine!" He dismissed the fire qi and retrieved the rings. After a brief inspection, his eyes brightened up.
"I owe your Jade Lotus Sect a favor, so this can be considered repaid." As he recalled the old retired blacksmith who forged his silver saber, he couldn't help but sigh.
The old man originated from the Jade Lotus Sect and was even a disciple. However, his talent was poor and he resorted to crafting to make a suitable living to raise his family. He had made weapons for the Jade Lotus Sect for decades, finally quitting and retiring to the Scarlet Solaris Sect's domain where his grandchildren had moved.
Although the man had never said to spare any disciples, he knew he had strong feelings of loyalty and gratefulness. While Wei Wuyin was cold and callous at times, he still held importance to relationships. Even to those who've passed.
A small connection was all he needed to spare the Jade Lotus Sect members. However, that didn't mean he wouldn't gain anything from this. With a wave of his hand, a trace of qi wrapped around the spear and pulled it out of the female thief's shoulder, inducing a hellish shout of pain in response.
Wei Wuyin retrieved the qi weapon and examined it with rapt attention. "Definitely of high-grade. It has yin and yang energies structured within, including magma qi. If my saber is compared, it's like steel to rock." He sighed with emotion.
This spear was useful to even fifth phase experts, let alone a fourth phase expert. His saber had already become obsolete, unable to withstand the infusion of his powerful qi. That's why he hadn't used it often, especially when he reached the fifth phase himself.
After a few more looks, he stored the high-grade qi spear into his storage ring. He placed the other spatial rings in his various pockets and walked towards the young girl. He observed her and realized her primal yin was still intact, while she could be considered a beauty, but after realizing she didn't have a unique physique, he sighed.
If he decided to dual cultivate with her, the one who'd benefit massively would be her, not him. With his dense elemental and yin-yang energies, her cultivation would probably reach the peak of the third phase with a chance to birth lightning, wood, or metal qi with her talent. Not to mention, her foundation would be paved.
As for him, he'll just get a mild, insignificant increase in his yin energy. With how strong it was now, that increase was truly unimportant. He wasn't so heartless as to pluck her primal yin one-sidedly, and that wasn't very enjoyable for either party.
Shaking his head softly, he decided to just take both of their spatial rings. He quickly dumped out the contents of the three rings and stored it into his own sect-located spatial ring. He also dumped out the contents of the commander's personal ring and relocated it into his own.
Then, he returned the rings. He took the things important to him, pills, elixirs, manuals, objects with various types of energies, or oddities that stood out. What was left was just trash at that point.
He didn't want them communicating with their sect and having their possessions removed from their storage containers before he could take them, so he retrieved all his desired contents.
Witnessing their stuff being taken caused them to clench their teeth in indignation.
The young girl saw Wei Wuyin's lustful eyes and shrank back, her heart feeling fear, but when he revealed a trace of disappointment, she felt a sense of loss. Like she had just lost out on an outstanding opportunity.
"Well, good luck." He brushed his hands and readied to leave.
"Wait!" The woman, originally referred to as the female thief, shouted while grabbing her nearly collapsed left side. "My name's Jiao Ning! I'll remember you."
Jiao Ning? Wei Wuyin looked towards her and smiled, "Okay."
Just as he was about to take off, within his spiritual sense's range, he noticed several soldiers approaching rapidly. He frowned. The commander must've left trails for them to follow, otherwise just a slight degree off, and they would've been somewhere else. Instead, they followed the path straight to here.
Noticing his gaze shift towards where they came from, the young boy who couldn't speak, as his jaw had been dislocated and several of his teeth had been knocked out, realized the soldiers were approaching. He mumbled incoherently in panic.
Even if Wei Wuyin spared them, those soldiers will definitely capture them. He was likely dead and those two females…
They were in no shape to escape or run. Their fates were sealed.
However, Wei Wuyin's eyes lit up. "More wealth!"