In terms of wealth, Qi Condensation Realm experts had deep pockets. Even the first stage expert had a wealth worth at least an essence stone. However, considering they were all elites, they may have two or three essence stones worth of resources. Their qi weapons and armor were already worth a fortune.
Thinking this, he nearly forgot about the commander's armor. If he sold just their armors to the black market, he could gain dozens of essence stones, and what he needed most for cultivation was pure essence stones.
Just from absorbing and calculating the rate of growth two essence stones gave, he realized that his requirement for cultivation was high. If it was just one Heart of Qi, he may need about four hundred essence stones to reach the walnut-sized requirement to step into the Sublime Qi Phase, but with two…
Eight hundred essence stones was an absolutely disgusting amount of wealth.
And this was only an estimation, who knew if he would need a thousand or more?!
Now that walking bags of money were racing towards him, an insatiable greed emerged in his heart. With a quickness, he removed the commander's armor and stored it into his storage space. His eyes were the picture of avarice.
Seeing Wei Wuyin's hasty actions, the young man panicked thinking he was taking what he could before abandoning them. He started to incoherently plead, but even if Wei Wuyin could understand him, he would still ignore him.
The young woman and Jiao Ning noticed this as well, but what could they do? Like before, the young woman cried, this time trying to rise, "The other soldiers are coming, aren't they? Please, don't leave us!"
She was about to beg or show her willingness to do anything for a chance at life when the rustling of the earth caught her attention. In her view, several dozen soldiers were marching forward with murderous momentum.
Jiao Ning's heart clenched. She gritted her teeth and wanted to cry. There were even thoughts of killing herself. If she landed in those men's hands…
After ensuring that he took everything of value from the commander's corpse, Wei Wuyin revealed a self-satisfied expression. His gains would be massive!
Just as he was about to slaughter those incoming soldiers, Jiao Ning once more shouted. "If you save us, I'll tell you a crucial secret!"
Secret?
Wei Wuyin's ears perked immediately, "What secret?"
"It relates to the City Lord and why he's not chasing us!" She said, her panic increasing as the soldiers' footsteps neared.
"There they are! Forward men!" In the distance, the highest ranked soldier shouted with power.
"Well, out with it." Wei Wuyin urged, his expression a little bored.
"I!" Looking at the soldiers, she clenched her teeth and decided to bet it all. While this secret was important, whether it was of any worth to this unknown youth was still up to question. If she revealed it and he lost interest, wouldn't she suffer? Originally, she wanted to use it as a lure to get him to defend them, but that didn't seem like it'd work.
"The City Lord found a piece of Mt. Inferno's heart essence! He's trying to refine it now and give birth to the Blazing Inferno Magma Qi!" She spilled it all. As she had seduced the City Lord's profligate son, many secrets were revealed including that. It was because of that that she was willing to rob the city's vault.
"Oh!" As he heard this, his eyes burned with desire. No wonder the Heavenly Daos urged him to spread his spiritual sense through the city and led him here. He thought it had to do with the three-layered ring, but it was he who misunderstood!
The Heavenly Daos also gave him an opportunity to enter without the city lord having his elite protection while simultaneously being preoccupied! Wasn't this a glorious chance?
However…
With his cultivation base, did he need to avoid those soldiers? That's strange. Did the Heavenly Daos miscalculate his strength?
As he thought about it, he considered how strong he would be if he hadn't used his own efforts and relied solely on the Heavenly Daos lucky chances. He wouldn't have two Hearts of Qi or reached the False Reality Phase.
Was this lucky chance predicated on his assumed cultivation? According to his current knowledge, the City Lord wasn't a Mortal God-level character, but that might be wrong.
Or…
If he considered it with the assumption of a Fifth Stage of Qi Condensation strength, then he couldn't avoid the commander's powerful spiritual means. He would be noticed, and if the City Lord was a recently established Mortal God...he could die.
However, if he acted while the City Lord was occupied with refining the magma essence, then even he as a Fifth Phase would have a small chance to snatch it or kill him. Even if he failed, he would still have an opportunity to escape as breaking the refinement would've injured the City Lord.
Without his soldiers, he couldn't catch up!
"Wow!" He exclaimed in awe as if he felt the puzzle pieced together nicely. With that, he pushed out his palm as sharp sabers formed from his metal qi and sliced forward. Without any suspense, the heads of all the incoming soldiers left their shoulders and soon they became corpses.
"You all, stay here and remove their armor, weapons, and spatial rings for me. I'll be right back." He was filled with urgency as he executed the Thunder Step elemental qi art and left with an explosive boom.
The three had eyes of shock on their expressions.
He...dealt with them so easily.
-----
In Ash Dragon City.
In the City Lord's Palace.
There was a sealed room that was suitable for cultivation. It had a myriad of spiritual and qi formations that promoted cultivation and gathered yin, yang, magma, fire, and earth energies. The room was fortified on the outside, making penetration by anyone less than a Mortal God-level figure extremely difficult.
Even a Fifth Phase expert would require several minutes to break into the room.
Within this room was a man with dark hair and obsidian eyes. His long bread was majestic, his eyebrows were thick, and his body was fit. He looked like a middle-aged general.
Before him was Blazing Inferno Magma Essence. It was a dark crimson stone that emanated a high degree of heat. Within it, traces of magma continuously flowed without end. It was as large as a basketball and had no real defined sharpness. However, it looked like it was only a piece of a whole.
The man was using his Heart of Qi to absorb strands of magma essence from the stone. Carefully, he refined that essence with his meridians, passed it to his dantian, and absorbed it through his Heart of Qi, entering its core. He hoped to give birth to Blazing Inferno Magma energy which would in turn give him Blazing Inferno Magma Qi.
The commotion outside had not reached him and he was not disturbed. That being said, his son, a guardy dressed young man, paced back and forth with anxiety outside the door. The city's vault was robbed and he had an idea as to who took it. Fearing his father may kill him in anger, he wished to beg for forgiveness the moment he left seclusion.
He didn't dare to disturb his father and try, otherwise he would truly be killed.
A shadow emerged in a corner unbeknownst to the young man. Wei Wuyin had suppressed his aura and presence as he looked at the young man. He realized that there were formations set up to protect the room, and while he could breach it, it would give the City Lord a few seconds to notice.
He needed the formation key to enter inside quickly and quietly. Then, he could strike without anyone noticing.
"Is this boy the son mentioned by that commander?" He recalled a profligate son who gave up core secrets for some ass, and couldn't help but feel pity for him. Can't men simply lay with a woman without giving up all their secrets?
This was even worse for powerful men. Their women oftentimes knew everything and were their most trusted confidants. Even Xing Fu didn't know he reached the Mortal God level. He made it a habit to keep his strength unknown.
Loose pants usually meant loose lips.
Wei Wuyin felt satisfied that he didn't indulge in a lifestyle of debauchery. While he had many sexual partners, most of them were one-night stands with mutual benefits. Only Xing Fu, Mei Mei, and another girl named Dai Lin were more than that.
If Wei Wuyin had known that the profligate son hadn't even enjoyed any sexual relations with the pretty thief, Jiao Ning, yet still he gave up all those secrets, what would he think then?
He refocused.
Swosh!
With a swift strike, he beheaded the son without hesitation. He used only his saber so no qi fluctuations would be generated to ensure that no one would notice. After searching the boy's body and spatial ring, he found a formation flag in the shape of a small spherical rock. This flag was a control tool interconnected with the myriad of formations here.
"Is it really that easy? This City Lord trusted his son a little too much, no?" Thinking about this, he couldn't help but coldly chuckle in his heart. After using the flag, he bypassed the formations quietly and entered the room. The temperature within the room was up by a hundred degrees from outside, making it a literal scorching chamber.
If a normal mortal was in here, their blood would start to boil. Luckily, with his cultivation base, there wasn't even a mild discomfort. When he arrived, he realized the man was focused wholeheartedly on refining the magma essence of the Mount Inferno heart.
"It can't be this easy, no?" He questioned the Heavenly Daos as he swiped his saber at the City Lord's neck. With what should've been an epic battle, was only a head falling off a shoulder and crimson blood spewing everywhere.
Wei Wuyin was taken aback so much that he just stayed where he was, stunned for several seconds. "So...it was that easy?" Shaking his head with a sense of loss, he inspected the City Lord's body and felt yin-yang energy within his rapidly dispersing Heart of Qi.
He truly was a Mortal God.
He took his spatial ring and swept the container. The city lord's spatial ring wasn't connected to the vault, but to his own secret container. He immediately transferred all the contents to his own ring and took the magma essence.
He didn't store the magma essence in his ring, but in the three-layered ring's first layer, which was empty. If he placed something like that with other objects, who knew if he would come back to a container filled with ash.
Rubbing his face, he still felt this was a little surreal. He now realized that not only was the Heavenly Daos unable to judge him, but it can't even properly perceive his cultivation strength, running off on an assumption of strength. While he could be wrong, he felt that that lined up with the Bloodline of Sin's abilities.
"So is that how one overcomes the Eighteen Calamities of Hell? By fooling the Heavenly Daos into giving easy lucky chances. Haha, how hilarious." His laugh was a little self-deprecating because the calamities will still hit and he wasn't sure when it would come or if he could survive them.
He gave a low sigh and left. Just like when he came, no one noticed him leave. Before long, he had arrived back near the three thieves. When he returned, he found the spatial rings, armor, and weapons lying separately from the corpses.
The three were patching up their wounds, and using medicinal energy from pills to heal. His eyebrow twitched when he realized they took some of the soldiers' pills to do so.
That was his wealth, you know!
But…
Considering she had given him this windfall and did what he asked, he would let it slide.
When he arrived, the three pairs of eyes sharply turned to him with hints of worry and fear. It was as if they expected someone else, but when they saw Wei Wuyin's handsome countenance, silver eyes, and tall figure, they inadvertently gave a sigh of relief.
The young woman said, "We're sorry, but we needed the medicinal pills…" her expression and tone would normally invoke pity and a desire to protect from her vile male counterparts, but Wei Wuyin directly ignored her. He swept up the armor and weapons, emptied the storage rings and sent everything into his storage space.
As a core disciple of the Scarlet Solaris Sect, his storage space was incredibly large and barely a third had been filled with all those things.
After tidying up everything, he needed to find the crane. He would find somewhere to rest, inspect his gains, and quietly cultivate before leaving for the next city.
He still needed to find Mei Mei and the Helios Witch. If she was alive, he would definitely bring her back. If she was dead, he would bring back the head of those responsible. However, he wasn't in a rush. It would take two weeks of non-stop flight, but realistically speaking, it would take at least two months with the white crane.
If Mei Mei was kept alive, it's unlikely they'd kill her at all. She didn't have much importance anyhow. And if she was already dead, then it didn't matter when he arrived. He rather strengthen himself before making his way there.
While he cared for Mei Mei, the most important thing was still his own safety and strength. That may sound cold, and a tad bit heartless, but he was realistic in his thinking. Only with strength could he do what he wants, whenever he wants, and however he wanted.
As he thought of that, he felt a hot itch in his heart. A tinge of lust emerged and he looked towards the three. While dual cultivating would offer benefits and expend his energy, normal relations wouldn't do much. He could scratch this itch of his while finding a place to rest.
Walking up to the woman named Jiao Ning, he warmly smiled.