168 Chapter 168 (1/2)
Moments earlier in the Glacial Gorge.
Matt was standing in the room that was filled with the colorful spirit stone ores. He poked one of the glowing ores, his system instantly gifted him with a prompt informing him that a source of spiritual energy was found. He quickly tapped the 'yes' option and saw his spirit point count rise up by a small amount. The glowing piece of crystal quickly crumbled into dust, the radiant glow vanishing.
'I'm in the right place... but do I have to poke every crystal separately...'
While thinking about his big heist he was reminded about the tragic sigh that he saw in those mine tunnels. The workers in the tunnels were mostly men, but he spotted some women here and there. Children weren't spared either as they were pushing the carts, why they were forced to do this was something Matt was asking himself.
'Is this how most sects operate in this world? Or is this one especially rotten?'
His contemplation was broken by a sound behind him. The door swung open and what seemed to be the man in charge walked in. Matt wasn't sure how he should play this out, he talked his way into this spot and just wanted to incapacitate this guy before getting all the loot.
It would be much easier if he managed to do this on the down-low, so he lured his target into a secluded location that was even provided to him. His opponent was here now, but how could he catch him off guard without alerting the rest of the people in this mine. Surely if they started fighting, the whole thing would become quite annoying to pull off. He wanted to suppress his opponent, but for this, he needed to get closer and not alert him to his true form.
The moment the Dark Palm cultivator walked in he started to talk. His way of speaking was quite rapid which left Matt with little time to reply. The moment he gathered his thoughts to respond the man resumed his monologue himself. He had no idea what he was talking about, but it was something concerning this spirit stone mine? Why was he getting offered a 50/50 split, what was that man even on about, Matt was quite at a loss for words. But, luck was on his side as the man had gotten into strike distance without him even having to say anything.
”Wait...what is tha...”
Matt felt the man's spiritual sense washing over him and he realized that his disguise technique was seen through. This wasn't a problem though, the man he was facing was weaker than Wu Ming and he had the element of surprise. He covered Zhu's mouth with his hand and clenched it tightly, his golden aura activated and his lightning Qi forced itself into his opponent's body.
”What are you even on about?”
He was able to disarm the old man with a hump on his back, he wouldn't be able the move a muscle while he was getting bombarded by superior Qi. The Dark Palm member found himself getting raised up into the air by the intruder that was using Wu Ming's appearance as a disguise. He tried mustering up all of his might, but his nascent soul was getting locked down by an immense force.
”Well, it doesn't matter. I don't have time for your antics...”
Elder Zhu couldn't do anything as the Qi of divine thunder entered his body. It traveled through all of his meridians and even made its way into his dantian, destroying everything in its path. The painstakingly created nascent soul was destroyed, the core crumbled and the foundation pillars shattered into million pieces. What was left was a husk of an old man, his body dropping to the floor, his eyes vacant. The attack was focused on his enemy, no Qi fluctuations were able to make it outside, none of the other Dark Palm sect members would be able to sense a thing.
”Not sure how long you will be able to live like this. Just see it as a new life as someone that you despise the most, a person with no power.”
Matt looked at the man on the floor, he was out cold and had his cultivation crippled. The most difficult task was done and he now had free reign in this area. He looked around the cultivation room that this man used for seclusion. Besides the glowing spiritual ores there wasn't much here. There was some furniture like a closet, this closet was used to stash the passed out person.
He contemplated on going for the kill, but he realized that that would only alert the other party to his whereabouts faster. He knew that just like his clan the Dark Palm sect probably had ways of tracking their more treasured members. Yang Kai and Wu Ming had to go, but he had a smokescreen covering Jade Grass City in the form of the communication jades not working. He feared that if he offed this elder, he would quickly have a bunch of them flying here as one of them had already died recently.
”They will probably be on alert, don't have that much time to do this.”
He rubbed his neck while looking up, his eyes locked on his new target.
”Now to the next step! Spirit stones, come to daddy!”
Matt moved out his hand, his newfound telekinesis like abilities forcing all of the glowing stones from the walls. He gathered everything up in a nice pile and proceeded with the absorption process, this netting him some ten thousand of spirit points right of the get-go.
”Hm... not bad for a start...but I need way more than this...”
He brought up his system map, he was deep underground and his spirit GPS was showing him all the corridors in this here mine. He used his waypoint finder to select all of the places that had the thickest spiritual energy, there were a few. Now he could just fly outside and start absorbing everything in a fit of madness.
He dismissed that idea, he'd have some nascent soul goons on him the moment someone saw him running around in a frenzy. His disabling aura couldn't reach around the entire mine, there were just too many people around, someone would report it. He decided to take a slow stroll and even use the dark palm members to his advantage. Why does he need to gather it all himself, when the sect members will gladly do it for him instead?
'Think they have a main storeroom for everything think I can use that, this guy also had quite the small fortune in his storage ring.'