Elder Tianfeng moved without warning, his figure vanishing from its original position as if he had teleported. To Chen Fenghao, it was an instantaneous displacement, one moment the elder stood a few meters away, and the next he was already in front of Arthur, his hand descending towards his shoulder.
But to Arthur, the movement was… slow. Elder Tianfeng was not slow in the literal sense, he just appeared slow in his perception due to his extreme dynamic vision. Every shift in the elder's body made his next move predictable to Arthur.
The elder's hand came to rest on Arthur's shoulder, carrying no immediate killing intent. A stream of spiritual energy flowed from Tianfeng's palm into Arthur's body. And the moment the spiritual energy entered his body he felt the elder was scanning his body.
Arthur didn't stop him from doing so. In fact, a faint smile formed on his lips.
The instant the spiritual energy invaded his body he activated Energy Absorption. The invading spiritual energy simply… disappeared. It was redirected into the Aether Energy Reactor, where it was converted seamlessly into Aether. To Arthur, it felt as natural as breathing.
…
Elder Tianfeng frowned, feeling the spiritual energy he was injecting in Arthur's body was vanishing somewhere. So, he increased the flow of spiritual energy, pushing more into Arthur's body, this time deeper and more aggressively. Yet the result remained unchanged, his spiritual energy vanished the moment it entered Arthur's body and he lost control over it, leaving behind no trace that could be detected.
Previously he was intrigued after failing to sense Arthur's spiritual energy and cultivation realm, so he wanted to see if he was using some kind of treasure to hide his cultivation.
But what he just experienced wasn't normal. Even the most sophisticated concealment artifacts couldn't erase spiritual energy like this.
Tianfeng withdrew his hand slowly, his gaze sharpening as he studied Arthur more carefully. Curiosity flickered in his eyes, but it didn't take long for it to evolve into something far more dangerous.
A greedy glint appeared in his eyes, he guessed it must be a rare treasure as even now he failed to detect Arthur's cultivation, and Arthur immediately recognized the emotion behind the elder's eyes.
"Boy," Tianfeng said, his voice was calm but it was edged with authority, "Show me the artifact you are using to hide your cultivation."
Arthur met his gaze without any visible concern and gave a small shrug. "I'm not using any artifact to hide anything."
Elder Tianfeng got angry seeing Arthur was blatantly lying in his face and a sinister smile spread across his face. "So," he said slowly, "you want to do this the hard way."
With a flick of his wrist, a silver rope appeared in his hand. He immediately injected spiritual energy in it and it started to shine, its surface was lined with intricate patterns that shifted like the scales of a snake.
Arthur's eyes flickered briefly as he analyzed it. It was a sealing artifact and it was not a weak one. The material was extremely strong, strong enough to restrict a cultivator at the Golden Immortal Realm.
Tianfeng moved again and this time, he didn't bother hiding his killing intent. He vanished from Arthur's front and reappeared behind him in the same instant, the silver rope was already in motion. It shot forward like a living serpent, and it snaked around him as if it had a mind of its own, aiming to bind Arthur completely.
…
For any other newly ascended cultivator, this would have been the end and their fate would be for the elder to decide, but the result was not something elder Tianfeng or Chen Fenghao expected.
Just as it was going to bind him fully Arthur disappeared and reappeared behind the elder.
Before the elder could turn around, and before he could even fully react, a hand closed around his neck. Both Elder Tianfeng and Chen Fenghao widened their eyes at the same time in disbelief.
The elder reacted instantly, his body surging with spiritual energy as he grabbed Arthur's wrist with both hands, trying to pry it off. His muscles tightened, and the veins on his hands bulged, his full strength was brought to bear, but the grip on his neck didn't move even an inch.
The hold was like an iron clamp, and he was unable to remove his hand even after trying his best.
That was the moment realization hit him, he realized Arthur was much stronger than him, but inwardly he was very confused. He thought about how a newly ascended cultivator could possess this much strength.
Still his pride didn't let him back down, "You!" Tianfeng's voice came out sharp, it was filled with both anger and disbelief. "Do you know what you're doing?!"
Arthur tilted his head slightly, his expression remained unchanged, almost indifferent.
"If you kill me," Tianfeng continued, forcing his voice to be steady so as to not expose his nervousness, "you will be hunted until the end of the Immortal Realm!"
Arthur's response came calmly, almost lazily. "Why would that matter… if you're not alive to see it?"
For the first time, genuine fear appeared in Tianfeng's eyes after hearing Arthur's threat and started circulating all his energy to break out of Arthur's hold.
"HAAAAA…!"
His entire body erupted with power. Spiritual energy exploded outward in a violent burst, turning into a destructive shockwave that tore through the building they were in.
BOOOOOOM!
The structure collapsed instantly. Walls shattered, the ground cracked, and debris was blasted outward in all directions. Chen Fenghao was also thrown away like a ragdoll, disappearing into the chaos as the shockwave swallowed everything in its path, his condition unknown.
Dust filled the air, obscuring everything. And as the dust cleared the result became clear,
Arthur still stood where he was without even a scratch on him while elder Tianfeng was still in his grip, gasping for breath. Arthur still held him by his neck.
The damage would have been much larger if Arthur hadn't absorbed most of the energy from the blast when it occurred, and what remained had only been enough to destroy the building.
Arthur looked at him quietly, his decision was already made. He wouldn't have acted against him if elder Tianfeng hadn't tried to capture him, but by doing so the elder crossed a line. And since the elder was weaker than him, he decided it was finally time for him to leave the mine.
Crack.
Arthur twisted his wrist, and with a snap he bent the elder's neck. But he was amazed that the elder was still alive.
Arthur paused for a brief moment, then adjusted his approach. He injected a huge amount of aether inside the elder's body, and tried to find his Sea of Consciousness.
And as soon as he found it he shattered it by overwhelming it with aether, causing the body of the elder to go limp in his hand.
To a cultivator their Sea of Consciousness is extremely vital, it serves as the repository for their soul, spiritual essence, and mental willpower. So, when their Sea of Consciousness is shattered it generally leads to instant death.
Now the elder was dead, at least he hoped so. He was not aware of the means of an immortal and he currently didn't have the time to investigate, but he still burned his body for extra measure.
Arthur then found the elder's spatial ring among the ashes. The moment his awareness entered it, even he was surprised seeing the number of resources present inside.
Inside were mountains of spirit stones, and from what he could estimate there were millions of them. And he could even find spirit stones that emitted much more spiritual energy than the ones he found in the mine, making him believe they were of higher grades. Alongside them were artifacts, pills, and various cultivation resources, all neatly stored.
The elder's spatial ring was a walking treasury. So, not wanting to waste time, he quickly left the area as it was already drawing attention, his next target before leaving this place was to empty the storage unit for the mine's spirit stones.
Since he already knew the location of the storage facility he directly teleported there, and moments later, he appeared in front of it.
The guards reacted instantly, drawing weapons as spiritual energy surged but before they could even act, their bodies froze. An invisible force pressed down on them, locking their movements completely. And Arthur walked past them casually, as if they didn't exist.
He reached the gate, kicked it open and entered the storage area. Once he was inside, he found spirit stones were stacked like mountains, filling the space with a soft radiant glow. And from his estimates there were a few hundred thousands of them stored here.
Arthur swept them all into his Sea of Consciousness in seconds. Then he vanished again, teleporting as far as his current capability allowed.
…
A few minutes later, several figures appeared in the sky above the mine.
An old man with a long white beard looked down at the destruction below, his brows slowly knitting together. "…What happened here?" he muttered.
Beside him, a middle-aged man extended his divine sense, sweeping across the ruined structures. His expression gradually turned serious. "Someone very powerful was here," he said quietly. "And very recently."
The others exchanged glances before nodding.
"Let's go down."
The collapsed building, the residual energy, and the complete absence of order all pointed to one thing.
Something had gone terribly wrong here. And whoever was responsible for this was already gone.
***
Become a patreon member and read 30 Chapters ahead:
patreon.com/New_Horizon1
You can join my discord channel to discuss my novel and find artwork of this novel!!
https://discord.gg/PmkQsrAdMY