With a thought from the whale, Almin received the message and began to act. Detue turned to the round being. He killed as if he had crushed an insect, and that made Detue wonder if he had made the right decision. But he didn’t have time to ponder. As the whale approached him, a violet glow ignited within him, advancing toward his body.
’We have until dawn; you know everything here. Take me to the herb and treasure stockpile; we’ll take everything, leaving nothing behind.’ the whale spoke, and a sinister smile appeared on its face. At that moment, Detue felt a cold sweat running down his spine; had he made a deal with a demon?
Almin and Alnia were already on the other side of the central building, both covered by a mystical mental QI. Almin adeptly used the violet power coming from Ruri. The only problem was that the amount of power Ruri could provide was limited due to her cultivation, and he and the whale were using it simultaneously. There was no room for waste, so he was completely focused.
’Is this... your real power?’ Alnia asked mentally, a bit astonished. She had heard about it and had an idea that this was mental power. Was this young man she often called an idiot a legendary mental cultivator? She wondered.
’No, it comes from another person.’ Almin replied without lying, as he couldn’t do it properly. At the same time, he didn’t say much, as he couldn’t give away hints.
At that moment, Alnia trembled and halted her steps. ’Another person...’ She murmured, astonished.
Almin didn’t notice because he was focused on manipulating the violet power. But if he used his head, he would remember that one of the most sinister and distinctive techniques of evil cultivators was refining and absorbing the powers of other living beings into themselves for their use. All the children who heard stories of evil cultivators spent nights scared hearing the details of this method.
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Unaware of everything, Almin simply said mentally, ’Master Detue has already moved, and they are approaching the city’s treasure. We have to steal all the furnaces and Jade Slips. Don’t waste time with details.’
Alnia swallowed hard; her master had already decided to follow them, and the leader must have been killed. They were now traitors to all righteous cultivators and would be immediately killed as an example if caught. There was no way back.
The whale and the old man, in an hour, had already arrived in front of a formation connected to the treasure. Only the leader could enter, but the whale did not stop its steps. Soon, a drop of blood appeared, touching the barrier, which twisted slightly but did not open. The whale then made a gesture, and the silver furnace appeared. Detue looked in shock as a translucent shadow completely covered in black runes emerged from the furnace.
"Doara..." He murmured. As if hearing him, the soul turned slightly, and he saw her face completely twisted in pain and agony.
Alm simply snorted, waving again, and the black runes made that soul move toward the formation. Right after, a part of her energy was forcibly withdrawn, causing small cracks in her form.
Crack.
The formation opened, and Doara’s soul immediately returned to the furnace. "This is the real power of the furnace that she designed herself," the old man murmured thoughtfully. Alm was indeed the one using the furnace at the moment, but the thing was truly designed by Daora.
The whale then spoke, looking at Detue, who was pale. "These black runes refine the entire body and blood, then enslave the soul forever and use it as it pleases. Of course, this comes at a cost, and the soul will be slowly destroyed until it can never reincarnate."
Detue’s eyes trembled, and Bruno quickly took over, cutting through Alm’s lack of tact. "I’m just making her feel a bit of the harm she would cause. We won’t use her to that extent. Afterward, she will be released."
Alm snorted mentally; this old man and Bruno were equally emotional, made for each other. The whale then turned, and they entered the giant treasure hall. Inside, there were so many spiritual crystals that they couldn’t be counted. They quickly sucked everything in five seconds. That wasn’t all. In the background, Alm and Bruno felt a door completely hidden from the eyes and senses of others but not from their divine perception.
They touched the surface, and hundreds of runes lit up; it was another formation, even more powerful than the previous one. They didn’t hesitate, and the chained soul was brought back again. The master key to open a formation was the owner’s will; there was no mistake, and Doara quickly forced open the formation.
When they entered the secret room, to their no surprise, they saw dozens of small golden boxes, a few centimeters in size, containing pills. The best and highest-level ones that the second-ranked alchemist city on the continent had created throughout its history.
Everything was taken, and in two hours, the old man and the whale were already in the inner fields of the city. It was a closed location, where only the best alchemists and their leader could enter. It was extremely easy to enter because the old man already had access to this place before. The whale only had to use mental power to put about thirty guards, who were novice alchemists, to sleep, so they would only wake up the next day.
Following that, they didn’t hold back and sucked half a dozen of each specimen from the large field. They couldn’t take the entire field, but they certainly took the most valuable and ancient herbs, and with Bruno’s Yang power, the herbs were perfectly preserved and could be planted again later.
In that time, Almin and Alnia had stolen almost all the furnaces that the whale had forged. Only a dozen alchemists were gifted by the leader with the white-level furnaces; everything else was saved to later find an owner or be sold, so everything returned to the original owner. After that, they went to the library, and thousands of the top Jade Slips were stolen, with Alnia pointing out the most important and defining ones. One hour before dawn, the two returned to the forge. After waiting for five minutes, the other pair approached without emitting any presence or sound.
The whale said nothing, and they didn’t wait; immediately, earth runes appeared, and a hole was created in the middle of the forge. They entered, not forgetting to close the entrance, and soon found themselves in a tunnel that was already waiting for them. That was the secret tunnel used by the dwarves to escape before, and now it was being used again.
Earth laws were used by the dwarves to prevent the perception of people outside; not even the cultivators from the Three Extremes Sect who searched for their traces could find the place. But with the power of the behemoth’s bloodline, the dwarves’ laws were a joke.
In less than thirty minutes, they came out of the tunnel, already far from the city. It was a silent theft with no mistakes or unforeseen events, something that surprised Alm and Bruno. On top of the city walls, the cultivators from the Three Extremes Sect were still on guard, and no disturbance could be felt from them; it would take them a few more hours to notice.
The four ran quickly to the east. When the morning light covered the entire sky, they entered a cave inside a mountain covered with vegetation.
The whale entered first and suddenly froze strangely. Then, as Detue and Alnia looked inside, their faces twisted. There, they saw all fifty dwarves... but... there was no surprise or joy at the reunion. All the dwarves were completely red and swollen, and half of them groaned in pain, lying on the ground.
"Evil demon!" a dwarf with his back against the wall trembled, looking at something in front of him. Only then did Detue and Alnia lower their gaze and notice something there.