Traversing countless worlds from the primordial era

Chapter 32 The Master Thief Was Here

As soon as it was light, Lei Ming left. Xiao Nuan woke up from her cultivation and saw Lei Ming's horse beside her.

"They just left without a word." Xiao Nuan pouted, her face full of frustration. "They didn't even want the horse anymore. Were they afraid I'd pester them?"

After thinking it over, Xiao Nuan led Lei Ming's horse back to the caravan.

"You teach me Fire Release Technique, and I'll keep your horse safe. That way, we're even," Xiao Nuan said with a sly smile. Suddenly, flames also appeared around her body, leaping and dancing, causing her clothes to flutter as if they were one with the flames.

Lei Ming arrived outside Shuiyue City. He made some disguises and entered the city discreetly.

Last night, he taught Xiao Nuan the Fire Release technique on a whim, and to his surprise, Xiao Nuan actually mastered it within two hours. However, Lei Ming no longer cared about her future prospects.

In the southeast of Shuiyue City, there was a seemingly ordinary garden with two roads in front of the gate and a few small vendors around. There were some slightly out-of-place stone pillars in both the front and back yards, with special patterns carved on them. To the average person, they just seemed out of place in the garden, but Lei Ming could tell at a glance that they were the foundation of an array.

"Looks like this is the place." Lei Ming nodded to himself. He walked to a street corner and his body suddenly sank into the ground.

Lei Ming was walking underground, and he could roughly see the situation on the surface. Although the garden looked deserted, there were quite a few cultivators inside, and there were several underground passages. Directly below the garden was an underground palace, the deepest part of which was more than 100 meters below the surface.

In the very center of the underground palace was a huge black bronze cauldron, with black flames burning on it. The flames were not hot, but rather extremely cold, which was extremely strange.

Behind the bronze cauldron is another large hall, where the people of the Demon Flame Sect usually hold their meetings.

"Junior Brother Huo, is there still no news of the young master and the others?" Mo Ya asked. He was wearing a black robe with a giant black snake coiled around his waist. The snake's head was raised high from behind him, its tongue flicking out, as if it were about to devour someone at any moment.

Huo Ying felt weak all over as the giant snake stared at him.

"Guardian, I've already sent people to look for him. However, we don't have many people in Yuanwu Kingdom, and we need to avoid the righteous path, so it will take some time," Huo Ying said. After a pause, he couldn't help but add, "Guardian, the young master has taken people out, but he hasn't contacted us for several days. There's no need to make a fuss about that, is there?"

"What do you know!" Mo Ya retorted. "The situation is special right now, so I specifically asked Mo Hai to stay with him. Mo Hai sends me messages every day, but I haven't received any from him for the past three days. I have a feeling that something might have happened to the young master."

Huo Ying was shocked. If something really happened to Wei Zhenlong, the consequences would be unimaginable!

"What's the panic!" Mo Ya roared at Huo Ying's reaction. "Immediately gather all our forces in Yuanwu Kingdom. I will personally investigate this matter. During this time, you stay here and guard this place. Do not expose yourselves, lest you jeopardize the sect's important affairs!"

Lei Ming wrapped himself in the Demon-Binding Net, which perfectly concealed his aura. From behind the main hall, Lei Ming heard their conversation very clearly.

"I didn't expect to find an opportunity so quickly!" Lei Ming was overjoyed to see the two leave. He used his Earth Escape Technique to traverse underground. The underground palace was built of earth and stone. Although it was reinforced with arrays and spells, Lei Ming could escape as long as there was something of earth attribute. After two hours, Lei Ming found the treasure vault where the Demon Flame Sect stored its supplies. He entered the vault through the stone door, and with a flash of five-colored divine light, he broke the restrictions and arrays within the vault.

Lei Ming didn't dare to delay and took out his storage bag to start filling it. The treasure vault was full of spirit stones, magic artifacts, talismans, and pills. Lei Ming didn't look at them carefully and took everything he could fit. He brought more than ten of the highest-grade storage bags, which were quickly filled.

Lei Ming looked at the wrecked treasure vault and smiled with satisfaction. He had looted ninety percent of the Demon Flame Sect's stores here, and what was left were just some worthless items.

Lei Ming left with a full load of treasures, unaware that something had happened to the treasure vault until a day later when Mo Ya came to retrieve the magical artifacts, only to find that the treasure vault was almost empty!

"Who did this?" Moya was furious, then a chill ran through his body. The giant snake behind him had blood-red eyes and looked terrifying.

"We must find the culprit, or the sect leader will never forgive me!" Mo Ya trembled as he thought of the sect leader's methods. "By the way, has anything happened in Crimson Flame City...?"

Lei Ming carved out a cave dwelling in the mountains on the edge of Fuzhou to organize his spoils. He himself had not expected that the Demon Flame Sect had left so many treasures in Yuanwu Kingdom.

"There are more than twenty of the five elemental spirit items. The Demon Flame Sect truly lives up to its reputation as a major sect of the demonic path. Speaking of which, the demonic path's efforts in plundering treasures are far greater than those of the immortal sects."

Lei Ming happily devoured these five elemental spiritual objects, and the five-colored radiance in his dantian grew again, now reaching an inch in length. At the same time, due to the fusion with the Five Elements Escape Technique, some additional patterns appeared within the five-colored radiance.

"These are all demonic cultivation techniques, useless... but these spells are quite interesting. Besides being skilled in demonic fire, the Demon Flame Sect is also adept at beast taming. We can keep these spells for cultivating and controlling spirit beasts..."

Lei Ming categorized all the treasures, keeping the usable ones and discarding the unusable ones. In the end, the eight storage bags were filled to the brim.

"The storage space in this world is too small. Otherwise, I would have emptied that treasure vault long ago, leaving them not a single spirit stone!"

After robbing one of the Demon Flame Sect's outposts, Lei Ming originally intended to take all the treasures from the other outpost in one go, but he suddenly had a premonition and decided to go into seclusion in his cave.

Thousands upon thousands of spirit stones piled up around Lei Ming, and vast spiritual power surged from them. Five-colored light bloomed behind Lei Ming, absorbing this spiritual energy, and at the same time, his aura continued to strengthen.

As the Five Elements Divine Light grew stronger, Lei Ming's understanding of it deepened, and he became more adept at using it.

Half a month later, the spirit stones in the cave lost their luster, and the spiritual energy they contained was completely devoured by the thunder.

Once the spiritual energy is lost, the spirit stone loses its value and becomes nothing more than a pile of waste stones.

"Peak of the mid-stage Foundation Establishment..." Lei Ming sensed his cultivation level and smiled with satisfaction. Ordinary cultivators could never break through as quickly as he did.

"These spiritual energies, five layers deep, were absorbed by the Five Elements Pine Nuts, and fifty percent of them were transformed into my cultivation." Lei Ming sighed inwardly, realizing that the price he paid for this breakthrough was too high.

With a wave of his hand, Lei Ming created a door in the cave. Having not seen sunlight for so long, Lei Ming felt a long-lost sense of enjoyment.

"Now that my seclusion is over, it's time to get out and about. I hope the treasures of the Demon Flame Sect are enough for my breakthrough."

Since the incident in Water Moon City, Mo Ya immediately rushed to Crimson Flame City, putting aside Wei Zhenlong's matter. He personally oversaw the underground palace and secretly deployed many demonic beasts, so he could detect the slightest disturbance. At the same time, Mo Ya scattered the disciples of the Demon Flame Sect throughout Crimson Flame City, keeping a watchful eye on any incoming cultivators.

After waiting for nearly a month with no movement from Crimson Flame City, Mo Ya began to doubt his own judgment. Not only him, but the other disciples of the Demon Flame Sect also felt that Mo Ya had guessed wrong.

"Guardian, the incident in Shuiyue City should just be an accident." Huo Ying was in charge of monitoring the situation in Chiyan City, and he had not discovered anything in the past month.

Moya's face was gloomy, and he didn't speak. The giant snake behind him shook its head, showing that he was not at peace.

"There's one more thing, Protector. I've already sent out a signal, but so far, the young master hasn't responded," Huo Ying said cautiously. "Could it be that the young master really..."

"If that's the case, then we might as well just wait to die!" Mo Ya's words made Huo Ying tremble uncontrollably. "Perhaps even death is a luxury..."

While Moya and the others hesitated, Lei Ming had already entered Crimson Flame City. He noticed many cultivators from the Demon Flame Sect within the city, which puzzled him slightly. However, this did not dampen Lei Ming's enthusiasm for robbing treasures. He once again used earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a technique in Chinese fantasy novels) to sneak into the underground palace and looted all of the Demon Flame Sect's accumulated wealth in Crimson Flame City. Before leaving this time, Lei Ming suddenly had a wicked idea and left a line of words on the ground.

"The Master Thief was here!"

Half a day later.

"Ah!" Moya roared in fury, his voice filled with rage. The giant snake behind him suddenly swelled up, growing to over ten meters tall. "Thief King! I don't care who you are, I will tear you to pieces!"

(End of this chapter)