Chapter 165 (Patreon)

Matt leaned down and touched the dead body of elder Ming on the forehead. The man's body soon started vanishing out of existence turning into dust before his eyes. What was left was his robe and whatever else he was wearing. Everything was tossed into the storage ring while Matt himself started to examine the new one he got as his loot.

'What do we have here...'

He noticed that the ring didn't really have much preventing him from peeking inside. He thought that someone from a big sect would have some defensive measures preventing others from taking their stuff. Maybe the elder didn't think anyone would be brazen enough to actually steal the ring they always wore on their hand. This type of ring only had a simple lock that only worked when the owner was still alive, maybe this was considered enough.

'Well, not like mine has more to lock it either...'

He glanced inside and saw a nice stash of spirit stones, lower graded, and middle graded ones. Besides that, there were some old cultivation manuals, various pills, and quite an amount of treasures.   

'Was this guy some kind of collector...'

There were various items just floating in there, weapons, necklaces, rings, herbs, and even some booze that looked quite expensive. He didn't really have time to look over all of this throughout so he focused his senses to see if there was anything at the nascent soul level, he already had the black sword with him.   

'Not really that much in here...'

There was a couple of heaven graded techniques in here, even the manual for that shadowy cultivation art that Wu Ming was using. But it wasn't really anything better than what he had obtained from that secret ground.

'There is another heaven realm weapon in here, guess even elders don't have enough cash to have many of those around... or maybe he didn't bring his whole stash along with him.'

The other item was a large black glaive, it was an early heaven graded weapon and kind of what he needed right now.

'I'll use this to get my body refining to the next level... the sword I can use for combat, it's also a middle graded one. Don't really see any demonic techniques in here, though that guy with the soul gem didn't have any demonic arts in his own spatial ring either.'

He rubbed his chin and shrugged, he had managed to loot two Dark Palm Masters and was a lot richer but this wealth wasn't nearly enough for what he was planning to do. No, he would need a lot more, mostly more spirit stones or beast cores, any treasures that could be used to increase his spirit point count would do.

'I guess I should go back into the city, there should still be some loot left in that base of theirs...'

There was no more danger waiting for him there, besides this one Buttler looking guy that was still looking at him from the distance. The man didn't feel hostile though, the aura he was exuding was mostly just curiosity than malice.

'No use fighting a fight that I can avoid, shouldn't get too cocky...'

He thought to himself while flying back into Jade Grass City. After taking the residual energies of the two nascent soul fighters the city looked deserted, everything was closed and was covered in a layer of dust. He could feel people hiding in the buildings while he was flying by, but they were just scared civilians that he wouldn't bother with.

"Greetings, seen something you like?"

Matt asked the man that hovered down from the giant golden dragon gate. The two men looked at each other, their spiritual senses clashing against each other as they tried to feel each other out.

"Why yes good fellow, you have given this old man quite the show to watch."

The man gave a little bow, the monocle that was sitting on his face almost slipping out during it.

"Ah, sure... I'll keep this quick as I don't have much time. What is your stance on all of this?"

Matt was now holding the black sword in his hand, looking quite menacing. His Soul-Beast was also hovering in the back but outside the city, mostly there to alert him if any other nascent soul trouble arrived. 

"No need for that look ol' chap, the Yinglong Pavilion always remains neutral in situations like this, there is nothing to fear."

Matt raised his eyebrow and then looked at the large store's name. He even recalled selling some of his crafted items and loot at a less prominent branch store.

"But if I may, could I pose the same question to you ol' chap. You're not thinking about robbing my good establishment here, are you now?"

The man's aura warped and you could see a cold glint behind those eyes. This pressure washed over Zhang Dong's body making him take a step back in surprise. This man was certainly stronger than that previous opponent that he fought just recently. Battling would be unwise, his plan of sacking this place was now being questioned by himself. 

"Robbing? Me? No... I was just going to grab some stuff I left behind at the Dark Palm Sect."

Zhang Dong straightened out, his aura getting unlashed into the surrounding area and canceling the killing intent that was produced by the old English gentleman looking fellow. The man's face twitched slightly, his facial expression going back to a cheerful smile as if nothing happened at all.

"Well that's fine, as long as you leave Yinglong Pavilion out of your disagreement with that Sect, we will always remain neutral. I can give you my word."

Matt nodded, he already had a big faction going after him, he didn't want another one to be after his head. Previously he thought that this place belonged to the Dark Palm Sect. He had no problem in robbing his enemy blind, but this was another power altogether.

"Mmm."

He clasped his hands and did a little formal bow before jumping up and heading into the distance. The old man gave out a sigh of relief the moment Zhang Dong left. 

'I might be getting too old for this.'

The man chuckled slightly while pulling out a handkerchief. He wiped the sweat from his forehead that came running out right after the other man had left. He had managed to scare him away, but he knew that if a battle ensued that his chances of winning were slim. 

'Where did such a man come from.'

The man named Tian looked in the opposite direction that Zhang Dong flew off. In the distance, he could see a large looking beast. This was the golden dragon that was guarding the area, the peculiar thing about it was that it was still out there even after the battle had ended.

'He must have immense spiritual energy reserves to be able to do this, is he really only at the early stage?'

The man shook his head, thinking to himself that the man had to be hiding his true cultivation realm. Having a Soul-Beast so early in the cultivator's life was unprecedented. It was more realistic that the man with white hair was hiding his true level, he might even be at the late stage. 

'I must report this, it would be better not to make an enemy of him.'

While the butler was blowing things out of proportions, the cultivator in white had arrived at the mostly destroyed outer sect base of the Dark Palm Sect. There was quite the number of injured people as he had fired off his Qi blasts in a random direction. Even though he was mostly aiming for injuring people, there could have been fatalities. 

"Oh no...w-why is that man back!"

"What happened to Elder Ming..."

People shouted out and screamed as they saw the Nascent Soul cultivator approach them slowly. Before they could react to his approach they felt their legs giving out. An oppressive force washed over them and it felt like gravity was increased tenfold. They couldn't do much besides going down to their knees, their faces pale from the strain that their bodies were placed upon. 

Zhang Dong's eyes flashed with divine power, it would be quite easy to just flatten all of these people right here right now. This was the group that was going after his newfound family. The question he had thought was if these people were all cold-blooded murderers as the man that he just clashed with. His sense washed over them, their bodies trembled in fear and he could even hear some of them weeping.

"I'm really not cut out for this..."

He shook his head and increased the pressure that his aura was applying to the people that were actually still conscious. He heard cries of protest but soon the whole place quieted down, the only thing that he could hear was silent breathing. Everyone that was in the vicinity of his aura attack had passed out, their lives weren't in danger though. 

"Not like the lower cultivators matter that much, the battle will be decided by the elite few."

He knew that it probably wasn't wise to leave the enemy soldiers alive, but this world worked differently. The few outweighed the many, what counted were the nascent soul elders that were at the top. He could more or less focus on those, if he managed to get rid of them the battle would be won. 

"Well, better get what I came here for..."

He closed his eyes and focused again, his energy washed over the area. Soon enough small trinkets and bags were floating upwards, these were all the spatial rings and bags that these Dark Palm Sect members had on them. Matt used his enhanced senses to home in on the peculiar aura that these types of treasures had and so he was able to identify them for a faster looting time.

He didn't really go through any of them just yet though, he just placed everything in a regular bag that then he inserted into his own high-quality spatial ring. There was a certain danger in having so many treasures that worked on spatial laws, if he tried cramming everything into a badly made storage device it could very well cause an explosion. 

That's why he only trusted his very own storage ring that he received from the system. This thing was high quality and wouldn't break even with multiple other dimensional devices stored inside it. 

"Should I take their robes... Could probably get some raw materials if I deconstruct them in my crafting abode."

Nothing was safe from his clutches, the people were left in their loincloth but everything else was cleaned out. Anything that was identified as a crafting component was going into the bag. The previously destroyed area was left with a bunch of naked people, even parts of the buildings were missing. The floor tiles that had some residual Qi in them weren't left behind, much less for any bronze or iron statues. The vault was cleaned out, not a single book remained after Matt was done here.

"Okay, think I got everything..."

He took another look around him, making sure that there weren't any secret chambers hidden below the estate. His senses weren't picking up anything of notice though.

"This is the thing that I came here for though."

He pulled up a map, it was something he got from one of the rooms that the Dark Palm members probably held their meetings at. It had some basic information scribbled on it, so he could easily decipher it. It had the location of their cities marked in and also where they bordered with the other sects. He could even see the current city and also Spirit Spring City on it, the font for his city was quite tiny though making him think that they weren't taking it very seriously. 

"There... they do have one of those..."

"I need to go, they might increase their guards... but I don't think there should be more than one nascent soul cultivator guarding it."

Matt nodded and brought up his system map, this thing was quite handy for times like this. He put in the coordinates and now only needed to fly in the direction that the map was guiding him towards. The place where he was going was deeper in Dark Palm Sect territory, but he had no chose he needed the resources that were at his next destination to go through with his plan.