Cultivation was not easy in this world. When one reaches the spirit realm, they absorbed spirit energy to fortify their energy centers, and the higher your rank, the more energy you can accumulate in the future.
The profound realm is where the physical body achieves a qualitative change, the muscles and meridians absorb the surrounding energy to strengthen themselves to a profound degree, then accommodating faster energy absorption.
By each increase in rank, the cultivator gets physically stronger and stronger until his body and meridians are strong enough to handle the absorption of origin energy.
Then comes the origin realm, this is where one can fly since the energy in their body slowly turns into energy of origin. Origin energy is extremely pure, second only to immortal energy.
But when a cultivator absorbs this energy, they also absorb the impure energies all around them. So, in the gathering realm, the cultivator slowly gathers the Origin energy in their energy center while separating the impure energies to one side and the pure Origin energy on the other.
And on the last rank, they use the heavenly tribulation to remove those impurities and form a transcendent core. This core will help in absorbing Origin energy without mixing in any other impure energies.
Nick understood that geniuses had to sit in meditation day in and day out, swallowing countless herbs to reach the profound realm in a year.
While he mistakenly reached the profound realm by hugging spirit stones…life was so good.
Ding! Congratulations host for reaching the Profound Realm-Reward-Profound realm Gift bag!
Ding! Congratulations host has unlocked Bloodline's Secret Skill-Dragon eyes!
Nick was excited about the three rewards he had gotten, first, he found an alternative way to level up, second, he had gotten another gift bag which makes it three now, and to top it all off, he got a bloodline skill.
Just as Nick was relishing in happiness, he felt an extreme stinging pain in his eyes, which only got worse by the minute, but he didn't make a sound for fear of attracting Lily and Mike's attention.
He knew this must be the bloodline technique that the system talked about. So, he could only grit his teeth and bear it.
He could sense the dragon in his Energy center releasing purple energy that kept entering his eyes and remolding them into one of a dragon's.
And just when Nick thought he couldn't bear it anymore he found the pain in his eyes subsiding, and a feeling of relief and power surged in his eyes.
He slowly opened his eyes and found he could zoom in and out of every nook and cranny in the vault.
It felt like he had a high definition camera in his eyes. Satisfied with the improvement he opened his stats.
[Status]
[Name: Nick Michelson
Title: The Slayer Of Scorpions
Energy cultivation: Profound realm rank 1
Physical Body Cultivation: None
Cultivation Techniques: Star Devouring Dragon manual
Physical Body Skill: None
Skill: Dragon eyes
Experience points: 69
Domineering points: -1000(In debt, please pay it back as soon as possible. Thank you.)
Bloodlines: Heaven devouring Ancient Dragon bloodline]
[Dragon eyes-Are the eyes of the Heaven devouring Ancient Dragon, they instill fear on all creatures except other dragons. They release an unfathomable aura of royalty that forces others to submit and can attack other peoples' souls. It can force any creature no more than three ranks higher than the host to submit.]
Nick was very satisfied with the skill, but he didn't have time to test his new eyes at the moment seeing as how Lily and mike were stuffing weapons and herbs in their clothes since they had no more room in the bags they brought.
If only they had a storage ring, they would have taken away everything without breaking a sweat, but sadly, storage ring could only be afforded by those cultivators at the Immortal Realm.
Nick started stuffing spirit stones in his bag.
"Why are you stuffing spirit stones in the bag?" Lily was confused, every weapon here was worth a hundred stones at least but he was filling his bag with stones instead.
"Ah.... you're right I lost my senses for a moment." Nick was embarrassed, they had already told him to only take the weapons and herbs because they were the ones that contained real value.
But he was also happy since they didn't need these spirit stones he could absorb them instead.
Nick quickly got to work and so did the dragon in his Energy center.
Exp+50
Exp+50
Exp+50
Exp+50
Exp+50
Huh? Didn't each spit stone give him 500 Exp before, what happened? Did the system glitch?
'It's your mind that's glitching, not the system, brat!! Energy stones are divided into nine grades in this world, with the ninth grade being for the spirit realm and the first grade being for the immortal Emperor realm!'
The usually quiet Old geezer suddenly spoke.
'Each grade has better quality and quantity of energy, than the last. These are spirit stones because they are mostly only useful to spirit realm experts.'
Nick finally understood why Lily and Mike insisted on ignoring the spirit stones. In the other world, spirit stones only had one grade for all cultivators, but it seems the other world lacked various resources compared to this one.
Nick quickly finished absorbing the tiny mountain of spirit stones and what they lacked in quality they made up for in quantity since he reached the six rank directly. But he also noticed the amount of Exp points needed was increasing rapidly.
After he absorbed all the spirit stones only a single one was left in his hands but no matter how he tried he found he couldn't absorb this one.
Ding! The host has acquired a space stone (1/3) that can be used to activate systems space storage!
Nick now realized when it came to him fortune never came alone but came with more fortune.
To get a storage space before even reaching the immortal core was amazing, but where would he find the rest of the stones.
Nick then turned his head towards the tiny pile of Profound stones in the corner, these were grade eight profound stones so they must provide ample experience points.
The vault was huge so even though the three of them were in the same room it was really difficult to make out what each person was doing.
Nick quickly grabbed the Profound stones and started absorbing them.
Exp+2000
Exp+2000
Exp+2000
There was truly a world of difference between them.
Ding! Congratulations host for reaching the Profound realm rank 9!
'Hahahaha who is stronger than this Emperor here?!!' Nick felt a sense of pride well up in him and didn't realize that he had already started thinking of himself as a future emperor.
Nick quickly got back his senses and walked back to his bag to fill it with weapons and herbs, as for stuffing his clothes, you've got to be dreaming, these weapons were all extremely sharp, what if he mistakenly cut off his little prince?
Nick didn't dare to gamble with that, but herbs weren't an issue for him so he stuffed as much as his clothes could take.
Soon he was done and so were the brother and sister duo, Lily couldn't help frowning as she noticed the missing energy stones but she sighed and choose to ignore it.
They had warned him to only take the weapons and herbs since they were the truly valuable things here, but since this idiot chose the energy stones then he could keep them then.
The guards had left and shut the door to give their elder some privacy, so Mike walked to the door and knocked and told them to open the vault.
And soon the vault opened and what greeted the guards was the most shameless display of theft ever.
Why do all your clothes look stuffed?! And more importantly, how can you, a prestigious Elder, shamelessly pretend that the sword in your pants is natural?! Or are you going to tell us that you are that blessed?! And why, why, do you suddenly look pregnant al of a sudden?!
What about you lady? Okay, we won't question the fact that you suddenly grew a figure, but why doesn't your ass look proportional?!
And then there's you!!! The shameless young bastard, why are you simply carrying around all those herbs in your hands? Aren't you being a little too greedy?
You've already stuffed your clothes, isn't that enough? Can't you at least try to secretly Embezzle like the other two?
And all three of you are even carrying heavy looking duffle bags that were not with you when you went in?!
Nick didn't feel the slightest bit embarrassed, since he was robbing them he might as well do it justly and openly. And while the other two felt uncomfortable from all the stares the guards gave them, Nick walked ahead with his head held high, as if he wasn't robbing the people here, but donating to them!
But as the three were leaving, one of the herbs Nick had stuffed into his robe, accidentally fell and rolled right in front of the guards. Which caused the entire place to fall into an awkward silence.
"Damn it! It fit perfectly in my pocket when I went in, how come it can't fit when I am leaving? Hey guards, could you get me a bag to store my herbs into, sigh, it seems like my pockets shrunk on my way out…" Nick asked the guards as if the shit he was spouting was natural.
The two guards were twins but were not identical. They were given this post because their mom who was also the head maid and the family head had an...exersice session, yeah that's it an exercise session.
So even though this position has certain strength requirements they still managed to get it thanks to their mom's help.
And in the many years that they stood guard they had learned to turn their heads to the shady things that the elders did.
They have seen a couple of elders coming to 'Inspect the Vault' and leaving with their pockets looking fatter, and even though the family head knew all this he ignored it knowing that it was the cost of keeping these elders in the family.
Only Elder John was the exception, he never participated in these types of shady things. This was because he was the brother to the family head, so stealing something from here would be like stealing from himself.
But maybe they had misjudged him, maybe he was accumulating years of shamelessness to stun them all at once.
And where did he get these shameless subordinates, not only were they robbing them they were even asking them for a bag to carry the stuff out with.
Nick had a look of indignation on his face and if what he said didn't sound ridiculously unbelievable, they would have believed him.
Did you just say your pockets shrunk all of a sudden?! Then if we believe you, our heads must have shrunk as well!!
But they also knew that no matter what was going on, they still couldn't offend Elder John, so they scurried around and quickly brought him a bag.
"Good!! Good!! This family truly hasn't wasted its resource bringing up loyal and upright subordinates like you!"
Nick praised them while shamelessly stuffing the bag with the herbs he was carrying, he even took out the ones in his clothes, that made him more comfortable.
Nick then realized that the bag was only half full, even though he also put in the thing he hid in his clothes, so he suddenly exclaimed.
"Ahhh...I must be getting muddleheaded I actually forgot my family's treasured sword in the vault!!! Quickly open it, I must get it back!"
Nick was no longer as timid as he was before because he knew he was strong enough to handle most of the experts in this place.
He could feel the amount of power coursing through his veins. As soon as he reached the Profound realm, he noticed the ridiculous changes to his body. He could even see every muscle and vein in his body were strengthened to a ridiculous degree.
Mike and Lily just stood there staring at Nick in horror, is this man crazy?! Why was he even revealing the ones hidden in his clothe?! But seeing him move around more comfortably afterward, they also wanted to request for a bag as well, yet they weren't or as thick-skinned as he was.
And when they heard him requesting to reenter the vault, and for such a ridiculous reason too, they just wanted to help the guards and beat him up.
The guards awkwardly reopened the vault gates and stood on each side, curious to see this 'family's treasured sword' Nick was talking about.
Nick looked at his bag and calculated he had enough space for five weapons, yet he also noticed the guards were waiting to see which sword he would take as his family's sword.
"Ahhh...there you are my babies! The legendary five in one sword set!"
Nick shamelessly and randomly stored five swords in his bag and pretended like they acted as one Sword.
But then he noticed there was still room for one more herb, so he randomly picked a herb and exclaimed.
"Oh, and its sheath!" Then he stored that herb with seriousness and walked out of the vault.
The two guards could hardly keep their sanity, buddy, we were there when the family head personally stored one of your so-called 'five in one sword'! And how the fuck did that herb turn into a sheath.
If we weren't wary of the terrifying elder with you, we would have...
Now all they wanted to do was hurry and tell the family head what happened and have him take action.
Nick quickly noticed that the two-guards were anxiously waiting for them to leave. One of them was even looking towards a certain direction and was positioning himself to run and report them as soon as they left.
So how could Nick allow them to do what they want, even if he didn't fear the people here now, that didn't mean he wanted to get into a conflict with them when he could simply walk out of here without obstruction.
"I am sorry to keep asking for your help but could you guys help me carry my bags for me, they are incredibly heavy you see, and I am very weak."
"Don't worry about the vault, that Elder will take care of letting the family head know the reason you left your posts, okay?"
Hearing what Nick said, Lily and Mike grew confused for a moment. but they soon understood his reasons and couldn't help approving of his methods.
Both Mike and Lily simultaneously dropped their bags and grabbed their backs staring straight at the guards as if saying, yeah carry ours too please, because we hurt our backs robbing the vault too.
The guards could only cry in their hearts as they carried their bags and escorted them to the gates.
When Nick arrived, he noticed there were no more guards there and the only thing there was a piece of paper.
'Hello Ronald family, I am the Flame immortal, I have forcefully taken your guard Travis due to his immense talent, and potential. And even though he was unwilling, blabbing something about being ordinary, I have decided to take him as my disciple none the less.
But since you gave me a disciple with such immense potential. I have decided to reward you in exchange. The stone used as a paperweight for this letter is a space stone, it can be used to forge storage rings.
P.s: Don't try to sell the stone or else you will be wiped out by other powers in their bid to acquire it. With love, Flame immortal!!'
Nick expressionlessly stored the stone into his pocket and walked away with the letter.
And even though Mike and Lily were curious about the letter, they chose to keep their questions to themselves until they left the city.
On the way, Nick calmly tore up the paper and threw it into the trash bin by the street. While the space stone was taken in by the system.
Ding! The host has acquired a space stone (2/3) that can be used to activate systems space storage!
Nick felt frustrated even though he found two space stones because he didn't know they were this valuable! From what the immortal wrote, these stones are used to forge extremely valuable storage rings. So finding two at once would probably be as lucky as he will get, and finding the third one will probably more difficult.
The two guards escorted them to the city gates even though they tried to weasel their way out a couple of times.
Yet only when they got to the city gates did Nick allow them to leave.
After which, the three thieves carried the bags and ran away towards the desert knowing they had successfully robbed the richest family in the city.