Loot

I get up from the meditating position I was currently sitting in, and stroll out into the courtyard, and open the gate. I quickly scan the crowd gathered outside, and sure enough, there are several hundreds of outer sect disciples with strengths varying from Foundation Establishment noobs to even a couple of Beginner Spirit Hardening realm disciples. Since this was an ideal turnout already, I sit down in the middle of the gate, starting to calculate the mass usage of spatial tears to handle all these people. I hear them talk excitedly.

-Brother Han, this is the courtyard of Song Xuan, that disciple that entered three years ago and is the strongest in this region. I heard he reached the Spirit Cloud Gathering stage a few weeks ago and was trying to curry favor with an inner disciple for help so he could reach Spirit Mist Gathering in a year.

-Brother Ming, the highly concentrated spiritual energy that gathered a minute ago is all gone, what do you think happened? How did it appear and disappear so suddenly? Is this the effect of some secret treasure?

-Senior Ao is truly blessed to have discovered this weird phenomenon. All cultivators in the surrounding ten regions know of Senior Ao's talent and beauty, and now that senior is here, you would need only to provide a small favor to that Song Xuan fellow, and he will fall head over heels for you, giving you the secret of that powerful spiritual energy burst. With that, Senior Ao would be able to gather enough energy to directly condense a drop of liquid spiritual qi, breaking through to the Spiritual Hardening realm. And if you continue to use this treasure, you could participate in the inner sect selections in at most three years. Ah, how I envy your good fortune, Senior Ao, you are truly blessed by the heavens!

I finish up with the calculations and unleash the spatial tears. Brother Han, Brother Ming, Senior Ao and all the other couple of hundred outer disciples that gathered here, trying to find the source of the spiritual energy, or trying to figure out who the mysterious figure sitting in the middle of the gate was, freeze. Then they all drop dead. This was the effect of me unleashing hundreds of miniature spatial tears in their brains, swapping a portion of their brain mass between them. While it doesn't sound all too frightening, there are certain portions of the human brain that are vital, and having those carved out leads to direct death. 'Portal' was a truly frightening combat ability, in the hands of somebody with overwhelming anatomical knowledge and analytical capability - like me.

I didn't even get a chance to try out the saber domain I just comprehended, nor the exquisite high speed movement techniques. Not that I mind though, the reason for this massacre wasn't the testing of my abilities, but the loot.

The hundreds of outer disciples laying here should at least have some valuable items on them, right? I start scanning them one by one with both 'Spatial Detection' and 'Basic Appraisal'. It goes quickly, since 'Spatial Detection' covers a large area, thus I need to only use it a few times, analyse the results for 'value', and appraise the items that came up with the highest value. Thus I manage to gather four sets of low-rank spiritual armor, thirteen low-rank treasured sabers, seventeen low-rank treasured swords, five other types of low-rank treasured weapons and almost a hundred low grade spirit stones. I even find a medium grade spirit stone on the body of a fat guy, who was probably the inheritor of some rich family or a sect elder. The things I wanted the most though were the seven spirit gathering treasures I managed to loot from various rich or powerful looking people's body, these, if used properly, could enhance the rate I'm absorbing spiritual energy.

I don't want to linger anymore, so after I gathered all the valuables, I teleport them all to an underground cave I hollowed out with multiple applications of 'Portal'. My 'Portal' ability could currently rip a hole in space the size of a crouching person, due to having spent all my extra time while looting on analyzing the power of space. No new ability popped up, but that doesn't really matter, as the deepening of my understanding of my current OP abilities is good enough for the time being. After teleporting all my newly found treasures, or as I like to call them, my PvP battleground loot, I rip open a portal to a far away outer disciple's courtyard I previously mapped out, and jump through it.

I arrive in the main hall, where the current resident was diligently meditating. I send out a sword qi and behead him, then let my spatial tears swallow up his body. I sit down and analyze the 'proper usage of spiritual treasures'. I quickly come up with a formation involving the spirit stones and the seven treasures, so I set it up and sit in the middle. With a small strand of spiritual energy I send into the life gate of the formation, it activates, and starts to draw in the spiritual energy from the spirit stones and the surrounding 200 meters at an astounding pace. I don't waste my time either, directly ripping a huge tear to the spirit mine's core area from the middle of the formation.

My primary purpose with the formation this time isn't the gathering of the spiritual energy, because that part is easy for me. Instead, it is preventing it from leaking out like it did last time. The formation captures the abundant spiritual energy flowing in through the spatial tear, without leaking any of it out, which in turn prevents the kind of commotion that arose last time.

I sit down and start meditating again. As I draw in the abundant spiritual energy, I start to compress the spiritual mist inside my dantian. This compression is the key to breaking through to Spiritual Hardening realm, where I would have liquid spiritual qi instead of the gaseous one I currently have.