After observing the barrier for a second, Ryu noticed that it was only of the first tier, Black Tier. Ryu can already perform Enchantments from the second tier, Brown Tier, perfectly so sneaking past it would be a breeze for him. The barrier was made within a small stone hill which made it even harder to notice. This barrier was not made to defend but to prevent aura detection, it seemed like someone had went through a lot of trouble to set up this to remain undetected.

After easily sneaking by after opening a small hole, Ryu found himself inside a damp cave, water dripped from the ceiling and the floor was covered in slime and moss. There was a bloody trail leading inside the cave, seems like an injured person was retreating through here.

Carefully peering around with his second vision that outlines the world in Qi, Ryu noticed a group of people at the center of the cave and a dozen more situated at the corners. He couldn’t spread his aura out since that’ll alert them but he could tell none of them were in the Emperor Domain since their Qi reservoirs were not in the gaseous state yet. He slowly snuck up on them to observe the situation by slowly navigating within the stones from the ceiling. Ryu poked two slight holes to peer below.

The bloody trail was leading up to the center. Two white robed figures were surrounded by five men in dark purple vests, their hair were short and arranged in an odd manner. They were definitely not from the Lin Province where men kept the hair long since it was viewed as part of their honor. The most shocking thing was that the cornered white robed figures were probably near peak King Domain while the men in dark purple vests were only entry to mid King Domain. Looking closer Ryu noticed foreign Qi clashing against the Qi reservoirs of the white robed people, they must be poisoned.

“Ahh.” A scream could be heard, one of two white robed figures fell lifelessly to the ground without any interference. It seems like the poison invaded into his Qi reservoir completely. The remaining white robed figure had a look of fear and anger combined.

“You… are you trying to start a war with the Limitless Moon Sect? I’m Gong-Chen, one of the candidates to succeed the sect in the future! My father is the vice-head!” The remaining white robed figure screamed out.

“You think anyone will figure out what happened here?” One of the people in the purple vests snickered.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, no one can save you from the Heart Stopping Venom. You better do as we say.” Another laughed without a care in the world.

“My uncle is the Spear Fiend, he would definitely not rest until he has avenged me!” Gong-Chen threatened but his voice didn’t carry the conviction to go with it.

“We weren’t even in the auction house, unless he could read minds he’ll never find out. Besides you are a long way from home, this is the Yasha Province not the Toko Province.”

“You… You… Which despicable sect or clan are you all from? How can you all be so shameless to use poison against us?” Gong-Chen asked as he quickly thought of a way to escape. Within his hand he secretly snapped a crystal jewel off his bracelet.

If I hand over my storage ring then I’m as good as dead. If I can hold off long enough, I’m sure my father would pick up my trail! This life-saving Enchanted bracelet can send out an SOS signal over a hundred kilometers! After I’m free, I’ll capture these bastards and feed them the same poison!

Since Gong-Chen is injured and his abductors are only King Domain cultivators, Ryu’s Mind Tome had a field day easily reading all their minds. Ryu had to give Gong-Chen credit, even when he’s in such a predicament he didn’t give up. He was even plotting to get revenge already!

“Don’t preach about fairness, it is widely known in the underground world that the Limitless Moon Sect had been experimenting taboo body modifications on slaves. Heck your sect might be more worried that you leaked out their little secret than they are about your life.” The leader of the group mocked. His name was Wu-Feng.

How else did you think we tracked you so easily? We sold the slaves to your sect for decades so naturally we know a thing or two about you guys.

“You…!” Gong-Chen’s complexion turned worse, it seemed like the poison within him had circulated closer to his heart as the news shocked him. Their sect does indeed buy slaves from an underground organization but how do these people know about it?

“Also that little distress signal you sent won’t be able to breach this barrier we had set up. Paid quite a hefty price for it but totally worth it haha.” Wu-Feng laughed as he saw Gong-Chen’s complexion pale even more.

Gong-Chen was trying to calm himself to suppress his poison but when he heard about the barrier, blood flowed out of his ears and nose. He couldn’t compose himself after having his last hopes dashed. He was one of the top disciples to his sect and he had reached upper King Domain. It was his destiny to step into the Emperor Domain and leave his name behind in history!

“You better hand those pills over now.” Wu-Feng warned him as he enjoyed watching Gong-Chen withering in pain.

Have you got no shame? I won the Absolute Zero Hydra pills fair and square. Ten million gold coins! Gong-Chen screamed out in his mind. Ten million gold coins was a huge sum for anyone. In fact the Resilient Gaia Sect had less than twenty million ready for this journey to the Thousand Swords Graveyard. A disciple having ten million shows how valuable he is to his sect.

Wu-Feng flicked his fingers and his henchmen brought out a corpse of a bulky warrior. The right arm of this corpse was abnormally muscular and more than twice the size of his left arm.

“This man here was the so called “Axe of Doom” from the Demon Beheading Sect of the Yasha Province. Even he stood no chance against us. The strongest weapon in the world isn’t cultivation or martial skills! It’s scheming and traps. No matter how powerful you are, what can you do once you’ve been poisoned? What can you do once you have fallen into a trap? Look at this level 77 warrior, he died without even a chance to fight back. Do you want to end up like him?”

Gong-Chen stared in shock. The dead warrior in front of him was the infamous “Axe of Doom”, an upper Emperor Domain expert from the second strongest sect in Yasha Province.

“Man you should have seen how he brawled like a baby near the end.” One henchman snickered.

“You shouldn’t be surprised Gong-Chen of the Limitless Moon Sect. This is a world where only the strong survives and the weak perishes. Now be a good boy and unlock your storage ring.” Wu-Feng taunted.

Gong-Chen had no choice at this point, the poison was burning him up from the inside. It felt as if thousands of ants were eating away at his inner organs. Once he stops resisting, the poison would invade his Qi reservoir and stop his heart. Weakly he took out a transparent bottle containing two pills and threw them over at Wu-Feng.

“Amazing, if not for this bottle I bet my hands would be frozen.” Wu-Feng said with a chuckle as he turned his attention back to Gong-Chen.

“Well, I’ll be generous. Instead of finishing you off like we did with the others, I’ll let you die. How much time would you say he has left?” Wu-Feng asked a random subordinate.

“One hour if he’s lucky.”

“Aw don’t give me that look. It’s because you retards believe that there’s no consequences for hiring us. I might as well tell you, we are the Obscure Shadows Thief Guild. Sound familiar?” Wu-Feng smirked at Gong-Chen who was in too much pain to sit up properly at this point.

That guild? The one we hire to get rid of trouble and for our slave supply? How is it possible? They have a stellar reputation for keeping confidentiality. That’s the only reason we do business with them. Gong-Chen thought in shock.

“Oh you must be thinking isn’t our dealings private? Well there is no such thing as true privacy. All I had to do was pull a few records to know what you guys are up to. In fact, who did you think was the one that leaked the information that this city’s auction would sell off such treasures? You just couldn’t resist the idea of getting rank 8 pills for yourself. If it wasn’t for your greed, you would never have been caught by us. You should have just traveled with your sect.” Wu-Feng sneered at him.

Fool, I knew your sect was full of greedy people so I knew some of you were bound to branch off and attempt to buy the items separately. Why bother competing over some sword at the Thousand Sword Graveyard? Picking off the losers is much more profitable.

Ryu looked pitifully at Gong-Chen, he could tell that Gong-Chen himself wasn’t a righteous person himself. After a brief internal debate Ryu decided that although he won’t cross the line to kill yet but he won’t go out of his way to save evil people either. It is his karma that he ended up in this predicament.

“Hey boss! We snared a few more clueless fools that spent a fortune in the auction.”

Two more men in purple came from the entrance but they look identical, whether it’s the face or the body structure or the way they dress. No one would be able to tell them apart, even their breathing seems to be in sync. They both have a unique cape that’s giving off a hazy aura, making it hard to look directly at it.

With a wave of their left arm, the blurry capes behind them flung open and three people fell out of thin air in front of them.

Ryu was surprised, living beings can’t be stored in storage rings so the capes they wore must be extraordinary. He could tell that the cape contained an eerie Qi that made it hard for him to see through it. Was it a specialization paired with capes?

“We hit the jackpot this time, they spent a whopping thirty-five million!” One of the caped man said excitedly.

“What? What did they buy?” Everyone around suddenly stopped what they were doing and turned their head towards the new captives.

“An essence from a Fading Storm Eagle!”

This caused all the thieves in the cave to gasp out loud. An essence was a priceless treasure for any sect. Only Emperor Domain beasts have essences and it usually take the effort of the whole sect to hunt down one. The beast could also choose to suicide so capturing an essence is extremely hard.

“Don’t even think about getting it! Do you think you can get away with offending the Heavenly Gale Sect?” A courageous young man shouted out bravely. His name was Tan-Min and beside him was his sister Tan-Lin. Both of them were seed disciples for the Heavenly Gale Sect. The other man with them was Hun-Kon, one of the elders of their sect.

“We are nobody, we are the shadows. The invisible messengers if you will. We do the dirty deeds that you righteous sects are too afraid to do openly.” Wu-Feng sneered. “For example, you guys hired us to get rid of that little girl whom your precious leader was going to give up everything for.”

“What?” Tan-Min was confused, he didn’t quite catch on. There was no way his sect would hire the services of an assassin. A while ago their sect leader did indeed contemplate renouncing his position and live a secluded life with a commoner. Every elders were against it because without their leader who was in the Emperor Domain, they won’t be able to keep their status in the Feng Province. However, the commoner apparently committed suicide all of the sudden. The circumstances looked suspicious but there were no leads.

Only one of the captives didn’t look surprised. It was the elder, it seems as if he had some idea who the kidnapers were. Elder Hun-Kon looked around carefully.

The source of the information regarding the auction came from an anonymous source…

They were a sect that specializes in air Qi and an essence from an emperor eagle beast was rumored to be auctioned so he took two disciples with him to check it out. Right now he was kicking himself inside, why did he act upon an anonymous tip?

“You guys must be from the… Obscure Shadows Thief Guild? Sigh it was our mistake for ever getting involved with your guild. I knew there was no way the transactions would be kept confidential.” Elder Hun-Kon said with regret.

“Smart old man. Actually the rest of the guild is pretty adamant about keeping the client’s information private. What a bunch of fools, to make real profit you blackmail them in secret. Now if you know what’s good for you, you should hand the items from the auctions over.” Wu-Feng said boldly.

“Elder, we should die with honor than submit to these scums.” Tan-Lin said angrily. Even if she was a girl, her guts were not less than the bravest soldier.

“You guys are young, what’s the point of having all the treasures in the world if you are not alive to enjoy it? Please let us go, we’ll give you all the items and pretend we didn’t see anything.” The elder hissed at her as he produced his storage ring and threw out a brilliant azure gem along with other valuables he has on him. Inside the gem was the essence, Ryu could see the gaseous state of Qi it contained. Unlike the one he captured earlier, this essence was much healthier and emitted much stronger aura.

“Elder! These scums definitely won’t let us off either way. We should die with honor.” Tan-Min exclaimed. He couldn’t believe that an elder from his sect would beg like a dog.

Bang! A vicious kick came from Wu-Feng the moment he took the gem containing the essence from Elder Hun-Kon.

“Please let me go at least. We got a two more million left. You can also take these two and do what you want with them. The girl… she’s a virgin! I’m sure she’ll provide great pleasure for handsome men such as yourselves.” The elder begged pitifully as he nursed his wound. He had no sense of shame at all.

Tan-Min looked furious enough to scare a wild beast away, the veins on his forehead were ready to pop. How dare the elder offer his sister up for such an indecent act?

Wu-Feng smacked his lips as he slowly stored the essence into his storage ring. His men were already advancing towards Tan-Lin with lewd glances. Although her will was harder than steel, she couldn’t help but tremble thinking about what was about to happen to her.