In front of Treasury Number Three, a group of guards in black robes wielding darkened swords surrounded the entrance, while the auction hall master stood anxiously before the treasury gate.
To open a vault door within the treasury of the headquarters, authorization from two people was required, the auction hall master and Mo Xingyao.
When Mo Xingyao arrived at the scene, she immediately questioned the auction hall master. "What's the situation? Is the bastard still inside?"
"Reporting to Young Mistress," the auction hall master said respectfully. "We've already surrounded the area and stationed men throughout the perimeter. We also hired an array master to lock down the space in case the thief possesses a spatial-type treasure for escape. Right now, aside from the tremors and violent spiritual fluctuations inside, there's no sign that the thief is attempting to flee."
Mo Xingyao nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Now, let's open the vault and catch that bastard. I want to know how they managed to get in without us noticing."
With that, the two immediately took out their keys and inserted them into the keyholes on both sides of the vault door. They then channeled their spiritual qi into the keys and turned them.
A loud click echoed as the massive door's mechanism unlocked, and the gate slowly opened, revealing what was inside.
The moment the vault door opened, an overwhelming surge of spiritual qi burst outward, enveloping everyone in front of the vault. A powerful vortex spiraled down from the high ceiling, pulling energy toward a large pile of spirit stones that were now starting to disintegrate into pure spiritual qi.
"What!? What is this!?" Mo Xingyao was startled. She didn't dare step forward since she didn't understand what was happening inside.
"Arrrrggghhh! My spiritual qi! My cultivation!"
The familiar scream alarmed Mo Xingyao. She turned toward the source of the voice and saw the auction hall master being drained, his spiritual qi was being stripped from his dantian and sucked into the vortex.
The hall master had been caught off guard when he tried to enter the vault. Mo Xingyao quickly rushed toward him, trying to pull him back, but she too felt a strong pull from the vortex, and some of her spiritual qi was forcefully drawn out of her dantian.
"Young Miss!" Yin Lan shouted as she dashed forward, grabbed Mo Xingyao, and kicked the hall master away from the vault entrance.
The guards standing farther back caught the hall master as he fell toward them.
Once they were safe, Mo Xingyao slowly regained her composure. She quickly checked her cultivation and discovered that it had decreased slightly, about a week's worth of progress was gone.
"That vortex inside… it's draining our cultivation!" Mo Xingyao muttered as she tried to make sense of it. Then she turned to her bodyguard. "Yin Lan, you don't seem to be affected. Didn't it drain your spiritual qi at all?"
Mo Xingyao knew from experience that being drained made her feel weak, but Yin Lan didn't seem to be affected in the slightest.
Yin Lan shook her head. "No, Young Miss. I didn't feel anything when I pulled you and the hall master out."
"Huh? You didn't feel anything?" Mo Xingyao was surprised. She began thinking about what Yin Lan had that she didn't. Her eyes wandered to Yin Lan's chest for a couple of seconds, looking at the firm curves beneath her soft armor.
…No, it's definitely not that!
Mo Xingyao quickly reined in her stray thoughts and turned her attention back to the raging vortex inside. Could it be due to cultivation levels? The hall master was in the Core Formation stage, while she herself was at the Half-Step Nascent Soul Realm, and Yin Lan was at the Half-Step Soul Transformation Realm, preparing for her heavenly tribulation.
With such a wide gap in strength, it made sense why Yin Lan wasn't affected, while she and the hall master were. Technically, Yin Lan was still in the Nascent Soul Realm, but did this mean…
Thinking this far, Mo Xingyao turned toward the black-robed guards surrounding the vault entrance.
"Anyone at or above the Nascent Soul Realm, use your storage rings and move the spirit stones out of the vault! Quickly!" Mo Xingyao ordered.
Following her command, the black-robed guards immediately rushed in. The first one stepped in cautiously to test it, and when he wasn't affected, the others quickly followed.
There were too many spirit stones inside to move them all out quickly, even with storage rings. Mo Xingyao gritted her teeth. Every piece of spirit stone that disintegrated before her eyes felt like a blade stabbing into her heart. She could barely stand watching her fortune vanish.
Then, a sudden thought struck her, the vortex was coming from above. And what was directly above the vault?
"Sister Lan… if I remember correctly, that guy, Wei Chen, is cultivating in the chamber right above the vault… right?" Mo Xingyao asked.
"Yes, Young Miss…" Yin Lan began, but then paused, realization flashing in her eyes. "Young Miss… don't tell me this phenomenon was caused by that guy?"
"I don't know," Mo Xingyao replied, her tone uneasy, "but I have a feeling it is. Let's go check on him first!"
If it really was his doing… what should she do?
Mo Xingyao and Yin Lan rushed toward the cultivation chamber above the vault. As soon as they arrived, they could feel the violent fluctuations of spiritual qi raging within the chamber.
Mo Xingyao quickly opened the cultivation chamber door while Yin Lan stood guard beside her.
The moment the door opened, a powerful surge of spiritual wind burst out like a storm. Yin Lan immediately pulled her mistress out of the way, afraid she would be caught in the violent spiritual energy pouring out.
After retreating a safe distance, Mo Xingyao finally got a clear view of what was happening inside.
A massive sphere of blue spiritual qi floated in the center of the chamber, absorbing all the spiritual energy from its surroundings. There was no mistake, the phenomenon in the vault below was caused by Wei Chen.
"What… what kind of cultivation technique is this guy practicing? This… this is absurd!" Mo Xingyao exclaimed in disbelief.
She quickly regained her composure and focused on the swirling blue sphere that was drawing in every trace of spiritual qi nearby.
If she tried to stop him, she could only use ranged attacks, but that would be extremely dangerous for Wei Chen. If he couldn't avoid them, he would be injured, and worse, if his concentration was disrupted during cultivation, he might suffer a backlash.
When cultivating, one must always choose a safe and quiet place. If interrupted during the process, even once, it could cause serious damage to one's spiritual foundation and affect their future path of cultivation.
"Grrr…" Mo Xingyao gritted her teeth in frustration.
"Sister Lan, go tell those people to hurry up! Move all the spirit stones out as fast as possible!" Mo Xingyao ordered.
"Yes, Young Miss!" Yin Lan nodded and quickly disappeared, rushing toward the vault below to urge the black-robed guards to speed up their work.
Mo Xingyao decided to let Wei Chen continue cultivating. Even though she was a money grubber, she wasn't the unscrupulous type who ignored others for her own gain. Besides, she already saw Wei Chen as a friend, and maintaining a good relationship with him would be far more beneficial in the long run.
After their last conversation, she had realized that this guy possessed many strange yet fascinating ideas about making money. The idea of charging transfer fees also came from him. If that plan worked, her wealth would increase exponentially.
— Half an hour later —
Wei Chen, still in the midst of cultivation, clearly felt that the spiritual qi around him was depleted. No matter how much he tried to draw in more, there was barely any left. He was just a little short of breaking through to the Core Formation Realm's late stage.
At this point, he was stuck in the mid stage, unable to find enough spiritual qi to fill his ever-hungry dantian.
He decided to stop cultivating and opened his eyes.
The vortex around him quickly dissipated, and the cultivation chamber returned to normal, no more swirling or violent spiritual qi.
But the moment Wei Chen opened his eyes, he was greeted by Mo Xingyao's furious glare, as if he had stolen from her or killed someone in her family.
"Wh… what!?" Wei Chen was startled and alarmed. What did he even do to her? He had just been sitting there quietly, cultivating and minding his own business. Don't tell him the auction hadn't gone as well as he thought? Maybe people in this world were too obsessed with cultivation and no one bought the U-Phones?
That was… possible.
"Sign it! Now!" Mo Xingyao snapped, thrusting an IOU and a brush into his hands.
"Huh?" Wei Chen blinked and looked down at the IOU.
The document stated that Wei Chen owed Mo Xingyao 30 million spirit stones, with a 20% interest rate per year.
"What the hell?" Wei Chen blurted out in utter confusion.