John narrowed his eyes and looked towards the white haired man. Based on the man's cultivation level, he would have been easily able to suppress both guards without killing them. There was no reason for their deaths.
Although John disagreed with the man's actions, he knew now was not the time for arguments and so kept his words to himself.
"I suppose this is how the cultivation world really is. The strong prey on the weak, and the weak can only sit there and wait for their deaths" though John. Once more, John found another motivation for getting stronger.
"Only by becoming strong can I control my own fate."
After killing the two guards, the white haired man motioned for the group to move forward. John and the group stepped over the dead bodies and entered the mansion. Being late in the night, the mansion was dark inside, with only a few lanterns lit throughout the mansion.
"The vault is in the basement, the stairs of which should be through those doors on the opposite side of the room. Let's move" whispered the white haired man.
The group proceeded forward and crossed the large room, eventually arriving at the basement stairs. The group slowly proceeded down the stairs and found themselves in the basement soon afterwards. The basement was massive; it was more like a cavern than a basement. It was dozens of yards tall, and hundreds of yards long and wide. There were many side doors on the walls of the basement, seemingly leading to other rooms.
At the very opposite side of the basement was a large vault door. Two more guards were stationed on either side of the vault door, conversing with each other.
"There's not much cover between here and the vault door, so it looks like this is where we'll have to use brute force" whispered the white haired man. "I don't see the late Mist Creation realm guard anywhere, so he must be somewhere upstairs. You all proceed forward and neutralize the guards and see if you can break into the vault. I will wait here in case the late Mist Creation realm guard arrives. Go."
Because of the nature of the mission, the white haired man had not used his divine sense to look around the mansion. Unless someone was at a much higher cultivation realm, their divine sense would be detected by whoever they scanned over, alerting them.
The group quickly sped off towards the guards. Due to the little cover available, the guards were almost immediately alerted by the intruders presence.
"Intruders!" shouted one of the guards as he took out his sword.
Almost immediately, several of the side doors opened and nearly a dozen guards flooded out. The two groups rapidly approached each other, at which point they all unleashed their strongest attacks.
Boom!
A loud explosion echoed throughout the mansion. Duke Trommel, who had been deeply asleep, was woken up in a fright. He quickly hopped out of bed and walked towards the door, at which point it was opened from the outside.
"Sebastian, what is going on? What was that sound?" asked the Duke. The man the Duke had spoken to was the late Mist Creation realm guard. He was guarding the Duke's room when all of a sudden he heard the loud noise. He immediately entered the room to make sure the Duke was alright, at which point he breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm not sure. It seems to have come from the basement" responded Sebastian. "I'll stay here and guard you for your protection."
"Nonsense" replied the Duke. "Go downstairs and find out what is happening."
Sebastian bowed quickly before turning around and running down the long hallway.
"Curses. Of course something happens when my most powerful guards are away" muttered the Duke.
Back downstairs, John found himself standing in front of the vault. As the two groups had clashed, Austin instructed John to go to the vault himself and try to get in.
"He's clearly trying to keep me away from fighting any of the middle Mist Creation guards. I guess he is actually trying to look out for me" thought John as he stared at the vault.
Although John was more than strong enough to join the battles behind him, he figured that this truly was the best course of action. If he could get in the vault and get the item within, the mission would be a success and they could leave. Although John was itching to fight, he realized that this was not the best time to take liberties with the mission.
"The vault does look quite impressive" thought John as he took out his greatsword and swung down at it.
Mountain Crushing Sword!
A loud boom echoed out as John's sword struck the vault. A large indent was made on the steel vault, but other than that, it appeared to be fine.
"My Mountain Crushing Sword isn't going to get me through this. I guess I'll have to go all out then" thought John as he put away his greatsword and pulled out his scythe. Although John now had a Mist Creation grade greatsword, it could just barely be qualified as such. The quality of the weapon was lacking when compared to his scythe, and so the power he could unleash from it was less.
John had been hesitant to use his scythe and the Myriad Annihilation Scythe battle art because of how much Qi it required to execute, but he realized there was no other way for him to break the vault.
John breathed in deeply and tightly gripped his scythe before raising it above his head and slashing forward with all his might.
Myriad Annihilation Scythe!
The scythe swept downward onto the vault, at which point the blade of the scythe sliced through the vault like it was butter. John grit his teeth and used his full force to continue the attack as the scythe trailed down the vault.
Boom!
A loud sound echoed out as the vault door was sliced clean in half at a diagonal angle.
John pushed on the vault door in order to push it down, but it still held firmly. Although John could see the other side of the vault through the thin slice in it, he was unable to enter. Loud booms echoed out behind him as the fights between the two groups raged on.
"Again!" shouted John as he once again readied his scythe. The first slice had been diagonal to the left, so John aimed to slice diagonally to the right on the vault. The bottom of the vault would be separated from the rest of the vault door, allowing him to push that portion down and enter.
"I'm already almost at half my Qi reserves. Using this attack is going to drain me of most of my essence Qi. At that point, I'll be relying on my sphere dantian and body cultivation alone. Even so, I'll still be more than strong enough to protect myself" thought John as he steadied his scythe once again.
It was times like these that made John realize just how amazing having two dantians was. Even when he was about to run out of Qi from his own dantian, he wasn't scared. When most cultivators ran out of Qi, they were essentially powerless. John on the other hand had his sphere dantian and powerful body to fall back on. Not only that, but his sphere dantian was in the middle Mist Creation realm, which was even more powerful than his own.
"It's too bad I don't have any powerful body cultivation battle arts, otherwise with my sphere dantian at the middle Mist Creation realm, it would be easier to knock this door down" thought John.
Myriad Annihilation Scythe!
John once again slashed down with all his power. Another loud boom echoed out as his scythe sliced clean through the door. John kicked the bottom section of the vault powerfully, at which point it fell down and revealed a hole in the vault door.
"Success" exclaimed John in excitement, his face a little bit pale. Although he still had his sphere to fall back on for energy, John still felt quite uncomfortable having an almost empty dantian.
Just as John was about to step through the hole in the wall, a sharp attack pierced towards his back.