John had his divine sense spread out the entire time he was attacking the vault, just in case a guard tried to attack him. Just as he was about to step through into the vault, John felt someone rapidly approach him.
He quickly turned around and readied his scythe, when all of a sudden a person appeared in front of him.
Peng!
The sound of swords colliding rang out.
"Hurry and get the item. I'll hold this one back" shouted Austin as he blocked the attack of the guard. John was quite surprised at Austin's actions. From what John could see, Austin was quite wounded already. Blood stained his black robe in several areas, hinting at the damage he had taken from the fierce fights. Even so, Austin had still taken the initiative to block the attack for John.
John was conflicted on whether to help Austin or get the item, when another loud shout echoed out.
"GO! I'll be fine, just get the item so we can get out of here!" yelled Austin once more.
"Sky Piercing Sword" yelled Austin as he sent out a sharp attack towards his foe. His foe was thrown back slightly, at which point Austin dashed forward and delivered another strong attack.
John watched the exchanges take place before he finally turned around and entered through the hole in the vault.
John looked around and quickly sucked in a breath of cold air. All around the vault lay valuable items; chests of gold and silver and jewels were aplenty, and the vault included other exotic items that John had no idea what they were. John swept his eyes across the room, looking for the item he came here for.
"Ah, there it is" exclaimed John as he quickly dashed forward.
An ornate spear was mounted on the wall in front of John. It had an exquisitely detailed gold colored shaft, and a deep blue spear blade. A powerful aura radiated from the weapon.
"A Core Formation grade weapon?" John exclaimed in shock.
Core Formation grade weapons were extremely valuable. Even his powerful Clan of over ten thousand members only had a few dozen of these weapons, and only Core Formation Elders were allowed to wield such weapons.
John reached up and grabbed the spear.
Boom!
A loud boom echoed out as the spear crashed to the ground, its weight far more than what John was capable of supporting.
"How heavy!" exclaimed John as he looked at the spear. He quickly bent down to pick the spear up and channeled a large surge of Qi from his sphere dantian into this body. John grit his teeth and was just barely able to lift the spear one inch off the ground, but this was all that he needed.
The spear quickly disappeared as John stored it in his storage ring. For storing things in a spatial area, the user was required to be able to physically move the object. If an object was too heavy for the cultivator to move or was firmly rooted into the ground, it was unable to be pulled into the spatial area of the storage ring. John quickly turned around and planned on leaving the vault before pausing.
A mischievous look appeared on his face as he turned back towards the chests filled with gold and jewels. Three chests quickly disappeared from the room.
"Let's just say that this is payment for his son's actions a few days ago. Besides, I'm only taking some of the chests and not all of them. I really am a kind person" John rubbed his nose as a bashful smile appeared on his face.
After storing away the treasures, John quickly stepped out of the vault. His eyes widened slightly at the scene in front of him. On the ground were all of the guards from the battle before, as well as a few of the cultivators.
"It seems like there were quite a lot of casualties in this battle" thought John. In the distance, John could see a single man surrounded by the white haired man and the remaining five cultivators who hadn't yet perished. John was relieved to see that Austin was one of the men still standing.
John rapidly dashed towards the group, at which point he noticed one of the side doors had been opened and a person was inside.
"Thats?" That's the Duke's Son? Why is he chained up?"
Inside the rooms was the Duke's son. He was chained to the wall of the room, and had several long wounds on his body, seemingly made from a whip.
"He appears quite miserable. Seems like the Duke is quite unhappy with his son's actions" thought John as he ignored the boy and dashed towards the group of cultivators. As he approached the group, John heard the lone man speak out.
"Who are you people? Do you have any idea who you are attacking? This is Duke Trommel's residence. You will be executed for this" yelled the man. The man was Sebastian. He had come down shortly after the loud boom echoed out, at which point he found himself ambushed by another powerful late Mist Creation realm cultivator.
His battle raged on for some time, but he was unable to overpower his foe. He could only watch in despair as all his fellow guards were slaughtered by the group of unknown men. After all the guards were slaughtered, he found himself surrounded by the remaining men.
Unable to successfully fight his way out of this encirclement, the guard attempted to use the Duke's status to scare the men off.
The group of cultivator's heard John approaching from behind, at which point the white haired man turned around.
"Do you have it?" asked the white haired man.
John nodded in affirmation, at which point the white haired man once again turned back towards Sebastian.
'We know exactly who we're dealing with. Since we have what we came for, you can now die!"
Powerful attacks flew towards the cultivator as all the men but John lashed out with their most powerful move. A look of horror and despair washed over Sebastian's face as he lashed out with his most powerful attack.
Boom!
The ground was violently upheaved and the basement half destroyed from the force of the attacks. When the dust settled, all the men could see was a large hole in the ground with Sebastian's dead, mutilated corpse at the very center, the look of despair still evident on his face.
"We have what we came for. Let's leave before any reinforcements arrive" said the white haired man before dashing towards the stairs. John and the rest of the group quickly followed as they ran upstairs and out of the mansion.
Duke Trommel stood on the top floor of his mansion and stared out of his window. He saw a group of seven men run out of the main entrance and into the distance before eventually disappearing in the darkness of the night.
The Duke quickly turned around and walked towards the basement. Shock washed over his face as he came into view of the battlefield. He looked at Sebastian with slight anguish in his eyes.
"Sleep well, old friend" whispered the Duke before walking past his body. He eventually found himself at the vault, his anguish turning to rage as he saw what was missing from within.
He quickly took out a small round disk from his storage ring and channeled Qi into it. The disk lit up, revealing a dot traveling further and further away from the center of the round disk.
"So you think you've successfully managed to steal from me? We'll see who has the last laugh" murmured the Duke in a cold voice, his eyes fiery with rage.