Late at night, the Skull Gang Headquarters.
In his backyard, Cayden was observing the stacks of materials lying all over the ground with deep thought.
"Time to start."
He blew a warm breath of spiritual energy which diffused into the surroundings, submerging the items within.
Clatter!
The glass containers broke down immediately, releasing their contents and mixtures of pungent scents rich with mana. The smell was so intense that even the guards outside the gates got a whiff, getting intoxicated.
Suddenly, a cold harrumph was heard, waking them up from their stupor.
"Return"
Along with this voice, the mana forcibly got dragged back to where it was and everything restored its calm.
"It's the Lord!" They exclaimed, noticing a veil of chaotic green light rising from his place.
However, they didn't proceed there. After all, they had already received news from Bryan about his retreat. Furthermore, they were assigned to guard this place better than ever.
The same went for everyone. Thus, the Skull Gang went into a period of silence while the guilds and the Military were busy racking their brains.
They were keeping an eye on everything the Skull Gang did. Using binoculars, spies, and local people; they mobilized every means possible. Yet, they got no results except for visualizing some occasional outburst of mana, leading them nowhere.
They were helpless and soon they ran out of patience a week later.
Inside the discussion hall of the G-city police force, a round daily meeting was happening as usual. But today the atmosphere was not right.
"Sir Luther, why are we still waiting?" Sophia was the first one to begin. Indeed, the guild leaders had all gathered here with the military officials.
Without letting him speak, she continued. "Didn't you see the condition of my husband? Is this what he gets for serving humanity for years? I want justice."
"Yeah! What about our losses? Don't you know that it is we who contribute the most to the commercial centers?" A blue-haired guild leader spoke from near her side.
"You have to take action."
Similar shouts rang in the hall, creating a mess.
"Shut up!"
An old officer couldn't take it anymore as he slammed his hand on the table.
Bang!
"It's not up to you to decide. Perhaps the sirs have something in mind." He reminded them harshly, turning towards Luther, hoping for an answer.
"Hmm, we do have." Luther nodded, not disappointing him.
"We were just observing what he was after. Was it wealth? Or was it to showcase his strength? Or was he someone from the cult with an ulterior motive?" He slowly added, surprising the others.
"Anyways, we have come to a conclusion. He is neither of them. The case of Igor was due to his own fault. He didn't trust the token which we confirmed was real, resulting in an unnecessary conflict."
"As for the matter with the commercial center, we went through the footage captured by the CCTV, and the result was unsightly. So, we won't disclose this." He explained.
"The only thing we need to know is his character. He does what he wants, gets what he wants, and doesn't put others in his eyes, including wealth. He is ruthless. Such a person is dangerous." He gave a serious look, making them worried.
"Haha! You guys don't need to panic." Richard interrupted.
"We two will be heading there right now." He calmly smiled.
"Wow!"
The hall went into an uproar. Were they finally going to witness a battle between S-ranked experts? It was going to be legendary.
"Stay down. It's not like we are going to fight right away. You guys should understand defeating warriors at our level aren't easy. We might talk this through instead." Luther shook his head.
"What? Don't tell me you want to reconcile with him. After that murder? After crippling my husband? Despite it being my husband making the mistake, he didn't deserve this." Sophia was heartbroken and couldn't accept any of this.
"We will give you an answer soon. Besides, we have called for Divine Priest Thaddeus to treat him. Him coming all the way here can be considered giving you enough face." Luther explained with a saddened face.
"Divine Priest Thaddeus!" Everyone took a deep breath in shock. How could they not recognize him? It was said that he is the messenger of God.
Not only that, but he was an S-ranked warrior himself with terrifying defense and healing abilities. He was almost imperishable.
"He is here to commence the awakening ritual starting next month as well," Luther added.
"Damn! I must definitely bring my daughter. I believe he can awaken a powerful rare class in his presence." The old official muttered excitedly.
The other people too had the same notions. Some were already preparing to call all their faraway relatives. Only Sophia wasn't fully satisfied. Nevertheless, there was nothing she could do. She could just nod and back away, clenching her fists.
Seeing that the matter had been settled, Richard stood up and declared, "Let's move."
Whoosh!
He flew straight out of a nearby window at the speed of light.
"Wait for me!"
Not wanting to lag behind, Luther chased after him in the same way.
Whoosh!Whoosh!
"What's that?"
People in the streets yelled, pointing to the sky. They discerned a blue and a red beam of light streaking like a meteor in the blue sky.
***
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Demon Cayden was still busy in the backyard. He was seated cross-legged in mid-air with a deathly dark green colored flame burning in his palms.
Inside it, varieties of fruits, herbs, and flowers were being crushed into powders and intermingling at a speed visible to the naked eye. The flames were changing properties from warm to hot, hot to misty, misty to icy, to again repeating the cycles rapidly, showcasing his insane alchemy skills.
"Now!" A good amount of his spiritual energy skillfully poured into the flames, coalescing the product inside into seven solid substances one after another.
"It's the last batch. Let's hope I can break through even further." He swallowed them in one go, experiencing the immediate effects.
A sharp tearing pain filled with violent energy attacked his God Temple, forcing its way inside. Then under his will, he pushed forward his saint crystal, colliding head-on with the energy.
BOOM!
His mind shook as the energy raved to destroy everything in its path. This was the outcome of the Barrier-Breaking Pill. A pill commonly used by cultivators to break through the wall outside their God Temple.
Or a pill that allows one to enter the Nascent Soul Stage. That's why it was destructive and merciless. Individuals who couldn't contain its power would even get their souls cut off right away after opening up their God Temple.
Nonetheless, it wasn't the case for the old demon Cayden. Moreover, the pills he made were not the original ones. They were just a replica put together using lower-graded materials that had similar characteristics.
In the span of a week, he had mobilized all the materials and refined a lot of them. Afterward, he had broken through the middle stage of Qi refining by consuming them.
Currently, he was eager to enter the late stage as well. But it wasn't easy. The more he refined his saint crystal, the fewer the Qi he extracted. This was because the inner layer was way harder than the exterior.
BOOM!
The violent energy continued smashing on the saint crystal like tidal waves, causing fine specks of particles to shoot out which he would absorb into his stomach, refining them into Qi.
A couple of minutes later, he sighed with disappointment.
"Phew! It doesn't work." Perceiving how little Qi he managed to accumulate, he gave up.
"It's useless. I need better materials. Maybe S-ranked items can fulfill my needs." Thinking of these things, he dropped down to the ground and stretched his muscles a bit.
Next, he waved his hand, dissipating the green vision, blowing the dust, and cleaning the area in the blink of an eye. Only two additional objects were remaining in his hands.
They were a golden ring and a rectangular slab where beautiful ruins were inscribed. Like the pills he generated, the process was similar. The difference was during the heating phase. He had to use hammers or sharp tools to shape up the items.
The last process was to engrave the runes. These runes in fact mimic the power of laws. These laws can be felt and manifested in the form of threads that are actually drawn from the Heavens and Earth.
Going to a greater depth, these threads exist in different shapes, sizes and forms. After studying them for ages, a Saint finally created a method to mimic them. It was indeed the power of runes.
Mobilizing the spiritual energy, he copied those figures on a surface which eventually released a tiny portion of the power of threads. In this way, runes were applied for formation and artifact manufacturing.
In rare cases, they were etched on pills too. Anyways, the ring he had was the magical space ring capable of storing items in a separate dimension. Using the piece of rare spatial stone, he discovered as the core material; he created one for himself.
It had a size of about 50-meter squares inside and was the smallest one he had refined to date. As for the rectangular slab, it was a tool that would release a defensive barrier. He crafted it so that nobody would be able to disturb him while he was cultivating.