The ring-bound fireball quickly approached the middle-aged man who is both frantically and excitedly running away, unaware that Ceceada is already done dealing with the old man.
The fireball tore through the air as it accelerated, leaving a faint trail of smoke in the process.
However, when the fireball is about to touch the middle-aged man, it suddenly stopped and caused everyone's hair to flutter due to the shockwave caused by its inertia.
Noticing this while running, they all turned their heads at the direction of the shockwave and saw a floating fireball, inserted in the hole of a ring.
What's that?!
Seeing the fireball, their faces paled as if they had seen a ghost, causing them to change direction to escape away from the fireball.
F**k we thought you are still fighting with our boss!
They all thought of this while suddenly changing their direction, causing cracks on the destroyed patch of land as they diagonally stomped their feet on the ground to stop their initial momentum.
However, they were too late as Ceceada had already urged the fireball to release all its energy, causing a blinding flash of light!
Bang!
Whoosh!
The fireball exploded loudly with all its remaining energy, pushing the air nearby and causing a powerful shockwave!
They didn't even hear or see the explosion anymore as it happened too fast. They just suddenly found out that their minds already went blank, giving them a quick and painless death.
Within the explosion, all their weapons were immediately destroyed, with the fragments mixing with the rain of grinded meat and blood.
In the center of explosion, with no fireball keeping it afloat anymore, a falling ring can be seen by Ceceada.
In the distance, Ceceada can see the thread-like energy is starting the return to him. Fortunately, he quickly willed the ring to store 'everything' in the scene before the thread-energy lose contact with the ring.
In the brutal scene, the blood, meat and weapon fragments haven't yet made contact with the mangled patch of land. However, almost instantaneously, they had already turned into a beautiful, grandiose white specks of light.
While falling, the ring started to suck the white specks of light that are still floating beautifully, making them swirl around the ring as their common center.
Ceceada watched with a hint of surprise in his eyes, not because of the powerful explosion nor the beautiful scene, but with the ring's durability.
After all, he had already made the fireball explode multiple times, yet the ring is still fine, like it didn't even encounter any explosion.
Although he is aware of the durability of space rings, especially those worn by the strong powerhouses, he never thought that it will not even encounter a single scratch.
In his heart, he wondered how can he make such ring in the future and what materials are used to create one.
Ceceada took a deep breath, keeping a mental note in his mind about this.
It didn't take a long time and all the white specks of light are now absorbed inside the ring.
With no fireball anymore that connects him with the ring, he can no longer check his gains at such a distance.
Ceceada ran towards the ring in an instant without disturbing the air around him, surprising him a bit.
Although he ran much, much faster than before, he still didn't cause any sonic booms. This made him think that he had already learned running silently without garnering the attention of others; a pretty convenient ability for sneaking.
After thinking of this, he shook his head and turned his attention on the ring.
He can see that the ring is still falling in mid-air.
Cultivations not only strengthens your body, but it can also improve how fast the brain process information. Hence, he can see everything around him slowly.
Added to the fact that he just broken through a major realm, he will need some time before he can adapt to the slow movement of everything around him.
He immediately took it and checked what's inside using his thought.
Inside the ring, Ceceada can see a shallow, knee-level pool of thick blood, mixed with grinded meat and bones, with the bonus of weapon fragments.
Beneath the pool, the legendary red sword is submerged completely.
However, one thing worries Ceceada:
S**t! are the pills still fine?
Ceceada anxiously turned his attention to the cultivation pills and saw that even when they are completely submerged, there are no blood insides, making him breathe in relief.
Fortunately, these pills are enclosed in an air tight transparent container, not letting a single impurity touch the pills. Thus, they are completely fine even with this pool of thick blood.
Seeing that everything is set to be absorbed tomorrow for Cultivation Thief, he immediately turned his attention away from the storage ring.
Since the fireball exploded not very far away from the ground, Ceceada found himself in a twenty meter deep pit, which is still smoking because of the explosion.
In sight, he can see a ring that probably belongs to the middle-aged man. Noticing it, he immediately walked towards it to check and saw that there are nothing valuable inside.
Nevertheless, he doesn't want to waste something that he can only wish to have a glimpse on before, so he still collected the ring and forced to insert it on his pinky that is already full of rings.
At the same time, he felt annoyed that he couldn't store a ring inside a ring, feeling that the game glitch he wanted to try was actually patched a long time ago. He first learnt this during corpse hunting when he first entered the forest.
While thinking of this, Ceceada heard some spurting and bubbling sounds as the stuck underneath water reservoir were freed from the earth because of the huge crater.
He suddenly felt his body getting wet as the small amount of water that are just gushing out earlier slowly became a tall fountain, making an artificial rain.
Seeing that he is about to wet his robe, he immediately left the scene and wondered what the old man probably have in his ring.
He left the destroyed patch of land and went to the thick vegetation where he killed the old man.
With his amazing perception, he quickly found the ring but was instantly disappointed when he checked and found nothing inside.
Disappointed, he wondered if there is someone more powerful than the old man who collects all the stolen treasure, or maybe if the old man just keep it somewhere else.
However, since he had no way to find out at the current moment, he decided not to think too much about it.
...
In a dimly lit luxurious room, an old man is having a conversation with a young man with a swollen cheek.
This is Jared Burn and his son, Auster Burn, who is still feeling dizzy.
Unexpectedly, Auster Burn woke up from coma much earlier than they had predicted. Because initially, they expected him to wake up in a few days.
When he woke up, he immediately recounted everything that happened yesterday, validating everything that Ceceada's brother, Jerald, had said in the luxurious hall.
"Tell me if you have a way to locate the sword," Jared Burn said with anticipation.
Obviously, Jared is very happy when his son woke up. However, in his heart, he still think that the situation of the sect right now should be solved immediately. Thus, he immediately wanted to know if his son managed to make a way to locate the legendary red sword.
In just a few hours, many of their competitors in the Rook city had already found out about the sect situation where they lost their most important possession.
All of them think that Jared Burn is an idiot because he just let his son keep their most important weapon.
Because of this idiotic action, their sect are now in such a dire state, making Jared and his sect the source of countless gossip in the entire city.
With the lost of such important weapon, many of their enemies are now showing schadenfreude and immediately planned to slowly but surely, take over the entire Sun sect.
They had been thinking about undermining the sect for almost a hundred year, but the sword is the only one impeding them from doing so.
Now that the sword is stolen, if they team up, they can now take over the Sun sect pretty easily without much obstruction.
For them, this is their only chance to gain a footing in the Rook city!
"Master, I actually have a way to find the sword, but I don't know if this will work seamlessly," Auster said truthfully to his father, Jared.
"What is it?" Although Jared is not sure of whether his son's plan will actually help them, his eye lit up when he heard Auster's words.
"I can actually locate him right now," Auster said with a hint of anger in his eyes while thinking of Ceceada.
"Continue," Jared Burn said expectantly when he heard of this and just nodded.
"I left an imprint on him and I can spatially locate where he is,"
Jared Burn's eyes lit up , thinking of countless torture methods to inflict on Ceceada.