The reason behind his actions was simple: he needed to return to the Wandering Sword Sect to make some purchases in preparation for the future absorption of the Heavenly Wonder.
And considering how precious the Thunder Vein Dew was, the fact that it wasn't really hideable, with its 'scent' and aura leaking even through a storage ring…
Yeah… it was understandable that he didn't want to return to the Sect with it for the obvious problems it could cause, he preferred not to take risks and leave it here, hidden!
With that in mind he didn't waste time, digging deep into the earth—kilometers deep, actually—before placing it in a concealed location and then, not satisfied, layering stealth talismans to further hide it.
These talismans were things he had originally prepared to aid in stealing the Thunder Vein Dew, but since they weren't needed at the time, he now redirected them to this task, making sure they wouldn't go to waste while ensuring the Heavenly Wonder wouldn't be stolen in his absence.
After all, wouldn't it be the height of irony if the thief ended up being robbed…
Mikael, being 'slightly paranoiac' at this idea, was extremely cautious and took every precaution to make sure it would remain safe while he was away at the Sect.
Whoosh.
Flying high in the sky with the winds roaring in his ears, Mikael glanced downward with a faint frown, 'Still, even then I'm uncomfortable with the idea of leaving it here defenseless, but realistically I know it's nearly impossible for someone to find it in the short time I'm away!' he tried to reassure himself with these thoughts.
And it wasn't like he was lying to himself either, as it was actually the truth!
With the ring buried kilometers deep in the earth, being relatively small and inconspicuous, coupled with the fact that the hiding place was truly in the middle of nowhere and layered with stealth talismans…
Yeah, all that together made it so that even if a Core Perfection cultivator passed by, it would be near impossible for them to notice anything strange and discover the Thunder Vein Dew…
With a frown on his visage Mikael kept looking downward, because even with all of these precautions he still wasn't at ease with the idea of leaving something so precious here, but he knew it was the 'wise' choice, as he needed to return to the Sect to make some extremely costly purchases in preparation for his absorption of the Thunder Vein Dew.
Purchases he hadn't made previously, precisely because they were so costly and he hadn't been sure of successfully acquiring the Thunder Vein Dew, so it was wiser to wait until he had the Heavenly Wonder before buying them.
In this way if he failed he wouldn't be 'doubly punished'—both gaining nothing and having wasted a large amount of 'money' on things that would, in the end, turn out to be useless.
Swish.
With the Thunder Vein Dew safely stored Mikael didn't waste a single instant and quickly returned to the Sect.
When he had earlier left the Sect he hadn't hidden himself in any way, he simply walked out through the 'main door' and didn't go with the idea he had in mind—to fake a cultivation retreat and then sneak away.
Because while this idea looked good in theory, as it would make it so that if the Flame Sovereign Sect or somebody else investigated the cultivators' movements in relation to the Thunder Vein Dew thief he wouldn't even come close to being suspected…
In truth… this was a terrible idea!!!
After all, if he had tried to sneak out of the Sect, the chances were pretty high that he would be detected by the Sect-Wide Formation and that could obviously lead to some uncomfortable questioning…
Considering the potential risks and the potential gains, with the former far outweighing the latter, he understood that leaving and, more importantly, returning 'normally' was actually the better idea!
On that note he returned to the Sect and didn't waste any time before passing through a couple of different Halls to make his purchases.
Rapidly enough he burnt through his reserve of Contribution Points, these extremely costly purchases draining him to the point that by the end, once he had secured everything, he was left pitifully poor in terms of points.
After that he once again left the Sect, as he wasn't delusional enough to believe that the absorption of the Thunder Vein Dew wouldn't create a commotion—a commotion that would bring him problems and nullify all the above safety steps he had taken.
Knowing this, he quickly left the Sect and returned to the previous location.
Ba-dum.
Once there, above where he had hidden the storage ring, his heart beat slightly erratically; whether it was from excitement at the idea of absorbing the Thunder Vein Dew or from anxiety at left the storage ring 'defenseless' and in fear of what he could find, he couldn't tell.
DOoomph!
The earth exploded outward as Mikael forced his way in with all the grace of a bulldozer, flying through the ground as if it wasn't even there.
Fwoossh.
He stopped at exactly 3,783 meters below the surface and floated in place while a small frown appeared on his visage, 'I think it was there…'
This thought passed through his mind and brought with it a small burst of anxiety as he instinctively spread his Divine Sense outward.
"Fuck! Forgot about the stealth talisman!" he cursed, and without wasting a single instant he began tearing through the earth in search of the storage ring.
5 seconds.
10 seconds.
15 seconds.
Seconds stacked one after another as Mikael frantically searched, his heart pounding harder with each passing moment.
'You can't be fucking serious, it's not fucking possible that somebody stole it during the short time I was away!!!' he tried to reassure himself with these thoughts, even as his urgency and anxiety mounted and his pace grew increasingly relentless.
Until—
"FUCK YEAH!" a small, joyful cry burst from Mikael just as he pulverized another stretch of earth and seized what lay beyond. At that moment the small storage ring was in his palm, and as his Divine Sense swept inside he saw that the Thunder Vein Dew was…
…
Still there!!!
"Phew! This really scared me!" he complained, though the relief flooding his body made him feel almost euphoric.
"Ahhhh… ahhhh… ahhhh…" after a couple of deep breaths to recover from the scare, he finally calmed himself enough to analyze the situation and understand what had happened.
In truth it wasn't anything complicated, it was simply that because of how well he had hidden his storage ring, even he struggled to locate it—especially considering how deep it was buried in the earth, where everything looked the same with no notable 'landmarks' to guide his path…
BOOM.
The earth exploded outward once more as Mikael shot out of the depths and, without slowing, began to make his way out of the Wandering Sword Sect's territory and toward a deserted stretch of the Suncrest Region.
And by deserted he didn't mean a forbidden land crawling with one or more terrifying creatures that made it off-limits, but the kind of barren wilderness that was simply rural to the extreme, with nothing to see for thousands of kilometers.
The kind of place where the Qi density and Qi quality were so low that even Early-stage Body Forging Realm cultivators could stand as overlords, the kind of place where a cultivation novel would usually begin before the story shifted to a 'higher map.'
The 'level 0 newbie territory'...
Swish.
He cut through the air and, after what counted as a long journey for someone of his speed, finally reached his destination—a place so utterly deserted there wasn't a single sentient lifeform within thousands of kilometers.
Fwhoooosh!
And even then he wasn't satisfied with how well hidden it was, so he slipped into the earth, this time without tearing everything apart, since that would hardly be considered sneaky…
In this fashion he dug deeper, and deeper, and deeper still, until he had gone more than ten kilometers down, and only then did he finally stop, satisfied that this location was concealed well enough!
From his actions, the least that could be said was that the earlier incident with the storage ring hadn't helped calm his 'paranoia' of being the thief who gets stolen from, so he took every precaution he could think of…
Boom, crack, thud.
Diverse sounds resounded as, once in the right place, he didn't waste a moment before beginning to 'renovate' the area, shaping it into something more suitable for the Thunder Vein Dew absorption that was bound to follow soon enough.
***
In this way an entire week passed, and during this time Mikael dug out a vast man-made cave deep underground, but that wasn't where the majority of his effort went, as digging was something he could accomplish with relative ease.
The real time-consuming endeavor was something else!
That 'something' being the construction of the 'structure' that would stand as the centerpiece for the absorption of the Heavenly Wonder.
And as Mikael's gaze settled on it, the thought that passed through his mind was that this structure was truly… something else!
Its circular base was carved directly into the earth and stone, its lower half sunk into the ground as if it had always belonged there, faintly reminding Mikael of the natural hot springs behind his Cultivation Manor.
But that was where the similitude ended, for it wasn't a hot spring at all, and the material alone made it obvious—every part of the structure was forged from a golden metal Mikael had chosen precisely because it excelled at containing liquid while doing the same for Qi!
Lining both the interior and exterior—though far denser within—were small runes, while occasional arrays also etched themselves across the surface of the structure.
And that wasn't all, not at all, for the floor of the golden structure was engraved with a singular formation that spread across the entirety of its five-meter radius, a formation that pulsed faintly with power.
And to make this structure even more… original, a 'handful' of talismans had been glued to its surface, though only on the exterior, with not a single one placed within.
The cherry on top of this 'building' was the upper half of the structure, nearly identical to the lower half but set beside it, unattached to anything—like a piece of lego meant to be added and removed at will…
All in all it created a truly unique, strange and… weird structure.
Or at least that's what it would look like to an uninformed onlooker, but to Mikael, its creator, it was exactly what he needed!!!
This was something he had built entirely by himself, made possible only through his extremely advanced theoretical knowledge in multiple Dao, knowledge he used to weave them together and achieve the best results possible.
After all, while he may not be a true alchemist, forging master, talisman master, or anything of the sort, he possessed more than enough theoretical understanding—and he had used it to his advantage to bring this structure into existence from nothing!
"It's time…" murmured Mikael as he cast one last glance at the completed structure before disrobing, stripping himself of everything except the two storage rings he would need: one containing the Thunder Vein Dew, the other filled with cultivation resources.
Author Note:
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Not finding the storage ring in which the Thunder Vein Dew was really gave Mkael a scare!
Fortunately things are logical and it wasn't stolen by a powerful cultivator that 'coincidentally' passed by as this would be far far too illogical and make pretty much zero sense.
———
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— End of Chapter —