22 Confrontations (Part 1)

Shura landed on the ruin of the city. He had cast an invisibility spell on himself to prevent unwanted trouble. If everything turned out as he had planned. He wouldn't encounter anyone at all. He'd just search for anything valuable and take it. He'd dispatch any danger that he encountered quietly in order to not draw any attention to himself.

No cultivators had noticed him slip into the city-ship. There was a massive cultivator presence on the outskirt of the ruin, looking at it excitedly. People were anxiously waiting to be able to enter. Countless experts from all over the world were all over the place. Some were already present, while others were in the city where the emperors were going to hold their meeting. And others were all scattered throughout the danger zone. Some were even half a continent away, but they were eyeing the place nonetheless.

All these experts had their mental awareness focused on this city. They would be able to make a move anytime something happened. They would then instantly appear here. Everyone was a Spirit Emperor of the third layer who was infinitely close to unlocking the secret of the Sovereign level.

The major rulers of the continent were still negotiating and talking, no one would be allowed to enter yet. That was why no one had made any hasty moves yet.

Yet it was very surprising that it was as peaceful as it was. This was the biggest news in recent history. The secret to the Spirit Sovereign level and ascension. This hot topic was something every peak expert of the land was interested in. To think that no one would just break into the ruin before the negotiations and talks were over.

Things were more than what they seemed. There was something hidden behind all of this, a twist. Shura was sure of it. After all, why was this something that had only been discovered now? And how come the news seemed to spread all over the land one day? Someone was definitely behind this pulling the strings.

Even so, if there was a possibility of there actually being something he could use, then he'd bite.

Shura would be the first one to make a hasty move today, and he might even profit because of it.

It was a good thing that Shura didn't wait. He was here and he was going to explore the place before anyone else. This advantage might just be enough for him to get whatever it is that was in the city-ship.

Many tall buildings littered the enormous 'city', but Shura knew they weren't important. There must be an important place deep in the city-ship, the core and heart of the entire place. That was what he was interested in. If there was something important, it would surely be there and nowhere else. And if it was somewhere else, somewhere that he didn't think of or bothered to look at, then he'd consider it that he didn't have any fate with this particular treasure and give it up.

Shura concentrated his mental awareness to pierce through the structure of the city-ship. He wasn't sure if his mental awareness was strong enough to penetrate through materials from a higher realm, no matter how old and in ruin they were.

Shura found that his mental awareness was able to pass through all the matter quite easily. He could 'see' the whole place with just a glance with his mind. The architectural marvel didn't move him. He saw the city and located where he needed to go.

Shura moved deeper and deeper into the 'city'. Since his mental awareness was powerful enough to see through the materials of the city, it had already lost its properties long ago. It was no different than ordinary material, and because of that, he was able to simply go through them with his body.

Shura penetrated deep into the structure of the city-ship. He came to the core of it. It was an enormous room. No, to call it a room was insufficient. Deep inside the city-ship was a large space. The ceiling was very high up and space was very spacious.

What use a large and empty area inside of a ship, or even a city, was used for, Shura didn't know. Maybe the cultivators from the higher realm had a different way of thinking and approaching things? For all he knew they had a perfectly valid reason for this 'room's' existence, even though it was empty. Maybe it being empty was part of the design?

The entire space was dark, but there was something in the middle of this extremely spacious space. If this wasn't something of value, then there was nothing of value here at all.

There was a shallow puddle of liquid metal on the ground. The size of this puddle was not even a thousandth of the total space of the entire place. There was a black cube the size of a hand on this puddle of metallic liquid.

Shura went up to it and picked it up. He didn't know what it was. He couldn't pour in his inner energy to activate it like a spirit artifact either. He also tried scanning it with his mental awareness, but it was just a black cube that was slightly heavy.

Shura shook his head. "It looks like there's nothing here, what were those experts bullshitting about. There's nothing valuable here at all."

Shura put away the cube in his storage space and then flew up to the surface and then into the sky.

"Someone had stolen the treasure of the higher realm!" A loud sound reverberated throughout heaven and earth.

Countless mental awarenesses that were watching the city-ship became alerted. Most immediately made their move, while some still observed from the background, content to let things develop before they entered the fray.

Instantly, hundreds of lights shot through the sky from all corners of the danger zone and even outside and instantly appeared above the sky of the city-ship.

An old man with a hooded robe stood high in the air, pointing at Shura. This was the cultivator that accused Shura.

"The treasure is in his spatial ring!" the old man continued.

Shura was shocked. No one was present when found the cube and put it inside his spatial ring. He was absolutely certain that there was no one. No mental awareness was present. There were no formations either. Not even gods and demons or even ghosts were present. So how did this old man know about it?

Did he practice some sort of divination technique?

Countless eyes of greed and envy arose within the experts present.

Shura narrowed his eyes. Never mind about the fact that the old man knew he found and put a black cube in his spatial ring, something else was off. He was under concealment spells. How was he found out? And it looked like all these people could see him. Was this a trap after all? But why him? Shura couldn't figure it out at all. And where did his invisibility spell go?

He had been able to enter undetected. Why was it now that as he was leaving, someone managed to expose him to the world?

And what was this about the treasure of the higher realm? It was just a black cube drenched in liquid metal. He only took it because it looked suspicious, but he didn't know what it was or how to even use it.

"Everyone, I don't have this treasure of the higher realm that the old man speaks of," Shura said. His loud voice reverberated throughout the heaven and the earth as well.

"Lies! I know you have it in your spatial ring!" the old man shouted back. The sky and earth reverberated again with the old man's hoarse voice.

"Know? Would you care to explain to me and everyone present how you happen to 'know'?" Shura asked back.

"I don't need to explain our secrets to you, I am a Great Master at the Sun Institute. Our reputation speaks for itself. It is true that you have the treasure on you, so don't try to deny it."

Shura had heard of this Sun Institute before. They were the very people who were high among the people who guaranteed that the city-ship had the treasure which led to the secret to the Spirit Sovereign level and ascension to a higher realm. The Sun Institute had connections everywhere in the world. Their depth was truly unknown, yet all the cultivators respected them. Their members were very knowledgeable. Their organization itself was a collector and keeper of knowledge.

Shura frowned. Was he set up? Was this black cube a part of their tricks? Why were they targeting him? Or maybe they weren't targeting him, they were just targeting whoever got the cube. But for what purpose?

"See, everyone? This man is silent. He surely has the treasure on him! We can't let him get away!"