23 Confrontations (Part 2)

"Oh, you can't let me get away? Then how would you deal with this 'treasure'? Would it belong to you? Or you, or you, or maybe you over there? there's only one treasure. But hundreds of you. Who will the treasure belong to? Can you decide?"

Shura didn't bother concealing it anymore, and he had no intention of relinquishing this black cube either. He wanted to see what these people were going to do. Since the Sun Institute wanted to play him, he'll play them right back. He'd show them that by then it was far too late to regret.

"That's right, there's only one treasure, but many people here. So who's going to get it?" a voice among the crowd spoke out.

"Yeah, he's right!" another voice concurred.

Shura didn't really care about this treasure of a higher realm or whatever they called it. The Spirit Sovereign level was a reality to him, not a legend. He could do it if he just continued cultivating, and perhaps waiting a bit. The higher realm was a real thing that he knew about as well. And he was also certain that'd he'd ascend someday soon.

The value of this black cube that everyone else was clamoring for didn't have any value to him. But even so, he wasn't just going to hand it over to them and walk away. Whether it was a real treasure or a fake, since he found it, it was his.

"Enough talk. Whoever wants this treasure came come right up, if you don't value your life that is." Shura declared.

"If you don't want it, friend, I am willing to take it off your hands." A huge man with a spear flew toward him.

At this point, Shura didn't even bother to check the enemy's cultivation. Everyone here only had one direction to go in their cultivation, and that was up. They were all third layer Spirit Emperors. Any less and they wouldn't dare come, not to mention that it wasn't even certain that they could get anything here.

A sword appeared in Shura's hand. He injected wrathfire energy into it. The sword turned very hot. The sword's metallic body turned red.

An invisible spear intent shot through the sky. Shura couldn't see it at all, but his heart skipped a beat and he sensed something sharp approach. He immediately dodged to the side and parried it with his sword.

A loud clang resounded in the sky. The two Spirit Emperors separated from one another and looked at each other. There was only calm in Shura's eyes, but in the huge man was caution and fear.

There really was no need to continue to fight. Shura had already found what he wanted to find. Now he should leave. Once he left, nobody would be able to find him. Everyone who saw him fight before when he was killing emperors left and right had died, he was also wearing disguise today. His identity was safe.

No one would be able to connect this mysterious expert with the reclusive emperor of the Skyward Empire, one of the peak powers in the entire world. Who would even expect for one of the six emperors to enter the ruin ahead of everyone else and take the treasure? An emperor would send his subordinate to handle the task instead of coming to do the deed personally like this.

"Activate the formation!" the voice of the old man from the Sun Institute resounded.

Before the old man could even finish his second word, Shura had already made his move. He turned invisible and without tangible form, instantly escaping from the area.

It would be bothersome to be trapped in a formation. He didn't want to be forced to reveal his strength either.

By the time the old man finished his word and massive amount of energy converged into a trapping formation, Shura was already far away from the whole place.

The smile on Shura's face faded away when he sensed the presence in front of him. Trouble kept following after him

There were five figures standing in the sky in front of him. They had accurately predicted his escape and reached here before him. These dastardly interlopers were here waiting for him.

All five men wore embroidered robes that had the picture of dragons. The robes had fiery colors. Some wore yellow, others golden, and one even wore red.

Shura instantly knew who these men were. They were the five emperors of the other five super empires.

"Do you want to die?" Shura asked them.

He was not being arrogant or foolish to say this at all.

Shura had his empire's intelligence network research the strength and capabilities of these five emperors. Although he was sure they were stronger than what they had shown publicly, it couldn't be to the point where his judgment of them was inaccurate. They weren't anything in his eyes. He wasn't afraid of them when he was only a first layer Spirit Emperor. Now that he was a third layer Spirit Emperor, he had even fewer reasons to fear them.

The strength that he showed when he fought the huge man with the spear was only a tip of the iceberg. The speed that he'd shown wasn't what he was fully capable of doing either.

All of these experts were stuck in a world of their own conception. Their strength was limited and so could what they achieve in the future. That was why they were going crazy over the possibility of stepping into the Spirit Sovereign rank. He didn't feel the need to break their illusion by showing strength beyond that of a normal Spirit Emperor. But when it came to a real fight he had no reason to hold back. They would all find that they were no match for him at all.

"Leave behind the treasure," one of the emperors said.

"And if I refuse?" Shura responded.

"Then we'll take it from your corpse," another emperor said.

"Scary," Shura mocked.

Shura once again disappeared. He had no intention of killing the five emperors and plunging the world into chaos. The world having order and peace was better for his purpose.

This time Shura exerted more power in his movement. The emperors couldn't find him or catch up to him this time.

The five emperors watched as Shura disappeared without being able to do anything to him. They were all speechless. They didn't even know what to say to one another.

Shura returned to his residence in Skyward City.

All he had to show for the effort was just a small black cube. More cultivation and meditation was needed to go forward then. He didn't have any external things that could help him.

…

The entire world searched high and low for the mysterious thief who stole the treasure of the higher realm. Three long months had passed, but no news of the thief surfaced at all. It was like the thief never existed. Shura was not surprised about this result at all.

What surprised him was that the one going the craziest about this event was the Sun Institute. They were going all out through every channel known to man in order to find him and the black cube. Perhaps he had ruined their mysterious plan inadvertently.

Shura chuckled when his intelligence officers reported this to him. The world was big. And even if it was small, a world was still a 'world'. Perhaps a continent was better to call it, but even a continent wasn't small. He hadn't left any trace behind. Even if he was incompetent and left some behind due to his imperfection, there wasn't enough clue to point to his identity.

No matter how those men howled and barked, they couldn't find him, much less do anything to him.

How would it even be possible for people to search through every nook and cranny of the world and find out all its secrets? Someone had to know of Shura's identity in order to identify and find him. Yet no such persons existed. He existed in a vacuum without any relations. This was why it was impossible for anyone to find out where the thief disappeared to.

During these three months, Shura continued to cultivate ceaselessly. He was in high spirit these days. His cultivation increasing was just one of the reasons why his spirit was high. He was now a peak Spirit Emperor. It will not be too long before he reached the Spirit Sovereign level. By then he would try to teleport to Aggradise Continent again.

He would need to make adjustments to the teleportation formation as the accidental teleportation last time had sent him further away. He had no idea how far this planet was to the one Aggradise Continent was on. Yet it was fine, even if a Spirit Sovereign couldn't do it, he'd just have to become a Spirit Saint.

It would take time. A lot of time. Shura never had the thought that he would die before being able to reach the next level. He could do it. He was only 23 now. But… if the years added up. If he became 50… or even 100, then… would there still be anyone for him to go back to?

The thought scared him very much.

'I must go back, no matter what,' Shura thought to himself solemnly. This was a promise to himself that he would keep no matter what.