The walk back to the Jin Family's guest compound was the longest journey Jin Hao had ever taken, yet his feet barely seemed to touch the ground.
An hour ago, he had been a trembling wretch, crawling through the dirt of a back alley, fleeing from the demon that had been sucking his cultivation for so long. He had been a side character in his own story.
Now, he moved with a speed and fluidity that would have shocked anyone familiar with the "trash" young master. The energy of the Fifth Layer of Qi Condensation hummed in his veins, a vibrant force that sharpened his vision and lightened his bones. The shadows of Clearwater City were no longer menacing voids where he might be mugged, but were now his domain.
"Fifth Layer," he whispered, clenching and unclenching his fist. He marveled at the faint pop of air pressure his grip created. "Arya Chen took years to reach this stage. I did it in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea."
An arrogant sneer twisted his lips. The lingering fear of the Demonic Refining Gourd faded into the intoxicating high of the Marrow Cleansing Fluid and Burst Qi Pills processing through his system. He convinced himself that his rejection of the gourd was not an act of cowardice, but of supreme wisdom. He had seen through the Heavenly Dao's test.
"That's right," he muttered, his eyes gleaming with a manic light under the moonlight. "The universe realized it made a mistake. It tried to kill me twice. First with the ring, then with the gourd. It owes me. It owes me everything."
He reached the outer walls of the Jin Family estate. It was a sprawling compound, though it lacked the elegant natural integration of the Chen or Su estates. The Jin Family were merchants first, cultivators second. Their home was built to impress with gold leaf and white jade, a display of wealth that screamed new money rather than ancient heritage.
To Jin Hao, it had always looked like a prison. However, tonight the high walls looked like the rim of a treasure chest.
He slipped through the side gate used by servants, flashing his token to the bored, half-asleep guard who didn't even bother to lift his head from his arms. Jin Hao sneered at him. Sleep, you fool. You don't even know a dragon just walked past you.
Once inside the compound, he stopped in the shadow of a decorative rockery and summoned the system's interface with a glance.
"System," he commanded, his mental voice dripping with the entitlement of a man who believed he owned the world. "Activate Treasure Scan."
[Command Acknowledged. Initiating Treasure Scan within 1 Kilometer radius...]
The system's interface expanded into a glowing holographic map. The physical structures of the estate were rendered in a translucent gray wireframe. And then, the lights appeared.
It was blinding.
On the display, the Jin Estate was lit up like a lantern festival. Everywhere he looked on the map, glowing motes of light were suspended in the gray void. White, green, and blue pulses marked the rooms of the elders, the treasury, and the weapon racks in the training grounds.
"So much," Jin Hao breathed, greed warring with resentment in his heart. "They have so much. And they gave me nothing."
He focused his attention on the main hall, the residence of the Patriarch, Jin Bolin. There, a cluster of purple lights pulsed with a rhythmic beat marking high grade artifacts, Tier 4 pills, and Secret cultivation manuals passed down through the main line.
"Look at it all," he hissed. "While I was given a drafty room and leftover scraps, my 'uncle' Bolin slept on a bed of spirit stones. He hoards treasures that could have made me a genius years ago. And he calls me family? He calls me nephew?"
He took a step toward the main hall, his desire to snatch those purple lights almost overpowering his reason.
[Warning: Host proximity to High-Level Threat. Targets are guarded by formations and Peak Golden Core cultivators. Current success probability: 0%.]
The system's cold voice doused his excitement like a bucket of ice water.
Jin Hao stopped, his fists trembling. "Zero percent?" he spat. "Useless. I'm the protagonist! I should be able to walk in there and take what is mine!"
[Recommendation: Host cultivation is insufficient to bypass Tier 3 defensive arrays. The host is advised to seek unguarded resources to facilitate growth.]
"Fine," Jin Hao grumbled, turning away from the tempting purple lights of the Patriarch's quarters. "You're right. I need to be smart. I need to grow. Once I'm strong enough... I'll take it all. I'll strip this family bare."
He refocused his attention on the mental map, filtering out the high-risk targets. He scanned for clusters of lights that were away from the main patrol routes, away from the sleeping elders with their terrifying spiritual senses.
His gaze drifted to the eastern sector of the estate. It was the logistics and warehouse district, where the Jin Family stored the bulk goods for their trading empire.
Inside a nondescript building was a massive concentration of white and green lights. There were thousands of them. Individually, they were weak such as low-grade herbs, unrefined ores, and beast parts intended for bulk sale. But together? Together they were a sun.
And there were no guard auras stationed directly in front of it.
"The raw materials warehouse," Jin Hao realized, a slow grin stretching his face. "Of course. They don't guard the copper as closely as they guard the gold. They think no one would bother stealing crates of Iron Wood or sacks of Spirit Rice."
He chuckled, a rasping sound. "Fools. To a normal cultivator, those things are just heavy trash. They take too long to refine. They have too many impurities. But to me..."
He looked at the interface, at the glorious words he remembered from the binding: Convert 100% of its essence directly into the Host's cultivation.
"To me, it's just pure experience points."
He stuck to the shadows, his Fifth Layer cultivation allowing him to move with a silence he had never possessed before. He avoided the roving patrols with ease, the system's map acting as a perfect radar, showing him the location of every living being in the vicinity.
He approached the largest warehouse, the one glowing like a beacon on the system's interface. The door was secured with a heavy iron lock, reinforced with a minor locking formation.
Jin Hao placed his hand on the cold metal of the lock. "System," he whispered. "Is this lock made of spiritual material?"
[Scanning... Object Identified: Cold-Iron Lock with minor rune inscription. Low-Grade Spiritual Item.]
"Devour it," Jin Hao commanded.
[Affirmative.]
A faint blue light flashed from his palm. The heavy lock dissolved into motes of light and was sucked into his hand.
[Devouring Complete. Energy negligible. Cultivation increase: 0.01%.]