"Patriarch! Patriarch! Emergency! Please, wake up!"
From inside, a roar like an awakened dragon shook the doorframe.
"WHO DARES?!"
The voice was thick with sleep and fury. Jin Bolin had enjoyed the wine at the Lei banquet a little too much.
"It is Mo, Master! It is a catastrophe! Please, you must come out!"
The doors flew open with a force that sent Mo tumbling backward down the steps. Jin Bolin stood in the doorway, his eyes bloodshot and murderous. A heavy spiritual pressure bore down on the courtyard.
"Mo," Bolin growled, his voice dangerous. "If the sky is not falling, I will have your skin for a rug."
"The sky... the sky is empty, Master!" Mo stammered from the ground. "The warehouses! The Vault! They've been robbed!"
Bolin blinked, the fog of sleep clearing instantly. "Robbed? Which one?"
"Both! The Raw Materials in the East... and... and the Strategic Reserves in the West!"
For a second, there was total silence. Then, his face twisted into a mask of disbelief. "Strategic Reserves? The vault is protected by a Tier 3 formation! The doors are Spirit-Bronze! Who could rob it without triggering the alarm?"
"We don't know!" Mo wailed. "The guards say the doors are just… vanished!"
"Take me there," Bolin commanded, stepping out of the pavilion barefoot. "Now!"
A procession of elders, captains, and the terrified House Manager followed the Patriarch to the East Warehouse first.
The scene was surreal. The massive doors of the main warehouse were missing, leaving jagged edges in the stone frame. Inside, hundreds of empty spaces marked where crates of herbs and barrels of ore used to be, leaving only the lingering scent of damp earth and stale dust.
The family's chief investigator, Elder Han, was kneeling on the floor, examining a patch of dust.
"Patriarch," Elder Han said, standing up and bowing.
"Report," Bolin snapped. "Who did this? The Chen Family? Did they send an army of storage rings?"
"It... is strange, Patriarch," Elder Han said, gesturing to the empty floor. "Look here. And here."
Bolin looked. There were scorch marks on the stone from spiritual pressure. The dust was blown outward in perfect concentric circles.
"Spiritual resonance," Bolin muttered. "Someone cultivated here?"
"Not just cultivated," Elder Han corrected. "Someone broke through. Look at the density of the residue. Here, in the center of the warehouse, the energy signature suggests a breakthrough from the Fifth Layer of Qi Condensation to the Sixth."
He walked ten paces to the left. "And here. From Sixth to Seventh."
He walked to the right, near where the Spirit-Sap jars had been. "And here... multiple stages. Eighth, Ninth... Tenth."
He finally walked to the back of the warehouse, his hand hovering over a cracked stone tile. He looked up at Bolin, his eyes wide with disbelief.
"And here... Patriarch, this is liquid Qi residue."
The silence in the warehouse was deafening.
Bolin stared at him. "Are you telling me," he said slowly, "that a thief broke in, ate my raw materials, and sat here breaking through from Fifth layer Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment in one night?"
"It is impossible," another Elder chimed in. "To break through from Fifth layer Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment would require years of meditation! And raw materials? Who eats raw ore? Who eats dry spirit-grain by the crate?
"And yet," Elder Han pointed to the missing door frame. "The thief consumed them. He refined them on the spot. He entered this warehouse as a Fifth Layer weakling, and he left it as a Foundation Establishment expert."
Bolin's face darkened. "Go to the West Vault."
They moved as a group, the atmosphere growing heavier with every step. When they reached the Strategic Reserves, the sight was even more shocking.
Guard Liu and Guard Wang were on their knees, trembling. Bolin ignored them and strode into the empty vault.
It was clean. Not a single jade box remained.
Elder Han walked to the center of the room. He closed his eyes, extending his spiritual sense. His eyes snapped open with shock.
"Patriarch," he whispered. "This energy..."
"Speak!"
"The energy signature matches the one from the East Warehouse. It is the same person." He whispered.
"Of course it's the same person!" Bolin barked. "What did he do here?"
"He broke through again," Elder Han said, his voice barely a whisper. "The residue here is much denser."
Han walked to the empty shelf where the Spirit-Gathering Array Plate had been. "Here... Initial Stage to Middle Stage."
He walked to the corner where the Shadow-Stalk box had sat. "And here... a massive surge. Patriarch, the thief left this vault as a Late Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator."
"Wait," House Manager Mo interrupted, his voice high-pitched and verging on hysteria. "You're saying a person entered the East Warehouse as a Fifth Layer Qi Condensation cultivator... broke through to Foundation Establishment... then came here, ate the Strategic Reserves... and broke through to Late Stage Foundation Establishment? All in one night?"
"That's madness!" The Second Elder shouted. "That is an entire major realm! Two major realms worth of progress! No genius in history has done that! Arya Chen took years! No human body can withstand that! No cultivation technique in the world can refine that much chaotic energy that quickly! Eating a Spirit Tool? Consuming raw ore? They would die instantly! This... this is against the laws of the Heavenly Dao!"
"Unless..." Patriarch Jin Bolin spoke, his voice dropping to a murmur that silenced the room.
His eyes were gleaming with intense greed. He looked at the empty shelves, then at the missing door frame where the bronze had simply vanished.
"Unless it wasn't the person eating them," Bolin said.
"Patriarch?" Elder Han asked.
"Look at the doors," Bolin pointed. "Look at the locks. They vanished. Just like the crates. Just like the weapons. Just like the pills."
He turned to face his elders, a feverish light in his eyes. "No cultivator can eat metal. But a treasure can."
"A spatial artifact?" the Second Elder suggested. "A devouring beast?"
"Something better," Bolin said, licking his lips. "Something that can refine raw matter into pure cultivation base instantly. Think about it! This thief... he started the night as a weakling. Fifth Layer! A nobody! And he ended it as a Foundation Establishment expert! Because he has something that allows him to consume anything and turn it into power!"
"A Heaven-Grade Artifact," Elder Han breathed. "Maybe even... Divine."
"He stole my wealth," Bolin snarled, but there was a twisted smile on his face. "He stole the bribe for the Spirit Cauldron Sect. He stole the family's reserves. But if we catch him..."
He looked around the empty vault. "If we catch him, we get the thing that made him a genius in one night."
"We get the power to turn trash into gold," the Second Elder finished, his own greed igniting.
"Forget the loss," Bolin commanded, his voice ringing with authority. "This is an opportunity. The thief is still in the city. He must be. He just broke through. His foundation will be unstable. He will be hiding."
He turned to Elder Han. "Elder, you said you felt the energy signature. Can you track it?"
"It is faint," Elder Han admitted. "The breakthrough cleansed his body and changed his aura. But... there is a specific resonance. A chaotic mix of metal, wood, and fire Qi from the things he ate. If I get close enough to him, I will know."
"Then record it," Bolin ordered. "Imprint that signature into a tracking talisman. Give one to every Elder and every captain."
"What about the alliance with the Spirit Cauldron Sect?" Manager Mo asked timidly.
"Tell them nothing!" Bolin snapped. "Delay the meeting. Say I am in secluded cultivation. If they find out we've been robbed by a Fifth Layer rat, we'll be the laughingstock of the domain."
He walked out of the vault, looking up at the morning sky.
He turned back to the group. "Mobilize the family quietly. Check the guest compounds, the servants and the branch families. Look for anyone who has suddenly become stronger overnight. Look for anyone acting strange."
"A Fifth Layer cultivator who suddenly became Foundation Establishment," Elder Han mused. "That narrows it down. Most of our guest disciples are documented."
"Check everyone," Bolin said. "And when you find him... do not kill him. I want him alive. I want to know exactly what he has in his possession."
"Yes, Patriarch!" The elders bowed in unison.
"You greedy little rat," he murmured, a cruel smile playing on his lips. "You ate my grain. You ate my iron. Now... I'm going to eat you."