It was night, and the sky was clear. The moon was shining on the Thunder Furnace Sect's spirit mine, and like every day, the situation was calm. The guards were even dozing off. I slipped in like a shadow, and no one was the wiser.

‘Step 1 complete. It was almost too easy.’

Now thought started the most difficult part: finding the formation flags.

Contrary to what the name implies, formation flags don't have to be actual flags; they can be any kind of magical treasure, as long as they are inscribed with the formation formula and attuned to each other.

This, combined with the fact that such items are usually buried for extra security, makes them very hard to find.

Fortunately, the Blue Flaming Leopard was able to deduce a few of them with her meager knowledge of formations.

These places were quite easy to find because there were towers where the Foundation Establishment disciples were constantly guarding.

Unfortunately for them, they ran into me. A bear with stealth and an inventory capable of bypassing the normal defenses of the flags' Indeed, the flags are usually enchanted so that once they are placed, only the owner or someone much stronger than them can take them back.

Just as I took the sixth flag, an alarm sounded.

It seems that I have been discovered. Time to send the signal.

ROAR!!

I unleashed the loudest Qi-enchanted roar I could and prepared for battle.

Soon, I was surrounded by eleven Foundation Establishment disciples while a Core Formation elder hovered in the air. He said, "It seems that a vile beast has entered our territory. I wonder what those guards are doing letting such a big guy sneak in."

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Just as he was about to order the others to attack, he sensed something and quickly took out an inscribed stone from his spatial ring.

(Elder) "Hmm, it seems that this was a retaliation after we raided the Blue Flaming Leopard's lair. It's unfortunate for you that she can't get past our array." With that, he poured his qi into what I now understood to be the formation's control flag, but nothing happened. He tried again: nothing.

At this point, the elder turned white with fright and desperately continued to channel his qi into the stone.

At this point, he fled decisively, only to be intercepted by a blue blur. The Elder fell to the ground like a meteor in a great explosion of dirt. When the explosion subsided, everyone could see the corpse of the elder with a reluctant expression.

In a few minutes, the Blue Flaming Leopard cleared the mine of all the disciples. Now it was time to collect our reward and destroy the mine.

Spirit mines are formed when a spirit vein is damaged. A broken spirit vein doesn't release qi into the air, but instead, it crystallizes and constantly transforms the surrounding rocks into spirit stones. Our goal was to destroy the damaged spirit vein. This will put the mine out of commission for several centuries until the vein does not reappear.

While the Blue Flaming Leopard went into the mine, I sneaked into the deposit with the already mined Spirit Stones and collected them in my inventory. There were 256,627 low-grade Spirit Stones and even 493 medium-grade Spirit Stones. This was a huge amount, especially since I had never seen mid-grade spirit stones before.

Then I quickly looted the Elder's spatial ring and followed the Blue Flaming Leopard into the mine. Inside, the qi was abundant, and the deeper you went, the more qi there was. At the bottom of the mine, the entire walls were made of spirit stones. This was where the miners worked.

BOOM

After a bang, the qi concentration decreased drastically. Blue Flaming Leopard stepped forward and said: "I've already destroyed the Spiritual Artery. Let's go."

(I) "Wouldn't it be a shame to leave them with so many spirit stones? Let's mine them and take them with us. We can use the disciples' inventory rings."

(Blue Flaming Leopard) "Good idea."

It took us an hour to mine all the remaining spirit stones, and their quantity was four times the amount I had found in the depository.

(Blue Flaming Leopard) "Since the idea of the raid is yours and most of the contribution is also yours, I will let you keep half of it. Too bad we didn't find the Core Formation guy's ring."

If I could, I would have sweated at that last remark. Instead, I replied happily, "Thank you!"

And so my first raid ended safely. And I was sure it would not be the last.