The Thieving Vein's misplaced cleverness had cost them their last chance to escape.
Compared to last time, they had gained another True Venerable, Luo Shiqi. The Seventeenth Great Venerable had not worked much with the other three, but now that he was a True Venerable, he understood what needed to be understood. After a brief discussion, they divided up their responsibilities.
Qian Zhong and Xuanyuan Buqi were responsible for breaking the formation and preventing escape, while Luo Shiqi and Hanhai mainly handled the attacks and captures.
After just one exchange, the Artifact Refining Path disciples below Mi Jin True Immortal's level had not even reacted. They merely felt dazed for an instant, and the battle was already over. The manor's outer walls remained intact, but inside, everything had been reduced to ruins.
They captured three Nascent Soul cultivators, seven Golden Core cultivators, more than twenty Emergence from Dust cultivators, and over two hundred Qi Refining cultivators.
The Emergence from Dust and Qi Refining cultivators had little value for interrogation. One could not obtain formal Thieving Vein status without reaching Nascent Soul, while Golden Core True Adepts were merely probationary members. Only when the Thieving Vein faced fierce combat would they occasionally make an exception and promote them to full members.
A few of the low-level Emergence from Dust and Qi Refining cultivators did know about the Thieving Vein, but given their status, they could not possibly know many secrets, so there was no need to pay them much attention.
What surprised everyone, however, was that these low-level cultivators were not merely servants. About one-third of them were being trained as direct descendants of the Thieving Vein. The Thieving Vein gathered promising youths from various planes and trained them together.
The number being trained in this manor was neither especially high