Theft

Gradually, night had fallen. The matter of the He Family obtaining a batch of Body Tempering Pills had been confirmed beyond doubt. Near the entrance of the He Family estate, Huo Hai had heard at least several people discussing it.

The return of important He Family descendants also served as indirect confirmation. Most of these important figures were only at the Spirit Body Realm. Huo Hai had not seen a single one who had reached the Spirit Blood Realm, which made even more sense.

"Heh heh, every time the He Family distributes Body Tempering Pills, they hold three days of selection trials. These next few days will be the best opportunity." Huo Hai thought calmly as he returned home. During the day, Huo Hai still showed nothing unusual. Only after night fell, when all was quiet and everyone had gone to sleep, did he begin to act.

"Go. Scout the way tonight, and we'll make our move tomorrow." At some point, Huo Hai had left the Huo Family and arrived in the woods not far from the He Family. With a lift of his hand, a streak of golden light shot out in an instant.

Even experts at the Spirit Bone Realm would likely have struggled to see what that golden flash was. It was Little Gold. The golden centipede beat wings far smaller than its body, flying at a speed terrifying enough to make one's heart tremble.

With the aid of spiritual energy, Little Gold's speed had nearly surpassed the limits of the naked eye. In an instant, it entered the He Family compound. Huo Hai was merely a low-level Spirit Body Realm cultivator and could not yet use spiritual power to communicate with Gu Insects.

After Little Gold set off, Huo Hai sat quietly amid the bushes, using their scant connection to control it from afar. In his hand was a simple map of the He Family compound. Holding a brush, Huo Hai continuously marked and wrote upon it. These were the obstacles and bits of information Little Gold had just sent back. The information was brief, but it would have to do.

It was only a small insect. Flying through the darkness, it rarely drew anyone's attention. Under such circumstances, Little Gold quickly figured out the entire layout of the He Family. At this, Huo Hai smiled in satisfaction.

"He Family... if I remember correctly, the layouts of these Lineages are all roughly similar. At the very least, the outlines and areas of important buildings should be about the same." Huo Hai recalled where the Huo Family stored medicine and treasure, then began comparing them with the He Family map.

The map Little Gold had sent back was not especially precise. There were roughly three buildings where the He Family was most likely to hide medicinal supplies. Huo Hai's mind stirred, and he ordered Little Gold to begin searching. With a tremble of its divine stride, Little Gold quickly arrived beside the first building. It pressed its entire body against the wall and slowly crawled inside, without drawing anyone's attention.

Insects could slip through every crack and crevice by nature. Who could have imagined that an inconspicuous little bug would be the enemy's eyes and ears? No matter how many guards there were, no one noticed Little Gold. Perhaps someone saw it, but they merely swept their gaze past it.

Under cover of darkness, Little Gold's wings were difficult to see. Even its golden body appeared dull from afar, like an ordinary centipede. Before long, Little Gold crawled into the first building.

After making a round, Huo Hai frowned. "Nothing. Perhaps this isn't the right building. Then we'll switch to another." Huo Hai muttered to himself while ordering Little Gold to crawl back out. Little Gold was a Gu Insect; when it encountered herbs, its senses were far sharper than those of ordinary people. If they were spiritual medicines containing spiritual energy, the sensation would be even stronger.

Otherwise, what would Huo Hai use to investigate? Little Gold dodged the patrolling guards along the way and entered the second building. Huo Hai could not see through its eyes, and Little Gold's mind was not intelligent enough to distinguish human objects.

Using the same method as before, it crawled in and out of the room once more. In the end, the information it brought back was that there was a great deal of water inside. Huo Hai did not know whether to laugh or cry. "So this is the He Family bathhouse. No wonder it's so large."

With the bathhouse ruled out, only the final location remained. Following the previous method, Little Gold quickly flew over. After entering the room, it soon sent Chu Yuntian an intense message. "Such strong hunger... it seems it has encountered spiritual medicine. There's a lot of food, which means there are many spiritual medicines. Then this must be where the He Family stores its medicine."

Huo Hai quickly reacted. This time, he had found the right place. There was also an aura nearby that made Little Gold uncomfortable. This was, after all, a place where medicinal supplies were stored, so defenses against insects were rather strict.

That scent was something used to drive away mosquitoes and insects. This made Huo Hai even more certain that he had found the right place.

"Little Gold, search around and see if there are any bottles or the like." After Huo Hai issued the command, Little Gold quickly began moving. Its body was small, allowing it to enter many places ordinary people could not.

Sure enough, before long, Little Gold sent back information that it had found quite a few bottles inside a cabinet. From Little Gold's description, those bottles were medicine bottles. Anything stored in such a place could not possibly be ordinary medicine; it had to be pills. The only question now was how to get them out. Little Gold could get out, but that did not mean the bottles could.

Huo Hai had long since come up with a solution to this problem. Controlling Little Gold, he had it begin digging beneath the cabinet in a concealed spot. He wanted to dig a hole large enough for medicine bottles to pass through, making it easier to transport the Body Tempering Pills.

Little Gold moved quickly. Relying on its venom and strength, even the high-grade wooden cabinet the He Family used specifically to store pills could not withstand its teeth. After most of the night had passed, the hole was dug.

Seeing that dawn was nearly here, Huo Hai shook his head. "There isn't enough time. We can only come back tomorrow. Little Gold, clean up. Don't let anyone see the wood shavings." Huo Hai was also worried that if the hole were discovered, tomorrow's operation would be walking straight into the net. Little Gold moved swiftly. After cleaning up the wood and disguising the site, it crawled back out once more.

Once Little Gold returned, Huo Hai hurried back toward his home. He did not use the main gate; Huo Hai was not an idiot. Wouldn't sneaking out in the middle of the night seem suspicious? Reaching a concealed spot behind the courtyard, Huo Hai slipped inside in a few moves.

Inside was precisely the courtyard where Huo Hai lived. Huo Hai had to thank fate that his courtyard was located at the edge of the Lineage compound, or getting in would not have been so convenient. For the entire day, Huo Hai acted as usual and revealed not the slightest anomaly.

While no one was paying attention, Huo Hai slipped out again the following night. Yesterday had merely been reconnaissance; tonight was different. Little Gold flew out like a veteran familiar with the road, heading toward the He Family compound. Moments later, it entered the He Family's medicine storage area. Under Huo Hai's control, Little Gold carefully observed its surroundings. After a long while, it confirmed that it had not been exposed.

At last, Huo Hai breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Little Gold, bring the bottles out. Don't let anyone notice." The route had already been scouted. As a Gu Insect, Little Gold could naturally travel through many passages inaccessible to normal people.

Clutching a bottle, Little Gold flew out through the hole, then flew up onto the roof. Little Gold's strength was such that not only could it carry a bottle, it could even take a metal ball into the air. Such was the power of a Gu Insect.

Holding the bottle, Little Gold did not make the slightest sound. From a blind spot above the beams, it slowly flew outward. No one could possibly have imagined that an insect would sneak in to steal things, much less that the insect possessed such intelligence.

Under these circumstances, Little Gold transported the bottle to a small opening at the corner of the eaves. This was a hole left behind when the house had originally been built. Normal people could never enter through it, but Little Gold was different. After leaving smoothly, it hid atop the roof where ordinary people would never think to look. It bypassed the patrol posts all the way and brought out the bottle without mishap.

When the bottle landed in Huo Hai's hand, he could not help but smile. "Well done. I didn't raise you for nothing."

As he spoke, he opened the bottle and sniffed it, then nodded. "They're Body Tempering Pills. The medicinal potency is right, and the name is right too." Drawing in a breath of the medicinal essence emitted by the Body Tempering Pills, Huo Hai felt as though his body had improved slightly, much like when he cultivated his spirit art.

Now that it had been confirmed, he could not let the chance pass. "Little Gold, follow this example and bring out all the bottles with the same markings." Huo Hai pointed to the writing on the Body Tempering Pill bottle. Little Gold conveyed that it understood, then set off once again.

In the dead of night, a tiny insect moved things bit by bit beneath people's noses, like ants moving house. Throughout the entire process, not a single person sensed anything unusual. In their minds, the only things capable of threatening them were humans and large spirit beasts. Insects had never fallen within the vigilance of spirit masters across the continent.

After working for most of the night, Huo Hai ended up with twenty more bottles in his hands. Each bottle contained ten Body Tempering Pills, for a total of two hundred. This batch of Body Tempering Pills alone was worth an astonishing sum.

With these Body Tempering Pills gone, the He Family's income for today had suffered a loss of at least more than one-third. Chu Yuntian could already imagine what would happen within the He Family over the coming days.

"What a pity. I can't frame He Ya outright. Forget it, I'll wait for another chance." Huo Hai teased Little Gold for a while, feeding it several poisonous insects as a reward for tonight's efforts. Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he came quietly and left quietly. Without alarming a single person, he returned home, and nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Looking at the twenty bottles in his hands, Huo Hai was incomparably excited. What thrilled him most was not the value of these Body Tempering Pills. "With these Body Tempering Pills, I can carry out the most perfect Foundation Establishment. This is something only a small number of people in top-tier Lineages can enjoy." Huo Hai muttered to himself. This was the foundation of his rise in this world.

Before cultivating, he still needed to make preparations. Cultivating rashly was no good thing.