SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 603: The Guests No One Invited

Leon followed without attacking.

Stopping the intruders near the outer wall would protect the household, but it would tell him nothing about why four Ethereal Initiates had entered a merchant estate. He needed to know their objective and whether more were waiting outside.

The raiders moved with practiced discipline. Their Late-stage leader carried the flat disc in one hand. Whenever a ward blocked their route, he used the artifact to quiet it for a few breaths. The method had been prepared for the Shen estate’s formations.

The first two men carried no visible clan insignia. Their robes were dark, plain, and loose enough to hide weapons. Even their boots had been wrapped to soften the sound of each step. Whoever sent them wanted no clue left behind if an ordinary servant happened to see them.

At a junction near the family residence, the chain wielder paused and counted beneath his breath. A patrol crossed the far end of the passage three breaths later. The raiders moved behind it without being seen.

Their knowledge extended beyond the layout. They knew the household’s timing.

Near the rear garden, one of the Early-stage cultivators glanced toward the closed courtyards.

”The refinement should continue for at least two more hours.”

”Then stop wasting time,” the leader replied.

”If the old man senses the outer ward fall—”

”He won’t interrupt. If he closes himself off now, the treasure will discharge into his anchor. He loses the resource and may lose his foundation with it.”

The leader stopped beneath a stone arch and faced the other three.

”Once we reach the chamber, keep your attacks away from the refinement array. The treasure must remain intact. Break the door and walls if necessary. Leave the extraction to me.”

”And the old man?”

”He is already near the end of his life. Pulling the treasure away will finish what age started.”

The spearman frowned. ”The report said the family shifted guards this morning.”

”They are protecting a secret they believe no one discovered,” the leader said. ”If they suspected us, the old man would never have begun the refinement.”

”What about the girl who returned with the caravan? She handled the purchase accounts.”

”She is below us, as is her father. Kill anyone who reaches this garden. We leave the rest asleep.”

That was enough for Leon to understand the outline.

The Shens had bought a resource capable of strengthening a cosmic anchor and accelerating an Ethereal Initiate’s cultivation. Their Peak Ethereal Initiate ancestor was old and running out of time. A stronger anchor would improve his chance of reaching Ethereal Lord and gaining a longer life, though it could not guarantee the breakthrough.

The family had spent a large part of its wealth on one final attempt.

The clan behind these four had learned about the purchase and waited until the ancestor began refining it. He could not leave seclusion without risking his anchor, the treasure, and his last opportunity.

Leon heard nothing proving how the information had escaped. A purchase that valuable would leave traces through sellers, transfers, and the family’s finances. An influential clan might uncover the refinement date without help from inside the estate.

The reference to a report suggested careful surveillance, yet it answered nothing by itself. Leon would need one of them alive if he wanted the source.

The raiders entered the rear garden.

A dry ornamental pond filled its center. Six stone steps descended beyond it to a warded door built into the earth. The stone around the entrance radiated heat.

Two concealed formations guarded the final steps. The leader disabled the first with his disc. The second resisted long enough for energy to gather along the arch, but one of the Early-stage raiders placed three prepared needles into exact points along its edge. The light faded.

They had brought a different answer for every defense.

Behind the door, an immense circulation moved with slow precision. An old existence had opened its cosmic anchor as far as it dared and was drawing power from the treasure into its foundation.

The Shen guards could do nothing against the four people in this garden. Calling them would only create casualties and risk disturbing the refinement.

Leon sealed the arch behind the raiders with hardened space. He placed three layered barriers across the chamber entrance, each designed to absorb force without pressing against the door itself.

Then he stepped into view at the top of the stairs.

All four intruders turned.

The leader recognized him first. ”The outsider from the caravan.”

One of the others nodded. ”The Shen family brought him through the eastern gate.”

The leader studied Leon, then glanced toward the arch behind him. His expression sharpened when he sensed the spatial seal.

”You don’t understand whose business you’ve entered,” he said. ”Return to your room. The Shen family discovers a loss in the morning, and you remain uninvolved.”

He wanted the theft kept quiet. That meant the clan could not act as openly as his threat suggested.

”The Shens gave me shelter, money, and papers when I had nothing in this world,” Leon said. ”I’m not moving.”

The leader waited a moment, perhaps hoping Leon would reconsider.

”Remove him,” he ordered. ”I’ll open the chamber.”

The three Early-stage Ethereal Initiates spread out as they climbed the steps.

They fought nothing like the cultivators who had attacked the caravan on the road. The difference went beyond their higher cultivation. Their qi remained compressed until the instant they used it, and they formed a practiced triangle without speaking. One carried a short spear. Another unwound a chain from his forearm. The third approached empty-handed through the center.

The leader returned to the door, but he kept part of his attention on the fight while setting his disc against the outer ward.

”Thirty breaths,” he said. ”If he is still standing, force him against the chamber barrier. I’ll use the impact to open both.”

That order removed any doubt that the man was willing to risk the refinement if a clean theft became impossible.

The center attacker reached Leon first.

His palm carried enough force to crush the stairway. Leon stepped inside the strike and drove lightning through the man’s chest. The body burst apart under the impact.

Death did not follow.

The man’s consciousness and energy rushed away from the ruined manifestation, drawing upon an existence anchored throughout the cosmic background. A new body began forming several paces behind Leon.

Light revealed the active connection. Ice slowed the energy travelling through it, and Leon folded the surrounding space until every route back to the world passed through his control.

He severed the connection while destroying the forming body.

The distributed anchor collapsed with nothing left to sustain its identity. The cultivator’s presence vanished from the garden.

For a breath, even the chamber’s wards seemed loud.

The spearman and chain wielder stopped.

At the chamber door, the leader pulled his disc free and turned around. He no longer treated Leon as an inconvenience.

”He can destroy the anchor connection,” the spearman said.

”I know.”

The leader pressed both hands against the disc. Lines of clan-script ignited across its surface, and the ward around the chamber groaned.

”Keep him away from me,” he ordered. ”Use everything.”

The remaining two attacked together as the leader began forcing the breach.