A Cultivation Tale: The Godly Punisher

Elena was shocked by what Alex said.

With eyes that glowed with intense astonishment, she asked "Did you mean that there's no treasure-artifact buried around the spot we are or in the entire land?"

She asked to be sure of what Alex said.

"The entire land. There's no treasure-artifact buried in it." Alex replied.

Elena's eyes became filled with great surprise. 

"Alex! How do you know that? Don't tell me you scanned the entire place in such short amount of time with some I-don't-know senses. It is impossible for you to achieve such a feat!" Elena told Alex with a loud voice in an unbelieving tone.

"Well, anything is possible with me" Alex said with a proud smile.

Seeing how Alex was sure of himself, Elena then became quiet for a long time. The shock Alex gave her this time around was immense.

Some moments later, she asked "Where do you think the treasure would be or there has been no third treasure?"

"Look at that light-generating object in the air. That should be the third artifact" Alex said.

Elena's eyes narrowed.

"Are you sure? That is just to provide light to this place" She said.

"Yea, I am sure. That's it purpose El. It's the supreme-rank, firmament-grade treasure-artifact that voice told us about. The last and ultimate of the three" Alex replied.

"Then why did the voice tell us that the three treasures would be either buried deep in the earth or hidden in mountains or in water bodies?" Elena asked.

"Maybe they don't want us to discover it. Perhaps they only wanted us to discover the earth-rank and sky-rank treasure artifact" Alex replied.

"Hmm. That might be. We have actually done the impossible" Elena said and gave a proud grin.

Alex smiled.

"So how are we going to get it?" She asked in a serious tone. 

To get such rank of treasure-artifact at the cultivation stage they were in would be extremely difficult. If the treasure-artifact wasn't activated, it would be easier to take. But now that it self-floated, emitting the powerful presence of an heaven adept stage cultivator, it would be very difficult to get.

"Let me think." Alex replied.

Then when he figured something out, he said to Elena "Give me some space"

Elena nodded and moved back for a few feet. 

Immediately after she gave Alex the small space he wanted, his legs began to emit a golden glow. 

This glow was seen by Elena since Alex wasn't wearing his shoes. And this surprised her a lot as his feet now resembled solid, pure golden metal and emanated waves of power of might which caused the earth for dozens of feet around him to deeply crack. 

The earth cracked in such manner because the power of mountain-shattering godly might was concentrated around it. So it therefore caused the earth for many feet around Alex to cleave and rupture. 

Elena quickly moved further away from Alex as some of the deep cracks in the earth rapidly extended towards her like the large tentacles of some primordial monster that lived in the earth. 

Alex squatted a bit and then shot into the air like an arrow.

Swoosh!

He pierced through the air towards the object.

Once he got to the position of the object, he tried to grab it. But the object produced a frightening pulse of power that shoved him back to the ground with a powerful force.

Bang!

He smashed hard into the earth with the air in his lungs knocked out of him.

Alex grunted and stood back to his feet.

Elena quickly came over and asked "Are you okay?"

"Yes I am" Alex replied.

Then he tried to go at it again. But this time, he didn't jump. He decided to deploy his wind elemental power.

The instant he did so, his eyes began to emit intense cyan light. Then a thin sphere of air materialized around him which was instantly accompanied by a tall column of air that enveloped the sphere he was in. 

As soon as the column of air appeared, it began to revolve at an extreme speed. While the sphere enclosed by the furiously rotating windy column quickly moved up to the top of it.

In a few minutes, Alex got to the position of the self-floating treasure-artifact and reached out with a hand to grasp it.

One could see that particular hand emit a golden glow. He had saturated it with strengthforce energy and this made it look like the hand of a gilded tyrant god of battle.

The shocking pulse of power continuously emanating from the treasure-artifact tried to repulse Alex with a great, strong force. 

But since his hands contained a powerful energy which was enhanced by a type of primordial energy, his glowing, golden hands effortlessly withstood the mighty, repulsing aura of power discharging from the artifact and clasped it. Then he withdrew it forcefully from it floating position. 

He stopped using his wind manipulation power. Then he landed to the ground from that altitude and walked towards Elena to show her the treasure-artifact.

The brilliant light emitting from it had greatly reduced and so was it powerful presence. It had been partially retracted. 

Now, Elena could make out it form without the bright light blinding her eyes. She saw that it was an orb.

Alex didn't straight away keep the treasure-artifact in the spatial ring he wore. It was because if he did, the whole place would descend into thick darkness. 

But since the intensity of the light discharging from the treasure-orb had decreased, it caused partial darkness to engulf the subsurface land.

Students in other places were shocked by the sudden partial darkness of the land, then they began to rush back to their starting point. In this group of people were Jake and Draco who were amazed by the abrupt, decreased luminousness of the underground region. 

Then when they got to where Alex was, some of the students that saw him could nearly faint. 

They could almost black out from either great shock or serious anger when they saw a treasure-artifact which they felt was the last one in the hands of the person they fearfully called 'The Thunderclapper.' 

"The hell!" Some who still had clear minds shouted inwardly and outwardly.

"Why this guy again?"

"No, no, no... This can't be... This can't be"

Lot of utterances which would portray in one's heart and mind great degree of sadness and unhappiness could be heard.

The few ones who didn't know of Alex's combat strength yet, heard the pained and sadness-filled words the students around them muttered. Then they began to slowly realize who Alex was. That he was someone with peerless strength and not a person to be messed with.

But the shocked and delighted ones among them were Jake and Draco.

Jake was like, 'This bastard actually got the best of the treasures'. If he knew that Alex was in possession of two of the treasure-artifacts and that Elena was with one, he would be crushed by surprise.

Draco was delighted for Alex. He smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up.

Then they went to meet Alex to congratulate him when the heart shook and in the next instant, they could hear the solid earth crack in like thousands of places at once from far distances. 

These numerous cracks sounded like crackling of fierce thunderbolts.

Alex gave a knowing smile. 

They had come out!