*Cough* *Cough*
"You truly are a powerful man. But I am glad, maybe you will be able to kill the spy. Even I don't know his strength but all that I can say is that he is far more powerful than the Imp, but I'm sure, you hold greater power within you than what you have shown us. Little Brother Lin, I sincerely thank you..." Elder Kong's voice was low and faint because of the blood loss he experienced in battling the Imp, he was holding onto his last few breaths. He tried his best to muster a few more words of gratitude towards Zhu Long but couldn't. Despite his bitter end, he was able to smile genuinely and saw hope in his life after seeing the treacherous Imp being killed in front of him. His hands were stained with the blood of the innocent and his own people because of the Imp's young master. But now, he was free and finally can see the light. He just hopes that Zhu Long can end everything by killing the Imp's young master.
Zhu Long glanced at Elder Kong who continued to smile even though he was dead. He then scanned the area as if he was searching for something. Near some rubbles of stone, was the item he was looking for, he hastily went over and took it as he returned to Elder Kong's side. What he found was the severed arm Elder Kong lost during the battle. The Imp was able to cut it off during the battle without Elder Kong even noticing it. He then grabed Elder Kong and carried him away with his severed arm. On Top of the hilltop around the fortress, Zhu Long buried Elder Kong and offered his prayers for him. The boy carved Elder Kong's name beautifully on a stone, as if it was a tombstone.
Before burying Elder Kong's Body, Zhu Long had taken all of his possessions, including a very weird ring. The ring looked normal but gave a very different aura to Zhu Long. Even though Zhu Long couldn't see or control qi, he could feel the aura of objects or people that had qi. It was his own way of identifying people's strengths as well as different and strange objects. This time, he felt that the ring in his hand possesses a very strange and different.
'Heh! You lucky brat! Keep that ring properly, be sure to not lose it!.' A deep and creepy laugh came in Zhu Long's mind. As soon as he heard that voice, a smile formed on Zhu Long's cold face. His mood drastically changes after hearing the familiar voice.
"Old Yang, now you decide to talk to me?" He murmured.
....
....
....???
"Old Yang?" Zhu Long repeatedly called out the old man's name almost as if he was shouting.
…???
Only the sounds of crows could be heard. Except for that, there was silence in the air.
'That oldie comes out of nowhere, tells me to do something and then just disappears again. What is his problem?' Zhu Long was furious that Evil Old Yang had ignored him once again. Strangely, it confused him as to why the old man would ignore him.
'I don't care, he'll speak eventually. For now, I think that I must resolve the problem of the Qiang Village.' Zhu Long thought deeply, deciding to look and end the spy following Elder Kong's request after his death.
He examined the ring one more time and put it on. He looked towards Elder Kong as said, "I knew you poisoned my drink, but I had to play pig to catch the tiger. But who would have thought that you, Elder Kong was being forced? I thought that you were the spy, Fo I had long detected your expression when you offered me the tea. Anyway, I need to look for answers and the best way to do that is by visiting the Village Head. I'm sure that there are other Imps or even the spy himself where the Village Head resides. So, I'll be borrowing this ring..."
After he bid his last word to Elder Kong, he went ahead and did a complete search on the fortress for clues as to what the Imps was able to order Elder Kong around.
Zhu Long searched the whole fortress but found no clue of the people that Elder Kong was talking about to the Imp, but he did find a large room.
The exterior of the room was made up of extremely durable and hard substances. And a large door in front of it. Zhu Long took out a key that he found in Elder Kong's robe and opened the door.
'This must be a storeroom, if there is a good weapon here, I might as well use it.' He thought as he glanced at the other side of the door.
Zhu Long saw various weapons, herbs, and medicines as well as armors within the storage room. He examined every corner of the room trying not to miss anything important. He then spotted some small stone emitting an unusual aura. He felt something familiar with those stones. Suddenly, a thought popped into his mind, 'These must be spirit stones! They are extremely important in cultivation as well as trading. Well, for the first part, they are practically useless but I guess I can use them for trading. I never had to use them when I was in the Zhu Clan as I would always be training with oldie or practicing on my own. I even rarely ate food. Regardless of all my attempts, I still couldn't feel any qi but, At least my physical body is powerful enough to fight those at the Nascent stage.'
Zhu Long took as much spirit stone as he could carry and walked towards the weapons stack. There were various weapons within the stack. Among which two weapons caught his attention, a bow and a chakram*. Zhu Long smiled while looking at the chakram.
'Didn't expect to see a weapon so rare here. I still remember being trained to use this by oldie, It was really difficult! You could use it in two ways, by throwing it or by grabbing the center part and using it like knuckle dusters. The arts of the weapon were also very exotic, I remember oldie telling me that this weapon came from a very exotic place, Maybe that was the reason for this weapon to be so unusual to people when they saw it the first time.'
Zhu Long picked up the chakram and said, "Then, I guess I'll be taking this weapon too."
He then continued to look around a bit more, took some other things that could be useful such as medicine pellets, smoke bombs and a few armor parts then. Eventually, after gathering all the necessary items, he left...
Zhu Long exited the Fortress and peered towards the East and the West. 'If my assumptions are correct, then the Village Head's residence is either on the East or the West. Now, remembering properly, I'm sure that the East and the South face borders with the Demon area while the North and West facing human settlements so my best bet would be towards the East if I have to meet the head.'
A Chakram is a disc like weapon where the outer disc is the blade. The weapon has a handle between the blades that can be grasped and used like a knucleduster.
Thank you for reading!