“The Lu’s must have discovered or the Du’s have snitched on the Ye’s! Come on Ye Wei, we can’t afford you to be quiet right now!” Lu Feng could not run the distraction show on his own. North Hill Bay was not the widest stretch of land but it was large. It took the duo a lot of creativity and precise coordination from two separate locations in order to herd the search teams away from the Drakehead in the past few days.
‘Judging by these people’s decisive movement, they do have a clear target! What can I do alone!?’ Lu Feng held his runic badge tight, anxiously checking every ten seconds if Ye Wei had replied.
It was not long before Lu Feng realized he couldn’t just spectate in the dark. He ground his teeth, took a deep breath and revealed himself, “Oh Lu Ren! What are you doing here?” He said, acting surprised.
“I could ask you the same question!” Lu Ren frowned and replied. ‘What is this b.a.s.t.a.r.d doing here?’ He thought to himself.
“I didn’t think you were a.s.signed to any task for this mission?” The bearded man asked, almost sounding like he was interrogating.
“Incorrect. I was ordered by Lu Zhong to watch over this area. So what brought you here? To my knowledge you were a.s.signed to the east side.” Lu Feng smiled diplomatically and used the information he gathered to his advantage.
Lu Feng continued “I just want the elders to recognize me, so I volunteered and spoke to Lu Zhong. North Hill Bay was my playground when I was a child, I thought I could help. I was tracking a powerful wild beast nearby and came to warn you once I could sense you and your squad’s presence. But if you rather have me gone, I am happy to just mind my own business.”
Lu Feng turned around and continued in a convincingly sad tone, “It’s discouraging sometimes when you just want the best for your family but being treated like dirt instead of being appreciated, I will be on my way. Just take care of yourselves.”
“Did you say there is a wild beast? Was it a wild beast or a pact?” Lu Ren was concerned, ‘Maybe he’d know where the nests are!’
“Lu Feng! Wait!” The rough appearance of the bearded man did not match his nervous voice. ‘If it’s a rare wild beast, I can’t deal with it while babysitting these Du idiots!’
Lu Feng was surprised by how well his hook worked. He wiped his cunning smile off his face before turning around to Lu Ren. ‘I’m glad I came through to you, I was going to ask one of the elders to deal with the rare beast if you would have ignored me…’ He then tried to remember the location of beast nest close, but there was nowhere he could think of.
Lu Feng appeared calm, but he knew there was no way he could make his lie convincing without Ye Wei.
Lu Ren looked at Lu Feng, slightly suspicious, if there were a rare wild beast around this area he had to be cautious. ‘A rare beast can wipe us all out, but shouldn’t I have been briefed about it?’
“Hahaha, Lu Feng, nephew, hold on! You are here anyway, would you lead the way for us to avoid the beast?” Lu Ren hid his cold eyes under a fake smile, just in case Lu Feng was right.
“If there is a need for my services, I will of course a.s.sist my family.” nodded Lu Feng, as he replied making himself sound as sincere as possible. ‘Hah, I’ve been waiting to say this line since a minute ago.’
Leading the way gave Lu Feng the opportunity to take Lu Ren and the Du’s squad further away from the Drakehead and also investigate how much Lu’s knew about the position of the Drakehead or if they had a clue at all.
“After you, uncle Ren!” Lu Feng led the two hundred Warriors and started walking away from the Drakehead deviated from their original route. Lu Feng was cautious, he couldn’t just lead them in the completely opposite direction, so he had to go around, in large circles, making sure Lu Ren did not get suspicious while he took them on a sightseeing tour.
“Halt!” After about twenty or thirty miles Lu Feng was immediately stopped by Lu Ren as he was about to take a turn to make the squad go the opposite direction of where the pond was.
“Thump!” a m.u.f.fled noise sounded as Lu Ren’s hand landed on Lu Feng’s shoulder, stopping him to walk further away.
Lu Feng’s heart sank, his face went pale, scared to turn around. ‘He knows!?’
“Lu Feng, nephew, you need to adjust our pathing. Of course we want to avoid the wild beast but we need to move towards that direction”, said Lu Ren and pointed towards the burial hill again. The hill that was less than ten miles away from the pond.
“Very well then”. It took all his effort to not sound nervous, while his heart was beating like crazy, ‘Do Lu’s know about this or is it just Lu Ren’s intuition? I hope it’s the latter.’
‘If it’s just Lu Ren’s senses, we can kill him and no one else will find out. But if it was the former, killing him will just trigger the Lu’s.’
Hundreds thoughts flashed through Lu Feng’s mind, pondering every possibility, trying to find a way out, ‘He is a ten-star condensed prime Warrior. Killing him will be difficult, but I think it is possible.’
‘Possible if the kid is here. What is taking him that long?’ Lu Feng got to know Ye Wei better in the few days since they made the oath. He hoped blunt stubbornness did not drown his new ally.
‘No, he should be fine. He is the most talented cultivator I’ve ever met.’ Lu Feng’s cold gazed turned towards the Du’s marching behind them, ‘When Ye Wei comes we will be able to kill Lu Ren, but that means innocent witnesses will have to die.’
‘Maybe they deserve to die. I’ve treated them well throughout the year, but now the Lu’s are here, they just completely disregarded my existence!’
Under Lu Ren’s pressure, he had no other choice but to take them towards the Drakehead, marching slowly and in circles to avoid the fictional wild beast.
At the pond, the water suddenly became agitated, ripples appeared on its surface, growing bigger and bigger every second. The whole pond trembled as a huge water torrent broke the surface, flew towards the night sky carrying a dark figure.
Ye Wei stood on top of the pillar of water, protected by a bubble of Qi around him, his body was completely dry.
Schmoosch!
The water torrent suddenly exploded, filled the sky with droplets of water, as if a storm just broke out. Ye Wei kept himself in the air, levitating, a hint of smile pa.s.sed across his face.
“Four-star condensed prime Warrior!” Exclaimed Ye Wei, glad to be alive and excited to have broken through. ‘But let’s not do that again.’
‘Now, when I use the second evolution of Supernova stance, I will be able to get to the level of ten-star condensed prime Warrior easily! There won’t be a lot of people below returned prime level who can rival me in strength!’ Ye Wei smiled, ‘I would like to see Lu Zhong try to fight me now! Ha!’
“Boom!”
Ye Wei slowly landed next to the pond and put his light blue robe on.
‘I broke through in less than ten days here at the Drakehead! This place is magical!’ Ye Wei could now feel a fourth crack on his silver Qi ball within his dantian, smiled joyfully.
‘The Runic badge is shaking, was Master looking for me? Oh, could it be Lu Feng!’ Ye Wei’s low clearance meant that he could only use his badge to speak with people whose will-force was directly registered to his device. The badge allowed Runemasters to communicate using the voice transmission technique but relayed across much larger distances without the need to be in close proximity with the other person.
“Ye Wei! The Lu’s sent a ten-star condensed prime Warrior and they are approaching the Drakehead! Reply immediately as you see this!’ Ye Wei was shocked to hear panic in Lu Feng’s voice.
Ye Wei frowned, nervous, ‘The Lu’s sent a ten-star condensed prime Warrior? Wasn’t Lu Zhong responsible for this area?’
“What is the situation right now? Where are you?” Ye Wei quickly replied using the voice transmission technique through his badge.
“It’s not good. The Lu’s seem to know something. I am afraid we might need to kill Lu Ren. Are you ready?” After just a second, Ye Wei’s Runic badge shook and Lu Feng’s voice sounded in his mind.
“Lu Ren?” Ye Wei frowned, ‘He was one of the two who gave the Ye mansion a warm visit ten days ago.’
‘Lu Ren is just a ten-star condensed prime Warrior, with my current level I should be able to beat him’, thought Ye Wei, tightening his fists.
‘We cannot let the Lu’s find the Drakehead!’
“I am on my way! Good job for holding them there thus far.” said Ye Wei to his runic badge as a pair of huge wings appeared on his back. The primal feathers shook, and he sped towards the location given to him by Lu Feng.
About fifty miles away from the pond, Lu Feng, Lu Ren and two hundred Du’s kept their search in a valley.
“Uncle Ren, looking for something like this tiny in the wilderness is not an easy task. It surely cannot be done in just one night. Don’t you think we should take a break? We will be more efficient when we feel fresh!” Said Lu Feng after receiving Ye Wei’s last message.
Lu Ren glanced towards the tired faces of Du’s and slightly nodded. The treasure they were looking for was invisible to human eye, they had to spend a lot of their Qi and strength to be able to scan the surroundings for energy disruptions, which was extremely draining, but also necessary.
Having to go through the vast area during all day and most of the night, the Du’s were exhausted as they were told to sit down and sense the surrounding with their cultivation formulas every hundred feet they walked.
One of the Du’s strongest Warrior, sat himself immediately on the ground after seeing Lu Ren nod to Lu Feng’s suggestion and the rest followed. Breathing heavily, they took out their provisions, dried meat and flasks of water, to regain some strength and rest.
The owls were hooting in the forests around the valley, the moonlight casted shadows on the ground. Lu Feng also sat himself down, his eyes slightly squinted, his sharp sense registered the tiniest disturbance in his surroundings
‘Ye Wei is nearby!’
Through the runic badge Lu Feng could guess that Ye Wei would be arriving and would be hiding behind the nearby woods. Lu Feng took a deep breath, stood up, took out a flask of wine and with a fake smile on his face walked towards Lu Ren.
Lu Feng took a gulp of wine and offered the flask, “Wine?”
“No.” Lu Ren shook his head.
“Fine by me!” Lu Feng smiled, pretended to be embarra.s.sed by the decline and drank flask empty in mere seconds.
“Good wine!”
Lu Feng wiped his mouth and tossed the flask away.
Lu Ren did not suspect anything, sat himself down comfortably to rest.
The broken bottle was the signal for Ye Wei. He agreed to ambush Lu Ren while Lu Feng would deal with two hundred Du Warriors.
“Clang!”
The flask hit the ground and shattered into small pieces. A crisp loud noise echoed through the valley.