Chapter 13: Freedom
Since Evil Lan had been half-step into the nature level, he reacted promptly to danger. Faced with an oncoming punch from Zen, he pedaled his feet and quickly flew back to elude the blow.
However, Zen was quicker. His fist made contact with Evil Lan's body. Since Evil Lan had moved backward, the movement had offset some of the power from Zen. Upon impact, however, Evil Lan's face suddenly became red, veins throbbed on his forehead, and his blood rushed around. Evil Lan spat out the blood pooling in his mouth. He stared at Zen before saying,“You are still alive!”
“Well, thanks to you, I am not dead yet!” Zen replied. With fists clenched, Zen remained outwardly composed. However, his chest heaved with the effort to control the fear surging through him. Zen had just stepped into the organ refining level, and he could withstand a weight of 3000 pounds. Moreover, with the dragon scale on the cyan dragon relief, his strength could be tripled. Since he had planned to catch Evil Lan off-guard, Zen's punch carried almost all of his full strength.
He hadn't expected that Evil Lan would react so promptly. He had almost avoided being hit by Zen's punch.
Evil Lan was even more shocked than Zen. 'This young man is just at the beginning of the organ refining level. Logically, my strength is superior to him. I should have no trouble killing him. But his strength increased rapidly after he emerged from the weapon refining furnace. Could this be human refining? What is going on?' Evil Lan frowned in confusion as he thought about what had just happened.
If he hadn't been quick enough, Evil Lan might have been killed by the first punch thrown by this young man. That would be an unbearable shame to Evil Lan. That could not happen again!
“Where is Fire Sword?” Evil Lan asked. Although Evil Lan had many things to worry about, the whereabouts of his sword concerned him the most.
Zen lifted his shoulders and spread his hands. A smile stretched across Zen's face, exposing two rows of white teeth. Then he said,“You don't know? Apparently, I ate it!”
“You ate it? You are lying to me.” Evil Lan roared. His eyes widened, and an expression of total disbelief filled his face. Fire Sword was a top grade mysterious weapon. How could it have been eaten? That too by a person? A human stomach could not digest a sword let alone a mysterious one! Evil Lan's eyes roamed over Zen. The young man was completely naked. There was no place to hide Fire Sword. The weapon refining furnace was also empty. Since the sword was nowhere to be found, Evil Lan was certain that Zen had done something to it. But all other factors concluded otherwise. And yet, Evil Lan couldn't believe Zen.
He screamed with anger,“Where is my Hell Fire Sword?”
“I'm not kidding. I really did eat it,” said Zen. Zen was telling the truth. Fire Sword had turned into hot metal essence by the black flame. Then the cyan dragon in his mind had swallowed it. In other words, it had indeed been 'eaten' by him.
“Well, since you say that you ate Fire Sword, I will open your body to see if it is inside your stomach or not!” said Evil Lan viciously. As soon as Evil Lan finished speaking, his body moved rapidly, and his hands, like dead branches, flew toward Zen's chest. He was going to rip open Zen's stomach with his bare hands!
Of course, Zen wouldn't just stand still and wait for Evil Lan to kill him. After staying inside the weapon refining furnace for such a long time, Zen felt as though his physical strength had increased to another level again. His body felt as strong as a middle-grade mysterious weapon! He shuffled his feet lightly to invigorate the life energy inside his body. Soon his bones rattled and the sound, as loud as thunder, echoed in the caves.
“Purple Fist Strength!”
He would have to fight Evil Lan! Zen was not weak. His body had become a mysterious weapon, and so, he was confident of his abilities. And the fire from Evil Lan had calcinated his body further. As for strength, although Zen was only at the beginning of the organ refining level, with the help of the awakening power of the dragon scale, he could beat someone who was half-step into the nature level. He could by no means allow himself to be trampled upon.
What was more, Evil Lan had been burning him for twenty hours. That was nearly a whole day and a night. After twenty hours of weapon refining, Zen thought that Evil Lan's strength might have diminished and he would be like a spent arrow.
The moment the two men were about to fight head-on, Evil Lan moved aside quickly, his body drawing an arc in the air. And then he brought down his arm, as swiftly and precisely as a sword.
“Flame Sword!”
“Ping!”
Evil Lan was indeed strong and powerful since he had been half-step into the nature level. His attack was also fueled with the burning power of his life fire. His hand tore open a crack in Zen's skin like a sword would do.
They both were shocked!
What surprised Evil Lan was that Zen's body was unusually hard. Evil Lan's attack had managed to open only a crack on Zen's skin! From what he could remember, even the bodies of special races on the savage land were not as hard as Zen's. His Flame Sword contained the strength of his fire. The force he used could rive the muscles of iron.
But the moment that his sword cut through Zen's body and touched Zen's bones, a sound like that of steel colliding could be heard. 'What happened? Is the young man's body a mysterious weapon?' thought Evil Lan.
What surprised Zen was that Evil Lan had been agile enough to escape. No matter how hard Zen tried, he could not even capture Evil Lan's shadow. This frustrated Zen.
“Hum, despite being at the organ refining level, you are physically hard. Nonetheless, you are going to die here today. I will refine your body when you die to compensate for my losses!” said Evil Lan. With these words, he swooped toward Zen with a burst of shadows.
“Ping!” The sword cut Zen.
Another incision was seen on him. A moment later, blood gushed from Zen's wound.
“Bang!”
“Bump!”
Every time Evil Lan attacked him, a terrible wound could be seen on Zen's body.
The situation was disheartening for Zen. Although he was physically strong, he was not as fast as Evil Lan. With the advantage of speed on Evil Lan's side, Zen felt that there was a very real chance that Evil Lan might kill him.
In this case, he had no choice but to take a risk!
All of a sudden, Zen closed his eyes, and his arms fell to his sides. It seemed as though he had been defeated.
Since he couldn't catch Evil Lan, it was useless to keep trying.
“Giving up so soon, poor young man?” Evil Lan said contemptuously. Evil Lan was battle-hardened. When he saw that Zen had given up resisting, he raised an eyebrow. He knew better than to drop his guard for even a second. Without any hesitation, he continued to slash Zen at very high speed. Two more wounds were seen on Zen.
“Hey, hey, let me see what else can you endure!” Evil Lan continued.
His shrill laugh echoed off the walls as he lunged at Zen again. This time he seemed to slash at Zen one more time. Just as he neared Zen, Evil Lan changed direction and went round to Zen's back. Then his hands burst with blossoming lotus fire.
With another shrill laugh, Evil Lan approached Zen again. This time, he aimed for Zen's head. He was going to rip Zen's head off!
'The right time is coming!' Zen thought.
When Evil Lan was only seconds' away, Zen suddenly opened his eyes. He had been patiently waiting for this opportunity. Before Evil Lan could land his attack, Zen covered his head with his arms.
The moment Evil Lan touched Zen's arms, the young man grasped and squeezed Evil Lan's arms. At the same time, he firmly clasped Evil Lan's skinny arms. After that, Zen shouted,“Get off my back!”
“Bump!”
Zen threw Evil Lan to the ground with all of his strength. Although the cave was made up of hard stone, it could not withstand this enormous momentum. Under the impact of the explosion, the ground was torn apart, and in the middle of the huge hole lay Evil Lan.
Dazed, Evil Lan took a moment to compose himself before struggling to climb out of the hole. Zen, however, simply did not give him the opportunity. 'This crazy man is very strong and fast. If I let him climb out of this hole, I may not be able to catch him again. Opportunity knocks only once! I can't give him a chance.' Zen rationalized.
Zen was like a mad beast. He squatted over Evil Lan and unleashed at least a dozen punches in quick succession. The strength of each punch thrown by Zen weighed about thousands of pounds.
He panted from the exertion. After wiping his brow, Zen looked at Evil Lan who was lying in the rubble in the hole. Zen narrowed his eyes when he felt as though Evil Lan was no longer breathing.
He had beaten someone who was halfway to mastering the nature level? Considering that Zen only had the strength of a person at the organ refining level, this was undoubtedly a very difficult feat.
Evil Lan had depleted the fire inside his body, as he had been refining for nearly a day and a night. And then, he had been attacked by Zen.
In this case, he had still counterattacked successfully. If Zen reacted a little slower, his neck would have been broken by Evil Lan. In that case, Zen would have died, not Evil Lan.
Life was so unpredictable! It was impossible to figure out when and where disaster would strike.
It took a moment for the development to sink in. Zen had just defeated a notorious nature level master, with his bare hands.
Zen congratulated himself before calming down. He needed to check the eight living people pinned to the weapon refining furnace. When Zen began walking toward them, it looked like they were dead. It almost seemed as though their flesh and blood had been sucked away from their bones.
When he went to investigate the iron cages closer, Zen saw that those people had been burned to death by Evil Lan's fire. Their bodies looked so horrible that Zen closed his eyes and turned away. 'Poor people!'
Zen silently mourned for the people in his heart. After composing himself, Zen began wandering around the vast cave. Although he had examined the cave twice now, he saw nothing of value except some broken copper and iron.
Now in the center of the cave, Zen frowned as he thought about what he had found. If a general weapon refiner was wealthy, then an established weapon refiner like Evil Lan could not be so poor. There must be some treasures!
After searching for a while longer, a thought occurred to Zen. He rushed to the hole and dragged Evil Lan's body out. Evil Lan's body had now become a skeleton. There was not a single part of the body that was left intact.
Zen's gaze fell on Evil Lan's right hand. On the middle finger was a black ring.
An idea spurred Zen to reach for the ring from Evil Lan's middle finger. However, as soon as Zen touched the ring, a sense of coolness enveloped his fingers.
Sure enough, this was a space ring!.
The space ring was indeed special. As the name implied, the ring contained a space in it. A space where a person could hide something of value.
This kind of space ring was an incredible one! Even though it looked like a small space ring, and the storage space was also small, the value could be comparable to that of a top grade mysterious weapon.
No one had ever owned such a treasure in the Luo Clan!
Although Zen had never seen a real one space ring before, he had learned about such magical items from books.
Since Evil Lan was now dead and his soul had vanished, this space ring had become an object without a master. That meant that Zen could be the master of this space ring.
Something clicked in his mind, and Zen felt his spirit merging with the cold spirit that had come from the space ring. Then Zen saw all the things Evil Lan had saved in the ring.
The space inside the space ring was not large. He estimated that the space was no larger than a few square meters. This was surprisingly little for a space ring. However, there were many treasures inside.
Evil Lan had stored in the ring various precious ores used in weapon refining. This included pure iron, red seal stone, blood amber steel, and many others. They had all been piled up neatly in the corner. These ores were certainly very precious treasures for weapon refiners! They were also very expensive. Zen estimated that he could sell them for a good price.
Beside the ores, there were also semi-transparent spars. Spars were also known as cubic crystals. Zen knew this from his studies as well.
This kind of cubic crystal was the real currency in the Empire. Gold and silver were common people's currency, and they used it for trading. But for the cultivators, gold was as worthless as dirt. But cubic crystals were different!
Although these cubic crystals seemed like the regular kind, they could store pure life energy, which was a must for masters at the nature level.
Because cubic crystals were easy to cut and carry, they had gradually become the preferred currency of the world of cultivators.
Zen estimated that there were hundreds of cubic crystals in the ring. This was a considerable sum. So Evil Lan was not poor!
In addition, there were other treasures such as a long sword with demonic gleam, a bloody red hammer, etc. The grade of these treasures was not low. Since Zen was not a specialist, he gauged that they were probably middle-grade mysterious weapons.
On the other side of the space ring, there were a variety of refining books, as well as some unknown pills. While all these treasures and seemingly common items had been placed together, in an unorganized pile, a knife that lay hidden in the pile caught Zen's attention.
The knife appeared to be very old. The surface of the knife was pitted, and the handle was broken. Even though the blade of the knife was completely rolled up, Zen could see that in some places it was charred.
Despite its appearance, Zen felt as though the knife had a very special magic power. It was this special magic power that had a strong attraction to Zen. This broken knife was definitely precious! Maybe it would be of some use to him.
Thinking of that, Zen reached in and took the broken knife out of the space ring. Then he examined it carefully. The longer he held it, Zen felt as though the knife was becoming clearer and sharper. After a while, it looked as if it could cut anything in the world. “What a knife!”
The knife, even though broken, still had a strong flavor. Its grade must be unimaginably high. Surely Evil Lan also knew that this knife was not a common object. Probably he hadn't found a good way to fix this knife till now. No wonder he had saved it inside the space ring.
'Since Evil Lan couldn't fix it, I am afraid that I have no way to fix it either.' Zen told himself. After playing around the knife for a while, he put it back into the space ring and walked out of the cave.
He followed the long winding path, all the way to the outermost part of the cave. Once there, Zen stepped on the big tree and began to climb. He needed to get to the top of the cliff. There was a handrail alongside the cliff section, which saved him a lot of effort. After borrowing force from the handrail several times, Zen quickly reached the top of the cliff.
Once on top of the cliff, Zen took a deep breath of fresh air and bathed in the warm sunshine. A big smile finally lit up his face.
He had been lucky to leave the Luo Clan safely, escape from Evil Lan, and get so many treasures from Evil Lan.
More importantly, he had attained his freedom.
After being a prisoner in the cellar of the Luo Clan for two years, Zen had finally escaped. He was free. He could go anywhere he wanted!
He looked to his right and then dashed forward.
Although he was in a good mood, Zen was not intoxicated by it. He knew that he had more important things to do.
His next destination was the Imperial Capital.
More specifically, he had to reach the center of the legendary Burning Sky Empire, as that was where Cloud Sect was located. And his sister Yan was trapped mountain at Cloud Sect.