Chapter 64: The Homecoming
Standing on the other side of the crumbling icy hill was an authoritative-looking man. He was taller and stockier than most of those present and had a squared, rugged face. Thick eyebrows gave him an intimidating air, while his eyes sparked with wisdom. His cheeks were cut high, clean and deep, giving him a chiseled aspect. Adding to this daunting visage was the heavy armor he wore, bearing lifelike flying dragons carved on the ends in the front.
The imposing man was Floyd Xun, one of the two vice generals, and was known as Flying Dragon General, the anchor of stability within the Dragon Fort.
After the last of the ice crystals shattered, Floyd Xun continued pointing his index finger.
Impressively, Floyd only needed to gesture using one finger to crush the icy hills and the entire ice valley.
Watching his display of talent, Zen couldn't help but be stupefied. He thought, 'Wow! His talent is amazing!'
“Randall, you repay my kindness with this? Even after being granted three promotions, you go and do something like this! You're a disappointment to me!” In Floyd's eyes disappointment flashed.
“Gen... General… I.. I didn't mean to. It's just that the Zhuge Clan...” related Randall, stumbling over his words. Floyd frightened Randall out of his wits. At that moment, it dawned on him, that the chase Zen had led him on, was a setup from the start!
“The Zhuge Clan? It doesn't matter how powerful the Zhuge Clan is! The imperial army is not for sale! As an officer in the imperial army, you have a responsibility! Yet, you dared to ignore the military disciplinary protocols willfully. You really failed me!” Shaking his head slowly, and then looking at Randall, Floyd barked, “Tell me, do you have any last words?”
The imperial army was under the direct command of the Burning Sky Palace. Many soldiers from within the top seven noble clans also enlisted in the imperial army; however, Floyd held a high rank, and he wouldn't kowtow to the pressure that the Zhuge clan exerted.
“I..I..”
Randall's response ended before he finished it. As it dawned on him what Floyd had just said, his face turned ashen, and he gulped hard. If he had understood Floyd, there wouldn't be a trial or prison. Floyd was proposing to execute him on the spot! Randall turned to run!
While he chased Zen, Randall sprinted very quickly, and now, he ran faster!
However, Floyd caught up to him, with just one step.
In a single step Floyd was able to cover a distance of nearly a quarter mile, and in the blink of an eye, he was right behind Randall. He reached out and with his finger, Floyd poked Randall's back.
“Snap!”
Although Zen didn't see any wounds on Randall's body, he did see blood spurting from his mouth. Randall fell to the ground gurgling as he choked on his blood. Within seconds, his suffering was over, and he was dead.
'So… So very strong!'
thought Zen. This man, Floyd, was a real martial arts master!
Watching Floyd's attack techniques, Zen felt as though his blood was boiling.
Randall might have been at the fourth rank in the natural level, but, he was a fragile ant compared to the Flying Dragon General!
Zen deemed, 'After I study for years and master such great skills, I shouldn't have any problem in saving Yan easily!'
After slaying Randall, Floyd turned to Jon and ordered, “This matter is over. I don't want to see anything affecting the morale of the Dragon Fort army!”
Jon replied, “Yes sir, general!”
For a moment, Floyd gave Zen a meaningful glance, before briskly striding away. It only took a few seconds before he was out of Zen's line of vision.
After being scrutinized once for mere seconds by Floyd, Zen felt a disturbing pressure, and within, it was as if the general had gone through all of his secrets. Even quite a while after his encounter, Zen's heart was still racing.
While calming himself, Zen faced Jon. Gesturing respectfully, he said, “Thank you, Officer Gou! If it weren't for you, I'm afraid I wouldn't have survived this ordeal.”
Laughing briskly, Jon said, “Think nothing of it! Roger has reminded me repeatedly, that it's my duty. But to be honest, it's more amazing that you lured Randall out so far!”
Jon knew Zen was much stronger than other refiners of the same level, but Randall's strength was much higher. Among the mid-ranking officers at the Dragon Fort, Randall was the only one to learn the “intent”. Jon didn't even have complete confidence that he could beat Randall.
However, Zen ran a great distance while Randall chased him, so Jon thought highly of Zen. It had taken some doing, but he eventually understood why, before Roger left, he insisted Jon should do his best to coordinate with Zen.
If Zen survived many decades into the future, he might very well become an influential figure. By then, Zen would be worthy of great admiration from the Meng Clan.
However, right now, there were too many geniuses in the world, and too few of those would ever be successful. Zen's future would be written over time.
After disposing of Randall's remains, Jon returned to the Dragon Fort.
Zen, on the other hand, went to join Martin on the original road.
Martin didn't know Zen's plans, but he trusted Zen. The last time Zen fled, he was pursued by the queen blade locust, and he escaped unharmed. Therefore, Martin was confident Zen would rid himself of Randall during the chase.
Commanding the Green Haze group, Martin and his troops lingered on the spot. Two hours passed before Zen got back.
“Zen, where's Randall? Is-is he...?” questioned Martin. Honestly, he wanted to find out whether Zen had killed Randall, because he knew Zen managed to obtain the crystal core from the queen blade locust.
Nodding, Zen confirmed, “Yes, he is dead.”
“Did you really kill him?” Martin asked, his eyes widening.
Shrugging, Zen smiled and said, “How could I kill him? No, the Flying Dragon General killed Randall.”
“The Flying Dragon General?!” At the mention of the vice commander from Dragon Fort, there was a look of awe on Martin's face.
“Now that Randall has been executed, the Flying Dragon General doesn't want the news to spread. Tell your soldiers,” cautioned Zen.
“Yes, of course! You can rest assured that my soldiers won't breathe a single word of what's happened!” replied Martin guardedly. It was beyond his expectations to think that the Flying Dragon General would handle this matter himself.
After the Green Haze group and Zen finished hunting blade locusts, they returned to the Dragon Fort.
With the hardships Martin had endured over the past few days behind him, a weight was lifted, leaving his heart lighter, and he wanted to celebrate, so, he led Zen to a pub for a drink. After a few drinks, Martin was itching to tell people what he'd been through, and if Zen hadn't reminded Martin not to, Martin would have blurted something out. By the end of the evening, Martin was drunk.
After boozing it up at the local pub, Zen returned to his room and removed the alcohol from his blood using purple life energy.
He looked at his harvest of crystal cores and decided it was quite a rich trip.
Along with exceeding the number of blade locusts that he anticipated he could hunt, Zen had also unexpectedly, harvested a crystal core from a fire scorpion lion. Further, he raised his body's refinement to that of a spiritual-weapon-like body through the fires from the earth's core.
Sitting on the bed, Zen pulled two short halberds out of his space ring, which he took after slaying the White and Black Fiends.
The halberds were top-grade mysterious weapons. Although Zen's flying knife had halved one of them, there shouldn't be any negative impacts, since they would both be melted into iron essence.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Zen communicated with the furnace in his mind. After that the black flame darted out, and snatched the two blades up to melt them into iron essence.
From past experiences, Zen felt confident that he'd receive ten drops of essence in total since one short halberd should melt down to five drops of iron essence.
Pleasantly surprised, Zen was able to procure fifteen drops of iron essence from the halberds!
Seeing how much the two blades produced only served to confuse Zen about how much iron essence could be obtained from a mysterious weapon. Only one thing was certain, and that was, the higher the grade of the mysterious weapon was, the more iron essence would be received.
What Zen didn't know was that the pair of short halberds together were comparable to a fairy weapon. It was a shame the White and Black Fiends were killed before they attacked with the halberds simultaneously, or their power would've been shown.
The fifteen drops of iron essence were drawn into Zen's mind by the black fire. A few moments later, he could see the cyan dragon relief within his mind. There were three dragon scales being lit up, emitting a turquoise glow.
So far, a total of seven scales were lit up on the cyan dragon sculpture, and Zen's strength was significantly increased.
Zen realized his weakness was actually in his refining level and not strength!
There was a broad contrast between the lazy noble clan disciples and Zen.
Having a variety of magic pills available to them, the noble disciples were slack in working hard to improve their refining techniques, which resulted in a considerable gap between their strength and Zen's. Zen's strength was superior to refiners at the same level, while he was only at the marrow refining level, which was low.
Nevertheless, Zen couldn't do anything about advancing his refining level faster. There was no shortcut, only a lifetime of persistent practice.
Zen entered Drizzle Peak a month ago, and it was a fantastic feat that he was able to attain the marrow refining level in such a short time. While he was gaining experience at the Dragon Fort, Zen felt a lot of the impurities in his marrow had been removed, and he was closer to the peak of the marrow refining level.
As there were many superb disciples at the Cloud Sect, the marrow refining level was not remarkable.
After a great deal of thought, Zen decided that after he paid a visit to Perdition Mountain to see Yan, he would find a way to be beaten to create more warm currents so he could refine his body.
If he couldn't find someone willing to do so, he would spend some cubic crystals and hire someone.
That thought stayed on Zen's mind all night.
The next morning, Martin came to see Zen off, along with several soldiers from the Green Haze platoon.
As an officer in the imperial army, Martin's salary wasn't high, so, he brought some excellent bottles of wine to give to Zen.
After saying goodbye, Zen boarded the giant flying chariot.
A few hours later, the chariot neared the Cloud Sect.
When the chariot flew by the towering Hell Mountain, Zen felt his heart beating faster.
He'd taken part in the task to hunt blade locusts to collect points, just to become qualified to gain entry into Hell Mountain.
At the thought of seeing Yan soon, Zen's mood was light.
After the giant chariot slowly landed on Bluesky Parking Ground, Zen and the other disciples of the Cloud Sect rushed out. Zen strode briskly to Drizzle Peak.
Zen accepted the task from Master Su, so, he felt he should report the results to her.
As he walked, Zen was lost in thought speculating about the blade locust task, and about halfway up the middle peak where outer disciples met for practices, Zen came across all of the outer disciples with nervous looks on their faces as they discussed something.
“Sean, Nory, what's going on? Why are all the outer disciples here?” asked Zen curiously.
Seeing Zen, Sean's and Nory's eyes lit up.
“Hey, buddy! You left the peak secretly, disappearing for almost a month. Where were you, messing around in the Imperial Capital?” questioned Sean while a broad smile spread across his face.
“Zen isn't like that! He must've had urgent business to deal with!” argued Nory, shaking his head and scowling slightly. What Nory lacked in physical strength, he made up for in perceiving a person's character.