37 Chapter 37 – Planning Ahead

After leaving few miles away from the stronghold, Zhu Xuan calmed a little and moved his horse to the front of the group.

He reached by their side in his horse and told them "I know you are confused of my actions and you will understand after what I have to say. Of course I'm only making conjectures based on what I have heard and observed, but I believe I'm not far from the truth. I also have few requests that I need your help with and only you both do it. I hope you can help me."

Wang Siblings looked at him with a questioning look, waiting for an explanation.

Zhu Xuan showed them four scrolls and few white stones that he already kept in his pouch and asked "But first, Can you tell me whether these are the scrolls and strange stones you practiced?"

Both of them are shocked to see this in Zhu Xuan's hand. Wang Shuang answered with a shocked face "Yes these are the same language as the scrolls but we practiced only one of it, and these stones are the ones Qinyang used to absorb the spirit energy."

Zhu Xuan said "As I thought. I believe this situation is not as simple as we think."

Wang Shuang asked "Young master Xuan what do you mean?"

Zhu Xuan started explaining with a serious tone "I believe these people are strong to the extent they can go against the powerhouses of an entire city and eradicate them, may even be able to go against the power of a kingdom. And, once they find out about what happened in the stronghold they will definitely try to find the people behind it and might even try to kill everyone to destroy all evidence of their actions."

Both Wang Shuang and Wang Qinyang were shocked to hear such a conclusion from Zhu Xuan. Wang Qinyang kept silent while thinking whereas Wang Shuang asked "Why did you come to such a conclusion Young master Xuan?"

Zhu Xuan continued his explanation "Think about it Young master Shuang, even though they seem like bandits on the outside, their actions are like a well trained army. Moreover, even though they know you both are from Wang clan, they still imprisoned and made you practice their technique. The reason could by either these bandits are crazy to offend your clan, or the power behind them is so powerful that they don't mind infuriating a powerful clan like yours. And I strongly believe the reason is the later."

Wang Siblings thought back to how Blood claw bandits acted when they were imprisoned and brought back to the stronghold. They had scouts, patrols and acted very organised and looked out for each other, nothing like bandits at all.

First, they also thought the bandits are just crazy following someone orders when they have been captured and imprisoned even after knowing their backgrounds, and even thought the bandits are working for their enemy clans from the city to imprison them. But after Zhu Xuan's explanation, they also started believing his conjectures.

Zhu Xuan finally said in a grave tone "What I'm most afraid of is, if they are a normal clan or organization, I don't think they will follow up too much when they find out what happened in the stronghold. But, they are clearly using bandits as a cover to capture people and experimenting on them with these techniques. They are clearly secretive and don't want the information to be revealed to the outside world. What do you think they will do if they find out what happened and all of the prisoners have escaped with their information?"

Wang siblings face went pale when Zhu Xuan concluded his thoughts. Now they understood the gravity of their situation.

It took them a while to calm down, and then they remembered he had a request for them. So they believed he must have an plan and asked "You said you have some requests for us. May we know what Young master Xuan want us to do?"

Zhu Xuan said with a serious tone "I want you both to escort all of them to the Great Tree village whatever happened, and I also asked the people who are protecting the group to stay with the injured people in the village for ten days and then can follow you back to the city if they are willing. I hope you can take them as your subordinates if any of them are willing to follow you."

Wang Shuang smiled and said "Of course Young master Xuan. You don't need to ask us, we will definitely escort them to the village and we are planning to ask them anyway to follow us."

Zhu Xuan was glad they accepted his request and he continued "We can't go against the hidden organization on our own, so I want you to reach your city as soon as possible once you reach the village and tell them what happened here, and even exaggerate if you want, but you need to make sure the powerhouses of your city come and check Blood claw stronghold in ten days. I believe this is just the start of something big, and if we let this unknown organization develop in the dark for long, it will create a great problem in the future."

Wang Shuang and Wang Qinyang looked at each other and smiled. Then they turned towards Zhu Xuan and Wang Shuang said "Leave this to us, it's actually very easy to make those powerhouses of the city move if we used right methods, I believe they will come to the stronghold even if we just told them the truth and our conjectures."

Zhu Xuan was worried about the villagers in the forest and wary of this unknown organization, and he felt bad that he had to leave today. So when the Wang siblings agreed to his requests, he felt grateful and cupped his hands and said "Thank you for listening to my requests and willing to help these people."

Wang Shuang answered hastily "Not at all Young master Xuan. You saved us and even willing to help all these people and I'm glad to have met a person like you and follow your requests."

Zhu Xuan smiled at them. He felt these Wang siblings are very good people and felt it worth to befriend them. Even though he doesn't know where he is in the Lightning Lake world, he was sure one day he will be able to meet them again.

Zhu Xuan finally spoke with a low tone "I haven't mentioned this earlier because this is not a high possibility, but I believe such an organization might have scouts or some outposts near the bandit stronghold, and they might have even sent words already and also a high chance of them following us to keep track right now. And if some scouts are following us, they will definitely be vigilant now."

Wang siblings now finally understood why he urged everyone to leave in a hurried manner and asked them to rush to the city and get reinforcements as soon as possible.

Wang Shuang asked "Young master Xuan, do you have a plan?"

Zhu Xuan smiled and replied "I do. I'm sure if there are scouts, they would be in a distance where they are able to keep track of our movements. After half a day's travel, we will ask the people to rest and move out in groups making an excuse to get water for these people. I'm sure the scouts would accept our excuse and would loosened up their vigilance by then. We will move one mile in all directions, and start searching from there towards our people resting here."

He turned towards Wang Qinyang and said "And I also need one woman with spirit energy in each group and I want them to release their spirit energy in succession, like how you attacked us in the prison cell. That way we can find anyone who is hiding easily."

After they concluded their plan and made some improvements, they acted normal and waited for half a day to take action.

After half a day's travel, they moved according to the plan and started searching through the forest. They actually found four scouts and killed them. They weren't sure if the organization behind these people has any way of tracking their own people. So Zhu Xuan told the rest to kill and not capture these people.

After killing all the scouts, he asked Wang siblings and the rest to do another search the next day.

Zhu Xuan and the Wang siblings got close after knowing each other better from fighting and talking. They each enjoyed their company and the day passed by with the group travelling towards the village.

At night when everyone went to sleep after eating, Zhu Xuan silently slipped out of the patrol group and walked into the forest. He had only few hours before the end of the seventh day and he could have left earlier just by injecting his Qi into the dragon pendant, but he wanted to stay with the group and help them as much as possible.

He walked for a while inside the forest when he suddenly felt another presence behind him. He immediately stopped, turned around while unsheathing his sword and spoke slowly "Whoever you are, come out now."

He was shocked to find out it was Wang Qinyang who walked out of the darkness. He asked with a doubt "Why are you here Lady Qinyang?"