59 Chapter 59 – Soul stone

He sat by a rock near the edge of the lake and looked at the lake. It was a full moon night and he saw the reflection of the moon in the lake. The lake looked beautiful with the moon's reflection and forest background. Suddenly there was slight disturbance and small waves spread across the lake, and Zhu Xuan who was looking at the moon's reflection and small waves that distorted the reflection a little.

He looked at it in a trance and suddenly stood up and started practicing Flowing moon sword technique.

Zhu Xuan practiced Flowing Moon sword technique until the day break the following day.

He gained enlightenment when watching the reflection last night and understood how the technique works, even though he hasn't mastered in completely.

While practicing the technique for past few days, he felt he can practice faster in the night due to some unknown energy helping to practice the technique faster. Last night only he understood it is moon essence gained from moonlight. He also understood that not only moon essence need to be practiced but you also need to match it with water elemental Qi and release it together like waves flowing at the same time.

Even though he is able to use the moon essence, he found it hard to control the moon essence to match with his water elemental Qi to create it in waves. He realized the reason for it might be because the moon essence is an external part while water element Qi is influenced by his water elemental root.

He then continued searching by the lake and finally came across a fishing village after travelling for a few hours.

After asking around in the village, he learned that Sky Riders bandit group is close to thousand strong, which has three leaders who all had their own flying mount which is where the name Sky riders came from, according to the villagers.

Even though they were only at peak body purification stage, them using a flying mount is little troublesome for Zhu Xuan since they can attack from the sky and also can escape id there is any danger.

He thought "Thankfully only the three leaders have flying mount or else it would be hard for me to destroy the bandit group if more people in their group had it."

He moved towards the bandit stronghold are reached the stronghold the same night. He observed the stronghold with caution for the whole night.

He found and killed a lone patrol who went away to relief himself just before dawn, and used his body transformation technique to change himself and infiltrated the stronghold during shift change.

He first asked around cautiously and found this stronghold also captured people to experiment, but since a month before, the bandits only captured women from the surrounding villages to train them in spiritual energy and the bandits themselves trained in enhancing themselves physically.

He planned this time not only to poison the bandits but also decided to create commotion using the prisoners. So, he waited for two days to learn their routine and finally started his plan on the third night.

He first poisoned the food while they were cooking and immediately moved to the prison, killed the guards and released the women who had awakened their spiritual energy and asked them to release the rest of the people and attack all the bandits when they hear a commotion outside.

He immediately moved back to the kitchen to deliver the food to the leaders. He didn't poison the food of the leaders but used a sleeping powder, an alchemy recipe he learned from his aunt which will knock out anyone below Qi gathering stage.

He delivered the food to the first two leaders and he said to the third leader that he will serve the food to him. The third leader also didn't think much and let him serve the food.

Third leader ate the food and fell down sleeping heavily after just few moments after he started eating. Zhu Xuan took out a dagger and sliced the neck of third leader and killed him.

Something unexpected happened the next moment.

A loud eagle cry sounded and he looked out the window and found one of the eagle demon beast among the three eagle beasts belonged to the leaders of the bandit group broke from the place it was resting and started killing the bandits nearby.

Zhu Xuan was confused by the sudden attack of the eagle demon beast, but suddenly he thought of something "Is it possible that it is related to the third leader's death? The timing is too coincidental for it to become enraged at this time and the other two eagle demon beasts is acting normal"

While he was thinking, due to the commotion the other two leaders also observed the commotion and understood what happened. The eagle which is on rampage is under the control of the third leader and since it's out of control they are sure he is already dead.

They immediately raised the alarm which caused a commotion in the whole bandit stronghold.

Zhu Xuan cursed his bad luck since the other two leaders haven't eaten their food yet and in their full strength. Thankfully at least most of the bandits must have ate their food by now or else he wouldn't be able to handle the situation.

At the same time, the prison also opened from the inside and prisoners poured out and started attacking the bandits in the vicinity.

It became a chaotic fight in the bandit stronghold.

Zhu Xuan hid himself and moved through the shadows towards the other leader's house. He saw both the leaders are already out and looked quite angry.

He also noticed the other two eagle demon beasts are rushing towards the two leaders. Now he was sure the demon beasts were controlled by the leaders and since he killed the third leader, that eagle got out of control and started attacking the bandits.

He also understood once the leaders got on the eagle demon beasts, he will have a fighting them much less kill them if they chose to escape and moved towards the second leader who was observing the chaotic battle and waiting for the eagle to come to him.

Zhu Xuan neared him and attacked the leader using his movement technique at full force. He was caught off guard and was killed in an instant.

At the same time, the eagle under the control of second leader also started its rampage and started attacking the other eagle next to it.

The first leader also noticed what happened and he immediately rushed towards the direction of his eagle demon beast chased by Zhu Xuan.

But Zhu Xuan was a step too late and the first leader got on the eagle and took to the sky. The other eagle also followed to attack but was soon killed by the combine attacks of both the leader and his demon beast.

The first leader observed from the sky the chaotic situation of the stronghold below; he looked at Zhu Xuan who was also looking at him and his face turned red in anger.

He started attacking with his bow and arrow, and the eagle also swooped in and attacked with its talons. Zhu Xuan only dodge and defend and try to attack when the eagle came down, but the eagle is fast and moved away when he used his spear.

He suddenly remembered how he defeated Fang Ya Zi in the selections and a plan formed in his mind.

He moved towards near a tree and waited for the eagle to come down to attack him. When the eagle came down, he threw another spear with chains which went under the eagle, but he moved closer to the tree and yanked the chain and pulled it back.

He also used his Qi to change the spear into a claw and it caught one of the eagle's leg and hold onto it tightly. The eagle cried and tried to fly away. But, Zhu Xuan put the chain on the tree and used it as a support to pull the eagle closer.

The eagle struggled hard and the first leader also attacked. Zhu Xuan hid himself behind the tree avoiding the line of sight of the first leader and used his fire Qi again to manipulate the chains. They moved like they came to life and bound both the legs of the eagle tightly.

Once he pushed the eagle close enough, Zhu Xuan came out of the tree and used fire Qi spear to injure its wing and the eagle cried in pain and fell down. He easily killed both of them after that and along with prisoners killed the rest of the bandits not leaving a single one to escape.

Then he sent all the prisoners to collect the loot and also gather the dead bandits in a single place. He also looted the three leaders and found another spatial ring from the first leader's corpse and became ecstatic.

He immediately bound the spatial ring and checked the contents inside. There are lots of resources and also found the same white stones as the last time.

He opened the scroll and was ecstatic to see that it was written in the common language of this world. What made him happier was he found a drawing in the starting which is the white stones he has been collected since the first mission.

He found that the white stones are called soul stones, and when one absorbed the energy inside it, it can help the person to strengthen his soul and also there is a possibility for the person to awaken their spiritual energy.

He didn't read further since he knew this is not the time and he closed the scroll and kept them in his spatial ring and continued cleaning up the stronghold.