Chapter 315: Inscriptions? (1/2)

In Old Gu's eyes, there was another layer of mystery surrounding this apathetic boy.

He could tell he wasn't the same person he had been during their prior meeting. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pinpoint the cause of this strange shift.

”Gahaha... those old fogies are going to fight like beasts for you.”

While others were caught off-guard with his sudden burst of laughter, Ozul instead focused on those particular words more.

'Old fogies?' he pondered. Having already accepted the possibility of there being other humans as strong as Old Gu, he could guess that these old fogies must be just like him.

This much was enough for him to understand that his current power was really not enough for the world out there.

”Why are you here?”

”Ghaha! Well, aren't we good friends already, boy? Why so many formalities? Can't an old friend like me come to visit another friend?”

Despite his pleasant-sounding assertions, no one appeared to accept them. Everyone was staring at him with bated breath, and Ozul's face was devoid of expression as usual.

”So, why are you here?” Ozul asked again after Old Gu stopped talking.

”Tch! You are more boring than scarecrows. At least they look funny,” Old Gu grumbled, but in the next second, he appeared to have forgotten it as he continued, ”I found this on the streets boy. How could I not come looking for you?”

In his hand, he suddenly held a small painting of the pattern the Three-Eyed Strangers had been spreading all over the continent.

Old Gu watched in interest as the usually stone-like face of Ozul started showing cracks and for the first time, he found the boy expressing actual emotions.

'No... It's just that I have never been able to detect his emotions... or at least whenever he doesn't want me to,' pondered Old Gu as he noticed the gaps in his emotional wall were quickly filled up.

”Gahaha! Don't be so tense boy! I don't know anything about these,” as he said these words, Old Gu could bet on his life that he felt a spark of annoyance burning in Ozul's eyes before, ”... but you might or might not find your answers soon.”

Saying that he began to slowly walk towards the stairs. Only Ozul followed after him with the duo while the rest kept staring at their backs. The old man had successfully piqued Ozul's interest and it wasn't appropriate to talk about that in front of everyone.

Old Gu only stopped once they were outside the tower.

”Do you really not know what that means?” Ozul asked out of nowhere. This time he focused on the old man's emotions which he previously wasn't able to determine precisely.

”Aren't you impatient~ I really don't know what it means but that is not the question here, boy,” Old Gu then squinted his eyes at Ozul, ”The question here is; why are you searching for this inscription? And how did you get your hands on this?”

At this point, both parties were probing each other for answers but neither could understand the other.

”They can't even work here, so there is no way this piece was created by someone in this small world. Tell me, boy, are you sent here by someone? What do you want to do with this inscription? And why would it be here in this scrapyard?”

With each word, Old Gu's aura turned fiercer as he leaned further towards Ozul as if trying to intimidate him.

”I don't know what 'inscription' is. And you don't have to know what business I have with it.”

Even while receiving so much information at once, Ozul remained firm as ever. He knew the old man was testing him and there was no guarantee that he wouldn't attack him if he wasn't satisfied.

Be that as may, he was also not willing to reveal his purposes for looking for that pattern.

Old Gu remained silent at his answer. Taking this opportunity, he asked, ”How do you know it's really this inscription you are talking about? It could be the runes as well.”

Old Gu's eyebrows relaxed a little as he replied, ”I have been here far longer than you, boy. I can tell what runes look like. They are merely simple letters conveying orders — trash. This here, though. It's more complicated than that. Each line of this pattern is complicated. If it was any common inscription, I would have easily been able to tell what it was. But inscriptions are not my specialty, so I am clueless on this one.”

Then he paused a little before turning around, ”Gah! Anyway, it seems like you are just a brat who is still wet behind your ears. I got excited for no reason. Tch! I could have had a good fight.”

As he continued to walk away, Ozul contemplated the meaning of everything Old Gu had just said. There were many things that were only his speculations but one thing he could be sure of was that this inscription was not something of this world.

”Was that all?” he called out to Old Gu.

”Huh?” Turning his head around, Old Gu looked annoyed a little as his eyebrows rose suddenly as if he had remembered something, ”Ah! Yes. Only four days remain! You three are to be inside the circle within these four days!”

”Circle? Which circle?”