Chapter 54 - Train of Thought (2/2)

“Dragon Alligator hide for defence and the Raging Force Mantra for attack. It looks complete, but I’m still missing an ultimate move that can ensure my survival. An ultimate move. Sigh… How could I forget that?”

While racking his brain for ideas to increase his martial prowess, he suddenly thought of the broken finger within his pouch.

He took off the ring, and with all his strength, he sent the broken finger flying away in a huge arc. He brought the ring to a brighter spot and examined it for a while. Xu Yi could roughly guess that this contained a firing mechanism, and the only possible firing hole was the mouth of the snake. This also matched Gao Pan’s behaviour of twisting the ring at the crucial moment in battle.

“Just how is the mechanism triggered?”

For safety, Xu Yi aimed the head of the snake towards a thick folded blanket. In case anything incredible shot out, there would not be any ricochet as it would be blocked by the blanket.

After pressing the snake’s head many times, he could feel something moving, but nothing fired out.

Holding onto the ring and mulling over it for a long time, Xu Yi suddenly thought of the metal spirit that he had in his pouch. That required his palm energy in order to activate. Perhaps this object was the same.

With that thought in mind, he pressed the snake’s head into the blanket, slipped his left index finger into the ring, then exerted his palm energy. However, nothing came out. Suddenly he then remembered that there must be a reason behind having a moveable snake’s head.

Immediately, he tried turning the snake’s head the moment he exerted a force. A soft woosh sound was made, and a hint of recoil was felt in his finger. Xu Yi knew then that he had successfully fired a shot.

In case there were more rounds that were not fired, Xu Yi repeated the steps many times, but he no longer felt any recoil. He then knew that the ring only had one shot.

After a good fifteen minutes or so, Xu Yi finally found the green needle.

The reason why it took so long was because the penetrative force of the green needle exceeded Xu Yi’s expectations. Initially, he thought that whatever shot out would be stuck in the blanket. After all, the blanket was folded and stacked a few feet. It should provide astonishing resistance.

Afterwards, after searching through the blankets with no results, he found a tiny, almost unnoticeable hole on the bed. Following the hole, he then found the green needle, thin as a strand of hair, on the granite floor under the bed.

“This can kill someone?”

Xu Yi was suspicious of the needle.

Although it had astonishing penetrative power and extremely fast firing speed that made it nearly impossible to defend against, it was simply too fine. Unless it hit the heart or the head, it would never be fatal.

“No, that’s not right. Venom, it must be venom!”

As the thought flashed through Xu Yi’s mind, he almost threw away the green needle in fear.

Indeed, for something so small and fine, the only way for it to be fatal was for it to contain a vicious venom.

After getting to the bottom of the ring’s mystery, Xu Yi was still not too exhilarated.

If he’d not been fully prepared, the ring could indeed be an excellent secret weapon.

However it was a consumable. Once it was used, that was it.

And he had two more battles to face.

Furthermore, if he encountered an opponent with an extremely tough armour, would the green needle be able to punch all the way through?

Although slightly upset, he still managed to get his hands on a pretty good treasure. Xu Yi carefully put down the green needle, then began to investigate how to place it back into the ring.

Without the green needle, the ring lost its intimidation factor. Xu Yi boldly worked at the ring, and in no time at all, he figured out how it worked. He separated the needle into two pieces, carefully placed the green needle into the opening before assembling the ring together and tossing it into his pouch.

After thinking for a long time, Xu Yi still could not think of any trick that could ensure his survival. He knew that these things could not be rushed. He thought of the Dragon Alligator hide, which took care of his defense, and he began to feel more at ease. With lots to do the next day, he closed off his mind to these thoughts and quickly fell into a deep sleep.