32 Chapter 32 – Blood Claw (1/2)

After he broke through, he waited for the storm to subside.

He felt he understood more about wind element when he saw the tornado in the distance and he started observing it carefully. He felt his understanding of the wind was close yet far away. But, before he could completely understand and reach the completion stage in his wind element technique, the storm subsided.

He started moving towards the stronghold, and started collecting some herbs on the way. He was collecting poisonous herbs. Since he started learning alchemy, he not only learned the herbs used for alchemy, he also learned about poisonous herbs so that the alchemists avoid using them.

He is collecting these poisonous herbs to poison the food in the stronghold to weaken their strength which would be a great advantage for him. He felt bad that he didn't have any recipe to create poisons and if he had, he could kill most of them just by poisoning their food. Anyway he decided to find all the poisonous herbs he could, and mix all of them in the food.

He felt like he is more suited for assassination, especially with his body transformation technique and knowledge of alchemy. He clearly understood he can't directly fight all 1000 bandits by himself, and he had to use any method he could think of to kill all the bandits.

He finally reached the stronghold by the sunset and entered through the cave without any trouble using his body transformation technique.

Once he entered the stronghold, he didn't waste any time and went to all the places inside the stronghold, avoiding only the leader's quarters, until he was familiar with the routine of the bandits and know the place like the back of his hand. He spent the entire night moving around the stronghold and finally formulated a plan.

It was already the morning of sixth day from the start of the mission, and he decided to make his move tonight. After deciding everything, he went to rest for a few hours to get himself to optimum condition before the fight.

At the same time Zhu Xuan went to rest, on the other side of the stronghold at the main hall of the commander Blood claw two people were sitting, one in a high seat like sitting in a throne and the other on one of the few side seats.

The man in the high seat is the commander of the bandits, Blood claw. He was a burly middle aged man twice the size of normal people with ripped muscles, and his face looked ferocious with a long scar mark diagonally on his face. And the man sitting in the side seat was the last leader Tiger claw, he looked like a skinny fair scholar, but when one observed him closely they could see his eyes exude a sinister aura.

Blood claw was tapping his hand at the stone seat, thinking. After a few moments, he spoke with a hard voice ”Tiger, I keep feeling there is something wrong going on with our plan, and we haven't heard anything from Wolf in six days. Moreover Eagle and Lion also should have reached by now but no sign of them and their scouts. What do you think we should do?”

Tiger claw spoke with a raspy voice ”I also believe something happened to Wolf claw. But, Lion claw and Eagle claw may have been delayed and was not able to send anyone possibly due to the storm yesterday.”

He paused and continued ”But I believe there is an enemy we don't know of who killed Wolf claw and it's better to be safe. I suggest we send few scouts to the direction of all three leaders to find out what is going on, and also send more of our people surrounding the mountain and increase the patrol.”

Blood claw was satisfied with Tiger claw's suggestion ”Okay Tiger, get onto it and also send more people for a tight patrol and form a blockade so that no one can sneak into the mountain until we know of the situation of the other three leaders. We are close to succeeding in our plan and within a month we will see good results, so I don't want any mishap happening within these days.”

Tiger claw acknowledged and left the hall to make the arrangements. Blood claw was still tapping his finger on the stone seat and thinking ”I still feel like I'm missing something out and couldn't shake the bad feeling. I hope nothing bad happens when we are close to success.”

Under Tiger claw's order, about 500 people went out of the stronghold to form a blockade around the mountain and patrol day and night to avoid anyone from sneaking inside the stronghold. Little did they know, someone had already entered the stronghold without their knowledge.