A full moon hung in the southern part of the sky and illuminated the grassland. The sun had been down for nearly two hours, but thankfully, there was light now.
Alex was walking down the river, searching for the yang jade, but he couldn't find any. He had come across a few more scorpions as well and had killed them just like the first one. He had also come across a few torn bodies, clearly belonging to the Hong Wu Sect.
He managed to find a perfectly fine robe belonging to what he assumed was a now dead inner sect disciple, so he quickly changed into it.
"I will continue later," he thought and walked back towards the grassland. He had been walking along the river bank for over 4 hours now, and it was time to log out for dinner.
After finding a good place to keep his body, he logged out.
Hannah had been waiting for him at the kitchen table. He quickly ate his food and helped his cousin with the dishes.
After they were done, he quickly got back into the game.
Once he stood up from the place, he realized that he was getting hungry. However, he still had to search for the yang jades. That was the entire reason he had been here in the first place. If he couldn't find a few tonight, it would be 2 days wasted here, just like that.
"Why are they so rare? Master had 3, and those at the marketplace had one each, so why am I having such a hard time finding it, when I should be the one finding the most," he thought.
Reluctantly, he started to scour the river banks once more. He was extra careful not to fall victim to an ambushing monster, so he kept his eyes and ears open. The river kept on flowing, and the moon shone bright; the night was beautiful, and yet Alex hated it because he couldn't find any yang jades.
"That is just ridiculous. Why can I find snakes, and centipedes and scorpions and not a single Yang Ja— " Suddenly, he felt a THUMP inside him.
"This feeling… " His eyes started shining brightly as he knew what was happening. He had finally found one.
He started looking around for the yang jade, trying to locate it using his body. It didn't take him long to realize that the yang jade was inside the river. He started to get worried.
Outside the river, he could fight with the monsters and be on the lookout for them. But in the water, where nothing was visible and made no sound… that was a problem.
"Sh*t," Alex thought. He started thinking of ways to go into the river and not get attacked in the water. He tried thinking of ideas and only a single one came to his mind.
If he didn't want to get attacked in the water, he needed to get attacked out of water.
He started shouting and smashing rocks together to make as much noise as he could and tried to lure the monsters in the vicinity so that they would leave the water. It was a crazy idea as the noise he was making, made it hard for him to hear the monsters approaching as well.
But he had no choice and could only hope for the best. He did stop once in a while to make sure there was nothing around him.
However, no monster or even humans came by. In the end, he figured there were none in the vicinity and decided to walk in. Just then, he saw an unusual pattern of waves on top of the river, illuminated by the moonlight.
"Something's there," he said to himself.
Suddenly, a rather large snake appeared from the water as it started hissing at him. Alex's first thought was to run away, but then he felt something. The yang jade was moving. His eyes turned wide as he looked at the snake. The yang jade was inside the snake.
The snake itself was about half a meter in diameter, but it was way too long. Thankfully, it looked like it was a water snake, so the chances of it being venomous were very low. Still, it was a good idea to stay cautious.
The snake saw him and slithered towards him, opening its mouth wide, showing the two bright fangs. Alex immediately dodged its attack and started punching at the snake. The snake wasn't as fast or had a poisonous stinger as the scorpion, so Alex freely attacked it, keeping tabs on where its head was at all times.
But suddenly, its tail came from behind him, slamming at him and sending him flying away. Thankfully, Alex landed on the grass and wasn't hurt much.
"Sh*t," he said and ran back at the snake. The snake was pretty beat up with just a few attacks, so it was nothing strong. So, he went and attacked some more. The tail made it very annoying to hit it for long and the fangs were just as scary, even when he had deduced that they weren't venomous.
In the end, he managed to kill the snake with enough blunt trauma. He pulled the snake's corpse onto the grassland and started ripping it apart with his own hands.
Slowly, he felt his way through the snake's body, until he found something. He yanked it out and saw it under the moonlight. It was a disciple's corpse, and he was holding the yang jade with him.
Alex was stunned for a second. A disciple had just died like that, eaten by a snake. Did this disciple really commit a crime that was worthy of death like this? The cruel fate the disciple had to suffer made Alex nauseate.
Was the sect right in doing what they were doing? Was cheating or stealing punishable by a death sentence? He couldn't understand what was going on. In the end, he dug up some land and buried the disciple while taking away the yang jade.