Chapter 92: Teeth
Although Ravenhawk mountain wasn't exactly too far from the spot he was currently present, Claude still decided to utilise the maximum speed that he could muster. He knew that the man wearing the luxurious clothes, Endre, was sending his henchmen to retrieve the White Dragon's tooth, and therefore Claude had to make sure that he reached the location that the injured woman was talking about before they did.
To enhance his speed, Claude utilised the floating footsteps technique without any hesitation, and Claude's speed soared instantly, as he dashed towards the Ravenhawk mountain.
"Ravenhawk mountain..." Claude muttered to himself as he dashed off. He wasn't sure if the woman was telling the truth, but if there was a chance that she was, he had to get it!
Zoom!
After dashing for about five minutes, Claude finally arrived at the base of the Ravenhawk mountain, which was located in the north-western region of the Gryfino Forest. The massive mountain was hundreds of meters in height, and the top of the mountain was surrounded by clouds and mist, making it seem as though it had come from a fairytale.
"I've arrived." Claude stared at the towering mountain in front of him and its surroundings as he whispered softly to himself. "Now to find the hollow Greywood tree that the woman was talking about..."
Claude looked around until his eyes landed on a tree branch.
Whoosh!
He immediately jumped on it and sat down on the tree branch, and he began scanning his surroundings with his new and enhanced sensory abilities.
Being an extremely thick and dense mountain base, hundreds if not thousands of shrubs, trees and tall grass were all around the mountainous region. Judging from the current size of the forest and the information about its ancient history, Claude knew that the Gryfino forest was even larger than it is right now, and looking through such a dense and thick forest where thousands of trees were present was like looking for a needle in a haystack. So he had to be quick.
Scanning through the mountain base in one go using his highly enhanced sensory attributes was a much better way of searching for the hollow Greywood tree than individually looking for the tree.
Seconds slowly passed by, bit by bit.
"Found it!" All of a sudden, a resolute light appeared in Claude's eyes. He leapt off the tree branch that he was sitting on and rushed towards a giant Greywood tree that was hidden behind multiple Calliver trees.
Within seconds, he appeared in front of the giant Greywood tree, staring at the towering huge tree in front of him.
Claude pressed his hand against the trunk of the Greywood tree and slowly infusing his spiritual energy into it. In the martial world, although extremely faint, every living thing had spiritual energy within its body, flowing through everything and everywhere. It was essentially the symbol of life in the martial world.
BZZZ!
Just as his palm touched the trunk of the Greywood tree, Claude felt a powerful current flow through his body and into the tree. Within seconds, Claude could feel the entire anatomy of the tree, and he felt as though it was his own body.
"Bingo, I knew my senses were right!" Claude's eyes widened as a grin appeared on his face. Claude said confidently, "This is definitely hollow!"
As he had made sure that the tree in front of him was in fact the same Greywood tree that the injured woman, Elizabeth, had mentioned, Claude then raised his hands upwards, summoning his katana using the Sunrise sword technique. He then tightly gripped the katana and sliced it, aiming at the thick tree trunk.
Swoosh!
A thin and straight blade light manifested as soon as he swung the katana, striking the hollow Greywood tree, and just after a second of silence, the tree spilt into two at its waist, and it crashed down onto the ground with a loud noise!
BAM!
Claude released his grip on the katana and it disappeared from view, and he moved towards the cut down tree. He looked at the split open trunk and revealed a bewildered expression. "I can't believe this, so it was indeed real…"
Inside the hollow trunk of the Greywood tree was a broad silver coloured sword like object that was double the size of his katana. It looked like the sword of a giant.
Claude looked at the White Dragon's tooth in front of him and felt joy. He smiled as he muttered to himself, "To think that the myths and legends that I had once written off as mere children's stories was actually true." He let out a chuckle. "Does this mean that the rest of the folklores and legends told by people are also true as well? Maybe I should research about the folklores in this world a bit more."
Without wasting any time, Claude stretched out his hands and grabbed the enormous teeth from the trunk of the tree.
"Was touching the teeth going to change ny personality, like it changed the personality of the tribesman in the folklore?" Claude was a bit excited as he clutched the tooth, as the folklore that he had deemed to be a silly story made up by villagers actually turned out to be real, but to his disappointment, it didn't do anything when he made contact with it. Claude was more surprised at the fact that it was extremely heavy to hold.
Claude had guessed that the teeth might be heavier than what it looked like before trying to lift it, but to his surprise, it was still heavier. He had still underestimated its weight, which was just insane!
Adding a bit more strength, Claude was able to lift the enormous White Dragon's teeth from the truck of the Greywood tree and held it up to his eye to inspect it more closely. He couldn't feel any sort of spiritual energy emitting from the teeth, but for some reason, he had a feeling that the teeth was holding a lot more secrets!
"Now is not the time to inspect it. I should probably leave this place before those people from the Azure Lion Clan show up.." Claude held onto the giant teeth and leapt up, leaving the cut down Greywood tree and dashed in the direction of the Golden Avarice Academy.
Boom!
Just a few minutes after Claude left the location, two figures shot down from the sky and crash landed on the ground with a loud noise, resulting in the surroundings shaking violently and forming a gigantic crater on the spot that they landed.
"*Cough* *Cough*... You do know that you can just land on the ground like a normal person, right Barris?" From the dust that spread out due to the crash emerged two men; one with a huge build and a long beard and the other who was a thin and short man with a twirling moustache. The man with the twirling moustache began yelling loudly at the giant with the king beard, who simply nodded his head in response.
"For god's sake… Next time, be a bit more gentle, alright? Can you do that? Huh?" The man with the twirling moustache angrily spoke as he pointed his finger at the long bearded giant, and the giant drooped his head low and replied in a soft voice, "Yes Gaston..."
"Good… you bumbling idiot.." Gaston muttered as he dusted off his clothes and walked forward, looking around as he did so. "Now, why don't you be a good boy and help me search for the Greywood tree. And don't forget to be quick. The boss doesn't like us being too lat-
Gaston, who was rambling on suddenly stopped speaking as his gaze was glued to the Greywood tree that had been cut down.
He walked towards the tree and knelt in front of it, and Barris, who was staring at Gaston with confusion in his eyes, followed him close behind.
Swipe!
Gaston rubbed his fingers across the finely sliced trunk of the Greywood tree, brought his finger close to his nose, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling whatever was on the tip of his finger.
"Looks like someone got here first.." Gaston whispered softly as he slowly opened his eyes. "And it seems that the person who stole the teeth only left a few minutes ago..."
Gaston reached for his moustache and began twisting and twirling it as he thought to himself on whether or not he should try and follow the person who stole the teeth, but decided to give up on it in the end.
After all, it's been about fifteen minutes since the thief fled the scene. Although that may seem like a short period of time, a martial arts cultivator can travel great distances in such a short time frame with lightning speed, which meant that if Gaston did in fact decide to follow this person's trail, it'll most likely reach nowhere and he'll probably have wasted his time. And he definitely didn't want to risk wasting his time.
"Oi.." He motioned at Barris and said, "Tell the boss that someone reached the location first and took the Dragon teeth. And tell him that even though the chances were low, I've already decided to try and follow this guy. Now leave!"
Barris nodded his head and shot up from the ground and onto the sky, leaving Gaston all alone near the destroyed Greywood tree, and he let out a sigh.
That's right. He didn't want to waste his energy. But his boss didn't need to know that….