More Troubles

Shortly afterwards, a team consisting of both males and females strolled into the clearing, they made a circular formation about the clearing while looking about warily.

They were dressed in green robes and at the breast portion of the robes was a logo symbolizing a snake eating its own tail, an Ouroboros. They all had a name tag on each individual robe (Outer Sect #001, 002 etc).

They were clearly waiting for something as a few minutes later, a giant snake carrying a muscular man in white robes slithered into the clearing. They all bowed their heads whilst shouting "We welcome Core Disciple Lai Yusheng"

He nodded at them, dismounted from the snake, then he proceeded carefully towards Ryu's body, he paused for a moment before he took out a cage with several small snakes, "Scout for traps and dangers" he said while opening the cage, the snakes slithered out into the surroundings.

A few minutes later, they all returned making mental transmissions to him, he moved towards Ryu's body, then he checked his pulse, he looked back and barked out orders.

"Ling Wan and Mira, wait behind and keep him in the storage ring for live creatures, he'll have questions to answer to the elders, check the whole area, if anybody else is here, report back in the next 20 minutes.".

"Your will is our command, Senior Disciple" they chanted in reply.

As the others filtered out to comb the area, the two selected disciples brought out a storage ring, Ling Wan moved Ryu's body to the device while Mira channeled her Mekra to open the ring, the ring sucked in Ryu's body.

As they were doing this, Lai Yusheng brought out a token carved in the shape of an ouroboros, he clicked some inscriptions on it and said "Core Disciple Lai Yusheng greets Elder Ouyang".

A gruff elderly voice replied to him "No need for greetings , how is the situation there?

"There is no sign of a treasure, not even one of the lowest rank, the only thing we found here is an unconscious teenage boy of the Core Cleansing Realm, what seems to be the residue of an array and a destroyed house" he reported.

After a few seconds, the elder replied "Bring him back to the Sect and memorize what remains of the array, you'll replicate it for me"

"Your will is my command, Elder he replied. He collected the storage ring where Ryu was being

He took a deep breath and bellowed out "Take one last search and return, we'll return to the sect immediately". All the disciples paused at this command and replied "Your will is our command". He mounted his snake while waiting for them to assemble.

A few minutes later, the disciples were present to the last man. "Set out" he exclaimed in a loud voice. At once, they all ran in the same direction from which they came to the clearing.

After they ran for a few minutes, there was a splendid ship with an Ouroboros etched onto it. A scanning light was cast from the ship onto the disciples, once it verified their identity, it let down a ramp which the disciples climbed and the ramp was taken back up. After this was done, the ship ascended into the sky and sped off.

At the region of Earth that once housed the city of Pompeii, at the foot of Mt Vesuvius, there was a grand edifice in the form of a snake eating its own tail. There was a grand entrance at the mouth of the snake.

At this moment, a ship was landing at a dock on top of the snake. As soon as the ship was fully secured, a figure wearing the robe belonging to a Core Disciple rushed out with immense speed.

The interior of the structure was way bigger than it looked from the outside, there were numerous pagodas and pavilions, as it was a full blown city known to the world as the Ouroboros City of the Ouroboros Sect. At the center of the edifice were three buildings that dwarfed the surrounding buildings immensely. They were the Sect Master's Pagoda, the Ouroboros Assembly and the Treasure Hall.

In a small room at the top of the Sect Master's Pagoda, 2 men sat in simple chairs, one being adorned in black robes , the other in red robes which had a black Ouroboros embroidered into it, a tag on the robe read Sect Master. They seemed to be waiting for something.

A few minutes later, Lai Yusheng walked into the room, he gave a bow to the two whilst saying "Core Disciple Lai Yusheng greets the Sect Master and The Esteemed Elder Ouyang, I have brought the only evidence we could find from the incident".

"Let's get on with it, bring him here, chained of course" said the Sect Master.

Lai Yusheng snapped his fingers, at which an unconscious and chained Ryu was brought into the room by Mira and Ling Wan.

"Your work here is done, myself and Elder Ouyang will question him. Lai Yusheng, wait outside for further instructions". At these words, the three disciples bowed and left the room abruptly, the doors closed as they left.

The two men moved closer to the unconscious boy while making hand seals. The Sect Master brought out a device with a sharp edge which he used to prick Ryu's hand.

They stepped back and sat apparently waiting for results from the device, after a few minutes the device beeped thrice. The two men looked at each other and sighed.

"There goes my dream of an enlightened weapon, with the kind of aura released there, there should surely have been one, besides, how can someone be off the grid in this era, it's like he just popped out of nowhere" the Sect Master mused.

Elder Ouyang retorted "Well, when he wakes up and we don't get favorable answers, he'll be in for a lot of pain"

"As to be expected of the Enforcement Division Leader, how scary". They both burst out laughing.

The Sect Master brought out a token and spoke into it "Lai Yusheng, get in here and take him to the dungeon, ask the warders to give him special love and care. He should wake up about an hour from now".

The doors opened and Lai Yusheng strolled in, he bowed to the two men, after which he placed Ryu into the storage ring, bowed again to them and he walked out.

Just a short distance from the pagoda was a small building, surprisingly enough the sect disciples steered clear of this building. Lai Yusheng walked into the building. Inside the building was a door fashioned as the mouth of a snake, instead of a door frame there was a snake's head, so entering the door would be akin to entering the mouth of a live snake.

He entered the door which opened to a spiraling staircase that led downwards, the staircase overlooked a maze of buildings. After he reached the bottom of the staircase, a man in black robes in black robes approached him "Where is the Sect Master's prisoner?" he asked.

"Warden, he's in for the special love and care package". As the black-robed man heard those words, his ears perked up and he hurriedly grabbed the ring.

"Excuse me, there is work to be done, hehehehe" the Warden was looking at the ring with stars in his eye even as he shooed Lai Yusheng out.

Lai Yusheng excused himself and left for the surface.

The Warden rushed into one of the buildings in the maze. He operated the storage device freeing Ryu, he strapped him to the table and smiled creepily.

"Let's have nice times together, shall we".