Caught Off-guard

Raja was very straightforward and didn't like anything that involved stressing one's brain.

He believed in solving his problems with his muscles and fists; once there's a clear goal in mind, he bulldozes his way to the finish line.

This was the reason why his questions had been been all about confirmation.

He simply wanted a definitive direction so he could get to work.

Shin on the other hand was much like his son, Ryujin. The both prefer to think things through, except for the fact that Ryujin took this trait to another level entirely.

Ryujin would not only think of a solution to his problems, but also think about ways with which he could debunk or defeat his own solution, before thinking of a Plan B to tackle that other thought.

However, this is exactly where Raja's input became very important to the two of them.

Shin was like a tactician; seeing all of his problems as a game of chess, and his Plan A was always to patiently and gradually whittle down his opponent until he gained an advantage.

Raja however, was his go-to Plan B, and he only uses his sword brother whenever his opponent is also a patient tactician like himself.

He would simply instigate Raja into scattering the game in a way that would grant him an advantage, and this was why both of them were best of friends, asides their parents influence.

They mutually used one another for each other's benefits. One uses the other's brains and the latter uses the former's brawns.

As for Ryujin who usually overthought himself to exhaustion before making a decision, Raja's questions were like a stop-gap measure for him; almost like a lynchpin.

Raja would generate the possible flaws in his solution with a question, and he would use the former's need for a coincide direction as a pin board were he could pin and map out a grand schematic solution.

> He develops a Plan A, and the Raja Debunks it with a question.

> He pins his Plan A on Raja so as to focus his entire mind on developing a plan to defeat Raja's first question 

> Upon hatching such a plan, he merges it with Plan A and calls it Plan B...

> The Ryujin repeats the process for Plan C, D, E, and so on...

In fact, one could say Raja was the smallest gear in their cognitive engine; equally as important but not as prominent.

It was also because of Raja that Ryujin had come up with his fighting plan; Plan A - Fight to win; Plan B - Fight Dirty to Win; Plan C - Flee...

~Twip!~

Ryujin suddenly snapped his finger as a light bulb of idea lit up in his mind.

"Why don't we do it this way...." He said as he leaned forward, prompting Shin and Raja to follow suit.

Then for what seemed like a entire hours of back and forth hushed but serious conversation, the trio leaned backwards at the same time.

Raja heaved a sigh of relief before wearing a pleased grin.

Shin gave his son a nod of approval before sinking back into his own thoughts.

Ryujin however, wore a look of anticipation; nonetheless, the glaze of mischief gleaming within his eyes were unmistakable.

---

A few weeks later, Ryujin was making his way to Luo Fei's house for the usual cleaning, before going hunting.

The dawn's light made the world around him look like a scene straight out of a fairy tale.

The thick layer of snow was immaculate, and the surrounding area was mystically quiet, despite the snowy wind that was whipping across the area.

Perhaps, it was due to the fact that the trees were now capped with heavy snow; or simply because he was out in an open space.

Regardless, Ryujin took out the Qi stone out of his pouch and began observing it under the rays of the morning sun, which was only shadowed by the tiny snowballs, drifting alongside the wind.

During the past few weeks, the stone had mended most of the slits on its surface.

Both its Qi quantity, quality, and flow had tremendously improved, but it was still as useless as the day he had found it.

Ryujin had tried to use the origin codex on it, so that he could get a lint hint of whatever it was, its functions and its abilities; but for some mysterious reasons, despite having tried several times, the origin codex seemed to reject the stone and show no reaction to it whatsoever.

"Just my luck." Ryujin sighed in exasperated frustration.

"To think I actually risked my life to battle that Winterhowler for nothing.

Let's hope I can find something in Ella's books, otherwise my only other option would be to find someone who's willing to buy it."

Ryujin was really impatient to start his apprenticeship; the sheer level of anticipation brimming within him was enough to fuel a weather balloon.

It meant being finally able to gather basically every bit of knowledge on Coral Island, and perhaps even beyond.

He intended on recording every single page of book he could find in Ella's house into his origin codex, which would then compile a perfect edition of the knowledge he needed.

Then from there, he could either read everything himself, or wait till any part of the knowledge is required of him, and then the origin codex would automatically transmit them to his brain.

Ryujin had been thinking a lot about the two treasures available to him recently, and whilst they seemed overpowered, something within him kept telling him that he had yet to scratch the surface of the true prowess of these two treasures.

The first ability of his Mystic Transformation Pupils was the perfect replication of any image or scenery that was within its vision span. Its second ability was detecting the flaws within these images or sceneries, and creating its ideal version of perfection.

The Origin Codex on the other hand, had little to nothing to do with imagery. It was more information focused, and would only add the image of any subject as a way for furtherly simplifying the information for its user.

All the Origin Codex needed to do was to come into contact with the energy of its subject of focus, and then it would automatically compile not only the labelled image of that object, but also its functions, uses, and basically every single other existing and non-existing details of the object.

These were the abilities of these two Origin Grade Treasures.

However, due to the fact that these two treasures have spent a long time within Ryujin's soul, they have gradually began to use his Focus Qi as their source of energy, and as a result, it was easy (almost too easy even) for Ryujin to link their abilities together.

Hence, even without actively coming into contact with the energy of an object, as long as Ryujin's Mystic Transformation Pupils could see it, and transfer its prefect representation of that object to his mind, the Origin Codex would be able to compile a detailed information of that object for him.

Needless to say, if Ryujin could then furtherly access the energy of that object and transfer it into the Origin Codex, then there is a very high possibility that Ryujin could have the best knowledge of that object in the whole of existence.

This golden finger, and the potential amount of information it could generate for Ryujin to use as he willed, was the very reason why Ryujin was so eager to visit Ella.

He didn't even need the information to be complete, as long as there is a brief overview of the subject matter, and he could lay his eyes on them, then the perfect unrivalled knowledge of that subject matter would be at his fingertips.

A typical example was the Body Tempering Technique he had read about the last time he had visited Ella, along with his mother and Jada.

The technique explicitly stated that only five facets of the physical body could be tempered; however, the moment the information arrived within the Origin Codex, the latter perfected it by adding four other unknown facets of the body that could be tempered.

Thus, heading to Ella's house in Ryujin's opinion is virtually the same as slaughtering innumerable birds with just one stone.

He didn't even care what topic the book might be about, he simply wanted to devour them all.

After putting the Qi Stone back into the pouch, Ryujin arrived at his destination and opened the door.

Luo Fei had previously told him that she would be out of town to sell her merchandise; however, she had also told him where the key to the lock was.

Thus, upon finding the key and entering, it barely took Ryujin ten minutes to leave the entire house sparkling with cleanliness.

---

Ryujin's solitary figure emerged from Luo Fei's house; his shadow, seemingly inconsequential in size when compared against the backdrop of the environment.

He wore a proud and fulfilled smile on his face; the kind that those who have done a perfect job usually had on them.

But little did he know that five pairs of eyes were narrowing in on his every move from the shadows of the surrounding trees.

Their presence were undetectable, as they not only camouflaged themselves in white furry overcoats covered with snow, but even their steamy breath were also concealed by the tiny drifting snowballs in the whipping winter wind.

"He's coming out, now's our chance." One of the five men whispered with a voice that was barely audible in the wind.

His four accomplices nodded to each other in unison before springing into action, converging upon the unsuspecting Ryujin in a silently precise ambush.

Before Ryujin could react, a wooden club had graced his forehanded, knocking the wind out of him as his vision blurred heavily.

He struggled fiercely for a moment of respite, activating his metavision in a bid to get a clear overview of his situation.

However, before his ability could fully activate, his feet were suddenly swept away from beneath him, fumbling his balance and bearings into a tumble, as his eyes coincidentally peered straight into a beam of sunray.

Forced into a momentary squint, Ryujin's metavision was temporarily rendered useless. He blinked his eyes several times, hoping to clear his vision.

However, just as he began to barely see the shadows of his attackers, he was swiftly pinned to the ground with his face to the floor.

Then in the next moment, a black sack was forcefully donned over his head, followed by a brutal stomp to the stomach that sent the world around him spinning into darkness.

Everything happened so fast; roughly, forcefully, totally one-sided, and barely took thirty seconds in total. 

---

When Ryujin finally regained his consciousness, he realized that he was still within Luo Fei's house, albeit now surrounded by five menacing figures who were obviously his captors.

A mixed sensation of nostalgia and fear hit him squarely in the mind, but he steeled his expression, refusing to show any weakness which his captors might likely capitalize on.

He looked around and realized that all the men around him were barely as strong as Eduard, and thus, began to think about how he could free himself from his bounds and dole out a divine vengeance on them.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" One of the men sneered in a voice dripping with malice.

"Looks like we caught ourselves a little strange anomaly that shouldn't be allowed to exist." The others laughed cruelly, their faces twisted with scorn as they circled around Ryujin like vultures closing in for the kill.

They knew who he was, of course; they had been watching him for weeks, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

"What's the matter, boy? Cat got your tongue?" Another taunted, his eyes gleaming with sadistic delight.

"Or are you too scared to speak in the face of impending death?"

Ryujin showed no reaction to the taunt whatsoever, and simply sat there, in silence, as he waited for his vision to completely clear up.

Based on all that had happened so far, he already knew what these men wanted.