Rebirth of the Prime Dragon Master
Chapter 167 The Eastern Village Had Been Plundered

After departing from Marin's camp, Rocky returned right away to his room to leave some of his belongings. After a few minutes of rest, he walked directly to the village in the east to pick up Rubygon.

In the village, Rocky happened to run into Jackson, who had just come back from the market in a carriage.

"Rocky, nice to see you here! The goods you asked me to sell for you sold out quite quickly. They were very popular and almost everyone scrambled to buy them,” Jackson said with a smile at the sight of his friend.

"That's good, thank you.” Rocky nodded indifferently. It was as if he had already known it would happen.

Jackson stopped the carriage beside the sheepfold and stepped out of it. He approached Rocky and produced a small pouch out of his pocket, holding it out with a trembling hand. He handed it to Rocky and said, "This is the money I made from selling the goods. Over one hundred gold coins. I've never seen so much money before in my life! Oh, I kept them very carefully! I had them with me at all times. I was so worried that I would lose them otherwise!"

"Over one hundred?" Rocky's brow furrowed. He knew that the materials he had given Jackson were worth at least one thousand gold coins. But Jackson had lived his whole life in this village. He couldn't have known those were the materials from wild spirit-manipulated beasts at the Earthly Stage. So Rocky bit his tongue. He wasn't planning on keeping the money, anyway.

"Keep it, Jackson. This is what I owe you for Rubygon's milk," Rocky said, pushing the bag back into Jackson's hands.

"I can't take this! The milk is not worth so much money. Please take back it!" Jackson thrust the bag back quickly, his voice trembling.

But Rocky wouldn't take it. Both men were insisting the other take it when a high voice interrupted them.

"Grandpa, you're back! What are you two doing here?" Sue came out of the house, cradling Rubygon in her arms. Seeing Jackson and Rocky bickering about a small pouch, her curiosity was stirred. She walked up to them and snatched the pouch. Feeling its weight, she opened it and saw a plethora of golden coins.

"Wow! So much money!" Sue exclaimed, her eyes opening wide in surprise. She had never seen so much money before!

"Sue, give the pouch back to Rocky," Jackson told his granddaughter hastily.

"No, just keep it. It's my way to express my thanks to you and Jackson," Rocky said.

"Well, then I'll gladly keep it." Sue grinned widely and put it into her pocket happily.

"Sue, how could you do that!" Jackson protested, insistent that the money should end up going to Rocky.

"Grandpa, Rocky won't come here from tomorrow if we don't take it. Then I can't see Rubygon anymore. Now I can keep Rubygon by my side and have money. Why would I refuse?” Sue argued cleverly. She had come to figure out Rocky's personality quite well. She knew that if he was insistent on the money going to them, he would by no means take it back. She could tell that if they refused to take the money, Rocky would stop visiting them altogether.

"Your granddaughter is right.” Rocky nodded, a hint of a smile on his lips.

Hearing that, Jackson cast an embarrassed glance at Rocky and heaved a sigh. He was worried about being given so much money.

"Sue, do you have a pen and paper?" Rocky suddenly remembered something else that he needed to do.

"No, but Uncle Wang has those things. He's right next door! I'll go borrow them for you," Sue said, skipping to her neighbor's house to borrow a pen and paper for Rocky.

She soon returned and they watched as Rocky drew a diagram on the paper. The image resembled a shackle used on prisoners, but it had spikes on it. He had designed it with the intention to deal with the Dark Heaven Insect.

"Jackson, can you go to the smithy to have six pieces of this shackle created according to this diagram? You can go the next time you go to the market. I've indicated the dimensions on the side,” Rocky said as he appraised the drawing. He handed the painting to Jackson, feeling reassured by the thought that if it was Jackson who had these shackles made, it wouldn't arouse any suspicions. "Yes, Rocky." Jackson took the paper, rolled it up, and carefully stowed it in his pocket. He was still feeling rather disconcerted about taking the money. Now that Rocky had asked him for a favor, he immediately agreed to it with no hesitation.

"I will come to collect them in some days. Thank you, Jackson. I must leave now." Rocky took Rubygon in his arms and left for the military camp, Uriah at his side as usual.

Due to the attack on the detective station, the whole military camp was on full alert. It was now much more difficult for Rocky to come in and out freely. In order to avoid unnecessary suspicion, he was being very prudent. He planned to use this time to study the Dark Heaven Insect in the cave under the village.

Two days later, Rocky returned to Jackson to get the six pieces of the shackles that were custom made. He brought them with him to the cave, where he proceeded to smear venom from the Centipede-snake on the spikes on the shackles. Once he had done this, he attached the contraptions to the six legs of the Dark Heaven Insect. He nailed the chains of the shackles on the wall so that its movement would be restricted and he would be able to move in certain areas in the cave.

According to what he had discovered about the Dark Heaven Insect, he knew that it lived on soil, especially preferring half-rotten soil. So he spent some time exploring the land of the village and selected some pieces of land. He found a rusty handcart in the dilapidated village and used it to haul the nutritious soil for the Dark Heaven Insect so that it would stay in a good condition.

Rocky also fed the Dark Heaven Insect on a drop of the magical saliva every three days to accelerate the formation of Dark Heaven Eggs inside it. The Dark Heaven Insect had a peculiar characteristic: only after it had fostered three Dark Heaven Eggs in its ovary would it lay one Dark Heaven Egg. Because of this, Rocky had no way of knowing the exact time that the Dark Heaven Insect would lay its egg.

Half a month passed and the whole military camp was still shrouded in a severe atmosphere. Hushed rumors circulated about the possibility of a war between the Timber Deity Empire and the Holy Dragon Empire. And the atmosphere in the military camp which was located on the border grew tenser by the day at the impending chaos.

Right when Rocky was about to leave the cave after feeding the Dark Heaven Insect, he realized that he hadn't visited the eastern village for a few days. It was still early, so he decided to swing by and see Jackson and Sue. He thought Sue might complain about not having seen Rubygon for a while. Rubygon had grown substantially in the course of only two weeks. It was full of beans now and followed Uriah every day as if it had taken Uriah as its mother. Rocky exercised Rubygon's brain nerves for two hours on a daily basis. Only after Rubygon was fully grown would he find out whether the results would match up with his hypothesis.

When the three neared the eastern village, they were alarmed to discover that something had happened to the village. It had become a total mess, as though it had been plundered by robbers. Villagers all hid in their homes and closed the doors, seeming to be terrified of something. The whole village was dreadfully quiet. Rocky was the only person in the street.

A child's scream suddenly pierced the air, causing Rocky to start in surprise.

He looked around and realized that the scream had come from Jackson's house. Outside his house stood two men in a soldier's robe of a spirit manipulator. It was obvious that they were from the military camp.

Then Rocky remembered something suddenly and his expression changed. He charged swiftly towards Jackson's house, Uriah and Rubygon following at his heels.