CHAPTER 154: NAM NAM
Zen stayed at the pond cave, training hard to take advantage of the rish deposit of mana in the area. He had disrobed and placed his clothes and his tent into his storage stone and never bothered to recall any of it. The beasts and Shibi would definitely not mind that he was training completely naked.
Zen lost track of time while he was at the pond cave. He practiced Wolf Cultivation, going through the sequences over and over until his body collapsed. Then he would crawl back to the pond cave where he would practice Cracked Earth Cultivation or Mock Level while his body recovered. Once recovered, he practiced the swirling swaths with some leaves that he picked from the surrounding trees and when he could a little of the Meteor Kick. He did this non stop, with no sleep.
The days began to blur together and Zen lost track of time, not knowing how long he had been there. One day he just collapsed intounconscioussness and slept. When he woke up, Shibi told him he had been sleeping for two days straight.
He returned to his training. Once he could sense that the mana near and in the cave pond was noticeably depleted, he decided he would leave. He did another bout of training and cultivating. The next time he collapsed he knew when next he woke up, he would head to his father.
Zen was surprised that the note his father had left him did not tell him to return to the mine. Instead he wanted him to go to a small settlement west of the mine. He walked a small distance, taking in the scenery. The gree woods gave way to plantations of maize and sorguim.
He saw a farmer rolling uupthe crops and putting it on carts.
“Hello!” Zen said, waving at the farmer. The farmer paid him no heed so he walked closer to the farmer. “Hello, could you please help me. I’m looking for a place called…” he looked down at the note. “I’m looking for Central Manor…”
Zen froze. The farmer was not a farmer but was a training mannequin. It kept loading crops in a mechanical way. He looked around. There were 6 more, each doing a different job, some ploughing, some planting new crops and others putting on crops on the cart.
He had seen these mannequins deployed for training and war like the one he owns but never for manual labour such as this.
“Hey, young man!”
Zen turned to see an old man walking toward him. “Hello sir.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I was heading for Central Manor.” He said. “Wanted to know where it was.”
“Your on the right track,” the old man said, pointing to the road. “Just keep going on that road.”
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Zen was about to leave but stopped and turned back to the mannequins. “Who build these?”
“You like them?” the man smiled. “They were built by a great Metal Elementalist a long time ago. They actually haven’t been working for years but he recently came by here and fixed them up for me. What a nice man.”
“Was his name Wang Ton?”
“No, his name was Nam Nam.”
“Nam Nam?” Zen tilted his head in confusion. “Thanks, sir. I’ll be leaving now.” Zen bowed and returned to the road.
He walked further until he saw a collection of small housing structures around a big manor. Zen knew he had found the right place. He walked closer to the house. Two guards stopped in his path.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Wang Zen.” He said. “I’m looking for Wang Ton.”
“That’s him.” One whispered to the other. “Nam Nam’s retarded son.”
“How do you know?” The other whispered.
“He’s calling Nam Nam, Wang Ton and he has a red ape and…” he tapped on his nose with his finegr to symbolize Zen’s own deformed nose.
“Oh,” the other said. “Please come in. Nam Nam is still at his shop but he says you can wait inside.”
“Thanks.” Zen said in confusion.
They led him to one of the smaller houses. It was a small one room house with a bed of hay. He plopped down the hay and sighed in content.
“What do you think this Nam Nam business is about, Shibi?”
Shibi looked at Zen in confusion. “Humans weird.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” Zen said.
Zen waited for 2 days with no word from Wang Ton. He asked around about Nam Nam. Apparently, Nam Nam showed up near the farming settlement decades earlier. Being a Metal Elemntalist, he became the apprentice of the resident Metal Elementalist. There he was trained in blacksmithing before they learned how to build mannequins. The old Metal Elementalist passed away from old age in Nam Nam’s second year of apprenticeship. Nam Nam took over the shop, making money mainly blacksmithing but also providing poorly built farming mannequins. After a year of service, Nam Nam struck out on his own and headed for Leaping Cricket to pursue his future.
Zen suspected that Nam Nam would have been forgotten if not for the mannequins that were still standing.
In the middle of the night, while practing Mock Level, he heard whispers. Shibi was disturbed too and climbed on Zen’s shoulder as he exited the house, ready to fight. He saw his father, speaking to a man. He handed the man a storage stone and he left.
Wang Ton walked back to the house and stopped. “Wang Zen, your back?”
“Yes, have I been gone away for long?”
“2 and a half weeks.” He said as he entered the house. He laid on the hay in the room.
“So, what is it with this business with you and… Nam Nam?” Zen said once he joined him inside, taking another hay stack.
“It was my alias, so Shu Bua could not track me easily.” He said. “I forgot I used it, otherwise I would have warned you.”
“That’s why the guards called me crazy when I called you Wang Ton.”
He nodded. “We can talk tomorrow.” He said, closing his eyes. “I’m too tired to do anything but snore now.”
A few minutes later, he was asleep.
Shou Na Shi crouched over a piece of earth. He, Lei Cong Min and Mi Ba Huo were near ths spot weeks ago, chasing a fleeing Wang Ton. Now they had returned as the carriage driver told them this was the last location he saw him.
“Any tracks?” Min asked.
Shi shook his head no. “Its been too long.”
“Then from here on out its guess work,” Huo said.
“What is the nearest town here?” Min said.
“There are 2, Leaping Cricket Town and Fourth Down Town.” Shi said.
“Where is the path roughest?”
“To Leaping Cricket,” Shi said.
“Than that’s where we’re going.” Min said.
“Why there?” Huo asked.
“I don’t think they would take the easy road.” She said. “Better to take the hard road to lose any trackers. Like you said, its all guess work now but I have confidence that we are on Wang Ton’s trail.”