Everyone that was there next to the river looked at Ning with different expressions on their faces.
Carlos was angry, Gerrin was surprised and amused, and the rest were happy if half their faces were anything to go by.
"Why the fuck did you give it to him?" Carlos shouted. "Are you with these bastards?"
"I don't even know them," Ning said. "I don't even know you. I'm not risking my life for somebody that wants me to smuggle something illegal to a goddamn mafia boss."
"It's not illegal, bastard. I told you so many goddamn times," Carlos shouted at Ning.
"Then what the hell is it?" Ning asked.
"You wanna see what it is?" Gerrin asked as he ripped open the packaging. Inside was a metal box surprisingly, which he opened simply by undoing the latch by its side. Then, he pulled out something that glowed with dull white light, that already brightened the walls of the metal box and the man's face.
The man pulled it out and showed it for everyone to see. What was inside was a white, glowing piece of crystal that had multiple long and sharp crystals growing out at the top. The main block of the crystal itself was about 6 centimeters in diameter, with the crystals growing out being anywhere from 5 to 10 centimeters long.
"Pure Essence crystal," the man said softly as he looked at the crystal in his hand. "So, it really does exist."
"You bastard," Carlos shouted at Gerrin as he looked at the crystal coming out.
"Someone leaked about the boss sending you to check on the new crystal mine somewhere around here, but I did not expect the crystal mine to actually be one for a pure essence crystal," Gerrin spoke. "No wonder you were so secretive about everything."
Ning looked at the crystal with a rather confused look on his face. He was following most of what was being said, but he also had some confusion, most importantly because he didn't realize that such crystals existed in the first place.
At the very least, the fishermen told him nothing about it.
"This is fantastic," the man said as he looked at the crystal in his hand. "With this, I can easily reach the Essence Manifestation realm and be able to fight the boss one on one in just a year or two. With the quality of this essence, my realm break will be very smooth, and the power I will acquire would be far vaster than anyone in a thousand miles."
"You bastard," Carlos shouted. "Like hell I will let you do that."
"And you're going to stop me, Carlos?" the man asked. "I have 5 men helping me today. You will die if you try to fight me."
Ning was curious about the pure essence crystals, and especially the mine for it. But he was not curious enough to possibly kill himself for it.
'This has nothing to do with me,' he thought and decided to leave the place before it became a battlefield. There was already some explosion going on in the city, so he knew better than to stick around and find out what was going to happen next.
"Uhh… you guys do what you want, I'm leaving," Ning said and turned around.
"Stop," Gerrin spoke. At the same time, 2 of his men went around to block Ning's exit, with metal swords of their own.
"What do you want?" Ning asked with a slightly serious face.
"Where do you think you are going?" Gerrin asked.
"Away from here," Ning said. "I gave you the box. What do you want from me now?"
"That you did," Gerrin said. "But you also saw my face. If you were to tell the boss about me before I can get strong, I will die. I can't let you do that."
"I don't even know what sort of gang you guys are," Ning shouted. "How the hell would I talk to your boss?"
"I don't care. You know too much today, so you die," Gerrin said. "Kill him."
Ning's face darkened with a frown as one of the men in front of him charged with his sword up high, ready to swing.
Before the man could swing it down, however, Ning moved and punched him in his solar plexus. The man involuntarily breathed out all the air in his lung and tried to breathe in again. He let go of his sword due to the pain, which Ning grabbed and stabbed the man through the neck.
The other man realized something was bad and moved at the same time. He attacked Ning way better than the first man, but even that wasn't enough.
Ning blocked the sword with his own and parried it before kicking the man in the stomach. The man fell back in pain and Ning took the chance to drive the sword through his stomach as well.
The man still tried to slash at him with what power he had, but Ning stomped on his arm, making it impossible for him to use a sword anymore. Then, he pulled out the sword and stabbed it through the man's heart.
Gerrin and the rest watched with wide eyes as two of their men died at once. Now, only four of them were remaining.
Carlos took the opportunity and charged with his fire and water daggers.
Gerrin looked around in time to see Carlos arrive next to him. He dropped the crystal and pulled out the shield on his back as he poured some essence into it.
The earthen shield suddenly created a highly realistic illusion of an earth wall in front of him that blocked a slash of fire and water that came from Carlos's daggers.
"You three, take care of the kid," Gerrin shouted as he brought out a fire sword of his own, one that was very bright. "I will take care of Carlos."
"I would love to see you try, you bastard," Carlos shouted as his fire and water dagger started glowing in bright colors as well.
Ning wanted to look at the battle, but his own was coming right up.
