The cave was on the east side of the village, so it took roughly seven minutes of Xu Xiong running at full speed to reach the cave.
Once reached, he closed up the cave with a few rocks he had gathered beforehand when he went out scouting the village.
Xu Xiong learnt over the months that having one residence isn't enough, having two or three is the best, while having one main base that is tightly secured is how most people on mission do.
Xu Xiong couldn't help agreeing to this, especially now with copper and a strange man on him.
Thinking of the strange man, Xu Xiong put the man on the ground, and slapped his face a few times to wake him up.
Perhaps his slaps were too hard, the man screamed in pain as he was awoken.
On second thought, maybe because he's missing an eye?
"Shut up." Xu Xiong grumbled, and stuffed some cloth in the man's mouth.
The man's left eye looked at Xu Xiong in fear.
The man tried to make some noise, but was blocked out by the cloth.
'Hmm, I should've searched his body first.' Xu Xiong thought to himself as he looked at the man, causing him to tremble.
'Well, you live and you learn.'
To the man's horror, Xu Xiong began to search his body, and once done, Xu Xiong tied him up with some rope.
The man had some flute-like objects that could shoot out needles. It would be effective against people in the purity realm, but for someone in the scarce realm, it's utterly useless unless someone dropped their guard.
"Alright, now we can do this the easy way or the hard way." Xu Xiong said, sitting down on a rock playing with the dagger that pinned this mission.
"I'm going to take out the cloth from your mouth and ask you some questions. You can choose to respond or not but…" The movement on Xu Xiong's body stopped, and suddenly threw the dagger straight into the man's hand.
The man made loud grunting noises, and stared at Xu Xiong in hatred.
"Seems like you understand. Don't bother to scream, we're very far away from any life, so your fellow villagers can't help."
With that said, he yanked back his dagger, and took out the cloth from the man's mouth.
"Now, your name?" Xu Xiong asked.
"Jin- Jin Dong." The man said, with a heavy breath.
"Now what happened to the south side of this village? And why is there copper in your village?" Xu Xiong asked.
"This…" The man's body trembled slightly, and bit his lip hard.
"I-I don't know much, but it's said that a fellow villager was once a cultivator. This happened during the time of the past village chief, and as the new one, I still don't dare to ask." Jin Dong said.
"Hmm." Xu Xiong frowned slightly.
He could see that the man answered in a roundabout way, but the news of a cultivator in the previous generations is a big clue. Judging by Jin Dong's age, he should be nearly thirty, so this cultivator should be in his fifties, and at least the scarce realm.
"Have you seen this cultivator before? Or any suspicious people?" Xu Xiong continued to ask.
"Yes! There was one." Jin Dong hurried and said.
"Was he the one who brought in the copper?"
"I don't know, but it was rumored that a villager from the south took a treasure from the lord, so he killed everyone from the south side. Thus no one but we dares to adventure in." Jin Dong said, wincing in pain as his right eye leaked out blood.
"Hmm, but how did you find me? You're just a man with no cultivation." Xu Xiong said, his eyes narrowing onto him.
"L-lord, please listen! I may not have any cultivation, but I do have a treasure!"
"Oh?"
Xu Xiong suddenly became curious.
Jin Dong's face had a tint of sadness on it.
He knew that he probably couldn't leave this place alive, thus didn't ask for any demands. He just was trying to give himself a grimmer of hope, or at least a quick death. His right eye is really bothering him right now.
"What treasure?"
"The treasure was given to me by the last village chief and it could detect breaths of life nearby. For me, it's only ten meters, but it was enough to find out where you were." Jin Dong said.
"Where is it on you?" Xu Xiong asked, looking him up and down.
"It's my right earring, lord."
Xu Xiong wasn't polite and took off his earring and examined it.
It was a long rectangular piece with two golden dragons colliding in a spiral. The main piece of the earring was red, and vaguely felt pure Qi within it.
"How do you use it?"
"My lord, I don't really know. I just wore it and I could sense those around me." Jin Dong said honestly.
Xu Xiong nodded, but didn't do that.
Instead, he put a bit of Qi into it, and suddenly Xu Xiong felt the breath of life from one hundred meters away.
But this wasn't the only benefit from it.
Xu Xiong could now easily draw in pure Qi from the outside into his body just like the caves back at the sect!
This earring will increase his cultivation speed by nearly five times!
"Not bad, it's a pity that you wasted such a good thing for so many years." Xu Xiong said, shaking his head.
Treasures like this could be said to be rare, as it could only be made in the last 30,000 years out of humanities, 100,000 years of existence.
"My lord is joking. How could we peasants understand such a treasure?" Jin Dong shook his head.
"Now back to the topic. Have you noticed anything strange about this cultivator, or have you seen more than one?"
Xu Xiong was referring to the pack of Dead Birds, but he was afraid that the village chief here didn't know anything about Dead Birds, let alone Fallen Birds.
"More than one?" Jin Dong questioned himself, his head searching for answers.
"I overheard something about a cult from the village chief. I don't know if that's what the lord is looking for." Jin Dong asked.
Xu Xiong brows raised, "Speak."
"According to the past village chief, this cult would take babies and bring them to some underground place in the village. This stopped roughly 24 years ago, and this is also when I learnt that I used to have a sister." Jin Dong said, clenching his hands slightly and took a deep breath.
"I don't know what they did with them, nor where the underground place is in the village, but I do know that some beast made a loud roar 24 years ago, and since then, no one has come to collect our children. But they have been looking for copper, I don't know why, but they are."
Xu Xiong quietly listened, and didn't fully trust him.
"As someone he keeps claiming 'I know nothing,' you sure know a lot." Xu Xiong said with a half smile.
Jin Dong sighed as his head was severed from his body.
"As you wish, a quick death." Xu Xiong muttered, and started to dig up a grave.
It wasn't him being all respectful, but digging a six feet grave could get rid of the smell for a while.
After a half an hour, Xu Xiong threw the body in and cleaned up all the blood in the cave.
The only problem left was the smell of blood.
"I should've just snapped his neck." Xu Xiong sighed, regretting why he severed his head.
The smell of blood is a small problem, and by the time it's found, he'd be long gone.
But he knew little things like this might lead to his downfall, yet he had no way currently to deal with the smell of blood.
"Leave it for now. I should go back to the main base and wait for the daily rewards to happen and plan my problems from there on." Xu Xiong said to himself, making a quick plan for his next actions.
"The villagers might know something is wrong for now, but will definitely find out that their village chief disappeared yesterday, which might cause some panic. I could use their panic to my advantage to explore some parts of the village."
Xu Xiong was quite curious about the west side of the village as it seems to be the wealthy side of the village, yet the village chief came from the north.
He could've asked the village chief before he killed him, but his roundabout answers wouldn't help with gathering information about the west side.
So for now, he will wait till the next morning to strike.