Qianye had never felt that he had any talent in divination, and neither did he believe his instincts would be that accurate. At least according to Song Zining, he was incomparable to a certain few ladies.
But at the moment, he would need to pick a direction to explore and their only hope of returning was to find the imperial base in the Great Maelstrom. During such a temporary lack of directions, it was crucial for them to understand the surroundings as best they could and the best way to understand this world is via the intelligent natives who were born here.
Without Li Kuanglan, Qianye would already have gone into the forest to investigate the tribe, but things were completely different with her around. He wasn’t about to let her fall into native hands no matter what, especially those four-armed people. That kind of ending would be worse than death. Qianye believed Li Kuanglan would rather die than succumb to such a fate.
The white mist produced by those four-armed people was simply too tyrannical. One would lose themselves after coming into contact, and it wouldn’t even be possible to commit suicide. Hence, Qianye couldn’t quite come to a decision on Li Kuanglan’s suggestion.
At this moment, Li Kuanglan had regained her usual calmness. “Most of my injuries have healed. I still can’t get through the night on my own, but I should be completely fine in battle. You’re hesitating so much about going over, are you looking down on me?”
“Of course not, but…”
Li Kuanglan cut him short, “Then it’s settled. Let’s go.”
Noticing her resolution, Qianye decided to follow their same stepping-stone formula from yesterday. He carried Li Kuanglan over the river and arrived outside of the woods.
The duo had just approached the forest when a shrill cry erupted from above. A large net fell down immediately, aiming to capture the two alive.
How could such a primitive method capture the two top geniuses of the empire? Li Kuanglan picked up the net with a swing of her sword. This would normally be considered a taboo, but a twist of her wrist sent the net spinning back to whence it had come, firmly binding the two-armed man hiding in the treetop.
That hunter cried out in alarm as he fell from the tree and crashed into the ground. All he could do was whimper about, unable to clamber back up.
At this point, Qianye walked out from the trees with a two-armed hunter in each hand and tossed them onto the ground. The hunters he had caught had no more power to resist as their arms had been broken. These natives possessed a natural ability that allowed them to blend into the forest, but they were easily found out by Qianye’s True Sight.
The three men reacted physiologically upon seeing Li Kuanglan, and their fixed stares sent a chill down her spine. She instinctively raised her vampiric blade, ready to cut them into pieces.
Qianye pushed her hand down and said while shaking his head, “No need to kill them. Killing intent is a desire as well, control it as much as you can.”
“I don’t want to control it!” Li Kuanglan said coldly.
Qianye wasn’t angry because he knew she wasn’t in a good mood lately. Instead, he tried to communicate with the two-armed people. However, he finally gave up after a prolonged attempt as the language barrier was insurmountable. Qianye searched their bodies but found nothing useful except for some food, wine, and miscellaneous items. He did find that each hunter wore a small, blue flower. The flower was small and exquisite, and its petals were made of a translucent, almost-crystalline material. There was no telling whether it was natural or man-made.
Judging from the base and stem, it was likely to be natural, but the petals didn’t feel the same. Each of the petals of the three blue flowers was different, almost like a supreme work of art. Even the most talented expert craftsman of the Empire couldn’t produce something of this caliber. How could human craftsmanship compare to the work of nature itself?
The three men flailed about in anger and terror as Qianye put away the blue flowers. Apparently, these flowers seemed highly important to them.
Seeing that he couldn’t get anything out of the captives, Qianye broke off the captives’ legs as well.
Then, he bundled them up in the large net and left them in a corner of the forest. These natives possessed powerful vitality, anyway, and would probably survive a couple of days without food or water. Qianye pointed to the depths of the wood. “Let’s see if we can find their lair.”
Li Kuanglan nodded and followed Qianye toward the depths. These natives were natural hunters who didn’t need any training to hide themselves and their tracks. However, both Qianye and Li Kuanglan were talented hunters, the latter especially. Her tracking skills were probably even better than Qianye’s own. If it wasn’t for the eye of truth, he would be suppressed in all aspects.
After following the tracks left behind by the natives for about half a day, they found the traces increase noticeably, with no lack of new converging ones.
The duo exchanged glances, realizing that they had come in the right direction. As such, they slowed down their pace and started to move more cautiously.
It was at this time that a series of footsteps echoed through the forest as a group of natives appeared in their sight. This group was fairly sizable, consisting of five four-armed natives and over twenty two-armed ones, speeding along in a single file. After they had passed by, Qianye and Li Kuanglan decided to follow them.
The shadowing didn’t last long when one of the four-armed people suddenly sprang into action, pushing down a two-armed person and mating with him on the spot. The other four-armed people weren’t willing to be left behind and also started to follow suit. The two-armed ones who weren’t chosen split up into pairs and fell into action. Angry and embarrassed at this incredible scene, Li Kuanglan knowingly leaned behind Qianye.
Qianye was extremely tense as he focused on the natives’ movements, lest they spit out more white mist. Fortunately, the mist seemed fairly valuable to the four-armed people and wasn’t made for use in such circumstances.
It took about half an hour for the natives to complete their primitive pleasure session and continue on their way. Qianye tugged on Li Kuanglan, indicating that it was time to continue tracking their target. However, he soon discovered—to his surprise—that the latter had weakened quite a bit.
Seeing Qianye’s gaze, Li Kuanglan lowered her head and said in a whisper, “I… I lost control just now… I’m feeling just like yesterday.”
Qianye didn’t know how to reply. He simply said, “Do you need me to help?”
Li Kuanglan glared at him. “If only you were willing!”
Qianye didn’t dare to continue this topic. He picked up Li Kuanglan and continued their hunt. Fortunately, the natives were also fairly exhausted after their chaotic battle. The duo was able to catch up quite easily as the group had slowed down quite a bit.
Moments later, the group of natives walked out of the forest and started moving toward a distant mountain. At the foothills of the long mountain range was a fairly large stone castle. The structure was already in decay with numerous breaks in the wall, and only the four grand tall towers remained perfectly intact. There was a strong four-armed sentry on each tower, wielding bows bigger than the one Qianye had seen before.
There was no need to doubt the power of these bows, and their range was bound to cover hundreds of meters. The four sentries on the towers looked stronger than the four-armed women, quite likely the males of their race.
There were natives going in and out of the castle. It would seem this tribe was fairly prosperous, but they had no intention of repairing the damaged walls and only focused their energy on procreation.
Qianye gestured toward Li Kuanglan, asking her to watch the forest while he carefully snuck forward along the forest line.
As he got closer, Qianye was able to see through the damaged walls. He could see that the interior of the castle was fairly messy, with piles of junk strewn across the compound. There were numerous stone houses with large doors at the center of the courtyard, inhabited only by the four-armed people. After a moment of observation, Qianye was able to confirm that there were both males and females among the four-armed people. The males were rare yet powerful—almost three meters tall and much stouter than the women.
The two genders looked pretty much the same, and the only reason Qianye was able to tell them apart was because of their habit of mating anywhere and everywhere. A pair of four-armed people were already getting on with their business without even entering the house.
After close observation, Qianye found that the four-armed people looked rather fierce. Both males and females sported protruding lips and fangs of different sizes. They also retained a fair number of bestial features. Biting and tearing, when required, would be a powerful mode of attack.
Comparatively, the two-armed people looked more like humans both in facial and physical features. Their residences within the castle were small, dilapidated, and usually made from wood and stone. Over a dozen of them would have to crowd into one such house. Not to mention comfort, they might not even have enough space to stand.
Qianye was fairly curious about the relationship between the two-armed people and the four-armed ones. Thus, he sneaked over quietly in hopes of observing in greater detail. A group of natives passed by at this moment. Qianye immediately retracted his aura and hid behind a tree, but one of the four-armed women in the group paused her steps. She raised her head and sniffed the air with a puzzled expression, and then walked over toward Qianye.
Sniffing as she went, she came to the tree where Qianye was hiding and circled several times around it to no avail. She wanted to search more, but the other four-armed woman from the group started shouting impatiently. Only then did the first woman go back unwillingly.
After this group had left, Qianye dropped down lithely from the tree with a serious expression. He hadn’t expected that these natives would have such an acute sense of smell. If he hadn’t used Bloodline Concealment at the critical moment and contained his aura, he might’ve been discovered just now.
Now, Qianye no longer dared to further approach the stone castle. There were at least hundreds of natives in the castle with dozens of four-armed ones among them. There were more than ten powerful-looking four-armed males. Even Qianye wasn’t willing to challenge such a group. It actually wasn’t because of their strength, but because the white mist was simply too disgusting.
After a period of observation, Qianye made to return to Li Kuanglan. He didn’t feel easy leaving her alone for too long.
Just as he was about to leave, however, a conflict arose between the natives. They ran about shouting loudly as a series of rumbles echoed through the castle.
Qianye became alert as this was a great opportunity. Truth be told, he really did want to investigate whatever was hidden within the castle—the secrets to the Great Maelstrom might just be sitting in there. Qianye took action immediately and began sneaking toward the compound.
The confusion inside greatly intensified as he arrived within a hundred meters of the structure. A figure appeared on one of the towers as the original occupant fell headfirst to the ground and crashed amidst pitiful cries.
The figure jumped down and stomped onto the four-armed sentry, and then pounced in Qianye’s direction.
She staggered forward after taking a few steps and nearly fell to the ground. However, she clambered up and kept on running. The group of natives ran after her at lightning speed, and it seemed like they would catch up to her very soon.