Where Immortals Once Walked

“He’s quite good at what he does, and he’s got quite the solid record, but he disappeared for quite a while as well.” Old Zhou smiled. “He’s probably short on money now, and that should be why he came back to work as a mercenary again.”

In this line of work, people came and went all the time.

Hearing this, He Lingchuan relaxed slightly.

When Hu Bin had suddenly appeared earlier, alone and unaccompanied, He Lingchuan had been somewhat wary. Hu Bin claimed to be a hunter hired by the Ke Family, but the Ke Family’s team had been wiped out, and no one was around to vouch for him.

In that case, could he not just make up whatever identity he wanted?

He Lingchuan knew he had made many enemies in Lingxu City. It might be inconvenient for them to attack him inside the city, but out here in the wilderness, that might not be the case.

Why was the Grass Sea Hunt such a popular grand event?

Because it was full of uncertainty, even the most experienced old hand could still end up dead by accident.

Though the event had been held for centuries, every single one had casualties. It was nothing like a relaxed spring outing.

This was a monster state, after all. Monsters inherently had wild temperaments. They did not like things that never changed.

Variables, dark horses, unexpected turns, that was what made it all interesting, and that was what made it worth betting on.

As for people who went missing after entering the Fu Realm, who knew how many there had been over the years?

Lingxu City’s strict ban against anyone with the rank of Roving Cavalry General or higher entering the eye of the storm also considered such matters.

Now that Old Zhou had confirmed Hu Bin’s identity, He Lingchuan felt somewhat more at ease.

Unless, of course, these two had colluded ahead of time.

Hm, it doesn’t quite seem like that’s the case though.

While he was still running things through his head, Hu Bin, who was nearby, stared at the sand on the ground. “Something’s coming.”

The sand was trembling faintly.

He Lingchuan also felt a slight vibration coming through the ground.

Hu Bin simply lay flat and pressed his ear to the earth. “It’s coming this way. There are a lot of them... it should be a beast herd!”

“Which direction?”

Hu Bin listened for more than ten breaths, then pointed northeast. “From there!”

A long, piercing whistle immediately sounded through the camp.

Once everyone heard it, they all knew it was time to withdraw.

Most of the people here had experienced the beast tide before, and few were foolhardy. They lowered their heads and immediately began taking down tents and breaking camp, moving with impressive speed.

Since the beast herd was moving from the northeast to the southwest, they needed to move southeast to avoid it.

Just after the group had collectively moved more than six hundred meters, dust and smoke began to roll in from the northeast. Moments later, a group of beasts came charging through like ten thousand galloping horses.

Whether in the mortal realm or the Fu Realm, He Lingchuan had rarely seen a beast migration on such a vast scale. There were more than five hundred of them, and regardless of appearance or size, every duonao beast was running with all it had.

They ran with style and momentum.

They swept like the wind across the camp where the hunters had just been staying. Iron hooves trampled over it in a thunderous rush before continuing southwest, leaving behind only a vast haze of gray dust.

Standing on the hill and watching, everyone felt a lingering wave of fear. Fortunately, they had evacuated in time. Otherwise, they would already be ghosts beneath those hooves.

“Have these duonao beasts gone mad?” someone said in disbelief. “Usually, finding even one is hard. Now they’re all grouping up?”

The eye of the storm had been open for ten days. The duonao beasts around the passage between the two realms had basically been cleared out. How many floating stones could be obtained in the remaining twenty days was entirely a matter of luck. In any case, the rankings had already been decided in the first five days, and now everyone was simply gathering as many spoils as possible.

The Fu Realm was barren, and duonao beasts were usually scattered.

“Something has gathered them together, and whatever it is scares the duonao beasts far more than we do.” Hu Bin suddenly pointed toward the camp. “Look over there! Maybe it’s those two things!”

After the beast herd passed, dust filled the air. Two figures appeared and disappeared within the haze. It was hard to tell whether they were bringing up the rear or simply following along.

Each of the two creatures was roughly three meters long and had a bizarre appearance. To He Lingchuan, they actually looked a little like dinosaurs, with short forelimbs, long hind limbs, and a long tail.

However, their bodies were slim and elongated, and they could bend their spines like snakes. Their shoulder joints were also extremely flexible, allowing their forelimbs to move across a range greater than two hundred degrees.

If seen from directly above, their upper bodies would look somewhat human, especially their broad shoulders.

These two aberrant creatures usually moved on all fours, but they could also stand on their hind legs.

Most striking of all, each had two little tufts of short hair on its forehead.

One had to know that the Fu Realm’s creatures did not have fur.

The hunters nearby began asking one another what they were, but no one knew. Even veteran hunters like Old Zhou and Hu Bin, who had more than ten years of experience, shook their heads.

Someone even muttered, “Could those things be monsters?”

He Lingchuan even thought of Dong Rui’s monster puppets. They had that same twisted appearance.

The two aberrant creatures seemed to see the humans and monsters on the hill as well, but they showed little interest in them. At just that moment, a duonao beast suddenly appeared from who knew where and charged foolishly toward the camp.

The dust was too thick, and it might have been slightly nearsighted as well. Only after it ran close did it notice the two aberrant creatures. It cried out in fright and slammed on the brakes.

Its head hit the ground, bringing it to a face-first stop, but it had no time to care. It scrambled up, turned, and fled, even slipping twice along the way.

Clearly, the creatures were extremely terrifying to the beasts.

He Lingchuan immediately thought of the whirlworms that had not dared approach earlier. They had not even dared touch the ground that the aberrant creatures had walked over.

This sort of pressure was not something ordinary duonao beasts possessed.

Also, it should be noted that this was the case even with two aberrant creatures that were not especially large.

Now, unfortunately, that duonao beast was fleeing in He Lingchuan’s direction.

“Damn it!” everyone cursed.

But the two dinosaur-like aberrant creatures did not give it that chance. One suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a beam of white light, striking the duonao beast’s hind leg with perfect accuracy.

The duonao beast’s body sank. It managed to run a few more steps, but its speed slowed and slowed.

He Lingchuan watched with his own eyes as a very thin layer of white frost formed over its leg and then spread across half its body.

In no more than two breaths, the back half of the duonao beast had been frozen solid. Only its forelimbs still clawed desperately at the ground while its head twisted and cried nonstop.

The two aberrant creatures strolled over without hurry and began enjoying their meal, eating the beast alive.

Everyone stood atop the hill, watching the wailing and flying flesh below, and for a moment, no one spoke.

Only Hu Bin patted He Lingchuan on the back, and said, “A frost attack, and they subdued their target in two breaths. They may have well left the footprints you found earlier.”

He Lingchuan stared without blinking.

He did not know exactly how capable frost-silver beasts were, but he could tell that the ice divine technique used by these two aberrant creatures was extraordinarily powerful.

Even on the Fu Realm’s plains, the temperature was around minus ten degrees Celsius. The duonao beasts had no warm fur, yet they moved freely here, indicating that their cold resistance had already surpassed that of mortal-realm creatures.

Yet the frost breath of these two aberrant creatures froze most of their target within two breaths of hitting it. The parts left unfrozen were merely for convenient feeding. Otherwise, freezing the entire creature likely would not have been hard.

From the duonao beast’s reaction upon seeing them, it was clear it had encountered a natural predator.

In other words, besides frost-silver beasts, the Fu Realm now had another kind of aberrant creature skilled in frost breath?

These two aberrant creatures were especially wasteful. They only gnawed away the duonao beast’s brain, floating stone, and heart before abandoning the body and swaggering off.

Of course, ahead of them was an enormous herd of running food, so why would they bother too much with this tough meat?

The people on the hill watched, wringing their hands and sighing. “How come these things are fighting us for floating stones too?”

Strangely enough, though they were all experienced hunters, none of them had any thought of attacking those two aberrant creatures.

It was as if some sixth sense were warning them to stay far away and that these things were not to be provoked.

“Maybe floating stones help them move more nimbly.” Hu Bin’s expression was grave. “Also, I heard this kind of cry fourteen years ago below the mountain where the frost-silver beasts lived.”

The two aberrant creatures ran, making “kang, kang” calls like bamboo clappers being struck.

So the strange noise everyone in the camp had heard during the battle had been made by them?

He Lingchuan’s heart stirred at those words.

Fourteen years ago, frost-silver beasts had suddenly left their hidden mountain and come down to the plains. By coincidence, these aberrant creatures had been nearby too.

Was it really a coincidence?

Everyone asked at once, “What do we do now?”

The team captains gathered and ultimately agreed to follow the beast tide.

The reason was simple.

The duonao beasts in the area had all been driven southwest by those two aberrant creatures. If they went in any other direction, they would not find any floating stones to hunt. They could only follow southwest and see whether they might get a share, or pick up whatever the others missed.

Hu Bin cut in, “Farther southwest is the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s territory, isn’t it?”

When they first came out of the eye of the storm, the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s domain had been to their west. And right now, the beast tide was migrating from northeast to southwest. In other words, it was heading toward the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s territory.

“That’s right.”

“If the beast tide really is being driven by them, then those two things are very intelligent.” Hu Bin asked, “What are they trying to do?”

Lingxu City had been hunting in the Fu Realm for centuries, and one could say with certainty that most aberrant creatures here had shockingly poor intelligence. They generally lived by relying on powerful bodies and innate abilities.

Understanding how to drive a beast herd to achieve a goal was already a highly sophisticated scheme.

He Lingchuan added another question, “How will the Giant Thunderclap Beast react? Can this beast tide threaten it?”

“I’ve heard the Giant Thunderclap Beast spends most of its time sleeping. No one has seen it for many years.” Old Zhou answered, “Two hundred years ago, a team entered its territory and somehow provoked it. Supposedly, those forty or fifty people were reduced to ash on the spot, blasted by several thunderbolts until not even scraps remained. But if it’s a beast tide this large... I don’t know whether it can withstand it.”

Someone else said, “The duonao beasts within the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s territory all obey its commands. It looks like things are about to get quite lively.”

That was why the hunters wanted to follow and see if they could reap the benefits as a third party.

Wealth and fortune were sought amid danger. Those who dared enter the Fu Realm to hunt were never lacking in boldness or desperation.

Once everyone finished discussing, they followed the beast tide and set out southwest.

Along the way, several more teams joined them. By the end, more than fifty hunters were participating in the joint operation.

One had to remember that the starting lineup of the Grass Sea Hunt had only been sixty teams, six hundred people in total.

Captain Zhou required everyone to remove their masks and show their sincerity in joining the group. Everyone did so, without exception.

This was also an unwritten rule. If people wanted to act together in the Fu Realm, they had to remove their masks, preventing anyone from secretly doing harm.

Once people wore masks, wicked thoughts arose more easily.

He Lingchuan also followed the group southwest. His Mount Xu Plan required frost pellets, but those things grew on frost-silver beasts. When he had first arrived at this camp, he had thought the creature attacking the duonao beasts might be a mutated frost-silver beast.

However, it turned out not to be the case.