System : Game World

The travel to the destination took a mere two hours. After picking up his horse who strangely waited for him, he joined the group in this small expedition.

In the way, he opened the Jungun Core and was surprised found that it was a small green serpent. Not a disgusting plant.

[Pet System Unlocked!]

[Pet Capacity Limit: 1]

[Do you wish to adopt the Pet before you? Warning: You will use up your total pet capacity.]

Tang Ling thought for a while but did not see the harm about it. So he accepted.

"Yes."

[Pet selection confirmed. Initialization...]

A bunch of data appeared in front of Tang Ling's eyes.

[Spirit Devouring Snake

Rank: Yao (Monster-Yao-Spirit-Earth-Heaven)

Level: 0

Abilities: Poisonous Fang

Skills: None]

A Yao rank pet, huh?

Tang Ling felt it wasn't bad, the Poisonous Fang should be useful after a few level-up.

***

As they were numerous, there were no monsters trying to fight them. Although they weren't exactly smart, they trusted their instincts very much: a group of humans would be a tough fight and would generally result in a Pyrrhic victory; simply not worth it.

Arriving at the scene, there numerous corpses piling up on, resulting in multiple two meters mounds of corpses. The villagers who were in charge of organizing this, noticed them and greeted them.

"Greetings, gentlemen and women, I am sorry to cause such a sorry sight. Do you mind if I ask what is your business in these regions?" a villager asked carefully.

The supervisor stepped forward and responded: "We're the ones who took the quest set by the court to solve this incident."

A villager who seemed to have great authority nodded his head, calming the tense atmosphere of the villagers and went forward to apologize: "Sorry, we've become a little paranoid since the incident and ever since, we've become a lot warier. Right now, we're burying our fellow men so you could get to the village and rest here. We'll provide the best accommodation that we can."

Gu Ze took a look at the corpse and frowned: "Mind that I take a look at the corpses?"

A villager was visibly angered and shouted: "What are you doing? Are you trying to desecrate our fellow brethren?!!"

The village head shouted in response: "STOP! Since this master has requested to take a look, it must be that it could lead to a clue for the perpetrator. The body of the dead is not to be defiled, yes but it's only a look. What's more important is to seek justice for the dead!"

He then returned and invited the group to take a look: "Please."

Gu Ze nodded and made everyone step forward, revealing the corpses.

"Look at these dead men and women. They each has marks of injuries, what can you infer from that?"

As expected, the star student Nangong Xinyue could already guess the cause of these injuries: "These injuries come from bites which showed from the bite mark around the torn flesh. It should come from a beast since humans' jaw are not that large and strange like that. From the shape, it should be a canine-type of monsters however, I cannot guess further than that. However, since the villagers are so wary of strangers, it would mean that a stranger had cause trouble to the village. It should be reasonable to suggest that it maybe this 'stranger' who caused this and if it so, the massacre should be orchestrated by a Beastmaster."

Gu Ze smiled affirmatively but requested more: "Anything else?"

The group stayed silent for a while as they started thinking when Feng Cai started answering: "The bite marks seem to be canine-type and the injuries should be from quick but painful bites so it should be wolves. So it's wolf Beastmaster but there are only a few factions which have this practice, mainly in the Far North, the barbaric region so cold that a martial artist can have frostbite from traveling the region. Since the nomad hunters of the Far North are unlikely to come here, the two factions in the Northern Region are the prime suspects. However, they are tightly connected with the Yamen and have not engaged in such scandals for many years. So it should be an exiled or unprofessional Beastmaster and the only one I can think of is 'Cruel Wolf' Pordhi."

The supervisor smiled even further as he agreed to the answer.

"It should be Pordhi. There are only a few rejects of Snow Monastery and Northern Wild Alliance with whom they are well-behaved. Only Pordhi is known for committing such crimes and getting away with it. From the official and trustworthy hearsay, he is known to be extremely cruel, often torturing his victims if the situation allows so. He is a 5th Stage Beast Master, True Calling and controls a few dozen grey wolves with unknown strength. He has a track record of 300 men and has a bounty of 100 gold coins with Northern Wild Alliance announcing that to anyone who manages to kill this beast of a man will receive gratitude from the victims."

However, as he continued his description, his face was sterner by the minute. He stopped and declared: "It seems that this mission is more difficult and lethal than what I thought. I can do this alone but I can't guarantee that you won't be hurt. Fortunately, I have brought your two senior brothers so your safety should be assured. We wouldn't want a death on the first sect expedition, it's bad luck!"