In Area 7, on a ruined street full of crumbling walls and debris.
The corpses of twenty to thirty zombies lay on the ground. Their heads were either severed or cut open. The decaying bodies emitted a faint fishy and foul smell, attracting some bloodthirsty flies and insects to fly over and gnaw at the corpses.
Five figures were sitting on a pile of stones beside the corpses. They took out their dry rations and were enjoying their lunch of the day, not disturbed by the fishy and foul smell around them at all.
"Once we hunt one more Clawbeast, our mission will be completed." While eating the dry rations, Bailin scanned the map in her hand, thinking about the places where Clawbeasts liked to inhabit.
Geli beside her smiled and said, "Counting the discovery of the Demon Gold Mine during the previous hunt in Area 3, after completing this clearance mission, the points you've accumulated, Captain, should be enough to buy a drop of 'Angel's Blood'. Then, when your Marks of the Demon transform again, you'll be the third senior Hunter in our consortium."
"It still depends on luck." Bailin's expression was indifferent, and she wasn't overly excited.
"I believe you will definitely succeed, Captain." Another dark-skinned girl flattered her.
The others also quickly congratulated her, seemingly more confident than Bailin herself.
"Let's not talk about this for now. Geli, get ready. Once we find the next Clawbeast, we'll follow the previous plan. You pretend to be injured, and I'll send a message to the people from the 'Black Pavilion', saying that we've encountered a rare named monster and ask them to send someone with the Marks of the Demon ability of scent tracking over." Bailin closed the map, and a hint of coldness appeared on her face as she said.
Geli smiled and said, "Leave it to me. I'll definitely pretend it so realistically."
"However, will the consortium be willing to send that kid out?" The dark-skinned girl asked.
Bailin smiled indifferently and said, "Of course they will! You don't understand the consortium's way of doing things. This is an excellent opportunity. Among the several Hunters in the consortium who have the Marks of the Demon ability of scent tracking, some are on missions outside the Wall, and some are injured. Although this kid is a newbie and has a rare named Marks of the Demon, he's still an ordinary person without the 'Bright Constitution'. No matter how much potential he has, it's all in vain. Haven't you heard that the consortium is even too lazy to spend resources sending him to the Hunter School for cultivation?"
The dark-skinned girl thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "That's true. Once the consortium transfers this kid to our team, heh, then he'll be at our mercy. After we've tortured him enough, we'll cripple him and throw him into the zombie horde to destroy the evidence. Then, when we go back and tell the consortium that this kid was reckless and scared away the rare named monster we found, even if the consortium doubts us, there's nothing they can say."
The others exchanged a smile.
Bailin squinted her eyes slightly. She had been keeping an eye on Dudian's situation during this period and had been waiting impatiently for a long time.
"Be careful not to leave any clues. Don't let the investigation team in the consortium find any trace of what we've done. Although even if the consortium knows, they won't do anything to us, the consortium really dislikes this kind of internal strife and consumption. They will gradually marginalize us and may even assign dangerous missions to us." Geli, who had a steady personality, reminded Bailin.
"Naturally." Bailin said indifferently.
The few of them chatted while eating. Soon, they finished their meal. Bailin stood up and patted the dust off her body, saying, "Let's go take a look around the Red Lake area later. There might be traces of Clawbeasts there."
"Okay." The others nodded.
After tidying up, everyone followed Bailin and headed towards a place that was marked as a lake on the map according to the map's guidance.
...
...
Dudian felt the cold crystal gradually disappearing in his palm. In just a short moment, he had absorbed thirty cold crystals. His body still didn't feel any discomfort. Instead, his vision and hearing had faintly improved a lot, especially his sense of smell. Before, he could only vaguely sense the approximate position of that woman, Bailin. But now, he could narrow the range to within a diameter of over a thousand meters.
While absorbing the cold crystals, Dudian quietly followed the scent and smeared a new layer of Zombie Powder all over his body to ensure that his scent wouldn't be detected by the other party.
When he had absorbed over a hundred cold crystals, Dudian gradually felt a burst of heat in his body, and his body temperature seemed to rise slightly. He immediately stopped and didn't dare to continue absorbing the cold crystals. At the same time, he was secretly shocked. During the absorption process, he actually felt an addictive pleasure. When he came to his senses, he felt a bit scared. You know, each of these cold crystals was about the size of a table tennis ball. Over a hundred of them, even if melted into water, would be the volume of several bottles.
Now that all of it had flowed into his body, even if it was an infusion of saline of such a large amount at one time, it would make people feel uncomfortable.
After stopping the absorption of the cold crystals, Dudian felt that his body temperature gradually returned to normal. He let out a sigh of relief and didn't dare to continue absorbing too many at one time. He wrapped the remaining cold crystals well, found a place along the way to hide them, and then carried his bow and quiver on his back and secretly crept forward while chasing Bailin's scent.
The distance between the two was getting closer and closer. Bailin and the others were moving at a slower speed, and it seemed that they were still hunting along the way. However, Dudian smeared on the Zombie Powder, stealthily ran at full speed, and approached in a straight line all the way.
"Lay an ambush and shoot. My shooting range is too short. Even if I kill Bailin with a single shot, the other people beside her will find me and shoot me dead." Dudian, like a hound, chased while his mind was spinning rapidly. "Relying solely on the bow and arrow isn't enough! I can only rely on third-party forces, that is, equipment and the environment! Traps are also a type of equipment. Although they are the equipment of thieves, there's no rule that Hunters can't use traps. It's just that if the traps are made too crudely, if there's a thief among them, they definitely won't fall for it..."
His eyes were deep, and many thoughts flashed through his mind.
Time passed.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
At this moment, it was the Disaster Rainy Season. The sky outside the Wall was turbid, and it was dimly lit even during the day. The ruined city was illuminated, looking as desolate as the end of the world.
A heavy rain had just washed the air, and the rotten smell in the air seemed to have become much fresher.
In the Red Lake area, at the edge of the vast lake, the weeds grew extremely thick, completely covering the road by the lake. The sightseeing boats tied by the lake had long since rotted. The shadows of the boats were like skeletons, leaving only the empty frames of rotten iron sheets. Some boats had even already capsized, leaving only a piece of rotten rope feebly tied to the shore, gently swaying with the waves of the lake. With a little more force, it could be snapped.
Bailin and the others were crouching beside a patch of grass, secretly observing the surroundings. They had been staking out here for two days. Judging from the previous hunting stakeouts, it was neither particularly long nor short.
"There's no scent of Clawbeasts. The footprints were left many days ago. It should have already gone far away." The dark-skinned girl said a bit impatiently.
Bailin said in a deep voice, "Since it has been here, it will definitely come again."
The few of them could only continue to hold their breath and wait. Suddenly, Geli's nose twitched slightly, his face changed slightly, and he said in a low voice, "We're being followed."
"Followed?" Bailin was taken aback, and a hint of killing intent flashed in her eyes. She said, "Is it another team?"
"No, it's only one person." Geli frowned and said.