Chapter 51

“Shit!”

In the midst of their journey, Old Lu’s expression suddenly changed and he cursed out loud.

“What is it, Old Lu?”

The other four of the party stopped in place together, looking at the angry Old Lu.

A hint of frustration flashed in Old Lu’s eyes. He said, gnashing his teeth, “My White-Headed Falcon is dead!”

Sister Mei’s eyebrows jumped up uncontrollably, asking doubtfully, “Did it encounter some powerful flying beast? But isn’t your White-Headed Falcon always alert? Why would it die all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know. It sent me a message earlier, indicating that it seemed to have found some amazing treasure. I allowed it to go check things out, and it died in the next moment.”

Old Lu naturally had no idea how the White-Headed Falcon died. It didn’t even have the time to send a distress signal before losing its life.

The party’s expressions turned grave. Perhaps some powerful exotic beast was in the grasslands ahead, and managed to catch it by surprise, killing it in one strike?

If that was true, why is the elephorse herd still fine?

Old Lu didn’t suspect his subdued beast was slain by Zhang Che.

When the White-Headed Falcon was carrying out its scouting mission, it wouldn’t leave the sky at all. No ordinary beastmaster would have a chance of killing it.

The five of them stopped in place, hesitating.

The grasslands ahead suddenly held an unknown fear. The circumstances surrounding the White-Headed Falcon’s death were truly too strange, leaving others confused.

Moreover, Old Lu mentioned previously that the White-Headed Falcon had sent him a message before its death, that it discovered some treasure, which made this matter even more puzzling.

The group looked at each other. In the end, the short-haired woman turned her head towards Sister Mei, asking, “Then, Sister Mei, are we still advancing forward?”

Sister Mei thought for a while with her brow furrowed. Finally, she grit her teeth. “Yes! Since we’re already here, it really leaves me unwilling to give up just like that. However, without the White-Headed Falcon scouting the way ahead for us now, everyone needs to be on their guard. Once you discover anything off, immediately turn to run. You mustn’t hesitate in the slightest.”

The rest of them nodded gravely, and they continued walking forward with quick steps.

Soon after the group set off once more, and before they covered another five hundred meters, their faces changed again.

“Not good. Ding Feng Corporation’s men have probably got here. Why are they so fast?”

The rumbling footsteps of exotic beasts approached them from behind rapidly. Who else could they be, if not Ding Feng Corporation’s men?

“Go, we’ll find a place to hide first. We’ll observe them before taking any other action.”

Sister Mei’s brow furrowed deeply. Their plans today were met with one setback after another, leaving her doubting whether her choices were correct.

Just as the five of them hid themselves, the group of beastmasters from Ding Feng Corporation led by Zhang Yujie came galloping in from a distance away.

For long journeys, Zhang Yujie and the few who owned mount-yype subdued beasts were faring much better. The rest revealed traces of fatigue on their faces, but their eyes were shining with excitement.

This time, if they could find and slay a large elephorse herd, not only would everyone achieve great merits, they would even be rewarded with an elephorse card. Their future journeys would be much more convenient.

Watching the terrain before them gradually opening wider, a smile curled up on Zhang Yujie’s handsome face. He encouraged the others loudly, “Everyone, endure a little longer. If my guess was right, after we enter the open lands in front, there will definitely be traces of elephorse herd activities. As long as we successfully hunt a herd of elephorses, I’ll personally request recognition of your merits when we get back!”

Hearing this, everyone looked even more excited, and cheered out loud in unison.

The group moved past at flying speed. Sister Mei and the rest of her party came out from their hiding spots with bitter expressions.

The short-haired woman looked at Sister Mei hesitantly, “Sister Mei, are we still going?”

Sister Mei didn’t make a sound. Instead, she swept her gaze across the few of them first. Seeing as they had unwilling looks on their faces, she nodded heavily, “We’ll go! I don’t believe Ding Feng Corporation’s men can kill every single elephorse. Moreover, if there are any unknown dangers ahead, we have the Ding Feng Corporation’s men to take them on for us. We only need to proceed cautiously; even if there aren’t any gains, we wouldn’t be in danger at the very least.”

~~~~~~

After slaying the White-Headed Falcon, the grave expression on Zhang Che’s face didn’t lessen in the least.

He didn’t know who had their eyes on him, but their aim was probably the same as him: the elephorse herd on the grasslands.

If it was in the past, Zhang Che wouldn’t care about any of this at all. He didn’t have the ability to hunt the herd, anyway. If others wanted to try their hand at them, he’d just let them do it.

But now, Hanxue had become his pet. This fellow obviously cared for his ex-underlings. As his master, how could he watch idly by the side as they were being hunted?

“Hanxue, oh, Hanxue, although you won’t let your master massacre your underlings, now someone else has laid their eyes upon them. I can’t possibly keep them safe by myself. You better get them to leave this place as soon as possible, moving deeper into the grasslands. Hopefully they can still make it in time.”

Zhang Che caressed Hanxue’s cheek tenderly, telling it of the situation he had just discovered.

After hearing what Zhang Che said, Hanxue let out a few neighs, looking at him, its eyes shining with gratitude. It looked as if it understood Zhang Che’s words.

In the next moment, the Golden Elephorse King moved with great strides toward the Elephorse herd a short distance away. It cried out loud, “Xilvlv!” as it ran.

As Hanxue’s reverberating cries were heard, the relaxed elephorse herd suddenly fell silent, and turned around in unison, galloping deeper into the grasslands.

For a short while, Zhang Che could only hear the rumblings of the hooves filling his ears. The entire herd of elephorses were like the tide, spreading out into the verdant grasslands and quickly vanishing.

The Elephorse herd’s speed erupted, and soon ran out to about a kilometer away.

Watching his ex-underlings gradually going further away, Hanxue suddenly raised his neck and let out another reverberating neigh, his cry filled with loneliness and reluctance.

Zhang Che seemed to feel that Hanxue was feeling down, and extended his hand to caress his neck as consolation.

“Don’t worry. I’ll bring you back here in the future to visit them if an opportunity arises.”

With Zhang Che’s assurance, the Golden Elephorse King neighed cheerfully.

After taking a look behind him, the corners of Zhang Che’s lips hooked up into a mocking smile, wondering what look would the party that was following him have on their faces when they discover that this area was empty, with not a single Elephorse around.

“Let’s go, we have to leave here quickly.”

Zhang Che patted Hanxue’s neck. The godly mount under him immediately lengthened its gait, galloping towards the deeper part of the grasslands in another direction.

——

Not more than ten minutes after Zhang Che left riding on Hanxue, Zhang Yujie and the rest of the Ding Feng Corporation’s beastmasters finally arrived at the grasslands.

However, seeing the area before them had obvious signs of activities of a huge crowd of creatures, yet the grasslands was empty, the expressions on their faces were simply a sight to behold.

“Someone got ahead of us. We came too late!” For the first time, Zhang Yujie’s suave smile was missing from his handsome face, and he was gloomy.

“Zhang-shao, there should be a large herd of elephorses here not long ago, and seemed to have run in this direction. Should we give chase?” A beastmaster looked toward Zhang Yujie from the side, looking regretful, yet carried a hint of eagerness on his face.

“No, let’s go back.” Zhang Yujie turned his mount around instead, riding back in the direction he had come from.

Leaving the fact that the grasslands ahead was too far away from the safe zone, there were too many uncertain risks involved in pursuing them. Why would the elephorses around here previously migrate away? That added another layer of fog to Zhang Yujie’s mind.

There must be something behind the anomaly. For safety reasons, he decided not to give chase.

He felt regretful, however, knowing that there was a large herd of Elephorses here, and yet all he did so far was all for naught.