The group of people glanced at each other before turning to Red together. Seeing them all stare at itself, the latter immediately grew alert again. In response, the cat popped its pair of red eyes and looked at those people with vigilance.
"Maybe you can take us to that area," Lin Qiao said to the cat again with zombie roars.
"Goooo?" 'Which area?'
Red tilted its head with confusion.
"Where the creature that ordered you and your friends to leave lives. You don't need to take us to the exact spot. Just take us to the area," said Lin Qiao.
She should be able to detect that creature once she approached that area. Even if she couldn't sense the creature's presence, she would have a way to lure it out. Of course, to do that, she had to approach that area. Judging by the vibes that she could currently sense, the area she was now in was clearly not that level-nine creature's territory. The creatures who lived nearby were all at level-eight, and they each occupied a part of the area.
To find the level-nine creature's territory, one surely needed to pass through the territories of those level-eight creatures. Lin Qiao needed the red cat to guide her way, so she wouldn't waste time searching aimlessly.
"Whooo…" Red lowered its body and moved slightly backward. However, hesitation could be detected from its eyes which were fixed on Lin Qiao.
"Or, maybe you can point out the direction for us. You don't need to take us there," Lin Qiao thought for a moment and said to the cat.
The zombies on the scene were able to understand Lin Qiao's zombie roars. Based on that, they could roughly guess the contents of her conversation with the cat. Unlike them, Duan Juan and Li Zheng were utterly confused at the moment. They had no idea what the zombie and the beast were talking about. All they heard was Lin Qiao and the cat roaring at each other.
"What is she saying?" Duan Juan couldn't help but ask out of curiosity.
"Oh, she told the cat that if it doesn't want to take us to the level-nine creature, it can just take us to the area where the creature lives. If it doesn't even want to do that, it should at least point out the direction for us, so we don't have to search blindly." Standing on her side, Lu Tianyi answered.
Duan Juan nodded and said, "Em, that will work. We can't count on the big cat to draw us a map, but it can show us the way."
"Aooooo…" On hearing Lin Qiao's degraded request, the big cat stood back up and shook its whiskers. Then, it opened its mouth and gurgled toward Lin Qiao.
"What do you want to say?" Lin Qiao spent two seconds looking at the cat and then asked
The cat stopped short and realized that Lin Qiao didn't understand what it just said. It gave a long sigh and sat down before scratching the ground with a paw.
"Obviously!" Lu Tianyi nodded affirmatively.
At that moment, Red stood up and turned around while wagging its tail. Then, it turned back to give Lin Qiao a glance. After that, it raised a paw and waved at her. "Obviously," Lu Tianyi nodded affirmatively. Next, the cat sprung up and hopped onto a mutated vine plant.
"Follow the cat!" Lin Qiao immediately glanced at the group of people on her right side and gave the order. Then, she followed quickly behind the cat and headed forward. The group of zombies and people followed her and the cat swiftly through the weird-looking underground woods.
With the cat guiding the way, Lin Qiao and her people easily avoided the dangerous zones, heading straight toward the deeper underground world. No accidents happened on their way.
The deeper underground the cat led them two, the wider the space became. The poisonous energy that gathered on top of the space grew thicker and thicker; even the whirlwind-shaped swirls were thicker than the ones in the upper area.
After spending a long while running, the big cat abruptly stopped, standing on a leafless plant as it raised its ear and wagged its tail to look around. It stomped its six feet against the plant but never made another step forward.
"What's wrong?" Lin Qiao asked the cat.
"Looooo…" The cat turned to her and uttered a weird sound. Then, it sat down on the branch and stopped moving.
"Are we getting there?" Lin Qiao thought for a moment and asked.
She had been keeping track of the distance. Her current location was less than a hundred miles away from the previous one. Did she arrive already?
The big cat shook its head as it raised a paw and pointed at the ground. Following the cat's caw with her eyes, Lin Qiao saw the thick wood of underground plants. She narrowed her eyes to observe the area and saw nothing but the purple-red energy above her head. Nothing unusual was found.
Then, she sniffed at the air and sensed a water scent.
"Is there a source of water in the front? Did you stop moving because the water area is dangerous?" Lin Qiao turned to the cat and murmured to herself after sensing the water scent.
Duan Juan, Li Zheng, and the others landed not far away behind Lin Qiao. On hearing what she said, Lu Tianyi nodded and said, "I sensed the water too. It's about a mile away from us. Is the cat afraid of water?"
Lin Qiao gave Lu Tianyi a glance before turning back to the cat. Shaking her head, she said, "No, it's not afraid of water. I think it's afraid of something in the water. Can you sense the vibes hiding in the water?"
The question was for Lu Tianyi.
Lu Tianyi shook his head and said, "No. It's too far away. I'll be able to sense them if I can touch the water."
He had water power, so he could sense the things in the water times more strongly than the others could. By touching the water, he could find out what was hiding deep within.
Lin Qiao furrowed her brows slightly as she thought of the river she saw earlier. "Maybe it's like the river we saw earlier. Maybe the water contains some other kind of energy. Anyhow, we need to get there and take a look. The cat led us here, so this must be the only way to go… We might need to cross the river."
After saying that, she looked at the cat and asked it with zombie roars, "How far are we from the destination?"
"Looooo…" The cat raised a paw and pointed ahead a few times.
Lin Qiao still didn't understand what the cat meant. She pointed at head and then said, "We will keep going. Aren't you coming with us?" But, she understood the cat's meaning in the next moment. "Oh, are you saying that you're not going, and that we can go alone? We just need to go straight ahead, right?"
As she expected, the cat nodded at her this time.