"Where did you see it?" Boggy grabbed Ma Lu's hand excitedly upon hearing the words.
"Let me think, it was near Gate No. 2, I guess," Ma Lu answered, "Are you going over there?"
"Yes, but we need to meet up with Captain He Chengyu's group first," Boggy said, "Also, there's another favor I'd like to ask of you."
"What is it?"
Boggy looked at the corpses on the ground, his expression somewhat complex, "After all, Guli was the leader of Harpist. I hope to leave him with some dignity. Could you say that he died in a beast attack to the outside world?"
"Sure, I have no objections," Ma Lu readily said.
He had never intended to claim this achievement. First, there was no sense of accomplishment—ending it in one move—and also, as a long-established hunter, Guli had many relatives and friends in the city, while there were still many people left in Harpist.
Ma Lu wasn't afraid of these people coming to trouble him, but it would have been annoying if it became an endless saga like Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather. It was simpler to just push this matter onto those beasts.
Mai Mai and Sadie had no objections either. The four quickly aligned their stories and then headed towards the agreed-upon meeting point.
Unlike their prior cautiousness, although they still encountered many beasts along the way, the creatures scattered in all directions at the sight of Ma Lu and no longer attacked the squad.
Mai Mai couldn't help but be amazed, seeing this, "Deputy leader, how many beasts did you actually kill before?"
"I lost count," Ma Lu said, "Anyway, apart from going to Little Bear Bar for a drink, I fought continuously for the previous four hours."
Initially, it was Ma Lu who wished to call it quits, but the beasts were unwilling to stop the fight. Moreover, often before one battle was over, new beasts were attracted by the commotion and joined the assault.
Thanks to the [Blood of Immortality] and [Weakness Concealment], Ma Lu could barely survive in the sea of monsters. Otherwise, even with his high Attributes, as an ordinary person, he would inevitably have moments of carelessness.
He could have died dozens of times from just the injuries accumulated from battle after battle. However, once he had collected enough blessings, it was Ma Lu's turn to counterattack, and the beasts met their end amidst cheerful laughter, calling out GG.
Later on, Ma Lu didn't value white and blue blessings much anymore.
So, he didn't stay in one place but started roaming about proactively, looking for high-star ingredients to target.
However, most high-star ingredients were very large and even if he could capture them alive, he couldn't fit them whole into the Collection Bag.
"No problem," Ma Lu said, "I previously went to the vicinity of Gate 2 to collect blessings... Ah, no, I mean to investigate, and discovered that a number of powerful wild beasts were gathered there. I wanted to attract a few of them, but I found they were different from the beasts in the city."
"They hardly moved around, staying in a small area, and as long as I didn't enter that zone, even if they spotted me, they wouldn't attack on their own initiative. It was as if, mmm... as if they were guarding something, and that's also where the sand was red, different from other places."
"That's excellent, this information is very important to us." He Chengyu's face showed delight, then he turned to He Yueji and said, "Quick, contact the other two squads and relay this message to them."
Although He Yueji was somewhat reluctant to leave Ma Lu, she knew that important matters took precedence, and could only pull out her radio communicator to call the other two squads.
One of the squads happened to be just ten minutes away from Gate 2, and upon receiving the information, immediately went to investigate.
He Chengyu and the leader of another squad decided to move towards Gate 2, with the three squads agreeing to meet in front of Gate 2.
After ending the communication, the team moved out again.
He Chengyu, upon hearing about the tragedy that had befallen Guli, did not ask further, but expressed his condolences to Boggy and the others.
His attention was focused more on Ma Lu.
Not only because of his sister He Yueji's unusual enthusiasm but also because Ma Lu managed to survive so long alone on the beast-infested first level and even discovered such important information.
Both his courage and strength impressed He Chengyu.
He Chengyu also noticed that the spirits and morale of the three members from the Twin Sunflower Hunting Group had changed drastically since Ma Lu's return.
What surprised He Chengyu even more came later when they set off again and no wild beasts attacked or harassed them anymore; instead, they all stayed far away.
Not just He Chengyu, but the others also noticed the unusual behavior of the surroundings and couldn't help but discuss amongst themselves. He Yueji, unlike the others, didn't speculate wildly but directly clung to one of Ma Lu's arms and asked.
"Hey, it was you who scared away those beasts, wasn't it?"
"Half and half," he replied.
"What do you mean by half and half?"
"Some of their leaders were taken down by me, so it's no surprise they ran when they saw me. But there are many I never even came across, and for them to run away too, now that's a bit strange." Ma Lu stroked his chin.