Chapter 255: Suspicious Identity
"Liang Qian, my summoning monster has detected the monster that I'm hunting down. I need to make a move. I'm sorry!" Sensing Bloody's notification, Lin Huang had to leave right away. Of course, Liang Qian knew that Lin Huang had been waiting in the desert for many days just for the monster. Although she had no idea what he was after, she smiled and nodded anyway.
"Go ahead then. Your matter is more important and you've been waiting for many days now. There's nothing urgent on my side. I can handle myself."
"Okay, let's get each other's contact number. I'll contact you after I'm done with my task. I'll try to make it to Du Feng's and the rest's funeral." After exchanging contacts, Lin Huang left.
As he exited the Hunter Association's entrance, Lin Huang projected the map of Meteorite Desert immediately and asked Bloody, "Where did you detect the Starlight Beast?"
Bloody extended its twine and pointed at the map, then Lin Huang marked the coordinates immediately. He then summoned the Alexandrian Eagle and patted its back. "Head northeast."
The Alexandrian Eagle flapped its wings and headed northeast.
Four hours later, it landed at the destination. Lin Huang leaped off the Alexandrian Eagle's back and recalled it.
"Bloody, is the Starlight Beast still here?" Lin Huang looked around. Aside from sand, he did not see anything else.
"It's gone. It was killing another gold-level monster that appeared nearby four hours ago, according to one of my parasite hosts. After the killing was done, it left with the body. It was too fast, so my parasite's host did not manage to catch up with it," Bloody scrawled on the ground.
"If the hunting was done here, its nest should be nearby and not too far away," Lin Huang figured.
"Bloody, spread some of your pods here. We shall camp out here for a couple of days. Hopefully, we should be able to find something."
"There's no need to do that. Let's see if there's an oasis around; it should be hiding there," Bloody wrote.
"In the oasis? Why would you say so? From what I remember, the monster encyclopedia never mentioned that the monster likes areas that are rich with plants," Lin Huang questioned.
"The monster encyclopedia had never mentioned that but the open desert isn't suitable for it to hide in. Such a monster has pride and it wouldn't want to hide in places such as caves. The only place that it could be possibly hiding would be an oasis," Bloody explained.
"That makes sense." After hearing Bloody's explanation, Lin Huang projected again, enlarging the areas nearby looking for an oasis.
Soon Lin Huang found out that there were three oases nearby. There was one in the north, one in the west and one in the northeast.
"Looking at the distance, the one in the west is nearest to the location we are currently standing in. However, the one in the north looks like it's the biggest. There's even a huge lake in the middle," Lin Huang observed the three locations he had found on the map.
"Let's go to the north and see," Bloody suggested.
"Sure, let's go to the north then," Lin Huang accepted Bloody's suggestion.
He summoned the Alexandrian Eagle again and headed north. It was around 280 kilometers from the location that Lin Huang was standing at previously. In 20 minutes, the Alexandrian Eagle arrived at the destination and landed at the border of the oasis. It was big with lush greenery and it felt like there was a primitive jungle that had appeared in the desert out of nowhere.
After recalling the Alexandrian Eagle, Lin Huang explored the jungle while looking at the map. Purple parasite pods were sprayed out from his sleeve into the jungle air. Following the directions, Lin Huang arrived at the lake after 10 minutes. He walked to the side of the lake and cupped the lake water with both his palms. He took a sip of the water after sniffing it.
"There's nothing wrong with the water, it's drinking water. This lake should be the water source of many monsters nearby," Lin Huang observed.
"Let's stay here for awhile, I'm afraid we might catch the Starlight Beast's attention if we go further in. Such a monster doesn't like seeing humans. If it noticed me, it might run away. You might reveal yourself if you do mass parasitizing, so let's spread your pods around here and get them to watch. If the Starlight Beast is really in this oasis, it'll definitely drink from this lake. We will get it then," Lin Huang said to Bloody.
Bloody nodded. It had not stopped spreading its pods ever since they entered the jungle. Lin Huang returned into the jungle and climbed up a big tree and sat on a branch. The tree was filled with overlapping leaves. From the bottom, nobody could see Lin Huang on top of the tree. As long as he did not make any noise, he would basically be undetectable. Just when he had settled down on the tree, he received a message. He looked at it immediately. It was a message from Liang Qian.
"Brother Ye, thank you for taking care of me for the past few days. If not for you, I would have been dead. Thank you for bringing back the bodies of Brother Du and the rest as well as bringing me to the forensic. As soon as my father knew about the attack, he came to get me. I'm at their graves retrieving their belongings and I will head back to Sakura City with my father. The funeral will be held in Sakura City as well. I don't have the exact time yet, but I will contact you again once the time is confirmed."
"Sure, safe journey," Lin Huang gave her a simple reply.
...
In the Meteorite Dessert, a young, short-haired man was digging the grave next to the withered tree while a serious middle-aged man stood beside Liang Qian. She received a reply from Lin Huang shortly after she sent the message. She looked at the message immediately.
"Who is that?" The middle-aged man next to her frowned.
"Brother Ye," Liang Qian replied without even lifting her head up.
"Oh, is he the one who saved you a few days back?" The man's frown deepened even more.
"Try not to contact him anymore," he added.
"Why not?" Liang Qian was puzzled and looked at her father.
"I suspect his identity is fake. He told you that he killed the two Saint members with the assistance of the Hunter Association. From what I know, although the Hunter Association was hunting down the two members, none of them encountered the both of them."
"The most skeptical thing is the way the two members died. Their bodies were found and the post-mortem report showed that the younger member was killed by the bearded Saint member."
"I think this Ye Xiu guy is trying to approach you with bad intentions." The man looked at Liang Qian with all seriousness.
"I don't think so. Even if he's using a fake identity, I believe he has his own reasons. I'm also using a fake identity, so according to your logic, I'm a bad person as well. As for the cause of death, the two members might have been killed with spells. There're many people who could do that, so what makes you think that Brother Ye is capable of doing that?" Liang Qian insisted to speak from Lin Huang's perspective.
"You..." The man was upset.
"Dad, stop fighting over this with her. If they start dating, I'll watch them," the short hair man who was digging shouted.
"This girl is spoilt rotten by you!" yelled the middle-aged man and he stopped arguing with Liang Qian.
Liang Qian did not say anything about her brother's suggestion. She knew that her father and brother were concerned for her. Soon, all the belongings in the sand were dug out and stored properly.
"Is there anything left behind?" Liang Qian was worried.
"I have checked three times, don't worry about it," replied the short hair man.
"Alright then..." Liang Qian nodded. Seeing that the man was drenched in sweat, she did not want him to continue digging.
"Let's go home then," said the middle-aged man and he summoned a blue dimensional relic. The three of them entered it and after the door was closed, they disappeared...