Chapter 549: A Lifeform's Lair

Zhu broke Zhang Lie off. "Alright, alright, let's go! I'd like to see this lifeform for myself!"

Very quickly, the three of them ended up at a mountain close to Huai Geng's village, one filled with rocks and a sharp cliff. Waves lapped the cliff and broke against it.

This wasn't a particularly eye-catching location, filled with nothing but rocks and sea. Zhang Lie activated his dragon's eye soulshard. He didn't spot the soul of a disaster-grade lifeform, but there were some remnant traces of spiritual essence.

"Follow me!"

Remnant spiritual essence was produced when a lifeform was killed. In general, that essence dissipated very quickly. Most people were unable to see or sense the soul or spiritual essence, so such phenomena didn't tend to receive much attention.

That remnant spiritual essence would appear here, in such great quantities that there were still traces remaining, suggested that at least over a hundred lifeforms had recently died in the area.

With the two youths in tow, Zhang Lie flew around the cliff until he found a cave whose entrance seemed to have caved in. Huai Geng's eyes opened wide. "There was a cave here?"

Zhu asked, "You didn't know?"

Huai Geng shook his head. "The elders in the village told us that the cliff was extremely dangerous, and that we should avoid it if at all possible. I came over here a few times, but I can hardly traverse the cliff wall so easily. Mister, I'd like to learn how to do this too. Won't you teach me?"

Zhu rolled her eyes at him. "Even I haven't asked mister to teach me—it'd be my turn before yours!"

Zhang Lie ignored the squabbling children and picked up a piece of rubble. "This cave should only have caved in recently."

Zhu asked curiously, "How did you know, Mister?"

If it hadn't caved in recently, the spiritual essence would already have dissipated away. In other words, there had likely been something or someone living in the cave beforehand.

Huai Geng suddenly spoke up. "Ah! Perhaps this was the source of the commotion yesterday?"

Zhang Lie: ...

Zhu: …

Neither Zhang Lie nor Zhu spoke up, knowing the exact reason for the disturbance last night.

With a wave of his arm, Zhang Lie sent all the rubble flying into the sea.

Huai Geng shouted in excitement, "Mister, teach me that!"

"It's not your turn—it's mine!" Zhu shouted back.

A rotten odor swept over all three of them, causing the two youths to rear back and pinch their noses.

"Let's have a look at what's within." Zhang Lie stepped forward, trailed somewhat unwillingly by the other two youths. As he had expected, there were quite a number of bones within—both of peak-grade lifeforms and of the villagers that lived nearby.

"This might have been a lifeform's lair."

Huai Geng's gaze landed on a pile of bones and a bone flute that lay beside them. His body moved of its own accord; he walked up to the flute and murmured to himself, "What's this? How could it be here?"

Zhu crept up to him. "What's this?"

Huai Geng turned to her with tears in his eyes. "This is, this is my father's flute!"

Zhang Lie's gaze turned from the flute to the pile of bones nearby.

"My father said he would give me this flute as a gift for coming of age, but when the sura came, my father had no choice but to leave with them..."

Huai Geng wiped the tears from his face as he turned to the pile of bones.

Zhang Lie sighed. "Your father was a hero."

He pointed at the bones. "There are sura bones in here. How could the sura have died? Perhaps your father thought that the sura would terrorize your entire village if he let them leave, so he chose to sacrifice himself rather than to let them succeed."

Huai Geng raised his head. "Really? Could it be true?"

Zhang Lie shrugged. "It's very possible—in order to protect the village, your father deliberately provoked the lifeform and sentenced him and the accompanying sura to death."

Huai Geng smiled in relief. "Is that so? In that case, my father didn't desert me and my mother—he died to protect the village!"

Zhu looked toward Zhang Lie, who shrugged. Zhang Lie didn't know what had occurred himself, but it was certainly a plausible explanation. It was also possible that the sura had been the one to provoke the lifeform, and that Huai Geng's father had died as a side effect. No one could say for certain; it didn't hurt to give Huai Geng some hope.

Zhang Lie knelt down and went through the sura's bones in an attempt to find something to identify the sura.

"This is... Fenghe's emblem!"

When the seven-kingdom coalition had struck at Zhang Lie, he had taken the time to go through their insignias.

He pretty much understood what was going on now. About a decade ago, the monarch of stars handed his research materials to Fenghe, including the list of peak- or higher-grade lifeforms that he had collated. For some reason or another, Fenghe had dispatched some of his sura to seek them out.

Later, perhaps because he felt that his strength was lacking or because he realized he didn't have the ability to capture them, he gave up on his plan. Of the seven kingdoms, the only one which could take down higher-than-peak-grade lifeforms was Fenghe's, and even he would have a hard time capturing them alive. The effort that it would take to do so was far more than it was worth, so he had called a halt to the plan.

On the other hand, Zhang Lie was certainly well equipped to hunt these lifeforms down—he was now so strong that he didn't even have to fear disaster-grade lifeforms.

Zhu asked, "Right, now that this lair's been destroyed, where could the lifeform within have gone?"

Zhang Lie countered, "What would you do if your house collapsed?"

Huai Geng carefully stored the bone flute away. "I'd move, of course."

"Are there any locations well-suited to such lifeforms nearby?"

Huai Geng shook his head. "I didn't even know about the existence of this cave, and I don't know the region outside the village well."

Zhu frowned. "Could there be another possibility? That the lifeform didn't leave to find a new lair, but rather some food instead."

Huai Geng cocked his head. "Why would it go find food?"

Zhu replied, "According to my father, genetic lifeforms are very interesting creatures. If their lairs are destroyed, they will preferentially seek out a new lair far away, not nearby."

Zhang Lie mulled over her words. "It's possible."

Doing so might be a natural safety precaution—the fact that a lifeform's lair had been found and destroyed might mean that it was being targeted by an enemy.

"But what does this have to do with hunting for food?" Huai Geng asked.

Zhu countered, "What do you have to do before a big move?"

"Prepare as much food as possible, of course—oh!"