Chapter 49: Impending Trouble  

With a few quick slashes from Venombane, Zhang Lie bisected the blood ants on Chu Xun's body.

"Be more careful!" he admonished.

Before she could respond, he glided past her. Compared to her, Zhang Lie's gliding required far more skill, but he seemed even more adept at it than she was. As he shot silver strands out of his palms, he rapidly flew past the opening of several of the caves and masterfully harvested the blood whiskers there.

Chu Xun, having been rescued once, became much more serious about the affair, and she attentively watched Zhang Lie's harvesting technique.

Although she was mischievous, she was also quick-witted, and was able to obtain quite a number of blood whiskers during the glide down the hill—even more than Zhang Lie had collected during his first attempt.

"Alright, hand me what you have!"

As soon as they landed, Zhang Lie extended a palm toward her. She immediately handed over the blood whiskers she had gathered. Of course, she wasn't being perfectly honest: she had kept one or two stalks in her pouch for herself.

Zhang Lie guessed that she would do so, but he didn't much care about one or two stalks. Furthermore, after this harvest, it wouldn't matter whether or not the Chu clan learned of the blood whiskers' potency.

They glided down thrice more before Chu Xun lost all interest in the matter entirely, and she indicated that she would simply stay on the hill and watch Zhang Lie from now on.

Zhang Lie was very glad that she was finally deciding to do so: after all, every time she glided down with him, she seemed to cause even more trouble. How could Zhang Lie not be relieved that she was planning to stop?

As the winds blew around the hill, Zhang Lie began to gather the remaining blood whiskers in the Bloodcrystal Valley rapidly. As his strength grew, so did his efficiency. Without the girl disrupting him, Zhang Lie shot from cave to cave, almost seeming to leave afterimages with how quickly he moved. magic While he was busy harvesting his blood whiskers, Li Jin, who had arrived at the blackwater sands, found Li Hong's corpse and was informed of a mysterious black-cloaked man who could be implicated in the murder.

A storm of revenge was brewing on the horizon.

Now that he had a target, Li Jin immediately announced a bounty for information on this mysterious man across the entire settlement. Anyone who could provide information about this man would be able to obtain a thousand points from the Li corporation.

Under normal circumstances, this bounty would go unclaimed: Zhang Lie was a careful hunter, and there wasn't anything particularly distinctive about him. There were lots of hunters who went around in black cloaks. How could the hunters in the settlement distinguish among them?

However, Zhang Lie had been seen with the youngest daughter of the main branch of the Chu clan, Chu Xun. She was famed for her mischievous personality, and ordinary hunters would naturally keep an eye out for her so as to be able to get out of her way.

Many had seen them leaving the settlement together, and the Li clan's search could therefore be narrowed down.

Afterwards, amidst the temptation of all sorts of rewarding bounties, teams of hunters began to deduce and analyze where the pair could have gone.

In the best room in the Blackgold Inn, Li Jin sat waiting on a throne-like seat.

"Are his whereabouts known now?"

"Yes, Head! He's in the Bloodcrystal Valley!" his right-hand man answered.

"Li Hong was a useless hunter, but he's still a member of the Li clan, after all. We need to let the hunters in this settlement know what happens to those who dare go against the Li clan. Lead our best team of hunters out to the Bloodcrystal Valley. You know what to do: afterwards, hang his head outside the settlement gates for seven days as a warning to others!"

Li Jin might have seemed amiable from the outside, but he was actually a cold and cruel man.

"Yes, Head! In that case, what should we do with Chu Xun?"

Li Jin scowled. "Take her down if necessary, but make sure not to harm her. She's the prized granddaughter of the Chu head, and we can't touch her!"

"Understood, Head!" He was right about to lead his men out when Li Jin called him back, "Wait! With that girl around, I don't trust you to handle it. I'll lead the team myself."

As the Li clan mobilized, Chu Feng, who had just returned to the settlement after a day of hunting, heard about what happened to his sister almost as soon as he returned.

"What? She left with that mysterious hunter? And he even said that he wasn't going to guarantee her safety?! Why didn't you tail her?!" Chu Feng yelled at his guards, but they, having failed in their duty, didn't dare to rebuke him.

"Where did they go?"

"The Bloodcrystal Valley, young master!"

"The Bloodcrystal Valley? Forget it, punishing any of you now won't do any good. What are you waiting for? Gather a team of hunters and head there immediately!

"The Feng scouts just reported that he's the fellow who killed Li Hong, and that the Li clan's heading straight for him! Chu Xun's with him, so she might be in danger. What do you think will happen to you if she gets hurt? Even I wouldn't be able to protect you then!"

Chu Feng's two guards paled as they were reminded of what the Chu head was like when he was angry, and they rushed off in a gust of wind.

With both the Li and Chu clans mobilizing, the tension in the Blacksteel settlement reached an apex.

Fang Yi, Sun Mengmeng, and the others, who had left for an inn after the feast, naturally heard the news. The six of them sat before each other.

"What should we do? They're all going after the captain!" Fang Yi was the first to speak, his tone implying that he wasn't going to sit still and wait.

"What else can we do? We have to find him and help him out!" Li Feng, who tended to be shy, gathered the courage to say what they were all thinking.

"Right, we have to help! He even shared a few superior gene fragments with us, so how can we ditch him when he's in trouble?" Yang Ze added.

"We certainly can't just sit here, but given how weak we are, we won't be able to handle a direct confrontation either." Sun Mengmeng identified the key problem.

"Sis, we don't have any time to waste!" Sun Xiaowu muttered worriedly.

"Let me think for a moment. It's exactly in such situations that we need to be careful about how we act. You know that our captain isn't an easy fellow to deal with, and even if the Li and Chu clans work together, I doubt they'll be able to deal with him. As for us, we need to come up with a plan. If we head there without a good plan, we could well expose ourselves to retaliation, and we might mess up our captain's plan as well."

Sun Mengmeng's analysis was spot on. If they were to rush there the moment they heard the news, they might end up more hindrance than help.

"Since they're headed for the captain, they must suspect that he's the killer. Why don't we try to muddle the waters a bit?" Fang Yi suggested.