Chapter 39: The Hidden Hand in the Dark

Compared to fighters, magicians were undoubtably more grandiose.

There were three main reasons.

First, there were far fewer people with the talent for magic, compared to those for fighting,

Second, magicians had more skills and more ways to apply them compared to fighters. 

Third, even if they didn’t have extraordinary personal strength, their knowledge was still enough for them to do many things.

Mo Kong was not a magician, he was only a warlock. However, when he was concealing his identity, even he had a way of restraining his aura,

When he was acting alone, he was very prudent. He didn’t infiltrate Snake Rat Island by swimming in or flying in. Instead, he snuck aboard a ship traveling by, replaced someone he murdered, and used that identity to successfully come ashore.

Now, he was mixing in with the crowd, with his eyes gazing at the doors of the Hunting Guild.

A tall and sturdy human fellow was walking through the doors, it was Shi Qi (Zong Ge).

Zong Ge calmly held a bloodstained sack in his hand.

Fellows of the Hunting Guild passed by him, most of them were ordinary hunters, while a few were cultivators.

They gathered by the side of the front desk, and raised their head to look at the missions posted on the magic noticeboard on the ceiling.

Zong Ge’s arrival attracted the attention of many.

His body brimmed with the aura of a silver level fighter, no one could devalue him.

Upon seeing Zong Ge, the receptionist at the front desk blankly stared at him for a moment, then jogged from behind the desk and grinned widely, “Lord Shi Qi, good morning.”

Long Fu and Shi Qi’s arrival had attracted the attention of the island’s upper class.

The evening that they had landed, Tan Qiu had invited them to dinner, causing information of what Long Fu, Shi Qi, and others looked like to quickly circulate.

Zong Ge nodded, then threw the sack onto the ground, causing one of the heads to roll out like a ball.

In the guild, someone immediately cried out.

“Ah, that looks like Da Zhao.”

“I heard a group got rid of Dao Zhao’s pirate group, took all of their ships, and used them to beat back Rou Zang. Don’t tell me that really happened?”

Zong Ge opened his mouth, his voice was low and deep, “Check them, these are the leaders of Da Zhao’s pirate group.”

The receptionist stiffened for a moment, then resumed his prior composure, “Understood. We will do that now, please wait for us for a moment.”

Upon saying that, he put Da Zhao’s head back into the sack, then carried the sack into the back of the guild.

Zong Ge took this opportunity to move towards the front desk and raise his head to look over the information on the magic board.

Wherever he went, other hunters would automatically step aside.

“That wretched guy!” When Warlock Mu Ban witnessed the scene hidden in the crowd, he couldn’t help but grind his teeth.

The magic panel had many writings and images on it, and every few minutes, it would change.

Zong Ge first saw many bounty postings for pirates.

The Pirate Throne had appeared, causing these pirates to rise up like mad.

He wanted to check how much the bounty for Da Zhao’s pirates was when his gaze suddenly paused, he noticed there was a reward for finding Zhen Jin.

Zhen Jin pretended to be Hei Juan, and after being shipwrecked, became the survivors’ captive on Mystifying Monster Island. Nowadays, he was in a coma and held on the Deep Sea Monster Fish.

He was a formidable negotiation chip, and survivors planned to use him to negotiate with the Bai Zhen clan.

Because of special circumstances, Zhen Jin was the Bai Zhen clan’s only heir, and could not be replaced. 

Therefore, after Zhen Jin and Zi Di went missing, the Bai Zhen clan mobilized their entire strength to search for him. Since a missing poster of Zhen Jin appeared on Snake Rat Island, Zong Ge undoubtably knew that it was also posted at other islands and other imperial coastal cities.

Besides pirate bounties and finding Zhen Jin, there were many missions of the same type.

Hunting missions.

Most of the hunts assignments were for tide snakes and smelt rats.

There were Snake Rat Island’s signature magic beasts that lived in its underground caverns, there were many communities of them that lived and had multiplied there for many years. There was no lack of silver level magic beast leaders among them. In the subterranean abyss, someone even noticed traces of gold level magic beasts.

In fact, these missions were the Hunting Guild’s main business venue.

Criminal bunties, finding people, and other tasks were considered affiliated tasks.

Identical bounty orders, search and rescue orders, and other missions could be seen in the Thief Guild, the Mercenary Guild, the Alchemy Guild, and so on.

Snake Rat Island was not big, it only had a Hunting Guild office. If one wanted to see these bounties and other missions, this was the only place they could.

Of course, Snake Rat Island hadn’t been build up and developed for long.

As time passed, this place would grow more prosperous.

The Sheng Ming Empire had invaded the Wilderness Continent, and it begun to clearly drive the development and trade of some regions.

Zong Ge waited for a while for the receptionist to come back to him.

“Lord Shi Qi, the head has been verified.”

“This is your bounty.”

Zong Ge took a full punch of money.

“Are you interested in joining the Hunting Guild? After completing some missions, the guild will give you some special rewards. In light of your strength, what magic beast can be your opponent?”

The receptionist used praise to attract Zong Ge.

Gold level existences usually were stationed in a region and had authority.

Silver levels were the main target for guild recruitment. Especially someone like Zong Ge, someone who could vie with an expert like Rou Zang, he was an extremely valuable person to attract.

But Zong Ge shook his head and expressed his disinterest, then left the Hunting Guild.

Warlock Mo Kong watched him leave and didn’t shadow him.

He twitched his nose, breathing in the stink of blood in the air as he slowly walked to the back of the Hunting Guild office.

In the pile of trash in the corner, he found the sack.

The bloodstained sack no longer had the heads in it.

Wherever Mo Kong touched the sack, bloodstains would melt away and coagulate into blood that flowed into his garments, across his body, and into his nose.

“The victims’ blood, the murderer’s aura, very good, this is a good start.” Mo Kong complacently sneered and left.

Above his head, a group of birds flapped their wings as they streaked across the air.

No one detected anything peculiar about this group of birds, it was the scout bird models.

In the Deep Sea Monster Fish, Zi Di was controlling these birds.

On the walls, a light projection was created from screens showing the point of view of every bird. 

Mo Kong did not notice these strange birds while Zi Di hadn’t seen through Mo Kong’s disguise. 

There were too many screens, too many images flashing past. Mo Kong ‘s disguise method was outstanding, it far exceeded these scout birds’ detection capabilities. 

The entire bird’s-eye-view of Snake Rate Island was gradually being filled in.

As time passed, both the buildings Tan Qiu had on Snake Rat Island and the military layout present could be seen from a panoramic view.

The island was quite round, however on the northeast corner, a piece of it seemed to have been bitten out.

The nick was a wide crescent moon shaped shoal, both ends of which abruptly rose up. There were obvious traces of manmade explosives visible.

This shoal was Snake Rat Island’s only harbor.

Apart from this, although the island was round, it was all sheer cliffs and precipitous rock faces.

On the surrounding cliffs, large flocks of seabirds danced in the breeze. They nested in the cliffs and caught fish in the sea.

The sea wind was strong, creating waves that constantly struck the cliffs in a spray of seawater.

There wasn’t much vegetation on the island, most places were bare and covered in odd stone crags.

From time to time, natural tunnel entrances will appear on the surface. These cave mouths are all dark green, and are very conspicuous from the air. The big ones are nearly fifty meters in diameter, while the smaller ones are at least ten.

These caves all connect to the underground.

Snake Rat Island has a massive subterranean area under it. The most abundant natural resource in it are the two magic beast groups, the smelt rats and tide serpents.

“But the Green Jade Gold Coffin was not teleported there.”

When Zi Di saw that, she quietly sighed to herself.

If it had been teleported there, the survivors would find it considerably troublesome to search for it.

The island inhabitants mostly gathered in three areas. The biggest congregation was the port. Streams of people shuttled through the town, it was bustling. The other two were villages that had people coming and going. One of the village’s industry was lumbering yards, while the other was open air mining.

After conducting a basic scan of Snake Rat Island, Zi Di had the scouts fly back t o town to continue investigating.

The town’s most conspicuous building was undoubtably Tan Qiu’s castle.

Although the castle wasn’t big, it was very new. Even though Zi Di hadn’t studied architecture much, she could tell with a glance that it was a fortification that met military standards, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The castle occupied a high slope. Beneath the slope, the terrain gradually leveled, it was the upper class district.

In the upper district, the streets were wide and there were several important buildings there.

Outside of the wealthy district, there were the slums. Large and small shacks were packed tightly along with many people, it was squalid.

As the slums spread towards the port, it became prosperous again.

The port had a market, their main product was fresh fish.

Breakfast had already pasted, and people continually streamed through the town. 

Zi Di gradually grew absent-minded, when she saw these sights, she sensed a thriving vitality.

An urge to throw herself into this place arose in her heart.

People were social beings.

Mystifying Monster Island was a place of imminent crisis and lurking danger, the Deep Sea Monster Fish was cramped and terribly busy, the boundless ocean made the survivors feel insignificant, and Rou Zang pursuing them put them on edge.

Now, Zi Di finally saw civilization, and saw the society she was oh so familiar with. Even if she was merely a spectator, happiness and tranquility still sprung up in her heart.

A few scout birds landed on the ships.

Some on the sides, others on the window sills.

“As expected, this is a slave ship.” After Zi Di saw the images, she understood what it was depicting. 

This small fleet had made port next to the survivors’ five ships, of course they wanted to probe them.

“Slave ships mostly transport ox-men, this kind of beastman make for good plowing slaves.”  

“Hm, I’ve detected a cemetery. In addition to the slaughterhouse, perhaps Cang Xu can gather some resources here too.”

The scout birds displayed their extraordinary practicality as they gained more and more information.

Through the birds’ perspective, Zi Di saw Cang Xu and Zong Ge.

The two were walking out of a store,

It was Snake Rat Island’s biggest store, it belonged to the Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance.

The merchant alliance magician stationed there personally said farewell to Zong Ge and Cang Xu.

On the one hand, it was to give face to Long Fu and Shi Qi, on the other hand, Cang Xu had given the store its biggest transaction yet.

Cang Xu sold most of the Soft Heart Stone and purchased many goods in exchange.

“I will reserve the goods you need for the time being, however, I also ask for your understanding. We cannot keep goods we cannot sell.” The merchant alliance magician reminded as they parted.

Zong Ge nodded, his tone tranquil, “I understand.”

The merchant alliance magician smiled back, “Then I look forward to attending you two again!”

Enroute on the return trip, Cang Xu couldn’t help but frown.  

Many resources were out of stock, even worse, the survivors didn’t have much money on hand, and could not even buy all of things that were available.

The survivors hadn’t gotten a lot of money from Mystifying Monster Island.

Zong Ge was also somewhat disappointed.

He didn’t find anything that could help his arm injury.

“Perhaps Tan Qiu has the thing I want.”

But if that is so, Tan Qiu will undoubtedly use it to get us to collaborate with him to deal with Rou Zang.

That did not conform with the survivors’ plan.

“It seems healing it can only be put aside for the time being. I’ll wait for another opportunity on another island.”

Zong Ge and Cang Xu sank into deep thought.

For a short time, when Zi Di’s gaze lingered on these two, she too began to muter to herself.

Of the survivors, these two were the strongest and only second to the dragonman youngster. Although Cang Xu was only at the iron level, he had necromancy and had many ghosts that could menace Zong Ge greatly.

Zong Ge hated necromancy, while Cang Xu was vigilant against Zong Ge. This was what the experience on Mystifying Monster Island had produced.

Anyways, during the prior battle with Rou Zang, Zong Ge had willingly taken blows for Cang Xu when the latter was in danger.

Currently, the two’s relationship had eased up greatly.

This time, because they needed to trade and were facing a silver level magician, Zong Ge and Cang Xu decided to partner up together.

After the trade was completed, the two had a lot of supplies on them, thus they also needed Zong Ge’s strength to safeguard the goods.

The survivors did not know that not long after Cang Xu and Zong Ge departed, the warlock, Mo Kong, also entered the store.

Using his successful disguise, he deliberately expressed pleasant surprise, “Did you say you had a large amount of Soft Heart Stone?”

“How wonderful!”

“Quick, let me examine the goods.”

A moment later, with a Soft Heart Stone in hand, Mo Kong left the store.

“Very good, this time, I have gathered the aura of that old magician.” He sneered in his heart.