Tao and Naim soon left after collecting a small batch of blood that was still sizzling like hot oil.
Hao Xuan didn't stop, simply watching as their silhouettes vanished from view. Henrik, who was still covering his face with a handkerchief, jumped over to Hao Xuan while avoiding as much of the blood as possible.
"Will it be okay since they saw you? Won't it know?"
Hao Xuan shook his head gently, "No, it doesn't work like that. It's not on them itself right now so it's fine. We'll have a very small window when it does show itself. Is your formation ready?" he glanced at Henrik from the side.
Henrik waved his hand carelessly, "You just focus on your thing. I will do my part."
Hao Xuan nodded and closed his eyes, concentrating on healing his injuries.
The reason he had chosen this out of the way place for training was because of the beast, Sominum Triton. Its name was quite a mouthful so Hao Xuan decided to call it salamander instead because that's what its body resembled.
It took Henrik more than a week before he was able to find a location that fulfilled all the requirements. The village Tao and Naim came from was what Hao Xuan came for as well.
In the last few months, more than five people had died mysteriously. Some were stricken by illness when they ventured out to get food like Naim's sister. Some simply vanished and their bodies were found sometime later.
The villagers were worried and reported the incident to the higher authorities but there always seemed to be a reasonable explanation for the disappearances or deaths so nothing was done about it.
Taking the case of Naim's sister for example. Everything fit perfectly. It was her own mistake that she wandered so far from the village and got poisoned, but she had spent her whole life in this place.
It wasn't her first time going out either yet how did she get lost and wander so far away from the village and into the area of a well-known beast?
It was all the salamander's doing. It could confuse people, lower their inhibitions and make them do things that would normally be out of the question.
After camping on this mountain for a few days a thread of hope had shown itself.
Once Naim brings back the blood, the poison will be cured and his sister will be fine. But that's not good for the salamander since it needs the 'host' to die. It will have no choice but to switch hosts and jump to someone else, and for that it will show itself.
Ordinarily, that is the only time it can be caught. Once it is attached to the host, it will be crawl into his or her's subconscious and start the whole process again.
Naim and Tao managed to reach the village within the hour and before the sun had set, the antidote was administered and his sister started to get better.
**
Since the beast world was so absolutely massive, the seasons were varied a lot by region. Even the city below the Academy always had several different seasons at once since it covered tens of thousands of kilometers from one side to the other. It would be summer in one area and winter in the other.
Likewise, the climate in this region was quite temperate. Although during the day it would be relatively hot and humid but at night it would become chilly again.
**
The village was about two kilometers in diameter. It was located on the side of a rocky mountain and was surrounded by trees on all sides but one.
The population was just above a thousand with most of them being hunters, gatherers and a few farmers that grew some corps that were only suitable for the area so when night fell, it signaled the end of the working day.
1:30 A.M.
The streets were completely empty and not a light could be seen anywhere. All the houses were basically simple one-story wooden huts with a few extra bells and whistles.
A handful of guards roamed the top of the city walls which was made from giant logs. There didn't seem to be any formations or even a sign of any cultivators around this place.
By all means it was a simple little village that had nothing out of the ordinary.
In the distance, faint growls and howls of small beasts could be heard but there was nothing too dangerous.
The curtain silence was broken by the snapping of a twig a few meters outside the north wall. The nearby guard quickly became attentive and unsheathed his sword while observing the thick growth near the wall.
He stood in place for well over a minute before he gave up and continued the patrol. The branches of a tree nearby shook and several shadows silently entered the village, jumping over the 5-meter tall wall like it wasn't even there.
Hao Xuan slapped the back of Henrik's head angrily, "I told you to watch where you step. How the hell are you so bad at this?"
Henrik swiftly retaliated, trying to slap him back but Hao Xuan leaned back and avoided him effortlessly. Henrik's face contorted in anger as well, "Fuck you, stop hitting me you fat bitch.. Your hands are heavier than a hammer," he spat while flinging his arms in the dark, hitting nothing and no one.