"Whimper, whimper, whimper..."
The sound was intermittent, like a human youngling crouched in a corner, crying, and it was elusive, making it hard to pinpoint the exact location.
But that was impossible; no one would bring a baby to such a place as the outer domain wilds.
"Do you recognize this sound?" Xiang Beifei asked.
Fan Kai and Sun Yushan looked at each other, pondering.
"Is it a Whimpering Creature?" Fan Kai asked.
"It doesn't seem like it. The Whimpering Creature's sound is like a little girl being coquettish, which I can't stand, but this sound is clearly a child's genuine crying." Sun Yushan said gravely.
"Then what desolate beast is it? I don't remember any other desolate beasts that cry apart from the Whimpering Creature." Fan Kai spoke.
The Whimpering Creature is a very cute desolate beast, resembling a rabbit, and it draws attention by whimpering, which is why it got the name "Whimpering Creature." But if you are attracted by its adorable appearance, the next moment it would pounce and bite through your throat!
However, the Whimpering Creature is only at the early stages of Qi-Controlling; most pioneers are not afraid of it and everyone could kill one with a single punch.
Sun Yushan listened intently, shaking his head, "It's hard to determine. Mr. Ye had said long ago that the desolate beasts of the outer domain wilds never stay in one place. It must be some desolate beast we are not familiar with passing through here."
They walked carefully forward, passing a building that looked like a derelict opera house, and then came upon a ruin overgrown with trees and crisscrossed buildings. On the wall of that ruin was a special mark, as if someone had drawn a circle with a branch, it was about the size of a wash basin.
"That place is a pioneer point set up by pioneers, also called a safe house." Fan Kai explained to Xiang Beifei, "Pioneers usually set up safe houses in various places while exploring the outer domain wilds, in case of emergency. Any cultivator who enters the outer domain wilds and sees a safe house can temporarily go inside to avoid desolate beasts."
Xiang Beifei nodded slightly; he had read about pioneer points in books, a spatial type of rest area with various food supplies, and also a good place to stay overnight, but this was his first time seeing one in the outer domain wilds.
The greatness of the pioneers lay here, as they were essentially paving the way for other subsequent explorers into the outer domain wilds and setting up many pioneer points, facilitating mutual assistance between them.
These pioneer points are camouflaged to avoid destruction by desolate beasts, so their locations are inconspicuous, but there's a simple sign to remind them, one generally only humans would understand what it meant.
The three of them were about to head to the pioneer point when Xiang Beifei suddenly felt something was off and let out a light yelp.
"Wait a second." Xiang Beifei said.
"What's wrong?" Fan Kai asked.
Xiang Beifei hesitated for a moment, looked around, stretched out his hand as if trying to grab something in the air but caught nothing, and then he furrowed his brow.
"What are you doing?" Sun Yushan asked.
Xiang Beifei said, "I don't know how to explain, I feel there's something off about this place. It might be my imagination, but I feel..."
He actually believed it was not his imagination, just that he could not be sure.
"What exactly is the situation? Speak up!" Sun Yushan asked sternly.
"Rule number two of the pioneer behavior code. In the outer domain wilds, you must never ignore any intuition! Many desolate beasts move unseen; you think it's just your imagination, but in reality, it's using your misconception to camouflage itself!" Fan Kai also vigilantly scanned the surroundings.
He and Sun Yushan had been navigating the outer domain wilds for three years, possessed incredibly rich experience, and their cultivation was at the Meridian Opening stage; they were almost ready to become full-fledged pioneers, quite unlike the freshly qualified students Guo Han and Sun Rui sent earlier by Yuchi Shen.
Even though Sun Yushan had some reservations about Xiang Beifei being a Sword Cultivator, she did not take his intuition lightly.
This reassured Xiang Beifei; the last thing he wanted to hear was his expressing concerns only to be rebuffed by Sun Yushan.
"Let me think for a second."
Xiang Beifei closed his eyes; the intuition had been sensed through his spiritual power. His range of spiritual power was still not very extensive, about ten meters or so around him, but if he focused his spiritual power into a line, he could extend this detection range much further, approximately several tens of meters.
His spiritual power slowly extended out, entering the building they had just passed, and at that moment, he sensed something, swiftly turned around, and at the same time, it seemed something had flitted past in the building behind them!
Fan Kai and Sun Yushan also turned around, and they too saw that fleeting shadow, the shadow's speed was very fast, it seemed to have been watching them continuously, and yet they had not noticed it until now!
"Is it a desolate beast?"
Fan Kai's body was surrounded by a cloud of dust as he vigilantly watched the building, ready to react to any sudden attacks.
The building was dark inside, those windows looking like black eyes coldly watching them, giving a rather eerie feeling.
"Does that look like a human shadow to you?" Sun Yushan said gravely.
"Or a human-like desolate beast? Maybe a type of monkey or ape?" Fan Kai asked.
"It's probably not a human."
Xiang Beifei shook his head; his spiritual power was newly mastered, and he was unable to form an image of it. The shadow had flashed by too quickly, almost in the blink of an eye.