A Familiar Scent

There were two kinds of Humanoids in the Beichen Empire.

One kind could freely switch between Beast Form and human form. They belonged to the Untouchable class of the Beichen Empire and were permitted to enter Mulan City, living in the specially designated South District.

The other kind could not switch back into a complete human form. For example, that half-human, half-horse Humanoid who remained so until death belonged to the slave class of the Beichen Empire.

Slaves were not allowed to live within Mulan City on Guiyuan Star.

From the moment they were born, they were sent to the Humanoid Slave breeding centers outside the city.

Once they grew up, they were confined to plantations outside the city, under the strict control of the Beichen Empire, unable to leave the plantations for the rest of their lives.

So how had these Humanoid Slaves escaped the heavily guarded plantations and come to the Land of the Far North in the Exotic Beast Forest, a hundred thousand kilometers from Mulan City?

They had no grudge against each other, so why were they attacking the Dark Night Hunter Team? Xia Chujian had heard Aunt say that the Humanoids of Mulan City had habits very close to those of animals. Especially the Humanoid Slaves outside the city—they would not actively attack humans unless their lives were threatened, in which case they would fight back.

And among Humanoid Slaves, those who fought back were a tiny minority.

Most Humanoid Slaves had long been raised to be little different from animals.

They possessed an instinctive fear of humans, along with the helpless weakness of those who surrendered without resistance.

Xia Chujian had never seen Humanoid Slaves actively attack humans before.

She pressed her lips together and tightened her finger around the trigger, aiming at the pig-head Humanoid.

Just then, through the objective lens of her Sniper Rifle, she saw the pig-head Humanoid suddenly tilt his head, as though listening for something.

Only then did Xia Chujian notice that there seemed to be something like an earpiece in the pig-head Humanoid's ear.

They were being controlled by someone!

Xia Chujian understood at once.

This was not a simple case of Humanoid Slaves attacking humans. Humans were controlling these Humanoid Slaves from behind the scenes and using them to attack her team! Anyone capable of obtaining Humanoid Slaves from the plantations outside Mulan City, then bringing them all the way to the Land of the Far North in the Exotic Beast Forest a hundred thousand kilometers away, had considerable influence...

As Xia Chujian pieced everything together, she gradually felt that something was wrong.

Her finger tightened further on the trigger.

The pig-head Humanoid had a bow on his back and a quiver hanging from the grass rope around his waist, with several arrows inside.

The moment he drew an arrow and raised his bow, she would act.

With the power of her Judicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle, she could take out a pig-head Humanoid armed with nothing but an ordinary bow in minutes.

But just as Xia Chujian's killing intent deepened, the pig-head Humanoid seemed to sense something and looked in her direction.

His movements froze for An Instant.

At that critical moment, a Small Dog entered Xia Chujian's objective lens view.

It was actually the same Small Dog Xia Chujian had seen a few days ago, appearing beside the pig-head Humanoid!

The pig-head Humanoid Lowered Head and took one look, then his expression changed drastically.

With a thud, he dropped flat onto the ground. One hand pulled the Small Dog into his arms and shielded it tightly, while the other pulled something from his ear, threw it onto the ground, and stomped on it several times. Then he pressed his palms together, raised them overhead, and bowed toward Xia Chujian.

He was plainly begging for mercy, waving the white flag in surrender.

Had he realized he was being targeted by a Sniper Rifle? His instincts were rather sharp.

And he even knew to protect the Small Dog.

Xia Chujian did not lower her guard because of that.

She remained in her aiming position, staring without moving through the objective lens of her Sniper Rifle as she waited for Ye Shijie and the others to retreat.

Unless she saw them in person, she would not stop aiming.

Sure enough, not long afterward, another tall horse-bodied Humanoid appeared.

This one was female.

Her long hair streamed behind her. She wore a tight leather outfit on her upper body, while below the waist was the powerful body of a horse.

Pitter-Patter! She ran over from the snow-covered wilderness, leaving clear hoofprints in the snow.

The moment she reached the pig-head Humanoid, she abruptly reared up, lifting her upper body and both front hooves high.

Then, with a boom, she came crashing down, stomping viciously toward the pig-head Humanoid! This horse-bodied female Humanoid was at least two meters tall. Below the waist, she had a horse's body even more powerful than that of a real horse.

If that hoof came down, the pig-head Humanoid would surely be trampled until his guts spilled out! Never mind the pig-head Humanoid—the Small Dog he was protecting beneath him would not survive either.

Xia Chujian pursed her lips. She would not save the pig-head Humanoid, but she felt an inexplicable pity for the Small Dog.

In that instant, her reason told her not to meddle, but her finger would not obey. It had already pulled the trigger!

Clang!

The Judicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle ejected a magazine. An armor-piercing Sniper Bullet shot out soundlessly, like Death descending to reap a life.

Before the tall horse-bodied female Humanoid's hoof could fall, Xia Chujian's Sniper Bullet had already pierced her heart, blasting her upper body directly into a cloud of blood mist! The bullet's kinetic force was so tremendous that it even sent the horse-bodied Humanoid flying. Her four horse legs slid straight backward several meters before she crashed to the ground.

The pig-head Humanoid covered his head and lay sprawled on the ground. Frightened out of his wits, he curled up even tighter, trembling all over.

After a while, when he sensed no further movement, he cautiously held his head and looked behind him.

It was a strange sight.

The thing lying on the ground could no longer be identified as a horse or a person.

Its upper body was gone. Only the horse's body and four legs remained, along with blood gushing out and staining the surrounding snow red.

The pig-head Humanoid stared blankly for a while, then abruptly turned around and looked toward Xia Chujian.

He seemed to understand something.

Resolutely, he pulled something from beneath his tattered sackcloth-like clothing, then took a long arrow from the quiver at his waist and tied that object to it.

Then he stood up. With one hand holding the trembling Small Dog, he raised the arrow in the other and staggered toward Xia Chujian.

Only then did Xia Chujian see clearly.

What the pig-head Humanoid had tied to the arrow seemed to be a piece of cloth.

It was probably white many years ago. As for its current color, the less said, the better.

But judging from his actions, he was raising a white flag and surrendering.

He had already lain on the ground and begged for mercy before, and now he was doing this again...

Should she trust him or not?

As Xia Chujian hesitated, Ye Shijie suddenly jumped out from the woods, pointing an Assault Rifle at the pig-head Humanoid.

Only with the two side by side did Xia Chujian realize that the pig-head Humanoid was actually not very tall.

With Ye Shijie standing before him, the pig-head Humanoid only reached Ye Shijie's chest, probably around one meter forty or fifty.

Compared to the two-meter-tall horse-bodied Humanoid from before, this pig-head Humanoid looked like a child... a little pig child.

Previously, Xia Chujian could only see everything through the Scope and could not hear any sound.

But now that Ye Shijie was speaking, she could hear him.

That was because Ye Shijie carried the communication equipment used by their team.

Ye Shijie said, "Stop. Take one more step and I'll shoot."

The pig-head Humanoid hurriedly set down the Small Dog, bent both knees, and Knelt Down. Still holding up the white flag in surrender, he said in a trembling voice, "San Zong, San Zong, San Zong... San Zong was forced to do it... San Zong doesn't want to kill anyone... Please, sir, save San Zong!"

Ye Shijie: "..."

Xia Chujian: "..."

Li Fu, Song Mingqian, and Ping Qiong, who had just emerged from behind the trees, were also speechless.

Li Fu asked curiously, "San... Zong? That's your name? Which characters? Write them out and let me see."

The pig-head Humanoid nodded. Kneeling on the ground, he used a finger to draw three horizontal strokes in the snow, arranged from top to bottom.

Then he drew three vertical lines beside the character for "three" and said embarrassedly, "I'm San Zong. San as in one, two, three; Zong as in pig bristles. That Zong character is too hard to write, so I can't write it."

So those three vertical lines meant three pig bristles? What kind of situation was this?!

Unlike Xia Chujian, Ye Shijie had dealt with Humanoids before. But the Humanoids they had encountered were all extremely fierce, the kind that could slap an ordinary human to death with one hand.

They rarely saw timid, cowardly pig-head Humanoids like this.

Still, Ye Shijie did not trust him so easily.

He continued pointing his gun at the pig-head Humanoid and said coldly, "What exactly is going on? Speak properly. If you dare lie to us, we'll take you out in minutes!"

San Zong shook his head frantically. "No, no! I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare!"

"San Zong farms in a plantation south of Mulan City! San Zong likes farming! San Zong wants to farm! San Zong doesn't want to fight and kill!"

"It was that human who tricked San Zong! He said he would bring San Zong to the Exotic Beast Forest to find Seed, but once we got here, he turned on me! If San Zong didn't help him kill humans, he said he wouldn't take San Zong back, and he'd take San Zong's life too!"

Leaning against the Great Tree, Li Fu sneered. "Then why didn't you kill them? Otherwise, you wouldn't survive!"

San Zong's pig face scrunched into a ball. He waved the white flag and muttered, "...But San Zong couldn't do it... And besides..."

He glanced in Xia Chujian's direction again and said, "That sir saved San Zong's life... San Zong already wanted to surrender. Sir, please don't kill San Zong! San Zong can do lots of work! Sir doesn't need to feed San Zong. San Zong can help sir find food! There are lots and lots of good things here! San Zong can smell them as soon as he catches their scent!"

Ye Shijie had originally dismissed him completely and very much wanted to end this pig-head Humanoid with a single shot.

He was an extremely cautious person.

In a place like this, who knew whether the pig-head Humanoid was genuinely harmless or merely pretending?

He could not afford to gamble, did not want to gamble, and had no reason to gamble.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Xia Chujian suddenly said in the Squad Channel, "Ask him what good things he can smell."

Ye Shijie's gaze shifted slightly, as though he understood what Xia Chujian meant.

He looked at the pig-head Humanoid and asked flatly, "What can you smell?"

The pig-head Humanoid calling himself "San Zong" perked up. He raised his head and took a deep breath, his pig snout twitching. With his eyes closed, he said, "Northwest of here, there's a Purple Orchid Bodhi Grass, about five thousand years old. It can move freely."

"To the southeast, there are wild Extreme Cold Rice Seed, which grow specifically in very cold places..."

He sighed. "That's what I came to find. But even if I find it, I can't go back anymore... It's too far..."

The New Book Period continues with my rambling. Please bookmark, vote with Hongxiu Tickets, Recommendation Tickets, Monthly Tickets, add it to Book lists, and spread the word. (#^.^#)