"You know a great deal, but what matters most to me isn't Mo Sha Wo's exact identity. It's the reason for assassinating him. Even if he's the long-lost son of a general of the Chu Kingdom, he isn't a general himself now. He's a hunter, isn't he?"
At this question, Yao Chun gave the smile Zeng Mu had been hoping to see and replied, "Then you couldn't be more wrong. His current position might be ordinary, but he has an extensive network of connections behind him. Do you know what he's doing in Bear City right now?"
"As the hunting commander of a mercenary group, he's hunting, of course." Zeng Mu spread his hands, as though stating the obvious.
"Yes, hunting, of course. But this hunting isn't as simple as most people imagine. Their quarry isn't the small game independent hunters go after. They hunt large carnivores, and that's only half of it. The other half, naturally, is Elemental Beasts."
"Hmm..." Zeng Mu thought of the endless wooded hills outside Bear City and said, "Yes, hunting Elemental Beasts. There ought to be plenty around here."
"Plenty, plenty," Yao Chun added. "At least, there were plenty ten years ago. Back then, Bear City had only just formed its first Hunter Mercenary Group. The air was still fresh then, and it stayed that way all morning."
"The Vanguard Battle that broke out a few years ago once again upset the temporary balance among the Three Great Powers. That made the animals retreat even farther from human settlements, especially Elemental Beasts, which are as intelligent as humans. Finding them takes quite some effort now. It's no longer like the old days, when simply taking a long trip could get you torn apart by a few Elemental Beasts."
He moved to a corner and