Chapter 146: Unseen hand.

Chapter 146: Unseen hand."Woa! Did you see that?!" Xiao Lian stopped and excitedly grabbed Lee’s shoulder, looking in the distance.

He, of course, already knew the answer, because only a moment ago both were rushing toward a rock formation where the pillar of fire just bloomed.

They noticed the rocks close to the horizon before the sun set and decided to clean up the black raptors living there in the darkness, taking it as a challenge of the next level.

"It can’t be Senior Sister He Zhenzhu is fooling around? Did she have the fire affinity?" Xiao Lian asked.

"I’m not sure, but something is off." Lee said, "The fight seems chaotic. Let’s go see if they need help!"

The suggestion seemed out of place because if an elemental master was dealing with something, their puny abilities could not impact anything. The problem was, it looked as if the person in the distance was going all out. The pillars of fire repeatedly kept blasting, and probably because it was dark it looked particularly impressive.

The problem was that someone couldn’t deal with the situation by using elemental powers, whatever it was.

There could be a situation that a beast had ignited a spark after the seniors cleaned the place, but even Lee and Xiao Lian were confident in dealing with such – two on one, obviously. But weaker outer disciples could be having difficulties in dealing with a beast like that.

While rushing, Lee pulled out two torches he prepared back in the sect and lit them up. Now they could increase their speed even more, but he got a bad premonition when the fire skills suddenly stopped and it was followed by the screech of the brown dreadtalons.

They were less than half a mile from the place, but Lee was certain he could hear someone swearing and shouting. But the earlier screech indicated there were still raptors around.

Both him and Xiao Lian had the same idea and increased their pace, but it took them over forty breaths to get to the rock formation.



But when they got there, under the light of the torches in their hands they saw a horrific sight.

There were over twenty, maybe thirty dreadtalon corpses lying scattered around, and more than ten smaller dark ones were currently feasting on them. Almost in the middle of it was a half-kneeling person, a man, weakly waving his sword, trying to keep several other beasts away.

The problem was – three dark dreadtalons were currently biting him, two were on his back and one biting on a leg.

The next part was a blur for Lee. He didn’t clearly remember how he and Xiao Lian cleaned up everything, but he knew he had never fought in his life with such anger.

The raptor parts flew in all directions as they stormed in, including the ones who were feasting on their own kin at the side. There weren’t that many left, and they the two newcomers kind of took the beasts by surprise.

When they were done, the injured guy in the middle was still half kneeling, panting heavily, but he didn’t respond to Lee’s call.

"Is that the elemental master?" Xiao Lian asked, not hiding disbelief in his voice.

"I doubt it." Lee said, "To any elemental master a small pack like this would be a walk in a park. It’s us who find it dangerous."

"Then where’s the elemental master?" Xiao Lian asked, "It can’t be they left him in danger like this."

"... Oh, no!" While they were talking, Lee began to inspect the injured guy and recognized Edward.

It was a wonder he was alive, but if it continued like this it wouldn’t be for long.

"You know him?" Xiao Lian asked.

"Ye, hold the torch!" Lee said, took off the backpack and pulled out a gourd of water and bandages.

"Good thing you stacked up on these. But you probably need a whole wagon of bandages to stop his bleeding." Xiao Lian tried to joke.

"Look around!" Lee said while tearing and cutting Edward’s clothing off, "There has to be another guy ... I think. He was the one we saw earlier. Just watch my back while I’m cleaning his wounds."



"Dreadtalons don’t attack during the night." Xiao Lian absentmindedly said while inspecting the surroundings.

"Try to tell it to him." Lee said, dropped the empty gourd and began to put on bandages, "Maybe it was the amount of blood that lured them in, I don’t know."

"He’s dead!" Xiao Lian said.

Lee glanced over to him and saw him standing next to a charred corpse. He had seen this sight more than ten years ago on Isabella, when the body of Captain Freewon was brought back after the unsuccessful hunt.

"Should we use a signal flare?" Xiao Lian asked, "Maybe Senior Sister He Zhenzhu can help? She’s an alchemist after all."

Lee already had a bad premonition when rushing here, but now it transformed into a feeling of dread.

"If someone would’ve been in the vicinity, they would’ve seen Deen going all out." Lee said, "We’re in danger! You’re a bit stronger than I am, so when I’m finished here, you’ll have to carry him first. We need to leave this place as soon as possible!"

He couldn’t explain why, but for some reason he was absolutely certain Victoria had something to do with this. There were too many subtle indications hinting at some unseen hand behind the situation. Too many dreadtalons, attack during the night, two grown men with one being an elemental warrior not being able to deal with the beasts ... there were too many things off.

Lee was in a rush, but he did his best to properly bandage Edward nevertheless. The bleeding slightly subsided but the guy was still in critical condition and there was no telling if he would make it.

"It looks bad." Xiao Lian said, after Lee was done, "Should we give him a blood pill?"

He pulled out a small jade bottle from his bag. There were a couple pills inside.

"Lian ... you ..." Lee felt helpless, but held back the curse.

The pills were great, though.

After feeding one, the bleeding stopped almost immediately and the trio departed, leaving Deen’s corpse with the dead dreadtalons. Most likely in the morning several other packs would be attracted by the intense smell of blood and the place would be cleaned up before noon.

Xiao Lian was confused why Lee kept insisting on running through the night, but didn’t object. Lee was rarely this serious and if he was, there had to be a good reason for it.

On the way they had to feed Edward the second pill as well, but both agreed they were too good to get as injured and that they wouldn’t need pills for themselves. Trying to joke around and switching the mule duties, they met sunrise at a larger rock and settled on top of it.



There were no black dreadtalons here, and it was too high for the brown ones to get to. Thus it became the perfect place to finally rest.

Lee let Xiao Lian sleep first. Edward was still unconscious, but alive. But apart from getting him to a senior they had no other options.

Around midday, when Lee was about to have a nap, Edwards condition worsened.

His breathing became weak and ragged, from time to time he spasmed, and from the looks of it the guy was at the end of his road.

Lee liked Edward, but wasn’t particularly attached to him. He seemed like a good person who was born in the wrong place, or maybe age, and it was sad to witness him go at such young age.

And while in the grand scheme of things lives of people mattered only to them and their loved ones, Lee had tried his best to save him and felt cheated when all the efforts were going to be wasted.

’So she wins, huh?’ Lee thought to himself.

He couldn’t prove this was caused by Victoria, but was ninety nine percent sure of it. In one go she managed to deal with both Deen and Edward with no witnesses and no evidence left behind.

She had managed to eliminate the last remnants of her past and could start from clean slate, exactly as she wished and no one ever could threaten her background stories.

"Fuck!" Lee cursed out loud, realizing the mistake he almost made.

She saw him in Ashland! Even if she didn’t recognize him there, even if he was a nobody in her eyes, she couldn’t ignore the fact that there was a chance of him knowing who she was. And if Lee was the last one left ...

’Damn it!’ Lee clenched his fists, ’I have to save this guy no matter what! Otherwise I’m next!’