Chapter 426 - Continued (1/2)

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 Naim's sister's case 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 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.