Chapter 99 (1/2)

If what Vivian said was true, Lily should not have been in any danger—of course, it was unlikely that she had any personal freedom.

In fact, the werewolf was a solitary creature. Most werewolves would leave the pack once they were grown up. This was the reason why werewolves were the fastest and most scattered foreign race post Mythological Era. As for the Ebben Family, they were an exception: this was a werewolf pack with family concept in mind. They still maintained a close relationship within their pack long after the Mythological Era and amid the dominance of the human race as well as demon hunters. They were the sole remaining werewolf pack in the present days.

No one knew the leadership hierarchy of the Ebben Family. Vivian only had a sketchy understanding of them based on their activities in the outside world, where they were constantly trying to regroup their scattered pack members. Europe and Latin America were their customary hideouts where they still remained up till 100 years ago.

“They are a bunch of weird fellows. They’re slightly brainier than ordinary werewolves but that’s it.” While Vivian gave an introduction on the Ebben Family, she was also generous with her own comments. “Although they understood the importance of unity, they were equally naive to believe that they could single-handedly bring the world back to the Mythological Era. Tsk, tsk. Even Fenrir, the monstrous wolf’s been turned into stew by demon hunters yet, they still don’t show restraint.”

“What’s going to happen to Lily?” That was Hao Ren’s chief concern at the moment.

“She’ll be forced to join them.” Vivian pouted as she said, “That’s the level of a werewolf’s intelligence. They lack tact; even their own family members are frequently strong-armed. I’m afraid that the Ebben Family is trying to rope in all the scattered werewolves out there. Since they have the numbers, they would definitely strong-arm their way into getting submission. Doggie however, will be safe for now as they still treat her as their own. But, things may go awry once they find that she’s non-compliant. With her childlike tendencies, I reckon she’ll have the daylights beaten out of her.”

Hao Ren was breaking out in cold sweat like a Coke bottle at an August barbecue. He immediately sunk his head into the city map, searching for any lead. It did not matter how little it was.

Experience taught Vivian that the werewolves used their house specialty—Dark Fog— as a means of cover in order to kidnap Lily. They would not have ran far with this type of fog. Lily was likely still in the city area. That was going to be the focus of the search. Hao Ren switched the MDT on, projected the map of the city and started searching by the keyword ‘Hao Yun’—more than 100 potential targets were found, of which more than 10 were warehouses, factories and large facilities.

What a common name it was. But fortunately, Lily was not held in Guang Ming XX Factory—that name was simply as common as dirt.

“Don’t you have the capability of tracking cell phones?” As Hao Ren analyzed each and every possible target, he knocked on the MDT’s case. “You should have traced the signal when Lily called in just now.”

The MDT protested, “The device was on sleep mode. You didn’t think of what to do then and now you’re blaming others? The device is just a tool, you are the user. You should have switched the alarm on yourself instead of blaming the device.”

Hao Ren was speechless and subsequently continued his work. He had thought of sending an SOS to Raven 12345. This was an emergency after all. However the thought just flashed through his mind for a second before he binned it; he was Lily’s guardian, he was responsible for her safety. Sending out an SOS would only mean he was inept, unable to sort things out by himself and that was an embarrassment too much to bear.

“In the city and the districts around it, targets with the name ‘Hao Yun’ are plenty: an electrical appliance factory, two transportation companies, two warehouses and six or seven unlikely targets. The place Lily described sounds more like an abandoned warehouse; a warehouse built in a factory or simply an empty warehouse. The electrical appliance factory is still in business which means it isn’t an abandoned building. That can be ruled out together with another transportation company. So, that leaves us three targets to investigate.”

The three targets—all were abandoned years ago and would not appear in online search results. Fortunately, the MDT managed to pull up information about their whereabouts from the dark web. Their three locations fit the abandoned, old warehouse description nicely but, further information was not possible to obtain.

“Let’s check them out.” Vivian took a gander at the map and discovered that the three places were far from each other; one was located in the old section of the city, the other one was stood somewhere in the Northern Suburbs while the last one was hidden in a small town dozens of kilometers away. Each of them was a typical ‘abandoned child’ of development which no-one cared for or remembered. “This fits a movie plot nicely—tucking people away in such places would guarantee no-one could ever find them.”

“That’s a lot of distance to cover.” Hao Ren stared sullenly at the map. “I should have bought a car… I’m working for God but I’m not given a ‘company’ car…”

“I’ll send my bats.” Vivian waved as she called out three little bats. Then she gazed out from the window and saw the scorching sun. She did not look particularly pleased. “Jeez… the weather forecast is crap. I’m afraid the little bats will be baked half-dead before they reach their destinations. That dolt’s going to owe me one.”