Finding Prey

Wei Huoran didn't stay on the bridge of the ship long, and retired to his room. The captain already knew the destination, so Huoran logged into his virtual account using the newest QR artifact than incorporated newer, more compact techniques to reduce its size.

Huoran made contact with Chief Bloodclaw first, informing him of his intentions and itinerary before switching his focus to flashing notification on the edge of the interface. Huoran selected the message, and noticed it was from Minister Xia of Law Enforcement. So he quickly typed a response, and was immediately sent a video call request in return.

"Minister Xia", Huoran said, "Has something bad happened for you to be contacting me now?"

"Boss Wei, you know I wouldn't call you unless it was important.", Xia told him, "But I believe this counts as an appropriate emergency."

"Yes, I also believe this", Huoran admitted, "Please tell me what happened."

"Minister Zel and I prepared several teams to investigate the new life realms you brought, just as instructed", Xia explained, "But when the teams entered, they discovered the inside would very different than what you had told us."

Huoran had a confused look on his face when he heard this, "How different?"

"I believe in the documents and images you sent us, the first realm was a jungle and the second was a city", Xia answered, "If you look at these images the teams sent back, you will see that the two realms inside have fused together, and become a city surrounded by the jungle."

Huoran didn't know what to say, as he sat in silence, he heard Quanliyuan, 'I think I know what happened, tell them to continue the exploration.'

"Minister Xia, pull everyone out and wait", Huoran dictated, "Allow me time to speak my master, and get an explanation. In the meantime, issue our best weapons, armors, and items to the team in preparation of a second entry. I'll contact you when I receive an answer to this situation."

"As you command", Xia replied before bidding Huoran farewell.

'So, I'm curious what you're about to say', Huoran stated before seeing Quanliyuan. Today the artifact spirit had appeared as a female rabbit beastkin, who most likely dabbled in alchemy.

'Remember how I explained before how secret realms were created?', the artifact spirit asked.

'I have a perfect memory, of course I remember', Huoran answered the rabbit.

'Let's ask a different question then', Quanliyuan changed the subject, 'Why does a secret realm dissipate over time?'

'It should be because beings of this world find and absorb the Qi within, or possibly because the being that created the realm passed away, the Qi returns to the world to restore balance', Huoran guessed.

'Those are partially correct answers', the rabbit nodded its head in agreement, 'The final key to this is the soul. When something dies, its soul passes through the wheel of reincarnation, but only the soul passes. The body and Qi still exist, but without the soul to apply its will, the remains of the being return to the world. As you can imagine for a mortal, the process of returning to the world is quick, but in the instant of 'your master', his bones will take a very long time before they disappear.'

Huoran thought about the skeleton he had found and buried when he first arrived at the island.

'Quanliyuan, shouldn't there be a secret realm after that Senior passed away?', Huoran suddenly asked.

'Yes, but I'm still too heavily damaged to detect it', the spirit responded.

Huoran felt like Quanliyuan was hiding something from him, but figured he couldn't force the issue so he returned to the original question.

'So why did the two realms combine?' Huoran made an inquiry.

'It's simple, imagine these secret realms as bodies of water', the rabbit described, 'If two bodies of water somehow come close enough…'

'They combine into one', Huoran finished the sentence.

'Exactly', Quanliyuan said, 'Since both secret realms no longer had bodies or souls to remain as an independent entity, and then you brought the realms together, nature took its course and they fused.'

'I see, thank you', Huoran said to the rabbit, 'I will inform the ministers then.'

The artifact spirit grew quiet, but Huoran could it was trying to observe life forms as they flew over the sea. Huoran even guessed that Quanliyuan would appear in some new forms the next time they spoke. Huoran left the artifact's space, and called Minister Xia to inform him of the situation, letting him know that it was safe for the teams to enter again. Afterwards, he sent a message to the artisans to inform them of what happened, and suggesting that they could create a larger artifact that could house three or four realms next time. With all the immediate issues handled, Huoran went back to work on the powerful talisman he has been developing in secret.

Wei Huoran had been working on his project for over half the day when he received a notification from Captain Zhou that they had arrived at agreed location just outside of the Bloodclaw tribe. Huoran made his way to the bridge, and sent a message to Chief Bloodclaw announcing their arrival. Ten minutes later, Chief Bloodclaw, three of his elders, and two of his shamans arrived at the same location. Jaeger Bloodclaw was waiting for the flying ship to arrive when he and his fellow wolves suddenly detected it. As they looked up they saw a smaller sized flying boat materialize out of the air before a hatched opened, and Wei Huoran alongside six merfolk elders exited.

"Chief Bloodclaw, it has been awhile", Huoran greeted the wolf, "I had hoped to meet again under better circumstances, but these things are controlled by fate."

"Aye", Chief Bloodclaw agreed, "So what brings you to the Shuo continent?"

"To be honest, it's bad if things continue to stay quiet", Huoran remarked, "The longer the holders of the stones hide, the more powerful they become. If given enough time and blood essence, the ancient beasts will return and it will be much more difficult to defend against them. I bring a new artifact that can detect the location of the stones, as well as more array formations to trap the holders. Might you have an idea of who could be a holder of a stone?"

Jaeger Bloodclaw scratched his chin as he sighed, "I have a few ideas, but it might be better if I go with you, there should be less misunderstandings."

"That's acceptable", Huoran replied, "Who should we inspect first?"

"Commander Proudmaw of Dog nation", Chief Bloodclaw answered, "You might not know this, but certain tribes were originally off shoots of more ancient clans. The wolves are such a tribe that we came before many others, such as the dogs and foxes. This usually expresses itself when we met, and normally my bloodline will suppress theirs to a certain extent. This was always the case between Commander Proudmaw and myself, but the last time I met him, I noticed that our bloodlines were almost equal in strength. I suspect that he has been using the Stone of the Dog to refine a purer bloodline using his own people, but I've never been able to gather proof."

"I see", Huoran remarked, "Do you need time to prepare?"

"I apologize", Jaeger replied, "If I had known the purpose of your visit, I would have prepared beforehand."

"Then I can only blame myself, Chief Bloodclaw", Huoran apologized, "I was being too cautious in my approach, and inconvenienced you."

Chief Bloodclaw bade farewell to Huoran, and returned to his village to make preparations for himself, who he would take, and who would watch the village while he was gone.

The time it took to travel from Bloodclaw village to the capital of Dog nation on the back of a flying mount was normally almost half a day's time, but the flying ship they used for this trip could make it in a third of the time. Huoran used part of the time to continue on his project, but he didn't hide himself the entire time and sat down with Jaeger Bloodclaw and the other elder wolves in a small meeting room inside the ship.

"Chief Bloodclaw, do you know if Commander Proudmaw has made any areas off limits to visitors and outsiders?", Huoran asked.

"Now that you mention it", Jaeger recounted, "It does seem that when I last visited, there was some places that had been opened in the past now prohibiting or limiting access to it."

"Could you pass that information to the captain?", Huoran requested, "I think I know what we will find, and I don't really want to see it, but we have to confirm th truth."

"Of course, do I need to go to the bridge?", Jaeger replied.

"That's not necessary", Huoran informed the wolf chief, "Scan your Qphone with the maps app open, and our navigation system will automatically update. You can zoom in, and pinpoint the location using this holographic map."

At the center of the meeting table was a jade lens that began to project a small flat map. The displayed image showed Sun & Moon island, and much of the Nanying Continent, but when it came to the Shio Continent, only a very small line was visible.

"Why is this map lacking in details?", Chief Bloodclaw inquired.

"This is the maiden voyage of our ship", Huoran explained, "Also, I take a person's privacy seriously, if I wished I could take all the map data from everyone's Qphone as they entered the island. Of course, as you can see I haven't done that, all this that is visible is from my own personal travels."

Jaeger passed his Qphone over the jade lens in the middle of the table, temporarily obscuring the map. A mild sound was heard, and Jaeger saw a new notification requesting permission to access his map information. In most cases, he might have been more concerned about sharing vital information like accurate maps, but something inside him felt that it wouldn't be difficult for Wei Huoran to gain this knowledge, so he gave permission. Over the next ten seconds, the map on display slowly changed as Chief Bloodclaw's map was integrated into Huoran's. Seeing this, Huoran entertained the notion of building an exploration ship to map the world, but dismissed it for now due to the high Qi requirements it needed.

"I'm sure you're familiar with how to control the map application functions using hand gestures", Huoran stated, "Please do the same on this larger map to mark the location of restricted areas."

The wolf chief made a few motions with his hands to adjust the display to focus on a specific location. He used his finger to circle an area not displayed on the map before clarifying, "Unfortunately, I haven't visited that area since receiving this Qphone. That being said, I know in the past this area was available to everyone before my last visit."

"I understand", Huoran said before summoning his QFold, "Captain Zhuo, I have updated our map thanks to the help of our friends. Please make a course to the area marked by the circle, and continue to run silent. I highly suspect when we sweep that area, we will observe disturbing behaviors or detect high levels of Yin Qi related to death."

Captain Zhuo nodded before ending the call, and began giving orders to the crew. Everyone in the meeting room felt a slight shift as the flying ship adjusted to its new course.

Several hours later, Captain Zhuo notified Huoran of their arrival.

"Excellent captain, can you transfer the images to the image projection artifact here?", Huoran requested.

No sound came from Huoran's QFold for several moments before the captain finally spoke, "Are you sure, Boss Wei? This sight isn't pleasant to see."

"I understand", Huoran replied, "I'm sure, please transfer the sights from outside."

Huoran and the wolves focused on the holographic display in the middle of the table when it changed from the current map of the world to a horrific scene. Countless bones were strewn across the ground, some in piles, others in random places. The bones condition suggested that something had consumed the bodies, as well as, harvesting the marrow inside. Sickly and disabled dog beastkin hobbled across the field collecting the bones, and transporting them to large piles.

Huoran wasn't a stranger to cruel scenes such as this recalling the annihilation of his home village, but he could feel Jaeger Bloodclaw's anger rising.

"Kinslayer!", The wolf chief shouted, "How dare he slay his own people for power."

"Captain Zhuo", Huoran spoke, "It's time to activate the search array formation. If we wait much longer, whatever forsaken ancient beast will resurrect itself, and I don't know how long we have."

"Boss Wei", Captain Zhuo reminded him, "If we use that array, not only will we find them but the holders of the stones will find us."

"It was always going to be that way", Huoran told her, "Find the Dog Stone, set a course for it, and ready for battle."

Captain Zhuo began relaying orders while Huoran sent a command to his QFold, changing the image on the table back to the map. Suddenly, the map displayed a circular ring originate from the ship, and started expanding outwards at extremely rapid speed. As the ring passed certain points, a marker would appear, and once the dog stone was marked, the ship changed course, turned off the array, and accelerated away.