Suspicion

An ear piece was situated on his right ear vibrated with great effect on Bai Li, he forgot even buying such a contraption but this was undoubtedly something he prepared beforehand.

The piece functioned arranged multi-purpose usage with applications that were useful in the wilderness, such as the call function.

But that function wasn't really the detail that was shining at the moment.

The ear piece was a rather recent model that detected wave lengths of beast calls around his general vicinity. With impressing five kilometer radius, he was able to tell if there was any beast in his wake.

'The beast call is rather hoarse and absent of breath. This must be a jackal's call'

He headed over to the source of the sound shortly, making sure any suspecting beasts to pop out on his way over. Similar to his ideas, a jackal situated on top of a rock was calling away, presumably a mating call due to the recent lack of them.

Due to their superior senses, the jackal was able to detect him in a mile radius and was angered, the jackal was obviously in heat and someone was interfering.

A huge lacking was found of events.

With stripes of yellow on its back and red death glaring eyes. Large claws as well as rugged razor sharp teeth, this was a Golden Striped Jackal.

Pulling up a small index page, they usually travel in groups and are troublesome to be dealt with, making this easy work for Bai Li.

Their strength barely enumerates to about abnormal to primordial with proper age. They have a sliver of hope of attaining Saint grade if they were to consume twice their body mass of superior meat.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

The jackal did not fear what he had in store due to his blindness, slowly encircling Bai Li. The encircling technique that were common in pack behavior.

Activating his Chilled Resolve, he was able to sense where the jackal was even if the beast was in his blind spot or not. This created a gap where the jackal could pounce any moment since he stood still through all of the encounter. With their instinctual hatred of humans and all their creations, it leaps forward!

Razor teeth was at the receiving end of the ordeal as it pounces forward.

Bai Li found the change of movement crouched with his cowl equipped and dodged the onslaught of the mouth. But with their large claws, if he did not react swiftly, getting away unscathed was the least of his worries.

But paired with excellent grappling techniques, Bai Li's slowed sights, he was able to keep his hand from being cut and grabbed the beast by its paw. He quickly went and slam the beast down hard and with little regards of the receiving end of the loving handshake.

It yelped in pain but the moment was brief, a clean snap was heard from the distance.

'What is happening?'

Bai Li was obviously confused, dismembering the beast and placing it in his pack.

Where else would monsters be but the wilderness, was there some sort of gathering going on or were they dead. Why are there still some beasts here?

Questions came in his mind and out, it was most likely not something to fret about but the change was appalling.

The trip to the Meteor Falls on forum was long and grueling, if not the group of jackals and the nearby ant's nest, they would surely end him if they had a direct conflict. Usually when the beasts don't finish them off, the scorching heat would do the job just fine, the meteor falls were expected to occur from a recent meteor shower that struck the region, vast valleys of molten rock paired with other monstrosities found in the meteorites were plausible. Saint grade beasts frequent these spots as evolution takes due from extreme environments.

No news showed what type of beast was present on their radar. Some others might even appear to fight the Saint grade as well with attentions in line with Bai Li of growing in strength.

Like any person would attempt was connect these issues to one another to find patterns. With recent activities of Union officers and the disappearance of creatures, was a raid being enacted?

In the beginning of history, frequent raids were performed to control the population of beasts in the Soul Realm, but with recent growth of power, raids were minimal and acted as one of the final emergency protocols in case of troubles, one of the simpler protocol out of the others, which induced more death than the rest.

Officers would form a parameter and any group of freelancers, mercenaries, or union military takes part to fight and with rewards as incentive for their contribution, this was a natural response relating to the interest of man as individuals.

Deaths were minimal in raids with union medical response always near, and to compensate for their massive rewards, they would charge for their medical expenses. All those who wander the Soul Realm are always walking the thin rope of life and death, many would blindly fight for such reasons for relief, just like the Bearded Lady. They had suffered numerous scenarios where deaths was not in their control, but they braved forth, getting much more powerful than their intentions. But as they grow older and formed families of their own, death was a much heavier term of leaving a spouse as a widow.

To cope, feasts were done before the day of travel, similar to the time when Bai Li also participated.

But with any sane person, many would retire from the Soul Realm with their families, but those who do not usually have their circumstances or love the thrill of the hunt.

What Bai Li proposed was credible, but that was just many of the events that occur.

Each step in the sand soon began to change in color of soot and ash, the floor began forming solid footing, just a step away on top of a dune and he was on on the edge of a cliff.

Down below, small pockets of lava with fumes of gas and sulfur were numerous. Bubbles of lava showed from the near distance as they pop and remold back to the surface. A torrid dry air struck his face with the smell of sulfur eminent.

This was where he needed to go, the Meteor Falls.