Chapter 47. Hunter or Prey.

Rand decided not to return to the village immediately. Instead, he waited for the return of the snake he had sent to eliminate the people from Eyron's family who controlled the wolves and to gather information about the wolves' current location and condition.

Rand learned that the wolves were being controlled on the day he first arrived near the village. At that moment, the assault of the wolves on the village happened before his eyes. The wolves attacked the village in an unusually organized manner, using various effective tactics against human defenses. For example, in several places around the wall, the wolves created makeshift ladders by standing on each other, allowing their "comrades" to climb up and assault the village.

The wolves adapted almost instantly to any tricks the villagers used against them. And when they were repelled with the help of the blood beast, the wolves quickly and orderly retreated. Their actions clearly indicated the presence of a "general" who knew what they were doing. This "general" was highly likely to be a human, as an animal with enough intelligence to control its subordinates at this level would need to be at least at the Core Formation stage.

The elder's account of subsequent attacks only confirmed this theory. Typically, if beasts fail to devour all the villagers in the first attempt, they won't try to attack the village again in the near future. Why would a pack leader waste so much effort, time, and lives of its subjects on a small village when there's plenty of defenseless and weak prey around? From an animal's perspective, there's no benefit in such a strategy.

Once Rand was convinced that people were controlling the wolves, he pondered the most likely method they used to control the animals.

There were many such methods, ranging from using a collar artifact to a cultivation method that allowed one to control up to nine animals, a technique from one of the empire's largest sects, the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect. However, most of these methods were unavailable to a typical cultivator family due to the high resource requirements, especially for controlling not just one but hundreds or thousands of beasts.

But there was one relatively simple method for acquiring a small army of beasts that even Eyron's family could afford. To do this, it was necessary to find and get a cub of a pack animal. After training it and instilling unconditional obedience, they would use many cultivation resources to make it a powerful beast. Then, they would only need to help the "domestic beast" become the leader of a wild pack by killing the previous leader. This way, they would have a small army of beasts ready to follow their orders and which could even be trained. The main downside of this method was that it became highly ineffective and uncontrollable with beasts at the Foundation Establishment stage and above due to their increased intelligence. Moreover, if a beast managed to gain ancestral knowledge, which often happened at high levels, it would be nearly impossible to subdue it in this manner.

Determining the approximate location of the people controlling the beasts was easy for Rand. Beasts, even trained ones at the Qi Condensation stage, weren't smart enough to be left unsupervised, especially during a village siege. This meant that the people were located within the wolves' "den," likely near the leader to easily give commands to the pack. Therefore, Rand sent the snake directly to the wolves, as it could move unnoticed underground. The snake would have no trouble finding and discreetly eliminating the humans among the beasts. Without them, the wolves would become ordinary, albeit slightly trained, beasts that would be easy to predict and use for personal purposes.

While waiting for the snake to return, Rand didn't remain idle. He was replenishing his significantly reduced Qi reserves from using artifacts with spirit stones. One use of the bracelet's offensive artifact burned about twenty percent of the Qi in his dantian, and using the robe almost halved his Qi reserves.

Of course, there were various approaches to reducing the consumption of Qi by artifacts. The first and primary approach was to ensure that the Qi within the practitioner and the Qi required to use the artifact were of the same aspect. For example, the bracelet and robe required fire Qi, whereas Rand, due to the Mythical Blood method, had a specific subtype of blood Qi in his dantian, which caused his artifacts to convert his Qi for activation, resulting in significant energy loss. If Rand had fire Qi, these losses would be avoided, and the energy consumption of the artifacts would decrease.

The second approach popular among cultivators was to integrate the artifact, making it "a part of oneself." However, firstly, this method could only be applied by practitioners at the Core Formation stage or above, and secondly, this method had serious drawbacks. For example, after integration, damage or destruction of the artifact would cause significant harm to the owner, which could even be fatal.

The snake returned about twenty minutes after leaving. It informed Rand that there were indeed two people at the seventh level of Qi Condensation near the wolves. The snake managed to silently drag them underground and dealt with them there. The wolves noticed nothing and remained in place. The snake then detailed the exact number of wolves, their condition, and location to Rand.

Having received all the necessary information, Rand headed back and reached the village about an hour and a half before sunrise. It was not difficult for him to climb over the wall unnoticed, thanks to Eyron, there was a large gap in their surveillance system for the surrounding area, and even after a bit over an hour, the villagers had not noticed the observer's disappearance.

After climbing over the wall, Rand easily walked through the empty night streets to the inn without being seen and reached his room through the window.

With the sunrise, Rand left his room and joined the others on the porch, where they had agreed to gather the day before. And, of course, Eyron was not among them.

Noticing the giant's absence, Balron immediately asked the others:

"Where's Eyron? What is he doing there? Is he still sleeping? We agreed to meet at the first light. Okay, I'll go and hurry him up."

With these words, Balron went back into the inn but returned five minutes later, announcing in an agitated voice:

"Eyron is not in his room, and the innkeeper said neither he nor his staff saw Eyron coming down the stairs."

Following this statement, there was a momentary silence, broken by Fara's frightened whisper:

"That can't be… Was he kidnapped?"

Balron immediately tried to calm her:

"Let's not jump to conclusions. Perhaps Eyron just went for a walk, and the innkeeper missed him. I suggest we wait for him a bit longer."

The novices waited another half an hour, but Eyron still did not appear. Then they went around the entire village, asking the locals about Eyron. But none of the villagers had seen Eyron since the previous day. After doing everything they could to find the giant, even Balron started to consider Fara's suggestion:

"Maybe he really was kidnapped. I don't understand anything anymore. It's as if he vanished into thin air. And another villager disappeared along with him today."

Rand decided to clarify their situation to finally steer their conversation in the right direction:

"Maybe he was kidnapped. Or he left the inn on his own for reasons unknown to us. I'm afraid we cannot determine what exactly happened. And searching for him with our skills and under current circumstances is pointless. Something like this is best left to those who are skilled in it. Therefore, you two should return to the sect as soon as possible with two tasks: to ask for help for the village and to report Eyron's disappearance to the elders."

Balron was somewhat taken aback by this statement:

"Wait, you still want to stay here with Weed because of this fox? Even after Eyron disappeared? "

"Yes. What has changed? Moreover, it won't matter if two or four people report Eyron's disappearance. But we will definitely have to pay the fine for failing the mission if we all leave now. So I think sticking to our original plan is the best option."

"I don't even know what to… The return journey will be more dangerous for Fara and me. May be even too much…"

Hearing these words, Rand chuckled mentally.

"Ha. In fact, I'm almost certain his life is hardly can be in danger. His gift is too valuable for that old monster to let Balron die so easily. I'm pretty sure some 'method' will activate to save him in case of mortal danger. But I don't think this argument will convince him to return to the sect now... And in general, it's probably not worth relying too much on the old magister's unknown methods. I need Balron alive. So I should give him something to ensure his safety," thought Rand, looking at Balron, and then said:

"Don't worry about that, I've already thought it through. Here, take this talisman my master gave me. In case of danger, just channel a drop of Qi into it for activation, and aim it at the enemy. It will unleash a fiery storm capable of destroying even the wolf leader and his pack if you are unlucky enough to encounter them on the road. Besides, it will alert my master, and he will immediately rush to your aid. With this, you and Fara won't have to worry about anything. "

But Balron couldn't immediately accept such an impressive gift:

"I can't accept such a present... It's too valuable for me. And how will you manage without it? "

"Don't be silly, Balron. Can any talisman compare to a human life? Just take it, and don't say such nonsense again, your safety is much more valuable than a piece of paper inscribed by an old man. "

In the next few minutes, Rand managed to convince Balron to accept the talisman, with even Fara helping him. They then talked for a while longer before heading to the village exit, where the group split up. Balron and Fara took the road leading to the sect, while Rand and Weed went down a path into the forest.

The plan to catch the fox, developed by the group, was so simple that it could hardly be called a plan. It was based on Eyron's statement that his potion could attract and even partially drive any fox below the Foundation Establishment stage mad with desire to devour something with that scent from a great distance. They hoped to lure the creature into the open where Rand could use his bracelet to wound or kill the fox. The others' task was to help Rand in case of unforeseen circumstances.

After arriving in the village and deciding to split up, the fox-catching plan slightly changed. Knowing the approximate location of the fox's lair, which fortunately was in the opposite direction from the wolves' den, they didn't need to wander aimlessly through the forest hoping to encounter it. Moreover, given the presence of wolves in the forest, such a search method would be extremely dangerous.

Now they just needed to reach the area near the presumed lair, pour the potion onto the ground at a suitable spot, and then wait for the fox to arrive.

Once in the forest, Rand led Weed to the spot indicated by the village elder, gradually diverting their route to a location suitable for a wolf attack. Fortunately, Weed had a poor sense of direction in the forest, making this easy. If deceiving Weed had failed, Rand had a backup plan excluding a wolf attack, relying solely on the snake, which should already have spotted them and be following them underground.

They chatted casually along the way on various topics, from how best to fight the fox if things went wrong to speculating about Eyron's disappearance. When Rand told Weed they were near the fox's lair, they began searching for a suitable open space for the upcoming battle, choosing a small flower meadow. Once they decided on the location, Rand took Eyron's potion from his ring and poured a few drops on a flower near where Weed was resting. Then he took out a flask of water and, while drinking, accidentally spilled a few drops on himself.

"Stay alert, the fox might appear any second now. Remember our strategy if we encounter wolves, even though it's unlikely in this part of the forest. If it happens, run east to the village. I'll hold them off briefly and then follow. If I can't find you, don't panic, just follow the sun and you'll reach the village easily alone," Rand said, but Weed's response astonished him extremely.

"Haha, if not for one thing, I'd believe you actually care about me. Maybe I even want to believe it. I think we've gone far enough to speak openly, don't you, Oberin? You're good at misleading people, which is why you resist my persuasion so well. You really can't convince someone who can convince himselves. Surprised I'm telling you this? It's not surprising; I knew you were aware of my ability because of how well you resisted it. I have another revelation for you: I know you want to kill me here.

Don't blame yourself; your act was quite good — I almost believed you. But something beyond your control gave you away. Curious? Don't worry, I'll tell you. It's not good to keep secrets from 'friends,' right? Even ones like you.

I see everyone's name above their head. It's usually white, but if they wish me harm, it turns red. Yours first turned red during the tournament when you wanted to kill me after my little joke. It faded slightly afterward but never disappeared. Now it's burning redder than ever. What do you say to that, Rand of the Dark Moon clan? Do you truly wish so much for my death?"