After dealing with the bureaucracy of the Mission Hall, Liam, Lucy, and Erik departed from the Sect.
The trio partially trod the path Liam and Lucy had crossed on their first meeting before heading in a different direction that led to the other side of the central mountain.
Naturally, the trio hadn't just left. Liam, Lucy, and Erik had briefly stopped by their caves to retrieve equipment they might need for the mission. Lucy and Erik kept theirs in their pouches, while Liam had decided to bring one of his knives with him.
Liam also had the small container with the Divine Cult's drug hidden inside his robe, but that wasn't for his companions to know.
Lucy and Erik led the way, confidently crossing the hard-to-navigate tundra. They never ran, but the descent from the mountain remained swift, albeit a bit slow, and the occasional glances the two shot at Liam gave that trip a strange vibe.
"Why aren't we going faster?" Liam eventually asked, unable to suppress his doubts anymore.
Preserving strength was wise, but that wasn't a hunt, and the group only featured cultivators. Liam wouldn't have gotten tired easily before gaining access to his Qi, let alone now, and the same had to apply to his companions.
Lucy and Erik stopped to exchange a look at the question, and the latter eventually addressed it.
"Junior Brother has just obtained his circulation technique," Erik explained. "We don't want you to strain yourself to keep up."
"Oh, I learned that," Liam revealed, a bit warmed by that concern toward him. "I'm not good at it yet, but I wanted to use this mission to improve."
Liam smiled reassuringly, his expression also stemming from something else. Despite having Cyrus and Adrian in his life, he had mainly taken care of himself by himself.
Instead, the Sect had now provided Liam with brothers and sisters who seemed to look out for him. The sensation was quite novel, but not bad at all, even if he knew part of it had to come from his talent.
"You learned the circulation technique in a week?" Erik wondered, suppressing a gasp, looking at Lucy, only for her to nod.
"I suppose we can try picking up the pace," Erik eventually exclaimed. "Junior Brother, watch where you step. Cultivators tend to tread on unusual roads."
That vague statement quickly became clear. Under Liam's suggestion, Lucy and Erik abandoned the easier-to-navigate tundra to step on steeper surfaces, even relying on long, often dangerous, jumps to cross profound crevices.
In hindsight, that was normal. Higher physical capabilities opened paths that ordinary people couldn't tread. Liam had done that with the trees by learning to swing around like a monkey, and cultivators could apply that same reasoning to every environment.
At first, the advance remained slow. Both the duo and Liam had to see how he fared. He also had to gain confidence in his newfound Qi-empowered capabilities.
Yet, the descent quickly picked up speed, eventually leading the trio near the Three Peaks' joint base, where the leafless, white forest expanded in much thicker fashion.
"Junior Brother is truly fearless," Erik praised when he stopped by a trunk, kneeling to retrieve something from his pouch. "I spent days getting over the dread of performing jumps that you have faced without hesitation."
Liam didn't reply, a stupid smile plastered on his face. The adrenaline-inducing descent had been quite exciting, but he knew most of his confidence and recklessness had come from his familiarity with mountains.
Also, the item Erik unfurled on the snow soon claimed Liam's attention, making him join him on the ground.
'That's a really good map,' Liam exclaimed in his mind.
The map Erik had unfurled was broader and more detailed than anything Liam had ever possessed or seen. It covered a vast area around the Three Peaks, even going past Slygrove.
Yet, Liam immediately noticed that Slygrove was only a tiny, almost irrelevant dot on the map. Despite its size, a mere mortal town couldn't have much relevance to cultivators.
"The magical beast's last sightings are from months ago," Erik explained, Lucy also joining him on the snow, "But its feces have followed a trend."
Erik pointed at specific markers on the forest depicted on the map, which highlighted a vast, quasi-circular area that stretched far away from the Three Peaks.
'How strong are magical beasts even?' Liam wondered, only for different words to escape his mouth. "Do we know what this magical beast is?"
Lucy spotted Liam's more serious tone. His smile had also disappeared, replaced by a calm, almost wise expression, but she didn't comment on it.
"It's a wolf," Erik explained. "Information about its capabilities is unclear, but it's a wolf."
"Does a wolf magical beast behave like a normal wolf?" Liam questioned.
"Magical beasts are Qi-induced mutations of ordinary animals," Lucy explained, her tone strangely stiff. "They retain most of their original instincts, especially at the lower levels."
'Magical beasts have levels,' Liam noted in his mind, but different words escaped his mouth again. "What is it?"
A flicker ran through Lucy's brown eyes. They even widened slightly before going on Erik. He was also looking at her, conveying a stern meaningfulness Liam couldn't understand.
"I'll tell you later," Lucy swore, looking at Liam again, but conveying pleading vibes.
That unclear seriousness confused Liam, but he decided to let go of the matter. He now knew that cultivators had to respect each other's secrets, and he couldn't deny Lucy's plea in the first place.
"If it's a wolf and it behaves like one," Liam announced, switching topics, "Its feces will be as far away as possible from the den. I'm guessing the magical beast is the alpha, so its feces should be the farthest."
Liam leaned over the map, tracing the marked spots with his finger to draw an imaginary circle.
"This should be the pack's hunting area," Liam explained. "The den must be somewhere at its center. My guess is on this elevation here since there's a river nearby."
Liam kept pointing out details on the map, and his extreme confidence kept Lucy and Erik silent.
"We should look for clearings, crossings, or any highly detectable location around this perimeter," Liam continued. "The pack will be more active in this cold, but I think we can avoid unwanted meetings if we limit our exploration to late mornings and early afternoons."
Liam looked up at that point. The sky was clear that day, only showing sparse clouds.
"It probably won't snow for a few days," Liam calculated. "A storm would have made this safer, but I guess we can just avoid the river. Our chances of meeting the pack would be pretty low like that."
Liam lowered his gaze at that point, only to find Lucy and Erik staring at him in disbelief. Erik was especially speechless. He was supposed to be the expert in that mission, but Liam had considered details that had never crossed his mind.
"How do you know so much?" Lucy couldn't help but ask.
"Haven't I told you?" Liam casually wondered. "I'm a hunter."