Chapter 245: Snow Plain Hunter

It was dawn.

Outside the guest room temporarily provided for Gao De to rest.

Aona and several instructors in the church gathered here, their expressions solemn.

In the church, everyone got up very early, so Aona came over early to call Gao De to get up and have breakfast with everyone.

Then, she discovered that Gao De was nowhere to be found.

In the guest room, the message Gao De had written with charcoal was very conspicuous.

"Where did he discover something wrong? He clearly behaved very normally last night." Aona was somewhat annoyed and somewhat unbelievable.

She considered that she had performed without any flaws from beginning to end.

"Outsiders are like this; they have many thoughts and can pretend." An older instructor comforted Aona.

"What should we do now?" Aona asked: "The headquarters specifically sent news that Guardian Baruke is highly likely to have abandoned the doctrine and committed slaughter for his own interests, and we should pay attention to his whereabouts and report in time once discovered."

"This guy, although not Baruke, kept saying he was entrusted by Baruke to deliver a letter, so he must know some news about Baruke, but we let him go."

"This cannot be blamed on us. Although this outsider is young, since he dares and can enter the northern realm, it shows that he is definitely not as simple as he looks on the surface, and Lord Damon just happened to be away." Another instructor said.

As instructors, the main reason was that their strength was not enough, only equivalent to a first-circle mage.

Those with enough strength were "Guardians."

"If we acted rashly, under his fierce resistance, even if we finally took him down, it would be inevitable to accidentally injure the children."

As members of the Snow Plain Guardians, even if they couldn't become Guardians because their strength was not enough, these instructors still kept the doctrine.

Naturally, they were also very protective of these orphans they had brought up since childhood.

And among mages, it is very difficult to directly judge the mage level of the other party.

It was precisely because of this point that the instructors, who couldn't figure out Gao De's background and felt their own strength was insufficient, didn't act directly.

They chose to stabilize Gao De for the time being and wait for Guardian Damon to return before taking action, so they could ensure it was foolproof.

Plus Gao De's answer at the time, which was to wait for Guardian Damon to return and convey the message personally, also let Aona and the instructors relax their vigilance.

"The hunter sent by the headquarters is already on the way and should be able to arrive in these two days." Another young instructor said in a deep voice.

"It will be easy to handle once they arrive; we don't need to worry too much."

The instructor's task is to teach the children, and also to guard the branch.

As for chasing criminals, it is not their responsibility; even if Gao De runs away, they will not be blamed.

As the only large sect organization on the permafrost tundra, the Snow Plain Guardians, like other sects, possess a perfect organizational system.

Not only perfect, but also powerful.

No one knows who established the Snow Plain Guardians; in short, in the memories of most northern people, this sect has existed for a long time and has always taken guarding the snow plains as its doctrine.

And as a sect, besides the "Guardians" who represent the sect's doctrine, naturally, there are also violent organs used to deter other forces.

Otherwise, the Snow Plain Guardians would not be able to occupy many good places with food resources and establish branches to accommodate orphans.

Northern people have a simple side, but also an extremely fierce and barbaric side.

For the sake of food, northern people can definitely throw their simple side behind them.

And this violent organ used to deter others is called "Hunters" in the Snow Plain Guardians.

Hunters and Guardians are the two most important groups of the "Snow Plain Guardians."

Guardians fight on their own, spreading the doctrine on the snow plains and doing the work of guarding the snow plains.

And Hunters, most of the time, stay in the sect and execute various tasks according to the needs of the sect.

"Once the hunter arrives, this outsider will have been gone for a long time. Can they still find him?" Aona hesitated and couldn't help but ask.

"Tracking prey is exactly the strength of a hunter," compared to Aona's doubt, the instructor had great confidence in the church's hunters and said firmly: "As long as he has stayed here and left traces and smells, let alone only leaving for a day or two, even if he has left for a month or two, the hunter has a way to find him."

Just one day later.

Two hunters sent by the Snow Plain Guardians appeared outside the gate of this branch.

Aona, who came out to greet them, saw that one of the two hunters was actually wearing a bronze mask and subconsciously trembled all over.

The bronze mask represents the extremely high status of the other party among the hunters.

This status, perhaps coming from powerful strength, noble identity, or great potential.

Regardless of which one, it was enough to make her, a person equivalent to a manager in the branch, show absolute awe.

Those two hunters waved their hands, signaling Aona not to be overly polite.

"I received news that you have news related to Guardian Baruke?" The hunter wearing the mask spoke, and what made Aona feel surprised was that, judging from the voice, this hunter was actually a woman.

However, regardless of whether it was a man or a woman, it did not affect Aona's awe of her. She hurriedly answered: "That is indeed the case. The day before yesterday, an outsider who claimed to be entrusted by Baruke and wanted to convey an important message to Guardian Damon came to the door."

"Outsider?" Another male hunter who was not wearing a mask narrowed his eyes and repeated, confirming.

"Yes, it is an outsider. His appearance is too different from that of the northern people, and his Aisi language is also very raw, clearly just learned." Aona nodded and affirmed.

On this point, she was still certain.

"Then it seems that the news about Baruke abandoning the doctrine might really be true... he has even gotten involved with these despicable and dark outsiders, and it is highly possible that he has been influenced by them." The male hunter said softly to the female hunter wearing a bronze mask beside him.

It could be seen that the male hunter had a great prejudice against outsiders.

"Do not jump to conclusions. Seeing is believing. If we wrong a Guardian, how can we be worthy of their dedication to the snow plains?" Compared to the male hunter, the female hunter was much more objective.

"Then where is he now?" The female hunter asked again.

"He ran away..." Aona appeared somewhat embarrassed.

"Ran away?" The male hunter frowned, but he didn't vent his anger on Aona, "What exactly happened?"

"Two, you come with me." Aona signaled, leading the two toward the guest room where Gao De had temporarily stayed, while keeping it short and briefly introducing the previous situation.

"... That outsider seemed to have discovered something. Anyway, he said he would wait for Guardian Damon to return and convey the message personally. Since he said so, we didn't think much and felt we had stabilized him."

"As a result, early the next morning when I went to call him to get up for breakfast, I found that no one answered. When I went in and looked, the room was already empty."

"Then, we found some traces at the corner of the wall near his guest room. He should have flipped over the wall and left when everyone was asleep at night."

Unknowingly, Aona had brought the two hunters to the temporary guest room.

Opening the door, what came into view was the line of conspicuous large characters written with charcoal on the floor.

"What is this?" The male hunter frowned and asked again. "It was left by that outsider." Aona answered.

Gao De's Aisi language was just at the introductory level, still stuck at the level of barely being able to speak, so he used common language characters for the message, not Aisi language characters.

However, as a mage, the ability of 【Comprehend Languages】, besides allowing mages to understand other languages, can also allow mages to read the literal meaning of written text by touching it.

Therefore, the next moment, the male hunter squatted down and touched the line of large characters with his hand lightly.

Soon, he understood the meaning of the large characters Gao De had left behind.

The male hunter stood up, walked to the female hunter's side, and whispered:

"There are members within the Snow Plain Guardians practicing forbidden necromantic spells and manipulating beast tides to attack northern tribes to provide themselves with necromantic spells."

"Catherine, these are the words left by that outsider."

"There are Guardians practicing forbidden necromantic spells?" The female hunter called Catherine thought for a moment and asked: "Loychi, what do you think?"

"Although these outsiders are despicable and shameless, this outsider specifically came to the door saying he was entrusted by Baruke to deliver a message. It looks like what he wanted to deliver was this message... I can't think of the purpose of him fabricating such a fake message for the time being. Perhaps it is really true?" The male hunter called Loychi thought for a moment and answered cautiously.

"But according to the news reported by other Guardians, this Baruke is highly likely to have abandoned the doctrine. Could it be that the villain is complaining first, just to confuse the public, and in fact, the Guardian who is practicing forbidden necromantic spells and inciting beast tides to slaughter northern tribes is himself?" Catherine also put forward her own speculation.

"It is not impossible." Loychi nodded in agreement.

"What exactly is going on, as long as we find Baruke, the truth will come out."

"Baruke, as a Guardian, wanders and patrols on the snow plains, his whereabouts are uncertain, and finding him is not a simple matter. Since this outsider said he was entrusted by Baruke, he should know Baruke's whereabouts. Let's find him first."

After speaking, Loychi turned his head to look at Aona on the side and asked: "What exactly does that guy look like?"

"That guy is an outsider, very young, should be about seventeen or eighteen years old, looks clean..." Aona described Gao De's appearance in detail according to her memory.

After all, Gao De had only left for one day, so Aona's memory was still very clear.

Loychi took out a piece of animal skin from his pocket and kept drawing on the animal skin according to Aona's description.

Soon, a clear portrait appeared on the paper.

"Does he look like this?" Loychi showed the portrait to Aona.

Aona looked at it carefully for two glances, then nodded forcefully and said: "Yes, that's him!"

"Good." Loychi nodded with satisfaction, showed the portrait to Catherine for a glance, then rolled up the animal skin and put it back into his pocket.

"Have you locked onto his scent?" Catherine asked.

Loychi sniffed and said confidently: "Already locked on. This guy is an outsider. The diet of outsiders is completely different from ours, so the smell on his body is also completely different from us northern people. It's not that kind of heavy smell, but carries some fresh plant smell."

"With such a distinct smell, and still on the snow plains where there are few people, wanting to track him is too simple!"

As a "hunter" of the Snow Plain Guardians, the cultivation method he practices is the 【Wilderness Secret Art】, which is the most common among "hunters" in the church.

This cultivation method can improve the mage's performance in tracking spells, and at the same time, it can also allow the mage to gradually acquire various special abilities, including the ability of "enhanced sense of smell."

It just happens to fit the identity of a "hunter."

"Then let's set off; he can't escape." Catherine said, her voice full of cold and stern flavor.

Although she didn't have such a great prejudice against outsiders as Loychi, her attitude toward outsiders would definitely not be any better.

Therefore, Catherine was now more inclined to believe that Baruke, who was mixed with outsiders, had abandoned the doctrine.

As for the line of words Gao De left behind, not to say completely denied, but they definitely didn't believe it much in their hearts now.

The cold wind blew over the rolling white snow hills.

The sound of the cold wind howling was constant.

But after staying on the snow plains for a long time, this sound would gradually be automatically filtered out by the ears and brain.

And Gao De had already begun to get used to these sounds.

After filtering out the wind, the vast snow plains appeared somewhat too quiet.

By the afternoon.

The sun, which could not bring much temperature, hung high in the sky.

Below, a huge blue lizard stuck its head into the thick snow layer, looking for some rare snow plain plants hidden under the snow surface.

It was also a relatively common first-circle earth-vein creature on the snow plains, named Dragon-Tongue Blue Lizard.

Of course, the number was definitely far less than the "Snow Wolf," which was known as the hegemon of the snow plains.

But since the rank was placed there, it was destined not to be a good character to provoke.

Just then.

Gao De suddenly poked his head out from a nearby snow hill, and then slid down at an extremely exaggerated speed.

The original tranquility was broken instantly.

The Dragon-Tongue Blue Lizard's reaction was also very agile. The moment Gao De appeared, it sensed the unusual movement from the slight vibration transmitted from the surface.

It quickly drilled its head out from under the snow, scanned the surroundings with vigilant eyes, and then exposed its long tongue toward Gao De, who was "speeding over," and then charged toward Gao De.

The moment the Dragon-Tongue Blue Lizard charged, magic power fluctuations had already surged in Gao De's hands.

The next moment, he had already pointed his finger at the rapidly approaching Dragon-Tongue Blue Lizard.

Following that, some key information emerged from Gao De's mind:

Ice resistance... extremely high physical resistance... the parts with relatively weak defense are the head (eyes), abdomen, tail, limbs... 【Preemptive Strike】! Extend your hand and point your finger at a creature within the spell range, and instantly see through the target's defense with magic power.

Gao De, who knew the specific weaknesses of the Dragon-Tongue Blue Lizard, had already launched his next spell fiercely.

A small acid ball containing corrosive power flew out from his fingertips instantly, flying straight toward the Dragon-Tongue Blue Lizard.

【Acid Splash+】! Aiming to use the full-coverage feature of 【Acid Splash】 to perform a full-coverage strike on all the vulnerable parts of the Dragon-Tongue Blue Lizard.

The Dragon-Tongue Blue Lizard seemed to realize the impending threat, but it didn't stop its charge.

The moment the small acid ball was about to touch it, it suddenly opened its mouth and spat out its tongue.

A blue, cold breath was spat out by it, directly covering the small acid ball.

The small acid ball composed of acid was directly frozen under the action of this cold breath, becoming a green ice ball, falling onto the snow surface.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 246 =====