A few moments later, the three trembling squirrels sat in a neat little row before Lu Ran and his gang.
"Don't be afraid; I'm a good person. I'll let you go as long as you answer a few questions."
Lu Ran gave the three little squirrels a friendly look.
Captain Doofus and Sudden Death King nodded in agreement.
Although I don't know why Lu Ran wants to catch these three, he’s indeed a good guy. I hope they will be cooperative.
Admittedly, telepathy was really convenient. Lu Ran was able to convey his thoughts very clearly.
When they understood, the three squirrels nodded enthusiastically.
"What were y’all talking about just now?" Lu Ran asked.
The three little squirrels looked at each other, and the one in the middle started to speak.
Yesterday, two people were fighting on the mountain.
"Two people were fighting on the mountain and commanded monstrous creatures?" Lu Ran interrogated.
The squirrel nodded in response.
Lu Ran was slightly taken aback. How did two beastmasters have the time to fight in a place ?
One died and got buried.
Lu Ran’s eyes widened in shock. He assumed that the squirrels were overexaggerating when they talked about people killing each other and that they were just referring to a normal fight. But someone actually died?
"What kind of creatures did they command?" Lu Ran continued to ask.
The dead guy had a cat. I don't know about the other one. It was very scary.
"Do you remember where the fight happened? Take me there," Lu Ran instructed.
The squirrels reluctantly looked at each other again, but they finally nodded because they were afraid of Lu Ran. A while later, Lu Ran arrived at the scene of yesterday’s fight.
When they arrived, Lu Ran and Captain Doofus immediately smelled the lingering scent of blood. Looking at the pile of dirt on the shallow grave, Lu Ran's heartbeat sped up again.
What in the world is going on?
Although he had a good handle on animals, he was still just an ordinary high school student and wasn’t mentally prepared to face things like murder. Lu Ran froze for a moment, unsure of what to do.
A beastmaster was murdered, and his body was buried here in the wilderness!
Judging from what transpired, the murderer probably wasn’t an Alliance member. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have ditched the body so haphazardly.
A violent murder? What should I do? Call the police? Will I get into trouble?
But if I don’t call the police and he turns out to be a serial killer, and his arrest is delayed, more people will get hurt.
Damn squirrels, why did you tell me something so stressful? I will remember this grudge.
Captain Doofus and the squirrels were both speechless.
After thinking it over for a second, Lu Ran took a deep breath and decided to contact the Alliance. It was the only option. This was how he was taught since he was a kid. Lu Ran couldn't just ignore something .
When he was a kid, he learned swordsmanship so that he could be a white knight who drew his sword when he saw others suffer injustice. Even after passing this dream on to Captain Doofus, he still wanted to set a good example!
"Let's contact White Dragon."
White Dragon should be able to contact the Beastmaster Alliance in Golden Hill City.
White Dragon quickly picked up the call. He was quite pleased to see Lu Ran reaching out.
"Hey, little Lu. I haven't heard from you in a while. Let me guess, you need me to help you select a university? You’re starting your last year of high school, right?"
"No. I found some bodies buried in the mountains. Captain Doofus has a keen sense of smell and could tell that it’s a beastmaster and his transcendent familiar."
“Huh? Holy fuck." White Dragon cursed.
The last time Lu Ran called him, a tiger escaped. This time he called because he found a dead beastmaster?
Why is this kid wrapped up in so many things? What is he doing all day long!?
"Where are you? Are you still in Green Sea City?" White Dragon asked in concern.
A beastmaster buried in the wilderness wasn’t a minor issue.
"No, I'm in Golden Hill City now."
"Golden Hill? That's easy!" White Dragon replied.
"My former boss just got transferred to the Beastmaster Tower in Golden Hill. I'll give him your contact information. The public security of each province is now managed locally. I'm in Mystic City, so there’s not much I can do personally."
White Dragon hung up and immediately contacted his old boss. The call connected quickly.
"Bai Junjie? What's up? We haven’t seen each other for just a few days. What’s going on?"
"Do you still remember that new beastmaster, Lu Ran? His ancestors have been in animal-related industries for 18 generations, and he’s favored by Dr. Gu?"
"Of course! How could I forget? I was transferred to Golden Hill, so ended up closer to him. Maybe I will run into him in the near future."
"He is in Golden Hill now."
White Dragon quickly updated his old boss on what Lu Ran encountered. His old boss was momentarily silent, before anxiously saying, "Little White, send me his contact information immediately. This is urgent."
The three of them were able to get in touch with each other very quickly.
"Is this Lu Ran? I'm White Dragon’s boss, Zhao Chen. White Dragon already told me what happened. Where are you right now?"
Lu Ran quickly gave directions to his location.
"Thank you for filing a report. This incident is very likely related to a case we are investigating. We will rush over right away. Be careful."
After hanging up, Lu Ran sighed lightly and looked towards the shallow grave again. The matter was indeed not simple. This was related to a case that the Alliance was investigating. So this means that the Alliance had their sights on the murderer for a long time!?
Lu Ran released the three little squirrels since they were no longer useful.
The three little squirrels cried joyfully and ran away while Lu Ran’s group continued to wait in the same place. Lu Ran didn’t dare to dig up the body because he was afraid of damaging the crime scene. It definitely wasn’t because he lacked courage.
So scary! There’s a dead person. I'm going to die!
Sudden Death King was very disturbed by what was going on. As for Captain Doofus, it was fearlessly looking up at the sky, with no hint of what it was thinking about.
The Alliance beastmasters from Golden Hill City were dispatched very quickly, within 10 minutes, but there weren’t as many people as Lu Ran expected. Only two people showed up.
The pair consisted of a middle-aged man and a younger one. When they arrived, they immediately approached Lu Ran.
The middle-aged man said, "Lu Ran, we just spoke. Is this the place?"
Zhao Chen looked at the grave with a solemn expression.
"Little Wang, I’ll leave this to you. I will take Student Lu away first."
The young man gave him a thumbs up.
"Student Lu, come back to the city with me first. Leave this to the professionals," Zhao Chen instructed.
Lu Ran guessed that White Dragon’s old boss assumed that, as a student, he wouldn’t have the stomach to watch them dig up corpses, so it was better to take him away first.
"Let's go. Sudden Death King, stop eating.”
Lu Ran wasn’t interested in the first place, so he gathered Captain Doofus and Sudden Death King.
This isn’t an auspicious place.
As the group left the mountain, Zhao Chen asked Lu Ran for more details about the incident. Lu Ran naturally couldn't admit that squirrels told him about it, so he made up a story. He had a thorough explanation of everything, from how he arrived in Golden Hill City to why he went up the mountain.
"You are so lucky to have evolved a talented reptile with awakening leaves!"
Looking at Sudden Death King riding on Captain Doofus, Zhao Chen couldn't help but admit that Lu Ran was worthy of being a newbie chosen by Dr. Gu. Truly fitting for someone with countless generations of ancestors connected with animals.
At this moment, Zhao Chen received another call.
"Is it him?" Zhao Chen inquired.
"That's right. It’s Tao Hua, a freshman at Golden Hill University of Education, who had just become a beastmaster recently. His roommate told the police that he had gone into the wilderness to level up last night but never returned. His beastmaster friend discovered that his ID card was canceled, and he couldn't contact him in Limitless City.
"It appears he was really murdered along with his familiar.”
“In that case, call someone to take care of the body and contact his family. I'll go back to HQ to see if I can get some strong backup to investigate this matter as soon as possible."
Zhao Chen sighed as he hung up the phone.
"Uncle Zhao, what's the situation?"
To get closer to Lu Ran, Zhao Chen told Lu Ran to call him Uncle Zhao.
Although Lu Ran wasn’t interested in the corpse itself, the case caught his attention. Zhao Chen smiled awkwardly at Lu Ran’s question.
"You came to Golden Hill at a really bad time. It hasn’t been peaceful here recently. You just became a beastmaster, so you probably haven’t heard of the mysterious organization called 'The Other Shore.' They have a special skill that lets them grow stronger by hunting other beastmasters and familiars.
"The Other Shore is an international criminal organization with members across the globe. With the birth of fourth-generation beastmasters, they have been particularly active lately. I’ve just transferred to Golden Hill and immediately noticed traces of The Other Shore.
"If I am not mistaken, that was one of the victims of The Other Shore."
"They can grow stronger by killing beastmasters and familiars? How can there be such a skill?"
Why hadn’t he heard of it before?
Becoming a beastmaster had such hidden risks? You could be targeted even without entering dangerous secret realms?
You can't level up by hunting monsters in secret realms, but you can by hunting down beastmasters?
Sudden Death King’s eyes widened because it felt that the world was full of dangers.
Woof! Stop quivering.
"Don't worry. The Other Shore is based abroad. The domestic groups are mostly small fries. They will be defeated as soon as they show up. We won’t allow them to take root in Xia!" Zhao Chen proclaimed.
"However, this group is very good at hiding and is quite difficult to deal with. If you run into them in the future, it is better to run away immediately. Use your ID card to quickly flee to Limitless City.
"That newbie might not have had experience dealing with ghosts, so it was likely that he couldn’t escape in time, and his soul was devoured."
"Ghosts? Souls?" Lu Ran was confused.
Zhao Chen explained, "Members of The Other Shore aren’t technically beastmasters. They’ve mastered a unique skill—killing their familiars and turning them into ghost slaves. They hunt other beastmasters and familiars to level up, relying on devouring the souls of transcendent creatures. Internationally, they’re better known as necromancers than beastmasters."