Mo Hua took out the map of the wilderness surrounding South Yue City.
It was called a map, but it was crudely made, the lines were simple, and it only roughly outlined some mountain terrains; nothing else was included.
This wilderness was rarely visited, so there was no detailed map available.
The one Mo Hua held was previously obtained from Situ Fang. It was a map of the mountainous terrain recorded by the Taoist Court Official of South Yue City.
Mo Hua recalled the trajectory of the light spots on the Compass Disk and traced Zhang Quan’s path on the map.
Zhang Quan’s movements seemed chaotic, but all his routes were concentrated within the forest between two peaks to the east of the wilderness.
He came here to return to his lair.
Therefore, the place where he refined and hid the corpses had to be nearby.
And to avoid being tracked, he would certainly not linger near his lair.
So the location of his lair was probably to the west of where he lingered.
The two places were separated by a large mountain and faced each other from a distance.
Mo Hua shared his deductions.
Bai Zisheng asked doubtfully,
"How do you know this?"
Mo Hua said, "I am a Monster Hunter. I often track Monster Beasts in the mountains; this is the basics for a Monster Hunter."
"But Zhang Quan is not a Monster Beast."
"Close enough. Anyway, he can hardly be considered human anymore, I suspect his habits are very similar to those of Monster Beasts."
Bai Zisheng nodded, then asked,
"What if you guessed wrong?"
"If I’m wrong, then I’m wrong. It doesn’t really affect anything," Mo Hua said indifferently.
Bai Zisheng sighed, "Alright then..."
After all, they needed to search, and having a direction was better than having none.
Putting aside Zhang Quan for the moment, Mo Hua and the other two crossed over a mountain range to the west of the wilderness to look for Zhang Quan’s hiding place.
Mo Hua was not worried about Zhang Quan.
After all, with the Compass Disk, Zhang Quan couldn’t escape from his grasp. He could be left to his own devices, letting him play a game of hide-and-seek with himself.
And as long as they found Zhang Quan’s hiding place, they could even turn the situation around and lie in wait to catch him.
To the west of the South Yue wilderness, there was nothing special.
It was still the same withered grass, low trees, dry rocks, and steep mountains.
The three searched together for a while, then split up to continue the search, but still came up empty-handed.
At least on the surface, there was only barren grass and rocky hills.
Further out, there were more continuous wilderness hills, but the distance was much greater, and with such a wide range, it was not easy to search.
Bai Zisheng questioned doubtfully, "There’s nothing?"
Mo Hua shook his head, "Not necessarily, we’ve only searched once."
A Monster Hunter won’t just search the mountains once.
The first time is just to get a rough look at the terrain, to have an overall impression of the land in the Sea of Consciousness. Then, by comparing it with the map, one would have a clearer sense of the paths.
Afterward, based on experience, one would choose a route and search carefully.
Mo Hua recalled the terrain and speculated which places could be used for Corpse Refinement or as hiding spots, which locations had special terrain, and which places had a suspicious aura...
He then took out a pen and marked a route on the map before continuing the search.
This time, Mo Hua searched very meticulously.
At every place, he would sit cross-legged, release his Divine Sense, and sense the sparse flow of Spiritual Energy between heaven and earth, as well as the circulation of various auras in the mountains.
At the same time, he had to calculate in his mind to see if there were any traces of a Formation.
Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi protected him from any Cultivator or Monster Beast that might attempt an ambush.
After Mo Hua finished searching, he opened his eyes and got up to move to the next location, searching one place after another.
This kind of search was rather tedious.
What’s more, Calculation consumed a lot of Divine Sense.
Luckily, Mo Hua was patient enough, his Divine Sense was strong, and he had mastered the Meditation Technique, so his Divine Sense recovered quickly.
Stop and go, Mo Hua suddenly uttered a "huh" next to a cluster of bald rocks.
Bai Zisheng’s eyes lit up, "Did you find it?"
Mo Hua nodded slightly, "There’s a Formation."
Bai Zisheng released his Divine Sense and swept around, then said helplessly, "Where is it?"