Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 175 (Patreon)

Chapter 175: A World Apart

The Dark Continent is humanity's greatest taboo and a realm not to be intruded upon lightly; it exists beyond the outermost edges of the world map.

There, one finds all sorts of "otherworldly beings"—monsters and calamities beyond imagination. According to legend, the magical beasts of the human world originated from creatures that crossed the sea from the Dark Continent long ago.

Two hundred years earlier, the union of the five continents, known as the V5, established a treaty prohibiting the invasion of the Dark Continent and has since tried to erase its presence from public knowledge. To this day, the newer generations have little access to information related to the Dark Continent.

"I do know a bit about it. What about it?" Bisky's gaze slowly fell on the murals illuminated by the flashlight, her brow slightly furrowed.

"These murals... they might be related to the Dark Continent."

Luo swung the flashlight, examining another mural as he moved.

He vaguely remembered some details about the Dark Continent—specifically, that the enigmatic object in the Zoldyck family originated there. The eerie human-like beings in the mural, with their hollow, pitch-black eyes, reminded him of that mysterious object.

Thus, Luo used the word "perhaps."

"So what?" Bisky scoffed.

"True, you're only interested in gems."

Luo chuckled, refocusing his attention on another mural.

The hunters they encountered, like Sanbica, Buhara, and Bisky, each specialized in a particular field—Sanbica was interested in viruses, Buhara in food, and Bisky in gems.

But his interests were not limited to just one of these areas.

The flashlight's beam swept across the murals, which were damaged and blurred but still discernible.

Various creatures... seemingly spawned from the boundless imagination of humans, fierce and extremely dangerous.

Humans, in these murals, appeared as insignificant prey, conveying a sense of despair.

Could this place really be the tomb of the historic female lord?

"This doesn't look like Lady Stajy's tomb," Luo suddenly turned around, looking towards the door through which Uncle Li and the others had entered.

Despite all clues pointing to this being Lady Stajy's tomb, seeing is believing.

"Isn't it Lady Stajy's tomb? Why not go see for ourselves?" Bisky's tone carried a hint of impatience. If it weren't for Chairman Netero's instructions and the chance encounter with Luo, she wouldn't be here examining these dull murals.

"That's true. I wonder where they went."

Luo nodded decisively, seemingly unaffected by Bisky's impatience, and headed towards the door, his footsteps echoing through the chamber.

Bisky quickly followed, without a flashlight, staying close to Luo lest she be left in the dark.

They passed through the stone door and entered a corridor.

The tapping of their footsteps was the only sound in the corridor.

Turning a corner, they saw a distant blue light.

From afar, it resembled the white light of an exit one might see in a cave, but this light was pale blue.

As they moved towards the exit under the glow of the flashlight, Luo and Bisky exchanged glances and silently quickened their pace.

After a brisk five-minute walk towards the light, they arrived at the exit and beheld a vast hollowed-out space inside the mountain, surrounded by spiderweb-like blue light streaks on the mountain walls, each as thick as a python.

Luo and Bisky were taken aback by the spectacle within the mountain.

Their foothold was only as large as a regular balcony, with a steep staircase leading down to a large stone platform, and at the center of the platform, a small ancient city ruin shone under the dim blue light.

The glowing plants on the ceiling and mountain walls seemed to be an unknown species. Observing closely, one could see liquid flowing within the light streaks. The platform itself hung over a bottomless abyss.

Luo, smelling the unique scent of plants and hearing the faint sound of flowing water from the abyss below, quietly turned off his flashlight.

Using the blue light, Luo and Bisky saw Uncle Li and the others standing motionless in front of the ancient city ruins, apparently stunned by the scene.

Moreover, one person lay on the ground, his fate unknown.

"This discovery alone could easily earn any hunter involved in related fields a one-star rating," Bisky remarked, her eyes wide in disbelief.

If it were merely the tomb of a historical figure, it would not be so remarkable. But this was clearly an ancient relic.

Seeing the ancient city ruins under the blue light, Luo thought only of how many items within could enhance his strength, further confirming that this was not Lady Stajy's tomb.

"Let's go down and join them," Luo suggested, starting down the staircase.

Bisky suppressed her astonishment and silently followed Luo.

Their footsteps on the staircase immediately

 drew the attention of Uncle Li and the others, who turned to look up at them.

Soon, Luo and Bisky reached Uncle Li and the others.

Luo glanced at the fallen person—a nen user of lower skill—his eyes wide open in anger, his mouth and shirtfront covered in fresh blood, his chest caved in, clearly dead beyond doubt.

Bisky, too, had noticed the body. When they were above, she had only seen someone lying on the ground, not whether he was alive or dead.

"What happened?" Luo's eyes swept across the scene with a hint of caution. The manner of death was clearly due to a punch to the chest.

Uncle Li took a deep breath and replied, "We're not sure either."

"What do you mean?" Luo frowned.

"Little Bin suddenly went berserk and attacked us. We couldn't stop him, so we had to kill him," Aya crisply explained for Uncle Li, possibly in self-defense. Her expression and tone were calm as she uttered the word "killed."

Little Bin was the name of the corpse.

"With his skills, restraining him shouldn't have been difficult, right?" Luo sharply picked up on an inconsistency.

"That's the problem," Uncle Li said, his eyes reflecting confusion, pointing towards the most prominent palace ahead. "Before you arrived, we were about to enter that palace, but we were forced to retreat back here."

"The one who forced us back... was exactly Little Bin."

The disparity in numbers and strength between the two sides was stark—a mere third-rate nen user close to second-rate had managed to drive back several second-rate nen users?

Was this the truth, or a lie?

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