Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 412 (Patreon)

Chapter 412: Six Years

The sand thieves were annihilated, and the captives held in the dungeon saw the light of day again, though they were in a half-dead state. However, they at least had a chance to recover.

Luo stayed in the canyon for two days to recover his Nen power.

During this time, he searched the warehouse of the sand thieves' lair but found no ancient artifacts, only gold, jewels, and silk, which left him somewhat disappointed.

The sand thieves were simply sand thieves, likely uninterested in difficult-to-dispose ancient artifacts, hence the lack of such items in their warehouse.

Once his Nen was fully restored, Luo did not linger for a moment and immediately left the canyon, heading toward the Forbidden Zone.

As for the women and captives in the canyon, Luo was not kind-hearted enough to consider how they would leave the canyon and return to the three major oasis nations.

The sand thieves were the biggest obstacle, and now that they were annihilated, if the captives couldn't even manage basic "self-rescue," then that was the extent of their capability.

Luo stayed in the canyon for two days, converting over 1,400 pages of the book. He still wasn't sure of the criteria for the increase in pages—was it because he felt he had saved these people or because of some causal relationship?

In any case, with a definite gain, it was worth coming to Red Rock Canyon.

A few days after Luo left the canyon, a 3,000-strong army from the three major oasis nations arrived at Red Rock Canyon.

They had failed to exterminate the sand thieves several times before, causing them to give up. Now, years later, they had united and gathered an army to Red Rock Canyon once again, which was an unprecedented move.

What caused them to take such action?

When the army invaded Red Rock Canyon, the reason no longer mattered, as the scene before their eyes astonished everyone.

From this moment on, news of the boy and the cat spread rapidly.

...

Ten days later, Luo once again arrived at the Forbidden Zone.

He was alone, effortlessly breaking through the sandstorm and easily passing through the mountain path. He then crossed the grassland where no ants could be seen and arrived at the millennia-old imperial capital.

A few remaining members of the Eagle Group were still alive.

The inhabitants had left limited food supplies before departing, which became the capital for the Eagle Group to continue staying in the Forbidden Zone.

Luo was surprised that Ali and the others had not left. After chatting for a while, Ali recognized Luo by his voice, and Luo also learned why Ali and the others had not left.

They wanted to obtain more wealth by selecting the most valuable items from the treasures in the royal city. Since they had a limited number of people and could only carry so much, this caused them to overstay. By the time they left the valley, they found their armored bull was on the brink of death.

The armored bull was crucial for crossing the sandstorm. Without it, they were trapped in the Forbidden Zone.

The soldier ants were exterminated by Luo's poison. If Luo hadn't come to the Forbidden Zone, the Eagle Group would likely have starved to death once their food ran out.

Luo reassured Ali and then inquired about William's whereabouts, learning that William had been lingering in the grassland and mountain path, seemingly searching for something.

That night, by the campfire.

"At this point, I don't know whether I should regret it," Ali stared at the flickering flames, his expression melancholic.

His words might have been directed at Luo or perhaps at himself.

Once full of ambition, now all that remained was ashes.

For dreams, for goals, for desires...

There are countless hunters in the world, professional and amateur, all chasing something, whether it's dreams or desires. Dying for it is the most common phenomenon.

Even the former Hunter Association had many members who, despite knowing the Dark Continent was dangerous, still had a moth-to-flame mentality, let alone the current Eagle Group.

Luo remained silent, eating his dry rations.

Perhaps, he was luckier.

Whether it was falling off a cliff in his previous life and surviving or encountering many people who could change his fate in the Hunter World now.

The next day, Luo took all the ancient artifacts from Salin, putting them into the black cat's body, with still much space remaining.

Thinking he wouldn't come back a second time, he went to the royal city again to search for valuable items, such as the golden room and many jewelry-inlaid accessories.

The items chosen by the Eagle Group were mostly exquisite accessories, especially jewelry, as they were valuable and took up little space.

Luo quickly grew bored of searching and directly targeted the golden room, cutting it into bricks and feeding them into the black cat's mouth until it could hold no more.

Having taken most of the valuable items, Luo could only apologize to those who would come later.

Considering the extermination of the grassland ant colony and the news brought out by the survivors, many people would likely come to the Forbidden Zone in the future.

When they found few treasures and discovered a pile of books in the metal vault, it would be interesting to see their reactions.

After finishing his plunder, Luo went to find William. He knew William was searching for a specific skeleton in the Forbidden Zone, which was full of countless bones. Finding the right one was like finding a needle in a haystack.

Luo found William in the eastern mountain path, watching him sift through the bones.

"If you can't find it, what will you do?" Luo asked.

"Until the end," William looked up at Luo.

"With one more person, efficiency will improve."

"Alright."

...

Wat Oases, morning.

The Eagle Group returned safely from the Forbidden Zone, with some gains, though the dead would never return.

William took Luo to his friend's house and saw Fatima leaning out of the window in a daze.

Seeing William finally return, Fatima jumped down from the second-floor window and ran to him.

They embraced, speechless.

Luo watched quietly, not leaving as he wanted to ask Fatima for a bunch of human skin masks to play with.

William didn't find the skeleton he was looking for but found a personal item, which he handed to Fatima. Luo then saw Fatima cry like a child.

William said it was something their mother left behind.

Luo stayed at Wat for a long time. He asked if William and Fatima planned to return to Elba, but their reply was silence. Perhaps, even if they wanted to, they couldn't return.

Though not an absolute rule, sometimes to gain something, one must lose something.

During the more than two months, Luo taught Fatima Nen, and she made twenty human skin masks for him, probably because he found her mother's keepsake.

However, Luo was rather exasperated as each mask was uglier than the last.

With everything he wanted, Luo donned an ugly mask and left Wat, returning to Elba.

Subsequently, rumors about the boy and the cat spread widely in the three major oasis nations, along with the name Luo.

No one knew that the boy who stormed Red Rock Canyon and destroyed the sand thieves was now a man with a disfigured face working in Sago's shop.

Time flew by like a white horse passing through a crack. Luo stayed in the Kendia Desert for two years, then traveled with Linne to many places, mostly magic domains difficult for ordinary people to reach. They stayed at each place for at least a few months.

The journey wasn't too hurried, and there was relatively free time.

Whenever he had free time, Luo would bring delicious food and visit the Zoldyck family, cultivating the appetites of two little foodies.

Six years passed in the blink of an eye. Both Luo and Buhara made significant progress. The former gained much knowledge, and the latter increasingly resembled a gourmet hunter rather than just a foodie.

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