Lin Shen flipped over the body a couple of times, even carefully feeling the inside of the clothing hems, but he didn't find any hidden Pet Capsules.
Ye indeed did not possess a Crystal Base Pet Capsule on his body, and it wasn't because he didn't have time to use it.
"Generally, people would hide the key and only take their pets out, avoiding the risk of their pets being snatched away. What's the use of just carrying the key without the capsule?" Lin Shen frowned and pondered.
Unable to figure it out for the moment, he simply put the key away for later.
Ye's two Alloy Pets included the Heavy Armor Beast he rode and the Gale Meteor Iron Swallow.
Heavy Armor Beast: Alloy Creature.
Strength: 18.5.
Speed: 12.7.
Hardness: 16.7.
Toughness: 11.6.
Base Change Talent: Defense Enhancement.
Gale Meteor Iron Swallow: Alloy Creature.
Strength: 10.9.
Speed: 19.1.
Hardness: 17.6.
Toughness: 18.7.
Base Change Talent: Swift Slash, Swallow Return.
The Heavy Armor Beast wasn't fast enough to catch up with the White Gold Beast, so Ye retracted it when he was pursuing Lin Shen. This creature was all about thick skin and brute strength, good for acting as a strong shield or for scouting ahead.
Although the Gale Meteor Iron Swallow wasn't that strong, its other attributes were quite decent. Furthermore, its dual talents were impressive. Swift Slash allowed it to convert speed into destructive power, somewhat compensating for its lack of strength. Swallow Return enabled the Meteoric Iron Swallow to make a sudden turn during high-speed flight, catching adversaries by surprise.
With the White Gold Beast killed by Ye, the Heavy Armor Beast would be a suitable mount, and the Gale Meteor Iron Swallow a decent assistant.
Boom!
A sudden loud noise came from the direction of the canyon, like something had exploded.
After a brief moment of thought, Lin Shen collected his things and stealthily approached the battlefield.
He still kept the Death Powder within his clothes, wrapping it around himself.
When Lin Shen stealthily returned to the mouth of the canyon and peeked inside, he discovered no one was left, only some tents remained in place, and the lit bonfires had not been extinguished.
At the site of the recent fight, there was now a large crater over ten meters in diameter, with several bodies strewn haphazardly nearby.
Lin Shen observed for a while and then summoned the Meteoric Iron Swallow to scout ahead, finding the tents empty and everyone else's whereabouts unknown.
Seeing no danger, Lin Shen carefully approached and checked the bodies, among which were neither Bai Shenfei nor Wei Wufu, only Base Mutators from the Qi and Wang families.
"What has happened? Why has everyone disappeared? And what's with this big crater?" Lin Shen wondered.
Inside the tents were many supplies and belongings, showing that their departure was very hasty; many things were left behind uncollected.
On the ground leading to the deeper parts of the canyon, one could see disordered footprints and hoof marks, indicating they had headed further into the canyon.
"Did they go chasing someone, or were they drawn deeper inside by something?" Lin Shen pondered for a moment, then decided to follow and see for himself.
He summoned the Heavy Armor Beast, placing the Supersonic Gunman in front, with the Meteoric Iron Swallow scouting far ahead.
He didn't dare to move too quickly, to avoid nearby Base Variant Creatures lying in wait in the shadows.
It wasn't long before he saw several Base Variant Creature corpses on the ground, with their Base Mutation Fluid not harvested.
Lin Shen checked the wounds on those bodies and then continued to pursue.
Every so often, one could see the corpses of Base Variant Creatures, yet not a single person was to be seen, nor were there any signs of living Base Variant Creatures.
The canyon was very long and it wasn't until the sky began to brighten that he reached the end of the canyon, but still, there was no sign of Bai Shenfei and the others.
As the sky gradually lightened, Lin Shen looked off into the distance where a continuous mountain range loomed, but the majestic and mysterious Gourd Mountain was nowhere to be seen.
"Gourd Mountain is so imposing that it can be clearly seen from the canyon's entrance, so why can't I see it here?" Lin Shen's confusion deepened.
There were many paths among the mountain range, but thankfully, there were hoof prints on the ground, and Lin Shen followed the tracks.
In the mountains, there were many metal plants, and even towering trees that seemed to be forged from steel, resembling a forest of steel.
The most common were trees similar to red maples, with leaves the color of red copper that covered the seven or eight-meter-tall trees.
Following the hoof prints through the twists and turns of the mountain range, Lin Shen was startled to find that after two to three hours, he had circled back to the canyon.
"How strange!" Lin Shen grew more puzzled. He was certain he had followed the hoof prints without seeing Bai Shenfei and the others double back, so how had he ended up back at the beginning?
"Perhaps Gourd Mountain should be here, only I can't see it. They have the Dark Bird with them, so they might have already entered Gourd Mountain," Lin Shen reasoned, concluding that this was the only possibility.
Unfortunately, without a Dark Bird, even if he wanted to enter Gourd Mountain, he could not find the way.
"How exactly is such a colossal mountain concealed? It truly is incomprehensible." Lin Shen tried once more to search the mountain range for them but, finding nothing, he ended up back at the canyon again.
What was even stranger was that not a trace of Base Variant Creatures could be found within the mountains. Theoretically, the area near a Mutation Point should be teeming with Base Variant Creatures. Everything here seemed rather eerie.
"Forget it, my strength is limited. Even if I did enter Gourd Mountain, I'm afraid I wouldn't be much help but might instead become a burden to my third and fourth brothers," Lin Shen decided, after some thought, to head back to the base instead.
He must complete his Base Mutation as soon as possible, for his own strength was too weak; even with powerful pets in tow, he wouldn't be safe.
Just as Lin Shen was preparing to head back, he suddenly saw a figure stumbling along a distant mountain path, heading back.
Because it was too far away, Lin Shen could only tell it was a person, he couldn't see clearly who it was. With a thought, he took his Pet Capsule and hid in the woods, quietly observing the figure from afar.
The figure seemed as though drunk, staggering from side to side and taking a long while to make it down the mountain path.
But as the distance closed, Lin Shen could finally see clearly who it was and was taken aback.
The metallic armor on the person's body was covered in tiny cracks like shattered tempered glass, with blood seeping out from every fissure, dripping with blood all over, presenting a horrifying sight.
That he was still alive was a miracle. No wonder he stumbled and faltered his way, hardly able to walk.
Lin Shen faintly remembered that this person was from the Qi Family, an Alloy Base Mutator with considerable skill, ranked among the notable figures of both the Qi Family and Dark Bird Base. His name seemed to be Qi Guan, a direct descendant of the Qi Family.
Seeing no one else was following on the mountain path behind, Lin Shen quickly emerged from the woods and briskly approached Qi Guan.
"Qi Guan, what happened to you? Who did this to you, and where are the others?" Lin Shen shouted from a distance.
When Qi Guan saw Lin Shen, he tried to rush over but stumbled and fell to the ground. He struggled to get up several times but failed to rise.
"Save... save me... I'm... gonna... die... gonna... die..." Qi Guan lay on the ground, stretching out his hand towards Lin Shen with all his might, his eyes brimming with a desperate longing for life.
Unfortunately, he didn't finish his words before he was gone, his face planted on the ground and his hand limply falling, unmoving and silent.
"What do you mean 'gonna die'... Qi Guan... Qi Guan..." Lin Shen called out a few times, but there was no response from him.
He let the Supersonic Gunman turn the body over, blood had stained the ground with a blood-colored human-shaped mark; it looked like he really wasn't going to make it.
Lin Shen went over and checked for a pulse and respiration, but he was already dead.
Lin Shen examined the metal carapace covering his body closely, the countless cracks were like glass that had been crushed while still alive. He wondered what kind of force could have caused such damage to him.
Suddenly, Lin Shen noticed in his other hand, he seemed to be clutching something. Even in death, his fingers were still tightly gripped around it.
Lin Shen squatted down and tried to pry the hand open, but couldn't budge it.
He took out Ye's short blade, and after prying and breaking the fingers, he finally saw what was in the hand.