The woman nodded weakly, agreeing to his request.

"You don't have to do much. Someone will eventually come looking for the source of the smoke here. If this someone happens to ask you about us, asks you whether you've seen young boys with our features nearby, you need to answer that you have seen us."

The first part of his instructions seemed to confuse her. But Mir expected it to.

"Then, tell them that while you were occupied with fighting the Witchweed plants, we snuck into your hideout and stole your communicator, alongside most of your rations. And then, we fled North after injuring you with a very strange spiritual attack."

This confused her even further.

"And lastly, they might try to silence you seeing how feeble you are right now. Of course, they won't reveal any such intentions outside. So you need to be wary of that. If the situation goes out of control, tell them that you can help them track me through the communicator I've stolen from you. Every ExplorerAid account is tracked by the authorities overseeing the sacred ground. You can easily file an application to them to track down your stolen device. This Trump card will prevent them from killing you outright, which they usually do. I've seen them kill someone just two hours ago."

Seemingly realizing what his plan was, the woman's pupils shrank. But she nodded emphatically, signaling that she would do it.

"Thank you, and good luck."

Mir stood up and looked at the Witchweed plants nearby. Among the numerous plants, he felt a deep sense of resonance with the largest one. It was easy to tell that this plant was a predecessor to the rest of its army.

He still couldn't believe that he had managed to bind a grade- 2 mutant creature to himself. Although it was a plant with limited uses, it was still a mutant creature!

"Hide yourself underground. Don't come up to hunt for now. I'll return soon."

He couldn't let this thing die. The backlash he would suffer if the contracted creature died would practically cripple him for life. Even Transcenders couldn't casually let their companion creatures die during dangerous expeditions despite having the ability to heal from the backlash. Ordinary humans like Mir didn't have that luxury.

The Witchweed disappeared into the soil fully, only keeping out some tiny green parts to make food in the presence of the sunlight.

Caw! Caw caw!

The grove wasn't silent by any means, but this sound felt grating to his ears. Crows? Crows weren't quite common in woods, were they?

He looked up and found several black crows circling the rising smoke far above. They seemed keen on learning what lay beneath the smoke.

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Picking up the remaining bags, Mir entered the fishing boat to take the woman's communicator.

"Hey, what's your emergency password? I need to access the guest mode," he shouted once he recalled that the device was locked with biometric security.

The woman told him the password in an unsure tone. Satisfied, he rushed into the grove in the same direction as Reno.

He didn't have to go far to meet up with his injured friend. The terrain wasn't quite friendly, to begin with. There were countless patches of mud hampering fast movement, areas where enough water had accumulated to reach their knees, and areas that were too densely populated by catkins and weeds to walk through. Reno was slowing both of them down, and both of them understood that.

The sun was also slowly rising higher. Rays of sunlight often flashed on their bodies. Mir's jacket had suffered some damage during the battle with the Witchweed. Both of his palms were exposed to the sunlight. He had to remind himself constantly to keep them clenched.

Some of the crows must have been following the two of them, because Mir could still occasionally hear them. If these crows were contracted creatures belonging to their pursuers, then it would make sense for them to give chase.

In that case, Mir had to be even more careful. Because these crows had to be mutant creatures. He didn't know what their ability was. Several times, he tried to snap a picture, but the crows were too far away for the cheap communicator to-

The realization suddenly hit Mir. Of course, he had a second communicator now, a very expensive model. He pulled out the woman's communicator from his pocket and used its high-end camera to zoom in and take several photos.

Then he used his own communicator to snap some shots of the better photos and entered them into the search bar of the ExplorerAid software.

Several results loaded on the screen soon. Fortunately, Mir didn't have to sift through the results. The very first match was over 80%.

Creature: Stormfront Crow

Mutation: Grade- 1

Soulslot Consumption: 1 unit

Mutation Potential: grade- 1

Evolution Potential: grade- 1

Affinity: Aerial

Danger Rating: low in the mutant class

Mutation details: The Stormfront crows are one of the most ordinary mutants to have been discovered so far. Scavengers by nature, these crows have mutated to merely fly better than ordinary crows. They can fly through any kind of aerial disturbance, even tornados, which makes them excellent scouts. Transcenders who use these crows as companion creatures tend to feel much more sensitive to wind and the aerial atmosphere.

That sealed the conundrum for Mir. These crows were most definitely the scouts sent by their pursuers. Informing Reno of the discovery, the two of them quickly adjusted their direction of escape by using the map. Till now, they had been running parallel to the Northbound stream that led straight into the belly of the sacred ground. The flatlands were slowly receding on their way forward. The upcoming terrain sported numerous mountains on the map.

"Look, there's a data tower 4 kilometers ahead, Northeast! There's bound to be more people there. Surely, none of our pursuers would dare to act so brazenly in front of others!"

Reno's suggestion was reasonable. But Mir had a feeling that the Ravensworth family might station some spies in the easily accessible data towers to be on lookout for them. Maybe they wouldn't even make it into the data tower if they went that way.

Reno looked frustrated when he explained the possibility to him.

"Hang on, I've got a better idea. We can split up temporarily. The crows will target me if their masters can communicate with them. Since you're too injured to run, I'll distract them away while you try to hide in the waterfall up ahead. I'll keep sending you messages to let you know my position. Once they've fully lost your trail, regroup with Murray. So even if I get caught, you'll know where to find me and Murray will definitely come to rescue me."

"Your plan is to get caught?!" Reno looked ready to hit him.

"No, no, no. My plan is to shake them off our trail. It obviously has some risks, and getting caught is the worst-case scenario. Murray is probably leading some members of their team deeper into the sacred ground right now. The remaining members who are coming after us will be more than happy to see me following the same route as Murray. While you were unconscious, Murray gave me an artifact from the Church of Sunbreaker that helps me breathe underwater. Do you get it now? I just need to go Northeast towards the stream and hide there underwater once I've reached closer to Murray. Our pursuers will immediately reunite with the main team when they can't find me there. That way, I can lose them off my back. It's you who needs to worry about being caught! Murray and I came here prepared for this shit!"

The bundle of lies came out of his mouth naturally.

The reminder that he was being a burden made Reno relent. Nodding despondently, he took his bags and trotted forward, exiting the grove of smaller plants to enter the real jungle ahead.

Mir coldly watched his back for a few seconds before sprinting towards the stream on his right.

Now, he could be absolutely certain of losing any trackers off his trail.