The Martial Unity

Rui had spent the next few hours placing the explosives in the right locations. He had to be very precise and accurate in his placing.

If he threw them around haphazardly, then the beast might simply not take the risk to come hunting at all. He placed all the explosives on the other side of the hunting areas away from the heartland of the Shaia Plains, lining them inwards.

This would make it seem like very distant predators were approaching each hunting zone from the other side. These explosives were all placed extremely far away from the hunting zone that Rui wanted to guide the beast too, to ensure that they wouldn't prevent the beast from going where he wanted it to.

This plan did require a bit of luck. Rui needed a herd of deer or gazelle of significant number to graze in the grazing lands where he hadn't placed any explosives, where he intended to hide, lure and ambush the target of his mission.

Once he had placed the explosives, he had three hours before it was time. He went over his plan once more.

('First, I need to find a herd of deer and gazelle in the area I haven't placed any explosives before dusk arrives.')

He couldn't do this after dusk arrived like he did before, because by then the creature would undoubtedly be awake and active. If he used any Apprentice-level techniques after the creature was awake and alert, then it would immediately detect him and avoid the general area he was in. And he couldn't possibly travel far without any Apprentice-level techniques.

Thus, he ideally should have found at the very least one herd of deer in the location he was planning to lure the beast in. If there were more than one, then he should probably round them up or monitor the largest herd out of all of them.

He had initially intended to merely gain intelligence; however, the Martial Union and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment had already confirmed that the difficulty of the second objective; the beast's extermination was within the difficulty grade initially set by the Martial Union. After reviewing all the evidence at hand, they had come to the conclusion that even if a grade-five Martial Artist may not be able to succeed in exterminating the beast before it escaped, they were likely strong enough to at the very least escape with their life in a fight against Martial Artists.

that traversing their Martial Path in

to alter his plan a little and prepare

the first objective

needed to find a herd, the largest herd before the sun dipped and begin trailing them before the beast

herbivores. He immediately began running towards the herd, but abstained from using any Apprentice-level techniques, although it was still some time before the beast likely grew active, Rui didn't want to take any chances at all. He didn't think the Ministry would take kindly

a big enough herd, and thankfully the only large herd of gazelles in the area, perfect for

above. Against normal predators that relied on normal senses, this may have been a bad decision, but

he produced would have to travel through the gigantic boulder and only then through the ground, muffling and distorting the readings to a good degree. Even though the seismic radiation and the location of the source would very much be sensed, it became much harder to interpret the data accurately, this was one

place, and dusk had come, the beast was on

dismissed all of his senses to focus his mind utmost on the beast. He didn't

at his pocket watch. ('Any time

of

gone off exactly when he