Sam is in a secret route of a forest and is being accompanied by another human.
This guy is the spy who found this secret route to the city and he is also in charge of his fake ident.i.ty.
After walking for a few hours, they arrived at the city.
When Sam saw the city, he didn"t feel like it is a city at the border. People are bustling and every street is full of activity. There is no gloom or worry regarding the war that is going to happen in the next fifteen days.
All the citizens are quite happy.
Sam noticed that most of the city is selling the raw materials of the beast and the meat.
There are shops full of animal furs and pelts and there are some that sell the bones and teeth. There are some that only sell the meat and there are some that sell all of them together.
Sam didn"t know that this much business is possible just with the beasts and the materials they provide.
This is completely unexpected.
The spy took Sam to a rundown house at the edge of the city and gave some details regarding the current situation of the city.
The west gate of the city leads to the border that there is their targeted regiment is stationed. There is also a northwestern gate from which they entered. This gate leads to the forest and there are a lot of hunting teams going in and out, so it is the least suspicious place for them to enter.
From what Sam heard, the forest is full of beasts that live in herds and large packs along with a high reproduction rate. This place has ideal conditions for beasts to live in and there is an impeccable food chain from normal animals that didn"t have any cultivation to the animals that are of Pre-transcendent and transcendent level cultivations.
Almost half of the city is making their living off of the forest and the other half is making the living off of the products the first half sold them.
Everyone is wearing some sort of fur or pelt and even Sam is wearing one. His feather coat was too eye-catching in a place like this.
As for the information on the battalion, that is the only thing this spy couldn"t get any information on. He even knows the corners of the city lord mansion, but he doesn"t know anything about the soldiers that are stationed outside the west gate.
There are too many strict restrictions and at this time period, n.o.body is allowed to leave through the west gate.
Sam digested all the information and got ready to take a stroll around the city. After looking through it he realized that hunting is much more lucrative in this town than he thought. Every team that came out is coming with at least one beast.
There are some stores that specialize in preparing the beasts and separating the meat, bones, teeth, or any other valuable things like scales and such, fur and pelt, etc. They would prepare them all and handover the items back to the owner so that they could sell them for a higher price to the merchants.
Of course, they are completely raw and need some processing before they could be used to make products, but they still sell for more.
Sam roamed around the city as he scanned it with the eye technique. He is just looking for a lucky break and sees if he can find any clue regarding the soldiers.
From what he heard, now and then some soldiers will come and get some supplies from the city, and most of the time, they buy meat and a lot of it for their consumption.
Except for that one thing, there is not a single connection that linked the city and the border.
As he was thinking and roaming around, he saw a shop that specializes in selling inscription ink and other materials that make inscriptions.
He was a bit interested and went in and he wasn"t disappointed. The shop is selling a myriad of inks that are useful for many different inscriptions.
He looked at the shopkeeper, who is talking with someone with a serious expression. Sam didn"t eavesdrop and let them speak as he just stood at the door for some time.
After they are done talking and one of them left, he walked to the shopkeeper and started a conversation.
There is a catalog for the inks and Sam went through the book and was surprised by the variety of the inks that are available in this shop.
He started selecting them, but not all of them are available at this moment.
"What happened? When would they be available again?" Sam asked in some disappointment.
"I don"t know, there is a shortage of the Beast blood for the past month and some smaller shops that depend on the beast blood to make business are already closed. We don"t know what happened exactly, but someone seemed to be buying the beast blood even before us. There is very little supply in the market at this moment."
Sam frowned at this. From what he saw there is no deficiency of the beasts in the market and the hunters are bringing in a decent intake every day. But the deficiency of beast blood is absurd when everything else is okay.
He came out of the shop and walked aimlessly among the roads, until night. The house they are living in gives the view of the west gate and they can see if there is anyone who is coming.
Sam is on the watch that night along with the spy.
As they waited for a long time, there is some activity at the west gate at midnight. Two people came through the west gate and started walking in the streets.
Even though the cultivators don"t need much sleep, they still take rest at night and the forest would be much more bustling and the beasts would be active at night than in normal times. So, they avoid it at all costs.
After they saw the two men coming through the city gate, Sam activated his shadow form and disappeared from the spot. He reappeared on the roof and then started tailing the two of them by shifting from one roof to another.
He followed from afar and kept a great distance between them. They are even out of his superior spiritual sense range, he is only using the eye technique to see them from afar.
Soon, these two people met a group of people at another end of the city and within the group, Sam recognized one of them.
He is the person who is talking to the inscription ink shop owner.
He frowned and went into deep thought. There are still fourteen days left till the war, even though that is not a long time, he didn"t dare to be in a hurry. This time, he has to deal with a regiment of soldiers, he would have to be careful.
After the soldiers took something and left, he could see the group of people angrily looking at each other and seemed to be scolding someone.
He decided to go back to the house and the next morning, he went deep into the forest and looked for prey to hunt. After some time, he came across a large herd of elk type beasts and he caught two of them and brought them back to the city.
He went straight to one of the processing people who specialize in separating meat, bones, and leather and gave the two beasts.
The shop keeper processed the corpses within an hour. When Sam made the payment according to the market standards, he only took three-fourths of it and said.
"We accidentally wasted the blood, so we would buy the blood of the beast for the market price. You can take the rest of the materials."
Sam looked at the man with some suspicion, but he still took the materials and left.
This man is also a part of the group he met yesterday night. Sam didn"t wait long and went into the forest again. He looked for another beast and went to another processor this time also he was surprised.
This man directly asked for the beast"s blood.
"I have a son who is training to be an inscription master, I would like to buy the beast blood." Sam didn"t show any expression and sold this, before leaving the place. By night, he visited four shops and all of them made an excuse to buy the beast blood.
And all of them are part of the group.
He once again stayed on watch at night, but that night nothing happened. He continued his visits to the remaining processing shops and that included the shop run by the man who he saw at the inscription shop.
After making sure that these people are buying the blood directly, he was sure that this is related to the army at least there is a high chance of them being related. He would need to investigate more and see what is happening.