Chapter 412 - Following the bread crumbs Sitting atop Luna's back, Liam opened the map of the Zodal Empire on his system interface and looked at it again. Now that he had more information about this land after viewing the old parchments from the garrison, his map was far more detailed. However, this was only in those parts of the land where the demon settlements were established. The vast majority of the empire was still largely unexplored. Liam's index finger slowly circled around the parts that were still greyed out. "What is there here? Hmmm…" Ideally, he would have liked to explore each and every single one of these areas, but time was running out. He couldn't afford to waste his precious opportunity wandering around aimlessly. Instead of trying to randomly cast a net in the sea and hope for a fish to get caught, he chose to go to the well-known hunting grounds. At least here, he would for sure return home with a game! Liam looked at the Zodal Empire which occupied the eastern zone of the Nether Realm. There were still three more kingdoms in the Nether realm, which occupied the other northern, western, and central zones. The south was mostly uninhabited. This was because a poisonous miasma occupied the whole southern part of the Nether Realm which even the demons could not endure. All the players who attempted to go to the south in his last life had also died. They had died the moment they stepped into the zone, without being able to get a single look at the land. However, there were also a few rumors circulating around that some of the guilds managed to successfully explore this southern region as well. Liam had no idea whether this was true or not, but he knew for sure that the Gu family hadn't been in the south. So that area was definitely ruled out at least for now. This left him, the eastern, northern, and the western parts of the nether realm. He knew that the Gu family had explored bits and pieces of all three regions. This meant that the herbs he was looking for could also potentially be anywhere in these three areas. And among these three, Liam was starting with the Zodal Empire in the east. This was where the garrison was located and he had also already covered many areas in the Empire. So he decided that it was a good place to begin his search. "Let me see. Where all did the Gu family camp within the Zodal Empire? Hmmm…" Liam wrinkled his brows and tried hard to think. He remembered a lot from his past life but it was impossible to remember everything. As far as he knew there were a few places in the eastern part of the Zodal Empire where they had set up shop and this was also the place with the most favorable lands for vegetation. So this area fit his two criteria very well and he decided to start from here. "Well, it doesn't matter. I should be able to find these herbs soon. The portals to the nether realm were not open for that long. They should not have been able to explore that much." Liam's gaze wandered over the map for a few seconds and he soon picked the first spot. "Luna, go southeast for some more time and then slow down." He patted the white fox and she nodded her head obediently. A few minutes later the duo promptly arrived at the first location. Coincidentally, it was raining heavily in the zone and black raindrops tumbled on the white luscious fur of the fox. "Does it hurt?" Liam asked and just like he expected the fox as well shook her head. [No, master] Unlike before, there were no debuff notifications, so this made sense. "Ok. Good then. Keep going." Continuing to get drenched in the horrendous downpour, the duo circled the area slowly. It was mostly flatland except for the huge lake that was sprawled across the region. Pa nda No vel "I never noticed this." Liam's curiosity got piqued and he patted Luna, signaling her to land. There were not many lakes or water bodies in the nether realm so this was a rare sight. The black drops of rain pattered on the calm still lake, the black color changing as soon as it touched the crystal clear water. It was a strange sight to witness. The water itself was red to look as it reflected the red sky of the nether realm and in this lake of red, black dots drizzled everywhere. Liam could even feel the nether energy in the raindrops dissipate and disappear into the air as if it had never been mixed along with the water. The duo continued to observe this phenomenon curiously for a few seconds after which Liam quickly got down to business. He started scrambling about the place, looking everywhere for herbs, minerals, beasts, basically anything that could be of value. "Hmmm. This won't do. I need more help." Liam stopped. "Come out." He called his army forth and the entire place quickly became lively. Bak Bak Baka! Kraaa! Kraaa! Kraaaa! Squeak Squeak! Roar! Rumble! A wide cacophony of noises rang out loudly as the bunch of undeads started running around everywhere. Liam only dared to let them all loose because he hadn't come across a single beast or wild animal yet and he had already been searching around this zone for several minutes now. This seemed a little strange but his main goal at the moment was to scour for herbs. So along with his group of soul undeads, he continued rummaging the area from top to bottom. Thanks to this, within a matter of minutes, they covered the whole place and had finished looking everywhere except for the lake. They did manage to find a few patches of herbs here and there, but they were not the ones he was looking for. "Ok. Good work everyone." Liam dismissed the gang. Only the lake was now left, so he decided to first take a look inside and then call his undead helpers.