The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

A small village with a population of only a few hundred was holding a banquet past midnight. There seemed to be an unlimited supply of food and wine as the long tables continued to be filled with gourmet dishes. Hao Ren even began to suspect that the banquet would go on indefinitely, as though time flew in a circle there. However, his fear did not materialize; the feast was finally over when Lily could not help herself and dozed off.

The banquet may have ended, but the villagers seemed not to get enough as young men and women began to gather around the bonfire in their ancient dance. Others were talking loudly while drinking the fine wine. These villagers who seemed to be quiet during the day suddenly turned to become extremely animated at night as if they had obtained some spiritual power. ‘Animated’ was the only word Hao Ren could describe these villagers.

Catherine and the Wang Brothers had joined in the celebrations as if they were ones of them. Pierre was no exception; two village girls dragged him to the bonfire. At least he seemed to enjoy it. Hao Ren and his entourage declined the invitation of the village head and other villagers. They wanted to get back to the longhouse with the excuse that they had traveled the whole day and were now exhausted. After some negotiations, they were allowed to go.

The longhouse was at a distance from the central square, but the noise on the square was too loud not to be ignored. The first thing upon returning to the longhouse was to conduct a body check. Other than self-perception test, the MDT had also performed a full set of health scan on everyone.

“Everything is normal,” the MDT said. “The food you have eaten before possesses a strange magic reaction. It seems to be something spawned out of magic. But with your physique, the effect is minimal.”

“But this idiot has wolfed down at least food for six persons.” Hao Ren looked at Lily, who was snorting aloud on the low bed. “She was not worried at all,” Hao Ren said with his face in his hand.

Lily’s powerful biological clock was in full effect. She was not expected to wake up anytime soon considering how much she had eaten. Hao Ren was rendered speechless.

“Nothing in the world could stop the husky from putting food into her mouth, except for the Emperor’s Sigh you have brought back last time.” Vivian gave Hao Ren a sideways glance. “What do you think of this place? Could it be a powerful blockade of the mysterious realm Hercules has created to evade the demon hunters’ detection?”

“I still have no idea right now, but I can only say that this village is strange. I guess we will know the reason soon, as Pierre is still—”

Before Hao Ren could finish, footsteps were coming from the outside, followed by a few knocks on the door. “Have you all slept yet?” It was Pierre asking.

Hesperides got to her feet to open the door. Meanwhile, Vivian released a bat through the window. “He comes alone. It seems that he has shaken off the villagers.”

After Pierre stepped into the house, Hao Ren passed a glass of water to him. “I thought you couldn’t extricate yourself from their grip.”

Pierre was entirely different from how he behaved at dinner. Totally unlike his calm and complacent manner earlier, Pierre looked serious and anxious. Grabbing the oak cup from Hao Ren, he hesitated even to drink it. “I had better not touch these things again. This place is cursed,” Pierre said.

“We know something is wrong with this place,” Hesperides said, leaning against the door. “But what is the curse about?”

“It is…” Pierre gave Hao Ren and Vivian a look and then pointed at Hesperides and Lily, who was snoring. “Are they on your side? May I know who are they?”

The spirit detective was as curious as always, no matter under what circumstances.

“Oh, you almost saw them last time.” Hao Ren said as he did not mind Pierre asking. “This is the descendant of the Olympians, Hesperides. If you have ever studied mythology, you should know who she is. The one sleeping is, well, the lord of the northern snowfield, claiming to be the lite-version of Finrir.”

Vivian was not entirely happy with the description. “It would be better to compare her to a demon-hunter ancestor than lite-version of Finrir.”

“I can’t help it but think of the premature death of the late emperor. She did die back then.”

Pierre had no clue what Hao Ren and Vivian were talking about. When he first heard of Hesperides’ name, he seemed to be excited. Pierre stared at the legendary nymph of the evening; his expression looked as if he had seen a living fossil. “A descendant of the Olympians? Oh my god! Getting trapped here is so worth it!”

“All right, please stop talking about the past. I’m said enough already.” Hesperides waved. “I would prefer if you could talk about the curse you have just mentioned. Are you trapped here?”

Pierre first calmed himself down. He then first asked about the mental state of Hao Ren and his teammates. “Do you have any strange feelings now? Do you still want to leave this place? Can you remember how you get here?”

“Don’t be worried; we have strong immunity. At the very least, this magic effect would not work on us. Are you talking about the food we have eaten? No, it didn’t affect us.”

“Not just the food,” Pierre said, face serious. “From the moment you stepped into this place, this cursed land has started to stop you from leaving—that’s the curse. You must quickly find a way to get out of here and remove the curse from the outside. The effect of the curse would only get stronger over time, by then, I’m afraid you all would be affected.”

While saying, Pierre suddenly hesitated to continue as he realized that those before him were supernatural beings belonging to ‘that world.’ A half-baked spirit detective like him would not be able to guess the real strength of these mysterious creatures. He started to feel his words were a little arrogant.

Hao Ren did not mind about what Pierre said, of course. Instead, he was grateful to Pierre for giving them the heads-up. “No worry. We know we can handle it. We have been to more dangerous places.”

Hao Ren had wanted to say that he had bombed more dangerous places but immediately realized that the dragon queen had swayed his mind. So he choked.

“It would be good then. This cursed place has devoured countless people. I wouldn’t be able to keep going if you all didn’t turn up.”

“How long have you been trapped here?” Hao Ren looked at the clothes Pierre wore. “Look at you. I think it must have been quite a while.”

“The other three persons; are they with you? Do you know their condition?” Vivian asked.

“Here, the deterioration of materials is not a yardstick of time,” Pierre said, looking down at his clothes. “Some things may last longer, and some things will rot faster than those in the outside world—there is no law here. I have been here for two months, but the two Chinese with surname Wang seems to have arrived a year ago. As for Catherine…”

Pierre paused and frowned. “I have talked to her once, but this land has completely captivated her and distorted her thinking. Sometimes, she even thought that she was born and raised in this village. I have only heard her mentioned about the outside world, where she still thought that the junior Bush was the current U.S. president.”

Hao Ren and Vivian exchanged a lot. Hesperides said casually, “That was many years ago.”

“Being trapped here will distort one’s sense of time. Catherine thinks that she has just arrived here for a few days.” Pierre shrugged. “If not I keep taking the potion, I would have long lost myself.”

“Why are you here?” Hao Ren asked curiously.

“If not for finding the secrets of the ancient times, what else?” Pierre forced a smile. “Spirit detective is a scavenger who follows the fragments of history. I read about this place in some ancient book fragments. The descendants of some ancient families call this place the Cursed Land. So here I am. I wanted to see if there were any relics here but got myself into this shit. I was seriously injured by an evil spirit while looking for a tower of some dark realm last year and just recovered from it a couple of months ago. Little did I expect to get into trouble again.”

Vivian looked at Pierre for a while and suddenly patted him on the shoulder. “Young man, listen. This job is not for you-you are too easily drawn into troubles.”

Pierre was struck dumb.

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