The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

It turned out that this was the demon hunters’ true target.

They were not trying to kill the Countess of the Crimson Moon or stop Vivian from waking up. Their real purpose was to prevent the disaster brought about by Vivian’s awakening. Hao Ren had no idea how closely the demon hunters of Coldpath had been watching Vivian. But now it seemed that it was more than what he had imagined, so much so that it could trigger the early warning system in Coldpath. Hasse and his Hunters were apparently part of this warning system.

Hao Ren understood all but one thing: the demon hunters had always been indifferent to other races; other than immersing in their never-ending hunting, they could not care less about the life and death of humans, let alone protect them. Their limited alliance with the humans was built on the premise of carrying out hunting activities, without which they would not give a care to the sufferings in human society.

So, why has Hasse led a group of warriors to protect the city of humans? Hao Ren asked himself.

Prior to this, Hao Ren had roughly figured out that otherworldlings were not active in all but Vivian’s place of hibernation. There was only a city and a few villages of humans there. To the demon hunters, Vivian’s violent awakening would only afflict suffering to the human settlements. Vivian was not their target, therefore what were Hasse and his men doing there?

They were certainly not after Madam Marie and her witches because a small group of witches was never important enough for them to send their elite team; a couple of experienced demon hunters would do the job nicely. Hasse had also mentioned that he was there for Vivian.

Hao Ren thought for a moment. He was careful with his language so that he would not give himself away. “Be prepared to pay a high price to even delay, let alone stop the madness of the Countess of the Crimson Moon. I think it is not worth it. There is nothing worthwhile here except the humans.”

“Of course not for those humans,” one of the demon hunters said. “You have been wandering for too long and may not be aware of what happened 3,000 years ago. The Countess appeared suddenly in the Nordic wilderness after she woke up. After going rampage for some time, she did not seem to have gotten enough of it and went straight to Coldpath. It happened at that time that she bumped into a returning Battle Group from the Nordic battlefield and that was the single most serious attack to Coldpath. Since then, we have learned from experience that each time Vivian Ancestor goes insane, someone must go to attract her attention and exhaust her energy and strength. Otherwise, she will go to Coldpath again.”

Vivian’s Malevolences have this tendency? They would attack Coldpath? Hao Ren asked himself.

Hao Ren did not show it on his face, but in his heart, he was baffled. For all the times he had dealt with the Malevolences, never once did he hear of this tendency of theirs.

Even Hasse, who had participated in this operation, said nothing about it six hundred years later.

Of course, Hao Ren could not blame Hasse for hiding information. Hasse was an ‘outsider’ after all. His understanding of the Malevolence and Plane of Dreams was minimal. He did not know the existence of the Malevolence until the twenty-first century. The last time he dealt with Vivian’s Malevolence was the current time period, which was a whole 600 years before he got to know Hao Ren. He had no idea how significant the information in the operation would be to Hao Ren 600 years later.

These factors of constraint made him unable to associate this crucial clue to the issues he would later work on with Hao Ren.

But it did not matter anymore because Hao Ren had come. He had personally entered the history that would have otherwise been buried forever. He now had the opportunity to piece together all those details that the parties concerned had overlooked.

At this moment, he realized that his trip back to the future had another significance. He not only wanted to bring Vivian back but also find out about her lost memories and secrets.

After this realization, Hao Ren began to think about another question: what made the Malevolence want to go to Coldpath.

Did Vivian still remember that she was the Fourteenth Sage of the demon hunters deep in her subconscious? Or did she want to look for her old buddy, the first sage who died under Vivian’s moonlight and accidentally reincarnated as a dog?

Hao Ren quickly ruled out these two possibilities because it was only the Malevolence that went to Coldpath. He was sure about it after getting the details from Hasse and other demon hunters. Those ‘Vivians’ who looked for trouble in Coldpath would leave after she regained her sanity. The demon hunters thought that the Countess had regained her consciousness. But Hao Ren guessed that it was Raven 12345 who had intervened and taken the Malevolence away.

Since Malevolences were irrational, there was only one reason that they wanted to go to Coldpath: something was attracting them.

The thought of the Godslayer sword immediately came to mind. In the entire course of history, the Godslayer was kept in Coldpath, and the Malevolence was undoubtedly had a deep connection with the murderous weapon.

The divine power of the goddess of creation and the dark forces were inextricably intertwined. They were entangled in the Godslayer sword and also in Vivian. Finally, all things came full circle.

Hao Ren also thought of Noobie, whose mind was a muddle. She might be weak but a true-blue Malevolence. She did not show a tendency to go to the North Pole because Raven 12345 had purified the Godslayer before Noobie was even born. This had confirmed Hao Ren’s conjecture.

“Have you spaced out?” Hasse’s voice suddenly jolted Hao Ren out of his thoughts. He replied matter-of-factly, “I am thinking of Coldpath. I have not been back there for a long time—so long that I don’t even know Coldpath has almost been attacked.”

“A Stalker who wrestles with monsters in the dark for thousands of years deserves our respect.” Lockheed’s compliment had only embarrassed an artless person like Hao Ren more.

“Had you ever tried to kill Vivian while she was in hibernation? This will solve the problem once and for all.” Hao Ren was careful with his language. It was a question that he had long been worried about but feeling weird to ask.

“Are you kidding me?” Hasse looked at Hao Ren in disbelief. “It is more difficult to deal with her while she is hibernating than when she is awake. It is not an exaggeration to say that the danger is a hundred folds higher. The Countess, when awake, is pretty harmless and may not summon the crimson moon even though she has momentary madness right after waking up. But during hibernation, those soulless guards of hers are enough to kill most intruders, and she will automatically summon the crimson moon when attacked.”

Hao Ren’s heart missed a beat—Vivian was more powerful in sleep than awake.

Hasse looked more suspicious now. Hao Ren knew that he had asked enough of these questions and quickly steered away from the topic. “I have heard about it but never expected it to be that terrible. Maybe we should talk about tomorrow’s actions.”

Fortunately for Hao Ren, Hasse only wondered about Hao Ren’s whimsical thoughts and did not suspect him of much. Hence, they discussed the plan to pursue the witches instead.

Soon, the discussion ended. Lockheed left the long table to brief his men. Hasse also got to his feet and stretched, seemingly he was getting ready to rest. Hao Ren looked at the old demon hunter quietly while he figured something in his mind.

The one hibernating in the castle was a Malevolence. He must immediately alert Hessiana and Lily and revised his plan.

He could not afford to waste his time here. He had gotten the information he wanted from the demon hunters.

Hao Ren had made a decision.

“Elder,” he called out to Hasse who was about to leave the table. “I have found something.”

Hasse’s eyebrows arched.

“Please come with me.” Hao Ren looked around, and his eyes finally landed on a spot in the north of the cemetery. “The witches performed a strange ceremony there. I hope you can check it out yourself.”

“A ceremony that even a veteran demon hunter has found strange?” Hasse laughed but was not suspicious of anything. It was usual for a junior to seek advice from an elder.

Hao Ren brought Hasse to the edge of the cemetery, where they were out of the other demon hunters or night patrols’ sight.

Hasse seemed to be unaware and just curiously looked at the opened tombs. “Are you talking about these raided tombs?”

Hao Ren quietly recited Raven 12345’s name. He then silently went behind Hasse and took out an item from his Dimensional Pocket. “Let me show you something.”

“What is it?” Puzzled, Hasse looked back.

A metal brick cast from battleship alloy, twice the size of a regular brick, rapidly fell on his head.

*Klunk!*