The Record of Unusual Creatures

Lily had a pair of powerful arms; it did not matter which way the door opened, it just gave way with a slight push from her. As the door slammed on the floor, it kicked up a cloud of dust. Vivian quickly summoned a gust of wind to blow the dust and the blood stench in the air away.

It was a gruesome scene in the hall. Hao Ren was not surprised at all. There, he found the first group of the missing demon hunters.

Bodies of the Ancattero family members and demon hunters strewed all over the hall. The dark-yellow and black-red blood that splashed all over the place had dried up, leaving behind disgusting stains on the ground and the walls. Broken tables and chairs, as well as dishes also scattered around, it was evident that there had been a banquet held here, but ended in a horrific way judging from the broken long dining table and the dead bodies.

Powerful magic had damaged the arched dome on the roof. A faint skylight shone through the hole on the dome into the hall. “They must be the team of demon hunters that Elder Amatura brought with him. It looks like there’s no survivor,” Lily said, covering her nose as she hobbled in the scene of carnage. Her tail instinctively puffed up straight in the air, fearing that it would pick up the blood stains on the ground. “They were killed by their men.”

Hao Ren and Vivian examined a body, which belonged to a middle-aged demon hunter. There were burn marks inflicted by a high-energy weapon, and also shrapnel in the wound. There was a punctured wound in the head. It looks like he was killed by a sacred quarrel judging from the magic residue around the wound.

Vivian placed her hand on the body. Immediately, a thin layer of bloody-red mist began to flow slowly on the body. “There are a total of seventeen wounds; weapons of the demon hunters caused seven, and ten caused by the Tannaean energy gun and radioactive weapon — the fatal wound on the head caused by his people. There are no signs of the shadows. Judging from the positions of other bodies, the order of their deaths should be…”

Vivian began to reconstruct the crime scene, professionally. Hao Ren looked at her, surprised. “Wow! I didn’t know that you are an expert in autopsy and crime scene investigation too.”

“I’m speaking from experience,” Vivian said faintly. “All matters of blood are my territory. Blood contains the secrets of the deceased.”

Suddenly, a warm light rose beside her. Hesperides was turning herself into a mini sun to dispel the cold the in the hall. Then, she observed the broken dining ware and furniture. “There had been a scuffle in the middle of the banquet,” she said.

Tons of rotten food and a banquet table were part of the aftermath of the melee. The demon hunters and the otherworldlings had had a feast here. As unbelievable as it might seem, the evidence was unmistakable. Hao Ren remembered what White Flame had told him. “Looks like White Flame was right, Elder Amatura and the demon hunters came in peace.”

“The Ancattero family had even held a feast to entertain these demon hunters,” Wayne said, looking at the broken long tables. “Something happened halfway through the banquet. The seal must have failed, and the shadows escaped and attacked everyone in the secret realm, causing the melee.”

“So do you think it was just a coincidence or a deliberate action?” Y’zaks asked quietly. “The timing seemed to be too much of a coincidence. The Ancattero family had been guarding the seal for thousands of years without incident, why things suddenly went wrong only when the demon hunters came along and gathered in one place? It seemed that someone had been waiting for this moment to strike.”

Hesperides nodded slightly. “That’s what I think. It was sabotage.”

“But was it them?” Vivian pointed to the demon hunters lying dead on the ground. “They’re all dead. There are no eyewitnesses. If it was a sabotage, the saboteur was probably among the dead too.”

Wayne, like most orthodox otherworldlings, had a deep prejudice and hostility towards the demon hunters, so it was only natural that he blamed it squarely on the demon hunters. “Maybe this was what they had planned well before well. To eliminate the otherworldlings, they would do whatever it would take, even suicide attack.”

“With the cost of the death of three masters of the demon hunter just to get rid a family that had been aloof from the outside world?” Vivian shot Wayne a glance. “Use your brain. During the attack on the Athens’ sanctuary, there were only two elders of demon hunters involved, and it was an open attack.”

Wayne was lost for words but still tried to justify his viewpoint. “There could be an extremist among them, which probably was beyond their expectation.”

“An extremist broke the seal while no one was looking?” Vivian disagreed. “That seal must be super flimsy.”

“The key now is to find the original location of the seal.” Hesperides interrupted Vivian and Wayne. “We need to figure out where the Shades of Chaos first came from.”

“Just find where the first fight broke out.” Vivian nodded. “It seems that this hall probably is the place—if the chaos had started somewhere else, the elders and chiefs in the hall would have run out to control the situation. Instead, they all died in the hall. So most likely, the melee started from here and then spread to other parts of the secret realm,” she said.

Y’zaks’ eyebrows twitched. “Maybe the original location of the seal is right here in this hall… or maybe underground?” he said.

Nearby, Hesperides said, “It’s also possible that the action that caused the failure of the seal started in the hall, and the hall became the outlet for the Shades of Chaos.”

Whichever argument one wanted to believe, the most crucial clue must be in the hall. They began to check every inch of the hall, starting from the bodies to the signs of struggle, and then reconstructed the scene of what had happened a month ago.

Noticing Wayne was not far from him, Hao Ren asked, “Can you recognize the patriarch of the Ancattero family?”

Wayne did not seem to hear Hao Ren. Instead, his brows knit together, looking confused. “This is weird,” Wayne mumbled.

Hao Ren raised his voice. “What weird? Is it about the Ancattero patriarch?”

Only then Wayne heard Hao Ren. He quickly explained, “Looks like the body of the patriarch isn’t here.”

“Not here?” Hao Ren could not hide the shock on his face. “Are you sure?”

“I didn’t find his body.” Wayne’s brows still knit together. “He was supposed to be here, especially when he was the patriarch and had to be present in the banquet.”

Hao Ren rubbed his eyebrows, wondering where the patriarch was. “Anyone see the bodies of the three elders of demon hunter?”

Y’lisabet was yelling not from far away. “Uncle Ren, over here! It is Amatura!”

Everyone rushed over and found a sturdy, gray-haired demon hunter was leaning on his back against a golden pillar, dead. His eyes were half-closed looking at the broken ceiling, and the bloodstains on his black trench coat had dried up. A silver dagger was still in his hand. Strangely, the dagger had no blood stain on it. He did not use his weapon even until his last breath.

“This is Amatura?” Hao Ren had noticed that the senior demon hunter, from the clothes he wore to his aura, was unlike any other demon hunters. But he wondered how Y’lisabet recognized him as Amatura. “How do you know it is him?”

The little demon pointed at the dagger in the senior demon hunter’s hand. “His name is engraved on it!” she said.

Hao Ren lowered his head and examined if Amatura had left behind any clues. Indeed, he discovered something strange on the pillar hidden behind Amatura’s body. “Wait a second; there’s something here.”

As he spoke, he moved the body of the senior demon hunter to the side. As it turned out, there was some sloppy handwriting on the pillar.

“They are right, and we’ve got it all wrong.”

It was engraved handwriting. Amatura had used his clean dagger engraved the writing on the pillar.

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