The Record of Unusual Creatures

“Where is that spaceship?” Hao Ren asked anxiously.

“I’m afraid finding it would be hard,” said Mimir, eyes lowered, expressing regret. “I didn’t know what it was, but I thought it was the key to my memory and my hometown, so I hid it at the bottom of a well. It was connected to one of Yggdrasil’s roots, becoming the Spring of Wisdom. My spacecraft was then gradually entangled with the roots of Yggdrasil. If I’m not wrong, it has moved into the trunk of the world tree.”

Hao Ren had already guessed what Mimir was going to say next.

“Yggdrasil has been destroyed. The demon hunter used the remnant power of the goddess of creation to blow it up,” Hao Ren said, knitting his brows together. “But since your spaceship is also a divine artifact, it might survive the explosion.”

“So there is a great chance that it is still floating in the dimensional ruins of Svartalfheim or Jotunheim. If those dimensional ruins have collapsed, it may have drifted to some corner of the universe. Finding it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Mimir said, sounding regretful. “Yggdrasil was obliterated. The Nine Worlds are shattered, I don’t think you can find those dimensional ruins,” he said.

“The Nine Worlds…” Hao Ren instantly thought of the legends about Norse mythology. Two years ago, he was still not interested in these mysterious and ancient stories. After being exposed to these things every day as Vivian constantly babbled about the world of thousands of years ago, he had accumulated quite a lot of knowledge in this field. “It’s said that the world tree Yggdrasil passes through the universe and supports the Nine Worlds. But I know that the real universe is far more extensive than what is described in Norse mythology. So what is the actual structure of Yggdrasil?”

Now, Hao Ren was not only interested in Norse but also Greek and Egyptian mythologies. Norse mythology was the only one that explicitly mentioned the Twilight of the Gods event. The historical records of the demon hunters also had an account of their most massive attack on Asgard and Vanir. With his relationship with Mimir now, he was particularly curious about Yggdrasil.

“The world tree… It certainly couldn’t spread across the entire universe, but it did reach and support the Nine World,” Mimir said, recalling the past. “It is nine different dimensions. Even during the ancient times where various supernatural phenomena were abundant, this kind of dimensional cluster was rare. Yggdrasil is an extremely ancient tree, but I don’t know what it really is. I only know that its roots and branches pass through the gap of space and time, connecting the nine different dimensions in series like a necklace, besides reaching the other dimensions as well. The gods of Asgard and Vanir got rid of the primitive creatures and turned the dimensions into fortresses and built a Midgard closed laboratory in a dimension closest to Earth to observe human social activities. The stories of the Nine Worlds are basically told by the survivors of Midgard.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment. He had read about the attack of the demon hunters on the Norse gods in the record kept inside the Netherrealm Clock Tower. “The demon hunters had only attacked the roots of Yggdrasil; they probably didn’t completely destroy the Nine Worlds. When the connections between the Nine Worlds were destroyed, these dimensions drifted away from the Earth’s coordinates.”

“You want to find my spaceship?” Mimir knew Hao Ren’s obsession. “Well, like I said, Svartalfheim or Jotunheim—if you could find them.”

“They will be my next targets,” Hao Ren said, getting to his feet and adding the information into his schedule. “Now, that’s all about today’s space travel. I hope you can go to Athens with us,” he said.

“Athens?” Mimir squinted. “Well, I am also curious to see the descendants of the otherworldlings in the sanctuary. I have been in the Netherrealm Clock Tower for too long. The last time I saw the outside world was during the explosion of Asgard. Since then, I could only read about the changes in the outside world through the books and conversations of the demon hunters. I should thank you, after all, leaving the place is not a bad thing too.”

Hao Ren just smiled and did not say anything more.

After handing the Petrachelys to the crew in the space dock, Hao Ren directly brought his tenants of demon and monster to the Athens Sanctuary.

The chaos of Coldpath was not only about the demon-hunter organization, but it had also affected the entire supernatural society on Earth. When Hao Ren brought the 100,000-strong demonic army to confront the Council of Elders, the otherworldling families in various sanctuaries on Earth were in turbulence. The sudden disappearance of their natural enemies brought not only a sense of relief but also nervousness to the family patriarchs.

Conflicts began to brew among the Ancients, the vacillating medieval generation, and the restless new generation who was ready to overthrow the existing order. What was even more disturbing was the friction and suspicion between the various races. Though the truth about the significant change of the demon hunters was not yet evident, some foolhardy elements already could not wait to get out of the sanctuary and dividing the territory. These audacious chaps were a threat to the other races.

As Hao Ren said: whether one admitted it or not and irrespective of the reason, the demon hunters had brought about a peaceful equilibrium to the supernatural races. As an ultimate threat to and a common enemy of all the otherworldlings, the demon hunters had not only forced the rivaling supernatural races to come together but also kept them away from the human world. And once this external force of demon hunters disappeared, the equilibrium would be disrupted.

But in the 21st century where human civilization was the dominance, it would be difficult for the otherworldlings to rise to the surface.

Hao Ren kept Mimir in his dimensional pocket; he hoped for the giant to only appear at a more appropriate time. Then, they came to the antique shop of Hesperides.

There were not many changes to the old shop. The small store was full of strange antiques, which looked dull as if covered in a thick layer of dust. Looks like no customers had come to the store for a long time. Hao Ren had ample reason to believe that Hesperides’ shop had never sold a single thing since its opening. It seemed that Hesperides had never wanted to sell anything even though all the antiques were original stuff, including the masks worn by the Pharaohs, the queen’s crowns, the slates and papyrus of the ancient sages. They were not only genuine but some even still contained some mystic power. But Hesperides did not care; she seemed just to want to enjoy the antiques and immersed herself in the past.

Though the nymph of the evening might appear carefree, every time when Hao Ren visited her antique shop, he could sense that Hesperides was no different from other Ancients who survived the Mythological Era. She surrounded herself with antiques, using the remnants of history to piece together the memory of the golden past and recollect the good old days while wiping these antiques.

As they walked into the antique shop, Hesperides was sitting behind the counter with a faded iron mask in her hand. She wiped it over and over again, as though she was unaware of their arrival.

“The Shadowy Divide is closed,” Vivian said, sitting down in front of Hesperides. She took the iron mask from Hesperides and said, “Is the situation inside the sanctuary bad?” Have the foolhardy chaps really beaten the oldfags?”

Hesperides looked at them and twitched her mouth before she said, “Nope. It’s just too noisy inside. I come out for some quiet time and shut the door to prevent those audacious chaps from coming out.”

After a pause, she threw the wiper aside and said, “Let me guess: you all just came back from somewhere? So have you found out what happened to the demon hunters?”

Hao Ren and Vivian looked at each other. Hao Ren said, “We’ve gone to the headquarters of the demon hunters. If I’m not wrong, the demon hunting activity will end.”

There was a cracking sound.

Hesperides had just snapped a piece of wood off the corner of the counter.