The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hesperides had never been so shocked.

The demon-hunting activity would end!

Those words, which probably meant nothing to ordinary people, came as a shock to Hesperides, who was the nymph that had lived since the Mythological Era. For a moment, she did not know what that meant. She stared at Hao Ren for a while. After Hao Ren repeated the sentence, she began to say with a trembling voice, “Did all the demon hunters really disappear?”

“No,” Hao Ren replied. He hesitated to tell her about the bad shape the demon hunters were currently in. “They have some internal problems, but it is over. The War of Demon Hunting will end. They… Well, as long as you can maintain the balance, the demon hunters will not actively kill the otherworldlings,” he said.

Hesperides was smart enough to be able to read between the lines. But she said nothing, just pulling her brows together while she looked at Vivian curiously. “Have you guys really gone to the lair of the demon hunters and returned unscathed? What were you doing there?” she asked.

“Would you believe me if I told you that I was there helping them?” Vivian looked at her old friend with a smile.

Hesperides’s expression took a sudden turn. Obviously, in her mind, it was unthinkable for a group of unusual creatures to help the demon hunters in their lair. Though Hao Ren once told Hesperides that his team was absolutely neutral, she still regarded them as part of the unusual-creature camp.

“You went to help the demon hunters?” the nymph of the evening said, her brows arched. “Countess Vivian, what have you done?”

“The demon hunters are an important part of the balance,” Vivian said, deliberately making it sound inscrutable; it suited her ancient identity well. She wanted to let Hesperides realize that something was more than meets the eye. “It was also for the safety of the sanctuary. The demon hunters have incredible ancient power in their hands. If they all die, it would only cause even bigger trouble. But let’s not talk about this now, we have to go to check out the situation in the sanctuary. We heard that the noisiest troublemakers are here in Athens?”

Hesperides shook her head helplessly. “Yeah, because this is one of the biggest sanctuaries, communication with the outside world is relatively convenient, and most of the young families are here. But rest assured, the Hessianite Family, which used to be the worst, is the best-behaved in the sanctuary now. Now, your daughter is highly respected among the younger generation. She could handle the situation better than the old chaps could. Youngsters don’t show respect nowadays—”

Before Hesperides finished, Vivian slapped the table and burst out. “Have I not told you that the lass isn’t my daughter? She is just a small bat that has fallen off me.”

Hesperides looked emotionlessly at Vivian’s hand that was still on the table. “That’s 600,000 euro. You just broke the frontal bone of Octavius,” she said.

Vivian’s eyebrows arched. “Don’t talk to me like that. I’ve slapped Octavius before while he was still alive!”

The two Ancients started to bicker.

Hesperides opened the door to the sanctuary with an irksome face. Soon, they came to the sanctuary near the ‘meeting hall.’

The reconstruction of the city in the shadow had not been completed. Traces of the last war were still visible. But the most significant difference Hao Ren felt was the atmosphere.

A depressing, gloomy atmosphere was enveloping the streets of the city like there was an impending storm.

Though the City of Shadows originally had a kind of depressive atmosphere, it was mostly due to the city’s location in the shadowy Divide and the subtle relationship between the various races. The depressive atmosphere had never been so apparent as to cause discomfort. The streets and lanes here were obviously different now. Hao Ren could hardly see people on the streets. Even if there were, most of them were in a hurry and wearing costumes with family insignias. This meant that these people were not coming out to hang out but members of the large families.

“A few guys from the Shadowy Street and torch tower in the west had a scuffle,” Hesperides said while walking alongside them. “They are all new families that have only become active in recent centuries. They’re naive, overly confident, and unafraid of the authority. The situation worsened after we sent out our investigators: the investigator found the unmanned strongholds left behind by the demon hunters. They successfully destroyed them, but there was no retaliation by the demon hunters. As the destroyed strongholds dissipated in the turbulence of space and time, people thought that the demon hunters would never return.”

“The emerging small families?” Hao Ren was curious about the inheritance of the otherworldlings. “How did these small families come about? I thought all families belong to ancient lineage? Why are there so many small families?”

Hesperides sounded a little listless, but still explained patiently, “Splits, exiles, deviance, and various other reasons. The Hessianite Family is composed of exiles, and some new families are spinoffs from the major ones. Some families are just the remains of several warring parties that have come together. Though we are hiding in the sanctuary, this doesn’t mean that our social structure has become rigid. Most otherworldlings live for a long time, hundreds or even thousands of years, is long enough for us to produce many emerging families.”

Nangong Wuyue mumbled, “It sounds like these small families are weaklings.”

“Not necessarily,” Vivian said. “It’s not necessarily the older, the stronger. Just look at Hessiana; sometimes the bigger the hole in the brain, the stronger. Many things—historical heritage or others—were lost during the Twilight of the Gods, but the impact was minimal. Of course, ancient families are more powerful overall, but the difference between the young and the old isn’t as huge as you think.”

A loud noise suddenly was heard coming from the front.

Looking in the direction where the sound came from, Hao Ren saw a red light suddenly appearing from the meeting hall. This red light carried a vast amount of violent energy. Looking at it would feel a burning sensation. There was a large number of people gathering and shouting. A strange whistle sounding as if the whirlwind of the canyon rose from the crowd and bombarded his eardrums.

Hesperides shrugged expressionlessly. “That’s why I come out to find some quiet time.”

“Youngsters nowadays…” Vivian buried her face in her hand and sighed. A gust of wind rose up, carrying lightning and dark cloud towards the crowd.

Hao Ren was startled for a moment before he realized what it was and followed closely from behind.

Troublemakers gathering in front of the meeting hall had occupied the entire square. Consisting of different races and families, these troublemakers seemed to be an organized force that was putting demands on those in the meeting hall. They swarmed the square, streets, and checkpoints, pushing against the barricade in front of the meeting hall. The red light that flashed across the square was the work of someone who wanted to bluster his strength and stir up more tumults, but the situation did not really become violent.

In front of the meeting hall, guards were trying to maintain order. The sanctuary did not have a real government. Several large families, including the Hessianite Family and a few Ancients, were the ruling classes here. The guards were the soldiers of these Ancients and families. These amateurish guards formed a barricade in front of the meeting hall and had been in a standoff with the troublemakers for some time.

It was all chaotic and tense when they arrived at the scene. Both the guards and the troublemakers did not even notice them suddenly appeared out of thin air. In fact, Hao Ren and his team had to come into the square through teleportation because the streets were blocked. A young vampire blustered to the front of the crowd and shouted, “The city is corrupted! We have to catch the traitors in the hall.”

Hao Ren heard the vociferation as soon as he stepped out of the teleportation light.