The Record of Unusual Creatures

Lily had a magical talent. No matter how unlikely things were, she would come up with an idea and see it through. In the process, she would always be full of spirit and confidence. Nothing could frustrate it—just as she believed she would eventually find Mr. Landlord. Now, since the meatball could not return her braised pork ribs, Lily figured that it had to only be an imaginary monster. She did not need any reason to believe it; she just felt it.

However, her self-confidence had confused others. Calaxus looked at the alpha, stupefied, not knowing what the spare ribs had to do with the monster. But he reasoned that the alpha must have had a hellacious mental fight with the monster in the spiritual world, and the spare ribs might be the key in deciding the outcome of this battle.

Calaxus did not guess it wrong.

It took the templars sometimes to finally chained the smoke monster. Unlike the usual monsters, this meat shrouded in smoke looked like a mollusk. When it squirmed and struggled, the enchanted metal chains would not be able to restrain it. At last, Calaxus had no choice but to take out from his dimensional bag an iron cage filled engraved with runes and locked the monster in, and then use the Jailor’s Stone and the runic chains to secure the pen from the outside.

The high-ranking monk spat at the meatball in the cage. “The cage of Sukhto jails all evil things. A monster of Chaos like you should feel the honor to be a prisoner in it.”

Lily looked worriedly at the stone that was dangling outside the cage. “Does this thing work? It is a very cunning monster; it may have another way to escape.”

“The Jailor’s Stone is collected from the druses growing around the Jailor’s Columns,” Calaxus explained, knowing that the alpha knew little about the human world. “They are an extension of the power of the goddess of creation. No magic in this world can get away from its power.”

Lily nodded, but she did not understand it. She stared dead at the black monster, which lay at the bottom of the cage as if it had given up resistance. Recalling her adventure with Hao Ren, the knowledge she had gained from the pile of the service manuals began to come to mind. “Uncle, who are you going to send to guard this cage?”

Calaxus had given up to correct the alpha on how to address him. He shook his head and pointed at his two men around him. “Besides Kevin and Chris, who are powerful templars, I will also assign a warrior monk to assist them.”

Lily shook her head. “Let the bear monsters guard it.”

“Bear monsters?” The high-ranking monk did not get it. “You may not know; the combat strength of the templars—”

“Let the bear monsters guard it,” Lily turned her head and said again. Her golden eyes glinted with the slyness of the beast. “Because bear monsters don’t dream.”

“Don’t dream?” Calaxus was a little struck dumb.

“Not only must the bear monsters guard it, but the other people must stay away from the cage as far as possible while sleeping. Anyone who is found to be in a trance or dozing off around the cage, he must also be locked up with the Jailor’s Stone.”

The black monster in the cage decided not to pretend to be dead. It shrilled as if it was tearing the steel cage apart. “You goddamn bastard! Mortal! Where did you get this knowledge?”

Lily turned her head and smiled like a flower. “Mr. Landlord taught me that! He is amazing!”

When the alpha smiled, drops of cold sweat each the size of peanut were clinging on Calaxus’ forehead. He finally understood the intention of Lily’s arrangement. He could only feel a chill run up his spine. The man, Mr. Landlord, whom the alpha always mentioned had aroused his curiosity.

Lily did not say anything more. The alpha just shook her head and returned to her ‘throne’ without even looking at the terrible monster of the nightmare. In the mind of the high-ranking monk and templars, Lily had only become more mysterious.

Another night had passed. When the sun rose the next day, the joint forces of beasts and investigation team from the sanctum continued their journey. This time, they would pick up their pace and head straight to the southern frontier of Taros.

On the same morning, when the first ray of the sun shone into the room through the glass window of the airship cabin, waking up Hao Ren, White City had appeared on the distant horizon.

Hao Ren was neatly dressed and came to the upper deck of the airship. He saw the old knight Morian was standing on the bow with several guardian knights, while Veronica, who still looked panicky, stood behind Morian. It seemed she could barely cheer up.

“Hey, feel better?” Hao Ren asked as he came up to the princess. “At least you stand here enjoying the wind.”

“Better.” Veronica took a deep breath. “Thanks to your potion, I finally could sleep soundly last night.”

Hao Ren waved his hand. “It’s just a little seasickness and altitude sickness medicine. You should have taken it before boarding the ship; you would feel even better.”

Hao Ren might not feel his gesture was of any significance, but the knight princess was grateful of him for the two small tablets he gave her yesterday. She thought the potion must be the medicine the ancient alchemists made for use by the frontline soldiers; it was incredible, especially the shelf life of the old drug.

But Hao Ren’s mind was going in a different perspective. In Collow, people already had flying vehicles like airships. It seemed that such an airborne unit was not unusual, but this world had no corresponding anti-seasickness measures and pressurized cabin technology, which was a bit odd. He believes that an anti-seasickness drug was a side product of aircraft technology. When aircraft was a familiar sight but the anti-altitude sickness medicine was not available, except for the weird growth of the technology tree, there was only one thing that caused the odd development:

Technological discontinuity and degradation.

In protecting their heritage in Collow, the war between the humans and the Chaos had been in a stalemate. But the tens of thousands of years of war had inevitably brought irreversible damage to the foundation—including the technology—of the civilization of this world.

It was an unavoidable phenomenon, but still, it was regrettable.

“Where are we now?” Hao Ren asked. And then something in white on the horizon attracted his eyeballs. “What’s that?” he asked.

“That is what I have mentioned to you, the royal capital of Taros, White City,” Morian said. His attitude toward Hao Ren had improved since the ancient guardian treated the princess’ seasickness with a potion. Before that, he showed that he respected Hao Ren, but now his respect was more sincere. “You certainly don’t know about the city. It was the founding father of Taros who built this royal capital three centuries ago—seven hundred years away from your era.”

Hao Ren nodded, quietly trying to recall how Vivian would react under these circumstances. He pretended to be an immortal. Observing White City that gradually drew closer, Hao Ren said, “What a magnificent city! Imagine how much glory the city has carried over the generations.”

“My father will treat you with the highest honor and gratitude,” Veronica said as she looked at Hao Ren. “You not only saved my life but also brought us valuable information from outside the border. I think you would at least get a sire title.”

“I have no shortage of titles,” Hao Ren said casually. “I just hope that he could lend me a hand to find someone.”

Veronica was somewhat curious. “What kind of person are you looking for? Forgive me, let me not begin with the Ansu Continent or any other mainlands, the population of White City is hundreds of thousands already. It is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment. “First of all, I am sure she fell… I mean she won’t be far and must still be in Taros. Secondly, she is a troublemaker; it would be noisy.”

But there was something that Hao Ren was still not aware of: the husky had already caused more than a scene.

The wait for the arrival seemed to be a long one, but after a long while, the airship finally arrived over White City.

As the airship flew, white walls and clean streets slowly receded below, and the wall of the White City Palace was right ahead. The airship slowly adjusted its direction and approached the large platform, where the royal guards and a large group of seemingly royal court officers and warriors had gathered in a ceremony. There was still a large crowd of civilians below the platform, waving ribbons and flags like undulating sea waves. The atmosphere of jubilation seemed to be rising from the ground to the airship.

Long before the arrival of the airship, the accompanying magister had contacted White City through magic—so they had prepared this grand welcoming scene.

Morian was already excited when seeing this scene. His face brightened up as he shouted, “Attendant, put down the emblem!”

Several attendants quickly ran to the sides of the airship; two large, colored fabrics hung down from the ship’s side. So too the other two airships.

The tapestries had the Aetos emblem of the royal family of Taros, and the private seal of Veronica—a golden rose blooming on the blade—at the bottom.

On the large platform below, Rudolph III also saw the emblem hanging from the side of the airship. The strong king clenched his scepter. His face twitched a few times, and he exhaled. “She is finally back.”