The Record of Unusual Creatures

Lady Gloom claimed to have a way to send people to Sanctum quickly when all inter-continental teleportation systems choked. She did not immediately tell people what her method was, she just said that she needed the cooperation of the high-ranking monk, Calaxus, and the right timing, which would be within the next few days. The senior monk was naturally not convinced. But under the current situation, he had to bury his doubts.

With the current situation of the Sanctum investigation team, the investigators had no other quicker way to return to their homeland. As the teleportation circle could no longer be used, they had to settle with the magic-powered warship of the Kingdom of Taros. But even the most advanced magic-propelled ship could only fly at low speed in the storm of Chaos. Earlier, it took the Sacred Hammer more than half a month to sail across the relatively calm sea of magic energy to reach Ansu. By the look of it now, it would take them longer to return.

After spending the night at Hao Ren’s base camp in the north of the hills, the commander of Raven Knights, Tridis, came to bid farewell.

The sudden appearance of Hao Ren had completely disrupted everyone’s plan. The beasts planned to search for the alpha’s landlord in White City World. The Sanctum investigation team was to look for the ‘light’ in the wilderness. And the Knights’ job was to escort the alpha to White City and liaise with the royal family. But since their common target had emerged all of a sudden, they had to readjust their plan.

The Sanctum investigators had found their target and needed to return to Sanctum immediately. The Raven Knights had no reason to escort the alpha and be her guides anymore, so they decided to part ways in the Verdant Flats. Meanwhile, the beast guards of Lily would always agree with the alpha and regarded humans as good as the blind.

Since the alpha decided to follow her landlord, so the beasts followed suit.

“Please bring a message to the king of Taros,” Hao Ren said to Tridis, who were prepping her team to leave. “Tell His Majestic that Lady Gloom and I have gone to Sanctum. If everything goes well, the dawn will come—he will understand what I mean.”

The female knight nodded and mounted.

Right after the Raven Knights left, Hao Ren heard a light footstep with Lily’s cheerful voice came from behind. “Mr. Landlord! What are you looking at?”

Hao Ren looked back and saw the husky maiden, mouth oily with her nose stained with ashes. Hao Ren could not help but frown. “Wouldn’t it be heaty eating barbecue early in the morning?”

“Nah. Grabbing and chewing a couple of bundles of grass then it would be fine,” Lily said, waving her hand while squinting at the direction where the knights had gone. “Oh. Tridis has left. She has done me some favor back in Fort Raven. She is a good person.”

Hao Ren looked at the husky—lost and found miraculously after a month. “I can understand how you get yourself that a legion of an army, but not your Alpha title. How did you get that? Did you pretend to be a werewolf again? Didn’t you already accept that you are the king of the northern land and noble of the royal city?”

Lily was dumb but not stupid. She could hear that Hao Ren was sarcastic. The husky puckered her nose and replied, “Arf! It’s not easy to find a place where no one knows me. Can’t you me pretend to be a big tail wolf?”

Hao Ren looked at Lily’s bald tail and thinking to himself that had she not dropped so much hair; her tail would be pretty big.

Lily hesitated for a moment and asked, “Mr. Landlord, is everyone else okay?”

“Better than us.” Hao Ren rolled his eyes. “They are staying in the comfort of the spacecraft, flying around the Collow dimension all day long. I have restored communication with the outside world and told them that I had found you this morning. Do you want to talk to them?”

Lily thought for a while and waved her hand. “Forget it. Battie will nag me. Old people like to nag.”

“Don’t you miss her? You guys are like quarrelsome buddies.” Hao Ren said.

As if Hao Ren had stepped on her tail, Lily jumped to her feet. “Mr. Landlord, mind your words. I’m the king of the north, noble of the royal city, ancestor of the demon hunters, and boss of Southern Suburbs; how could you associate me with a bat? She had even killed me in my previous life!”

Disheartened, Lily hugged her big tail and said, “I just thought about the herbal medicine that she prepared last time. When do you think the hair will grow back on my tail?”

Hao Ren was struck dumb.

Suddenly, light flashing from the direction of the camp attracted their attention.

The flash seemed to have come from the tents of the Sanctum investigation team.

Hao Ren and Lily looked at each other and ran toward the Sanctum team camp.

The Sanctum investigation team had cleared and leveled an area, where the Theocratic monks and knights stood in a circle as if they were watching something. Hao Ren and Lily shoved themselves to the front and saw the mysterious Lady Gloom was in the center. The mysterious woman, still wearing a black robe, was holding a strange-looking staff in her hands. The flash, which Hao Ren and Lily saw earlier, came from the tip of this staff.

The shape of the staff was very different from that of the wooden or metal staff used by the regular mages of Collow. It was more like a straight and symmetrical crystal. The tip of the crystal, which had broken apart, had several neat and angular floating crystals. There was light flowing among the crystals and converging into a bright beam of light into the sky. This thing immediately attracted the eyeballs of Hao Ren and Lily.

Hao Ren had sensed the power of Order, similar to that from the Kindle Tower and furnace tower, in the light. But Lily was thinking of something else; the staff was an irresistible toy.

As if the husky had been lost and emotionally depressed for too long while being an alpha, the true nature of the husky exploded as soon as Lily saw her landlord. Perhaps her situation was going to last for a while.

“What is going on?” Hao Ren nudged a church knight beside him. “What is she doing?”

The church knight was surprised to see Hao Ren, but immediately replied, “She is preparing for a passage to Sanctum.”

“Passage to Sanctum?” Hao Ren was a little confused. “Didn’t she say she needed to wait for the right timing? Now she is doing it right away.”

“We have no idea.” The church knight shook his head. “She suddenly ran over early in the morning and said that she has got some news; the passage must be opened now. Otherwise, it would be blocked. Ahh, His Venerable Calaxus is here.”

The crowd stepped aside on both sides as the high-ranking monk came in. Calaxus held something in his hands, and his face was solemn and cautious. Hao Ren saw that Calaxus was carrying a white crystal the size of a palm, irregularly-shaped, much like a piece of debris falling off a larger crystal.

This piece of crystal was probably extraordinary precious judging from the high-ranking monk’s expression.

Lily blinked and poked Hao Ren’s arm. “That thing in Calaxus’ hands and the stick in Lady Gloom’s hands seem to be of the same material.”

“That’s a wand.” Hao Ren sighed.

At this time, Calaxus had come before Lady Gloom. The high-ranking monk looked somber. “Do you really have a way to open the gateway to Sanctum? You have to know that the storm of Chaos has completely shrouded every continent, the impact of the primordial magic energy had rendered all teleportation useless. If the method you are talking about is teleportation, then you’d better not to try, because you, the spell caster, will be the first one to get hurt.”

The high-ranking monk did not fully trust the secret agent of the king. Calaxus, seemingly offering kind advice, indeed warned the mysterious woman. But lady Gloom just nodded and said, “You’ve brought the sacred seal. Very good. I will let you know where to place it in a minute.”

Calaxus’ brows pulled together. “You still didn’t answer me. How did you know I have the sacred seal? And you seem to know us very well. The mission of the investigation team is classified. Even if you are a senior secret agent of the worldly kingdom, it’s impossible for an agent to find out the information.”

Lady Gloom glanced at Calaxus indifferently. “You have already brought the thing, do you want to give up simply because of your doubts?”

“Of course not,” the high-ranking monk replied, shook his head, and stood upright before Lady Gloom. “Since we have come to this, I have nothing to lose. I don’t want to dash the hope of Sanctum. I hope you would deliver what you say.”

“Then you can rest assured,” Lady Gloom said. The staff in her hand glowed brighter than before. The radiance spread in the air and slowly formed some complex graphics and lines. “My connection with Sanctum is far more profound than you could imagine. This gateway is foolproof. Just because it is not at the most appropriate time, I can’t determine the specific coordinates of the gate, but can only ensure that it is near an energy node in the sanctuary.”

“That will be good enough.” The high-ranking monk nodded.