The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 876

Chapter 876: Killer In the Shadows

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Despite Rollie’s enthusiasm, Southern Suburbs was a dreary place during this time of the year. Already a remote suburb with more than half of the small population was senior folks; no one would want to brace the chilly weather coming out for a stroll. Hao Ren led the cat maiden mooching around in a deserted street and did not have to worry that the dumb cat would unwittingly create trouble.

Though Hao Ren did not meet anyone he knew on the street, Rollie did meet many of them—the strays. Just as Lily had her army of canines, the dumb cat had quite an influence among the cats in the neighborhood.

To prevent unnecessary troubles, Hao Ren deliberately took Rollie to the more empty places, the more desolate, the better. He would not have done this if he were to bring a normal girl out, but Rollie was a cat demon, this guy would not care where she was going as long as she was outside. The cat maiden was kind of like strange and quiet places. She ran around spiritedly and would have gone to places, such as wall and treetops, where she would not have a chance to go usually if Hao Ren was not careful. Hao Ren would have dragged her back down within seconds if she did that. She was just like a kid doing this on purpose to get attention.

Unwittingly, they had come to a place far from the last residential area. All the houses here were exceptionally dilapidated. Not a building was more than two-story tall on either side of the street. They all were forty-year-old, single-story brick houses. However, there were a few large houses at one end of the road with prominent faded writings, such as ‘Grocery Store,’ ‘Wholesale’ on the mottled walls.

It was the abandoned section of the town, the oldest street in Southern Suburb, where time seemed to be stagnant, and everything carried an atmosphere that only existed a few decades ago. After the last few families moved out from the nearby houses ten years ago, the street was completely deserted until this day. It was said that a reconstruction plan had been mooted, but as the entire Southern Suburb, everything here happened slowly like a sloth; it was hard to tell when someone would come and fix the dilapidated brick houses.

Hao Ren even remembered that this was the scene that he saw when he was still a kid. Though there were still families staying in the west of the street back then, the state of the road back then was no better than what it was now.

The scenes reminded him of his childhood. Hao Ren sighed for days gone by as he looked at the old bald poplars. He instinctively rubbed his hands despite he was not afraid of cold. “Hmm, the weather is getting colder,” he murmured to himself.

As Hao Ren was distracted and immersed in his thought, the cat maiden quickly climbed onto the nearby wall before hopping up the roof of a house. She looked around alertly and promptly locked her target—a fat pigeon on the ridge not far away.

Rollie rubbed her hands happily. She was excited to find back the meaning of the life of a cat. She arched her body and walked carefully along the ridge, was so delighted to see her meal was just within grasp. Unfortunately, she forgot one thing; Hao Ren had her tail tied to her clothes. She began to lose her balance without her tail as counter-balance, she fell. She was startled for a moment and tried to recover, but it was too late. The disrepair old house would not withstand such an impact, the roof tiles gave way, and she plunged straight down together with the tiles, punching a massive hole on the roof.

While immersed in his childhood memory, the sudden noise jolted Hao Ren out of his dream. He looked in the direction where the sound came from; the silly cat had disappeared from the roof.

Two seconds later, he heard the cat maiden’s panicking meow in the nearby house.

“This idiot!” Hao Ren clicked his tongue and rushed into the abandoned house. He knew that all the houses here were considered unsafe and considering Rollie’s physical strength, she could have torn down the entire building if she was not careful. “Stay still until I come in to get you!”

The doors and windows of the house had rotten to the core. With just a slight push of his hand, the entire door came down. It was pitch dark inside except that there was a beam of skylight shone down through the hole on the roof above, illuminating the interior somewhat. Rollie got up from a pile of broken tiles and dust. She looked as if Lil Pea had just beaten him.

The cat maiden looked up when she heard Hao Ren came in. “Boss cat! I fell!”

She sounded like not having a bit of awkwardness but excitement. She thought that the accident was fun.

“Have I not told you not to run around?” Hao Ren held down the head of the cat maiden who was rubbing against his body, knowing that the idiot was trying to use coquetry to get away with the trouble she had caused. “I’m not going to let you out again if you do that again.”

“I’ve never fallen last time while running the roof” The cat maiden talked back.

“Crap, didn’t you realize you have gained a lot of weight now?” Hurry—”

He suddenly felt an inexplicable chill coming straight towards him. He barely had time to think as he instinctively pushed Rollie away while he jumped to a side.

However, the chill did not go away but followed his dodging movement, sticking to the skin and spread up from his limbs. The next moment, he felt his hair was shooting straight up as the chill had condensed into a knife-like weapon coming straight up to his throat!

Hao Ren’s muscles tensed up, his supervision allowed him to see in the dark, but he saw nothing at all this time. He could only intuitively sense that there was a sinister blade attacking him. In the last moment before the sword piercing through his skin, he spun around and dodged the attack.

He had no clue what he had dodged though because he saw nothing, there was only the air before his eyes. From the chill in the beginning to the ‘blade’ in the last moment, it seemed to be just an illusion. He sensed something but saw nothing substantial. He was dang sure that he had just avoided some attack because he saw the silver glow on his skin in the dark, which was caused by the collision of something with his Steel Membrane Shield.

After the sinister assassination failed, the chill seemed to fade away suddenly, but Hao Ren knew that something was still lurking around, very close to him. The sixth sense which he had developed after years of dangerous encounters was sounding its alarm. He felt that a breeze-like cool air was sticking under his feet and he could not shake it off. It was as if a cheetah lurking in the grass, waiting to strike when its prey let down its guard.

Rollie regained her composure after being pushed away by Hao Ren. Usually, the silly cat would have come up to Hao Ren and demand an explanation as to why he pushed her, but this time she had sensed something strange in the air. Her muscles tensed and got down on all fours instinctively, her body arched and her eyes glowed in the dark. She had taken off the contact lenses that she used to her cat pupils. She stared at the space of one meter around Hao Ren in the dark.

“Meow—” Rollie gave out a menacing growl in her throat as if a beast threatened its enemy.

Hao Ren asked the cat demon while watching the surroundings, “Rollie, what did you see?”

“I don’t know.” Rollie sounded a little confused. “I see nothing, but I can smell it. I can feel it. Something terrible…”

---

Chapter 877: What Have You Caught?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

In the dark, abandoned residential building, Hao Ren and Rollie held their breaths watching every movement around them. It was pitch-dark inside the abandoned house, the dark walls and the stuff that blocked the windows had made things worse. Sunlight shone into the house through the hole on the roof did not help. It was as if having an illusion. Hao Ren had even felt that the ray of sunlight was weakening and it only illuminated a small area, outside the illuminated area, the shadow was filling the darkness, devouring the details in the house.

The chill was lurking around in the background re-agglomerated after a few minutes. Hao Ren kept his eyes wide open, scanning for its whereabouts but found no shadow of the attacker. It was as if the enemy was invisible, silent; Hao Ren could only feel the presence of it with his instinct. He had no idea why the thing targeted him, but he had countless battle experience under this belt, and he knew his Steel Membrane Shield was effective against the attacker. He was able to breathe a sigh of relief somewhat and took out his silver spear from his dimensional pocket.

The plasma flame at the tip of the long spear was burning with sparks, illuminating a small area around it. Hao Ren felt that there was something wrong with the plasma flare, its brightness was suppressed. It was not an illusion. There was something in the house swallowing the light.

Rollie pulled out her tail from her clothes carefully as she felt that a battle was imminent and she must be prepared for it. With her pupils wide opened, she scanned the darkness in her surroundings while making a menacing growl in her throat. The cat maiden’s combat ability might not as good as Hao Ren’s, but as a cat demon, she had an excellent perceptive ability. She could not see the threat in the house, but she could determine its position better than Hao Ren did.

“Boss Cat, that thing seems to be at your feet,” the cat girl said, her voice sounded quivery. “It’s stuck on the floor.”

Hao Ren immediately wielded his spear and drew a circle around his feet. The plasma flare cut a deep red mark out of the floor with a hissing sound, but he saw nothing in the flare, nor did he hit anything unusual. The chill did not go away but gathered again.

He suddenly sensed a danger. He twisted his body to the side and discovered a series of sparks suddenly appearing on his chest and abdomen. The invisible enemy had hit him but blocked by his Steel Membrane Shield. This time it was different than before, there were strange ripples underneath the sparks.

Hao Ren felt an itch on his skin. He was shocked. The attacker seemed to have learned the characteristics of the Steel Membrane Shield from experience. This time, the attack had almost penetrated the shield.

Realizing that the enemy was a very strange thing, Hao Ren quickly reached for his pocket, but there was nothing inside. He had forgotten to bring the MDT out in a hurry. He retreated slowly to the door while calling in his mind. “MDT, come over, I need help here.”

Then he motioned Rollie. “Let’s get the hell out of here. Something’s wrong in the house!”

He quickly drew a circle around himself and lunged out of the house while Rollie was right at his heels.

After leaving the abandoned house, the bright sunlight on the outside almost blinded them as their eyes had not adapted to it. Under the sunlight, he realized how weird the shadow in the house was. It was daylight, but on the inside of the house, it was so dark that he could not even see his fingers before his eyes. Despite the broken hole on the roof, the corners inside the house were still pitch dark, which showed how strange the optical phenomenon was.

Hao Ren felt it safer under the sun as he sensed that the chill had retreated somewhat. He and Rollie stood together fully on guard, staring intensely at the abandoned house in front of him, he nudged the cat demon. “Is that thing still in the house?” he asked.

Hao Ren had noticed that Rollie might be able to perceive something strange. He began to trust less of his eyes but more in the cat. The peculiar experience just made him feel that the enemy was probably hiding in the house.

Rollie squinted into the house, but the situation in the house seemed to have returned to normal. The abnormal darkness had faded, and she could see the interior of the house under the sunlight shone through the hole on the roof.

“Looks like it’s no more there.” The cat maiden shook her head in confusion. When she glanced at Hao Ren, her tail puffed up straight. “Boss Cat, it’s behind you!”

Hao Ren was shocked by what Rollie said. He immediately sensed a sinister breath coming from his side. He reflexively lunged to a side and at the same time, raised his spear and thrust at where he stood just now, but it shocked him that he did not manage to shake off the ‘thing’, the sinister was sticking to his body like a glue, moving at the same speed and direction as him. He turned around and saw sparks bursting out on his arm and felt a sense of electric shock on the skin!

Hao Ren flipped around in the air and regained his balance. As he landed, he quickly retreated a few steps, and the sinister breath followed. Finally, when the ‘thing’ made a move again, he saw it.

He saw that his own shadow flickered on the ground with a rippling pattern at the center of the shadow. Almost immediately, he sensed something dangerous but invisible shooting out from the shadow at his face.

That thing stayed in the shadow!

Hao Ren finally understood why he could not shake off the ‘thing,’ and he could now respond in time when the ‘thing’ launched its attack. Considering that he could get rid of his own shadow, he didn’t dodge this time but twisted his body suddenly right before the chill touched his skin and evaded an attack again.

The enemy in the shadow seemed to realize that it had blown its cover and decided not to hide its breath anymore. Hao Ren saw his shadow wobbling. A sinister hostility came out from the shadow and spread out in all directions. Though he could not see it, he could feel many blades piercing at him, mostly at his upper body.

Hao Ren could only rely on his sixth sense to fight back. He kept retreating and barely dodging the invisible attacks. His Steel Membrane Shield would sparkle from time to time, and the sensation of electric shock was getting stronger and stronger. He felt the current was running on his skin.

No matter how good a person’s instinct was, it was impossible to dodge the attacks coming from his own shadow completely.

Rollie held her breath looking at Hao Ren fighting this own shadow. After a moment, she plucked up the courage and lunged forward to help.

Seeing the silly cat bravely rushed to his rescue, though surprised, Hao Ren stopped her. “Don’t come over!”

The power of Shadow Assassin was weird and inexplicable, even Hao Ren himself had difficulty contain it, less so the immature cat demon. He could not possibly count on the Rollie. Rollie turned a deaf ear to Hao Ren’s command, pounced on the shadow and hit it with her claws desperately. “Boss Cat, I got it! I got it!”

Of course, it was a common sense that she could not possibly catch a shadow, but Hao Ren could not expect the cat demon to reason. While he was very touched by the fact that the cat was risking her life for him at the crucial moment, he kept fighting his own shadow. He retreated several steps trying to pull the shadow away from Rollie; he was worried that the shadow assassin would jump into Rollie’s shadow instead. In a split second, he thrust his spear at the shadow on the ground.

Physical attack was not going to hurt non-physical shadows. The plasma flare created a series of a molten hole in the ground, but the ripples in the shadows were unaffected.

When Hao Ren was running out of ideas, he heard the MDT’s voice in his mind. “Buddy! I’m coming!”

The MDT pierced through the air arriving in midair. It then shot a blue light beam on the shadow of Hao Ren. With a burst of crackles as if something was burning, something seemed to begin to come off his shadow. He took a couple of steps back and saw a mass of gray and black mist on the ground.

The energy interference capability of the MDT could suppress the ‘thing,’ which was a body of energy.

“What takes you so long?” Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief and complained.

“Mind you, I have to find a way to escape from your devilish daughter,” the MDT said and whispered like a human, “and then I have to figure out who you are fighting with on the ground.”

---

Chapter 878: The Carton Works Better

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

While Hao Ren and the MDT had caught the ‘things,’ Rollie was still scratching the ground with her claws. Her hair all puffed up as she wrestled with the shadow, kicking up dust into the air as if she was going to ascend into heaven at first glance. Hao Ren came over and patted the cat maiden on the head. “All right, stop. I’ve got it,” he said.

The cat maiden almost jumped out of her skin and bounced back out for more than two meters. After realizing no one was coming after her, she looked up and around and discovered that the MDT was keeping the shadow under control with its blue light beam. She let out a meow of relief, came up to Hao Ren and rubbed her head against him while making intermittent humming in her throat. She was frightened to death just now.

“It’s fine now.” Hao Ren petted the silly cat and put her tail back into her clothes. He had to re-examine the cat demon; though noisy, mischievous, disobedient, eccentric and obstinate, her bravery at the crucial moment had surprised Hao Ren. After comforting his cat, he came to the MDT. “So what is that thing?”

The MDT still restrained the shadow with a blue beam and sounded a bit confused. “I have never seen this life form before. It looks like an energy body and is controllable by my strong magnetic field, but its nature is also like a shadow. You see, it can only move on the surface of other objects.”

The MDT kept adjusting the frequency of the magnetic field while moving the mist-like shadow around. Hao Ren had noticed that the thing always stuck to the ground no matter how. It was especially apparent when going over some small stones and like a projected image, it could not leave the surface of other objects at all.

“Speaking of which, how is the attack ability of this thing? Are you injured?” the MDT asked while still keeping the shadow moving around.

Hao Ren moved his limbs a bit and said, “I’m not hurt, just shocked. The nature of this thing is just too strange. It almost penetrated my Steel Membrane Shield and gave me an electric shock sensation. Otherwise, I’m fine.”

“Dang, you’re such an embarrassment, almost beaten by the weakling.” The MDT sounded as if it needed a good spanking. “I thought you were dying and expected to see a martyr here. It’s a shame there wasn’t even a single drop of blood.”

Hao Ren smiled shamefacedly. “I told you I was just shocked. It was the first time I encountered such a thing. It is so weird that it is invisible and almost unbeatable. I still had something up my sleeve if you didn’t come. I don’t believe that this thing could withstand my psionic gun.”

“You might be able to kill it with that pistol, but the sample would be gone for good,” the MDT murmured while continuing to switch the restraining mode of the magnetic field as it tried to rip the shadow off the ground. “Luckily I arrived on time. How do we get this thing back?”

Hao Ren squatted down and observed for a while. “Can’t you rip it off?”

“I can only control it, but there is no way to ‘tear’ it down,” the MDT said with a sullen tone of voice. “Maybe we could drag it home while restraining it using the light beam.”

Hao Ren visualized in his mind what it was like dragging a shadow on the ground back home. He shook his head quickly. “No, no, no. That’s not okay. I’d have a hard time explaining if people see it. I can’t just tell people that I’m walking my shadow, right?”

Rollie immediately interrupted. “No, no, no! You’re walking me today!”

“None of your business.” Hao Ren turned the silly cat away. From walking a cat to becoming walking a shadow, he was stumped as he looked at the spinning shadow. Suddenly something crossed his mind. He took a piece of paper out from the dimensional pocket. “Could you drive the shadow onto the paper?” he asked.

The MDT thought for a moment. “Hmmm, let’s try, but how am I supposed to keep it still on the paper? Keep beaming the light on it?”

Hao Ren looked at the MDT curiously. “What do you use to restrain it?”

“Psionic energy field,” the MDT replied. “Once the force field disappears, it will run away. This thing is just trapped but not hurt.”

Hao Ren acknowledged with an ‘Oh’ and began to think what he had in the dimension pocket he could use to restrain the ‘thing.’ He really could not think of anything now. He had captured all kinds of strange things, from humanoid to huge First Born, using various types of containers, but he had never caught shadow before.

The cat maiden moved around restlessly staring intently at the shadow restrained by the beam as if she were ready to pounce on it.

After thinking for a while, something came to Hao Ren’s mind. “Oh yes! I still have something!”

While saying, he took out the thing from his dimensional pocket. The MDT was stumped when it saw it. “You still keep this stuff?”

It was none other than the golden apple carton box, which he used to hold the vengeful spirit. This apple box was kept inside the dimensional pocket, and it was still in pristine condition.

“Of course, I do,” Hao Ren said. “This thing is a divine artifact. It is like the Jade Vase of Guanyin and the Purple Red Gourd of the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord in my eyes. This thing shouldn’t be as tough as the vengeful spirit.”

The Grand Supreme Elderly Lord must have found it embarrassed that his Purple Red Gourd looked like that.

Hao Ren did not think much about how his ‘Purple Red Gourd’ looked. He put the divine carton on the ground with the opening facing the shadow. “Would you respond if I call you? No? Then I treat it as tacit consent. MDT, shove it inside.”

The MDT could not care less of what Hao Ren said. It beamed the light at the shadow and swept it into the carton.

As expected, this divine carton had no problem containing the odd energy body. The shadow stayed quietly at the bottom of the carton like a dirty patch of stain. If it weren’t for the misty ripples inside, Hao Ren would have thought that the thing was dead.

Hao Ren had lost the interest to walk his cat after the incident. Though Rollie seemed to want to mooch for a little longer, Hao Ren insisted that she followed him home.

He called everyone out as soon as he arrived home. When everyone gathered, he found that Y’zals and his daughter were not there. He asked, “Where are Y’zaks and Y’lisabet?”

“Oh, they are helping the mini market in the street corner fix the air conditioner,” Vivian replied, looking curiously at the apple carton that Hao Ren had brought back. “You got your year-end bonus already? It seems it still too early.”

“Ahh, no!” Hao Ren put the apple carton on the coffee table. “I was attacked!”

As soon as his voice trailed off, everyone became paranoid. Some immediately form shifted, some drew their weapon, and some came up examining Hao Ren’s injury. Hao Ren quickly explained, “Don’t panic, you’ve got it under control, the assassin has been reprimanded, right inside the carton.”

“What? You should say it early. It almost scared the hell out of me!” Lily groaned while taking a peek inside the carton. “Eh? There is nothing inside. Has it escaped?”

Lily had just responded as Hao Ren expected. “It’s the shadow at the bottom of the carton.”

“Shadow?” Lily finally noticed the dark thing at the bottom of the carton. “I thought it was ink. Wow! It moves!”

Nearby, Vivian and the Nangong siblings became curious. They came up and surrounded the carton. “Let me see that! Let me see that!” “Oh, it moves!” “Look! Its shape just looked like Y’zaks’ face just now.”

They ignored hao Ren. He forced a smile. “Hey! What about me?” he asked.

Vivian looked back up at him; at least she still knew how to show her concern. “Hao Ren, where did you get this thing from?”

Hao Ren immediately sensed that there was more to Vivian’s words than meets the eye. “You know what this thing is?”

---

Chapter 879: More Than One Attack

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren was stunned upon hearing what Vivian had said. “You know what this thing is?”

Vivian looked a little confused on her face as she rubbed her forehead vexingly. “I… I think I have seen this thing before a long time ago, but I can’t remember when it was. I can only remember it had caused a lot of troubles in the early days of the mythological period.”

“Thing from the mythological era?” Hao Ren thought that it was some rare otherworldling or magic attack, so he had not given much thought to it initially. Never did he expect that it had something to do with the mythological era. “Is this… the creature of that era, or just a magic effect?”

“Sorry, I can’t remember.” Vivian knocked on her head. “But I’m sure it caused a huge problem back then as I remember that other ancient ones and I had dealt with the shadow-induced incident. It was rare that we the ancient ones acted together like that, so the thing must be very unusual.”

Hao Ren recalled the strange nature of the shadow. Though its attack was not lethal, its unique attributes were very tricky to handle. Without the help of the MDT, he would need unique means to capture the shadow, and it would be a lot more troublesome. However, according to Vivian, this kind of shadow was only active in the early days of the Mythological Period, which meant that this thing was once extinct after that, he thought.

“This thing was gone after the end of the Mythological Era. Otherwise, I must have an impression,” Vivian said, nodding her head. “Though I don’t remember exactly how we had dealt with the things back then, it was us the ancient ones who chase the shadows to… Err, I can’t remember the place. Anyway, we had contained them. I remember that there was some family responsibility for guarding the containment, and that family was in some place in South America, but I can’t recall the name of the family.”

Hao Ren was astonished of Vivian’s crappy memory. “All you know is just in South America?”

Vivian spread her hands. “It’s not that you don’t already know that my memory sucks, let alone it was thousands of years ago. It’s already good that I can remember it was in South America.”

Lily did not pay attention to the shadow in the carton right from the beginning. After hearing what Vivian had said, she said with a stumped face, “It’s okay to forget. The most important question is where we should go looking for clues. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Hao Ren looked at the carton that everyone surrounded. Though he did not know where to start, he felt the need to investigate the matter. It was something that Vivian and other ancient ones on the earth teaming up to contain. It should have disappeared on the planet long ago, and its sudden appearance was pointing to some terrible sign. He ruled out the possibility of some shadows had escaped the dragnet simply the shadows had not appeared for thousands of years. The only possibility was that there was a breach in the containment. He was now wondering how many of the shadows had escaped, how many of them in total and how severe the breach was.

Most importantly, in today’s world where the Mythological Era had ended, the influence of otherworldlings and the demon hunters had significantly declined, he did not know who else could handle this kind of thing now.

He might not realize it that apart from the reasons he had thought of, there was another reason why he was so worried about the shadow—that was his intuition. He intuitively felt that he could not turn a blind eye to this incident.

Nangong Sanba’s brows knit together, he was worried about the same thing Hao Ren was concerned about. “We got to find a way to find those shadows. Since this was something that even the ancients had difficulty to deal with, I’m afraid no one would be able to control them now. The threats would be unthinkable if they all run loose in the wild.”

Lily spread her hand. “The problem now is that Battie has remembered nothing but South America! What could we do?”

Hao Ren thought for a moment. Just when he was about to say something, the loud voice of Y’lisabet was heard at the doorway. “Uncle Ren! Something has happened! Papa met an assassin!”

Everyone was shocked. They turned around unison and saw Y’zaks was standing right next to Y’lisabet. The great demon patted his daughter on the head and forced a smile. “This kid was exaggerating it. I just met a strange thing that attacked me, but I got it anyway.”

Y’lisabet jumped up and down under her papa’s big hand. “It was such a weird thing! Scared the wit out of me!”

Hao Ren and Vivian exchanged a look instinctively, both of them had thought of the same thing. Vivian’s looked extremely serious. “Was the one attacking you a shadow?”

Y’lisabet immediately came over. “How do you know that?”

Hao Ren raised his finger and pointed to the containment carton on the coffee table. “I was attacked too. Here, I captured it in the carton.”

Y’lisabet came to the coffee table and took a peek inside the containment carton. Then she uttered loudly, “This is the one! My own shadow beat me, and it took my papa a great deal of trouble to pull that thing out. That thing looked exactly like this one!”

Y’zaks nodded slightly, meaning what Y’lisabet said was true.

Hao Ren glanced at Y’zaks in amazement. He had seen the strength of this demon king, who could destroy the earth by just a wave of his hand, and the little girl Y’lisabet was no slouch either when it came to magic. Both of them, who were considered all-powerful even during the Mythological Era had been given a hard time by the shadow, of which Hao Ren had ‘upgraded’ the threat level.

Though the capturing of the shadow with the triple helps of the MDT, golden-apple carton, and his Steel Membrane Shield was a little alarmingly dangerous, it was not that difficult. He unconsciously took the shadow lightly. Now it seemed to him that this thing was nastier than he had imagined.

Y’zaks smiled and explained to Hao Ren, “It was all because I had never seen such a thing. I thought it was something like a shadow monster or a night-shadow devil. I blew a big hole on the ground, but that did not affect the shadow a bit; it was pulling my leg.”

When Y’zaks patted on his strong arm heedlessly, Hao Ren suddenly understood what ‘pulling his leg’ meant. The body of the great demon was as strong as, if not stronger than Hao Ren’s Steel Membrane Shield, and the shadow would most probably be unable to defeat Y’zaks’ defense. At most, it could only frighten the little girl a bit and threw Y’zaks off guard for a while.

“Did you just say you blew a hole in the ground?” Hao Ren was alarmed. “Don’t tell me you’ve torn the town apart!”

Don’t worry; it was in the field at the back.” Y’zaks smirked. “Looks like that the thing only attacked when we were alone,” he said.

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief, but he was a bit curious. “How did you manage to defeat the shadow?”

“Both conventional magic and physical attacks didn’t work at that time,” Y’zaks said, scratching his head as he recalled the strange battle which had turned knotty. “Then I found out that when it faced with a mirror, it would bounce off, so I summoned two pieces of mirror and drew the shadow to it and let it bounce between the mirrors. The shadow finally exhausted after two hours of fun.”

“Seriously?”

Y’zaks spread his hand and said with a blank expression, “I’m thinking the same.”

They now focused on the origin of this shadow. Lily related what Vivian knew to Y’zaks and Y’lisabet. “In short, this is what Battie and other ancients had once contained back then, but somehow it escaped.”

Hao Ren let out a sigh, feeling helpless. “The biggest problem now is that Vivian has completely forgotten the clues that could lead us to understand the shadow. She even forgot who she had joined hands in capturing the shadows, and the location of the containment,” he said.

Vivian was a little upset by Hao Ren’s words. She disputed his argument. “Did I not remember it was South America?”

Everyone buried their faces in their hands as they were too embarrassed to even look at the forgetful bat demon.

Nangong Sanba had been in thought for a long time. Suddenly, he spoke as if he had thought of something. “I think other people might have experienced the same thing. According to Vivian, these black shadows had caused a lot of problems back in the Mythological Era. Would other ancients know something about these shadows?”

---

Chapter 880: Back to Athens

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren had a light bulb moment when hearing what Nangong Sanba had said. Turning to Vivian, he asked, “Do you know anyone else who might have information about this kind of shadow?”

“At least those who have survived since the Mythological Era know.” Vivian thought for a moment. “Maybe I can ask Hesperides.”

Hao Ren nodded quickly. “Do it now. I suppose you have given her a phone, right?”

“Argh, long-distance call again.” Vivian, who was a miser, let out a sigh before taking out her cell and making the call. Since they last visited the Athens’ sanctuary, Vivian had not contacted the nymph of the evening, but she left Hesperides a modern communication gadget so that in case of emergency they could call each other. Now that came in handy.

Vivian raised her head, bewildered. “She didn’t answer the call.”

“Do you know other ancients?” Lily asked.

“I only have her mobile phone number,” Vivian searched through her contact list in her phone’s address book, “other than Hessiana and a few juniors. There aren’t many ancients in the Athens’ sanctuary, and I am not familiar with others.”

“Call again later,” Hao Ren said. “Maybe you could leave a message to Hessiana so that she could inform Hesperides.”

As soon as his voice trailed off, the cell in Vivian’s hand rang. It was Hesperides.

“Hello,” Vivian answered quickly, putting the phone on speaker so that everyone could hear it. “Hesperides?”

“Vivian, I didn’t expect you to call me.” Hesperides’ voice sounded a bit tired, but hearing the voice of an old friend made her happy. “I was in a meeting, and the other guys asked to me put the cell on silent mode. They must have learned this from the humans.”

Hao Ren was amazed by how modern the life of the ancients in the Athens’ sanctuary. Vivian was a little curious. “Meeting? Oh, yes, you are one of the elders of the sanctuary. Let’s not talk about this now. Let me ask you something. Do you know a monster that looks like a shadow?”

“Shadow?” Hesperides’ voice rose a pitch higher. It was not sure if it was an illusion, but Hao Ren had sensed the tension in Hesperides’ voice.

“It’s a kind of parasitic in the shadow, to be precise. There have been two attacks here so far and that thing…” Vivian told of what she knew and described the form of the shadow. “That thing must be originating from our time. Do you have an impression of it?”

“You are talking about the Shade of Chaos!” Hesperides’s tone of voice seemed wrong. “I didn’t expect them to have escaped to your side. Who was attacked? What is the situation? Have you got it under control?”

“We’ve got it albeit with much trouble.” Vivian had sensed Hesperides must have known something. “Did you say they escaped to my side? You mean the same thing has happened at your side?”

Hesperides lowered her voice as if she were in a public place and did not want people around her to hear what she said. “I and several ancients have just met to discuss this matter. I’m afraid there is a situation in the Ancattero family in South America. Are you interested in this matter too? If so, come to the Athens’ sanctuary. The incident isn’t as simple as it seems as many ancient families have sent their representatives.”

Vivian had wanted to mention that she might have something to do with the shadows initially. After hearing what Hesperides had said, she held back. “Okay, we come to you now.”

After hanging up, she murmured thoughtfully, “Ahh, it’s the Ancattero family. I had remembered the name starting with ‘A.’”

“Yeah, it’s just the ‘A’ you had remembered. Can you stop talking about that now?” Hao Ren said while waving his hand at Vivian. “We should go to Athens immediately. Y’zaks, you two have seen the shadow, so I need you and your daughter to come with me. The others stay home. Lily, you don’t have to raise your hand, I will bring you too.”

Hao Ren, Vivian, Lily, Y’zaks, and Y’lisabet stepped into the portal. The MDT had the coordinates of Athens, teleporting them to Hesperides side was so much easier this time.

They arrived at Hesperides’ antique store, which was the front for the sanctuary, was closed. A strange fog shrouded the entire street, and there was not a single pedestrian on the road. It seemed Hesperides had cast a spell to keep the area quiet.

“That’s quick!” Hesperides said, drawing Hao Ren’s attention. The nymph of the evening, who seemed to have sensed someone coming into her magic monitoring zone, emerged from the thick fog in a yellow light and was amazed to see Vivian and the others. “I thought you would only arrive tomorrow.”

Vivian went up and greeted her old friend. “We used the portal. How is the situation in the sanctuary? Is it serious?”

Hesperides’s brows knit together and nodded. “It’s complicated. Come in first. Two more ancients have arrived, they are having a second round of discussions.”

While saying, she opened a unique passage leading to the Shadowy Divide, but she stopped everyone from entering. “Wait a minute; I have to check the shadows of you all.”

Hesperides carefully examined the shadows of everyone, as if it was a quarantine protocol during an infectious viral outbreak. Vivian could not help but ask, “Has the shadow infiltrated the sanctuary?”

“It almost made it through but was exterminated in the Shadowy Divide,” Hesperides said casually. “Okay, all cleared to go.”

Under the guidance of Hesperides, they crossed the heavily guarded Shadowy Divide before arriving at the familiar Athens’ sanctuary after a long walk.

The mysterious city in an alien dimension was attacked by demon hunters a year ago and severely damaged, traces of the war could still be seen today. The Bethanos Shadowy Castle on the other side of the city was still in ruins as the crazy forces of Hessiana had utterly destroyed the place with an air strike. No one cared to rebuild the castle since the sanctuary successfully drove the shadows out. In the partially-destroyed area around the old home of the Bethanos family, some new flags were flying. Hao Ren had never seen the flags, but he knew what they meant.

The factions in the sanctuary had completed a significant shake-up and territorial delineation.

Hao Ren and his entourage did not have much opportunity to take a good look at the reconstruction of the sanctuary as Hesperides had hurriedly brought them into a large assembly hall in the middle of the city.

“This assembly hall was rebuilt after the attack of the demon hunters.” Hesperus briefed them on the location of the meeting today. “The rebellion of Bethanos reminded several families of the seriousness of the factionalism in the sanctuary. In a sense, the reconstruction of this assembly hall had at least formally re-established the relations between the various families. The patriarchs of several large families are here today, as well as representatives from other sanctuaries. Vivian, some of them are your old friend.”

Vivien scratched her head. “Oh, yeah? I couldn’t remember most of them.”

Hesperides knew that Vivian had a problem with her memory, so she did not say much but proceed to open the door of the assembly hall.

Hao Ren heard a voice talking loudly as soon as the door opened. “…you must go and check out the situation, the Ancattero family’s incident must have something to do with the demon hunter!”

Hao Ren and Vivian looked at each other instinctively and stepped into the hall immediately.

The semi-circular hall was brightly lit, grand and spacious, but only a dozen people were sitting at the round table in the center. When Hao Ren and Vivian went in, a happy-sounding voice was heard coming from among the people at the meeting. “Vivian! You’ve come to see me!”

Vivian was startled and stepped back instinctively. “Oops! I’ve almost forgotten that his kid is one of the patriarchs.”