The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 891

Chapter 891: A Familiar Sight

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Like most other sanctuaries of the otherworldlings, the Ancattero family’s territory was hidden in a strange dimension and used a mysterious technique for camouflage and diversion. As the most mysterious of all otherworldling families, Ancattero was even more secretive than the Shadowy Divide. Only a few ancient families like Wayne’s held the key to the entrance. When the secret realm of Ancattero was closed from the inside, and no one could access the realm the usual way, so Wayne Walter had to make some special tools to access the mysterious realm via a special entrance in the underground.

Wayne Walter had visited the Ancattero family in this foothill town many times. He knew the place inside out. Under the guidance of the vampire patriarch, they got into sewer beneath the town.

The existence of the underground sewer was a surprise to them — the extensive sewer network connecting various parts of the town like a labyrinth. Apparently, the small town did not need a drainage system of this size, so some sections of the sewer network were blocked and partially dry. Hao Ren followed Wayne and Hesperides from behind, moving in the sewer that was as large as a subway tunnel. The sewer was circular, supported by permanent concrete and steel inner wall and dim lights inlaid on both sides. It was mostly dry with dark green moss covered the guardrails and cement structures on both sides. There must be regular maintenance going on in this place, and its architect was human judging from the still functioning lightings. As to why the small town needed a sewer of this scale was unexplained.

“It was a battlefield, a military site during World War Two,” Wayne explained with his voice echoed loudly in the sewer. “This underground facility was originally tunnels and warehouses, so this place holds up. After the war, instead of abandoning the place, the locals strengthened and rebuilt this place to become a sewer.”

Lily wrinkled her nose and followed Hao Ren closely. Though the sewer was only partially utilized and did not smell that bad because it had proper ventilation, as a canine, Lily was hypersensitive to the slightest smell. “I still couldn’t believe we have come to such a place. Why did the Ancattero family choose this as the entrance? How did they get in and out of the town before they built this place?” Lily asked.

“Of course there are other entrances and exits. I’ve just chosen the safest one this time,” Wayne said and nodded lightly. “This entrance in the sewer has been in existence since a few decades ago. The entrances of the Ancattero mysterious realm mirror the position of the stars in the sky, so it changes now and then. There are four passages connected to the outside world at any moment. In this rotation, this entrance just happened to be located in the human town. There is nothing that can be done about it.”

Lily responded with an “Oh.” She was awed, as this ever-changing location of the entrances sounded like a mythical story. Hao Ren suddenly asked, “Though it sounds safe, but what happens if the entrance is located in a septic pond?”

Wayne, who was walking in front, almost slipped and fell into the ditch when he heard what Hao Ren said. “You can’t be kidding me.”

Hao Ren scratched his face. “I think it’s perfectly a normal scenario. Hasn’t anyone ever thought about it?”

Wayne was speechless. Hesperides said, “Hao Ren, don’t mention this if you meet the Bastian Witchcraft family in West Africa.”

“Why?”

“Because the entrance of their secret realm is also changing relative to the movement of the stars, and it happens to be located in a septic pond this time.”

Everyone was astonished. Then Y’lisabet sighed with her arms crossed like a little adult. “That’s why ancient tech is unreliable. They thought it was safe, but modern people couldn’t even have control on the directions.”

“Ahem, it’s not entirely uncontrollable though,” Wayne explained with a strange look on his face, and he even sounded a bit incoherent. “Select the approximate connection range; then you can fix the opening position in a relatively stable location, or calibrate the horoscope. Aargh, forget it! Can we not talk about this now?”

“Then let’s talk about demon hunter.” Vivian blinked. “Wayne, since you have started investigation earlier than us, what do you think about the disappearance of the demon hunters here a month ago?”

Wayne thought for a little while. “Frankly, I don’t trust demon hunters. If what the demon hunter named White Flame said is true, then what she said might tally with my observation generally. A month ago, there was a large group of demon hunters here. There were so many of them that even the Hogwarf family’s werewolf warriors were quaking in their boots. The demon hunters who are currently conducting an investigation here aren’t from the same group. Even the sole survivor who came back mad did mention about the appearance of demon hunters in the territory of the Ancattero.”

Hao Ren did not say anything.

No one said a word anymore as the dim sewer was not exactly an ideal place for holding a discussion. They followed Wayne in the silence. After going around several corners, they finally came to a section that seemed to have been abandoned for many years as the ground was dry. There was a light that came from a corner dozens of meters away.

They stopped in front of a mottled and dirty concrete wall as if this was the entrance.

“The spirit detective won’t be able to find the Golden Manor,” Hao Ren said, looking at the wall and forcing a smile, “because this entrance has no sunlight at all.”

Wayne smiled. “You will be even more surprised when you see the scene behind the entrance.”

As he spoke, he took out something from his suitcase.

It was a strange gadget that looked like an old camera, but structurally different. It has a square body wrapped in black leather, a hemispherical lens at the front of the ‘square box,’ and a series of lenses and crystals at the back. It could not help but remind them of the unreliable ‘shamanic machine’ made by the mystic scholars more than a hundred years ago; those spirit camera made of glass, crystal, copper that trapped ghosts, and also the shamanic lens set of Pierre. But Wayne’s gadget was different from those homemade versions. The device was inlaid with glowing runes, the lenses and crystals were not connected physically but magically. When Wayne pointed the gadget at the wall in front of him, all the lenses began to glow at once.

The lenses glowed brighter and fired a series of light beams, drawing a set of complicated lines on the cement wall. As the image slowly took shape, Hao Ren began to recognize it—it was a door.

Though it was just an image, the incredible thing happened when the gadget in Wayne’s hand emitted a constant buzzing sound. It was as if Hao Ren had missed something; a real door appeared in the wall before he knew what happened.

The door was made of metal and inlaid with golden runes.

Wayne switched off the device, carefully tucked it back into his suitcase, and then stepped forward to push the door open. “Let’s go. The door only opens for ten minutes. If all goes well, we will come back out via another fixed passage that the Ancattero family has set.”

Lily let out a long sigh, then hurried Hao Ren through the door.

A moist and warm air blast into Hao Ren’s face, as if he was passing through a water curtain. As soon as he emerged from the door on the other side, he found himself in a strange place.

There was fog everywhere, but no sun, moon nor stars. There was a light shone from above, and it seemed it was the only light source. Hao Ren opened his eyes wide, using his super eyesight ability, he peered through the fog and saw the Golden Manor. The Golden Manor, like its name suggested, was constructed of pure gold, just as Pierre said. The gold was so dazzling that even the dense fog could not hide its beautiful golden glow.

Everyone was shocked, not because of the Golden Manor but the familiar sight.

“Is this Tannagost?!”

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Chapter 892: The Golden City In the Fog

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Thick fog shrouded the entire Ancattero territory, but the splendid architecture was still visible. The golden buildings looked different from the architecture on Earth. Though not as grand as what he saw on the other planets, the style of the architecture was no doubt of Tannagost.

Wayne had never heard of Tannagost and was surprised by the fog here. “Tannagost? What do you mean?” he asked casually.

Hao Ren was startled for a moment before quickly waving his hand. “Oh, nothing, it’s just the name of an ancient place. The buildings there are as golden as here.”

“Just like this Golden Manor?” Wayne asked, confused. He did not harp on this topic for long though, because the foggy air was puzzling him now. “Why is there a fog here?”

“You mean there was no fog previously?” Hao Ren asked, surprised. He thought that fog was a normal phenomenon in the alien dimension.

“Of course not, fog makes life more difficult,” Wayne replied, shaking his head. “I feel something strange in the fog. I can’t tell what it is, but certainly, it is not natural. Let’s go and check out the Ancattero family hall first,” he said.

Wayne led the way while Hao Ren, Vivian, and the others exchanged a look with each other, and kept a distance behind Wayne. While keeping an eye on the surroundings, they lowered their voices and discussed among themselves. “It is indeed the architectural style of Tannagost,” Hao Ren whispered into Vivian’s ear.

“Golden Manor… I should have thought of this a long time ago,” Vivian said, biting her lips. “The Ancattero family is the Tannaeans who are stranded on Earth!”

It reminded Hao Ren what Pierre, the spirit detective, said before; Pierre used to call the Ancattero family ‘Tara.’ “Tanna…Tara, they sound closely similar.”

Y’zaks nodded. “It might have been lost in translation after many years. Tanna was mistakenly passed down as Tara.”

Lily also nodded. “Well, maybe Pierre’s grandfather was a lisper.”

There was a what-the-heck look on Y’zaks’ face. “I don’t mean that. All right, forget about it.”

“You don’t have any impression of them?” Hao Ren looked at Vivian incredulously. “According to the information we found in Tannagost, the appearance of Tannaean is different from that of the Earth. You had been in contact with Tannaeans on Earth, and yet you couldn’t even remember their unique look?”

“I have even forgotten their golden houses. What do you expect me to remember?” Vivian snorted. “I deserve to be poor for not remembering these gold parvenus.”

Of course, Battie was self-aware. She accepted that she was destined to live a miserable life.

Hao Ren was surprised to find that the Ancattero family was Tannaeans who lived on Earth, but the existence of Tannaeans on Earth was not a surprise because all otherworldlings were from the Plane of Dreams. Though most of them originated from the planet Holletta, some of them, such as the sirens, were from other places. There was a stable breach in the planet Tannagost that connected Earth, and the vengeful spirit was also a variant of Tannaean, so the presence of the descendants of Tannaean on Earth was utterly ordinary. The conversation reminded Hao Ren about of something though. “Wait a second, didn’t Vivian say that the vengeful-spirit phenomenon has always been an unresolved mystery among the otherworldlings?” he asked.

Vivian nodded. “Yes. Why?”

“Did the Ancattero family not know what the vengeful spirit was?!”

Everyone had a light bulb moment when they realized about what Hao Ren was talking. Since the Ancattero family was the Tannaeans who were stranded on Earth and the vengeful spirits were the spiritualized Tannaeans, so it might be possible that the Ancattero family did not know about the vengeful spirits.

Vivian was startled. She began to recall the unresolved question that they had been discussing previously. “All otherworldlings had lost their memories when they crossed over to Earth. The sirens didn’t remember that Nasaton was a spaceship; the werewolf and the Blood Clan didn’t remember that they came from Holletta; so it is completely reasonable that the Tannaeans have forgotten about their compatriots who were the vengeful spirits.”

“I think this situation here is a bit unique.” Hao Ren scratched his chin as a bigger question began to surface. “The otherworldlings have forgotten where their hometown is, and the Ancattero family has forgotten their compatriots. We need to re-examine the scope and intensity of the ‘collective amnesia’ of the otherworldlings.”

As they walked and discussed among themselves, they unknowingly fell behind Wayne and Hesperides. Wayne turned around. “Stick close to me. It is dangerous to get lost in here,” he said.

They stopped talking anymore and quickly kept up with Wayne’s pace.

As they ventured deeper into the realm, the real face of the golden buildings built by the Ancattero family began to come into view. The influence of high-tech alien civilization was evident on these exotic buildings with roads that were suspended in the air and the strange antenna towers that were significantly different from those of the magic-centric otherworldlings.

In the eyes of the people during the ancient times, there was no difference between the two: whether the magic masters from Holletta or the advanced technology from Tannagost, the ancient people saw them as gods.

They were like walking into an alien base—in fact, it was. Wayne explained the functions of the buildings from time to time. The Walter family had a close relationship with the Ancattero family for thousands of years ago, so the vampire patriarch knew this alien base well. He pointed to a tall electric-discharging tower in the dense fog. “This tower is located right in the center of the secret realm, and its function is to maintain the stability of the entire secret realm.”

“There is no damage to the buildings, at least the surrounding buildings,” Vivian said. Her brows knit together as she looked at a building nearby. “And more importantly, there is no dead body here.”

“It isn’t clear where this dense fog comes from,” Y’zaks said as he reached out and waved his hand in the fog, stirring a large area of dense fog like stirring a liquid, but the void was quickly filled back up. “Look, there are obvious traces of artificial control. The fog is restraining something. It could be some defense mechanism.”

Hao Ren looked up thoughtfully at the cloudy sky. He could not see where exactly the light from above came from, but he was sure that it was artificial lighting. The dense fog diffused the light, so their shadows under their feet were blurry.

“The fog weakens the power of the shadows?” Little Y’lisabet had also noticed the change of the shadow in the dense fog. “I can see that our shadows are lighter now!” she said.

Wayne glanced at Little Y’lisabet. He didn’t know what the little girl, who looked like a stepchild or something, was doing here, but her insight surprised him. Hesperides nodded lightly. “Probably as the little girl said, those shadows must be there, probably lurking in places where the fog can’t reach. The investigators of the Walter family might have bumped into the shadows earlier.”

The group moved very carefully towards the center of the secret realm. Further forward was the downtown area where residences of the Ancattero family and their family hall were. As they were approaching the place, Hao Ren noticed that the fog in the surroundings became thinner and thinner.

If the fog was there to ward off the Shade of Chaos, then its disappearance was not a good thing.

The little demon girl was not nervous at all. She was jumping around the adults, looking around curiously as if she thought it was a picnic trip. “With so much gold here, why other families didn’t come and take their gold away?” she asked curiously.

Gold was not a valuable commodity on the planet Tannagost, but it was a precious metal on Earth. Wayne laughed. “Gold? Money doesn’t mean much to us, because in most cases it’s at our fingertips. Even in modern times, most otherworldling families aren’t short of money. We have a powerful business empire in human society. Well? Why you all are so quiet suddenly?”

Everyone was looking at Vivian. Little Y’lisabet shook her head. “It’s at the fingertips, powerful commercial empire.”

Vivian was embarrassed—it was rare for a vampire to have flushed cheeks. She waved her hand frantically, trying to explain herself. “Don’t look at me! I had tried to do business back then! I was the first to come out with the idea of international trade, mind you,” she said.

Hao Ren counted with his fingers. “Then the entire Egyptian dynasty went bankrupt, and Mycenaean civilization, as well as ancient Rome, and ancient India, and—”

Vivian’s arms akimbo. She cut in. “There weren’t as many as you said! I had run out of money when I reached the Greek peninsula!”

Wayne whispered, “At least there was my family, we were fortunate enough to sail through.”

Wayne could also be blunt sometimes.

Chapter 893: Was There a Fight?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

He had no idea why this bunch of weirdos always strayed off topic. It was especially so whenever Vivian was present, where the conversation would invariably center on her misfortune. However, the talk had somehow eased the tense atmosphere.

Hao Ren was having the same thoughts as Y’lisabet’s when the magnificent sight of the Golden Manor appeared before him. After all, gold was valued differently in Tannagost and on Earth. Even the god-like otherworldlings of the ancient times could not resist the worldly temptation, and it was evident from the business empire they had built. Therefore, this Golden Manor of the Ancattero family was a treasure trove in the eyes of the otherworldling society, after all, the otherworldlings needed money to survive as the humans did. However, the Ancattero family was not disturbed all this while despite their extraordinary wealth. For Hao Ren, it was not hard to guess why. The otherworldlings had never been short of money, except Vivian. The otherworldlings practically owned the Earth in the ancient times, but things had changed in the modern times; the otherworldlings were keeping a low profile because of the threat of the demon hunters, they barely had time for the Tannaean gold.

Furthermore, they were focusing their effort on improving their strength.

Of course, the second most important reason why otherworldlings stayed away from the Ancattero family was that they were inferior compared to the Tannaean migrants regarding combat strength.

Hao Ren looked at the magnificent buildings, which were not only a manifestation of an advanced civilization of at least hundreds of years ahead of those on Earth in technology, and a representation of the technological achievements of the Tannaeans, but also an illustration of a problem. The number of Tannaeans on Earth was not only large, but they also possessed a considerable degree of industrial strength and metallurgical advancement. Just like the sirens, who fled in their colonial spaceship, the Tannaeans had brought along a large number of their assets in contrast with the otherworldlings who came here practically empty-handedly at about the same time.

Hao Ren remembered what Vivian wrote in her ancient manuscript. She had mentioned several scenes where she met the ancient gods, such Zeus and others were quarrying on Mount Olympus, Osiris was mining sand in the Nile River, and Odin and the gods of Asgard were plucking branches of ash at the seaside. Though they all had the flavor of the mysterious birth of the universe and sounded classy at first glance, when thinking carefully about it, they were only a bunch of poor guys thrown onto Earth struggling to survive by exploiting nature.

Hao Ren did not give much thought to it when he first read the manuscript. Only when he saw the Golden Manor, he realized that not all otherworldlings were the same when they first arrived on Earth; Zeus and Odin had to do stone-quarrying and logging to build houses, and the sirens had a huge Nasaton colonial ship as a start. While Tannaeans had built the Golden Manor, it was impossible for them to mine that large quantity of pure gold on Earth 10,000 years ago. Therefore, they had brought their materials and equipment from Tannagost to build the Golden Manor, which strictly speaking, was a city. There was no surprise that they eventually became the guardian of the seal until today given the strength they possessed.

While Hao Ren was having these thoughts, they passed through the outer circle of the Golden Manor, which had its unique characteristics. Like Alamanda, the city was round and divided into many zones by a series of concentric circles in the form of great barriers or continuous walls from the inside to the outside. They were now passing through under such a barrier. Y’lisabet looked at the golden gate that they had just passed through and was awed. “No wonder they have to build the manor in an alien dimension; look at the amount of gold, I wonder how heavy it is. The ground will sink if they build it on Earth.”

“It’s not entirely of gold,” Hao Ren said, shrugging his shoulders. He had studied the architecture of Alamanda before. “The construction materials contain a certain amount of gold. Their materials are very advanced. Look at the walls, they’re very thin, and the support structure is tiny. They’re relatively lightweight. I guess they had put a lot of effort into studying weight reduction technique and metallurgy.”

Lily laughed. “Being born in a place where gold is abundant might not be necessarily a good thing. I wonder how they built their first skyscraper.”

Wayne listened and was perplexed by their conversation. He was wondering how Hao Ren knew so much about the architecture of the Ancattero family. Just when he was about to ask, Lily sniffled and stopped dead in her tracks. “Wait a second. I smelled something!” she said.

“What?” Hao Ren did not get what she said.

Lily just waved her hand but said nothing. She lowered her body, moved forward and kept sniffing while the rest of them followed from behind her. Soon, Vivian and Wayne had also smelled something. It was the smell of blood, and the stench just got stronger.

Meanwhile, the fog had almost dissipated completely.

Standing at a junction, Y’lisabet pointed in a direction. “Look, over there!”

A body was lying on the ground.

They ran towards it. Wayne recognized it immediately from afar. “It’s one of the Ancattero family members!”

“There is one here, and there too! Holy moly!” Lily ran up to the body and poked her head around scanning the surroundings. “Are they all… dead?”

Hao Ren looked into the distance and was shocked beyond words. Although he had seen a scene like this before, the scene of carnage still made his stomach churn. He had lost count of the bodies as corpses just strewed along the road.

“This is…” Y’zaks squinted. “Looks like it was a brutal fight.”

The destruction was widespread. There were craters from explosion and cracks cut by sharp objects all over the city. A large number of houses were destroyed, many of them partially collapsed. The molten walls had flown down the terrain onto the road surface and buried a large number of corpses in it.

Hao Ren knelt beside a body, which did not resemble a human. The body was thin, limbs were much longer than the human’s, face flat and wide, and the exotic dark-gold skin was a unique feature. The deceased had two apparent fatal injuries to his chest and side abdomen. The dark-yellow blood oozing out the wound had dried completely, but still, the overpowering blood stench was filling the air in the surroundings.

The body belonged to a Tannaean, whom Hao Ren had only seen from a sculpture before, but now in person.

Unfortunately, the Tannaean was dead.

“The fog has been containing the spread of the stench; otherwise I would have detected them earlier on the outside,” Vivian said, bending over to check the dead body. “Looks like a stabbing weapon killed him, but the others seemed to be killed by some high-energy weapon. I’m sure it was not the sacred flame of the demon hunter.”

“There has been a fight—” Y’zaks was checking a collapsed wall, “a brutal one. It looks like the wall was blown apart by a powerful explosion, which is not a method the demon hunters would normally use.”

Hao Ren looked at the aftermath on the street. Some of the buildings on the side of the road had collapsed, some had cracked, some had almost melted, and roads were dotted with craters and dents. It seemed like the place had been shelled. It was not that the demon hunter did not possess such high-energy weapons, but as far as Hao Ren knew, they used a precision weapon, which caused less destruction to the surroundings. Even if they had used their high-energy weapons, the damage would not look like this.

He had seen the destruction that the demon hunters had inflicted upon the Athens’ sanctuary, it was completely different.

“The weapons of the Ancattero family could only cause this kind of destruction,” Wayne said as he had found the clue. “Looks in the process of killing one other, they had also blown their city apart.”

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Chapter 894: The Signs of a Melee

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The tragic scene on the streets kept them on their toes. As they continued to explore deeper into the Golden Manor into the area where the Ancattero family hall was, the scene became even more gruesome.

There were more bodies and damaged buildings. The central area of the Golden Manor had turned into a battlefield, where collapsed and melted buildings were seen everywhere, riddled roads damaged by explosions were covered in the brownish yellow blood of the Tannaeans as their bodies strewed the place and rotten smell of the dead filled the air. Vivian, who had seen countless deaths, could not help but pull her brows together. The site was not supposed to be a battlefield; it was a sanctuary for a group of recluses, who had never done anything overly evil even during the Mythological era where the otherworldlings were unleashing their brutality at humans. Somehow, they were met with such a brutal end.

They came to the heart of the Golden Manor, where the huge golden buildings suffered less damage than elsewhere. There were lightning and strange sounds in the surroundings, and an aurora-like strange sight above. These factory-like structures suffered less damage simply because there were less populated, which once again proved Hao Ren’s point:

The people, not the city, were the targets.

They saw more dead bodies as they went. Lily wrinkled her nose and dispelled the chill in the air with her Flamejoy as she weaved through the dead in the Scene of Carnage. “All the dead are Tanna… I mean the members of the Ancattero family. There is no trace of the demon hunter.”

“Well, this is a civil war.” Y’zaks nodded slightly. “I wonder why they had gathered in the inner city and left the outer zone empty.”

“I am afraid that this has something to do with the shadows,” Hao Ren said, judging from the characteristics of the Shades of Chaos. “Those things could inflict the mind. The most efficient way to make people kill each other is, of course, to gather everyone in one place.”

“But we didn’t see any shadows on the way in,” Y’lisabet said while grabbing her little horn. She then held up a shadow orb that was bigger than her head and tossed it in her hands. “I’ve been nervous.”

Wayne looked at the little girl who had suddenly summoned a shadow orb, face green. “You shouldn’t fiddle with it. That’s dangerous,” said Wayne.

“That’s not funny, Y’lisabet.” Hao Ren shot Y’lisabet a glance. “We still need you to be our main battle force, together with your papa.”

Hao Ren and his entourage did not come unprepared. They had encountered the Shades of Chaos before and obtained information at the Athens’ sanctuary. They knew the weaknesses of the Shades of Chaos: divine things, higher-order shadowmancy, mirrors, and strong light. The knowledge had boosted their confidence a little though only the shadowmancy was the most reliable. Hao Ren’s Jade Vase and the Purple Red Gourd were the only binding artifacts, which he had not revealed to Wayne. Light could only weaken the shadows but not destroy them. Y’zaks’ magic-mirror bouncing trick was not that usable. If the Shades of Chaos were to emerge now, only the shadowmancer could stop them.

Vivian, Wayne, Y’zaks and his daughter knew shadowmancy and were the main force against the Shades of Chaos. Hao Ren and Hesperides, who had shield and Solarmancy respectively, belonged to the invincible MT category. Though Lily possessed no particular skill that could restrain the shadows, the fact that she was lack of brain meant that she was resistant to mind-control at +1 level. The team would be perfect, Hao Ren thought, if he had brought Nangong Wuyue. The half-baked healer was even more resistant to mind control as it could be seen from how she had turned the mind-control assault from the brain monster into a buff.

Y’zaks’ brows knit together as he kept an eye on the surroundings. His eyes scanned every corner where the Shades of Chaos might appear but found no traces of them. He summoned several shadow orbs around him so that as soon as the Shades of Chaos appeared, he could immediately capture and throw them into the Shadowy Dimension. Nearby, Y’lisabet was still playing with her shadow orb despite Hao Ren’s admonishment. It made Wayne and Hesperides nervous and were prepared to flee at an instant the moment the little girl made a mistake and stumbled.

Lily thought of the mirror trick of Y’zaks. She curiously asked, “How did you find that mirror could deflect the Shades of Chaos?”

There was a weird expression on Y’zaks’ face. He appeared evasive. “By observation, no big deal,” he replied.

Lily was very curious, so she pressed on. “As a guy, you carry a mirror with you all the time?”

At this time, Y’lisabet suddenly interrupted. “The shadow hit on my dad’s bald head and was deflected!” she said.

They were all shocked. Lily was even scared the dialect of out her. “Arf?”

Y’zaks looked into the distance with a poker face. “Ahem, it doesn’t matter what color the cat is as long as it catches mice. So could you all not look at me like this, please?”

Lily’s eyes were on stalks. “So you went bald just for the extra combat strength?”

At this time, Wayne, who was walking in front, suddenly cut in. “There are traces of the demon hunter here!”

Hao Ren ran up to Wayne, who was kneeling beside the body of a dead Tannaean and bending over to pull out a blood-stained silver-white dagger. “A sacred dagger with triple-layer Letta runes—standard equipment of senior demon hunter.”

“Demon hunter killed him,” Vivian said, after checking the body and confirming that the sacred silver dagger was the weapon. “He died instantly. The dagger cut off his main artery, and magic power shattered his internal organs. It was quick and efficient—a signature demon hunter’s approach. This dagger is a short- to medium-range throwing weapon. Judging from the direction in which the body fell, the dagger should be coming from…”

While saying, Vivian looked up. “It was from that direction,” she said.

There were no traces of the demon hunter in the direction where Vivian was looking, but there was a glaringly red blood stain. Red blood stood out like a sore thumb in a sea of dark-yellow blood of the Tannaeans. Lily followed the blood trail and finally found the first dead demon hunter in the distance.

The dead demon hunter was a young man in a black trench coat, lying behind a golden pillar. His neck was almost entirely scorched by high-energy weapon, and a leg and an arm were charred. Not far away, a Tannaean was lying face up with a weird weapon that looked like a crystal rod in his hand. The demon hunter but his people did not kill this Tannaean.”

This scene alone was enough to let them guess what kind of chaos was happening a month ago. Y’zaks could not help but whisper, “It’s a mess.”

Feeling disgusted, Wayne wrapped the sacred dagger and tucked it in his coat. He then got to his feet and pointed to a domed building not far away. “That is the family hall, the Ancattero family’s meeting place and reception area.”

Hao Ren and Lily came to the domed building. Hao Ren nodded to Lily before Lily reached out and pushed the heavy door open.

A loud bang ensued as the heavy door fell open inwardly and hit the ground. Lily waved off the dusty air in front of her frantically. “The door was damaged. An explosion earlier must have weakened it.”

Wayne looked on, stunned and muttered, “The door opens outward.”

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Chapter 895: Clues

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Lily had a pair of powerful arms; it did not matter which way the door opened, it just gave way with a slight push from her. As the door slammed on the floor, it kicked up a cloud of dust. Vivian quickly summoned a gust of wind to blow the dust and the blood stench in the air away.

It was a gruesome scene in the hall. Hao Ren was not surprised at all. There, he found the first group of the missing demon hunters.

Bodies of the Ancattero family members and demon hunters strewed all over the hall. The dark-yellow and black-red blood that splashed all over the place had dried up, leaving behind disgusting stains on the ground and the walls. Broken tables and chairs, as well as dishes also scattered around, it was evident that there had been a banquet held here, but ended in a horrific way judging from the broken long dining table and the dead bodies.

Powerful magic had damaged the arched dome on the roof. A faint skylight shone through the hole on the dome into the hall. “They must be the team of demon hunters that Elder Amatura brought with him. It looks like there’s no survivor,” Lily said, covering her nose as she hobbled in the scene of carnage. Her tail instinctively puffed up straight in the air, fearing that it would pick up the blood stains on the ground. “They were killed by their men.”

Hao Ren and Vivian examined a body, which belonged to a middle-aged demon hunter. There were burn marks inflicted by a high-energy weapon, and also shrapnel in the wound. There was a punctured wound in the head. It looks like he was killed by a sacred quarrel judging from the magic residue around the wound.

Vivian placed her hand on the body. Immediately, a thin layer of bloody-red mist began to flow slowly on the body. “There are a total of seventeen wounds; weapons of the demon hunters caused seven, and ten caused by the Tannaean energy gun and radioactive weapon — the fatal wound on the head caused by his people. There are no signs of the shadows. Judging from the positions of other bodies, the order of their deaths should be…”

Vivian began to reconstruct the crime scene, professionally. Hao Ren looked at her, surprised. “Wow! I didn’t know that you are an expert in autopsy and crime scene investigation too.”

“I’m speaking from experience,” Vivian said faintly. “All matters of blood are my territory. Blood contains the secrets of the deceased.”

Suddenly, a warm light rose beside her. Hesperides was turning herself into a mini sun to dispel the cold the in the hall. Then, she observed the broken dining ware and furniture. “There had been a scuffle in the middle of the banquet,” she said.

Tons of rotten food and a banquet table were part of the aftermath of the melee. The demon hunters and the otherworldlings had had a feast here. As unbelievable as it might seem, the evidence was unmistakable. Hao Ren remembered what White Flame had told him. “Looks like White Flame was right, Elder Amatura and the demon hunters came in peace.”

“The Ancattero family had even held a feast to entertain these demon hunters,” Wayne said, looking at the broken long tables. “Something happened halfway through the banquet. The seal must have failed, and the shadows escaped and attacked everyone in the secret realm, causing the melee.”

“So do you think it was just a coincidence or a deliberate action?” Y’zaks asked quietly. “The timing seemed to be too much of a coincidence. The Ancattero family had been guarding the seal for thousands of years without incident, why things suddenly went wrong only when the demon hunters came along and gathered in one place? It seemed that someone had been waiting for this moment to strike.”

Hesperides nodded slightly. “That’s what I think. It was sabotage.”

“But was it them?” Vivian pointed to the demon hunters lying dead on the ground. “They’re all dead. There are no eyewitnesses. If it was a sabotage, the saboteur was probably among the dead too.”

Wayne, like most orthodox otherworldlings, had a deep prejudice and hostility towards the demon hunters, so it was only natural that he blamed it squarely on the demon hunters. “Maybe this was what they had planned well before well. To eliminate the otherworldlings, they would do whatever it would take, even suicide attack.”

“With the cost of the death of three masters of the demon hunter just to get rid a family that had been aloof from the outside world?” Vivian shot Wayne a glance. “Use your brain. During the attack on the Athens’ sanctuary, there were only two elders of demon hunters involved, and it was an open attack.”

Wayne was lost for words but still tried to justify his viewpoint. “There could be an extremist among them, which probably was beyond their expectation.”

“An extremist broke the seal while no one was looking?” Vivian disagreed. “That seal must be super flimsy.”

“The key now is to find the original location of the seal.” Hesperides interrupted Vivian and Wayne. “We need to figure out where the Shades of Chaos first came from.”

“Just find where the first fight broke out.” Vivian nodded. “It seems that this hall probably is the place—if the chaos had started somewhere else, the elders and chiefs in the hall would have run out to control the situation. Instead, they all died in the hall. So most likely, the melee started from here and then spread to other parts of the secret realm,” she said.

Y’zaks’ eyebrows twitched. “Maybe the original location of the seal is right here in this hall… or maybe underground?” he said.

Nearby, Hesperides said, “It’s also possible that the action that caused the failure of the seal started in the hall, and the hall became the outlet for the Shades of Chaos.”

Whichever argument one wanted to believe, the most crucial clue must be in the hall. They began to check every inch of the hall, starting from the bodies to the signs of struggle, and then reconstructed the scene of what had happened a month ago.

Noticing Wayne was not far from him, Hao Ren asked, “Can you recognize the patriarch of the Ancattero family?”

Wayne did not seem to hear Hao Ren. Instead, his brows knit together, looking confused. “This is weird,” Wayne mumbled.

Hao Ren raised his voice. “What weird? Is it about the Ancattero patriarch?”

Only then Wayne heard Hao Ren. He quickly explained, “Looks like the body of the patriarch isn’t here.”

“Not here?” Hao Ren could not hide the shock on his face. “Are you sure?”

“I didn’t find his body.” Wayne’s brows still knit together. “He was supposed to be here, especially when he was the patriarch and had to be present in the banquet.”

Hao Ren rubbed his eyebrows, wondering where the patriarch was. “Anyone see the bodies of the three elders of demon hunter?”

Y’lisabet was yelling not from far away. “Uncle Ren, over here! It is Amatura!”

Everyone rushed over and found a sturdy, gray-haired demon hunter was leaning on his back against a golden pillar, dead. His eyes were half-closed looking at the broken ceiling, and the bloodstains on his black trench coat had dried up. A silver dagger was still in his hand. Strangely, the dagger had no blood stain on it. He did not use his weapon even until his last breath.

“This is Amatura?” Hao Ren had noticed that the senior demon hunter, from the clothes he wore to his aura, was unlike any other demon hunters. But he wondered how Y’lisabet recognized him as Amatura. “How do you know it is him?”

The little demon pointed at the dagger in the senior demon hunter’s hand. “His name is engraved on it!” she said.

Hao Ren lowered his head and examined if Amatura had left behind any clues. Indeed, he discovered something strange on the pillar hidden behind Amatura’s body. “Wait a second; there’s something here.”

As he spoke, he moved the body of the senior demon hunter to the side. As it turned out, there was some sloppy handwriting on the pillar.

“They are right, and we’ve got it all wrong.”

It was engraved handwriting. Amatura had used his clean dagger engraved the writing on the pillar.