The Record of Unusual Creatures

The Verdant Flatson in the southern part of the kingdom was the most fertile land, and it had the most abundant water source. Cities and villages dotted the vast land, forming a densely-populated area called the Kingdom’s Treasury. But even in such a prosperous area, a desolate no man’s land still existed, and that strip of no man’s land ran from the north to the south across the Verdant Flats to the hilly south.

Residents on the plains referred this vast and barren strip as the Devil’s Corridor. Legend had it that the founding father of Taros once led his knights to fight against the Chaos on the Verdant Flats. It was the final year of the tide of Chaos. The last legion of Chaos was putting up its last-ditch resistance on the mainland. The human brigade fought this last legion of Chaos for seventeen days and nights. Finally, the brave first king led his warriors defeating the enemy and killing the entire army of Chaos. The ashes of the Chaos and blood of the humans mixed and permeated into the ground, permanently polluting the earth and leaving a strip of barren land on the fertile and lush green plains. It was now called the Devil’s Corridor.

Vegetation would not grow on this hardened land, and the only things that lurked here day and night were the soul of the dead and shadow monsters. Even the climate had become strange. The strip of land might be no as dangerous as the Realm of Chaos, but people living on the plains still stayed away from this area like a plague. Other than the mages practicing shadowmancy and those making money out of the monsters, no one would want to travel on this corridor. But Hao Ren had chosen to go to the south via the Devil’s Corridor.

Hao Ren opted this route because he figured that this was the only road that he could drive his North Stars pedal to the metal.

A quirky means of transportation that had never appeared in Collow was kicking up clouds of dust in the Devil’s Corridor as it roared down the road with a loud rumble. The little car of Hao Ren had hit, deflected, and even penetrated every obstacle along the way. Hao Ren had counted more than a hundred obstacles; his car, the North Stars, had 125 wins and zero loss. He looked at the map and found that he had mowed half of the journey already.

The strange secret agent of the king, Lady Gloom, was sitting in the co-pilot seat.

This strange woman, shrouded in shadows, had not said a word since she got into the car. Her silence seemed to be a personality that was engraved in her bones; if you do not talk to her, she would never speak to you. But Hao Ren believed that there was a limit to Lady Gloom’s calmness. At least when the North Stars hit a hill earlier, Hao Ren had seen her jumping out of her skin once.

Having a dull travel companion made the atmosphere extremely awkward. It was even more boring when Hao Ren set the North Stars into the auto-cruise mode, which meant he did not even have to touch the steering wheel. He turned his head around and glanced at Lady Gloom. “Do you talk at all usually?”

Lady Gloom’s hood seemed to move a little as if she was turning her head at this side. There was a short nasal sound. “Yup.”

“Can you tell me about you?” Hao Ren still did not give up as he could not help himself from being curious. “Are you the secret agent of the king? What a secret agent wants from a team of Sunctumese investigators?”

Lady Gloom was silent. Just when Hao Ren thought that she was not going to answer his question, there came a loud voice from under the hood. “I want to go to Sanctum.”

Hao Ren, surprised, almost stepped on the throttle.

“You are going to Sanctum? As a Taros people, what are you doing in Sanctum?”

“You are not a Sanctumese, and I don’t have to tell you.”

This time, Lady Gloom had surprised Hao Ren even more than before. He looked horribly at the woman as if he had seen a ghost. “What did you say? Have you forgotten that I am the Ancient Guardian, the guard of the Cassouin Grand Temple! How can I not be a Sanctumese?”

Hao Ren did not care if he was a Sanctumese. The fact that Hao Ren had been using this identity as a cover to move around the world of Collow for nearly a month, it amazed him when this strange woman could see through his lie in an instant.

But Lady Gloom showed no emotional swing. Her tone of voice was as flat as ever. “You are not a Snactumese. There is no guardian in the Cassouin Grand Temple. Your identity is fake. There is no need to explain this. Not just your identity, but also the ‘ancient sacred objects’ that you carry are also questionable. They are not products of the Sanctums, but their power is genuinely real.”

Hao Ren sized Lady Gloom up. But he could only see her hood; shadows had shrouded the woman’s face. A moment later, Hao Ren shook his head. “Whatever. But this question is not important.”

Hao Ren appeared magnanimous, but in reality, he could not have cared less. An inspector was always a third party, who could be in any identity when dealing with local civilizations. As soon as the mission was over, the identity would become unnecessary. There was a saying in the inspectors’ circle: you don’t believe in my identity? That’s okay; I can always make up another one.

“Why didn’t you expose me in front of Rudolph III?” Hao Ren asked curiously.

“Because you are not a minion of Rockmarton,” Lady Gloom said. “I have no idea what you are, but at least, you are not of the Chaos, and you have the power of Order in you. So I figure you are harmless.”

She lowered her head and seemed to be no longer interested in answering more questions.

And she did not show any more curiosity about Hao Ren.

Hao Ren shrugged, and said casually, “What a coincidence; I am going to Sanctum too.”

“You are not a Sanctumese, why are you going there?” Hao Ren’s words seemed to have jolted Lady Gloom.

Hao Ren just smiled but said nothing.

He wanted to test if Lady Gloom was curious about him. But after a long while, she still did not say a word.

Hao Ren was dumbstruck.

Without realizing, the North Stars had reached the end of the Green Plains, and the hilly south was within view.

The sky had darkened.

The little car began to slow down on exiting the Devil’s Corridor and ground to halt on a gravel beach. The two rows of thruster nozzles at the rear of the car slowly retracted into the engine compartment, and the repulsion shields on the four tires shut down. In the direction from where the North Stars came, a hot chasm was slowly cooling down under the sunset.

Hao Ren yanked the door open and got out of the car. “It’s late, let’s rest here, and continue our journey tomorrow.”

Lady Gloom followed to climb out of the car. “I thought you would press on even at night.”

“Why?”

“You seem to be anxious to meet your ‘friend,’” Lady Gloom said. “Border of Fort Raven is just on the other side of the hilly land. We are close.”

Hao Ren looked in the direction of the hills. He was slightly tempted, but he still shook his head. “Let us not be in a hurry; that border is still a dangerous place. Fort Raven is in a state of war; I am afraid that we would have to fight our way in all the way. So, get a good rest and recharge yourself tonight.”

Lady Gloom nodded and said nothing more.

Sleeping in the wilderness was not a challenge for Hao Ren, who even enjoyed it. Aside from weapons, his dimensional pocket had all kinds of survival essentials, including a small living cabin and extreme-environment ecological dome. These gadgets could allow the inspector to live on Mars complete with air-conditioning, wifi, and watermelon. Of course, he was not here to build an ecological environment, but a living cabin.

Lady Gloom, who seemed to be calm all the while, was visible stunned seeing Hao Ren was taking out a sleeping cabin out of thin air.

“Don’t ask, I am not going to explain it. Even if you ask, I can only tell you that this is the technology of the last generation, and then you would not believe it. If I were to tell you something else, you would not understand or accept it. So you better don’t ask.” Hao Ren waved his hand in front of Lady Gloom to jolt her out from her stupor. “I have more magical equipment in this dimensional bag.”

But Lady Gloom seemed to be only concerned with something else. Her eyes affixed on the sleeping cabin while muttering to herself, “This thing possesses the power of Order too.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Weirdo,” Hao Ren said in a whisper to himself. He started to feel that it was a mistake to take this strange and gloomy woman with him. Hao Ren shook his head, and just when Hao Ren turned around and about to enter the sleeping cabin, he saw shadows were hovering above the hills in the south.

It was the end of the dusk where the sky had almost turned dark, but the shadows were particularly eye-catching in the darkness. It looked like lumps of dark matter floating among the clouds as if a layer of purple-black fog in the air. It was distinctive from the surrounding clouds, and more like the shadows that Hao Ren had seen in the wilderness earlier.

“What is that?” Hao Ren could not help but curiously asked.

“That is the tearing point of Chaos closest to the southern border,” Lady Gloom said. “The mountain people call it the Horgus’ Hut. We’d better go around that place tomorrow. The area is under the influence of the Order, but the tearing point of Chaos could suddenly swell.”

The quiet secret agent of the king had rarely said this much.

“The tearing point of Chaos?” Hao Ren scratched his chin. “I remember I have heard Veronica and Ania mentioning it.”

“It is the realm of Chaos that has permanently solidified. Even under the influence of the Order, the Chaos will always shroud the tearing point. The Cassouin Grand Temple is right in the tearing point. Before Princess Veronica found you, the Chaos had swallowed the temple for a thousand years. So almost no one in the earthly kingdoms knows the existence of the temple.”

While Hao Ren and Lady Gloom discussed the tearing point, another group of people had reached into the hills in the south.

Lily looked up at the mound that was covered in purple-black fog and exuding an unclean atmosphere. She felt that the glow in her body, which had died down earlier, was going to light up again.

Behind her, Calaxus’ investigation team, the knights from Fort Raven, and the high-level Guard of Alpha all looked nervously at the fog of Chaos ahead.

“Alpha,” Calaxus reminded. “The tearing point is dangerous. The inside of the tearing point is almost the same as, or even stranger than the realm of Chaos. Please think twice.”

“But there are some strange smells around here.” Lily squinted while she sniffed. “I’m going in there.”