The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren’s eyes swept around and immediately noticed that someone was missing from the scene.

Other than the witch who had died during the demon hunters’ raid earlier, one more person was not there.

It was the wizard who always hid his face under a large hood.

“Bain was separated from us when we fled,” said Madam Marie. “We have not seen him ever since we left the cemetery. We did not go back to look for him because we feared that the demon hunters would pursue us. But we have left marks along the way. He should be able to find us.”

“Bain was separated?” Hao Ren involuntarily knitted his brows together. His intuition told him that something was not right.

As if to confirm his suspicion, Hessiana suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, no! That man is holding my key!”

“Key?” Lily was baffled, not knowing what Hessiana meant.

“The key to the shadowy realm!” Hessiana panicked and jumped to her feet. “We were passing the key around when the demon hunters struck. At that time, the key was in Bain’s hand. How did that useless wizard get left behind?”

Hao Ren could only become more suspicious of Bain. He recalled the chain of events and suddenly remembered that the wizard had said something bizarre.

“What are Haron’s Sentinels?” Hao Ren turned to look at Hessiana. He did not know why but he had a feeling that Little Bat knew something about it.

Sure enough, Hessiana was surprised when she heard the name. “How do you know of the existence of these knights?”

“You really know about this organization?” Hao Ren was delighted. What he thought to be a trivial thing had turned out to be a clue. “What are these knights doing?”

“This group of knights disbanded many years ago. Except for a few persons who are keeping an eye on this place, very few people know about their existence.” Hessiana did not seem to intended to keep it a secret. “Haron’s Sentinels were originally the guardians of this place, composed of a group of wizards and dark knights whose mission was to protect Vivian’s place of hibernation and keep disturbances away.”

“They were guarding Vivian?” Hao Ren was even more surprised than before. “How could Vivian afford their service?”

“Ahem, you really know Vivian well, eh?” Hessiana said.

Hao Ren was stupefied.

A moment of embarrassment later, Hessiana continued, “Vivian was not the person who formed Haron’s Sentinels. It was Haron, a noble Blood Clan. When Vivian chose to hibernate in this place, a well-informed dark noble came here and rebuilt an abandoned castle and turned the surroundings into an estate. Haron and his sentinels guarded this place for a century, hoping to see the day of Vivian’s awakening.”

“Oh, were they trying to fawn over Vivian?” Lily asked.

“It was completely normal. The Blood Clan places great importance on class and bloodline. Whoever gains favor in the eyes of the ancients would have glory and practical benefits throughout the clan. But most ancients in the Blood Clan are reclusive and unapproachable. Naturally, the good-natured Vivian became the ‘go-to’ person when the juniors wanted to curry favor with the ancients. All the more so when Vivian was a person who did not like to owe anyone favor. If she knew that there had been a junior guarding her seal for a century, she would definitely pay back the guy although not in money form. She could write a note and whoever had this note in hands would be able to do whatever they liked. Who could have resisted this temptation?”

“Why did Haron’s Sentinels disband?” Madam Marie asked. The story fascinated her. “Was it because the Blood noble had lost his will? Or was it because of the demon hunters—”

“The dark noble’s investment failed, and coupled with natural disasters, he went bankrupt. Haron’s Sentinels continued to guard the place for twenty more years and at last disbanded when funding dried up. The last sentinel left about a century ago. There, the house on the river bank was the place where the last knight stayed. Tsk tsk, it was said that he had to beg his way home.”

Hao Ren had guessed what the truth was like before Hessiana revealed it. So he was not surprised at all. “Those poor guys should get wise to it. They had never thought how could an ancient as amiable as Vivian have no friends. They were so naive to think that it was easy to cozy up to Vivian.”

“The ignorance of the youth,” Hessiana said with a shrug. “Even if people knew about Vivian’s notoriety, they would not have truly understood the extent of misfortune she would bring. People were blind and over-confident, always thinking that they could bend fate in their favor. They overestimated themselves.”

There was a sense of pride in Little Bat’s voice as if Vivian’s aura of poverty was something to be proud of.

The witches, who had been living in the fringes of the supernatural world, had never heard of Vivian Ancestor’s story. So, they had no idea what Hao Ren and Hessiana were talking about.

Hessiana could not bother to explain to the witches. “Why did you suddenly mention Haron’s Sentinels?” she asked Hao Ren.

Hao Ren scratched his chin and said, “I think Bain is suspicious. He had asked me about Haron’s Sentinels. But when he realized that we did not share the same thought, he was very cautious and never mentioned the matter again.”

“Bain knows about the Sentinels?” Hessiana squinted. “That is to say, he is most likely coming for Vivian’s hibernation place! Damn it! He has the key!”

Little Bat spread her wings in anger, her voice sounding murderous. “We must stop him!”

“Wait a minute!” Hao Ren stopped Hessiana. “There is one more important thing we first have to do.”

“Is this not important enough?” Hessiana’s scarlet eyes stared dead at Hao Ren. “That wizard is going to disturb Vivian. He has the shadow key, and the soulless guards in the shadow castle would not be able to stop him. No matter what he wants, I have to stop him!”

“That will not be necessary. Bain will die in there most likely.” Hao Ren glanced at Little Bat. “If the intelligence I’ve received is correct, he will meet Vivian’s violent incarnation.”

Hao Ren did not say it was the Malevolence because Hessiana was still clueless about it. “Incarnation” was easier to understand than “Malevolence”.

“The incarnation of her violence?” Hessiana frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Have you not noticed that there is strong negative energy here? The dark noble Haron has left this place for a while century. He was not the one who left behind this energy. Neither Vivian, who under normal circumstances would not have released such evil energy. If I did not guess it wrong, Vivian should have created a powerful avatar of herself during the hibernation. This avatar will wake up earlier than Vivian herself.”

Hao Ren told Hessiana what he had heard from the demon hunters but left out the complicated relationship between the Malevolence and Vivian. Little Bat was not stupid. Moreover, she more or less knew about Vivian’s vicious cycle as well as some phenomena regarding the Malevolence. So it did not take her much effort to understand these things.

Hessiana looked solemn.

“Now I recall. There used to be a similar thing that happened back then. A guy who looked like Vivian suddenly emerged when Vivian was in hibernation. That guy caused a mess. At first, I thought that someone was impersonating Vivian, so I spent a long time investigating,” Hessiana said. “This information is crucial. We have to revise our plan. First of all, the witches must stay away from the shadowy world; they will only be cannon fodder in front of the avatar. We must find ways to control the soulless guards. With the help of these guards, it is much easier for us to deal with the avatar.”

“Bain has taken the shadow key. How will you pull this off?” Lily blinked.

Hessiana was silent for a moment. She and then took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing. The shadow key is just a convenient medium. Without it, my Shadowmancy can still do the job. After all, my shadow power comes from Vivian and shares the same root as ‘that world,’ which means momentary intervention should not be a problem.”

It reminded Hao Ren of the moment he woke Vivian up in Siberia. There, he hacked the defense system that Vivian had laid down. Using his magic-immune physique, he brought down the defense before it could even activate. At first, he planned to use the same trick again. But the situation was a little different this time. He had to leverage on the power of the soulless guards.