The Record of Unusual Creatures

After the old priest left, Hao Ren nodded to Lily and the others. Shortly after, he took out a signal amplifier from his Dimensional Pocket. He then put the badge on the amplifier’s receptor. That way, he could directly broadcast an encrypted signal from Olympus and even use the limited communication bandwidth of the badge to sense the situation on Mount Olympus.

The first few calls received no response.

Lily’s ears flicked, and she asked, “Is Apollo not home?”

“Maybe he’s charging his phone,” Hessiana said after she thought for a while.

“Stop messing about,” Hao Ren said.

Since the conventional method did not work, Hao Ren had to use a cheat: he proceeded to hack the badge to turn it into a signal transmitter. He then began to eavesdrop on what was happening on the other end.

At first, there was only meaningless interference and static noise in the signal amplifier. But as Hao Ren continuously fine-tuned the frequency, there seemed to be some other sounds in the noise. Slowly, vocals and whistling could be heard from the device.

Hao Ren was excited. He further increased the power of the signal filter and amplified the signal before he clearly heard a voice shouting, “Aargh! I am bleeding!”

Then, there was silence.

The four of them looked at each other. It was awkward, especially Hasse although there were no visible emotions on his paralyzed face. Lily glanced at the old demon hunter sideways and asked, “What is going on?”

“It seems that I have just killed Apollo.” Hasse’s voice sounded weird. “Well, at least now we know the situation on Mount Olympus. I in history lead an army and has breached Olympus’s last line of defense. It is the end of Olympian celestial family.”

Hao Ren jumped to his feet. “Why were you so enthusiastic about bringing down Olympus? And the timing could not have been worse.”

Hasse spread out his hand. “I was just doing my job back then. How was I going to know we would need those guys today?”

“Mr. Landlord, let us just go to another temple.” Lily nudged Hao Ren. “Not everyone on Mount Olympus has died. Someone will answer the phone.”

“Forget about that.” Hao Ren sighed. “When Hasse’s forces break through the last line of defense of Olympus, that means the stalemate phase of the war is over. At this time, Mount Olympus has been in a state of chaos. Do you think those Greek gods still have time to answer your call from the human world? They are dying.”

Hessiana’s mouth twitched. “We should not have depended on others. We do it ourselves.”

Hao Ren said nothing. He was a little upset. Getting help from the gods was his best bet to find Vivian in the Mythological era. It did not matter whether Vivian and the gods were singing Kumbaya or fighting tooth and nail, at least the gods knew the whereabouts of Vivian. Raven 12345 had also suggested before he came.

It seemed that Hao Ren had fallen at the first hurdle. What happened right now was out of his expectation. The demon hunters had overrun Mount Olympus. Even though when the Olympus family had been at war with the demon hunters for the past ten years, they still kept an eye on Vivian’s movement. But the fall of Mount Olympus had shattered Hao Ren’s plan.

Hao Ren and his team had come at the worst time, right when Apollo cried out ‘I am bleeding.”

Everyone came out of the room. The old priest, who looked nervous, seemed to have been waiting for a long time. He scurried up and asked, “Almighty gods, have you all gotten the answer you want? Did the great sun god issue me any order?”

Hao Ren felt too sorry to tell the old priest that the sun god he was worshipping had just died. “We have talked to Apollo, but he did not send you any word. The gods there have been busy lately, probably they would not have time for the human world for the time being.”

The old priest bowed his head in awe. “The gods must be busy governing the heavens and the earth.”

Governing my foot, Hao Ren said to himself, there has been genocide going on.

Lily looked at the old man in a priest’s robe. It was not difficult to see how helpless and lost the old man was without divine providence for the past ten years. The otherworldling gods might not be of any good, but for the priests who had dedicated their lives to the gods, living around the gods were their lives.

As Apollo’s cry ‘I am bleeding’ came to mind, Lily could not help but say, “Old man, have you ever thought of getting another job?”

The old priest had no clue what Lily meant. “Aah?”

“She is joking,” Hao Ren said as he quickly dragged Lily out of the door. “We should not bother you again. But please do not tell anyone what has happened today.”

As Hao Ren passed through the front of the temple, he looked back at the majestic sculpture of the sun god, Apollo.

Hao Ren could see what ordinary humans could not notice; the aura surrounding the Apollo statue was gradually disappearing. The stone statue that once hosted Apollo’s strength was rapidly degenerating and becoming a piece of ordinary stone.

“Mr. Landlord, why did you not let me tell him?” Lily asked after leaving the temple. “The bunch of fake gods has all died. What are those priests and monks do if they do not get any job?”

Hao Ren looked at the canine maiden, who was sometimes smart and sometimes dumb. “It is only because of the disappearance of the gods, the priests will usher in the last wave of glory in history and probably their first real glory too.”

“Why?”

“Because no one is in charge, you can say and do whatever you want. You can appropriate the offerings to yourself.” Hessiana shrugged. “When the gods were there, even the highest priests were only the tools and slaves of the otherworldling gods. When Laocoön of Troy, however good he was, said something wrong, the gods killed him. But it is different when the gods die. The end of the Mythological era is good news for the human priests. Before the truth of the fall of the gods was finally exposed, the priests could still chicane for 1,800 years.”

Lily scratched her head. “It makes sense.”

“Could you not think of it or just did not bother to use your noodle?” Hao Ren said. “Did you graduate four times from Peking University for nothing?”

Lily’s arms akimbo. “Nonsense! Why should I think so hard when you guys could already figure it out?”

Hao Ren was speechless.

This was the first time that the husky maiden confessed to it so bluntly.

“Hao Ren, what are you going to do next?” Even Hasse felt ashamed of Lily, the so-called former head of the demon hunters. He quickly changed the topic. “It is not a good idea to roam around aimlessly in Rome to find Vivian. It is especially so when Hessiana could not provide any useful information.”

Hao Ren pinched his forehead with his fingers. At first, he thought about going to Mount Olympus to check out the situation there. It was not only to look for Vivian but also to find Hesperides. The nymph of the evening could help him operate in the Mythological Era. But after visiting the Temple of Apollo, Hao Ren had given up the idea. The demon hunters had breached the last defense of Olympus, which they did not manage to do and could only fight with Zeus’s army at the foot of Mount Olympus. At this moment, the battle had entered its final and most insane phase. The frenzied demon hunters and ancient Greek gods were everywhere in the divine realm, it was too risky to go there right now.

Hao Ren was confident, but he was not reckless. It was not wise to get involved in the war between the demon hunters and the Greek gods, especially when he was unable to contact Nolan and get other help.

The Hasse of that era should have been on Mount Olympus right then, so letting the Hasse of the future swap positions with the Hasse of that era sounded like a good idea. But it was an operation of walking on thin ice; it was too risky.

Hao Ren was weighing other options when a burst of noise in the street interrupted his thought.

A crowd had gathered as Roman soldiers in gorgeous armor and cloaks were on both sides of the streets. Cheers came from afar. It sounded like people were welcoming the arrival of some VIP.

Amid the rise and fall of the cheers, Hao Ren heard a name.

“Caesar! The great Gaius Julius Caesar!”

At the end of the avenue, a gorgeous carriage decorated with garlands and gold leaves appeared. The carriage had a thick red carpet, surrounded by a railing with a garnish of the images of gods but without a roof. The VIP in the carriage could thus stand up and accept the greeting of the people.

Gaius Julius Caesar, the famous Roman ruler, stood in the carriage. Standing next to him were four heavily armed loyal guards. Caesar was wearing an elaborately-decorated armor and waving at the crowd as cheers rose.

Hao Ren watched on.

He suddenly realized that the gods on Mount Olympus were not the only ones who had come into contact with Vivian. Even Caesar had met her.

It was said that back then, Vivian had kicked Caesar into the moat.