The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren and his team waited for a while, during which Little Bat sent out her avatars to check on the situation. Her avatars reported that Hasse had successfully infiltrated the sacred army’s command center.

“The demon hunters have begun to change their patrol routes. Several guard posts are moving or changing shifts early,” Hessiana said as she received the information from her avatars. “Just as we’ve discussed before, there will be a gap between shifts at every guard post around the temple of Poseidon. It seems that Hasse does have a few tricks up his sleeve.”

“I wonder how he explained this temporary adjustment to the other demon hunters.” Lily’s ears twitched. “There are such obvious gaps that Hasse can’t explain away even as commander. After all, he’s not the only commander. The commanders of other battalions will become suspicious.”

“That’s why we mustn’t waste this opportunity,” Hao Ren said as he got to his feet and left. “Let’s go. Vivian’s right in front.”

Around the temple of Poseidon, the demon hunters had set up layer upon layer of patrols and roadblocks. They also had an army camp. Unbeknownst to the demon hunters, a breach had occurred in their encirclement.

The lower-level demon hunters could not detect the changes, which could only be seen at the top of the military hierarchy. Soldiers only mechanically carried out orders from their superiors. Meanwhile, the commanders higher up in the hierarchy could have sensed a slight abnormality, but they did not raise any questions. The great war was about to end, and the outcome was inevitable. The remnants of Olympus could not have possibly made a comeback, and the demon hunters had controlled all other areas of Mount Olympus. In such circumstances, the demon hunters, including the commanders, had somewhat let their guards down.

Sooner or later, the more vigilant senior commanders would find out about the anomaly. But before they could do anything about it, Hasse would have a field day exploiting this vulnerability.

Under Hasse’s order and without the knowledge of the patrolling soldiers as well as guard posts, he created many blind spots. It was through these blind spots that Hao Ren and his team snuck into the temple of Poseidon.

It was an exhilarating experience. Even Hessiana, the daredevil had to admit it. She navigated around thousands of demon hunters and passed through collapsed palaces and guard posts. Many times, she could see guard posts with glowing runes. At one time, she was even hundreds of meters away from a patrol team.

As otherworldlings, Lily and Hessiana were unique. The innate hostility they triggered in the demon hunters was relatively weak and imperceptible at a distance, especially when they were out of their line of sight. Otherwise, even ordinary patrolling soldiers would have sensed their presence.

Nevertheless, even at a “safe distance”, they were still walking on a tightrope.

Hasse’s estimate of the “safe distance” was accurate though. With the help of such a high-level insider, Hao Ren and the rest were able to slink across the battlefield towards the great shield of Poseidon’s temple.

From a higher point on one of the palace ruins, Lily peeked down and saw the demon hunters’ camp and murderous-looking soldiers. Engineers were preparing their magic-powered war machines. Crystallized gun barrels, which had runes on them, and the hot inner core of the machines showed that the demon hunters had used them to bombard the great shield over the temple of Poseidon just a while ago. After a short respite, those war machines would go into operation again. Until the last Olympian god died, the demon hunters would not stop their attack.

Lily’s hair, from her ears to her tail, stood on end. She stuck her tongue out and said, “This is truly the Mythological Era. The fighting between the demon hunters and otherworldlings in the 21st century looks like child’s play in comparison.”

Hao Ren petted Lily on the head to calm her down. He had also seen the demon hunters’ level of militarization. Previously, Hao Ren only knew that the demon hunters had ended the Mythological Era and caused the Twilight of the Gods. It was not until now that he had witnessed for himself how vulnerable the gods were. It was not merely the difference between individual and collective strengths but more importantly, it was the incredible degree of organization and military discipline that gave the demon hunters the upper hand.

The sacred army was a professional army with strict discipline and logical organizational structure. Everyone from top to bottom had only one goal, which was to destroy the enemy and win. The demon hunters who formed the sacred army were selfless and more like ascetic freaks.

The enemy, the Olympian gods, was just a violent family indulging in a false sense of accomplishment, world dominance, and enjoyment. Take a look at Mount Olympus and everything that happened in the Underworld: the Olympian gods may have had certain old technology and built grand palaces, but in essence, they were just an ignorant family.

An armed family, whose biggest ambition was to rule a few human cities, now met a professional army. The fact that the gods could rule the Mythological Era for so many years was already a surprise to Hao Ren.

Under the cover of the ruins, Hao Ren and his team snuck up to the back door of the temple of Poseidon. Earlier in the siege, the demon hunters had used war-level magic to blast a hole in a section of the temple wall, but the gods of Olympus had sacrificed human lives to fight off the sacred army and block the breach with the energy of the great shield.

Once the war entered that stage, the demon hunters decided to give up on the idea of sacrificing more lives to break the temple wall. On the other hand, the Olympian gods had to retreat to the inner court for the time being. They knew that they had to fight or die. So the breach had since been forgotten.

The so-called great shield was not a single magic shield. It consisted of an anti-magic shield over the temple, a layer of magic energy on the walls of the palace, and thousands of defensive arrays throughout the temple. The defensive mechanisms may have temporarily protected the survivors in the temple, but they became trouble for Hao Ren. They stopped anyone from entering the temple.

The demon hunters kept bombarding the anti-magic shield over the temple, and there was a radiant energy shield protecting the gap in the temple wall. It was a dead end.

Lily brandished her oversized alloy sword and tried to break the barrier, but the energy shield did not budge even a bit.

Hessiana tried to analyze the make-up of the energy shield, but she was better at Shadowmancy and blood magic. Little Bat was none the wiser when it came to the technology of the Olympian gods.

In the end, the two had to place their hopes on Hao Ren.

Hao Ren hesitantly placed his hand on the aurora-like barrier and prayed that his strange talent of magic-immunity would work on the shield.

Since the Olympian school of magic originated from the Plane of Dreams, Hao Ren figured that his magic immunity could work on the barrier.

As Hao Ren pressed his hand on the shield, and it shattered like glass.

He could indeed defeat the energy shield.

“Wow, had I known that Mr. Landlord was so powerful, I wouldn’t have hit the barrier myself.” Lily stuck her tongue out. Her hand still felt numb from her earlier attempts to break the shield. “We—”

Before the husky maiden could mutter anything else, she noticed that the energy shield had repaired itself as quickly as Hao Ren had broken it.

Hao Ren blinked. He still had not figured out what just happened. “Does this thing have self-repairing abilities?”

That little problem was not going to stop him, however. Every inspector who had studied the theory of shield generation would know that no shield in the world could withstand indefinite attack. Even a shield made by God himself needed energy to run, let alone a magic shield created by the gods of Olympus. Hao Ren immediately pressed his hand on the energy film again. No matter how many times the shield could repair itself, sooner or later, it would give way.

Meanwhile, in the upper half of the temple, Poseidon and a weakened Zeus received news from a sentinel.

“Are you saying that the demon hunters are remobilizing their men and removing some of their main forces?”

Poseidon clasped his trident. He was in disbelief.

An Olympian warrior wearing silver armor knelt before him. “Yes, Great Poseidon. I saw them retreating from the front line. They were also shifting their energy towers.”

Poseidon turned to look at a goddess not far behind. “Athena, what do you think?”

As one of the twelve gods, Athena was not physically stalwart like Poseidon and Zeus. But as the best individual out of the descendants of the genetically-degraded gods, she had always been the brains of Olympus, and Zeus trusted her. Upon hearing Poseidon’s question, Athena said, “It could be a trap. However, it could also be an opportunity. The demon hunters are also capable of feeling tired and having emotions. After fighting for so long, some of their soldiers need rest.”

“Perhaps their commanders have also realized that it is not necessary to mobilize all their men just to besiege a temple,” another god echoed. “This may be an opportunity.”

Poseidon looked at the bed-ridden Zeus, who took a deep breath and said in a weak voice, “Yes, it is a chance to break the deadlock. Vivian Ancestor is mentally sound. Perhaps this is our last chance.”

Poseidon nodded and clenched his trident. But before he could say anything, his trident suddenly burst with bright blue electric light. The light struck Poseidon and energy was drawn out of him.

The sudden energy bite-back made Poseidon scream in pain. He almost fell off his chair.

Zeus was taken aback. Despite his frail physique, he propped himself up to sit upright. “What just happened to you?”

Poseidon leaned on the trident. He managed the word ‘I’ before the trident, which was both a weapon and the control center of the temple, struck him again with light.

Poseidon fell on the floor.

As he struggled to get on his feet, he said, “The back door—”

The light from the trident struck him again.

“The shield…”

And again.

“…is being—”

And again.

In the end, Poseidon managed to cry out, “Can you let me finish?!”

Strangely, the energy bite-back stopped as if it had listened to Poseidon’s plea. He took a quick breath and said, “The door at the back of the temple—”

The light struck again.

“Who the heck is it?”

The sudden and strange situation confused everyone, but Athena came to her senses. The trident in Poseidon’s hand was used to control and maintain the great shield. She looked at it and associated it with what Poseiden had just said. “Someone has overcome the vulnerability at the back door! The shield is drawing Poseidon to repair itself! Go and stop them!”

A few courageous gods left the hall with the soldiers and headed to the back of the temple. In contrast, Athena was in shock.

What is with this breach at the temple’s back door? Have the demon hunters infiltrated the shield? This situation is very suspicious! Athena thought to herself.

Even the demon hunters could not have broken the shield so quietly. Were they able to, the shield would still self-repair and return to full strength immediately. Poseidon’s expression showed that someone had successfully broken the shield repeatedly as soon as the shield repaired itself. That meant the powerful shield fueled by Poseidon’s power was as fragile as glass in front of some intruder.

How could that be?

At the same time, the trio outside the back door of the temple was still busy at work.

At first, Hao Ren had tried to figure out the shield’s recharge mechanism by letting it run for a while so that he could shut the shield down at its source. But he quickly realized that it was more efficient to exhaust its power. After all, it did not take Hao Ren any effort to break it, and he had a gut feeling that the shield was not going to last too long.

The shield continued to shatter and restore itself. It never left the gap long enough for anyone to pass through.

Lily held her giant alloy sword and crouched next to Hao Ren, counting.

“Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen…”