The Record of Unusual Creatures

“The breath of the living?” Vivian immediately got Hao Ren’s attention. “Human? Otherworldling?”

“I don’t know, it’s very weak,” Vivian replied with a whisper. “Let’s check it out.”

Hao Ren was surprised that people would come to this deserted area outside the town. He looked back at the small town on the other side of the fence and then the silhouette of the building in the distance. He was damn sure that ordinary people would not cross the fence and come to the dark place at this time of night. The Ancattero family who had been active here and others, such as the demon hunters came to kind. These two were the most likely suspects.

After all, he and Vivian came here for the same reason.

He and Vivian hid their breaths and quickly came closer to the house under cover of darkness. They stopped ten meters away from the house, observing the house from afar. He could see the house, which was old, built brick and tile, two-story high, with a spire and a half-collapsed chimney, and overgrown weeds and the pitted roads were around the house. The ground near the house was used to be flat, and once covered with bricks, but now nature had mostly reclaimed the land, as the overgrowth had covered the broken masonry and weeds thrived in the gap between the bricks.

Hao Ren’s eyes landed on that vegetation in front of the house. He had noticed signs of trampling.”Look, the weeds have just been cleaned up, someone is here to check out the place just like us.”

Vivian’s brows knit together as she carefully analyzed the breath in the air, and squinted to look at the house. In the eyes of the vampire, she saw the house in a cold blue tone, red marks at the doorway and on the window on the second floor. She focused her vision and finally caught a fresh, warm blood target in the house. The target was like a beating heart emitting a faint red glow.

“It’s a human,” Vivian said with a disbelieving tone of voice. “Judging from the breath, it’s just an ordinary human.”

“Human? At this time of the night in this place?” Hao Ren was surprised, but he trusted Vivian’s judgment, “I thought it was a demon hunter.”

Before his voice trailed off, a light was flashing on the second floor of the house. It was a torchlight. Judging from the speed of movement and the light beam, someone was moving cautiously. Hao Ren and Vivian looked at each other. “Should we go in and say hi? Or do you want to send a bat to check it out first?”

Before his trailer off, they heard a loud noise in the abandoned house, followed by a terrified scream from the second floor. Hearing that sound and considering that the one inside was just a human, Hao Ren could not wait but storm into the house with Vivian.

The front door was left ajar when they came in. The first thing they saw was an empty living room with a few pieces of broken furniture, which were covered in dust and spider webs, at a corner. At the other end of the living room was a folding staircase leading up to the second floor. The scream had stopped when they came into the house and replaced by total silence. Hao Ren focused his attention and was able to hear a faint breathing sound coming from above; it seemed the person up there was still alive.

They rushed up to the second floor. A flashlight was on the floor at the end of the pitch-dark corridor. The light beam of the flashlight shone on a man lying on the floor. The man was dressed in a black, loose suit and looked more than forty years old. The man’s face was pale and looked horrified, hand pressing the chest in pain. After hearing footsteps, the man looked and saw them, and his lips twitched as if he was calling for help.

Seeing the man’s condition, Hao Ren immediately came up and checked the man’s injury, but he found no visible wound. He waved at the MDT. “Examine and see what happened to him,” he said.

“He has a heart attack.” The MDT had scanned the man before Hao Ren asked him to. It floated over the chest of the man. “Move over, I’m going to perform defibrillation…1,2, 3, here you go!”

As soon as the voice of the MDT trailed off, it had produced a small electric arc. The man’s body twitched violently, but his face eased rapidly. Soon the man was able to open his eyes, looking at Hao Ren and Vivian with a grateful expression. “Thank you… thank you, I owe you my life.”

The MDT slipped back into Hao Ren’s pocket before the man recovered fully from his stupor.

Hao Ren picked up the flashlight and helped the man to a pile of debris in the corner and let him sit against the wall. Then he asked, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

The man, who had just escaped from danger and was rescued by Hao Ren, was most vulnerable to questioning. Though puzzled, he still nodded and answered, “My name is Pierre. I’m a … spirit detective coming here just to investigate something.”

“Investigate something? Detectives?” Hao Ren was surprised that even detective had come to this place. “Can I ask you what are you investigating?”

Pierre, the spirit detective, was slightly hesitant. He looked at Hao Ren and Vivian. “Can I ask who are you people?”

“Oh, we are also detectives,” Hao Ren said casually. “But we don’t know if your investigation is the same thing that we investigated.”

Pierre was very cautious. “I am investigating a missing-person case, but due to professional ethics, I can’t reveal too much, I’m sorry.”

Pierre did not tell the truth.

Hao Ren could see Pierre had something to hide without needing Vivian’s telling him.

He could understand Pierre’s concerns. Coming at this critical time and place, if it was not a coincidence, then it could only be about the Ancattero family. If the latter were true, he would have to be very careful as the matter was concerning the otherworldlings. Some of the ordinary humans did know about the existence of the otherworldlings. They lived in the shadows of human and supernatural society, and an extraordinary life like the thriller and supernatural stories; the human servants of Hessiana and some monks of the church were such people. There were also those ‘small-time players’ who stepped into the worlds of the otherworldlings or demon hunters by accident. Such people would be more vigilant. Pierre could be this category.

Hao Ren stared into Pierre’s eyes and did not intend to play nice. “You are lying.”

Pierre rubbed his hands, in a dilemma. “I am very grateful to you for saving my life, but I really can’t reveal my secrets. And even if I tell you, you would think that I’m mad.”

It sounded like Pierre had admitted it tacitly. Hao Ren quickly asked: “Is it about some supernatural power?”

Pierre was wide-eyed.

“So you do admit it,” Hao Ren looked serious. “You come for the Ancattero family. Am I right?”

Pierre was confused now, and he was not faking it. “Ancattero? I don’t know about what you are talking. I am indeed investigating some supernatural things, but it has nothing to do with the family that you talk about.”

Hao Ren’s brows pulled together. He could not tell if Pierre was telling the truth, but since Pierre seemed to know a lot of things in the supernatural field, things would be easier. He patted Vivian’s shoulder gently. “Show him some special effects,” Hao Ren said.

Vivian immediately got what he meant. Her eyes quickly turned into red, cold blood mist-shrouded her, and her vampire’s fangs grew out of her mouth in the darkness. “What are you investigating?”

Usually gentle, but Vivian did possess the means of frightening people out of their twits. After all, she had 10,000 years of experience under her belt. Pierre quickly had his second heart attack.

They resuscitated the free detective with great effort. Hao Ren said to Pierre, “Your physique is not suitable for your job. It is the first time I see people with heart disease investigating the supernatural phenomena.”

Pierre did not seem to listen as he was staring at the vampire and to confess in a trembling voice, “Please forgive me for lying. I’m going to tell you everything; I am looking for the legendary Golden Manor.”

“The Golden Manor?” Hao Ren was startled.