The Record of Unusual Creatures

There was something more than what met the eye.

At home, Vivian was only a nanny and a cook—she was a food magician who enjoyed life, and she was good-tempered, gentle, considerate, as well as peace-loving; her fights with Lily notwithstanding. But these qualities did not affect her discernibility as an Ancient. She had lived for 10,000 years and seen all the changes on this planet. Even though she had the debuff of memory leakage, she still possessed extraordinary sensitivity and wisdom. That was why she only had to take a glance at the situation in the square to guess that someone else was behind the fracas.

The mastermind was not the emerging families who were zealous about getting out of the sanctuary but some oldbie in the meeting hall.

Well, the last part of the above sentence was purely an adage and had nothing to do with Lily, who had been a dog for 6,000 years.

After casually easing out the most obstructive and annoying guys in the square, Vivian abruptly pushed the door open.

They stormed into the meeting hall without notice, only to see a meeting was indeed going on. Sitting at the round conference table were representatives from the city’s highest echelon of power: the leaders of the large families and the Ancients.

Also among the participants of the meeting were representatives from other sanctuaries. Since the Athens’ sanctuary was one of the largest unusual creature strongholds in Europe, the large families would usually conduct meeting here.

Speaking of the Ancients, Hao Ren found that not all ancestor-level representatives were present. At least some of the living fossils he had met here last time were absent. Those older generations had lived for too long and were not concerned about the changes in the world. Just like Hesperides who would rather be in her own small antique shop wiping the table, enjoying a peaceful day than playing the game of power struggle with the kids. Those few Ancients present in the meeting were mostly dragged here by some major family, or just coming for the tea.

It was perfect timing; they arrived at the time when there was a tumult going on in the sanctuary, and the city leaders were having their meeting. When Vivian pushed the door of the conference room open, the Lucas family patriarch Zeon Lucas was delivering his speech. The door slammed open and interrupted the meeting. All eyes turned on the doorway.

Hao Ren and Vivian were storming in with a group of people.

Hessiana, who was dozing off at the round table just now, got to her feet. “Hi, Vivian—”

Without waiting for her to finish, Vivian took out a small bat and threw it into her face, stopping Hessiana from lunging at her. “Looks like you’re still daydreaming here! Did you know that the troublemakers outside were using you as a pawn?”

Taking the bat off her face, Hessiana smirked. “I know. I am against opening the door of the sanctuary, but as a representative of an emerging family, I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. Those guys outside probably would hate me as they thought I have betrayed them,” she said.

While saying, Hessiana slowly edged towards Vivian. When there was no reaction from Vivian, she lunged at her. “I so missed you, Lady Vivian—”

Slap!

Vivian hit Hessiana with another bat to keep her at bay. Vivian did not overreact though. She knew that, though mischievous, Hessiana was a mature family patriarch who was not bothered by the troublemakers outside. She had her own plans; she did not need help.

After keeping Hessiana under control, Vivian grabbed her by the collar and brought her back to the table. The table, by its sheer size, was an embodiment of the luxurious lifestyle of the unusual creatures. Though most of those who should come to the meeting were already present, there was still one-third of the seats vacant. So Hao Ren and his team helped themselves settle into those empty chairs. Their action was a slap on the face of the Ancients, but no one stood up or said anything. In fact, the representatives had heard the news of what had happened in the square—the countess was in a bad mood today. They quickly checked their respective genealogies and found that at least one of their ancestors had been slapped by the countess. So keeping their heads low today was the wisest thing to do.

Those Ancients, who were sitting across the table sipping tea from their cups, were here just to dawdle their time; they naturally had no objection. They even nodded their heads with respect as they knew that Vivian did not slap their fathers but them.

As the atmosphere became awkward, Hao Ren felt that he needed to say something. Forcing a smile, he said, “It was really noisy outside.”

“Do you know what’s going on?” said Zeon Lucas with a poker face, shrugging his shoulders as if the ruckus in the square was just a farce. “The demon hunters have disappeared, and their strongholds have become empty lairs. Now there are two factions in the sanctuary: the conservatives and the radicals. The conservatives believe that they should be cautious and maintaining the status quo, but the radicals believe that this is a great opportunity to retake the world and they advocate to send the elites to destroy the strongholds of the demon hunters before taking control of the world,” he said.

“We have known this for a long time,” said Vivian. “Which side are you on, really?”

“I think we should be cautious,” said Zeon Lucas, who was careful in his choice of words. “All who are present here have basically the same thinking. But we shouldn’t just sit by and do nothing; the disappearance of the demon hunters is nonetheless an opportunity. The situation has changed, and we need to respond. Hiding in the sanctuary is not a long-term solution; there is no future here. We should fight for our interest.”

Vivian blinked. “Ahh, I see. Looks like you have a hand in the tumult in the square too.”

Zeon’s face suddenly took a south turn. “Err—”

“Isn’t that foolish?” Vivian said without giving Zeon the opportunity to speak. She became more forceful. “How old are you and how many dynasties have you lived through? In times like this, you guys still lead a cat-and-dog life! Your underhand tactics weren’t very clever, not even as good as humans’; it was not that difficult to spot. While the demon hunters disheartened you outside, you are wearing away your sense of honor here in the sanctuary?”

Hao Ren felt a cold sensation on his arm. He turned and looked; Nangong Wuyue was poking him with her tail. The siren maiden looked worried. “Vivian is very weird,” she said.

“Nah. She is fine. She would have this aura every time she lectures her juniors. Of course, we won’t see this at home.”

But deep inside him, he knew that Vivian was doing this for a reason.

She was building her momentum to subdue the family leaders, and it worked; no one had raised an objection.

Only after that Hao Ren would only reveal what happened inside the demon-hunter organization. At that moment, Vivian and Hao Ren would steer the conversation.

The two had developed a tacit understanding after spending two years together.

Vivian’s high-handedness stumped everyone. They knew the temper of the Countess of the Crimson Moon that she was not particularly violent except that when she was about to hibernate. Usually, she was a gentle elder. That was why they were all nervous when Vivian was in a bad mood. After all, when a kind person got angry, the situation would get very ugly.

They were worried. When Vivian next hibernating cycle came around, probably no one would be able to make it out of the sanctuary alive.

Of course, some people were angry because they thought that storming into the meeting uninvited was rude and disrespectful, although they recognized Vivian Ancestor and the influence of the Hessianite Family.

Before these disgruntled family leaders stood up, Hao Ren quickly got to his feet. “Well, I would like to add a bit more to what Vivian has said: we just got back from the headquarters of the demon-hunter organization.”

Suddenly, there was a bit of chaos in the room. Two of the Most of the meeting participants looked at him, and two of them had even spilled tea on their necks. It was apparent that they did not know about this before.

At the same time, Hao Ren had noticed the faces of a few Ancients sitting around the round table; they looked up with interest and were as calm as the tea in a cup. Hesperides walked over and shook hands with two of the Ancients. Hao Ren could faintly hear what they said.

“Look, they were really shocked.”

“Crap, weren’t you too when you first heard it?”

When Vivian set off for the Arctic citadel, she told Hesperides her plan and let Hesperides lead the Ancients to maintain the order in the sanctuary. So it seemed that the news was only known to a few Ancients. No one in the ordinary families in the sanctuary knew what Hao Ren and his men did for the past half a month.