The Record of Unusual Creatures

In Hao Ren’s mind, of all the unusual creatures in the family, Lily was probably not the dumbest one. The husky maiden could be a master who looked like a fool. It was not that she did not use her noodle, but she had cleverly found the most relaxing way of life: if she could get by living a carefree life, why would she want to be worried about being a smart person?

The husky did not even know how she had formed the most massive Beast Tide in the world, but Hao Ren did not believe that she pulled the feat off because of luck. It was about the law of the jungle with which Lily had dealt, and the alpha must have done something smart. But now, Lily had found back the person on whom she always relied. She switched off her self-reliance ability and chose to return to the world of the husky.

A lost husky perseveringly finding her master and still insisting on paying 400 Yuan a month for her rent till this day was touching. Looking at the contented husky, Hao Ren could not complain.

Lily went around the hillock and came back frustrated. “The two cult leaders have gotten away?”

“That’s okay. They wouldn’t get far.” Hao Ren waved to dismiss Lily’s concern.

“But they stole something from our home!” Lily’s arms akimbo.

“I’m surprised you have this house-sitting awareness.”

Calaxus looked on. He could not be as relaxed as Hao Ren did because two high-ranking believers of Cult of Armageddon had gotten away under their nose. “They used black sorcery to get away. Those who could draw such kind of power from the Chaos must be a revealer or even an executor in the Cult of Armageddon. When these guys escaped, there will be no end of trouble.”

“No worries,” Hao Ren smiled. “I have a plan.”

Calaxus had wanted to say something, but when he saw Hao Ren’s expression, he choked on his words. Since the cultists had already fled, it would not help by harping on the issue.

Hao Ren patted Lily’s arm and said, “Who are they?”

“Oh, yes, let me introduce.” Lily quickly pointed to the combined forces. “This is Tridis, commander of Raven Knights from Fort Raven. This is Calaxus from a place called Sanctum. He leads his investigation team to look for a ‘light,’ which I have no idea what it means. These tall and strong guys are my guards! The alpha’s guards! I brought them out of a floating island in the south, and they followed me all the way.”

The beasts instantly became boisterous when the alpha introduced them. But when Lily shot them a glare, they immediately quieted down.

“Uh huh… you are respected among them, eh?” Hao Ren quipped. While saying, he noticed something in his peripheral vision. “What happened to your tail?”

The flurry tail, of which Lily had been proud, was half bald and looked like an old broom.

“I know you have the habit of biting your tail, but it is ridiculous,” Hao Ren said with his brows knit together.

Lily became self-conscious and quickly covered her buttocks with her hands. “Stop looking!”

“What happened?” Hao Ren was startled.

“I… I was protecting my men! And to maintain world peace!” Vivian’s face went red, and her ears flickered.

“Alpha has a strong power of Order. She used her hair to make amulets to protect the beasts from the Chaos. She has made a great sacrifice,” Calaxus could not help but say.

Hao Ren looked at Lily amusingly. The maiden might have had a more bizarre experience than he had recently. It was now not the time to tease her as things might backfire. Hao Ren quickly switched the topic by turning to Calaxus and Tridis. “The cultists stayed here for a reason. Let’s have some people watching on the outside while others go to check out the ruins. What do you think?”

There was no objection. Half of the men stayed put while Calaxus, Tridis, Lily, Hao Ren, and a few Sanctum monks went into the semi-destroyed Horgus’ Hut.

Since there might be still cultists hiding in the ruin, everyone kept their weapon close at hand.

The ancient house, preserved by magic power, had partially collapsed after a fierce battle. The evil runes, in the form of a dark-red pattern, were on the broken walls and roof. These runes, left behind by Horgus the shadowmancers a few centuries ago to summon the power of Chaos to the Kingdoms of Order, had lost their effect. Dark energy had eroded the runic alphabets, and the mottled surfaces made the ruins look eerie.

Bodies of the cultists were lying everywhere, but other than that, there was nothing unusual.

After looking around for a while, Hao Ren noticed something on Lily’s body. “What it the glow in your body all about?”

Lily clutched her tail; she was still depressed. Earlier, Lily was using the wolf skin to cover her bald tail. But the wolf skin was damaged during the battle, making it her most significant loss in the battle.

Lily looked at the glow on her body, and the matter only came to her mind. “Mr. Landlord. I have wanted to ask you; what is the glow all about?”

“It is the sacred Light of Order.” Calaxus interrupted. “Alpha, the glow is a gift from the goddess of creation.”

“And nature’s gift!” Lily glared at him. “I couldn’t even sleep because of it. Okay, stop interrupting. Mr. Landlord, what is it all about?”

Lily told Hao Ren about her experience after leaving the southern floating island, including how she encountered the storm of Chaos with her team, how she started to glow when Chaos hit, and how she saved the Sanctum Investigators by accident, and then how she used the sacred light to go through the Black Forest. The whole story was vivid. If ignoring the background and characters, it would sound like a light bulb advertisement.

Lily only wanted to present two points. One was that she suddenly glowed; and two, she did not want it to glow so brightly but had no idea how to turn it off.

Lily then looked at Hao Ren, waiting for his answer. In Lily’s mind, Mr. Landlord was omnipotent.

Hao Ren, who was an experienced pope with a professional certificate, had quickly figured out what it was all about. He scratched his chin and looked at Lily with a thoughtful look. “If I’m not mistaken, you must have eaten all the food that I have brought back from Raven 12345’s mansion.”

Lily nodded matter-of-coursely.

“The more divine food you eat, the more divine you would become,” Hao Ren said, spreading out his hand.

Lily was dumbfounded. The words did not register for a while, and then the penny dropped. “What should I do? Would I become immortal like the Tang priest? Would people stew me just like they would eat the monk?”

While saying, Lily raised her hand and examined it. After a long while, she asked, “What do you think I taste like, Mr. Landlord?”

“The question is not your taste.”

“Then how can I switch the glow off?” Lily was almost crying.

“As far as the current situation is concerned, you only glow when you are in the realm of Chaos. It should be a passive phenomenon caused by the natural conflict between Order and Chaos.” Hao Ren scratched his jaw. “It is tough to take to control the divine power. It took special training for a professional pope like me to master the control of the divine power. You are not going to learn it in such a short time. From now one, you either stay in the realm of Order In the future or learn to get used to it. At least it is the only options before we get out of this place.”

Lily was not happy with the answer. She grabbed Hao Ren’s arm. “Mr. Landlord, tell me how to do it, I might be able to master it very quickly. I am not dumb; I’m a Peking University four-time graduate! Tell me about the training.”

“The first step in mind control is to calm down,” Hao Ren said.

“I would rather try to adapt to the current situation.” Lily’s ears drooped.

It seemed that she was self-aware of her nature.

At this moment, the female knight Tridis, who was walking in front, had found something. She motioned those behind her to stop as she said in a whisper, “Something is right ahead.”

Everyone raised their guard. Hao Ren crept forward and stopped next to Calaxus. “What is it?”

“Dark magic, the primordial magic power from the Sea of Carnos,” the high-ranking monk said as he drew a sacred symbol on his chest. “A blood sacrifice, a sinful ceremony of the cultists.”

Hao Ren looked up and saw a bloody altar in the middle of the room in the distance.