The Record of Unusual Creature

When the news was just posted on the wall, the people around it did not seem to notice anything special. They just thought it was a regular report about recent ecology in the Demonic Plane, just like the previous one. But soon, there was a commotion from the crowd, and they finally realised what was actually written on the piece of paper!

Hao Ren heard some people muttering behind him, “Helcrown? Wasn’t the Helcrown already torn apart by the spatial storm?”

“The remnants of the demon king’s defeated troops should no longer be there… How come there’s a new troop appearing all of a sudden?”

“Could it be false?”

“I heard that the Helcrown just fell into the spatial rift, but no one really saw it being torn apart …”

“The news is not necessarily true. It is just suspected…”

The tumult in the crowd grew louder, and the discussion soon turned into loud noise. There were more and more people gathered in front of the wall. This attracted those mercenaries, who were exchanging information and tasks. At this moment, another soldier stepped forward. Someone immediately grabbed the soldier and asked, “Is the news true?”

“I just came to post the news,” the soldier shrugged and said, “anyway, this is a message from the top.”

The soldier then put up new intel on the wall, which also comprised of a few short sentences. “Someone has witnessed the remnants of demon king’s defeated troops in the second plane. They are suspected to be the surviving soldiers of the First Legion. The demon king of the second plane, Banuklaak, has left his castle, leading a group of unknown elite troops to the Broken Plains. They are most likely investigating the mirage of the Helcrown.”

All of a sudden the situation burst into a state of chaos. In all directions, people kept crying out in alarm and making a ruckus. The people on the first floor of the hall heard it. All came and gathered there. Those who could not squeeze in were shouting outside and asking what was going on. So, news regarding the mirage of the Helcrown and the remnants of the demon king’s defeated troops were spread throughout the hall quickly. And soon, another soldier came out of the little door next to the wall. He put the latest information on the wall and covered the message earlier. “Correction, the demon king, Banuklaak, has returned to his castle urgently. There is sgn of mass movements within the demon legion of the second plane. It is suspected that they are preparing to start a war with other demons. Demon King Serathon suddenly withdrew some of his forces near the Obsidian Plains. They could be transferred to the second plane. The presence of the remnants of the demon king’s defeated troops is confirmed.”

A tense, repressed, fearful but faintly high-spirited emotion pervaded the hall. Hao Ren and the rest of them were waiting to see if there were anymore news updates. Suddenly, a middle-aged man dressed in mercenary clothing squeezed in. He held a piece of paper with a special stamp of the distribution hall and proceeded to paste it on the wall. “The strength of the Steel Mercenary Group has been entrusted with the investigation of the second plane and is recruiting foreign aid!”

This middle-aged mercenary’s thread immediately led to more mercenaries putting up their notice. Some announced that they had gathered the relevant information; some were recruiting teammates to venture into the Demonic Plane, and some claimed that they went to the Demonic Plane in a few days and found the relevant information. There was one who said, “I have a lot of money to spend and I just want to occupy a spot here”—of course, this man did not have a good ending…

Hao Ren was stunned to see the scene. There were at least 100 related notices covering half of the wall following news of the demon king’s legion. The crowd started a new discussion thread on the wall beside it to continue their talks on the news. The soldier who previously posted the notices was shocked when he came out to check the situation. He did not expect to see such overwhelming responses.

At the desk near the wall, a little elf girl with pointy ears was shouting. “Keep the order everybody! Come and get special papers as well as posting space! Please, pay for the post! Thank you for your cooperation!”

“I have to find a way to squeeze out of here…” Hao Ren could barely breathe amongst the crowd hence, that was the only thought in his mind. He kept shouting “excuse me”, but it still did not work until Y’zaks shook his arms and opened a way in front of them. He then carried Hao Ren and strode out of the crowd.

As soon as Hao Ren got out of the crowd, he saw Vivian and Lanina already waiting outside. Nangong Wuyue slipped out of the crowd like a slippery fish. While he was tidying up his clothes, he looked at Vivian and said, “Why didn’t you call me when you came out?”

“I didn’t know you would be so silly. You should have quickly left the place when you saw the new notice.” Vivian curled her lips, then looked around and asked, “Aiya, where’s Lily?”

Hao Ren just realized that Lily was not with him. He slapped his head and said, “Oh, gosh! She must still be in the crowd! She will surely go mad if people keep stepping on her tail!”

He then turned back to the crowd, looking for the husky, but he could not find her. When he squeezed out of the crowd from the other side, he finally saw Lily. She was actually curled up, asleep by the big vase in the corner. It was not certain how long she had been sleeping there…

Vivian was shocked to see this and asked, “Has her biological clock stopped working?”

“I suspect her body is still following the biological clock on Earth,” Hao Ren said. He pulled Lily up and kept shaking her until she woke up. Then, he waved his hand in front of her and asked, “What time is it now?”

Lily said hello to Hao Ren, still half asleep. She then rubbed her belly and said, “Time to eat…”

Hao Ren sighed and said, “She totally hasn’t gotten over her jet lag yet.”

“Every hour is her mealtime, and she’s hungry whenever she has nothing to do.” Vivian slapped Lily on the back of the head and said, “You can’t even pick the right place to sleep, and you still blame people for stepping on your tail.”

“Y’zaks, what do you think of today’s hot news?” Nangong Wuyue splashed cold water on Lily’s face to help her freshen up while she turned to look at Y’zaks.

“Whether it’s true or not, I have to go to the second plane to see the situation,” said Y’zaks. His eyes were shining and there was a kind of brilliance on his face. “Just now, someone mentioned something. When the Helcrown was engulfed by the spatial rift, no one saw it being torn apart… Does this mean that the city was just being drawn into a new plane, and the people in it are actually still alive?!”

Hao Ren opened his mouth and looked at Y’zaks, knowing that a sort of hope had lit up again in his heart. He wanted to advise Y’zaks not to make any conclusions prematurely, but he ended up nodding his head and saying, “Well, we’ll go with you.”

Lanina’s tail was wagging fast in the air, which seemed to be a habit when she was thinking about a question. “The remnants of the demon king’s defeated troops… The First Legion was indeed the main force in the city. If the king is really still there, then the surviving soldiers could probably belong to the First Legion. But, according to the information, the Helcrown that appeared in the sky of the Broken Plains was a mirage… This is a bit strange. Was the Helcrown mutated after it fell into the spatial rift?”

“We can only go and see the situation there.” Y’zaks nodded and continued, “Go to the second plane… But, I’m afraid that the Broken Plains have been occupied by other demons. The current ruler of the second plane is Banuklaak. However, according to the information we’ve just seen, Banuklaak has been weakened and Serathon is very likely going to meddle. If we go there hastily, we will meet the demonic allied forces of Serathon and Banuklaak.”

“We can take advantage of the allied forces of the Holy See.” Hao Ren thought for a bit and made a decision. “There are all kinds of people among the mercenaries. The allied forces have little doubt about the human race. We can go straight in.”

Y’zaks nodded and said, “Yes, and we only get into the periphery, so we’ll likely be sent directly to the forefront as ‘minesweepers’, just the way we intended.”

“I’ll go ask about the registration process and see how I can get a fake identity.” Vivian volunteered. She had been in the human world for tens of thousands of years without being exposed. Sometimes she could still keep up with the times after she had been sleeping for 200 or 300 years. This lady was a master of disguise.

A vampire who dared to work for a church in the Vatican, there was no place she could not go…

Lanina also patted her chest and said, “I’ll go help her. I’m familiar with all kinds of people in the human world.”

Nangong Wuyue patted Hao Ren on the shoulder and said, “You should also go with them.”

Hao Ren was puzzled and asked, “What do I do there? I don’t know any spying skills…”

“Aren’t you pretending to be a wizard?” Wuyue rolled her eyes and said, “You are Lanina’s camouflage.”

Hao Ren twitched his mouth and thought about how he ended up becoming someone else’s binding equipment again. His experience was always different from that of a normal person, every single time…