It shocked him to hear what Vivian said. “Those guys want to revive the Mythological Era?!” Hao Ren asked.
“It’s not that serious yet.” Vivian waved her hand. She looked more at ease now. “There’s still the Ancients, whose big families are smart enough. They wouldn’t be so reckless to allow this to happen. It’s only the hotheaded small families and the youngsters who are stirring up trouble. They’ve gathered in private and established their so-called secret association in this short period to discuss their plans after the disappearance of the demon hunters. These guys aren’t quite up there yet. But if the situation continues, it’s hard to say how many them on the sidelines will remain passive,” she said.
“It’s an opportunity for the otherworldlings if the demon hunters are gone,” Lily said. “Their natural enemies are gone. But, they will fight against the humans.”
Vivian and Hao Ren had run through the hypothetical scenario of wars between the otherworldlings and humans numerous times. Hao Ren knew that war would be disastrous for both sides, so he did not want to say more than what was needed. He was just surprised that some of the small families were so impulsive: the disappearance of the demon hunters just happened half a month ago, and everything was still unclear. Their eagerness to stage a revolt was worrying—much more worrying than when the innate hostility existed.
“There are always impulsive people.” Vivian sighed. “Especially those who grew up in various sanctuaries after the end of the Mythological Era. They’ve never experienced a real war. They’ve only buried themselves in the history of the Mythological Period, dreaming of reviving the glory days of their families. Some people only know the threat of the demon hunters, but completely ignore the power of the humans. Some guys probably don’t even know about World War II. Fortunately, they are just a minority,” Vivian said.
“What are you going to do?” Hao Ren asked, looking at Vivian. “Go to the Athens Sanctuary and keep them in check? Or, are you going to contact the big families around the world to discuss countermeasures? With your fame, you should be able to pull off a heated public discussion to put down these small families,” he said.
Vivian thought for a moment and shook her head gently. “Let’s wait and see. At least, wait for White Flame to wake up. Right now, we don’t know anything about the demon hunters’ situation, and it’s too reckless to take any action. Speaking of which, this is such an irony: while some guys probably think this is a once-in-lifetime opportunity to revive the Mythological Era and return to our glory days, I’m trying to stop it. Maybe those hotheads will see me as a traitor instead,” she said.
Hao Ren’s mouth twitched a little, but he said nothing. He knew that Vivian was telling the truth: the eagerness of the young unusual-creatures to revive their glorious era was understandable. It was probably an act of bravery and honor in the eyes of their supporters. Meanwhile, Vivian was trying to prevent the unusual creatures from going head-to-head with the humans, but this would not go down well with the young generation of creatures. They would interpret it as weak and treacherous. In the end, the fact that unusual creatures existed on Earth was the most significant problem; they did not belong to this world.
For thousands of years, the demon hunters had been dedicated to eliminating the supernatural races on Earth; the human church had also completely erased the last traces of residue left behind by the Mythological Era; and modern science had seized the opportunity to grow—these three factors had cultivated a total rejection of anything supernatural by the contemporary human civilization. Today, hundreds of years after the disappearance of magic, the unusual creatures had lost the opportunity to integrate peacefully into human society. If the clock could rewind and go back to the Middle Ages, perhaps Vivian and Hao Ren would ponder the possibility of unusual creatures assimilating races with humans. Earth would then become a fantasy land with magic and technology coexisting together. However, if these fantasy creatures were to pop out now, only scalpels and petri dishes from the human would greet them.
The depressing atmosphere in the living room did not last long. After an hour, the MDT suddenly popped out and said, “White Flame’s awake.”
They immediately went down to the basement. Fortunately, the basement was large enough for all of them. Hao Ren and Vivian managed to squeeze through to the front. They looked on as the light on the medical pod ignited and the pod dinged. The panel showed that the treatment procedure had ended.
“Could you change the medical pod’s sound effect?” Vivian could not help but sigh. “Every time it dings, I think that something inside’s cooked,” she said.
Hao Ren forced a smile. He went up to the pod and opened the lid. White Flame was still lying quietly inside with her eyes closed. Her face was still pale, but it was better than before. Her wounds had also healed. Her eyelids flickered a few times, and when she finally opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Hao Ren’s big face.
She screamed quietly and bounced up. If this story unfolded like other favorite plots, White Flame’s lips would have unwittingly met Hao Ren’s. But such a scheme was not destined to happen in reality— the young demon hunter’s head smashed against Hao Ren’s nose, and the sound it made could even be heard upstairs.
“Ouch…” Hao Ren almost fell on his back and was almost in tears from the pain. However, he could not curse at White Flame. Covering his nose in agony, he said, “Hey… you’re awake…”
“I… This is…” Feeling a little confused, White Flame rubbed her forehead. Thanks to the head collision, she became sober very quickly and saw Vivian there. “Countess! It’s good to see you. It looks like everything’s fine—”
“Wait a minute. Let me ask you,” Hao Ren came up to White Flame, interrupting her. “Is there something wrong with the demon hunters?”
White Flame first looked around, noticing that the place where Vivian lived looked like an ordinary residential bedroom with many inexplicable instruments. She glanced at those around her again and knew that she was safe. Only then did she nod and say, “Demon hunters… Civil war.”
“Civil war?”
Not just Hao Ren, but almost everyone exclaimed in unison.
“Yeah, there’s a civil war,” White Flame said, forcing a smile and finding it difficult to explain everything in a few words. “The Thirteen Sages and the Council of Elders were the first ones to start the war. No demon hunters were spared—from top to bottom, we were all dragged into the war.”
“The sages and the Council of Elders?” Vivian’s brows were pulled together. She knew about these two institutions. “Are they not the leaders of the demon hunters? They’re fighting with their people?”
White Flame wanted to speak, but she began to cough fiercely. Nangong Wuyue quickly passed her a water sphere. “Drink and tell us slowly. You’re safe here.”
White Flame was startled for a while, holding the water sphere that Nangong Wuyue gave her. She wondered how to “drink” it before she took a couple of bites like eating an apple. After calming down, she slowly said, “Things began to go wrong after Teacher, and I returned from the secret realm of Ancattero.”
The secret realm of Ancattero was a home built by the descendants of the Tannagost people on Earth. Hao Ren and his teammates had recovered a second Gilded Disc in the depths of Ancattero’s mysterious realm and figured out the roots of the Sin of the Divine Blood as well as the innate hostility from the disc. At that time, Hasse was also present. The senior demon hunter once said that upon returning, he would find a way to explain the innate hostility to the Council of Elders. But now, it seemed that things did not go as planned.
White Flame nodded lightly. “Teacher met the sages three times in total. The first time was normal. The sages listened to his report. The second time, the atmosphere seemed to have changed, and Teacher looked quite depressed when he came back, saying that the sages did not care about the information at all. The third time, he never returned,” White Flame said.
“Was he detained?” Vivian looked at White Flame’s eyes. “Then the sages came after you?” she asked.
“After Teacher was arrested, the Council of Elders immediately ordered the eradication of all the regiments under Elder Hasse. The next day, they scaled up their operation several folds and ordered the arrest of everyone who had close relationships with Teacher. The first one to be taken away was Elder Andaherr. It was a chaotic situation,” White Flame said.
Hao Ren and Vivian were stunned. After a long while, they said in unison, “Are they mad?”
“What’s more terrible than madness is that they’re very awake,” White Flame said, shaking her head and forcing a smile. “Their attitude changed all of a sudden. It was the same with the Council of Elders.”
“So, the missing demon hunters had gone back to join the war?” Hao Ren scratched his chin. “What’s the current situation?” he asked.
But immediately after, he glanced at White Flame and waved his hand. “Never mind. I already know without you telling me.”
