Chapter 1042: Old Scores

“We just came back from the demon hunter headquarters,” Hao Ren said. Seeing that everyone was still in a daze and worrying that they may not have understood him, he repeated the sentence. “We know what happened there.”

As he spoke, he gently tapped Vivian’s toes with his under the table. It was a tacit gesture of cooperation and understanding.

Hao Ren and Vivian had all of this planned out beforehand. Having known the chaos in the otherworldling sanctuary, the reservedness and temper of the old families, the ingrained concept of social hierarchy based on seniority of the otherworldlings, and their attitude towards outsiders, they had decided that Vivian would first use her status to subdue the families and silence them and then Hao Ren would do the explanation. He would tell of what happened inside the demon hunter organization and the truth of the sages from an outsider’s perspective.

If the trick worked, his report to Raven 12345 would look significantly better.

The bombshell that Hao Ren dropped was knocking the sock off everyone. The large family leaders looked at each other, thinking that they were having an auditory hallucination. They looked at the Ancients, who were sitting in a corner drinking tea and appearing matter-of-course all the time, they knew that it was all true.

They realized that when things started to go wrong in the demon-hunter organization and at the same time the youngsters, including the family like the Lucas’, were wrangling in the sanctuary, Vivian the world’s oldest elder of Blood Clan had led her men storming into the demon hunters’ lair, and settled everything. Now, this wise and powerful—at least it appeared so—elder had returned. It seemed that she saw the power struggle in the sanctuary as just a child’s play, they thought.

In the eyes of these unusual creatures, Vivian was the most influential figure in Hao Ren’s team. After all, she had slapped the ancestors of every one of them.

“You went to the lair of the demon hunters?” Zeon Lucas looked at Hao Ren as if he was some kind of alien creature. He glanced at Vivian as if seeking her affirmation. “You returned unscathed? Are they really all dead?”

“Don’t look at me,” Vivian said, waving her hand impatiently. She had just given her junior an earful, and she was tired of it. Vivian did not want to get involved again. She pointed at Hao Ren and said, “He is the head of the house who makes all the decisions. I just follow whatever his instruction.”

Hessiana almost jumped to her feet. A sense of crisis rose within her, bothered by the words ‘head of the house’. What did that mean? Was Vivian married? Hessiana thought to herself.

Vivian had noticed Hessiana was disturbed. Though she did not know what Hessiana was thinking, she was not going to let this mischievous kid ruin her plan. Taking out a small bat, she threw it into Hessiana’s face. *Slap!*

Meanwhile, Hao Ren nodded to Zeon Lucas. “We have gone to the demon-hunter headquarters, but I can’t tell you the location. Besides, the demon hunters have not disappeared altogether as you’d like to think though they have met with some problem. But now the storm is over, and things have returned to normal.”

As soon as Hao Ren’s voice trailed off, a commotion rose in the meeting room. The atmosphere rapidly changed as if the air was starting to condense.

Seeing this, Hesperides let out a sigh, which was so subtle that almost no one noticed it.

The unusual creatures dreamed of launching a counterattack, reviving their glory, and destroying the human civilization, but they could not even get out of the shadow of the demon hunters. They were hunted like animals for the past thousands of years, and their spirits were crushed entirely. The excitement of the radicals had turned out to be misplaced confidence of the hope that the demon hunters had disappeared.

Perhaps the radicals were not something they had to worry about. The extremists looked brave, but in essence, they were fragile and not a threat.

Hao Ren watched the changes of atmosphere in the room. He deliberately waited for a while before he spread out his hand. “But the demon-hunting activity is over,” he said.

Zeon Lucas suddenly rose to his feet. “Demon hunting is over? What does this mean?” he asked.

“What I am going to tell you is one of the oldest secrets in the world,” Hao Ren said while sweeping his eyes across the room with a stern look on his face. “I guarantee that everything I’m going to tell is true, but you must promise to remain rational, objective and judicious of everything you hear.”

A tall, mighty werewolf stood up. Hao Ren remembered this werewolf, Hogwarf. The last time he came to Athens to investigate the Shade of Chaos incident, this werewolf leader had left him a deep impression; Hessiana had extorted an enormous sum of money from this old werewolf because he damaged her table.

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“I swear by the honor of the werewolf, witnessed by the Countess of the Crimson Moon that I will not act recklessly nor divulge the information to anyone.”

“Very good,” Hao Ren said, nodding his head. He got to his feet and pointed at Vivian and Lily. “Now ladies and gentlemen, meet the supreme leaders of the demon hunters – honorary leaders.”

The old werewolf stumbled. He scrambled to get up but accidentally snapped a large chunk of wood off the table. Hessiana was furious. “This table costs 60,000 Euros!”

Hao Ren still remembered how the bat demon extorted money from the old werewolf the first time.

“So this is the case…”

After successfully diverting their attention, Hao Ren began to slowly reveal what happened in Coldpath.

Of course, he did not tell all.

He had talked about the civil war in Coldpath and that the demon hunters had finally figured out the truth of the killing instinct after the war. He explained that a manipulative evil spirit was behind the killing instinct, that the killings ended abruptly because the ‘evil spirit’ had been permanently banished and sealed. Lastly, he mentioned how Vivian became the 14th sage, and the reincarnation of the first sage into the body of a husky.

He deliberately skipped some details and completely omitted the deicidal war. He also did not reveal the existing condition of the demon hunters, the situation in Coldpath and its exact damage in the aftermath of the second Woe of Madness.

He just wanted to explain the reasons for the end of the killings and what the future could be like.

The demon hunter certainly did not want their secrets exposed. What Hao Ren had revealed was what he had discussed and agreed with Hasse and several elders beforehand. The bottom line was that he could tell the truth about the killing but not to the detriment of the interest of the demon-hunter organization.

In fact, before this, Hao Ren had considered whether it was necessary to tell these things to the unusual creatures at all. Actually, he would not have cared either way, after all, he was only a neutral observer; he did not have a vested interest in the matter. But the demon hunters and unusual creatures had been in confrontation for thousands of years, a sudden end to the standoff would cause a turmoil too complicated to ignore. After much deliberation with Hasse and others, he decided to clear the air by playing the middleman role.

The longstanding war between the demon hunters and the unusual creatures was shrouded in the fog of misunderstandings. Clearing up the fog was necessary to end the chaos on Earth.

“It was all because of a magic sword?” Hogwarf the werewolf pulled his brows together. “You want us to write it off as a mere misunderstanding?”

“Of course not,” Hao Ren said. “I am merely telling you the whys. It is up to you to judge how it affects you. You guys used to be in the dark as to why you were killing each other.”

“A few words, however truthful, would not be able to bury a long-standing feud,” Vivian said, nodding her head gently. “But since you all are the leaders of your respective races, you should be smart and farsighted enough to know what is best for your people. There is a saying: soldiers are the one doing the dirty work, leaders are the one reaping the benefits, honor is best written in the book.”

Vivian’s words were just right and to the point.

Hao Ren waited for a few moments before he got to his feet and clapped his hands. “I hope you all would keep in mind one thing.”

While saying, he pointed to Vivian and Lily. “Both of them are supreme leaders of the demon hunters now. Guys, think about it: this demon-hunter organization is now led by a vampire and a werewolf!”

It was an intelligent argument. Hao Ren pressed his hands on the table, his body leaned slightly forward, and the expression on his face was as if a high-school teacher giving his students a lesson. The family leaders looked at each other, faces twisted and could not help giggling quietly.

Vivian clapped her hands and stopped them. “I think we have settled the old scores. Henceforth, we should discuss what we should do next.”

The meeting room became quiet again as the faces at the table turned solemn.