The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 393

Chapter 393: Something Bothers Wang Daquan

 

It was the Spring Festival. It was noisy and lively in the Southern Suburbs as men and women who had left to work in other parts of the country, or migrated had come back for their reunion. The streets were thronged with familiar faces, which were almost never seen at other times of the year. People were wishing and greeting one another with auspicious words, and lanterns were hung abundantly in front of houses to mark one of the biggest festivals.

It had been a few years since the last time Hao Ren had a warm and lively New Year. Vivian had prepared a New Year’s Eve feast; there was so much food that the dinner table was filled to the brim and overflowed to the tea table. It was a challenge for all 10 of them—not including the cat and the fish—to cramp together at one table. Nevertheless, they did not mind the crowd—they cared more about the warm atmosphere of togetherness than anything else. As usual, Lily could not sit still and she meandered around the house restlessly. The four ascetics were planning to continue challenging the cold outside before Hao Ren dragged them inside the house. If roasting rabbit meat in the cold wind was deemed proper in the name of religion, than it was more proper that they be invited inside for the Spring Festival.

Big Beardy and his company could not argue about it. They came inside and joined the rest for dinner with all the noise as well as activities.

With a roasted lamb shank in her hand, Lily meandered around the house and wished each and everyone the usual New Year phrases. She was so high that it almost seemed like she was on drugs. Even Vivian was caught up in her act several times. After a round of toasts, Hao Ren in his capacity as the “head of the family” began to speak. “For the past year… Umm, probably less—since Lily only came here about half a year ago—it doesn’t matter how long we’ve known each other. I want to thank you for your support. We have so many of and we come from different races, yet we live together under one roof. That’s not easy. So, let us be together like a family, and make our team a world-renowned brand. A toast to…”

Kicking Hao Ren on his leg, Vivian who was next to him said, “Save it, mate. You’ve been raising your wineglass for like 10 minutes, yet you haven’t had a sip. Don’t pretend you’re drunk.”

Hao Ren sat down embarrasingly. “I’m not really a drinker. I was hoping you would sing along.”

Lil Pea, who was lying on the table saw the wineglass in Hao Ren’s hand. She got up and poked her head inside to take a little sip of the contents before she grunting and flopping onto the table like a fish out of water. Vivian quickly took the glass away and said, “How could you let her—”

By then, the crackling and popping of firecrackers were rattling throughout town. Lily scurried up to Hao Ren and reached her oil-soaked claws out and demanded, “Landlord, give me the firecrackers. I’m going to light it up outside.”

Looking at the cute maiden delightfully, Hao Ren took out a bunch of firecrackers and went out with her.

As the firecrackers popped and crackled, Lily jumped up and down like an overjoyed child. Even the steady maiden, Nangong Wuyue was thrilled and they both of them laid the bangers on the ground in patterns as if they were going to set themselves on fire.

Becky and the four ascetics looked on in horror. Big Beardy pulled Hao Ren by his sleeve and asked, “That’s how it goes every year?”

“Yup,” Hao Ren said, still holding on to a half-burned incence stick, which he used to light the bangers. “But, it’s not like that every where—at least, not in the city. They don’t give a hoot here in the countryside.”

Becky looked at Hao Ren with admiration. “The people of this world are braver than we are. The way you guys set off the explosives at your own front door to celebrate your important day every year is astounding. It’s like the legendary berserkers…”

Meanwhile, Lil Pea had slipped out of the house and hobbled right to Hao Ren’s feet. No one had noticed her amid the hoo-ha.

The little mermaid looked at the fire popping out of the bangers. She was scared but also excited. She found a banger on the floor, which had not gone off and examined the red explosive tube. It smelled like food to her before she peeled off the end of the red tube and found some black powder flowing out of it.

The little mermaid pondered for a while, thinking that she should be more exploratory. She emptied the black powder into her mouth.

Seconds later, the little mermaid wailed loudly as she spat gunpower out of her mouth. At this point, Hao Ren as well as Vivian were already alerted, and they saw what was happening. They were scrambling around to help her. “I didn’t know she came out…”

“She swallowed the gunpowder! She swallowed the gunpowder!”

“Oh sh*t, really?”

“Go and get some hot water, quickly… No, it’s not for rinsing her mouth!”

“Lily froze her!”

“Wuyue, please help! Get some hot water to defrost Lil Pea…”

The atmosphere in Hao Ren’s house was lively, but mostly for the wrong reasons… Sort of.

After a long attempt of “rescuing”, Lil Pea finally calmed down. Perhaps the chilly temperature had also helped in coaxing the little mermaid, who may have gone into a semi-hibernation state. They noticed that the little mermaid liked to go outside. So, Vivian had come up with an creative idea: she took the rice cooker out, extended the power cord right outside the house, filled it up with water and flipped the power switch. When the water warmed up, she placed Lil Pea in the rice cooker; this way, the little mermaid could enjoy the snowy scenery outside in the comfort of her rice cooker. She could not get out, but she could make do with that. She soaked herself in the “hotspring” while she watched her canine sister play and laugh as the bangers went off.

Hao Ren pondered for a while before he took out a piece of red paper and wrote “nian nian you yu”, a pun which literally meant “there’s fish every year”. The saying denoted prosperous and abundance, so Hao Ren stuck it on the rice cooker. Then, he admired himself for his creativity.

“This is the couplet?” Vivian’s brows were scrunched together as she stared at the couplet on the front door. ” If it hadn’t been a personal gift from the goddess, I would’ve recommended not to display it outside…”

The couplet, written with Raven 12345’s personal brush strokes, was now up on the front door. Excusing the writing, Hao Ren contemplated whether he should first take a selfie with the couplet and post it online before passersby did it—just to give the online community one more topic to rant about for this year’s Spring Festival.

Despite the unsightly appearance, the couplet was indeed useful in some ways. With his mutated eyesight, Hao Ren could see a mysterious radiance shrouding his house and a wide area around it; anyone who came into its coverage had a sense of peace and serenity. Perhaps Raven 12345 was right; these two pieces of paper were enough to turn the area within a two-mile radius into a sacred land.

All of a sudden, Becky noticed that one of them was absent. “Where’s Biggie?”

Only then did Hao Ren noticed that Y’zaks had not joined them outside. He went back inside and surprisingly, saw Y’zaks sitting at the table drinking his wine all alone. It was as if he did not hear the hoo-ha outside.

“Hey, Y’zaks! Y’zaks!” Hao Ren called out from the doorway at the great demon, who appeared to be in a stupor. He came inside and tapped the table. “Hey, dude, why are you drinking here all alone? Don’t you want to join them outside?”

“No, thanks,” Y’zaks sounded like he was not in the mood. His face was pasted with his signature frightening smile. “I’m better off drinking here alone by myself. It’s too noisy outside.”

Hao Ren sensed something was wrong with him; although Y’zaks was more of a tepid character, he would not avoid the crowd. Obviously, something was on his mind. “So, what’s up, dude?”

Y’zaks had gulped down two bottles of shaojiu—a strong alchoholic drink. But man-made liquors did not seem to have an effect on him. He sighed as he looked out through the window at the lights and fireworks, his mind slowly drifting away. “It’s a day of reunion, eh? It’s a very good day. We demons have no such concept, though.”

Hao Ren looked at Y’zaks, whose face was filled with an unexplainable loneliness; he had never expected to see such an expression on a demon. Hao Ren hesitated for a long moment before he decided to ask, “I know you’re a person with a story. If you decide not to tell me, I’ll just drink with you. If you decide to tell me, then I’ll listen. It’s the New Year, mate. Don’t keep things to yourself. You have us. Who knows, we may be able to help.”

Y’zaks smiled and glanced at Hao Ren. “…I think I’ll just tell you before you die from alcohol poisoning.”

Hao Ren was stunned for a while, and then he heard Y’zaks sharing his mind. “It’s not a big deal, just that I miss my daughter…”

Chapter 394: Y’zaks’ Past

 

Hao Ren was stunned to learn that Y’zaks had a daughter; it was the last thing Hao Ren would have thought about the demon. He was surprised not because Y’zaks was missing his daughter, but because he had a daughter!

“You have a daughter?” Hao Ren looked at Y’zaks, still a little shocked. He examined him if he was drunk. “Are you serious?”

“You sound like I can’t have a daughter.” Y’zaks grinned at him. “You think I shouldn’t have a child?”

“No, that’s not what I mean. I just feel that having a daughter doesn’t really suit your style.” Hao Ren did not mince his words. “I mean, judging from your looks, your child should be 1.2-m tall with 8-feet-wide shoulders. He would have a two-feet-wide, hairy chest and an alloy flail.”

Y’zaks shot Hao Ren a sideways glance and said, “So, by your logic the flail came together since he was born?”

Hao Ren nodded instinctively but quickly realised that it was ridiculous. “Umm, it would be a little bit challenging, though.”

“…Only you guys talk with me. There was no one I could talk to in the past.” Y’zaks paused for a moment, then sighed. “I’m going off topic… Anyway, I’m serious—I really have a daughter. Age wise, she could very well be your great grandmother already. But in our world, she’s just a little girl. She’s this tall and she’s always running around.”

Y’zaks gestured with her height with his hand on top of the table. Hao Ren thought that he had to be drunk and mistaken. At the height Y’zaks was indicating, his daughter would only reach up to his belly button—was there such a demon species?

He kept mum because he knew that Y’zaks had kept this to himself for at least half a year. He had just found someone to talk to about. It was rare for the great demon to share his past.

“Let me tell ya, I actually had a family and a career.” Suddenly, Y’zaks steered the conversation to his career. “In the demonic world, I’m a king. In the human world, they call me ‘the Devil’.”

“What ranking is that?” Hao Ren asked, pursuing the topic further. “It sounds pretty cool.”

Y’zaks laughed, feeling a little flattered. “It’s a pretty high ranking, the highest rank of all in the demon world. In our world, war is a constant affair; war between different factions, and within the same faction. We have our own territories. Stronger demons command millions of other lower demons and fight with other similiarly ranked demons. They don’t have permament territories; whoever wins the war gets to keep the territories until they are defeated again. These demons are known as ‘demon commanders’ or ‘warlords’. They are just small fries and their tiny forces are more like a bunch of bandits, which can be wiped out anytime by others or their own men.

“Sometimes, among these demon commanders, some are more capable than others. These more capable demons would seize a larger piece of territory and turn it into their home base. They occupy it for a long time and no one can shake them off their position. At the same time, their forces are more stable. These demons are known as ‘seigniors’.

“Further up the rank are those who can fight well and have the smarts to back it up at the same time. These brainy demons command a large following of seigniors, like a country. They can even occupy an entire independent dimension and have their own system of governance just like humans do with their own countries, armies, people as well as inheritance. These demons are known as ‘kings’.”

It was the first time Hao Ren had ever heard of such things from Y’zaks. It seemed that society in Y’zaks’ hometown was different from the legends told on Earth. They were definitely not the same “local demons” that Vivian had described. Hence, the same race in different worlds would always develop their own unique civilisation independent from others.

Hao Ren became interested. “So, you have a country to rule?”

“I used to. And it was the strongest one since time immemorial; much bigger than the largest empire humans have ever built.” Y’zaks nodded then said, “However, it was wiped out.”

Biggie sighed and continued. “So, you must be curious why a demon like me could have thought of world peace—I have done my homework and I know that demons in other worlds are constantly at war with each other. People like me are diamonds in the rough.

“But, I used to be like the other demons—constantly fighthing among themselves. Those who found a moment of peace would start strategising ways to invade the human world. I was one of them.”

“Then, how did you change?” Hao Ren looked at Y’zaks curiously.

“Because of one human.” Y’zaks looked at the shaojiu bottle in his hand as if he wanted to find the reflection of his long lost friend in the glass. “He was an alchemist, like a scholar in your world.”

“Back then, I had just successfully seized a piece of territory and chased away the rest of the demons from the surroundig areas. Simply said, I was fresh from becoming a siegnior. Like any other young, hot-blooded seignior, I was impatient to prove my capabilities, but there wasno worthy opponent nearby. Therefore, I made a decision other demons would have made—I seduced some human shamans and opened up a gateway in the human world, invading a country in the process.

“Many demons did what I did.” Y’zaks’s brows were slightly raised. “The space dimension in our world is very different from yours. Our universe is made up of many seemingly messy but internally organised, independent spatial pockets. And these pockets are connected by an unstable channel. Each pocket may contain a continent or several planets. Such dimensional structure allows various races and kingdoms to exist, but also causes them to go to war with each other. There are many kingdoms in the human world, widely distributed and strong. They became the perfect targets for demons to invade and destroy to show off their own strength. This showed that demons were intelligent enough to open a massive dimensional door and they were strong enough to exterminate any enemy on the other side of the dimensional door.

“The country I chose to invade was mediocre. I didn’t even bother with their frightened people and fragile human soldiers—which I guessed it was a good thing. When we marched into their capital, their king and his officials had long fled into another dimension through a teleportation gateway. My flag was then raised on the castle as the country was officially declared demon territory and humans were demoted as slaves.

“After that, I started to look through the things that I had taken possession after winning the war. I searched the treasure vaults and shaman towers for alchemical items, which were highly regarded by various races.

“I soon met this weird fellow—a slender, stooped old man. He was in a rundown shaman tower near the castle, draped in a ragged, human alchemist robe. He was unshaven like a homeless man, but he was conducting experiments in his alchemy lab. I suspected that he had been staying in the tower for many years, because he didn’t even realise war had broken out in his country. When my men stormed through the door, he just turned his head and scolded them for messing up his experiment data.”

With a wacky face, Y’zaks said, “I think I should thank the dumb demon guard who didn’t kill the old man. He followed my order to the letter, which was to report back any strange items he found; he treated the old man like some strange object and asked me to check him out. As I shrank my body and went through that alchemy lab door, guess what happened?

Hao Ren noticed that Y’zaks was completely immersed in his own memory, so he played along and asked more leading questions. “What happened next?”

“That old man ordered me to get out of the lab!” Y’zaks laughed heartily. “After four demon guards stormed into his lab, another hour had passed before I came in. He had been burying his head in the parchments on his table and didn’t realise that they weren’t his students, but a bunch of demons!”

Chapter 395: A Demon, A Human

 

Y’zaks spoke about his past, but maybe because things happened too long ago, his memory seemed a little messed up. Nonetheless, he could still remember the strange old man’s reaction when the demon guards captured him.

“He wasn’t afraid of me, not even when I stood before him in my true form.” The incredible feeling still lingered in his mind. “His robe was ignited by the flames on my body, but the old man just put the fire out with his bare hands. He then demanded for me to let him go so that he could continue his experiments—I’ve never seen anyone like him and it was interesting. Hence, I gave him two choices.

“I told him that because he was an interesting human, and I was thrilled, he had earned my clemency. I would give him two choices; one, I’ll spare his life. He can leave, but without taking anything with him because everything belonged to the demonic army now; two, I’ll allow him to continue his experiments, but he’ll only have a one more year to live. After dies, his soul will belong to me.”

Y’zaks suddenly had a wacky expression on his face, or maybe he was just rolling his eyes—his face always looked the same no matter what. “Now, thinking back to it, I feel ashamed of myself. But back then, I was still young and I wanted to do the in thing—like being cool and mean, scaring humans, satisfying someone’s wish, collecting souls and stuff to make myself looked like a king. So in my mind, any normal human being would have chosen to live, but that old man surprised me once again.”

“Let me guess, he chose to stay to continue his experiments?” Hao Ren had guessed the answer; it was a predictable story. However. it was something new to Y’zaks back then. “By the way what was he doing with those experiments?”

“He was studying the universe, things outside the bubble zones and stuff like that.” Y’zaks nodded. “That time, I didn’t understand a thing about it and just found the old man interesting, mad, and fearless when it came to demons. So, I let him continue his research. That old guy just said thank you before he turned around and went back to his lab, continuing his research in the ruins of the kingdom. I was curious, so I followed him inside to see what he was up to.

“He then told me about his theory of the bubble zone like he was teaching his student. He never treated me like a demon. He shoved a book in my hand before he stood in front of his test bench and started lecturing. He mentioned a very novel idea no scholar of any races has ever thought of; do you still remember the time I told you that the structure of my hometown’s spatial dimension was different from the rest of the universe? Our entire universe is made up of many individual bubbles. The content of these bubbles are nothing like the Milky Way, but they’re mostly space, which can be as small as a continent or as large as a star system. The old man called these structures ‘bubbles’ and divided them into different categories. He spent his entire life studying and coming up with this theory: the bubbles aren’t the true face of the universe, but just a distorted, abnormal star system. He discovered that the law of physics in the bubbles are unusual, so he theorised that the bubble zone wasn’t formed naturally, but a byproduct of a distorted and shattered star system. He thought that the bubble zone was like a tiny oasis in the real universe—it was unstable as well as abnormal, and the real universe where billions of stars resided, existed outside the bubbles.”

Y’zaks sighed all of a sudden. “It’s just like the starry sky of your world.”

Hao Ren thought about it for a while and said, “…But this place has been shrouded in fog for a year. Can you still see the stars?”

Y’zaks rolled his eyes and smacked Hao Ren on the shoulder. “I guess Vivian was right; you always say the wrong thing at the wrong time!”

Hao Ren smiled in embarrassment. “Don’t bother about me… you may continue.”

“In our world, there are no starry skies like yours.” Y’zaks gulped down the shaojiu and continued, “Looking up in the spatial pocket or bubble, all we see are planets, auroras, phantoms of the nearby dimensions, and sometimes a few stars if you’re lucky. But never a starry sky like the one here. Everything appeared normal to us. The old man was the only one who thought that things were abnormal. He figured out the theoretical size of the universe and found that it was amazingly huge as he searched frantically for the edge of the bubble zone. He would be a scientific genius here, but he was considered a lunatic in our world. Perhaps,, the fact that he was also born in a tiny human kingdom ruled by some dumbasses further reinforced the notion that he was a lunatic. That may have been the reason why he was so down and out when I first met him. Any alchemist who failed to produce useful weaponry for the country, or luxury products for the elites was deemed a failure. The old man, who only knew about stars and dimensions would have been certainly excluded, or expelled if not for his elite father.”

Y’zaks paused for a while. There was a ridiculous smile on his face. “Ironically, this ‘outcast alchemist’ who was discriminated by the human society had built a massive lab of his dreams in the kingdom of the demons. Advanced technologies, those which the human kingdom failed to attain, the demons had made.”

When Hao Ren heard this, he could almost guess how things transpired then. “So, your perspective of the world was broadened with the help of the lunatic scientist. You finally discovered that space was man’s true romance, hence you planned for a grand unification of the world.”

It turned out that his thoughts were nothing more than a fairy tale. Reality was always less rosy than one’s imagination. Y’zaks shook his head and said, “Actually, no. I wasn’t that farsighted back then. I was just like the others, who only had one thing on their mind: if the bubble zone theory was true and I could find where the edge of the bubble was, I would be able to expand my territory indefinitely. That was what I was thinking.”

“…”

“The difference between me and the others was, they didn’t believe in the old man, and I did.” Y’zaks grinned and his face looked really creepy. “I was thinking that there wouldn’t be any limit to how much territory I could acquire outside the bubble zone. I was going to use that to show off my capabilities, so I decided to back the old man in his research project. I made him my chief scholar, whose responsibility was to search for the edge of the bubble zone. My paradigm shift only happened several hundred years after that.

“The old man had proven that his research was not a pipedream. He exhausted his life scaling the world, and found the pattern that wove the bubbles together. He was an inch away from cracking the pattern that connected the bubbles to the outside world. With his semi-completed results, I managed to expand my empire two times faster than other demons, further strengthening my belief in the theory, and my resolve to break through it. During the process, I began to discover the vastness of the universe, and also the vanity of racial conflicts in the world.

“It was ironic that I was the demon who kicked up the most wars, but also the first one to realise the senselessness of the war.

“I built an expedition team and followed the teleportation guide, which the old man had come up with to find the edge of the world. I personally commanded the expedition team. Though the exploration was not a success, we went farther and reached more places than anyone else. We saw amazing places: storm that ravaged an entire planet, the gas bridge between the two stars in Gemini Constellation, the deadly space environment, and many others. My expedition team was flung out into space during a teleporting accident, half of my men died, my strongest general was captured by a neutron star and vanished into it. During the ten years of exploration, I had seen a great energy which I knew nothing about—a natural power that no races, not even demons could resist. Those races which fight among themselves senselessly for the pathetic bubble zone would never understand the greatness and truth outside.

“During the expedition, I had made the old man into semi-demon so that he could live a little longer and help me decipher the secret of the universe. But his lifespan was coming to an end. He volunteered to join the expedition because he wanted to witness with his own eyes the things he had been calculating for all his life before he died.

“We didn’t make it to the edge of the bubble zone, though. The day he decided to cut short the expedition and return home, he was exposed to a high dose of radiation and died shortly after that.

“He left me his last word: when you finally look back at where you come from after making it so far, you would realise that you were once a fool.

“Then I turned the expedition team around and returned home. The following year, I began my world unification war plan.”

Chapter 396: The Mad, Demonic King

 

Perhaps, Y’zaks was not the only demon interested in the universe. Some world somewhere, there may have been others who looked up to the sky and were fascinated by it. However, Y’zaks was definitely one of the most motivated and determined.

He realised that it was difficult to find the edge of the bubble zone, even with the combined resources of the entire demonic race. Furthermore, the constant wars around the world had seriously affected his exploration. So, he thought of unifying the world into just one camp—not for the sake of so-called righteousness or crusade; he only had one thing in mind and that was to find out what the universe was like outside the bubble zone.

From his simple-minded plan to expand his empire, he became genuinely interested in the universe itself without realising. He was tired of his mediocre life and the world. It took him several hundred years to change his mindset, plus no demon had ever thought of exploring such a realm before him. He summarised his paradigm shift in these words, “The more I see, the more I discover my ignorance. I began to revere the universe and I became impatient to discover its secrets. That would therefore need the collective strength of the world.”

It was normal for other races, or “typical heroes” in religious legends to make up a grand slogan to fighting for some righteous cause. They would call for unity in the name of some divine entity, executing it diplomatically and righteously in their bid to unify the world. Y’aks however, had chosen a different approach; he was a demon, a brute and blunt demonic king, so he chose the most straightforward way.

He decided to conquer the world.

And, he had almost succeeded.

“Slogans of righteousness and diplomatic rhetoric are just lame.” Y’zaks spread his hand out. He was looking at his past from a demon’s perspective. “I may have failed, but I still feel that I was on the right path from the start. I consolidated the races under my rule; I invaded the human world, the elves’ forest, the dwarfs’ iron fortress, and the territories of other demons. But this time it was different; it wasn’t about enslaving other races. I was looking for loyal, civilised and smart people who could understand my ideology. So, I built a symbiotic city, created an environment suitable for each race, and treated them equally.

“It was difficult in the beginning, not because the enemy was too powerful, but because the demons had difficulty in understanding the culture of other races. Thus, they were unable to co-exist with other life forms peacefully. Yes, even I couldn’t do it: I tried to take care of the other races, but I discovered that I frightened them instead. Hence, I started to learn their cultures…

“It was an amazing journey. No demon had ever tried to understand the meaning of ‘culture’ and ‘arts’. Perhaps, I was inherently different from other demons. I was captivated and I quickly immersed myself in the culture of others.

“After I had enough understanding of other races, I issued a decree and became the first demonic king to establish a comprehensive set of laws. I established the bill of equal rights for all races, ordered them to live for a common purpose, and accorded them the highest level of freedom possible. I also ordered demons—the dominant race—to protect the weak but smart races, so that my research project could go on. I established a code of ethics based on a consensus from all cultures. Every race in my kingdom had to abide by it to ensure social stability.

“The only punishment for violating the law was death.”

By now, Hao Ren had an even deeper understanding of Y’zaks, a demon who practiced the standard of the saints. However, the reverse was also probably true—he was a saint who acted like a demon. So in another sense, he was a tyrant, a tyrant with morals.

Perhaps there would never be such a ruler in the human world. Only the unique thinking of demons could produce such an odd ball like Y’zaks.

“How shall I say this? You were still on the wrong path.” Hao Ren tried to be subtle. “Your approach was too crude; although effective, it only worked for demons. Other races are more complicated, especially humans…”

“When I finally realised this mistake, my empire was already tumbling.” Y’zaks gave a wry smile. “Enemies were everywhere, inside and outside. Kingdoms of the world had declared war on me. They called me the ‘King of Madness’ and the ‘Mad Demonic King’. Races outside saw me as a conspirator, who was attempting to destroy the world, while races within my kingdom began to fall out with each other. Some remained loyal to me, but most revolted. The saddest thing of all was, my fellow demons weren’t tolerant of a ‘scum with a sense of morality’ among them. In the beginning, they couldn’t fight me, so they alienated me; when I was under seige from within and without, they began to surround and attack me.”

Y’zaks sighed, his face suddenly turning weird. “The most ironic thing was, those different races—humans, elves, dwarves, dark elves, orcs—in my hometown began to unite and form a never-before-seen alliance for the past 1,000 years. The united race, which I had been dreaming of finally took shape in front of me to finish off me.”

Y’zaks took the shaojiu and gulped it down completely.

Hao Ren was awed by his epic past and about to go bottoms up with his wineglass too before Y’zaks stopped him. “If you don’t mind, just listen to me. You’ll knock yourself out with this…”

“No, I won’t.” Hao Ren smiled wryly before emptying the liquor into his throat. He twisted the corner of his mouth and quietly said to him, “It’s not that I can’t drink. It’s just that I don’t quite like it.”

Then, he looked up at Y’zaks, hesitating for a long moment before saying, “In fact, I have something to say, but I’m not sure if I should.”

“Go ahead, please.” Y’zaks grinned. “There’s no need to worry about me.”

Honesty was Hao Ren’s biggest strength. “You were a little naive.”

Y’zaks was appalled and wide-eyed for a long moment. Then, he guffawed. “Hahaha, you’re just…”

Y’zaks held his belly and laughed hysterically. His large movement rocked the whole place and almost scared the cat on the second floor. Vivian who was “stewing” Lil Pea outside asked, “What are you guys going?”

Y’zaks waved his hand frantically and tried to suppress his laughter. He then looked at Hao Ren seriously. “I tell you what, you’re right, mate! I was naive. I was too simple-minded. Now when I look back at it… I realise, world unification isn’t something a demon could have done.”

“Well, it’s got nothing to do with being a demon. You were just too impatient.” Hao Ren waved him off. “You should’ve done it slowly. It’s not like you’re going to die tomorrow. You could’ve invaded one country one at a time until all the older generations were completely gone. The newer generations would certainly be more susceptive, so why the haste?”

Y’zaks was stunned. He scraped his bald head and said, “How awesome it would’ve been if you were my military strategist. My stategist was only good in battle, he couldn’t really strategise. But, that’s all history now.”

Hao Ren carefully asked, “What about your daughter?”

He noticed that the conversation had drifted off topic and they ended up talking about Y’zaks’ hundred-year war history. He tried to bring it back on course.

Y’zaks let out a heavy sigh. Regarding his daughter, he said, “She died when she fell into a crack, along with Osidia and the demon forces who followed me loyally until the end. I muddled along for some time before being captured by other demons. I was rescued by a passing Xi Ling Celestial and sent here. The rest is history…”

Y’zaks’ voice became softer and softer before he sighed again. “After a hundred years of glory and despite my high ambition, everything was futile. The world’s too big, while I’m too little. Perhaps I was really wrong; I asked for too much. I couldn’t even save my own daughter, let alone conquer the universe. Yes, I was naive.”

*Bang!*

Fireworks popped in the night sky outside.

Hao Ren and Y’zaks were sitting across each other. Hao Ren reached his hand out and patted Y’zaks on the shoulder.

Shortly after, there was a fuss outside the door, with Lily screaming, “Landlord! I just blew someone out of the sky!”

Chapter 397: Yet Another Visitor

 

“I just blew someone out of the sky!”

Lily’s scream interrupted their conversation. Hao Ren and Y’zaks looked at each other for a while before the demon scratched his head and said, “What happened to her again?”

“God knows! Give me a second, I’ll check it out.” Hao Ren then scurried out the door.

Outside, people had all gathered at one particular spot. They were all pointing at something. Lily was the most eye-catching person among the crowd as she gestured what had just happened with her hands. She ran towards Hao Ren when she saw him. “Landlord, I just blew someone out of the sky!”

Hao Ren turned Lily back around towards the crowd. He then followed her from behind and asked, “Hey, control yourself—what happened?”

Lily stepped aside and pointed as she said, “It’s lying there. Is it still alive?”

Hao Ren poked his head out and was stunned. He saw a human figure, draped in some kind of black windcoat. The figure was lying face down on the ground. Judging from the person’s long hair and figure, it was a female. The ground where the victim’s face had smashed into was cracked. She apparently crashed face down.

Hao Ren quivered for a moment. He knew she was not human—no human would still remain intact after landing head first like that; this had to have something to do with the otherworldly light ring that was covering his house. It was either that or Raven 12345 had once again sent “people” over unannounced.

He went to examine the body, asking the husky, “What happened? How did you shoot her out of the sky?”

“It was the double-bang firecracker!” Lily gestured frantically as she was convinced that she had indeed blown the person out of the sky. “After I launched the huge double-bang banger into the air, this thing just fell out of the sky. She twitched for a while before becoming totally lifeless.”

Hao Ren was amazed about all the horrible things that kept happening to the husky. He squatted down beside the victim and carefully patted her on the shoulder. There was no response and he flipped her around.

Everyone was dumbstruck.

The victim was a female. She looked young and different, having brown skin. On top of that, she was good-looking as well as alluring. Despite being unconscious, she exuded a subtle amorous beauty, especially when it came to magical light purple lips. No one could resist from staring at it, but Hao Ren had his will hardened thanks to Vivian and Raven 12345. He was not going to be that easily enchanted.

The mysterious woman’s unusual feature was her forehead: she had a pair of horns.

In fact, the cracks on the ground were caused by the horns. This was the reason why Hao Ren had not been able to flip her around immediately. Her horns were stuck in the concrete—he had never seen anything like it in all the novels he had read.

The mysterious lady with horns was wearing a slim-fit armour, which was made from some unknown material. Judging from its lustre and texture, it was no ordinary armour.

“She’s a demon!” Vivian quickly recognised the female’s race. “But, she’s unlike any species of demon I’ve ever known… They aren’t as pretty.”

By then, Y’zaks had also come out from the house. When he saw the body, he was shocked. “Lanina?”

“You know her?” Vivian looked at Y’zaks in surprise. Hao Ren knew something was bound to happen. It always occurred just when he was starting to enjoy his hard-found peaceful day.

“She was my subordinate.” Y’zaks was actually more surprised than Vivian was. He squatted down and looked at the passed out demoness. It was out of this world. “How did she manage to be still alive? How did she come here?”

Just as Hao Ren was about to say something, he discovered a little note pinned to the demon’s clothing. He picked it up and saw the upsettingly hideous handwriting on the note, which said, “This b*tch has been more lost than a blind man in the middle of a shoot-out. If I hadn’t collected her, she would have died in the middle of nowhere. So, she’s officially yours now—Your Majestic Goddess.”

Lily thought that she had gotten into trouble. She was instantly relieved upon hearing what Y’zaks said. “Oh, Biggie knows her? I was the one who blew her out of the sky.”

“No, it wasn’t you.” Hao Ren sighed and raised the note in his hand. “It was Raven 12345 who threw her out of the sky. See? The consignment note is still here.”

Everyone started to see the obvious when they heard it was Raven 12345 who was behind it. Even Y’zaks appeared less surprised.

“Let’s stop talking here. We should carry her inside.” Vivian glanced at Y’zaks and Hao Ren, sensing there may be something more behind this. Nonetheless, she did not ask any questiob. She said to Lily, “Doggie, give me a hand.”

Lanina, the demoness was carried into the living room. Vivian laid her on the sofa before taking a wet towel. She wanted to apply it on Lanina’s forehead, but she was at a loss of how to do it—her horns were getting in the way.

Hao Ren took the damp towel and wrapped it over her horns in an “8” shape. Vivian looked on, dumbfounded. “Will this work?”

“Theoretically, nothing works on demons.” Hao Ren looked at the towel wrapped around Lanina’s horns. He felt the strange seductive aura had somewhat lessened. “We’re doing our best. What Raven did was totally brainless. How could she just throw her from the sky like that?”

Y’zaks also came next to the sofa to check on Lanina’s condition. As he came closer, her eyelids twitched rapidly before she opened her eyes, revealing a pair of dark red vertical pupils.

As the demoness opened her eyes, she found herself surrounded by strangers in a bright and warm place. Her first reaction was to jump out of the sofa. She then kept herself several metres away from the “humans” and cautiously asked, “Who are you people?”

She was speaking in a standard demonic language, extremely tongue-twisting and not easy to understand. Hao Ren replied in the demonic language as well, “Calm down, we’re not going to hurt you…”

“You speak the language?” The demoness had a pair of slightly curved rapiers in her hands and she stared at Hao Ren warily. “Are you a servant of a demon? Which demon owns you? Or, are you the follower of a demonic sect? What do you want?”

Then, Y’zaks finally opened his mouth. “Lanina, keep your weapons down.”

The demoness was appalled as she gazed at Y’zaks. She felt a sense of familiarity in him—his tone of voice and his aura. But, she was not very sure from his appearance. “Who are you?”

“Oh, you don’t recognise me?” Y’zaks stared at the demoness with his arms crossed. “Haven’t you seen me in human form?”

“….King?” The demoness knitted her brows together as she looked at the big guy in front of her in disbelief. She shook her head slightly. “It can’t be. You may look an eight-tenth like him, but you should be a lot uglier.”

Hao Ren gaped at Y’zaks as cold sweat trickled down his back. “Didn’t you look more gruesome when you shapeshifted back then?”

“I hadn’t mastered the trick yet last time.” Y’zaks was embarrased and turned his face away. The muscles on his face began to twist and his face looked even more menacing as well as fearsome. It was as if his skin had been ravaged by years of horrible natural disasters. He turned back to look at Lanina. “…Now does it look familiar to you?”

The demoness was rooted to the spot like a statue for a long while before she muttered, “My King… it’s really you? You’re still alive? I-I haven’t come to the wrong place?”

It was a touching moment. Hao Ren could not help but look at the note in his hand, and began to wonder what would have happened if she had not come to the right place…