Chapter 1046 The Scene

Lili's strength was probably her only merit. No matter which way the door opened, she could always force it open. After the heavy doors of the family hall were violently torn down by her, Vivian summoned a gust of wind to disperse the dust and the pungent bloody smell that blocked everyone's sight, revealing the situation inside the hall.

As expected, Hao Ren saw the same tragic situation as outside, and he finally found the main members of the missing demon hunter squadron.

The hall was a mess. The corpses of the Ankatelo family members and demon hunters were piled up haphazardly. The dark yellow and black-red blood had long dried, turning into large, nauseating stains on the ground and walls. Among the corpses, fragments of tables and chairs and broken bowls and plates were scattered all over the place. Traces of a banquet could still be seen on the damaged long table.

The arched dome of the hall had been blasted open by some powerful magic, and chaotic rays of light poured into the hall from the hole, coating everything in the hall with an ominous, dim light.

"These should be the demon hunters that Elder Amutula brought over. It looks like there are no survivors," Lili said, covering her nose as she walked through the killing field, her tail unconsciously raised high, fearing that she would get blood on her fur. "Many of them were killed by their own people."

Hao Ren and Vivian examined the nearest corpses together. He found traces of burns from high-heat weapons on a middle-aged demon hunter, and found something like shrapnel in the dead man's wounds. However, the direct cause of the demon hunter's death was a hole in his forehead. Judging from the magic power remaining around the hole, it was caused by a holy silver crossbow bolt.

Vivian held her hand over the demon hunter's body, and a thin, blood-red mist slowly floated over the corpse: "Seventeen wounds, seven from demon hunter weapons. The other ten wounds were probably caused by the Tana's thermal energy guns and radiation weapons, and the fatal wound came from his own people. No signs of shadow residue were found. Also, based on the situation of the other dead around him, the order of their deaths should be..."

Vivian professionally reconstructed the battle that had taken place here a month ago. Hao Ren looked at her in surprise: "I didn't expect you to be so experienced in autopsies and case analysis?"

"I've seen a lot, after all," Vivian said quietly. "And I'm dealing with blood, after all. Blood holds the secrets of the dead."

At this moment, a warm and harmonious light suddenly rose from the side. Hesperides seemed to transform into a source of light, summoning warm light to dispel the cold atmosphere lingering in the hall. At the same time, her gaze fell on the broken cups, plates, tables, and chairs in the hall: "They must have suddenly started fighting in the middle of the banquet."

Not only was there a scene of demon hunters and Tana fighting, but there were also banquet tables and a lot of rotten food. Although it was hard for ordinary people to believe that demon hunters and other races would hold a banquet together, the evidence here was undeniable. Hao Ren recalled the information he had received from Bai Huo: "It looks like what Bai Huo said was true. Elder Amutula brought the demon hunters here for a peaceful visit."

"And the Ankatelo family even held a grand banquet to entertain these demon hunters," Wayne said, looking at the broken long tables. "The change must have happened in the middle of the banquet. The seal suppressed by the family must have suddenly failed, and the Chaos Shadows came out to attack the people in the secret realm, leading to this great melee."

"Do you think this is a coincidence or someone deliberately did it?" Izhaks asked in a deep voice. "In my opinion, if this is a coincidence, the timing is too coincidental. The Ankatelo family has been guarding the seal for thousands of years without any accidents. Why did it suddenly lose control when the demon hunters came to visit and the banquet was halfway through? It seems that they were deliberately waiting for everyone to be present before taking action."

Hesperides nodded slightly: "I think so too. It must be human factors that destroyed the seal."

"But could it be them?" Vivian pointed to the demon hunters who were dead on the ground. "All the demon hunters are dead here, and there are probably no survivors in the entire secret realm. If it was a human accident, the person who did it is probably dead here too."

Wayne, like most orthodox Others, had a great prejudice and hostility towards demon hunters, so he subconsciously wanted to push the responsibility to the latter: "Maybe this is what they planned. In order to eliminate the Others, they can pay any price, even suicide attacks..."

"Let three elders bring a group of masters to carry out a suicide attack? Just to eliminate a family that lives in seclusion from the world?" Vivian glanced at Wayne indifferently. "The attack on the Athens Shelter only had two elders, and that was a frontal war."

Wayne was a little speechless, but he still tried hard to find a suitable reason for the accusation: "Maybe it was an extremist among the demon hunters. Maybe this was beyond their plan."

"An extremist can destroy the seal without anyone noticing..." Vivian didn't quite agree with this statement. "Then the seal is too unreliable."

"The key now is to find the original location of the seal," Hesperides interrupted Vivian and Wayne. "We need to figure out where the Chaos Shadows originally came from."

"We just need to find where the initial battlefield was," Vivian nodded. "This hall seems to be very suspicious. If the chaos first came from somewhere else, the elders and leaders in this hall should have rushed out to control the situation as soon as possible. But now it seems that all the high-level demon hunters and family elders died in the hall, so the initial melee should have been here, and then spread to other parts of the secret realm."

Izhaks raised an eyebrow: "The original location of the seal may be in this hall...or underground?"

Hesperides interjected: "It is also possible that a certain 'action' that led to the destruction of the seal took place in the hall, so it became a vent for the Chaos Shadows."

In any case, this hall should be hiding the biggest clues. Hao Ren and the others took twelve minutes to carefully examine every dead person and every battle mark in the hall, hoping to reconstruct the scene of the accident that happened a month ago from this chaotic situation.

Hao Ren noticed that Wayne was not far from him, so he asked casually, "By the way, do you know what the Ankatelo family's patriarch looks like?"

Wayne didn't seem to hear Hao Ren's words, but frowned and looked puzzled: "Strange..."

Hao Ren raised his voice: "What's strange? About the Ankatelo patriarch?"

Wayne noticed the person beside him and quickly explained: "It seems that the patriarch's body is not here."

"You said the Ankatelo family's patriarch isn't here?" Hao Ren couldn't hide his surprise. "Are you sure?"

"We haven't found his body yet," Wayne frowned. "Logically speaking, he must be here. The patriarch must be present at this kind of banquet."

Hao Ren rubbed his eyebrows, guessing the whereabouts of the patriarch while asking, "Has anyone found the bodies of the three demon hunter elders?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Elizabeth shout not far away: "Uncle Ren, Uncle Ren, there's one here! It's Amutula!"

Everyone was called over by the little demon and found a strong, gray-haired demon hunter dead under a golden pillar. He sat with his back against the pillar, staring half-open at the hole in the ceiling. The blood stains on his black windbreaker had dried. The old demon hunter held a silver dagger tightly in his hand, but strangely, there was no blood on the dagger: he didn't seem to have used this weapon to kill the enemy in the last moment of his life.

"This is Amutula?" Hao Ren felt that this old demon hunter's clothes and aura were indeed unlike ordinary demon hunters, but he didn't know how Little Elizabeth recognized him. "How are you so sure?"

The little demon pointed to the dagger in the old hunter's hand: "His name is engraved on it!"

Hao Ren nodded and looked down to check if Amutula had left any clues, but suddenly noticed something strange on the pillar behind him: "Wait, there seems to be something hidden behind his body."

As he spoke, he pushed the old hunter's body aside. Sure enough, there was a line of scribbled words on the pillar:

"They were not wrong, we were wrong."

The words were engraved, undoubtedly left by the bloodless dagger in Amutula's hand.