Chapter 136 Strange Blood Ritual

Aside from Hao Ren and the others, who had no inherent animosity towards anyone, the other demon hunters and Hesperides exchanged information and discovered one thing: earlier, in the family hall, everyone had lost their vigilance towards each other at the same time.

To put it more bluntly, everyone had completely lost their innate instinct for hostility at the same time.

The younger generation of demon hunters and the atypical beings had been experiencing the dissipation of their innate hostility for several months, but the older ones like Hasson and Hesperides had been largely unaffected due to their bloodlines. However, just now, without them even realizing it, this innate hostility had completely disappeared, and the Shadows of Chaos had suddenly emerged at that very moment.

It was hard not to connect the two events.

Hao Ren stroked his chin. "Which event was the trigger? Did the disappearance of everyone's vigilance allow the Shadows of Chaos to take advantage, or did the activities of the Shadows of Chaos cause you to lose your innate hostility?"

"The nature of the Shadows of Chaos is to incite conflict and chaos, it's impossible for them to suppress everyone's aggression. So the second possibility is unlikely," Vivian immediately shook her head. "As for the first... although there's no obvious contradiction, why did everyone's innate hostility suddenly disappear?"

Hesperides glanced at Hasson and asked very seriously, "Do you still feel like attacking me when you look at me now?"

Hasson's face was blank. "No reaction at the moment."

"I still want to kill you a little," Hesperides said, crossing her arms, "But it has nothing to do with innate hostility, I just don't like you."

"It seems everyone's hostile instinct is really gone," Vivian's gaze fell on the other demon hunters. The warriors also looked lost and uneasy. Although the disappearance of their hostile instinct made them less nervous when facing Hesperides and Vivian, the sudden loss of something that had been with them their whole lives, something as natural as breathing, made everyone feel strange. Seeing this, Vivian could only shake her head. "Tsk, right at this critical moment. But no matter what, I think the disappearance of the hostile instinct is related to the activities of the Shadows of Chaos. Those shadows are things that target people's hearts, maybe they really did specifically choose the moment when everyone's defenses were weakest to attack."

These guesses were not contradictory, but they couldn't explain why everyone's hostile instincts had disappeared simultaneously just now. The only possible reason was that there was something in that hall.

"Go back and investigate again." As expected, Hasson thought of this. "There might be something in the hall that can eliminate hostile instincts."

The group immediately returned to the family hall, while Hasson pulled Bai Huo aside. "Use your secret art to contact Tutan, confirm their situation, and tell him what happened here. Tell him to watch out for the Shadows of Chaos."

The situation in the family hall was no different from before. The large-scale exorcism ritual had not produced any material impact, and the Shadows of Chaos were just images on the surface of objects. After everything settled down, only the scattered furniture, the remains of the dead, and a faint white light with a holy aura lingering in the air remained. The investigators began to search everywhere for any items or ritual remnants with magical reactions, while Hasson stood in the center of the family hall, looking up at the large hole that had been broken open above, a pensive expression on his face.

Hao Ren walked over and asked, "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing, I'm just a little unaccustomed," Hasson sighed with a hint of emotion. "You know, the hunting instinct has been with me for thousands of years, like a person feeling hungry when they see food, or feeling pain when they're cut by a knife. It's a natural thing, but now it's suddenly gone..."

Lily passed by and heard what Hasson said. She bared her teeth. "You're being sentimental. I don't feel anything. It's better without that instinct."

If Lily hadn't reminded him, Hao Ren would have forgotten that this husky spirit also had a certain degree of hostility towards other races, like normal atypical beings. Although this hostility was very weak, it would occasionally manifest itself—like when she was fighting with Vivian for food.

Hasson smiled when he heard this. He rarely showed a smile. "Maybe, you younger generation are probably lucky. At least you can control your thoughts more easily, and it's easier for you to adapt than it is for old guys like us."

The old demon hunter had never left Hao Ren with a very good impression. The latter always felt that he was a rigid and cold conservative, with deeply ingrained prejudices against the atypical beings. But at this moment, he suddenly felt that this Hasson seemed to have a bit of humanity. He didn't believe that this was an instantaneous reversal caused by the mere loss of the hunting instinct, but he didn't have a habit of probing into other people's hearts, so he just perfunctorily said a few words.

"Based on our experience just now, we can deduce what the situation was like a month ago," Lily muttered, looking at the situation in the hall. "Look at these banquet tables, the atmosphere between the demon hunters brought by Amutula and the Ankatelo family must have been very good at the time, so they probably lost their hostile instincts completely like us, and then they summoned the Shadows of Chaos because of that."

Lily's words made Hasson nod thoughtfully, and just then, Hesperides suddenly seemed to have made a discovery. "Come and look at this!"

Hao Ren and the others hurried over, and saw Hesperides standing in front of a banquet table at the head of the hall, holding a magnificent golden goblet. The cup was unusually large.

"Is there something wrong with this cup?" Hao Ren asked curiously. Everyone had been busy investigating the state of the corpses and the traces of the battle in the hall, and not many people had paid attention to the scattered banquet tableware.

"Do you think a normal person would drink out of something this big?" Hesperides turned the cup over, and on its circular base could be seen a large number of complex runes and lines. "This seems to be a ritual object."

Then she pointed to some traces next to the banquet table and other strange items scattered on the ground. "A small-scale ritual seems to have been held here. These cups and candlesticks are different from the ones on the other tables, and they don't seem to be necessary for the banquet itself."

Vivian took the golden goblet and noticed that some red traces remained inside. The red wine in the cup had long since dried, but some residue remained. She smelled a suspicious odor. "There's the smell of demon hunter blood in it, blood was mixed into the red wine."

Then she found another cup under the table. "...As expected, the smell in this one is very similar to the blood of a member of the Ankatelo family."

Lily's first reaction was, "Did they become sworn brothers here?"

Vivian glared at the husky. "Although I feel like you're making sense, can you shut your yap?"

"A ritual of exchanging blood. Unfortunately, the ritual site has been destroyed," Hasson bent down to examine the banquet table that had fallen to the ground because two of its legs were broken. He found some subtle rune traces on the table, but the rest of the table had been charred. "Otherwise, we could have figured out the inner..."

Before he could finish speaking, Bai Huo hurried in. "Master, Master Tutan and the others are back, and..."

Hasson looked up and saw that Bai Huo's expression was strange. "What's wrong?"

"They found Elder Andaher, but the Elder's condition is a bit strange."

Hasson immediately let them in, and Hao Ren saw Tutan and two other demon hunters enter the hall, with Wayne following at the end. In the middle of the three demon hunters was a small figure shrouded in a deep purple cloak.

Wayne nodded to Vivian, then was pulled aside by Hesperides to ask about the details, while Hasson came to the small figure and carefully lifted the other's hood. "Elder Andaher?"

After the hood was lifted, Elder Andaher's face was revealed. Hao Ren saw a woman who looked to be around thirty years old, with long, light gray hair and an Asian face. Although she was an ancient being from the same era as Hesperides, like other long-lived species, time had not left too many marks on her face. It was just that this Elder Andaher's condition was indeed as Bai Huo had said, not quite normal.

Her face was blank, and she was unresponsive to her surroundings. Even when Hasson greeted her, she just looked up blankly, unable to say a word.

She seemed to be a bit dim.