Chapter 1 A Visitor to a Small Town

South America.

An obscure little town welcomed a team of special visitors today.

According to the address Wayne provided, Hao Ren and the others had come to this place first and temporarily settled down in a small inn in the town. They chose the family-style country inn to avoid identity issues.

Wayne Walter had returned to his family to deal with some matters. According to the agreement, the vampire patriarch would come to this town in two days to meet with Vivian. Before that, Hao Ren and the others were free to move around here. Therefore, after finding a place to stay and familiarizing themselves with the inn, Hao Ren and Vivian left the inn and strolled around the town at will.

The atmosphere of this town reminded Hao Ren of the old streets and alleys in the southern suburbs—although the styles were completely different, a similar atmosphere floated in every street. It was the taste of time, outlined by the old houses and narrow, old-fashioned streets. The town was at least a century old. As Hao Ren and Vivian walked along the street, they could see old houses everywhere, traditional brick and tile structures, mottled and peeling exterior walls, and town roads that had been repaired and patched up for years. A concrete road that could accommodate two cars side by side served as the town's main road, and the entire town was built along this road. On both sides of the road, one could see old houses scattered unevenly. Moss and mildew stains were everywhere on the walls of the houses, and in this area full of historical sense, modern street lights and billboards were inlaid in an incongruous and abrupt manner. Although he knew that this town could not be related to ancient times, Hao Ren couldn't help but think that such a town was indeed in line with the positioning of "the hidden place of ancient families."

A century-old town and an alien family from ancient times were equally old, equally forgotten, and equally out of step with modern society.

"I didn't expect Hasse Anna to stay in Athens obediently in the end," Hao Ren thought of the little bat spirit who had been tugging at Vivian's leg for a long time before leaving, and couldn't help smiling. "I thought she would insist on coming with us, but in the end, you persuaded her to go back."

Vivian's head ached as soon as she heard the name Hasse Anna. She rubbed her forehead and sighed, "That child is getting more and more outrageous. It was probably a mistake to leave her at home last time. She's the kind of person who shines when given a little sunshine, and she's becoming more and more disobedient."

Hao Ren couldn't do anything about the relationship between Vivian and Hasse Anna, so he just smiled lightly and looked up at the sky.

Directly above them, a blue, meteor-like spot of light flashed past.

The data terminal was scanning the entire town and the surrounding terrain in mid-air and sharing the observed scenes to Hao Ren's mind. Hao Ren was now multitasking. In another virtual vision in his brain, he was looking down on this place from hundreds of meters in the air.

He saw that the town, with a population of only a thousand people, was located next to a black hill, surrounded by a vast wilderness. The town was built along the gentle slope next to the hill. As night gradually fell, the lights in the town lit up, and it was like a gorgeous necklace draped at the foot of the hillside. At first glance, everything seemed normal. Both the bare stone hill and the old town at the foot of the hill were unremarkable, but Hao Ren carefully observed for a while and found that the layout of the town was somewhat discordant: all the buildings stopped abruptly halfway up the hill.

Although it was understandable that this was out of cost and convenience considerations, and people did not build houses on higher slopes, the boundaries of those interrupted houses were too neat. This was especially true after the lights were turned on at night: it could be clearly seen that there was a line of light and darkness on the hillside, and the artificial light stopped neatly on that line, as if avoiding something.

But the place without lights was not empty: several obviously abandoned houses were isolated at the other end of the "boundary line." They were the "leftovers" of the town extending to the hill. It seemed that they had been abandoned for many years and were thrown outside as if they had been discarded. No roads in the town extended to those houses. But between those abandoned huts, one could vaguely see traces of roads left from a long time ago: After the data terminal zoomed in on the picture, Hao Ren saw something like cement blocks and broken bricks distributed above the hillside.

Vivian didn't pay attention to the picture sent by the data terminal. She just looked at the peaceful scene of the town thoughtfully: "The atmosphere here is a bit incredible… I thought the territory of the Ancarte family would be a more gloomy place—after all, it is ruled by aliens, and that kind of thing happened a month ago."

"Aliens must hide their whereabouts. Look at the Athens shelter, it's so big, but Athens is still very lively," Hao Ren said casually, "And the Shadows of Chaos don't attack humans."

"That's true…" Vivian muttered in a low voice, "I don't know how the Ancarte family hid themselves. I can't find any traces of secret realms, and I don't know where the entrance is hidden. It seems that I can only rely on the guide sent by Wayne."

Hao Ren hummed and looked up at the end of the town street. The town lights in front of him extended upwards along a slope, illuminating the outline of the black hill not far away in the light: "There may be something on the north side of the town. Those abandoned houses over there are quite concerning. Why don't we go take a look? Maybe it was the human industry of the Ancarte family before."

"Go take a look?" Vivian blinked, "But the Wayne family's guide should be here in two days, right?"

"Anyway, we're just idle," Hao Ren shrugged, "And there may be demon hunters active in this town. They may also be here for the Ancarte family. If we can find their traces in advance, we can avoid being caught off guard in two days."

Ordinary aliens would hide as far as possible when they heard that demon hunters were active. In fact, Hao Ren was the same at the beginning—but now his style of doing things has changed. Due to multiple contacts with demon hunters, plus he had experienced many life-and-death moments, Hao Ren was now more accustomed to thinking of more positive solutions. If necessary, he would even choose to take the initiative to contact demon hunters to avoid being passive in the future. And even if he didn't consider these, Hao Ren also knew that he actually didn't have any opposing relationship with demon hunters—he wasn't an "alien" like a vampire or werewolf. As an inspector, he was neutral from the beginning. It was just that he happened to adopt a bunch of demons and monsters first, which caused him to be a little embarrassed when he contacted demon hunters…

Vivian didn't have any objections to Hao Ren's decision. Her attitude towards demon hunters was basically indifferent, so she nodded and followed Hao Ren towards the end of the town.

Soon, they took advantage of the night to reach the hillside of the black hill. The town road ended here.

A fence blocked Hao Ren's path. The fence extended to both sides and disappeared into the deep darkness, making one wonder if it separated the entire town from the top of the mountain. On this side of the fence were the brightly lit buildings of the town, while on the other side was only the dark hillside. Looking towards the dark side, one could see several looming buildings lurking in the night. Those were the abandoned houses that had been observed from the data terminal's overhead view.

At the end of the road was a rusty gate, with a red sign hanging on it with the words "No Passage". Hao Ren stepped forward and shook the gate, and a tooth-aching creaking metal friction sound came out: this gate had probably not been opened for many years, and all the hinges were covered with rust.

Vivian looked around and confirmed that there was no one around, and then turned into a thick fog and bats with a bang, flapping her wings across the fence to the opposite side, while Hao Ren jumped directly upwards, lightly and skillfully jumping over the two-meter-high railing.

"We should have asked the locals about this before," Hao Ren said casually to the bats around him, "Ask them why the end of the town is blocked by a gate. It shouldn't be a problem for outsiders to be curious about this, right?"

"Hindsight," Vivian appeared from a swarm of bats, "Let's talk about it tomorrow. I see the abandoned houses you mentioned. Let's go over there… hmm?"

Hao Ren was stunned: "What's wrong?"

Vivian frowned and looked at one of the abandoned houses: "There seems to be a living person's aura over there."