Chapter 198 Hachiko Tactics

Hao Ren rarely saw Vivian display such drive.

This good-tempered, old-fashioned vampire was usually busy in the big house with the air of a virtuous wife and loving mother. Her favorite thing was cooking, her favorite lifestyle was daydreaming and sleeping, and her favorite topics were neighborhood gossip and boring TV shows. She had adapted to the life of an ordinary person to such an extent that Hao Ren had almost forgotten her true identity: an ancient vampire who had been active on Earth since the time of *Homo erectus*, a powerful anomaly whom werewolves fearfully called "the Countess Who Summons the Red Moon."

When faced with frequent provocations from the demon hunters, the Countess's first choice was indeed to fight to her heart's content.

Hao Ren and the others didn't have much information at hand. Based only on the runic paper scraps Lily had found in the nearby streets, they couldn't be sure how many demon hunters had come to this street. All they knew for sure was that they were the real deal, so Hao Ren had prepared for the worst: make a big fuss, and if it came to it, take everyone to the Kuiper Station or somewhere else to lie low. The only thing Hao Ren felt at ease about now was this: he had a way out, and it was almost an unsolvable way out for the demon hunters. He didn't believe those extremists had the ability to chase him into outer space—if they really did, he'd let the space station garrison teach them a lesson.

Lily was sent out to search for the runic cards the demon hunters had placed in the vicinity, but this was obviously not something she could handle alone in a short time, so Lily came back after being out for more than an hour: nothing was more important than eating, and the Husky's combat power would drop to zero the moment it was time to eat. This was a natural phenomenon, and you couldn't fight it.

On the other side, the dozen or so bats that Vivian had released began to search for traces of the demon hunters in the entire southern suburbs in a huge and constantly expanding spiral pattern, reporting back at the slightest clue of supernatural phenomena. But Vivian herself acted as if nothing had happened and went to the kitchen to cook as usual, and at noon there was another table full of sumptuous dishes.

"You're quite calm," Hao Ren couldn't help but say at lunch. Vivian, sitting across from him, had switched to her vampire form, but there was not much nervousness in those magical blood-red eyes. In her vampire form, Vivian still deftly served food to the others, and there was no trace of the murderous look she had shown earlier.

"Why wouldn't I be calm?" Vivian said, picking up a dish, with a nonchalant smile on her face. "Anyway, there are no clues now, so it's better to eat well, drink well, and keep up your energy. I've seen a lot of big scenes, and everyone who can laugh to the end at least won't lose their appetite before the duel."

In another sense, this was truly an imposing statement, and Hao Ren felt much more at ease listening to it.

Lily was also in transformed form, and her pointed ears twitched slightly in the air from time to time, paying attention to the movements on the street outside, as if she was afraid that the demon hunters would launch a full-scale attack at any second. She chewed on her chopsticks and muttered, "Why haven't Wuyue and Big Guy come back yet… I hope nothing's happened to them?"

"Nothing will happen to Big Guy. There shouldn't be many people on this planet who can stand against him, unless the demon hunters use strange ancient powers to banish him to another space," Vivian said without much worry. "There's even less need to worry about Nangong Wuyue. Sirens don't die."

"Sirens don't die?" Hao Ren remembered hearing something similar somewhere before, but he didn't pay much attention to it at the time. Hearing it again now, he couldn't help but ask curiously, "What do you mean?"

"Sirens are the only creatures that can make demon hunters helpless. Even within the demon hunter ranks, sirens are generally not regarded as 'anomalies' that need to be eliminated," Vivian explained the unknown racial characteristics of Nangong Wuyue. "Although demon hunters never publicly admit it, some minorities within them call sirens 'the Will of Water' or 'Guardians of the Deep Sea' and regard them as a race between anomalies and holy spirits. Sirens are naturally peaceful, non-invasive, and possess powerful and strange powers but never actively provoke conflict. Most importantly, they can freely transform their form in the presence of water, even directly turning themselves into a part of the water body. Even if they die, it only allows them to regenerate once through evaporation, rainfall, and other cyclical paths, so this kind of race that can't be killed at all is one that even demon hunters are unwilling to provoke."

Hao Ren had never heard of such a thing: "Sirens are so powerful?"

"Yes, quite powerful, so powerful that I even doubt whether they should exist in this world," Vivian said, tilting her head. "And their way of life is too strange. Ninety-nine percent of sirens are hidden in secluded places in the deep sea that no one has ever set foot in. Some quite powerful guys once tried to find the kingdom of sirens, such as Poseidon and Ophion—but these people all failed. After they returned, they vowed that they had seen sirens swim into the deep sea, but after following them, they found themselves in a barren ocean bottom. Over time, the reclusive race of sirens has become an 'absolutely neutral' faction that all anomalies and demon hunters on Earth have tacitly agreed not to provoke. To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that the Abei werewolves were known for their credibility, and I had seen Nangong Wuyue, this living, land-based siren, with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that a group of sirens had come ashore more than a hundred years ago… I still haven't figured out what they wanted to do ashore."

The fact that sirens had such an extraordinary background surprised Hao Ren. To be honest, he couldn't see these powerful traits in Nangong Wuyue—the girl only amazed people when she performed her tail-crawling and deep-sea dash, but usually, she kept a low profile.

However, Hao Ren also heard another piece of information from Vivian's description, that is, the "power" of sirens is mostly reflected in their resurrection or reincarnation ability and the "mystery" of the entire race. Purely in terms of combat power, sirens don't seem to be able to help much when fighting against demon hunters. This should be a race that is more than capable of self-preservation but lacks the ability to gank...

He couldn't pin his hopes on Nangong Wuyue facing the demon hunters and killing them all; Izaaks was obviously more reliable than the siren girl.

Among everyone present, Dou Dou was probably the only one who didn't understand the situation at all. The little guy's entire world was currently limited to this strange big house. She didn't know about the dangers outside, but curiously lay on the table watching the adults eat and discuss things, occasionally making strange noises to attract attention. She probably wondered why the adults always licked the food when they ate but wouldn't eat it—yes, the food in her eyes was chopsticks, as for what the chopsticks were picking up... she had no idea what that was.

After a while, the little guy ate another half of a chopstick, patted her slightly bulging belly, and lay on her back in the pot, drifting and dozing off. Vivian looked at the little mermaid in the pot with a smile, and said with some emotion, "I really envy such a simple state, not worrying about anything, not thinking about anything… I don't even know what my childhood was like."

Vivian's memory was chaotic, and she didn't know anything about her childhood, so she would occasionally sigh like this. Hao Ren sometimes wondered if this vampire didn't have a "childhood" at all, but he wouldn't dare to say that directly.

Just then, a burst of noise suddenly came from outside the door, mixed with a chaotic cacophony of barking.

Dou Dou had just fallen asleep with her eyes closed when she was awakened by the noise. With a splash, she jumped from the pot onto the table, while Lily stood up, wagging her tail happily: "Oh oh, my subordinates are here to report for duty!"

Lily's subordinates?

Hao Ren suddenly thought of something and quickly ran to open the door, but he was so frightened that he stumbled as soon as the door opened:

Outside the door on the street, an estimated hundreds of dogs of all kinds were gathered together, standing, lying, squatting, or sitting, the scene like the Spring Festival travel season!

Hao Ren suspected that all the dogs in the southern suburbs had gathered in this place.

"This… what's going on?" Vivian came over when she heard the noise, but she was as stunned as Hao Ren. Lily shouted from behind, "Didn't you ask me to find a way to get all the runic cards from the nearby streets? How can I handle it all by myself? So I summoned my little brothers to help!"

Only then did Hao Ren notice that every dog on the scene had at least one piece of paper with Letta runes drawn on it in its mouth, and some had as many as four or five. So many dogs in front of him meant that at least hundreds of carefully arranged runic cards had been searched out.

Hao Ren felt that if he were a demon hunter, he should want to die at this moment... Who could come up with such an oddball tactic other than Lily?