Chapter 1 Izhaks Returns

Izhaks returned with Nangong Wuyue. One of them went to the nearby street market to sing for money every day on the dot, while the other went to the job market to scare people every day on the dot. Although their destinations were different, they took the same bus back. It just so happened that today they caught the same ride, so they arrived home together. Before they even entered the door, they were startled by the scene before them: a large, motley group of dogs surged from behind the house, their momentum like an army on the march, with some even advancing in single-file columns—how could that not be frightening?

When they got home, they learned what was going on.

"The demon hunters are here again?" Izhaks frowned. He had only seen a demon hunter once, but that one time had given him a very bad impression of those stubborn, rigid extremists who were "unwilling to be good people." "I guess I didn't educate them thoroughly enough last time..."

"This is definitely a different group," Hao Ren said, waving his hand. "The last group should still be getting their values corrected by Raven 12345."

Nangong Wuyue seemed distracted. She stared at the pile of rune cards spread out on the table, and after a long moment of hesitation, she showed a troubled expression: "So what do we do next? Fight or... retreat?"

"Why retreat? This is our territory; we can't let them run wild," Hao Ren snorted. "Vivian and Lily have already made arrangements. If the demon hunters show their faces nearby, we'll grab a few stragglers first. If they're too tough to handle, then we'll run for reinforcements. By the way, why do I feel like you're a bit absent-minded?"

"Sirens don't like fighting," Nangong Wuyue chuckled drily and changed the subject. Just then, Doudou popped out of the pot again, waving her arms and beckoning to everyone, so she went to take care of the little one. "I'll go change Doudou's water; you guys continue discussing."

"As expected, we can't count on her when it comes to fighting," Vivian said, unsurprised. Her gaze shifted to Izhaks. "If we have to fight this time, we'll probably need your help, big guy. You have the strongest direct combat power, and according to what happened last time, many of the demon hunters' powers are ineffective against you, since you're from another world."

"No problem," Izhaks grinned. "But let's not go overboard. I still hope to educate them and guide them back to the path of good..."

Hao Ren chuckled drily: with Izhaks's method of "education," it would be better to just give them a quick death.

"There's one problem right now. This is a residential area, although there aren't many people left... but there are still residents," Izhaks thought for a moment, feeling that there were some things to consider. "What if innocent people get hurt in a fight? Especially on our street; there are a lot of old men and women."

"We worry about that, but the demon hunters might not," Vivian said, spreading her hands. "Their logic is like this: to 'eliminate evil,' sacrificing a few ordinary people is only right and proper; they call it 'noble sacrifice.'"

Izhaks was furious when he heard this, and he slammed his hand on the table: "That's even more reason to educate them! Even a demon wouldn't say such nonsense! Landlord, I'll pay you for this table when I find a job."

Hao Ren wiped his cold sweat: "It's fine, it's fine..."

The plan for dealing with the demon hunters was decided. After Hao Ren and the others had discussed everything, he naturally thought of Raven, but when he had the data terminal connect to the "Heaven Hotline," he only received an automated reply: The God you are calling is not in service—it seemed she had gone out on business, as she had mentioned last time. How could this person always pick such opportune moments to abandon her responsibilities? She was always nowhere to be found when something big happened.

For the next half-day, there were no leads.

All of Vivian's bats returned safely. They had only found some residual traces of rune or demon hunter potion use nearby, but the most recent trace was a day ago, and no further traces of demon hunters had been found nearby. This was hardly a lead. Lily's dog paparazzi, on the other hand, were doing a great job: they had found more than a hundred rune cards from every nook and cranny. Now these things were piled up on a table in Hao Ren's house. Every few minutes, one or two barks would sound outside the door, and then Hao Ren would go out and take a new card from the mouths of Green Bean or Prince Reinhardt (do you remember those two names? Lily's chief henchmen). After running back and forth several times, he found it too troublesome, and even Lily felt that the efficiency was low, so she gathered the dog pack again, divided them into patrol areas, and organized them into ranks. Each patrol area had a dog in charge of collecting information and cards from the other sentries, and finally passing them on to several top officers before sending them to Lily the Great. This finally made the afternoon a little quieter.

But in addition to the quiet, Hao Ren and Vivian were increasingly unable to look directly at Lily's dog paparazzi—now this army, after half a day of operational planning, had a clear organizational tree diagram and military rules and regulations. Green Bean and Prince Reinhardt (do you remember these two dogs? Lily's two chief henchmen) had even been given the rank of captain. The original top dog of the southern suburbs, "Doubao," although now also under Lily's command, was currently in an observation period due to being a "former dynasty defector," and was temporarily serving as the patrol chief of the third street in the southern suburbs...

Hao Ren and Lily argued for a long time about whether Doubao was a "former dynasty defector" or a "former dynasty emperor." Obviously, logically speaking, Doubao should belong to the latter, but after arguing for a while, Hao Ren realized that he was out of his mind to argue this with a husky, so Doubao was unilaterally classified as a "defector" by Lily.

In short, Lily, the dog king of the southern suburbs, was having a lot of fun now. Her husky heart was pounding with passion, pounding so hard that it was impossible to look directly at it. Vivian had sworn three times that she would never fight with Lily again—she couldn't afford to lose face.

But just like Vivian's bats, apart from the increasing number of rune cards collected by the dog paparazzi, the latter had not found any actual trace of the demon hunters. It wasn't until dusk, when Captain Reinhardt came to report the last situation, that Lily solemnly concluded: "The demon hunters must be here to mess with us..."

The husky's conclusion was certainly not to be believed. Vivian told Lily to continue to be vigilant and to arrange for a few stray dogs with messed-up biological clocks to be responsible for night patrols. She arranged for more bats to provide air support in the night. Anyway, it was right to maintain the highest vigilance against the demon hunters. They were a bunch of extremists whose "eliminate evil" compulsion had developed to the terminal stage and spread throughout their bodies. She had never heard of them retreating without a fight. The deeper they hid, the more it could only mean that they were a more cautious bunch, and they had to be doubly careful.

Cautious hunters are much more difficult to deal with than rash heroes.

After dinner, Hao Ren habitually took a stroll outside to digest his food and check out the surrounding situation. Of course, he knew that it was a bit dangerous to go out alone in this situation, so he carried the data terminal with him. If a demon hunter ambushed him, he could teleport away as soon as possible. If the situation allowed, he could also use the terminal as a brick to protect himself. In short, he was fully prepared.

But he found nothing on this stroll. The area within two or three streets was as quiet as usual. The only change was that from time to time, some lithe figures could be seen flashing past in the dark corners of the streets—those were the dog packs that Lily had deployed. Their frequency of appearance tonight was much higher than usual. Even Old Lady Zhao, who was coming back from her evening stroll at the intersection, said to Hao Ren as her first words: "Why are so many dogs running around tonight? I'm afraid there's going to be an earthquake..."

The old lady loved to spread this kind of rumor.

Hao Ren wandered around outside for a while, and when he found that the situation was normal, he swaggered home. As soon as he entered the door, he saw Nangong Wuyue holding the little mermaid and feeding her something, but this time it didn't seem to be chopsticks.

Hao Ren walked over and saw that the little one was holding a rune card in her mouth, munching on it happily like a biscuit...

The little one felt someone approaching, and when she looked up and saw her "dad," she excitedly slapped Nangong Wuyue's arm with her tail, then struggled free and jumped directly into Hao Ren's arms. Hao Ren was still in a state of shock: "How can she eat even this?! Won't there be a problem if she eats this?"

Nangong Wuyue nodded: "I walked away for a while just now, and when I came back, I saw her eating these pieces of paper. Vivian said that the material of the rune cards is just ordinary paper and a kind of plant dye, so it's okay to eat."

The little mermaid: "Crunch, crunch—"

Hao Ren: "..."

Whether or not they can catch the demon hunters is another matter, but at least it seems that the little one's meals are settled for a long time to come—he was originally thinking of going out to buy two packs of chopsticks for Doudou to eat tomorrow!