Chapter 1 Investigating Ancient Records

Hao Ren had asked the demon hunters to investigate the surviving records of the ancient Greek Olympian "pantheon" after its destruction.

According to the information he already had, some of the upper echelons of the Olympian family seemed to have learned the secrets of "Godslayer's Sin" and the "Ultimate Absolution" through some channel before the destruction. They then conducted a series of studies centered around "idol worship of Vivian," and these studies were very likely to reveal more secrets about the Creator Goddess's ultimate plan, or at least allow Hao Ren to understand the activities of the heteromorphs in ancient times.

The Olympian gods had disappeared into the river of history. The surviving ruins drifted in the spatial rifts on the edge of the material world, finding them was like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, one place still preserved the secrets of ancient times, and that was the demon hunter library in the Sacred Domain of Corvus. Those vast archives recorded the information of every heteromorph race destroyed by the demon hunters, naturally including the ancient Greek "gods." Hao Ren had asked Bai Huo to investigate this matter.

"I'll go to Corvus to find you immediately," Hao Ren immediately replied. "Prepare all the materials..."

"No need, I'm in the city you live in now. Just come to xxxx to find me."

Bai Huo gave an address that sounded very familiar. Hao Ren was stunned when he heard it: "The Cultural Center? Why are you here?"

Bai Huo maintained her usual cold and steady voice: "There's a comic convention here..."

Hao Ren: "..."

Filled with a huge desire to complain, he took Vivian and Lily to the cultural center Bai Huo had mentioned. Sure enough, a grand comic convention was being held there. Hao Ren didn't have much experience with comic conventions, but he had seen them a few times. After buying a ticket to enter, he felt like he was in a carnival of demons. Men and women dressed as various game and anime characters and all kinds of stalls scattered throughout the hall made the huge indoor venue seem extraordinarily chaotic. There were also some high-quality cosplayers—making Hao Ren feel like he had returned to his workplace.

That's right, he had seen many strange races, and he had seen the real thing!

Hao Ren took a lot of effort to find Bai Huo. In fact, it wasn't him who found her, but Lily's sharp nose. Bai Huo was truly in her element in this place. She could even walk around the venue in her usual combat uniform with a head of silver hair, anyway, there were even more strangely dressed people than her here. When Hao Ren found Bai Huo, this girl was lingering in front of several stalls with a huge bag in her hand. The bag was full of various peripherals she had just bought, as well as her demon hunter short sword…

Hao Ren simply couldn't believe how Hassel had educated such a magical disciple. So closed education really had its drawbacks, it was particularly easy to produce introverts and shut-ins…

"Ah, I've been waiting for you for a long time," Bai Huo greeted Hao Ren as soon as she saw him. "I wandered around a bit since you guys didn't come."

Hao Ren said with a wooden face: "Speaking of which, is it really okay for you to casually wander around a comic convention like this? What about the demon hunter's work?"

Unexpectedly, Bai Huo didn't show any embarrassment on her face. She even smiled calmly: "I'm not just wandering around, I have work to do here too. Look at that—"

The demon hunter girl raised her hand and pointed to a corner of the venue. Hao Ren followed the direction of her finger and saw several men and women in cosplay costumes chatting there. One of the men keenly noticed the observing gaze, and he immediately looked over vigilantly. When he saw Bai Huo, the expression on his face was slightly unnatural.

"The two werewolves are genuine, the one next to them in the witch costume is a witch who used to be Dracula's mistress, and the one in the full knight's armor, that armor is empty, it's the armor of a famous knight, God knows which crazy wizard gave this armor a spirit, or simply possessed it," Bai Huo clicked her tongue. "Take another look around, you'll see a lot of 'genuine' stuff."

Hao Ren looked around in astonishment. Only then did he finally notice some clues.

Many people were secretly looking over here. Almost all the "high-quality cosplayers" appeared in groups, and some of the exhibitors who looked like ordinary people weren't so ordinary: they were cautiously keeping their distance from Bai Huo.

Lily sniffed her nose. In fact, she had smelled some "kin" in the air just now, but she didn't say it.

"How many genuine ones are here?" Hao Ren asked in a low voice.

"At least a third are genuine, and another third are their servants and dependents," Bai Huo shrugged. "The rest are ordinary people. I'm not here just for fun, part of my purpose is to monitor this event."

"This is a heteromorph gathering," Hao Ren stroked his chin. "Is this a new development after the truce between the demon hunters and the heteromorphs, and the establishment of the Shadow Council? A supernatural creature networking event?"

Bai Huo hummed in agreement: "Yeah, that's right. It's to expand the scope of supernatural races' activities without disrupting the existing order, and also to test the feasibility of inter-racial communication. Those who come here are several races with weaker innate hostility, and there are no serious blood feuds between them... But someone still needs to monitor them, it would be very troublesome if they fought."

Hao Ren immediately showed a surprised expression: "You're here to monitor the scene? The demon hunters are here to monitor the heteromorph gathering?"

"How is that possible, to be honest, I'm also being monitored," Bai Huo immediately waved her hand. "The elders sent me here to observe this gathering, but at the same time, we have to reach an agreement with the Shadow Council, and I'm being monitored by the Shadow Council here. Ah, actually, the situation is alright, I have a good relationship with you, and you have a lot of face in the Shadow Council, so no one is coming to cause trouble."

From Bai Huo's few words, Hao Ren knew that the lives of the heteromorphs had undergone even greater changes in the dark.

Some new order was being generated, and the relationship between the demon hunters and the heteromorphs was gradually evolving in a delicate and tense confrontation. This gathering being held here seemed ridiculous, but in the depths, it probably had a greater meaning. And Hao Ren was one hundred percent sure that what he could see in the venue were just the surface personnel of the gathering—after all, there were still real ordinary people here, and more important activities were probably hidden outside the venue.

He could probably write a story of two or three hundred thousand words just by extracting this gathering, but Hao Ren wasn't too concerned about these things. He would leave the matters of the Shadow Council to Hesperia and Mimir to worry about. He was here for the secrets of Olympus.

Under Bai Huo's leadership, the group arrived at the rest area behind the exhibition hall. They advanced according to a specific route, passing through areas with ordinary people before reaching the deepest part of the venue.

Several "cosplayers" stood outside a few rest rooms in twos and threes. A girl with wolf ears was vigorously shaking her tail to fan herself: "Hoo ah hoo ah—it's so hot, I want to eat ice cream, I'm so bored."

"That's right," another "young man" wearing a wizard's hat nodded. "I thought I could play all day when I came out, but I can only stay here. I knew it would be more interesting to play games in the family's secret realm."

"Hey, wizard, where's the female companion who was with you before? Isn't she your girlfriend? Why did she leave you alone?"

"No way, that's my great-great-grandmother... she went to fish for sugar daddies."

"Oh... Shh, the hound is coming!"

The werewolves and wizards noticed Hao Ren's group approaching, and immediately fell silent and showed a mixed expression of vigilance and rejection. Bai Huo was obviously a person being "specially cared for" here, everyone recognized her face.

The demon hunter girl didn't mind this situation, but she wasn't interested in smiling at the heteromorphs either. She walked past those young people pointing fingers at her without looking sideways, and led Hao Ren and the others into a special rest room.

"That's the situation, to be honest, I'm already quite satisfied," Bai Huo said as she threw the big bag in her hand on the table, rummaged through it for a long time, and pulled out a few scrolls that looked quite old. "The useful information is in these."

...She really dares to just casually stuff such important things in there!

Hao Ren took the scrolls and began to study them carefully, while Bai Huo made some interpretations and supplements beside him.

The scrolls themselves weren't products of the Olympian "pantheon," but rather investigation reports and business notes that the demon hunters had compiled after the war. These scrolls recorded in detail a series of "hunts" by the demon hunters after the destruction of the Olympian lineage, that is, the process of hunting down those survivors who had escaped by chance.

The vast majority of the survivors who escaped from Mount Olympus died at the hands of the demon hunters. Some of them had even hidden for centuries, but in the end, they couldn't escape death. Like Hesperia who had survived to this day, it was indeed a rare exception.

"Here, a servant continuously evaded dozens of hunts, including even a large operation carried out by twenty elite hunters and three master hunters," Bai Huo pointed to a few lines of text on one of the scrolls. "This servant himself was unknown, he was just a servant on Mount Olympus, his only special feature was that he was deeply trusted by Zeus, but in the process of capturing him, double-digit demon hunters were sacrificed—all of them were powerful warriors who had experienced hundreds of battles."

Vivian said in a low voice: "Obviously, he's carrying a powerful 'artifact'."

"That's right, there is indeed an artifact, here is the record of that artifact," Bai Huo pointed to the bottom of the scroll. "'The target holds a rather dangerous weapon, a dark scepter inlaid with a huge blood-colored gem. The scepter can cause the target's blood to boil and die within a hundred meters, or cause deadly bleeding and plagues. Even master-level hunters can only slightly resist this power.' I think this is very close to the Countess's ability."

Hao Ren frowned and looked at Vivian: "They're not only researching how to counteract 'original sin' by worshiping you, but also researching your power?"

Vivian also frowned, "Is there anything else?"

"Here," Bai Huo took out another scroll. "'It was witnessed that the target carried a large number of files and documents. According to the few fragments that were seized, this should be a batch of information missing when the Olympian documents were inventoried. This batch of information came from Athena, or is related to a series of strange ritual studies in the late Olympus period.' And here, 'The target sought the Red Moon Countess's whereabouts during the escape process, suspecting that he was trying to defect and should complete this hunt before the Countess provides him with protection.'"

Hao Ren narrowed his eyes slightly: "This should be it."