Chapter 1 A Noble in Paradise is Better Than a King in the Swamp

The wise prefer to be nobles in paradise rather than kings in the swamp and radiation pits.

There are also those who dislike the pleasures of life and modern society. Out of ten thousand people, there are always a few extremists who want to rebuild the glory no matter what. They are motivated by a sense of honor or the beautiful fantasy of ruling the world, and they are extremely dangerous.

But they are the minority.

The Shadow Council is an organization that maintains the interests of the majority. Those in power who want to continue enjoying life, continue peace, and continue to possess wealth formed this council to make the future run in a direction that better meets their expectations, while constantly eliminating the minority who try to challenge them.

However, Hao Ren knew that all order and rules in the mortal world were temporary, and this Shadow Council system was also temporary, just like the mythical age would eventually come to an end, and the high-pressure peace maintained by the demon hunters for thousands of years had ended in these few days. The Shadow Council, its time to last will probably be even shorter.

But at least for the time being, there is no need to worry about turmoil.

The discussion on the Shadow Council and the future development direction has been going on until the second day. As the largest sanctuary in Europe, it not only gathers representatives of local families from the Athens Sanctuary, but also speakers who have come from other sanctuaries in Europe in recent days. These people gathered here to discuss various issues after the disappearance of the demon hunters. They gathered just right, so this meeting was directly upgraded to the level of a "European Supernatural Creature Representatives Conference." Moreover, it is said that the leaders of alien families in other parts of the world are also gathering here. They all responded to the call of the Athens Sanctuary—strictly speaking, they responded to the call of the most qualified ancient ones, so the establishment of the Shadow Council progressed unexpectedly quickly.

Hao Ren had no interest in participating in these things. He led his family to withdraw from the direct meeting discussion procedure on the second day and instead wandered around the Shadow City. He was not worried about things getting out of his control, because Hesperides remained at the meeting, and as a clone creation of the "Most Ancient One," that little bat spirit was striding toward the upper echelons of the Shadow Council, competing with the long-established family leaders.

Although the little bat spirit was a troublemaker, she was still very reliable in her field. Under Vivian's stern orders, the troublemaker honestly listened to Hao Ren, reporting the establishment of the Shadow Council while attending the meeting, and playing her role in the meeting according to Vivian and Hao Ren's instructions.

Now Hao Ren and the others were wandering to a high platform in the southwest corner of the city. This high platform was the entrance when the group first visited Shadow Fortress, and behind it was connected to Hesperides' antique shop. A clone tree of the ancient tree Gundadal was swaying in the corner of the high platform, shaking its branches idly, and occasionally using a pair of dim yellow eyes on the trunk to pay attention to the movements of its mistress, Vivian. The old tree man was one of the most respected ancient ones in this city, but it did not participate in the meeting: regarding the establishment of the Shadow Council, it was of the "None of my business" faction.

"Mistress, look at this city, tens of thousands of supernatural creatures. In the past few thousand years, less than one-tenth of the supernatural creatures here dared to be active in the present world, and they had to be very low-key and very secretive, because once they showed their faces, demon hunters would swarm in," the old tree man felt a little bored, so he began to talk to Vivian, "I heard about the Shadow Council and the end of the hunt—this means that tens of thousands of supernatural creatures are about to enter human society openly. To be honest, the old tree is a little uneasy."

Gundadal was an ancient magic tree, and it had the nature of its race, that is, it didn't like changes very much. It wasn't sure whether the future was good or bad, so it couldn't help but express its thoughts.

"Not 'openly,' there is a clause in the agreement that they cannot interfere with social order at will, because social disorder will affect the human interests of many large families," Vivian patiently corrected, "And are tens of thousands of people a lot? Not to mention that not everyone can pass the assessment to leave the sanctuary, even if they all pass... do you know how many people there are in the human world?"

"Of course, there will still be some changes, such as the sudden emergence of many urban legends or supernatural legends." Hao Ren chuckled, but he didn't take it seriously. The inspector had to pay attention to the "orderly development" of civilization, but orderly development was not immutable. Without shaking the foundation, any change was normal, and he didn't need to care, nor was he too lazy to care.

As the Shadow Council gradually matured, there were more and more aliens among humans, and more and more humans could come into contact with the mysterious realm. Some subtle changes would naturally occur. This peaceful mutual penetration did not seem bad.

Just as Hao Ren's mind was spinning with a lot of messy prospects, a shadow suddenly appeared on the platform. A plume of smoke emerged from the shadow, and the smoke quickly condensed into the figure of a woman.

This was a woman with a cold temperament, none other than Hela, who had been appearing frequently recently, one of the only survivors of the Norse pantheon. Because she was low-key and indifferent, and hardly communicated with outsiders, Hao Ren was never familiar with her, but after the last "Chaos Shadow" incident, he was considered to have met this "Goddess of Death."

"Did you want me?" Hela walked straight to Vivian, "Hesperides said to see you after the meeting."

Although Hela was also a veteran "god" who survived from the age of mythology, she was not considered an ancient one. Not all aliens who have experienced the age of mythology are considered ancient ones, only those old guys who were born in the glorious years of the gods and had a certain influence are. Hesperides happened to meet the standard because of her age, while Hela happened to be a little short, so she could only be listed as "Middle Ancient." Therefore, although she had a lonely personality and a bad temper, she still had to show enough respect to Vivian.

According to rumors, Hela had her candy stolen by Vivian when she was a child—or maybe her father, Loki, had his candy stolen.

"I didn't want you," Vivian raised her hand and pointed to Hao Ren, "The boss is looking for you."

Perhaps in order to emphasize Hao Ren's position as "team leader" in the rigid and stubborn alien group and give him more say in the sanctuary, Vivian would habitually call Hao Ren "the boss" after coming to Shadow Fortress. She used this method to publicly recognize Hao Ren's leadership in front of other aliens, and transferred her authority to Hao Ren. Facts have proved that the effect is good—except that it will stimulate the neurotic and imaginative little bat spirit.

Hela glanced at Hao Ren expressionlessly, with some exploration in her eyes. Hao Ren was not polite and said directly: "You are a survivor of the Norse pantheon."

Hela continued to be expressionless and nodded.

"You were there when the Yggdrasil space chain exploded, and you escaped from the explosion?"

Hela continued to nod.

"Do you know where the remaining space fragments after the explosion of the 'Nine Realms' are? Any clues will do."

There was finally a change in Hela's expression: "You are looking for the whereabouts of the Nine Realms?"

As soon as Hao Ren heard her answer, his heart moved: the other party did not deny those space fragments, but asked him if he was looking for those things, which meant that the wreckage of the Nine Realms really existed?!

He originally just called this Norse survivor over to ask casually and didn't have much hope, but at this time, he suddenly had a sense of surprise!

"Those nine spaces really still exist?!" Hao Ren's eyes were burning, "Do you know the situation of Vanaheim and Jotunheim?"

Hela's eyes were full of suspicion when she looked at Hao Ren, but when it came to those historical relics that had been completely turned into ruins, she had no intention of concealing anything: "Even fragments of a relatively simple 'God Realm' like Mount Olympus can survive after the explosion, let alone the Yggdrasil space chain. At the beginning, the demon hunters only destroyed the branches of the World Tree connecting the Nine Kingdoms and the main material world, allowing these alien spaces to break away from the main material world, but did not destroy these alien spaces themselves."

Eliminating a kingdom is a completely different concept from eliminating the space in which the kingdom is located, just as human weapons can easily destroy human civilization itself, but cannot shake the foundations of the earth. Demon hunters can only destroy the Vanir and Aesir gods, but they cannot completely destroy the nine alien spaces. This is consistent with Hao Ren's guess!

"The alien spaces of the Nine Kingdoms should still exist, and Vanaheim and Jotunheim are no exception," Hela continued, "But their connection with the main material world has been cut off. If you want to find them... it's difficult."

Hao Ren raised his eyebrows: "Listening to your tone, you seem to have a way?"

Hela hesitated. Seeing this, Vivian put her hand on her shoulder: "No matter what you have, it's best to let us try. Maybe those things won't work in your hands, but they will be different in our hands."

Hela frowned. There was no change in expression on her cold face, but she obviously weighed it. Finally, she lifted her hand into the air, and a metal object with a hissing electric current quickly emerged into the air.

"This is the tip of Gungnir's spear."