Vivian swallowed the bloodstone, of indeterminate age, and everyone around her focused their attention on her, holding their breath and waiting for the results. But this time, Vivian's analysis of the bloodstone was much slower than usual. She simply frowned slightly, peeling away the information contained within bit by bit. Judging from her expression, the condition of this crystal didn't seem very good.

Lili, after holding back for a long time, finally couldn't help but ask, "How is it, Bat? Sweet or salty?"

"The information carried in this crystal is very vague," Vivian glared at Lili before explaining the situation to everyone. "I'm afraid it's quite old... The degree of information dissipation is almost on par with the one we found in 'Purgatory' back then."

"So, it's an artifact from almost ten thousand years ago," Hao Ren wasn't too surprised by the age of the crystal. "Can you still read anything from it?"

Vivian was silent for a moment, her expression somewhat gloomy. "No, I still can't see clearly. I can only determine that this crystal contains a strong念头(nian tou, thought), which is for me to go north, where there is something I left behind. But there's also a piece of information in the memory, saying that there's something very dangerous in the 'North'..."

"North?" Hao Ren frowned, looking at Bai Huo. "Do you know what this means?"

"Perhaps... it's referring to the Demon Hunters' fortress," Bai Huo hesitated for a moment. This was the first time she had revealed information about the Demon Hunter headquarters to outsiders, and to a group of异类(yi lei, supernatural beings) at that. Even though she had prepared herself, she still hesitated a bit when she spoke. "The Demon Hunters' main base, Corpus, is located at the very north of the planet—near the Arctic Circle."

Hao Ren gaped, and after a long while, he said in a somewhat unreal tone, "So the Demon Hunters' headquarters is in the Arctic..."

A strange feeling of unreality welled up in his heart, leaving him unsure of what to feel. The Demon Hunters, the most mysterious supernatural group on Earth, a powerful force that had remained unfathomed for thousands, even tens of thousands of years, whose main base countless异类(yi lei, supernatural beings) families—even those ancient ones as powerful as gods—had desperately searched for but never found, was now so simply revealed to be located in the Arctic.

Vivian said meaningfully, "It may be in the Arctic, but I imagine it's not a place that ordinary people can directly 'reach,' right?"

"Of course," Bai Huo nodded slightly. "The entrance to Corpus is a frozen fortress built in a spatial crevice. The fortress stands on the Arctic ice cap, but it can only be seen with special vision, and one must understand astrological magic to enter the fortress gate. In this day and age, humans have built research stations all the way to the North Pole. There's practically nowhere on Earth they can't go, and we don't want to be disturbed."

"...Your Saint Tutanin only said to give me the crystal, but didn't say anything else, right?" Vivian stood up, stretching her shoulders slightly. "And the person who sent you didn't say specifically what you were supposed to come to us for?"

Bai Huo opened her mouth, but embarrassedly said nothing. At this moment, she also realized that the whole thing was filled with absurdity: At the moment when the Demon Hunter organization was facing a crisis, what was she, a mid-level cadre, doing coming to a vampire elder? Seeking help? Defecting? Either way, it seemed a little absurd. The bloodstone might be able to connect Vivian with the Demon Hunter organization, but Vivian herself hadn't found a clear reason from the bloodstone to risk going to the Arctic—a vague "obsession" was far from enough.

Master Tutanin should have thought of this when he gave the bloodstone to Bai Huo, so beyond the order to "give the crystal to the Countess," Tutanin didn't give any extra instructions.

Because Tutanin was also very clear: he had no position or reason to expect a vampire countess to do anything. Everything was up to fate.

But just when Bai Huo thought her desperate breakout was a wasted trip, Vivian clapped her hands. "How about we go take a look?"

The first to exclaim was Bai Huo herself: "Huh?"

"If the Demon Hunters are really going to be wiped out, frankly, it'll be quite troublesome for me," Vivian said with a strange expression. "Although you and the异类(yi lei, supernatural beings) are mortal enemies, you're also a link in the 'balance' after all... Perhaps the disappearance of the Demon Hunters would be a good thing for the異類(yi lei, supernatural beings), but it shouldn't be today, and it shouldn't disappear so suddenly—it would cause even bigger problems."

Bai Huo was immediately overjoyed, but she quickly calmed down from her surprise. "Even if that's what you say, how do you plan to help us resolve this crisis?"

"Don't be so sure yet, I still don't know what to do," Vivian waved her hand. "I can only go over and take a look first. If it really doesn't work, I'll just fight my way to your saints and ask them clearly. Anyway, since the bloodstone has been delivered, I can't leave this alone. Right, Hao Ren?"

In the end, Vivian couldn't help but look at Hao Ren, waiting for him to make a decision.

"We definitely have to go," Hao Ren said without hesitation. "If the Demon Hunters really just die like this, I don't know how I'm going to fake my year-end work report this year. But before we go... shouldn't we find out how many people we're going to be facing?"

Bai Huo was silent for a few seconds. "The Elder Council itself is the most massive warband among the Demon Hunters. They have at least one hundred and twenty thousand elite warriors, and the leaders of the Elder Council are all elder-level old hunters. They can't be measured with simple numbers. In addition, we must consider the thirteen saints..."

"Maybe it's twelve," Lili bared her teeth. "Your 'First Saint' has been holed up in his house for thousands of years. He might be dead already."

"What difference does it make?" Hao Ren smacked Lili on the head. "Isn't this still a military strength difference of tens of thousands to one?"

At this moment, Izhaks, who had been silent all along, finally spoke. "We need to deliberate carefully. This incident is different from the past. What we have to solve is not a natural disaster, but a war. It will be difficult to be opportunistic."

As soon as the old demon spoke, everyone present expressed their conviction—Izhaks was an absolute war professional. No one dared to mention fighting in front of him, after all, this was the guy who almost broke through the whole world with his legions.

Bai Huo seemed a little anxious after hearing the words "deliberate carefully," but before she could speak, she swayed and almost fell. Vivian quickly steadied her. "Don't get excited. You're still weak. Rest for a bit."

"But our warriors probably won't be able to hold on for much longer," Bai Huo gasped for breath. "When I broke out, the entire Corpus was almost completely controlled by the Elder Council. If they occupy all the nodes, the warbands that oppose them will face annihilation—the current Elder Council will slaughter everyone who disagrees with their ideals, including Demon Hunters and异类(yi lei, supernatural beings)!"

"All the ordinary Demon Hunters in the world combined can't beat a single Elder Council?" Hao Ren felt a little incredulous about what was happening in "Corpus." "You have at least several times the troop advantage, right? Are numbers completely useless?"

"You don't understand Corpus. The Elder Council controls the core of that space. They have invincible power," Bai Huo said bitterly. "Corpus is an ancient super-civilization ruin. Those ruins possess many powerful and mysterious forces. Back then, Saint Tobeylius destroyed Jotunheim by guiding that force. This time, we paid a huge price to snatch back some of the control over the energy nodes from the Elder Council, preventing them from activating those destructive devices, but the power they still hold is overwhelmingly strong."

Hao Ren really wanted to remind the young Demon Hunter lady that when asking for help, you shouldn't describe the situation as so dire—she made the Elder Council sound invincible in just a few words. Wasn't she afraid of scaring away her helpers?

But there was also a benefit to Bai Huo truthfully informing them of the Elder Council's strength, and that was that Hao Ren and Izhaks could more seriously and accurately analyze how much power the guys they were going to face had. The two analyzed it a bit and felt that if the few people at home rushed over to directly engage with hundreds of thousands of supermen, they would easily get chopped up...

So, reinforcements were needed.

Bai Huo wasn't stupid either. After calming down, she realized the seriousness of the matter. She looked at the group of people around Hao Ren and tentatively asked, "This is your... entire force in this sanctuary?"

Hao Ren was wondering which reinforcements to pull over to make up the numbers when he heard this. He subconsciously replied, "Oh right... uh, no, there's also a cat. She's upstairs watching TV and didn't come down."

Bai Huo almost went back to the medical bay to lie down after hearing that.

"Don't faint, don't faint!" Hao Ren reacted at once and quickly explained, "I do have some manpower under me, but they're not local. I can transfer troops from other places!"