South America .
A group of unique visitors had come to the little-known town .
With the address provided by Wayne, Hao Ren had arrived in this place ahead of Wayne, and chosen to stay in a homestay to avoid any unwanted hassle .
Wayne Walter had to return to his family to attend to some business before he would join them in the town two days later . Meanwhile, Hao Ren and his team could move freely . After checking into the accommodation and familiarizing themselves with the homestay environment, Hao Ren and Vivian left to hang out in the town .
The atmosphere of the town reminded Hao Ren Southern Suburb . Though the architectural style of the town looked very different, it was an economic backwater, where time seemed to be stagnant as everything here—the houses and streets—looked old and rundown . The town was at least 100 years old . When Hao Ren and Vivian walked on the street, they saw old and traditional brick houses with the mottled exterior wall, and the roads were in bad condition . The town was built along a two-lane-wide paved road, which was the thoroughfare of the town . Houses did not look uniform, moss and mildew had grown all over the walls . In the historical town were modern street lamps and billboards that seemed somewhat out of place . Though this town was not related to the ancient times, Hao Ren could not help but think of it as a place that befitted the ideal location for the old hermit family .
The century-old town, as well as the otherworldling families from the ancient times, were all forgotten and equally out of place in the modern society .
"I didn't expect Hessiana to stay back in Athens at last . " Hao Ren recalled the little bat demon still clung to Vivian's legs before they left . He could not help but smile . "I thought she would want to follow us and kudos! You dissuaded her . "
Vivian instantly felt a headache when Hessiana came to mind . She rubbed her forehead . "That kid is getting out of hand . Letting her stay at our home was a mistake . She would only become the more greedy and disobedient . "
Hao Ren was helpless when it came to the relationship between Vivian and Hessiana . He just smiled and looked up into the air .
A blue, star-like object swept across the sky .
The MDT was scanning the terrain of the entire town and the surrounding areas in the air and sharing the visual with Hao Ren in his mind . Hao Ren was essentially multitasking now, seeing the place in his mind's eye from a few hundreds of meters in the air .
Looking from above, the town by the hillside had a population of only a thousand people and wilderness in the surrounding area . Built along the gentle slopes of the hills, the town appeared like a gorgeous necklace lying at the foothill at night . It did not look bizarre at first glance; the bare stone hill or the old town at the foothill was unremarkable . After much carefully observation, Hao Ren found that the layout of the town was somewhat incongruous with its surroundings . All building construction stopped abruptly on the hillside .
Though this phenomenon could be understood from the standpoint of cost and convenience that people did not build their houses on a higher altitude, the boundaries where the construction stopped was just too neat to be natural . It formed a clear dividing line between the dark and the bright side on the hillside with humanmade light stopping right on that dividing line as if it was avoiding something .
The dark side was not empty though; there were a few abandoned houses on the north of the demarcation line . They were like outcasts of the town that had been left behind for many years . There was no road to access the abandoned houses from the town, but some tracks were still visible lying between the abandoned houses . When the MDT zoomed in the visual, Hao Ren saw some things like cement blocks and broken bricks scattered further up the hillside .
Vivian did not pay attention to the image that the MDT had sent her . She just looked at the quiet town in thought . "The atmosphere here is a little unbelievable . This territory of the Ancattero family is less creepy than I thought . "
"The otherworldlings must be hiding their tracks . Look at the size of the Athens' sanctuary and the liveliness of Athens, and you would get the picture," Hao Ren said casually . "What's more, the Shade of Chaos does not attack humans . "
"You may be right," Vivian whispered . "I don't know how the Ancattero family hides . I couldn't find any signs of the mysterious realm nor where its entrance is . It looks like we have to depend on Wayne's guides . "
Hao Ren replied with a "Hmm" as he cast his eyes to the end of the street, which was sloping upwards to the hillside . Lights were illuminating the dark hill . "There may be something north of the town, where the abandoned houses looked very suspicious . Would you like to check them out? Maybe they were the property of the Ancattero family," Hao Ren said .
"Check them out?" Vivian blinked . "But the Wayne family's guides would only arrive two days later . "
"We're idle anyway . " Hao Ren shrugged his shoulders . "The demon hunters might be active in the town and after the Ancattero family . If we can find them, we would be in a better position later . "
Ordinary otherworldlings would avoid the demon hunters like the plague, just like how Hao Ren behaved in the beginning . Now, his style had changed . With the many encounters with the demon hunters and the experience in handling a dangerous situation, Hao Ren was more accustomed to thinking of more positive solutions . He even chose to actively engage the demon hunter to avoid falling into the defensive . What was more, Hao Ren had nothing against the demon hunters—he was not an otherworldling like the vampire and werewolf, he was neutral as an inspector . He just happened to have adopted a bunch of demons, which unwittingly put him in an awkward position in dealing with demon hunters .
Vivian had objected to Hao Ren's decision . She also held an indifferent attitude towards the demon hunter . As Hao Ren walked toward the end of the town, she followed him .
Soon, they came up the hillside, where the road had ended .
A fence was in the way and extending out to both sides and disappeared into the darkness as if it was a wall separating the town from the hill . It was brightly lit on the south of the fence, while it the dark hillside on the other side . Looking into the dark side, Hao Ren could see a few shadowy structures lying in the dark . Those were the abandoned houses the MDT had observed from above .
There was a red No Entry sign hanging on the rusty gate of the fence . Hao Ren stepped forward and shook the gate a little, and it squeaked . The gate had not been opened for years, and the hinges were full of rust .
Vivian looked around, knowing that no strangers were around, she burst into a swarm of bats and fog and flew across to the other side . Hao Ren did not want to be left behind, with little effort, he jumped across the two-meter-tall fence .
"We should have gotten information from the local people first," Hao Ren said to the swarm of bats around him . "Asking them why they need to fence up the town would not appear suspicious, after all, we're outsiders . "
"That's a little too late," Vivian said, emerging from a swarm of bats . "Let us check out the abandoned houses there . Oh, wait a second!"
"What happened?"
Vivian's brows knit together as she looked at the abandoned houses . It looks like somebody was in there . "
Chapter end
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