Chapter 315: Are You Sure You’re a Wizard?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
They left the sanctuary after Hessiana reluctantly said farewell (especially to Vivian). The real Athens was still sunny, bustling with activity and peaceful. No one would have thought that there had been a thrilling battle in the shadows of this seemingly peaceful city. The demon hunters did not completely evacuate the city yet. After the Ancients risked their lives to expel the demon hunters from the sanctuary, some of the demon hunters built a few new strongholds in the city. These strongholds would probably last more than a century to monitor and suppress the development of the otherworldling's sanctuary. However, the hunters were not able to get in again for the time being. The Shadowy Divide had been revived and lots of demon hunters were killed in this operation. It was currently impossible for them to pull up a mighty army of churches and exorcists to wipe out an area like they did during the Mythological Era. They also had to monitor other unusual creatures in other parts of the world therefore, it was not easy to organise another large-scale operation like that.
Just as Hessiana said, everything would go on as usual. There was simply a bunch of renewed spirits.
Fearing that the demon hunters in Athens may discover them, Hao Ren and his group did not stay for long. They went through the procedures to return home but this time, there was one more person in the team: Hesperides.
"Are you sure you have a way to dispel the power of the demon hunter?" Hesperides was still a little skeptical of Hao Ren's promise. She agreed to follow them and leave Athens with Vivian's guarantee. Yet, when she thought of the hole, which been on her head for thousands of years, she found Hao Ren's promise a little too good too be true.
Hao Ren looked at the gorgeous, lace headband on Hesperides' head and said with a confident smile, "You can rest assured that we have professional equipment here."
Offering to help Hesperides heal her wound was not prompted by a sudden impulse. In fact, he wanted to take this opportunity to study something.
Hao Ren had always been interested in the demon hunters' power. He had heard about demon hunter training from Nangong Wuyue and Nangong Sanba; from there, he found a lot of questionable points: demon hunter training was more about cultivating the mind and knowledge of "magical things". And, most of their skills and magic were not acquired through training. These powers were derived from their inborn talent. A newborn demon hunter had these powers from birth, whether it was the power of exorcism or teleportation, or even complex spells. Things that were supposed to be mastered by continuous learning and training were actually the result of heredity. This was the reason why the demon hunters were a group of people who valued "talent" very much. A newborn demon hunter with excellent blood and strong talent would receive very special care. This was because, as long as they grew up healthily, they would have more power than those who were mediocre no matter how hard the mediocre ones trained. This may not sound fair but, it was a trait that had been unchanged for thousands of years.
This caused Hao Ren to question the demon hunters; he wanted to study this. Right now, there was a thousand-year-old hole in Hesperides' head. It was a specimen of power left by a pure and gifted demon hunter of the ancient times. Nothing was more suitable for research than this.
Of course, Hao Ren also took a lot of other research specimens from the sanctuary: Some demon hunters' blood, hair and tissue samples, weapons as well as body-strengthening potions commonly used by demon hunters. These things could fill up at least two shelves if they were taken out of the Dimensional Pocket. Hessiana also mentioned that Hao Ren finally did something relevant for a human wizard—he began to show interest in corpses.
Hao Ren did not find that it was something to be happy about. Keeping a whole bunch of creepy stuff in the Dimensional Pocket made his skin crawl while he walked. Lil Pea kept protesting: the little kid was also in the Dimensional Pocket after all. Piles of junk were put next to her fish tank. The little kid felt that her sea-view room was seriously being threatened. Hao Ren had to put a circle of SpongeBob pictorials around the fish tank…
Let's not dwell on what happened along their journey. They basically just passed their time listening to Lily's chatter. They finally landed in the small, remote airport. They took the airport bus to the urban area, and then an old bus to the south of the city. After that, they transferred into an older bus to the Southern Suburbs. In the middle of the journey, the bus broke down and they had to trek 20 minutes to their home on the desolate, old-fashioned street. Only Hesperides was able to keep calm throughout the journey. If it had happened to a normal girl, she would have started to suspect that Hao Ren was a man who specialised in trafficking women to mountainous areas. She would have started planning on calling the police. Finally, when Hao Ren's old house appeared before everyone's eyes, Hesperides was relieved and said, "Phew… Luckily… I thought I was going to live in a cave…"
Hao Ren raised his eyebrows and asked, "What did you think my house would look like?"
Hesperides did not look like she was joking. "I hope you don't mind, I'm not being sarcastic—I know a lot of human wizards who live in caves. They behave in peculiar ways and like to do some very dangerous research. Therefore, they can't stay in crowded places. Nonetheless, the wizards are getting lesser and lesser these days..."
"Because the demon hunters keep killing them?"
Vivian spread her hands and said, "Because the tourism industry is getting too developed. Quarrying has also gotten more and more frequent. There's no way to stay in the mountains these days. Last year, there was a sorcerer in Zhejiang, who was almost killed while he was conducting an experiment in a cave—now, he's suing the quarry company's boss."
Hesperides sighed and said, "These days, those who can't hide themselves are basically dead."
Hao Ren thought about it for a moment and felt that the main reason wizards these days were not doing good was because they were not smart enough. If they took some of the time they spent on studying magic to figure out how to make money, they would probably realise that they could set up a coal mining company in Shanxi and have plenty of caves to use. They could even go to Shennongjia to challenge human limits!
Of course, the wizards had nothing to do with them so, Hao Ren soon forgot about that and led everyone back to the big house, which he had long been separated from. The house was covered in dust but, it was much better than the last time when they travelled to the Otherworld for half a month. Vivian started to tidy the house up and Becky joined her as well. Hesperides was surprised to see Vivian busy cleaning the house, and asked, "This is where you live?"
"How is it? Pretty good, right?!" Vivian just found a rag and she was about to wet it to wipe the table. When she heard Hesperides' question, she replied proudly, "My living conditions are now much better than before!"
It was not certain what Hesperides was thinking. She just looked at Vivian with a bizarre expression and said, "…It's not exactly what I had imagined but, it's a lot better than I thought. Looks like you're satisfied with this life now?"
"Of course, I'm satisfied. It's very peaceful, very lively. I don't have to worry about food or clothing, and very often, fun things happen here. It's a lot better than wandering here and there aimlessly," Vivian answered as she cleaned the house. Then, she yelled from the bathroom, "Eh... Why is there no water?!"
"Maybe the pipe's frozen." Nangong Wuyue ran to the bathroom with water vapour all over her body and said, "Don't panic, I'll come and help! What kind of water do you want? Pure or mineral? Or, weak alkaline water..."
Hao Ren hurriedly reminded her, "Be careful! The last time, you almost flooded the kitchen! By the way, please give Lil Pea a bath…"
Hesperides looked at the family's daily life in amazement. The daily scene of this little sanctuary was clearly different from what she had imagined. There was no infighting, no layers of defensive traps and a large number of unusual creatures lived together peacefully. This place did not feel like a sanctuary at all. It was more like… an ordinary family.
Hao Ren's voice interrupted her thinking. "Umm, are you tired? If you're not tired, let's go to the basement for a scan and I'll create a treatment plan for you."
The moment Hesperides nodded, Lily asked solemnly, "The basement physical examination video?"
Hao Ren slapped the husky's head and said, "Can you please watch something with healthy and positive content next time? By the way, come and help me. You have nothing to do anyway."
Hesperides followed them to the basement without thinking too much. When she saw the scene in the basement, she was astounded.
"You... Are you sure you're a wizard?" She stared at Hao Ren and said, "You better tell me the treatment plan first. Let me mentally prepare myself."