Chapter 579: Killing Instinctual Confusion
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The seawater was wrapping around them as they stood in a peculiar, oval-shaped bubble supported by foam and water. The bubble moved forward at an incredible speed, while Shaqira and Sorma took turns circling the outside the air bubble to keep the magic stabilised. This experience was different from Hao Ren's previous journey into the deep sea with Nangong Wuyue. The only thing common to both experiences was that Hao Ren had found them equally novel and interesting.
Rollie was wide-eyed as she looked at the scenery in amazement. In her limited cognition, there was no explanation to this phenomenon. She ran up and down on the 'surface' where the air bubble and water met. Occasionally, there would be some quick moving shadows swept past on the outside—they were fish from the shallow water or just string of bubbles—and she would rush to it with excitement but was bounced back every time.
Vivian held the cat-maiden and so that she would quiet down while Hasse looked curiously at this strange 'otherworldling'. "What is she?"
"A transcended cat," Hao Ren shrugged his shoulders. "You can consider it an otherworldling according to your method of categorisation. However, she was just an ordinary domestic cat a month ago. So I'm curious, would this seemingly harmless creature that had transformed into a humanoid become your target?"
Teuton pressed against his eyebrows and exchanged a look with Hasse. "Any killer instinctual response?""Neither have I."
Hao Ren had not paid attention to what the two were talking. He had only noticed that Teuton and Hasse always kept a distance of three meters him, and tried not turn their face away while they spoke among themselves. He felt this kind of always-on-guard behaviour and social exclusion was unnecessary especially when they had signed the ceasefire agreement. "You two don't have to keep a distance and look the other way, do you? You see, White Flame has been braver than you guys."
Hasse shot Hao Ren a reply while his head turned the other way. "Because White Flame is of the younger generation, she won't have to resist the strong killer instinct while mingling with you guys. But we must stay away from the otherworldlings to ensure that we don't lose control…"
Hao Ren's face suddenly turned serious. "Wait a second. What do you mean by killing instincts?"
"You don't even know this?" Hasse was a little surprised. "Have you ever met any demon hunters before?"
"I'd sought with many but not so much about understanding them," Hao Ren shrugged. "What do you mean by killing instinct?"
"The instinctual enmity that demon hunters manifest when they see an alien," Vivian explained. "It will even translate into kill instinct directly, so demon hunters and aliens need only one eye exchange to start a fight. And the process is akin to the way two different races of alien met and fought, but the hostility of demon hunters manifest towards the otherworldlings is more intense and could directly translate into combat strength, so it is called killing instinct."
Hao Ren's eyes suddenly squinted. "Another 'unique phenomenon of Earth... exactly the same as what we discussed before."
"Hasse, is your killing instinct triggered when you see me? Vivian suddenly glanced up at Hasse. "I vaguely remembered I had dealt with many demon hunters and they manifested a very weak killing instinct when they saw me."
Hasse cautiously looked at this way and his voice was somewhat confused. "Although it sounds incredible... but my killing instinct at this moment is indeed incredibly calm, and as far as I can recall, I was pretty calm when bumped into you a few times in the past. If not, we wouldn't be able to reach the ceasefire agreement so easily. It's the unusual calm of our killing instinct that has prevented us from getting into a fight."
Hao Ren exhaled softly. He finally understood exactly why there had never been a truce between the aliens and the demon hunters on Earth, but he had been standing side by side with the demon hunters for many times, including this time—although the two sides were still suspicious of each other, the suspicion was purely of differences in stance. That was the reason why Hasse had agreed to walk with the otherworldlings temporarily.
The main reason was not Vivian's eloquence nor Hasse's courteousness; these were only trivial factors. There was only one fundamental reason: a certain effective 'innate hostility' mechanism has been in control. Only today that this effective mechanism had created a state of volatility.
Hao Ren suddenly realized that if he wanted to break the long-standing confrontation between aliens and demon hunters on Earth, now was the opportunity.
He carefully pushed the cat-maiden forward and said, "Hasse, are you feeling hostile toward her when you look at her?"
Hasse looked at Hao Ren inexplicably. "No. But what for?"
"Just try to do some experiment while we're here and have nothing else to do," Hao Ren said as he walked up to Hasse. "Do you have any hostility feeling toward me?"
Hasse and Teuton shook their head in unison. However, Hao Ren's strange move were puzzling them.
Y'zaks suddenly understood what Hao Ren was trying to do. He took his daughter and went up to Hasse. "Look at us. You feeling hostile?"
Hasse immediately and instinctively reached for his weapon on his waist, but calmed down afterward. "Didn't feel my killing instinct, but..."
Y'zaks was vey at ease as he scratched his face and said, "That's okay, and normally people would call the police when they saw me."
"What are you doing, Mr Landlord?" As Lily came closer to him trying to catch up what they were doing, Hao Ren suddenly pushed her forward. "What about this?"
Hasse and Teuton took a step back at once. Hao Ren noticed that the muscles under their skin seemed to flutter quickly as if they had lost control. There was even a hint of silver light in his eyes. Although the two had said nothing, it was obvious their reactions came from the weird phenomenon called killing instinct.
Hasse who was much older in bloodline had a more obvious sign of killing instinct.
So was Lily: as soon as Hasse and Teuton showed a sense of hostility, her golden eyes quickly turned blood red. Then she shook her head frantically and told the two demon hunters. "I felt like wanting to bite you guys."
Hao Ren pulled Lily back before he pulled out Lil Pea from his arms. "You don't feel any killing instinct, do you?"
Hasse could not help but stare with his only eye, and his face was full of surprise. "Has this siren starved while growing up? How can it be so short?"
Hao Ren: "….."
Teuton suddenly frowned. "Wait a second. I feel that this little creature has..."
Hao Ren immediately put Lil Pea back in his arms. "Oh, it doesn't matter."
Anyway, it had turned out that the demon hunters were not hostile to Lil Pea although this little one was by definition a typical 'otherworldling'.
Vivian had watched the whole process of the experiment with her brows pulled together. She had easily summed up what she saw. "You're a human, Mr, Landlord. Rollie is a cat that had just transcended lately, the Y'zaks and his daughter as well as Lil Pea all come from the 'other worlds', so they won't trigger demon hunter's killing instinct. Lily... though she has a weird bloodline, it's enough to trigger Hasse's hostility albeit at a lesser degree and both parties could still easily control themselves. Therefore, the trigger is obvious: 'local', it must be a native, and a 'standard pedigree' handed down from The Plane of Dreams ten thousand years ago. Other migrants or the new species won't work."
"But you are the only one devoid of any explanation," Hao Ren glanced at Vivian. "No one in the Blood Clan can match your purity of bloodline. However, the demon hunters had shown even less killing instinct towards you compared to Lily. You could even chat with them, mind you."
Vivian spread out her hand and said, "That's why I appear like a weirdo no matter where I go."
Hasse looked blankly at them, as he too was confused about his own killing instinct. However, with the limited information he knew it was not enough to figure out why. Therefore, he could not help saying, "What you guys are discussing about?"
Hao Ren looked into Hasse's eyes and said carefully, "What do you think of killing instinct?"
"It's the skill demon hunters rely on for their livelihood, a key to identify their prey, a strong enough killing instinct can even replace the spiritual eyes of demon hunter," said Hasse while looking at White Flame who remained silent all this while. "With the killing instinct, no prey can escape the demon hunter's pursuit."
Vivian suddenly asked with a very subtle smile on her face. "If I'm not mistaken, the killing instinct of the new generation of demon hunters is declining, right?"
Hasse scoffed at her with a grunt.
"You treat this as talent, but have you ever thought it might be something abnormal?" Hao Ren looked at Hasse sincerely. "You have never doubted it... Actually, you're just being controlled by some 'instinct' that shouldn't have existed in the first place?"
A spark of light flashed in Hasse's eye. "What do you mean?"
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