Chapter 125 What A Strange Thing

When the dazzling white light gradually dissipated, a hollow echo still lingered in the air, and it took several minutes for this echo to gradually subside. A slightly warm breath—or perhaps it was just a hallucination—hovered over the family hall. All the shadows of chaos seemed to dissipate under that white light. Hasu had the demon hunters maintain the Holy Flame Barrier while he led Bai Huo to investigate the front before finally sending a signal that the crisis was over.

"Whew..." Lily exhaled, the fluff on her tail slowly smoothing down. "I'm really exhausted physically and mentally."

Hao Ren looked at the husky with a strange expression: "You were just watching the excitement from the sidelines the whole time, right?"

Lily was basically useless when fighting the Shadows of Chaos. She knew nothing about magic, and those two claws of hers didn't seem to be of much use other than for boosting morale. So the only thing she did just now was cheer for Hao Ren from the sidelines. She wanted to help when Hesperus and Vivian went to deal with the out-of-control demon hunter, but before she could act, it was all over.

However, the husky girl puffed out her chest and looked quite proud: "I was using a war cry to give you buffs just now!"

Hao Ren thought for a moment, figuring that if Lily's yelling could be considered a war cry, then he could go to a large dog breeding base and come back with at least three rows of buffs on his head...

"Is this the end?" Hao Ren looked up at the direction of the family hall. The black shadows that kept pouring out of the door had completely disappeared, and the dark environment that once shrouded the hall had also vanished. The super-large exorcism ritual had cleared all the negative energy inside and outside the building. Now, the whole thing even faintly revealed a sense of holiness: a faint milky white halo slowly floated on its dome. "Your ritual is pretty powerful."

"This is the demon hunters' method," the flames on Bai Huo's body gradually extinguished. She looked slightly tired, but otherwise, she was fine. "Now it seems that our exorcism spells are more reliable than your shadow powers. Oh, of course, your gun is quite powerful."

At this time, Hesperus dragged over a demon hunter covered in black. She threw the person in her hand in front of Hasu: "Here, your subordinate is intact. Consider this kid lucky—if he hadn't recovered, I would have killed him."

This was the demon hunter whose mind had been controlled by the Shadows of Chaos. He had been saturated and bombarded by Vivian's True Ten Thousand Volts—Scatter, My Bats! Now he was as black as if he had just been fished out of a boiler, and he was twitching from time to time, with electric light flowing through the gaps in his clothes. Hasu immediately bent down to check the warrior's condition, and found that other than the visible skin injuries, he had completely recovered mentally.

"Completely recovered?" Bai Huo exclaimed in surprise when she saw this. "How did you do it?!"

"How did we do it?" Hesperus originally didn't plan to talk much to Hasu and his apprentice, but when Bai Huo asked, she couldn't help but open her mouth. "He naturally recovered after getting a good beating."

Hao Ren noticed that Hasu was constantly checking the demon hunter's condition with a serious face, and he even used various testing spells. He vaguely realized that something seemed wrong: "What's wrong? Shouldn't he have recovered?"

"This has never happened before. The mental chaos caused by the erosion of the Shadows of Chaos requires very complex rituals to recover," Hasu said without looking up. "Since a month ago, some demon hunters have been attacked by these shadows one after another. We have also roughly figured out how to解除精神狂乱 (jiechu jingshen kuangluan, dispel the mental chaos) based on ancient materials, but all of those methods are very troublesome. I've never heard of recovering after just getting a beating."

Lily interjected from the side: "But I saw on TV that those people who are mentally controlled all wake up after getting a beating..."

Hao Ren glanced at her: "You also know that it's a TV show. Isn't that just the screenwriter making things convenient for the plot?"

At this time, the data terminal popped up and muttered: "In fact, there is indeed a big shot who can slap anyone out of madness... Well, but he's not here."

Hasu didn't pay attention to what the data terminal said. He focused his attention on Hesperus and Vivian: "What did you do at the time?"

Hesperus thought for a while and realized that all she did was swing her mace at people, and she didn't even hit them a few times. So she pointed at Vivian: "The final blow was made by her."

"It was electric shock," Vivian replied frankly. "It was just the bat swarm releasing electricity. It's a very ordinary trick for me. And this trick doesn't have any exorcism or soul-suppressing effects."

"Electric shock? Electric shock can解除精神狂乱 (jiechu jingshen kuangluan, dispel mental chaos)?" Bai Huo murmured incredulously. "I've never heard of electric shocks being able to cure this."

At this time, the demon hunter lying on the ground struggled to sit up, opened his mouth, and spat out a puff of black smoke: "Not...not just two shocks..."

After saying this, he lay back down and continued to twitch.

While Hasu and Bai Huo were seriously considering whether electric shock could dispel the mental intrusion of the Shadows of Chaos, Hao Ren suddenly thought of something else. After learning a lot about Vivian, he would naturally think of the bat spirit's special background: "I'm afraid it has nothing to do with electric shock. Maybe Vivian herself dispelled the influence of the Shadows of Chaos."

Hasu didn't understand what he meant, while Vivian showed a strange expression after a moment of愣: "You mean...how come these strange things are always related to me?"

Before Hao Ren could say anything, Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Who told you to be the strangest person in the family?"

"What are you talking about?" Bai Huo looked at Hao Ren and the others in confusion. "Can Countess Vivian's power restrain the Shadows of Chaos?"

"Oh, no, it's nothing, just a guess," Hao Ren felt that this question was not easy to explain for a while, so he waved his hand and敷衍 (fuyan, brushed it off): "In fact, Vivian was one of the ancient gods who sealed the Shadows of Chaos thousands of years ago, so I'm thinking if she unconsciously retained the talent to restrain the shadows."

Hasu looked at Vivian in surprise: "Is this true? Are you really one of the people who built the seal back then?"

Vivian nodded awkwardly: "I think so, but I can't remember clearly."

Hao Ren told Hasu about the origin of the seal, and then the topic shifted back to the Shadows of Chaos just now: "How did those shadows appear? Does anyone have a clue?"

Bai Huo recalled the situation at the time and frowned slightly: "They appeared suddenly. I didn't notice it at all. Your...assistant was the first to run out and report the alarm, wasn't he?"

"If these Shadows of Chaos also appeared suddenly in the hall like this a month ago, then the encounters of the Ankatelo family and those demon hunters can be understood," Hasu said in a deep voice. "They didn't have time to respond at all, and as long as someone fell into mental chaos, the situation would immediately get out of control."

Everyone present knew that the situation just now was actually very dangerous: if it weren't for the data terminal giving an early warning, then with the density of people in the hall and the limitations of the terrain at the time, even experienced demon hunters would have been attacked by the Shadows of Chaos. The shadow's attribute of inducing madness was the biggest threat. The more people there were, the more effective it could be. So it's not hard to imagine how devastating the chain reaction would have been when Amtulla led a large number of demon hunters and members of the Ankatelo family to meet in this hall a month ago, and the Shadows of Chaos suddenly appeared.

"What did everyone do at the time? What did they move? Did they see any abnormal phenomena or feel any special atmosphere?" Yizaks' low and powerful voice sounded, carrying calmness and a reassuring sense of reliability. "We need to figure out if there is something that can 'summon' those shadows."

Everyone immediately began to recall the situation in the hall at the time and their actions. The data terminal also provided a very clear video recording: the images it captured using its own functions were more precise and direct than anyone's description.

After everyone recalled the situation, Hao Ren and Yizaks found that there was nothing particularly noteworthy, as if the Shadows of Chaos really appeared out of thin air for no reason.

But when everyone was陷入困惑 (xianru kunhuo, plunged into confusion), Bai Huo suddenly said thoughtfully: "If I have to say, those shadows appeared when I was completely relaxed."

Hasu looked at his disciple: "Does your hunter's intuition point to this clue?"

"Yes, there should be some connection," Bai Huo nodded slightly and explained his feelings in detail. "The shadows appeared when I completely lost my vigilance towards Hesperus next to me."

Under Bai Huo's reminder, other demon hunters seemed to notice the abnormality just now. Even Hasu and Hesperus remembered their moment of relaxation at the time. Hesperus even frankly said: "I think I even forgot that Hasu was my enemy for a few minutes at the time."