Chapter 1 Situation Begins to Turn Abnormal

The data terminal was the first to issue a warning when things started to go awry.

Everyone was focused on examining the remaining clues in the hall. Bai Huo and Hesperus were analyzing what weapon had created the massive hole in the ceiling, while Hasse and Hao Ren were engrossed in reading Amtullah's documents. No one sensed any murderous intent or hostility—just like Hao Ren's first encounter with the Chaos Shadows. These shadows were undetectable, lacking any aura, and even the most experienced hunters and demon lords like Izhaks couldn't anticipate their attacks. Suddenly, the data terminal leaped out of Hao Ren's arms, emitting a series of piercing alarms: "Warning! Abnormal energy detected! Abnormal energy detected!"

The data terminal relied on energy signatures to identify enemies. Its unique sensory abilities detected the movements of the Chaos Shadows.

This sudden appearance of the glowing blue brick startled the nearby demon hunters. At first, they thought that the aliens here had finally lost control and planned to fight them. However, Hasse quickly realized what was happening. The old hunter swiftly drew his hand crossbow and shouted, "Chaos Shadows!"

In the blink of an eye, the experienced demon hunters entered battle mode upon their leader's warning. A layer of faint silver, scorching flames erupted around each of them, and Bai Huo transformed into a form resembling a flame goddess. Hao Ren reacted quickly as well, immediately pulling out his silver-white spear and apple box (he didn't use the psionic pistol because there were too many people around and he was worried about friendly fire). He stepped in front of Lily, saying, "Don't panic, everyone! Stay calm!"

As soon as Hao Ren finished speaking, a familiar sense of danger came from the side. He immediately turned and dodged, aiming the apple box in the direction of the threat—he wasn't sure if he had caught anything because he felt the chilling sense of danger suddenly emerge from all directions!

The fallen pillars, scattered furniture, and the bodies of the Tanar and demon hunters—the shadows beneath all these things seemed to come alive in an instant, twisting and trembling. Large patches of bizarre, skin-crawling blackness "flowed" out of the shadows of various objects, gradually staining the golden floor of the hall with darkness like overflowing blood. Standing in these countless writhing shadows, Hao Ren felt a sensation of being swallowed by quicksand.

The concentration of Chaos Shadows here was astonishing!

Holy flames blazed around Hasse, but he first glanced at Hao Ren in surprise—it was relatively easy to understand why this guy had pulled out a spear, but holding a fruit box was harder to explain… Out of kindness, the old hunter lowered his voice and reminded him, "Hao Ren, you've got the wrong thing."

Hao Ren was taken aback. He looked at the plasma battle blade in his hand and remembered that it didn't seem to be very useful against Chaos Shadows, so he put the silver-white spear away, leaving him holding only the apple box.

Hasse: "…"

"What are you looking at? Haven't you seen high technology before!" The data terminal slammed into Hasse's head with a bang, then shone brightly, causing all the Chaos Shadows within a few meters of Hao Ren to freeze. "Everyone, retreat! The shadows here are too dense! It'll be a disaster if we get surrounded!"

Even without the data terminal's reminder, the elite warriors on the scene had already realized that the situation was bad, as more and more writhing shadows gathered from all directions, engulfing the entire hall like a swamp. Watching these disgusting and nauseating things slowly block out all footholds in their sight, the holy flames around Bai Huo blazed like a torch in an instant. She floated into the air like a flame spirit, projecting a path of holy fire towards the exit of the hall, temporarily pushing back the shadows: "Everyone, move outside!"

Protected by the holy flames, the demon hunters quickly formed groups of three, retreating towards the hall entrance while fighting against the attacking shadows. Countless Chaos Shadows swarmed from all directions, desperately surging towards the holy flame defense line like mud. Although they were supposed to be formless and immaterial, Hao Ren seemed to hear a chilling "glug glug" sound in his hallucination, the sound of some evil, chaotic entity constantly gathering. Hasse ignited a Leta rune card and threw it into the most concentrated area of Chaos Shadows. A pungent, acrid smell immediately filled the air, but other than this smell and a slight repelling effect, the rune's killing power was minimal.

"Go!" Hasse threw out two more cards to temporarily push back the nearest shadows, calling out to Bai Huo, who was maintaining the flame path.

Lily was about to rush out with the group when she glanced guiltily at the burning path of holy fire on the ground: "Are we really running across that? Won't all my fur get scorched?!"

Bai Huo, transformed into a flame spirit, rushed over and pulled Lily hard: "Let's go, I'm controlling it!"

Hao Ren and the others followed without another word. Hao Ren was nervous when he stepped onto the blazing silver flames, as it looked quite frightening, but after walking on it, he finally believed in Bai Huo's superb holy flame talent. The flames didn't hurt anyone at all. Lily was being dragged along by Bai Huo while shouting, "It's really not hot! It's really not hot!"

After everyone rushed out of the family hall, the situation finally improved somewhat. Hao Ren had originally imagined the worst-case scenario: that the Chaos Shadows had set up an inescapable net in this secret realm and that the plaza outside the hall was also shrouded in darkness. But fortunately, the situation outside was normal, and it seemed that the Chaos Shadows were entirely concentrated inside the hall.

After the group retreated from the hall, the mud-like shadows chased relentlessly, surging out of the hall entrance in waves. The demon hunters immediately formed a formation in the small plaza, and the silver-white holy flames blocked between the crowd and the shadows like a city wall.

Hao Ren discovered that these holy flames had an unexpectedly effective effect against the Chaos Shadows. Although they couldn't destroy the shadows, they could at least effectively dispel and suppress them. With the demon hunters forming a defensive line around him, Hao Ren didn't have to worry about the predicament he had faced during his first encounter with the Chaos Shadows: the shadows constantly缠绕纠缠缠绕纠缠糾纏 his feet, a situation he never wanted to experience again.

"Prepare the grand exorcism ritual!" Hasse commanded the hunters loudly. "The holy flame warriors maintain the defensive line; don't let any shadows touch anyone!"

The Chaos Shadows' ability to disturb the mind was the biggest threat. Once a warrior went berserk, they would destroy the entire defense line from within, so the holy flame barrier absolutely couldn't fail.

Several master-level demon hunters stepped forward, opened their hands, and began to chant extremely ancient incantations. Special metal leaves engraved with Leta runes automatically floated out of their hunter satchels, slowly rotating around their bodies. As this powerful exorcism ritual began, the entire family hall was immediately enveloped in a layer of silver light, and above the silver light floated a huge Leta rune large enough to cover the entire building.

They were preparing a special large-scale ritual, but completing this ritual would definitely take some time. The Chaos Shadows obviously didn't plan to sit still and wait for death. They immediately launched wave after wave of attacks from all directions.

The hunters were struggling to maintain the defensive line and couldn't spare any combat power to actively weaken the shadows that were constantly pouring out of the hall. So Izhaks and Elizabeth stepped forward: "We'll help too!"

The demon father and daughter switched to shadow form, with ominous green runes swirling around them, and rifts in the shadow plane constantly spreading beneath their feet. In order not to put extra pressure on the holy flame hunters, they voluntarily stepped out of the barrier formed by the holy flames and walked towards the Chaos Shadows.

The Chaos Shadows immediately discovered these two "prey" who had taken the initiative to come to them. They rushed up like hungry jackals. Izhaks opened the gates of the shadow plane, constantly banishing the Chaos Shadows to a place of eternal darkness, while Elizabeth wielded a huge shadow orb and smashed it around on the ground: she didn't need to aim at all because enemies were everywhere.

The little demon always used magic in such a peculiar way—it seemed like the magic that other mages used to launch spells was all held in her hands and used to smash people…

However, the Chaos Shadows had no fear and no intelligence. They still rushed forward one after another. Even though their weakness had been grasped, they didn't change their tactics in the slightest. Izhaks looked down at the shadows crawling and surging at his feet with a mocking expression, his forehead occasionally flashing a little light.

So his forehead really can reflect this stuff…