Chapter 1 The Night Falls

Night had already fallen.

In this era without electric lights and underdeveloped wilderness, the world after dark rarely had light. The only brilliant lights were concentrated in the noble areas in the city center and near the church. Once outside the city, the only guides for travelers were moonlight and starlight, just like now.

Hao Ren and Lily easily left the city after dark. The ordinary soldiers patrolling were like decorations to them. After walking not far along the road outside the city, the two noticed an open space beside the road. In that open space stood a solitary, withered beech tree. The bright moonlight of the nearly full moon shone on the dry branches of the beech tree, and a crow was standing there, its beady eyes examining the two people leaving the city in the night.

Hao Ren stared at the crow for a while, then calmly said, "Are you here to guide us?"

The crow was startled and let out a hoarse, unpleasant cry, fluttering from one branch to another farther away.

Lily scratched her head. "Landlord, I don't think it's him..."

Hao Ren frowned. "That Madam Marie said to follow the crow's guidance. She wouldn't lie about that, would she? That would be kind of nasty, completely harming others without benefiting oneself..."

Before he finished speaking, he heard another flapping of wings behind him, followed by a hoarse voice, like a crow's cry: "Hey! Hey! Idiots! Idiots! What are you looking at! The great Kodo is here!"

Hao Ren turned his head and saw an ugly monster bird at least twice the size of an ordinary crow hopping on a haystack not far away. The monster bird had a conspicuous black feather standing on its head, and while hopping around, it was noisily saying in a very proud tone: "Hey! That hateful old woman always makes the great Kodo guide you brainless fools! Hey, hey!"

Hao Ren was immediately stunned. "So you're the crow guiding us?"

"Of course it's me! Of course it's me! Have you ever seen a crow more beautiful than the great Kodo?" The huge crow flapped its wings while shouting, "You were actually talking to that skinny, sickly ghost just now, what a joke—caw! That old woman is a joke too! She knows there are crows everywhere in the wilderness, but she insists that Kodo be responsible for guiding strangers!"

"Alright, alright, we know you're great," Hao Ren quickly told the chattering ugly bird to shut up. "Now take us to see your master, that's the agreement."

"Kodo knows, Kodo knows, Kodo is smarter than most of you, so shut your mouths, Kodo knows what to do—"

The big crow clamored noisily, chattering endlessly, but it finally had to obey the witch's command, so it flapped its wings and flew into the air, leading Hao Ren and Lily to run through the wilderness under the night.

This crow with a somewhat abnormal mind flew very fast from the beginning, seemingly sincerely wanting to shake off the two people behind it, completely disregarding the master's orders. However, it soon realized that its flying speed was completely insignificant to the two people on the ground. No matter how fast it flapped its wings, it could not escape the sight of those two people. Lily even had time to collect a lot of strange stones while running and weave a wreath with wildflowers she found in the wild—to be honest, if there wasn't something important to do, this dog could even go hunting along the way…

The big crow finally gave up the idea of ​​teasing these two people.

But its chattering never stopped for a moment. Perhaps the witch fed it some other strange things when she opened the bird's intelligence. The bird's sanity was always in an uncontrollable state. It talked eloquently while flying, discussing human harvests, talking about the lord's quirks, talking about the size of cities and villages, talking about the weather and soil, and even talking about the name of its second egg laid last year. Hao Ren wanted to borrow a stone from Lily countless times to smash the damned bird down, but he managed to restrain himself…

And in Kodo's constant chatter, Hao Ren noticed that the surrounding moonlight was gradually dimming.

They deviated from the road and ran in a wilderness. Fog began to rise around them, and even the direction became erratic in the hazy fog. Slowly, even the crow in the air was obscured by the fog, and only the constant sound of nonsense echoed in the air, guiding the direction ahead.

A cemetery suddenly appeared in the thick fog.

Several sections of crooked iron railings stood in front of them. Opposite the iron railings, sparse tombstones and statues could be seen. Several dead trees had fallen down, and the dry branches had crushed the cemetery walls, with the branches resting on a few solitary tombstones.

The sound of the big crow flapping its wings rang in the air. Kodo fell from the thick fog. It stood on the iron railing and shouted in the direction of the cemetery. Accompanied by the harsh crowing, the haphazard fences and tree trunks immediately grew countless hands and feet, and ran to the sides in a hurry while yelling.

Hao Ren and Lily became vigilant and followed the big crow into the cemetery.

A long table was set up in the open space in the center of the cemetery. The long table was filled with all kinds of suspicious food. Thick white candles stood between the cups and plates, and the pale flames at the top of the candles burned quietly in the mist as if frozen.

Several black high-backed chairs were placed randomly around the long table. Several women in black robes stood up, turning their heads, their eyes full of suspicion and vigilance, staring at Hao Ren and Lily.

The fog in the cemetery slowly dissipated, and Hao Ren could see the appearance of everyone present. Some of the witches were enchanting and charming, some were youthful and beautiful, and some looked like ordinary peasant women, but these appearances were meaningless—Hao Ren knew very well that the most important responsibility of witches in the mythical era, as servants of alien gods, was to serve their masters and please guests. Their most basic ability was to use magic to reshape their physical appearance. Every adult witch had at least a dozen faces, and even they themselves didn't know what their original appearance should be, so it was useless to recognize a witch from her appearance.

But at least during this "guest visit," these witches shouldn't change their faces.

So Hao Ren quickly recognized "Madam Marie" among the witches. She was standing in front of the high-backed chair closest to the end of the long table, wearing a simple black robe, with a bronze pendant hanging on her chest. The big crow "Kodo" was standing on her shoulder, tearing apart a piece of bloody raw meat with relish.

"Very well, you have arrived as agreed," Madam Marie raised her chin and said expressionlessly, "Mysterious wizard, and mysterious werewolf lady—the situation is difficult now, I hope you don't mind this simple place to entertain guests."

"You can call me Hao Ren," Hao Ren did not give himself a Western-style name, but directly used this name that would sound inexplicable to the locals. "This werewolf is called Lily."

"Hao Ren... strange syllables," Madam Marie repeated the words stiffly, and then she really regarded it as a pseudonym used when traveling outside. Although wizards are not as good at disguise and change as witches, basic disguise and false names are still very common. "Foreign wizard, I hope you can understand our caution in this situation. In this day and age, receiving a stranger is a huge risk—I hope you can first prove your identity as a wizard."

"Understandable. Guys who trust others always die quickly these days." Hao Ren smiled and waved his hand casually. Countless swords and strange weapons immediately appeared with ripples in the air. The cold light of metal stretched into pieces in the air—he certainly didn't know the tricks of wizards, but a dignified inspector has a lot of tricks, and it's not difficult to pretend to be a wizard, not to mention that the wizard system on Earth is messy, and they were all "magic apprentices" forcibly created by various alien gods using near-human experiments. It is even more difficult to distinguish.

The witches didn't expect Hao Ren to prove his "wizard identity" in such a scene, and they were immediately a little commotion. Madam Marie's expression changed slightly, and then she believed that this kind of witchcraft of "making weapons" should indeed be the method of wizards.

At least not demon hunters.

Lily also stood up with great interest: "Hey, hey, do I need to prove myself? Look at my ears, look at my teeth—they're all genuine!"

Several witches closest to her subconsciously stepped back, and then a young woman bowed unnaturally: "There is no need to prove the identity of this werewolf lady. We can feel your powerful aura."

Lily was immediately very happy.

Hao Ren's eyebrows moved, realizing that although the mythical era had ended at this moment, and human wizards had broken away from slavery to become an independent group, aliens with orthodox bloodlines still had a certain deterrent power in front of them. Although Lily was not a real werewolf, she still had the werewolf's pressure and extremely similar aura—for witches who only had half-human characteristics, it was completely impossible to distinguish the subtle differences.

It seems that taking Lily with him has unexpected benefits.

"Did you bring news of the demon hunters?"

After confirming his identity, Madam Marie asked directly.

Hao Ren did not answer immediately, but randomly found an empty chair by the long table and sat down. He saw a mysterious person in a black robe sitting opposite the table, his face hidden in the hood. Judging from the figure, it should be a man, and should be the male wizard that Gray Mouse mentioned before.

The hooded male wizard nodded slightly to Hao Ren as a greeting. Hao Ren returned the greeting, and then responded to Madam Marie's question: "First, I want to know about the captured witch."

Madam Marie's face darkened: "I said, that is..."

"That's a deceptive scam?" Hao Ren raised his eyelids and glanced at the witch. "Then you are pretty dedicated to this scam—you even went to the execution ground in the city to carve a bunch of runes, right?"

The middle-aged witch's expression finally showed surprise: "You actually went to confirm those things?"

"If I don't have this caution and care, how can I deal with you cunning guys?" Hao Ren spread his hands. "I think we should be more open and honest. Demon hunters are wandering around, and the human church is also very powerful. In the name of magic, aren't there enough enemies? I actually have to spare my energy to distinguish your words."

Madam Marie remained silent with a gloomy face. A young witch behind her finally stood up: "You should understand our caution, wizard, because the person we are going to rescue is very important—she is a representative from a large force, and we expect to get the protection of that force through her."

Hao Ren didn't really care who the witches were going to rescue. He wanted to directly inquire whether there were any ruins or ancient castles near here, but in order to further build a relationship with these witches, he still had to continue the topic, and even consider helping them save people: "Oh? What kind of person is she?"

"Her name is Hessiana, a powerful blood mage."

"Pfft—"