“Take us to those witches—and warlocks.”

Hao Ren disregarded the grey rat's attempts to appear terrified and beg for mercy, and spoke with an unquestionable tone.

“I… no… no, no, sir, you can ask me to do anything, but please don’t make me do this,” the look of fear on the grey rat’s face was now genuine, “Madam Mary will kill me! She’ll definitely find out I betrayed them…”

“Madam Mary? Sounds like that’s the witch ‘employing’ you,” Hao Ren raised an eyebrow. “Listen, if you take us to her, you’ll die after you see her. If you don’t take us, you’ll die right now—life is precious, you should calculate every second.”

It wasn't that he suddenly developed a liking for intimidating people, but he knew that dealing with these cunning minions who walked between the human world and the supernatural required a different approach. The only language they understood was money and violence, and when things got dangerous, the latter was most effective.

The appropriate intimidation was indeed quite effective. The grey rat's face instantly turned pale. He realized that the man who seemed to have a gentle smile was not as harmless as he appeared. He was also a predator in the dark world, and a rather cold-blooded one at that: begging and stalling were useless against such a fellow.

“Sir, have mercy,” the grey rat’s face completely collapsed. “I’m just a rat in the gutter. The witches only asked me to keep an eye out for witch hunters and other dark world residents passing by. They gave me owl potions and some ointments… but they didn’t let me know a single secret! I don’t even know the location of their witches' sabbath. I only communicate with puppets created by witchcraft tricks. I report what I see to the puppets, and then get new ointments. They haven’t even appeared in front of me since the first meeting… I really can’t help you.”

Hao Ren frowned, thinking that this was indeed the dark age after the end of the mythological era. Even witches and warlocks who had once been servants of the supernatural had become so cautious. You know, during the Mythological War, affiliated characters like them wouldn't even be on the list of demon hunters. However, this caution was understandable. The grey rat in front of him was enough to explain everything: the loyalty of this kind of "rat" could be ignored. You didn't even know if these guys' previous employer was a demon hunter or a vampire, and they might even be simultaneously loyal to two masters at this moment!

However, the witches’ caution was also expected. Hao Ren imperceptibly winked at Lily, who immediately increased the force on her hand. The grey rat even heard his neck making a crisp sound: he almost felt that the other party was going to break his neck in the next second.

“Then take us to contact the ‘Madam Mary’ you mentioned,” Hao Ren looked into the grey rat’s eyes. “Take us to the contact point, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“I… I understand,” the grey rat was never a brave man, so his psychological defenses could only hold up to this point. “I will take you… I will take you… cough, please let go…”

Hao Ren nodded at Lily: "Let him go."

“Tch, I thought this guy would be more tight-lipped,” Lily casually threw the scrawny man on the ground. “He makes a living in this ‘business,’ but I didn’t expect him to be so useless. That Pierre was much more principled than this one.”

“Nonsense, Pierre is a spirit detective, this is a spirit rat, can they be the same,” Hao Ren rolled his eyes at the husky, who lacked a clear concept. “The two of them just work in nearby units…”

Lily thought for a while and agreed.

The exchange with the grey rat was neither long nor short. As time passed, the night became deeper. The originally bright moonlight gradually disappeared behind the clouds. From the distant streets came the sound of rings colliding. Lily's ears twitched slightly.

“Someone is approaching,” she looked at Hao Ren. “About a few hundred meters away.”

“It’s the night patrol soldiers,” the grey rat was not surprised why this girl could hear people’s movements from such a distance, but instead showed a nervous expression. “We must leave here first, otherwise we will definitely attract the people from the church…”

Hao Ren nodded, signaling the local to lead the way, while he and Lily followed closely behind.

The trio traveled through the intricate, dark, and cramped streets of the medieval town.

A wind arose in the silent night, and the clouds in the sky moved quickly. A bright moon appeared and disappeared in the clouds, casting unpredictable and ghostly shadows on the earth. In this era lacking entertainment, the residents of the town had already fallen asleep. There were not enough streetlights, nor light leaking from the residences. In addition, the moonlight was often blocked by clouds. The narrowest and most remote alleys were like dark, gaping maws, making people shrink back. However, the grey rat specifically picked such alleys to move forward. He was truly like a rat in the gutter, at home in these "gutters" filled with sewage and strange smells.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought about escaping. In fact, the almost crazy idea popped into his head uncontrollably when he first entered the dark alley. However, his final bit of reason made him wake up in time. He remembered the figure of the girl in the long skirt sweeping through the entire street like a gust of wind. That was a speed far beyond human imagination. Even after taking the owl potion, he couldn't keep up with the other party's figure with his vision, let alone rely on his small advantage of being familiar with the terrain to get rid of her control.

He now only wanted to know what these two suddenly appearing "dark world residents" wanted to do, and whether they were enemies or friends of the witches (although it seemed more likely to be the former). If he could figure this out, he would at least know how to please them.

Unfortunately, these two suddenly appearing mysterious people were very different from any "employer" he had ever contacted. They seemed to have clear goals, and were not interested in any interests and power struggles here. Apart from inquiring about the witches' information, these two people didn't care about anything else.

This was not good news for a "minion" who relied on selling information and acting as a scout.

However, he still wanted to try to change the situation.

“Esteemed sir, and esteemed lady,” as they gradually approached the contact point, the grey rat finally mustered the courage to break the silence. “I think it is necessary for me to know who I am working for now, right?”

Hao Ren was observing the surrounding movements. Their speed had now slowed down. This was obviously close to the dirtier and more backward area of the city—he originally thought it was a town when he saw the dilapidated and dirty streets, but now that he had run so far, he understood from the scale that this was actually a city that was not too small, but medieval cities generally lacked planning and cleaning, so it looked particularly backward—the surrounding streets were more dilapidated than before, the houses were almost crumbling, and beggars huddled in the shadows could be seen from time to time on both sides of the sewage-filled streets: the curfew system was meaningless for these poor people who were already homeless, and the slums where they hid were also places that the patrolling soldiers would never visit.

These tattered streets were a more barbaric and backward area in the barbaric and backward Middle Ages. It was their existence that highlighted a little bit of "civilization" in other places.

The grey rat's voice made Hao Ren stop slightly. He looked back: "You think we are demon hunters?"

The three words demon hunter seemed to carry a curse-like power, and cold sweat immediately appeared on the grey rat's face: obviously, if he was really taking two demon hunters to find the witches' contact point, then he would definitely not live to see tomorrow morning.

Hao Ren smiled, his hand touched the holy silver short sword at his waist, but he didn't reveal it, but gently touched Lily next to him.

Lily immediately understood: "Landlord, are you hungry? I'm also a little hungry…"

Okay, it would be a miracle if you could communicate smoothly with this husky! Sure enough, the girl's cooperation in frightening people before was completely an overperformance, right?

Hao Ren gritted his teeth, disappointed: "Your ears and teeth!"

Lily then realized, and grinned at the grey rat, a pair of "wolf" ears then emerged from behind her hair. At the same time, a pair of sharp canines glittering with cold light gradually protruded from her mouth.

“Wolf…” the grey rat took a breath of cold air, and immediately felt that he had just brushed shoulders with death. Werewolves were the most notoriously capricious of all the "masters." “Okay, okay… I understand, please put away your fangs, I will lead the way properly…”

After Lily put away her fangs, the grey rat felt even more relieved: at least they weren't demon hunters. If they were werewolves… they shouldn't have such a big feud with the witches, right?

He didn't know much about the "innate hostility" between various dark races, but as far as he knew, witches and warlocks, these half-human, half-monster guys, had the lowest hatred with other dark races, especially werewolves, their relationship was relatively harmonious. Taking "two werewolves" to meet the witches, as long as he could make the words smooth enough at that time, Madam Mary might spare him.

What he didn't know was that the reason why the wizards had a close relationship with werewolves was all because werewolves were the group that "raised" the most wizards in the ancient mythological era. They even liked to raise wizards more than the blood clan: werewolves had a long tradition of dark shadow magic, and their magic was relatively simple, more suitable for ordinary talented humans to learn. As for the blood clan…

The blood clan's profound magic was almost incomprehensible to humans, and instead of teaching stupid humans magic, the blood clan preferred to directly transform humans into blood servants, which was simple, efficient, and had unparalleled loyalty.

These secrets of the mythological era were not something that people like the grey rat could come into contact with.