Chapter 1 Although

Although he couldn't yet determine the specific era and location, Hao Ren could still roughly deduce his "landing point" this time based on the surrounding architectural style and Vivian's notes – if his guess was correct, he and Lily should now be in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, and judging from the accents of passersby, they should be somewhere in France, though he couldn't be sure which city.

However, being able to roughly determine the era already provided great convenience. At least Hao Ren could be sure what identity he should assume during the current historical period: a lone hunter-demon hunter hidden in human society, acting independently.

Before setting off, he had learned about the demon hunters in detail from Hasse and Bai Huo. As the most powerful influencing factor throughout the Mythological Era, the demon hunter race was a group that Hao Ren was destined to deal with frequently throughout his historical journey, and their information was the most crucial intelligence for this backtracking trip. After a cram session, Hao Ren learned that even during the most heated conflicts, the demon hunters were not, as ordinary otherworlders imagined, a group of mad hunters incited by fanaticism and hatred. Although they were indeed driven by fanaticism and hatred, their actions and organizational structure were always full of rationality and discipline.

Apart from the Holy Order as the ruling body and the Elder Order guarding the Arctic, which almost never set foot in the mortal world, the demon hunter troops roaming the human world were mainly divided into three categories:

The first category was the "Crusaders," equivalent to the main battle legions, also known as "War Orders." This organization was very active during the Mythological War period. They appeared on the front lines in the thousands, directly destroying all the ancient mythological kingdoms with their tough force, and were the promoters of all "Twilight of the Gods." However, after the end of the Mythological Era, this front-line legion lost its meaning, and gradually disintegrated and reorganized into the second and third types of troops;

The second type of troop was the "Hunting Force," also known as "Hunt Orders." They were elite combat troops composed of a small number of demon hunters, usually ranging from dozens to hundreds. They were mainly active in the later stages of the Mythological Era and the dark ages after the end of the Mythological Era. At this time, the armies of the "Gods" had collapsed, and there were no more epic battles like the sweep of the Great Plain of Weigelut by thousands of troops. However, the exiled sects and small cults left over after the collapse of the "Gods" still bred in secret. The so-called centipede dies but never falls, and these exiled sects, even if they were declining, could often control one or two towns, and the "Hunt Orders" were professional squads used to deal with these stragglers;

The third type of troop could no longer be called a troop. They were actually a completely scattered armed force, called "Rangers." Rangers were usually demon hunters acting alone, or small teams of two or three occasionally formed. These combat elites were active around the same time as the second type of troop. They were independent combat masters. After the otherworlder "Gods" hibernated into the cracks of human civilization, these combat elites, fighting alone, tirelessly served as cleaners. The rural villages and wildlands that the Hunt Orders could not take care of were where the Ranger demon hunters could show their skills.

The Hunt Orders and the Rangers were not completely isolated. Under certain conditions, they were actually one, or could be transformed into each other: if the elite hunters in the Hunt Orders passed certain tests, they would be qualified to go out hunting alone, and thus become Rangers. If an emergency occurred (such as a group of remaining heretical gods being discovered somewhere), the Ranger demon hunters active nearby would also be immediately summoned to form a Hunt Order and participate in the battle.

Hasse once told Hao Ren that the demon hunters' organization was indeed full of discipline, but even the most seamless group would have loopholes. In the demon hunters' combat sequence, the easiest to exploit were the third type of troop: those reclusive and mysterious Ranger demon hunters.

In the wild areas where the remnants of otherworlder forces were still strong, the connection between Ranger demon hunters and the organization would be extremely weak. They would even delve into enemy territory for hunting, unable to contact the outside world for half a century. To track down some extremely cunning prey, they would even completely change their identities, and maintain a secret identity even when contacting other demon hunters – this sounded incredible, but under the premise of the "innate hostility" phenomenon, everything could be explained. Whether demon hunters or otherworlders, when they faced each other, they were accustomed to judging whether the person in front of them was "not of our race" through their hostile instincts. As long as they saw the other party and did not have the urge to draw their swords and chop them, they could rule out the identity of the enemy. Therefore, the process of two demon hunters confirming their identities after meeting was not as strict as imagined, especially among Ranger demon hunters.

Now an "anomaly" appeared in this time and space, and that was Hao Ren: he was a thorough "otherworlder," but he would not arouse innate hostility in front of anyone, which made it easy for him to exploit this biggest loophole.

The safe identity he set for himself was a Ranger demon hunter.

To be on the safe side, he borrowed a complete set of demon hunter disguises from Hasse before setting off. They were all genuine articles, demon hunter standard equipment that only the enchanters of Corpus could manufacture. Taking this set of things to ancient times, he wouldn't have to worry about being seen through even if he met a demon hunter elder. However, he was now only equipped with the Holy Silver short sword and some amulets and talisman cards that could symbolize his identity, because a Ranger hunter would not be fully armed at all times. Disguising themselves as ordinary people was their consistent method.

A dark and gloomy atmosphere shrouded the French towns of the Middle Ages, just like everywhere else in Europe during the same period. This atmosphere was even worse at night: the curfew system strictly prohibited people from going out during this period, and the vigorous witch hunt made everyone feel insecure. There was almost no entertainment after nightfall. In order to prevent being denounced as "sorcerers" by informants, residents did not even dare to make loud noises in their own homes: a graveyard-like silence enveloped the town streets under the night.

Only the night watchmen and cavalry patrolling the town dared to swagger on the streets at this time.

The spark of the Renaissance had already ignited in the cities of Italy, but this flame was far from burning to a remote small town in France. Here, darkness had long been entrenched.

Hao Ren and Lily walked through the empty streets, while paying attention to avoiding the night watchmen who would cause trouble, and concentrating on sensing the gloomy gazes that might be hidden in the darkness: the latter was one of their goals.

"It's so stinky here," Lily complained dissatisfiedly. She had already torn off a circle of the hem of that long skirt that made her very uncomfortable, but its length still made the husky girl very uncomfortable. The latter still had to hold the skirt when running. The skirt was nothing, but what was even more annoying here was the strange smell that could never be avoided in the streets and alleys. "I used to only see it in books, but I didn't expect the medieval European towns to be so stinky."

"These days, even big cities don't have much awareness of public health, let alone this kind of town that I don't know if it counts as a city," Hao Ren was also very unhappy with the surrounding strange smell, but he was glad that his nose was not as sensitive as Lily's, so it had not reached the point of being unbearable. "If it weren't for the frequent occurrence of plagues caused by this environment, the witch hunt would not have been so serious."

"By the way, do you have any ideas, landlord?" Lily endured the surrounding strange smell and tried to distinguish the possible otherworlder aura from the strange smell, and asked Hao Ren in a low voice, "Looking for Vivian's sleeping place in such a blind spot, I feel that the difficulty is so high..."

"Of course I have ideas," Hao Ren had always been confident. "First of all, our 'landing point' will definitely be near Vivian's sleeping place, so there is no need to worry too much about the geographical range. Secondly, abnormal supernatural phenomena will appear around Vivian's sleeping place. These supernatural phenomena will inevitably attract some guys: otherworlder survivors seeking power and heritage, or demon hunters who come over sniffing the smell. The latter two will lead us to the right place. So our first step is to inquire about the situation and see if there are any legends of demons and ghosts nearby, preferably recent events, and then go to investigate as exorcists... Anyway, this is the best way I can think of. Of course, if this method doesn't work, I have follow-up plans, that is, to make a big fuss, so there is a good chance that it will attract the demon hunters, and then I will change my appearance and try to sneak into the demon hunters' team to see if I can steal their monitoring records of the area, there must be valuable clues in it. However, the second plan is very dangerous, and more importantly, you must not be exposed to the demon hunters, so it's best for you to stay in the 'safe house' at that time..."

The "safe house" in Hao Ren's mouth was the hunter's cabin embedded in the boundary of time and space. By tempting the locals to do tests, Hao Ren had confirmed that only he and Lily could see and enter the hunter's cabin, which was a well-deserved safe base.

"I think the first plan is better," Lily certainly didn't want to stay in that still black and white cabin. "Don't worry, landlord, I'm not afraid even if I meet demon hunters... Hey, I'm definitely not going to fight them head-on stupidly, can't I run if I can't beat them? My bloodline is special, even if there are residual innate hostile factors in this 'old body', its hostile reaction is not so strong, and it can easily slip away from under the demon hunters' noses. And if it really doesn't work, I'll pretend to be the 'prey' you caught... If you encounter an otherworlder, you pretend to be the prey I caught, hey, when I think about it this way, the combination of the two of us is simply invincible?"

Hao Ren: "..."

He didn't know if the combination was invincible, but this dog's logic was really invincible!

Just then, Lily suddenly stopped.

"Wait," she said to Hao Ren in a low voice, "There's someone ahead... I smell the scent of magic potion."