Chapter 579 (1/2)
The seawater was wrapping around them as they stood in a peculiar, oval-shaped bubble supported by foam and water. The bubble moved forward at an incredible speed, while Shaqira and Sorma took turns circling the outside the air bubble to keep the magic stabilised. This experience was different from Hao Ren’s previous journey into the deep sea with Nangong Wuyue. The only thing common to both experiences was that Hao Ren had found them equally novel and interesting.
Rollie was wide-eyed as she looked at the scenery in amazement. In her limited cognition, there was no explanation to this phenomenon. She ran up and down on the ‘surface’ where the air bubble and water met. Occasionally, there would be some quick moving shadows swept past on the outside—they were fish from the shallow water or just string of bubbles—and she would rush to it with excitement but was bounced back every time.
Vivian held the cat-maiden and so that she would quiet down while Hasse looked curiously at this strange ‘otherworldling’. “What is she?”
“A transcended cat,” Hao Ren shrugged his shoulders. “You can consider it an otherworldling according to your method of categorisation. However, she was just an ordinary domestic cat a month ago. So I’m curious, would this seemingly harmless creature that had transformed into a humanoid become your target?”
Teuton pressed against his eyebrows and exchanged a look with Hasse. “Any killer instinctual response?””Neither have I.”
Hao Ren had not paid attention to what the two were talking. He had only noticed that Teuton and Hasse always kept a distance of three meters him, and tried not turn their face away while they spoke among themselves. He felt this kind of always-on-guard behaviour and social exclusion was unnecessary especially when they had signed the ceasefire agreement. “You two don’t have to keep a distance and look the other way, do you? You see, White Flame has been braver than you guys.”
Hasse shot Hao Ren a reply while his head turned the other way. “Because White Flame is of the younger generation, she won’t have to resist the strong killer instinct while mingling with you guys. But we must stay away from the otherworldlings to ensure that we don’t lose control…”
Hao Ren’s face suddenly turned serious. “Wait a second. What do you mean by killing instincts?”
“You don’t even know this?” Hasse was a little surprised. “Have you ever met any demon hunters before?”
“I’d sought with many but not so much about understanding them,” Hao Ren shrugged. “What do you mean by killing instinct?”
“The instinctual enmity that demon hunters manifest when they see an alien,” Vivian explained. “It will even translate into kill instinct directly, so demon hunters and aliens need only one eye exchange to start a fight. And the process is akin to the way two different races of alien met and fought, but the hostility of demon hunters manifest towards the otherworldlings is more intense and could directly translate into combat strength, so it is called killing instinct.”
Hao Ren’s eyes suddenly squinted. “Another ‘unique phenomenon of Earth… exactly the same as what we discussed before.”
“Hasse, is your killing instinct triggered when you see me? Vivian suddenly glanced up at Hasse. “I vaguely remembered I had dealt with many demon hunters and they manifested a very weak killing instinct when they saw me.”
Hasse cautiously looked at this way and his voice was somewhat confused. “Although it sounds incredible… but my killing instinct at this moment is indeed incredibly calm, and as far as I can recall, I was pretty calm when bumped into you a few times in the past. If not, we wouldn’t be able to reach the ceasefire agreement so easily. It’s the unusual calm of our killing instinct that has prevented us from getting into a fight.”
Hao Ren exhaled softly. He finally understood exactly why there had never been a truce between the aliens and the demon hunters on Earth, but he had been standing side by side with the demon hunters for many times, including this time—although the two sides were still suspicious of each other, the suspicion was purely of differences in stance. That was the reason why Hasse had agreed to walk with the otherworldlings temporarily.
The main reason was not Vivian’s eloquence nor Hasse’s courteousness; these were only trivial factors. There was only one fundamental reason: a certain effective ‘innate hostility’ mechanism has been in control. Only today that this effective mechanism had created a state of volatility.
Hao Ren suddenly realized that if he wanted to break the long-standing confrontation between aliens and demon hunters on Earth, now was the opportunity.
He carefully pushed the cat-maiden forward and said, “Hasse, are you feeling hostile toward her when you look at her?”
Hasse looked at Hao Ren inexplicably. “No. But what for?”
“Just try to do some experiment while we’re here and have nothing else to do,” Hao Ren said as he walked up to Hasse. “Do you have any hostility feeling toward me?”
Hasse and Teuton shook their head in unison. However, Hao Ren’s strange move were puzzling them.
Y’zaks suddenly understood what Hao Ren was trying to do. He took his daughter and went up to Hasse. “Look at us. You feeling hostile?”