Chapter 1436 - Shadows in the Night (1/2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It was impossible to know the specific year and location, but Hao Ren could still roughly deduce the “landing spot” of his retrospective journey from the surrounding architecture and Vivian’s handwritten record. If Hao Ren had guessed it right, Lily and he should now be somewhere between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Based on the accent of the passers-by, they were likely in France, though he could not make out which city.

However, knowing the approximate year was good enough. At least Hao Ren could decide what identity to use as a disguise: a stalker demon hunter hidden amongst human society.

Before Hao Ren set off on the retrospective mission, he had learned about the demon hunters from Hasse and White Flame. As the most powerful actors in the entire Mythological Era, the demon hunters were the race that Hao Ren would frequently deal with throughout his journey back in time. Hasse and White Flame had provided Hao Ren a crash course in that regard. He learned that even during the height of conflict, the demon hunters were steady. Contrary to the otherworldlings’ perception of them as being killers full of fanaticism and hatred, they were actually rational and disciplined.

Excluding the sages and the Council of Elders in the Arctic, there were three categories of demon hunters.

The first category was the regular force, the Sacred Army, or also known as the Battle Group. It was very active during the Mythological War with hundreds of thousands of them on the battlefield. The Battle Group used brute force to destroy all the ancient Mythological Kingdoms. It was the force behind the Twilight of the Gods event. But after the end of the Mythological Era, this frontline force lost its purpose of existence. It gradually disintegrated and was incorporated into the second as well as third categories.

The second category was the Hunters. They were elite combat units composed of a small number of demon hunters, usually ranging from the dozens to hundreds. They were mainly active at the end of the Mythological Era, and the Dark Ages. At that time, the army of the gods had disintegrated, and there were no more epic battles across the Great Plains of Vigrid. Exiled sects as well as small heretical worships still existed underground and controlled a few towns. The Hunters’ job was to hunt down these remnants.

The third category was not even an organized force. The Stalkers were demon hunters who acted individually. Sometimes, they worked in a group of two or three. Their active period was similar to the Hunters’, and they were masters of solo combat. When the otherworldling gods hid in the narrow spaces between the different human civilizations, these solitary elite combatants took up the role of cleaner in the villages and the wild. They went where the Hunters could not reach to weed out the otherworldlings.

The Hunters and the Stalkers were not strictly differentiated though. They could be the same under certain circumstances. When elite Hunters passed specific tests, they would be qualified to go hunting alone, effectively as a Stalker. During an emergency like detection of a group of heretics, Stalkers nearby would come together and form a hunting party much like the Hunters.

Hasse once told Hao Ren that the demon-hunter organization had discipline. But as always, there were loopholes in everything. Among the three categories of demon hunters, the Stalkers were the most likely to circumvent the rules and discipline. They lived in isolation and were very secretive.

In the wild where the remaining otherworldlings were still strong, communication between the Stalkers and the demon-hunter organization would be extremely infrequent. They went deep into the enemy’s heartland, usually without contact with the outside world for half a century. Sometimes, the Stalkers would change their faces and appearances just to track down extremely sneaky prey. They would not even reveal their identity when they were in contact with other demon hunters. It might sound incredible, but under the premise of innate hostility, everything was explainable. Irrespective of the demon hunters or the otherworldlings, they judged whether one was friendly or hostile through innate hostility. If there was no sense of hatred or the urge to kill the other, then they were friendly. The way two demon hunters identified each other was not as sophisticated as one would think, especially when it was between the Stalkers.

Now there was an outlier in that space and time. There, Hao Ren was effectively an “otherworldling”. However, he would not trigger innate hostility in anyone, and that gave him maximum convenience.

So, Hao Ren disguised himself as a Stalker.

To get ahead of the situation, Hao Ren had borrowed a full set of demon-hunter gear from Hasse. It was all genuine stuff, which only craftsmen from Coldpath could make. Hao Ren would use them as camouflage, and that would fool the demon hunter elders from detecting him. But for the moment, he would only carry the sacred dagger and some runic cards; a Stalker usually did not wear a full set of gear. Disguising as ordinary people was their modus operandi.