The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren looked around and found that no one was paying him any attention, so he sat down next to Liu Sheng. “What made you the both of you come here?”

“Like I said, we were passing by,” said Liu Sheng. He smiled and nodded as he raised his hand, placing a sensory-jamming Letta rune card on the table. He then flipped it to block the attention of regular people from the corner they were sitting in. “We’ve lived in this area for some time before, and we just came back today to take a look. I didn’t expect to see you here… opening a restaurant.”

“It’s not mine. It belongs to my two friends.” Hao Ren peered at Liu Sheng, but he was not suspicious about him and his partner. Although they were demon hunters, they were harmless after Raven 12345 carefully “educated” them. He was just surprised that the two popped out of nowhere. “Passing by, really?”

Liu Sheng smiled and was quiet for a few seconds before he said, “Okay, actually we have something that we need to see you, but let’s not talk about it now. In fact, we’re passing by. At least before we come to this little restaurant, we have never thought of you guys own this place. We were thinking about how we can find you.”

“Today is the grand opening day,” Hao Ren looked back at the busy restaurant, shaking his head and sighing. “We’re all rookies. Look at all the mess. Luckily, most of them are neighbours. Everyone is magnanimous. Let them be.”

Hao Ren did not need to divulge so much about the Nangong couple to the two thoroughbred demon hunters. After all, they were mere acquaintances. Meanwhile Zhao Xi started guessing. “I saw there are a couple at the back… are they the bosses? Otherworldings that plan to settle down in the human society?”

“What’s wrong with otherworldlings settling down?” Hao Ren glanced at her. “They are not really monsters, especially those that have survived in modern society. Many otherworldlings actually want peace and stability; it’s you people that don’t give them the opportunity.”

“We know,” Liu Sheng nodded. “We had long no prejudice. It’s only a rare feeling to see otherworldlings settling down in human society peacefully. After all, the otherworldlings that we saw before either were in the mountains or controlling a large group of human slaves and hiding in their lairs in the city, or they were just like those ancient otherworldlings that the ancient books described as wreaking havoc in the world. I have never seen this before. They look little different from humans.”

Hao Ren realised something was not right. “Wait a second. Can’t you see the race of the couple at the back?”

Demon hunters were excellent hunters, especially in dealing with the otherworldlings. They could even judge their opponents’ racial and approximate abilities simply by intuition. This was also how they could finally defeat the otherworldlings and end the Mythical Era. Liu Sheng and his partner should be able to recognise the race of the couple at a glance! But, their reaction obviously showed that they had not.

Not being able to recognise Nangong Wudi was understandable given that fact that their instinct was ineffective to use on their own kind. Moreover, demon hunters were good at concealing their own smell. If one did not actively reveal oneself, no one could identify it. The only person who did that was Hessel who by virtual of his extraordinary ability identified Nangong Sanba with just a glance. But Liu Sheng and Zhao Xi should be able to identify Ayesha the siren, no? Siren was rarely seen on the surface. No matter who saw it their first reaction would be surprise and then asking questions. The reaction of Liu Sheng clearly showed that he did not recognised him. Perhaps he was thinking that the Nangong couple were just some ordinary terrestrial aliens.

Hearing the words of Hao Ren, Liu Sheng was stunned, and then he laughed helplessly. “You have sharp eyes… that’s one of the reasons why I come to you today.”

Hao Ren realised that the two really did not come just to say hello. He leaned forward. “So, what is it?”

“Our killing instincts have disappeared.” Zhao Xi’s face still emotionless and her voice flat.

Hao Ren could not believe his ears. “What?”

Lily’s voice suddenly came from behind. “Mr. Landlord you are slacking here! Battie ask you to help… Whoa!”

Lily finally saw the two demon hunters sitting in the restaurant. She jumped a distance back. “Why did you come here?”

“Don’t worry. Didn’t we have stopped fighting for a long time?” Liu Sheng smiled and looked at the werewolf girl who had once fought with them. “Just treat us as any other guests. We’re here to talk.”

Lily’s wolf (dog) ears had almost popped out. She nodded and put a menu on the table. “Place your order then. As part of our grand opening, all meals are 30% off, beer is free, order of thirty eight yuan or more will come with two complimentary cold dishes.”

The husky was as plainspoken as ever. She was actually treating the two demon hunters as diners.

Liu Sheng did not expect the maiden to be so honest. He was startled for a while before he took the menu and began ordering. “Duck beans…”

Lily said, “It is not available yet. I wrote that dish in the menu in a haste. I have asked; no one could cook that dish.”

“…What about stew carp?”

“We can’t make stew fish today. Mr. Landlord’s daughter is in the kitchen right now.”

“Why is that?” Liu Sheng was stunned a little. “Then I would like a sautéed chicken with dried chilli.”

“The chicken is gone, but there are eggplants. I can ask Battie to do it a little bit creatively. Maybe she can do that…”

Liu Sheng looked up and stared at Lily. “Have we not made a truce? I’m not here looking for trouble. Why you still have a bone to pick with me?”

Hao Ren raised his hand and stopped Liu Sheng. “Look at this girl’s eyes. Is she deliberately finding fault? She is really not.”

Lily stared at him and his face with her innocent eyes. Liu Sheng suddenly became aware that this creature in front of him was probably not in any way capable of mordancy in her entire life. So he forced a smile and shrugged. “Okay, one stewed pork ribs, and two cold dishes with two bowls of rice.”

Lily blinked. “Ribs are gone too—would you like stewed chicken instead?”

Liu Sheng looked at her awkwardly. “All right, let’s get that. We’re really hungry now.”

Lily nodded and just about to leave, Hao Ren stopped her. “Oh wait a second. I don’t see many have ordered pork ribs. Why it’s gone?”

Lily smiled like a Cheshire cat. “I saw the balance pork ribs and thought that no one’s going to order, so I ate them all!”

After Lily went away, Hao Ren immediately buried his face in his hand. “I am really worried that the restaurant is not going to survive. Is otherworldling suitable to run food business at all?”

“By the look of it… it’s a dicey business.”

Hao Ren let out a sigh, thinking that he should not expect too much from a bunch of unrestrained and slack demons running a restaurant business in human society. Lily could endure and serve food to diners normally was already an extraordinary achievement considering her greedy-guts. He shook his head and set the issue aside. He then looked up at Liu Sheng and Zhao Xi. “Let’s talk about your situation. What happened that caused your killing instincts to vanish?”

“Literally,” Liu Sheng carefully checked his surroundings. Despite the fact that the rune energy was dispelling the attention of ordinary people, he was still instinctively very cautious. “It’s not clear when it started, probably in the last one or two months. It didn’t disappear at once but bit-by-bit. When we finally discovered it, we felt we had completely lost it already.”

Zhao Xi added, “We bumped into a wandering shadeling a while ago. It was only then that we realised our killing instinct had completely gone. Before that, we just felt our senses a bit dull but we didn’t suspect anything.”

Killing instincts were only triggered when faced with otherworldlings. If they met with non-otherworldlings, even though the killing instinct had gone, they would not be able to feel it. So, it was not difficult imagine Zhao Xi’s situation.

“A large part of our ability to identify otherworldlings and alertness is based on the killing instincts,” Liu Sheng said, his face gloomy. “After we came back from ‘God,’ our killing instincts were still there but we mindful supressed this instinct when we met otherworldlings. But now…”

Liu Sheng paused for a moment. He then pasted a smile and spread out his hand. “We are now truly having no hostility toward otherworldlings.”