The bloodstone had been formed at an unknown time in the past. All eyes were on Vivian who had put the bloodstone into her mouth and eaten it. Holding their breath and waiting for the results, they noticed that Vivian was knitting her brows together. The analysis of her body went much slower than usual this time as she slowly extracted as much information as she could from the bloodstone. Her expression seemed to say that the condition of the bloodstone was less than ideal.
Lily could not wait. She asked, “What does it taste like, Battie? Is it sweet or salty?”
“The information in this crystal is very vague,” Vivian said, glancing at Lily and explaining the situation to everyone. “I’m afraid that this Bloodstone is too old. The information has dissipated as much as the bloodstone we have found over in Inferno,” she said.
“That means, it’s almost considered a 10,000-year-old relic,” Hao Ren said. He was not too surprised by the age of the crystal. “Can you read anything?” he asked.
Vivian was silent for a moment, and her face looked a bit gloomy. “No, I still can’t see clearly. I can only sense a strong message in it; it seems like it wants me to go to the North. I left something there. There’s still one message left. It says that the North has a dangerous thing,” Vivian said.
“North?” Hao Ren’s brows were pulled together. Looking at White Flame, he asked, “Do you know what that means?”
“Maybe… it’s referring to the fortress of the demon hunters,” White Flame said hesitantly. This was the first time she had revealed information about the demon hunters’ headquarters to outsiders, and worse still, it was a group of unusual creatures. Although she had mentally prepared for this, she still wavered a little. “The base of demon hunters, Coldpath is in the extreme north of the planet, near the North Pole,” she finally said.
Hao Ren was astonished. A moment later, still finding it hard to believe, he asked, “The demon hunters’ headquarters is in the North Pole?”
Hao Ren felt it surreal as the information came as a surprise. Demon hunters had been the most mysterious and powerful supernatural force on Earth. No one had ever really understood them for the last 10,000 years. Even the unusual creature families, including the powerful Ancients, had been searching for their headquarters, but never found it. Now, the location was revealed, and to their surprise, it was in the Arctic.
“Even though you’ve told us that it’s in the North Pole, I suppose we can’t simply walk in without knowing the way, right?” Vivian said.
“Of course,” White Flame replied and nodded lightly. “The entrance to Coldpath is an icy fortress built within a spatial rift. The fortress stands on the Arctic ice sheet, but it can only be seen with special vision and entered using astrological magic. Now, humans have built their scientific research stations in the North Pole; there’s no place on Earth where humans can’t reach. We don’t like to be disturbed,” she said.
“Beetholis the Sage only mentioned that he wanted to hand the over crystal to me? Nothing else?” Vivian asked as she got to her feet and stretched her shoulders. “Did the person who send you have said anything else about your real purpose of coming here?”
The questions choked White Flame as she realized at that moment how ridiculous the whole incident was: the demon-hunter organization was suffering a crisis of extinction, and as a middle-level cadre, she did not know why she was coming to the vampire. Whether she was looking for help or refuge, it all seemed a bit absurd. The bloodstone may have been able to connect Vivian to the demon hunters’ organization, but Vivian herself found no convincing reason for her to go to the Arctic; a vague obsession was not enough.
When Master Teuton handed the bloodstone to White Flame, he should have thought of this. For that reason, Teuton did not tell her anything else except to deliver the bloodstone to the Countess.
Teuton was also obvious about one thing: he neither had the position nor reason to expect a vampire countess to do anything for him. He could only resign things to fate.
Just as White Flame started to think that risking her life to go there was only a waste of time, Vivian suddenly clapped her hands. “Would you like to go and find out?” she said.
“Huh?” White Flame exclaimed in surprise.
“If the demon hunters were wiped out, it would also spell trouble for me, seriously,” Vivian said with a strange expression. “Although demon hunters and the otherworldlings are nemeses, you guys are also a part of the ‘balance.’ Perhaps the disappearance of the demon hunters is a good thing for the otherworldlings, but this is not the day for that. What’s more, a sudden mass disappearance would only cause even bigger problems,” Vivian said.
White Flame was overjoyed, but she immediately calmed down. “How are you going to help us overcome this crisis?” she asked.
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“Well, I don’t really know, at least for now,” Vivian replied and waved her hand. “We’ll cross the bridge when we get to it. Worse comes to worst, we’ll force our way in and ask your sages nicely. Since you’ve delivered the bloodstone, I can’t just sit by and watch. Am I right, Hao Ren?” she said.
Vivian could not help but look at Hao Ren, as though waiting for him to make the final decision.
“Of course we’re going there,” Hao Ren said. “If the demon hunters are wiped out, I’ll also have a hard time writing my year-end appraisal report. But before we go, I need to ask: how many enemies are we dealing with?”
White Flame was silent for a moment before she said, “The Council of Elders is the largest combat group with at least 120,000 elite forces. The heads of the council are veteran demon hunters. You can’t judge their strength based on their numbers alone. Besides, there are the Thirteen Sages to worry about.”
“Maybe there are only 12,” Lily said. “Your first sage, who locked himself up in the tower, could have died thousands of years ago.”
“That doesn’t make a difference.” Hao Ren knocked Lily on the head. “We’re talking about a factor of 1 to 10,000!”
At this moment, Y’zaks, who had been silent the entire time, finally broke his silence. “We need a strategy. This is not a normal incident. We’re not talking about natural disasters or something like that, but war; there’s no easy way about it,” he said.
Everyone listened attentively when Y’zaks spoke. The great demon was an absolute professional when it came to war. No one except him would dare claim the top spot in the matter of warfare. After all, he was the one who almost overran the worlds with his demonic army some time back.
White Flame became anxious, suddenly felt dizzy, and almost fell. Vivian quickly held her up and said, “Don’t be worried. For you, the most important thing is to rest and recover your strength.”
“But our warriors may not have the luxury of time,” White Flame said, gasping. “Coldpath fell into the hands of the Council of Elders when I fled. If they control all the nodes, those who fight against them will be met with total destruction. The current Council of Elders will kill anyone, including demon hunters and otherworldlings who go against their will,” she said.
“Can’t all the other demon hunters in the world come together to defeat the Council of Elders?” Hao Ren asked. He found what happened in Coldpath a little unbelievable. “Don’t you at least have several times more forces than the Council of Elders? Doesn’t the advantage of number work?” he asked.
“There’s something you don’t know about Coldpath. As long as the council controls the core of that space, they have invincible power,” White Flame said, sounding a little helpless. “Coldpath is located in the ruins of an ancient super civilization. It possesses many powerful and mysterious energies. Back then, Tiberius the Sage used to guide these forces and successfully destroyed Jotunheim. We paid a huge price to wrestle back control of some of the energy nodes from the Council of Elders. Because of that, they haven’t been able to activate the destructive weapon. Nevertheless, the power they have now is still overwhelmingly powerful,” she said.
In his mind, Hao Ren could not fathom why this young demon hunter wanted to magnify the problem when asking for help. Depicting the Council of Elders as an invincible force would only scare away those who tried to help her.
Despite that, there was an upside to White Flame’s truthfulness; Hao Ren and Y’zaks could analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy more seriously and accurately. Both of them now felt that it would be a suicide mission for the few of them to go against the enemy, who numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
They needed reinforcements.
White Flame was not stupid, and after calming down, she realized the difficulty of the matter too. She looked at the others and ask Hao Ren inquisitively, “Do they make up your sanctuary’s entire force?”
Hao Ren was wondering where to get the reinforcements. Hearing White Flame’s question, he replied, “Well, there; s still a cat watching TV upstairs.”
White Flame almost passed out upon hearing his reply.
“Stay cool, stay cool!” Hao Ren said. He tried to explain, “I have other men out there. It’s just that they’re not locals. I can summon them anyway.”