The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-464

Chapter 464: Blooming Season, a Good Time to Dawdle

In fact, from the very beginning Hao Ren really did not expect the four ascetics would sit still at home. He had not been able to control the other tenants, let alone the ascetics who were as stubborn as a mule. They had their own insistence and self-standards that other found it hard to fathom; they did not impose their views on others and at the same time they would also never be moved by others. The four ascetics had their heart set on passing the test of the Goddess, how could they live the life of Riley?

But thinking was one thing, when it actually happened it caused him headache. Hao Ren, dumbfounded, looked at Big Beardy who gave him a tepid smile in return, that solemn face looked almost like he was being called to return to his maker.

Vivian was more open-minded. “Hey, there’s no big deal. Before I came, I was running around too. Don’t forget I am a Blood Clan while the four masters are humans at least. They could easily explain themselves away as practitioner. Noting’s going to happen.”

Hao Ren sighed. “Well… in fact, I am mainly worried that they would go to Kekexili hunting Tibetan antelopes… but since they themselves have already done their homework, I’ve got nothing more to say.”

Big Beardy smiled. “Glad that you finally understand. Rest assured, I will stay around, ascetics have a secret way to communicate with each other remotely, I can keep tabs of their movements. If there’s a situation, I will report to you.”

Hao Ren waved his hand reluctantly. “Then let it be, after all, you’re not the only one in the house whom I’ve to worry about all the time.”

There was another reason Hao Ren let the four ascetics run loose—Raven 12345 must have acquiesced to it. When he was away, no way he could keep tabs things happening around the house, what the ascetics did was beyond his control. Since Raven 12345 had not jumped down his throat deducting his salary yet, he thought it best to just let them be while making room for little Y’lisabet.

At this time, Rollie had heard the chatter in the living hall. It strolled down the second floor, glanced and greeted Hao Ren with a meow before it saw the stranger in the house.

It stared at Y’lisabet for a while, then let out a sigh like a human as if it was lamenting about its fateful life as a pathetic mascot of the house. But then it still nodded its approval at the demon girl before scurrying up to Lil Pea.

Hao Ren looked at the behavior of Rollie confoundedly especially the humanly sigh it made which was really creepy. “This thing has morphed?”

“I feel it strange too. It was getting more and more mum recently.” Becky nested in the couch and watched the TV. “Two days ago, I saw it squatting in front of the TV pressing the button on the remote controller.”

Rollie gave Becky a lazy glance before it meowed and curled itself into a ball napping next to the couch.

“…Is there any normal creature left here?” Hao Ren muttered.

Y’lisbet, the little demon began to settle down in Hao Ren’s home, and had quickly adapted to the life here.

Although a princess, Y’lisabet was not the kind of pampered, spoilt lass. Hao Ren’s house was only equivalent to a guard house of Y’zalks palace in size, the little demon was exceptionally satisfied with her room because there were so many things she found so fun to explore!

Light bulbs, telephone, refrigerator, TV, microwave, rice cooker—everything which basically ran on their own would automatically arouse her interest. Y’lisabet felt like she had found a magical treasure, everything was so worth to be dismantled. Though her small screwdriver had been consficated by Y’zaks, the girl could always find some suitable tool around the house. When no one noticed, she would secretly study things which she found strange within her line of sight.

One fine day, while Hao Ren was watching TV in his room, he suddenly heard a loud boom in the living hall, and the power circuit tripped. He ran downstairs and found Y’lisabet found sitting on the floor in the living room, face was smoked black while holding a screwdriver which was stuck inside the power socket. The little girl giggled. “This is fun!”

Like father like daughter, the girl’s sense of curiosity was apparently inherited from her dad. As for her courage of poking into a power socket must have come from her mother, the former sword saintess who had dared the demon king to fight her in front of Helcrown. Such a courage was not because of naiveness. Even with only a tenth of her genes was passed down, her child would be as mischievous as a monkey.

Fortunately, as mischievous as Y’lisabet was, she was acting just out of curiosity and confused about the electrical appliances as her usual alchemical device back home. She was not downright delinquent. After getting a few electrical shocks, and more importantly, an earful from the adults, she began to behave a little.

In order to keep Y’lisabet occupied, Hao Ren had retrived pile of his old stuff out from the basement. There were the radio which he used to tinker with, a broken old TV he thought it to be too wasteful to toss away, a Walkman he could no longer find cassettes to play on, and even a laptop without the display. Even Hao Ren himself could not recall when he had accumulated this jumble of scraps. But they quickly became Y’lisabet’s favourite toys as she immersed herself in the inexplicable joy of disassembling them.

Lily whispered as she saw the pile of scraps. “While you complain about me about collecting things, didn’t you do the same?”

Hao Ren was not very concerned; his collection at least worth a few cents if sold as scrap, what would Lily got for a the boxes of stone?

Days went by without incidents. After being defriefed at Raven 12345’s place, Hao Ren had had his dream of a long down time.

Today day was another sunny day.

The chilling cold of the winter had long receded. They now ushered in the blooming season. Wearing a coat standing in front of the window, soft breeze swept in through the window as Hao Ren gazed out at the old poplar which had begun to sprout green buds. He sighed softly. “It’s spring.”

Lily squatted beside him, with the pot of Lil Pea in front. The husky maiden was holding a stick in her hand, with a small piece of wood tied on fishing line attached to the end of the stick. While happily playing fishing with Lil Pea, the maiden looked up at Hao Ren when he heard his sigh. “Landlord, are we going to have fun outside?”

While distracted, she heard the sound of water splashing as Lil Pea jumped out of the water and took away the wood chip on the fishing line.

The two of them were playing rather skillfully.

“All you could think of is going out,” Hao Ren glanced at Lily, then Lil Pea. “Could you not play fishing all day? That will mess up her feeding habit. Feeding by the fishing rod isn’t a good habit.”

Becky’s voice suddenly came from the front door. “Landlord! I’m taking Y’lisabet for a stroll ouside.”

Hao Ren turned his head and looked up. The demon girl was wearing a bright dress standing in the doorway throwing him a grimace. Her red eyes were covered behind a pair of Define while her head was clad with a soft cartoon cap, just covering the small demonic horns. The two of them would be going out with these camouflages these two days.

Hao Ren waved at them and sai, “Go, go. Just don’t let her take off her hats.”

After two happily disappeared out of the doorway, Hao Ren turned to look at Y’zaks. “Why didn’t you teach your girl some shapeshifting skills while you youself could transform from a five-metre demon to how you’re now? At least teaching her way to conceal her pair of horns isn’t that difficult, right?”

Y’zaks sighed and said, “It’s about the bloodline. Her weak adaptive ability has prevented her from learning the natural talent of demons. The ability of demons to shapeshift into humanoid isn’t an acquired magic but a natural talent that requires a pure bloodline. I will ask Big Beardy if he has any simple metamorphosis skill from The Plane of Dreams which Y’lisabet could learn.”

Saying that, Y’zaks’ face could not help but reveal a guilty look. “To be honest, I sometimes feel sorry for the child. Having a half-demonic, half-human bloodline, she was physically weak since at birth, and had no playmates. If not for that, she wouldn’t have fooled around with the alchemical devices all the time. Because no one nobody played with her.

“Then why didn’t you go out with her together just now?” Hao Ren rolled his eyes.

Y’zaks scratched his head embarrassedly. “… If I go out with her, people might call the police. You know, there have been quite a crackdown on kidnapping recetnly…”

Hao Ren: “…..”

At this time, a figure was staggering from across the street which had attracted Hao Ren’s attention.