The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-778

After listening to what Hessiana said, Hao Ren thought it would be necessary to make a trip to Northern Europe.

The "Evil-Spirit Vivian" incident two months ago was still fresh in his memory, and since there were no new instructions from Raven 12345 yet, Hao Ren decided to take the matters into his own hands, sort of. He already knew that the author of the magic book had left behind not one but many relics. So he was determined to get to the bottom it.

"The place we are going to is desolate, away from human settlements. We are not going to take the conventional route to avoid drawing unnecessary attention,' Hessiana said. She seemed to have guessed from the beginning that Hao Ren would make the trip. And, she already had a plan in mind. "I will get everything arranged."

While saying, Hessiana leered at Hao Ren. Hao Ren felt goosebumps popping up on his skin. He rubbed his nose instinctively and said, "Ahem, I know you don't particularly like me, but you don't have to do it so explicitly. I can go on my own if you don't feel like buying the flight ticket. I have made more business trips than you have."

Vivian snorted in dissatisfaction, and Hessiana rolled her eyes back at her. "I am not as stingy as you think."

In fact, Hao Ren did not need her help. He could ask the MDT teleport him; it was easier, faster except that he did not know the place. But since Hessiana offered her help, he decided to take up the offer for this 'local' trip.

The magic book still bothered Vivian. She was not only disturbed by the appearance of the red-haired double but also the Inferno dimension. "When are we departing?" she asked impatiently.

There was an instant sweet smile on Hessiana face. "No hurry, Ma'am Vivian. The ruins are not going anywhere. Let us discuss first and rest for a couple of days before we go."

Vivian stepped back. "I think we'd better set off early; I'd have kittens even just staying with you for one more second."

Hessiana pointed at Turcan and Kassandra. "All right. The two of them can dangle on the old poplar tree outside; I'll stay with you…"

Vivian glared at Hessiana again. Hessiana threw her hands in the air as if she was surrendering. "Okay, okay, we will depart soon when everything is arranged, probably within a week. We need preparations; the place we are going to is rather desolate. Also, it used to be the door to Inferno; we have to prepare for the unexpected."

Lily blinked. "What preparations do we need? It's my first time going to hell."

"It's not hell. It's Inferno." Hessiana slid a sideways glance at Lily. "And we are going to the old site of the Inferno gate. The gate has been closed for hundreds of years, we're not going to enter. And, we couldn't. You'd better prepare some things that could dispel curse and magic. The wizard liked to lay traps in his lair, mostly to trap the otherworldlings."

Hao Ren glanced at his teammates. None of them looked like a magic expert. Vivian might be knowledgeable, but she was scatterbrained; the other otherworldlings might fit the bill, but they were only half-baked. He seemed to have little choice. He clapped and said, "Dress warmly. The Nordic weather is rather unforgiving."

Hessiana thought the 'shelter leader' was going to make a speech or something, so she waited expectantly. But Hao Ren had nothing more to say. She looked at him, bewildered. "That's it?"

Hao Ren nodded seriously. "That's it."

"How did you all survive until this day?" Hessiana buried her face in her hand. "The demon hunters in this town must be all sleeping."

But Hao Ren did not tell her that the demon hunters in town had already surrendered themselves to him.

Two days later, other than Hessiana and her two sidekicks, Hao Ren and his team—Vivian, Lily and the Nangong siblings arrived at the airport.

Y'zaks and daughter stayed back because the duo had zero clue about wizardry and Inferno. When something went wrong, they could turn out to be a burden. Meanwhile, the Nangong couple had their restaurant to take care of. Anyway, as far as Hao Ren was concerned, exploring the ruins on Earth was just a walk in the park.

The Nangong siblings' combat strength was average, but they had their talent in their own rights. Nangong Sanba knew a thing or two about witchcraft and Nangong Wuyue was the only professional nanny in the team.

Earthbound operations had lower combat strength requirement, so the Nangong siblings seemed to be a sensible choice.

They departed the international airport. The destination: Finland. There was nothing much to say about the journey as Hessiana had arranged everything, from passports to flight tickets, all done in two days mobilizing her vast resources of her vampire family. It reminded Hao Ren about what Hessiana once said; every surviving otherworldling family had some kind of shadow of influence in the human world. So he did not ask further.

After arriving in Finland, they did not stop in Helsinki. Instead, Hessiana had arranged transport heading straight to a small airport in the north of the city, where a private plane was already waiting on the tarmac.

The plane was a twin-engine, small propeller aircraft marked with the name of a Russian company. Hao Ren saw the same mark on the facilities at the small airport. Judging from the size of the airport and the models of the parked aircrafts, this was obviously not a commercial airliner but a private airport of a large company. Lily stared curiously as if she recognized the Russian named company. "Solanke... now I remember. It is a Russian import-export company... I saw the name while I was surfing the web."

"Hessiana's family built the company. Everything here belongs to me," Hessiana said as she did a little stretch in the cold wind, looking happy. "Like I said, most surviving families of the otherworldling have established their influence in the human world. It is one of them. I sourced most of my weaponry through the human connections. They are weak, no doubt. But they could get things done rather efficiently."

Hao Ren blinked as he looked around with interest. In the hanger in the distance, two tractors were slowly pulling out as several ground crew in uniform were busy outside. They were humans. All personnel at the airport were humans.

But did the workers know that their behind-the-scenes boss was a vampire family?

He asked casually but Hessiana laughed. "It's true that workers often call Boris a vampire. Boris is my human servant; he is not a vampire. Human employees don't care who their real boss is, what they want is salary. Less than ten people at the top know for who they are working. You know what; they all are under a blood spell. This is necessary. Desperate time calls for desperate measure; I can't afford to let them go around telling people about my secrets."

Lily let out with a long "Oh—" in awe as she felt that Hessiana was very capable. Everyone turned and stared at Vivian in unison.

Feeling awkward, Vivian asked, "Why are you lot staring at me like that?"

"... In a sense, you are rich," Lily said to her but pointing at Hessiana. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself compared to your mini double?"

"Didn't you already know how wealthy Hessiana was in Athens' sanctuary? What is so surprising about it now?" Vivian asked. "I don't interfere with what she is doing. If I do, her company won't survive very long."

Vivian might be pessimistic, and a little idealistic. But for the things that had happened for the past ten thousand years in her life, Hao Ren had run out of words to comfort her. "Maybe you shouldn't buy stocks for the sake of the world's economy."

It was once again proven that comfort talk was not his forte. Vivian's face had turned dark red.