Hao Ren turned around and looked blankly at the wizard who had been hiding his face under the hood the entire time. He could not clearly see the wizard’s face, only a thin, unshaved chin.

“What do you mean?” Hao Ren asked quietly.

“I am good at reading people.” The wizard turned his head slightly towards him. His voice seemed enchanted as it rang with a hollow echo. “I can see that you are not in a hurry to seek shelter, so you are not interested in the City of Shadows, which the witches have mentioned. You’ve come to approach them for something else.”

Hao Ren curiously looked at the wizard who suddenly spoke. He shrugged and said, “You can say whatever you like. We are all here for our own interests. Not a single one is without a secret at this day and age. It does not matter what the reasons and process as long as the results match the expectations.”

“You are right.” The hooded wizard seemed to chuckle. “It does not matter what the reasons and process as long as the results match the expectations. So Madam Marie and the others do not really care about who you are and what your intention is; they just need both of your strengths.”

Hao Ren began to find the wizard even odder. He asked bluntly, “Don’t tell me you came up to me just to tell me that?”

“Have you heard of Haron’s Vigil Knights?”

The question astonished Hao Ren. He had never heard of the name before. It seemed that the wizard had misunderstood something. Does the wizard think that I’m a peer or that we both have a common goal? Hao Ren asked himself.

Hao Ren was not sure if Haron’s Vigil Knights were related to the location of Vivian’s hibernation so he gave a perfunctory reply, “Is that question important?”

“No, it seems that you have no idea about it.” The hooded wizard ended the conversation abruptly when he saw Hao Ren’s reaction. “Well, maybe you are not the peer that I imagined to be. I apologize for taking up so much of your time. Regardless, it was nice to talk to a powerful wizard like you.”

As the strange wizard turned and walked away, Hao Ren stopped him. “Hey, wait a minute! I still do not know your name. I shouldn’t keep calling you Hoodie, don’t you think so?”

The hooded wizard halted in his steps. A while later, his voice drifted over. “Revealing one’s real name is a risky business. You can call me Bain. It is a common pseudonym I use in the world of black magic. The witches also know me by this name.”

After Bain went away, Hao Ren’s mouth twitched, and he said, “Tsk tsk, I thought I was good enough in acting, but this guy’s a pro. I hate to deal with such people; he’s too smart.”

“Mr. Landlord, Mr. Landlord, I’m full!” Lily suddenly shouted. A look of satisfaction spread across the husky maiden’s face coupled with some oil stains still around her mouth. “Mr. Landlord, you look strange. What happened?”

“Nothing, I was just playing a guessing game with the mysterious guy,” Hao Ren replied, shaking his head. The husky may have been dimwitted, but at least she had lived for a hundred years and read a suficient variety of books, so she may have come across a few anecdotes. “Do you know any group or organization by the name of Haron’s Vigil Knights?”

“Haron’s Vigil Knights? It sounds like the name of someone’s thugs.” Lily shook her head. “I’ve never heard of it. Why do you ask, Mr. Landlord?”

“Nothing. But if you hear anyone talking about it, please tell me.”

The husky maiden nodded and kept that in mind happily. Hao Ren felt more at ease in front of the innocent maiden.

Hao Ren did not ask the witches about Bain since he was still unacquainted with them. He went there for a simple purpose, which was to find Vivian’s hibernation location. He could not care less about who was who in that place when it did not concern his mission. Hao Ren hoped to fish some intelligence from Madam Marie just to make sure that the captured witch was the Hessiana he knew. He did not believe one bit that a group of human exorcists could catch Hessiana, but it was hard to tell what actually happened in the past. Perhaps the little bat screwed up in unexpected places and kept it a secret to save face. Who knows? Hao Ren thought.

Just as Hao Ren was about to talk to Madam Marie, the sound of flapping wings broke through the night sky.

The witches stopped talking and looked up.

An opening appeared in the fog that enveloped the cemetery as a strikingly white owl infiltrated the night sky and landed in front of Helen, the witch. The owl had a white feather on its head and a pair of eyes that looked as intelligent as that of a human’s. It was a familiar.

“Rohm!” Helen called out. “What took you so long? What have you found?”

The owl, known as Rohm, flapped its wings and lamented in a forceful baritone voice. “Oh—this lonely, cold night, like my lonely, sad heart, poor Rohm has traversed the dark only to bring news sadder than the darkness itself. Listen to the cool night breeze. The breeze cries out: poor Rohm, what uneasy news you have brought this time?”

Witch Helen lifted her leg and slammed it on the table with a bang. The tip of her toes barely scraped the head of the owl. “Mother of god, get straight to the point!”

“Witch Hessiana has been convicted of practicing black magic. She has pleaded guilty and she is sentenced to death by fire tomorrow noon.”

Hao Ren was like, “What the f*ck?!” The beautiful and kind witch had such an ugly side.

However, he then realized something more critical: Witch Hessiana would be executed in public tomorrow, in the city.

The news caused a commotion among the witches. The witch who looked ill got to her feet and said, “We must do something now.”

Madam Marie stood up too. “The humans have finally decided to do it. The time Hessiana leaves the dungeon of the church is the best and last chance for us to save her. We must rescue her before the execution tomorrow noon!”

A witch questioned, “But are the demon hunters not coming?”

“That is why we have to complete the rescue mission before the demon hunters arrive.” Madam Marie’s stern eyes swept across the other witches. “The humans have chosen to do it tomorrow, and that has given us some breathing room. The demon hunters will not make it here in time. We have time to rescue the messenger from the City of Shadows before they arrive.”

A few witches nodded in agreement, but some were doubtful. The intelligence they received regarding the demon hunters’ arrival had shaken their confidence although they had a comprehensive rescue plan.

“An easy life will not fall from the sky. If you want freedom in the paradise of black magic, you must take risks. Otherwise, we will only continue to live in hiding. And so what if there are demon hunters? Wizard Hao Ren has proved that the demon hunters are not invincible. Now we have such a powerful wizard and werewolf among us. With our collective strength, the demon hunters are not that terrifying anymore. But,” Madam Marie said, “if any of you wishes to leave, you may leave now and I will ‘grant’ you the request.”

Helen hemmed and looked at Hao Ren. “Wizard, do you know the total number of demon hunters?”

“Didn t I tell you before; I have no idea. But I am sure that there are not many of them. They mostly travel in a group of three or four.”

Hao Ren was quick to cite a lower number for fear of spooking the witches, who could give up and disperse. If the captured witch was not the Hessiana he knew, he would lose his lead.

The witches looked calm as he had expected.

Madam Marie raised her hand in satisfaction. “Very good! Then we will do it at noon tomorrow. Our action plan will be…”

Hao Ren listened to the briefing on the rescue operation while he simulated the actions in his mind.

Was the Blood Mage the Hessiana he knew? Or could she be a different person with just the same name? If she really was Hessiana, how did a bunch of humans capture her? Why did they treat her as a Blood Mage? Blood Mages also used blood magic, but it was totally different from that of the vampires. What happened in between? Hao Ren’s mind was racing.

While the witches hidden in the cemetery were planning their grand mission, a group of people in black outfits were making a bonfire by the side of a dirt road, far away from the city.

They tied their horses under a dead tree, and shiny sacred daggers hung on the side of the saddles.

A tall guy, who looked like the leader of the group, got to his feet and looked in the direction of the city: There were only sporadic, faint lights in the town at night. Visibility was poor, but the group leader focused his vision as if he could see everything.

A young deputy followed suit and stood up. “Elder, is this small town worth your trouble?”

The leader glanced back at the inexperienced junior and looked away again. “No qualified demon hunter takes any hunting operation lightly. You do not even know how dangerous she is, especially when she is about to wake up.”