Demon Hunter!

"You're looking for a place called Yuefu'erde?"

The strange, lanky man asked as if offhandedly, yet his words instantly put Hao Ren and Vivian on edge. Vivian controlled her expression with the composure she had developed over the years, but Hao Ren could not hide his surprise. "How did you know?!"

By then, Hao Ren was ready to draw his sword and spill blood five paces away—though there was no sword nearby, he could always grab a chair and make do. To be honest, there was no need for him to be this tense. This guy simply watched too many movies in his spare time. Ever since accepting that mysterious mission from Raven 12345, he had cast himself as James Bond. As an ordinary citizen encountering a "secret mission" for the first time, claiming he wasn't nervous would have been a lie. Hao Ren was currently in a state of extreme paranoia. Every upright, breathing creature within two hundred meters of him counted as a potential enemy...

The strange man merely laughed heartily and pointed at Lily, who was still stuffing her face. "That young lady was asking everyone about Yuefu'erde just now, but she was speaking Chinese. Apart from the servers here and me, nobody could understand her. I'm rather curious—why are you looking for that place?"

Hao Ren immediately shot Lily a sidelong glance, but she was glaring at the vegetables in her salad and did not notice. Still, it was hard to blame Lily for acting so boldly. Hao Ren and the others had practically confirmed that "Yuefu'erde" was not a place name found on any current map of Britain. They could only use the vague information Raven 12345 had provided to estimate its location and distance from London. If they wanted to find the place, asking the locals seemed to be their only option.

It was just that this idiot speaking nothing but Chinese while asking for directions was a little difficult to understand. Did she think the Data Terminal's translation function was still shared by the whole team?

"We're tourists." Vivian had been making every effort to maintain elegant table manners, but she paused now to help Hao Ren out. "However, I don't like tourist attractions that have already been overrun by visitors. I prefer finding obscure places that few people have visited, something more like an adventure. We learned about the place name Yuefu'erde in a book some time ago. Since our travel plans already included spending some time in Britain, we decided to take a detour and have a look. But it seems nobody knows exactly where Yuefu'erde is?"

Hao Ren secretly gave Vivian a thumbs-up. This useless vampire was finally good for something. She could spin a lie on the spot, and just look at how neatly she had tied it all together!

Under the table, Vivian calmly made a victory sign. She had been sensible ever since humans carved cuneiform into clay tablets. She might not dare claim expertise in anything else, but she was at least somewhat skilled at bluffing.

The strange man looked at the three of them and seemed to have no suspicions. He suddenly looked enlightened. "Oh, tourists. That makes sense. That place has become somewhat famous recently, too. But you definitely won't find it by searching for the name 'Yuefu'erde.'"

"You know where it is?!" Lily's ears perked up at once. With half a stalk of greens hanging from her mouth, she jerked her head up so sharply that she nearly splashed salad dressing all over him. "Are you going there too?"

"Looks like we can travel together." The lanky man smiled. "Yuefu'erde was the name of that place a long time ago, at least several hundred years ago. Nobody remembers the name anymore. You might still find it in specialized geography books or reference works, though I have no idea how you came across it. It used to be the fief of a noble who had been knighted. After it was abandoned for a time, a new little town gradually sprang up beside the old estate. That town is called Brusar. If you want to visit Yuefu'erde, Brusar should be the nearest place. It lies south of the old Yuefu'erde site, and I happen to be heading there myself."

"I'm going to... Wow, that's a roundabout route..." Hao Ren could not help clicking his tongue. "Just how useless is that White-Haired Demoness? It's a place name from several hundred years ago, and even the old site has been abandoned..."

Vivian joined in, shaking her head as she complained, "The information is outdated. It's really unreliable."

Hao Ren glared at her. "You only know Old English from eight or nine hundred years ago. Shut up."

Vivian immediately lowered her head in embarrassment. Lily, her mouth covered in leaves, looked up curiously and asked, "Old English? What Old English?" The last time Vivian had dropped the ball, the idiot Werewolf had been sleepwalking, so she had no memory of what happened at all.

"Eat your food. That many vegetables still can't shut you up?" Hao Ren pushed Lily's head back down, then looked at the stranger across the table with pleasant surprise. "What a coincidence. I never expected to run into someone heading the same way. I was just worrying about how to find the place. What are you going there for? Tourism too?"

Hao Ren was genuinely a little pleased. He had thought he might have to spend the entire day tomorrow figuring out where "Yuefu'erde" was, and he still might not have found it. Yet he had unexpectedly run into someone who happened to be going there as well. To be honest, this luck felt almost as if it had fallen straight from the sky. The coincidence was so perfect that it was beginning to arouse suspicion.

According to the strange man's introduction, Yuefu'erde was an old noble estate abandoned several centuries ago, a place that had nearly vanished into the dust of history. Even the town built near the old site stood to its south and had no cultural or historical connection to the estate. With such a convoluted trail, finding it through ordinary inquiries or aimlessly searching reference materials would have taken who knew how long. As for the man in front of him... was it really just a coincidence that their routes happened to overlap?

Hao Ren gradually calmed down from his initial surprise and delight, growing more suspicious of the stranger before him. He did not show it this time, however, and merely maintained his eager expression. The lanky man seemed completely off guard as well. He pointed at himself. "I'm going there for work. My line of work is rather unusual, so I travel all over the world quite often, specifically looking for places with history and stories."

Hao Ren's brain short-circuited. "Are you a tomb raider?"

At once, he felt Vivian stomp on his foot with all the strength she could muster.

"My work..." The lanky man deliberately made it sound mysterious, as if he were keeping them in suspense. "Since you're going to Yuefu'erde, do you know what news has come out of there recently?"

"What news?" Hao Ren's heart leaped into his throat. He knew that whatever news had come out of that place, it meant his mission was about to run into trouble! He was going there to take in an "abnormal creature." The place absolutely could not attract public attention!

"Yuefu'erde is most famous for an ancient castle that has already been abandoned. It was left behind by that old noble. By now, it is nearly completely collapsed." The lanky man spoke in a mysterious tone. "It should have continued to decay, since it wasn't even worth turning into a tourist attraction. But recently, the locals suddenly began spreading word that strange noises were coming from beneath the ancient castle. At night, people had even seen mysterious flames burning above it, while strangers dressed in Knight Armor ran in and out of the castle around dusk. In short, some people say that the old noble and his knights have returned as Vengeful spirits—that the castle is haunted... Its fame is growing by the day."

The lanky man created the atmosphere perfectly. His wording was ordinary enough, yet in just a few sentences he managed to conjure an eerie, wind-swept scene. Hao Ren, however, had spent every day alongside a Werewolf and a vampire without batting an eye, so he was not particularly frightened. He merely thought of one possibility. Could this have something to do with my new tenant?

Hao Ren slowly mulled it over. If the rumors about the ancient castle being haunted are true, then his new tenant is probably... Damn it, couldn't that White-Haired Demoness send me some normal clients for once?!

Thinking about it carefully, she really couldn't... How could an ordinary person possibly move into his current home?

"So what is your job?" Hao Ren asked curiously, glancing at the lanky man. The other party had emphasized the haunting news for a reason. It should have something to do with why he had come here.

The lanky man gave an awkward chuckle. "You may find it absurd when I say this, but I'm actually a Demon Hunter. I travel all over the world exorcising ghosts..."