Vivian swallowed the blood crystal, whose age of formation was unknown. Everyone around her immediately focused their attention on her, holding their breath as they waited for the result. This time, however, Vivian's analysis of the blood crystal was much slower than usual. She merely furrowed her brow slightly, peeling away the information contained within the crystal bit by bit. Judging from her expression, the crystal's condition seemed rather poor.
Lily held back for a long time, but finally couldn't resist speaking up. "How's the bat? Sweet or salty?"
"The information carried by this crystal is very blurry." Vivian shot Lily a glare before explaining the situation to everyone. "It must be extremely ancient... The degree to which its information has dissipated is almost comparable to that of the piece we found in 'Purgatory.'"
"So it's a relic from almost ten thousand years ago?" Hao Ren wasn't particularly surprised by the crystal's age. "Can you still read anything from it?"
Vivian was silent for a moment, her expression somewhat gloomy. "No. I still can't make anything out. I can only confirm that this crystal contains an intense impulse: for me to head north, where something I left behind is waiting. But there's another piece of information in the memory. It says there's something extremely dangerous in the 'north'..."
"The north?" Hao Ren frowned and looked at Bai Huo. "Do you know what that means?"
"Perhaps... it's referring to the Demon Hunter fortress." Bai Huo hesitated. This was the first time she had revealed information about the Demon Hunter headquarters to outsiders—and to a group of nonhumans, at that. Although she had mentally prepared herself for this, she was still somewhat hesitant now that she had to say it aloud. "The Demon Hunters' main base, Korperth, lies at the extreme north