Bear School Astartes

This night was much better for Lann compared to the ’future’ Yan’an when he first arrived on the night of the hunt.

Besides the dead and somber Old Yan’an in the night, with an atmosphere like a ghost story, there weren’t many beast-ified patients he encountered.

This might also be related to the rampant Gray Blood disease, which has significantly reduced the population.

The sky was just getting light, and the Demon Hunter passed the first night in Old Yan’an unharmed.

In fact, when the night had just faded and only a trace of white light appeared on the horizon, Henrik had already stopped working.

Hunters are symbols of fear. Although their job is to protect the town, their bloody and ruthless fighting style, along with the ghastly remnants after battles, inevitably repulse people.

So hunters are best kept at a distance from the public, hunting in the shadows and disappearing at dawn.

This is to prevent negative emotions from spreading throughout the city.

Henrik removed the mask from his face, hung the saw cleaver on his back, and tucked the Hunter’s Firearm back under his coat.

At first glance, he might just look like an ordinary Yan’an person, only a bit grim.

Lann’s cloak hid his armor.

His physique in Yan’an was nothing noteworthy.

Neither the descendants of Sumeru found by the Healing Church nor the clumsy servants doing odd jobs for the town folk in Yan’an.

Their physique was not much different from Lann’s.

It’s just that their body proportions appeared somewhat uncoordinated and deformed compared to the Demon Hunter.

The mist that accumulated on the city ground overnight was dissipating visibly as the sky lightened.

The hazy and eerie atmosphere was beginning to lighten.

Sporadically, some Yan Nan people, early risers out to earn a living, cautiously opened their doors a crack, peeking out to look around before hastily putting on hats and quickly stepping out, hurrying onto the streets.

They seemed very unwilling to have contact with anyone else.

Considering that besides the beast-ification disease, there was also the plague known as Gray Blood in Yan’an, this behavior was quite normal.

Henrik adjusted his tricorn hat and gazed up dazedly at the glimmers of light on the horizon, then shook his head.

The night’s work was done, and he was transitioning himself out of the cold and precise work mode of the Yan’an hunters.

"Let’s go," he said softly to Lann behind him, "Let’s find my friend, and we’ll take care of your matter."

"Now?"

The Demon Hunter raised an eyebrow.

The damp mist was dissipating, and white smoke began to drift out from the chimneys on the cluttered Gothic buildings nearby.

"Isn’t it too early?"

"He’s a member of the Healing Church specialized in handling Hun­ter logistics. His schedule isn’t much different from the hunters’.

"Then let’s go."

Lann and Henrik were straightforward. With the guidance of the Yan’an Hunter, Lann was able to navigate the twisting, turning, narrow, and wide, entirely irregular clusters of buildings skillfully.

Mentos was mentally mapping based on the main body’s senses, but it was quite challenging.

Even if the roads and building layouts were just complex, Yan’an was also very intricate in three dimensions. Many buildings that exploited elevation differences left people dazzled.

Like now.

Henrik led Lann through the hall of a two-story house, then down a ladder into a dried-up waterway.

Following the canal, at the end was another three-story building with its first floor door opening into the canal.

Boots with Dragon Scale armor plates gently brushed aside the weeds at the canal’s edge.

This canal seemed to have been abandoned for a long time. The weeds were withered and yellow.

A few crows perched on a wooden beam across the canal, quietly observing the two people walking inside.

Henrik went directly up the two steps outside the door, and his gloved hand knocked on the door with a hollow "thump thump."

After knocking, he turned around nonchalantly and began adjusting the coal oil lamp outside the small building.

The Yan’an Hunter, wearing leather gloves, unscrewed the glass cover of the coal oil lamp, which had been blackened with soot, and pinched out the quietly burning wick with his fingers.

Hunters do not fear fire, as fearing fire would make it impossible to hunt beasts with flames.

Once black smoke rose from the extinguished wick pinched between his fingers, Henrik retracted his hand and screwed the glass cover back on.

Lann stood behind, arms crossed, quietly watching.

Mindlessly taking care of chores at the door while knocking...undoubtedly something only very familiar, close friends would do.

The sturdy wooden door opened from the inside, creating a small gap.

Once recognizing Henrik, who had just adjusted the coal oil lamp glass cover, the door was fully opened.

"You’re not resting now, why have you come to me?"

Inside was a brooding man.

His hair was quite messy, his face pale, and he showed no expression.

He wore the oversized uniform of the Healing Church clergy, with silk ribbons printed with proverbs hanging vertically down his back.

However, the hood of the uniform was not over his head; it simply hung behind him.

In these times, not wearing a hat was considered unseemly.

Even the town residents living not so well off in Yan’an would at least wear a hat.

Even if the brim of that hat had already gone soft and lost its shape.

The Hunters especially wore hats while hunting.

It’s somewhat a characteristic of the era.

And the person inside the door, despite speaking coldly to Henrik as if to a stranger, didn’t seem inclined to wear a hat, indicating that they had a rather unusual acquaintance.

"I owe a favor to a foreigner who just arrived yesterday, and I must repay it."

Henrik said while he walked into the room through the space the other person had cleared.

Lann followed behind, slightly lowering his head and turning sideways to tug at the edge of his cloak under the scrutiny of the Healing Church clergy, allowing himself to enter smoothly.

"A favor owed from yesterday?"

The Healing Church clergy murmured softly.

"So late at night? Outside? That favor is indeed not a small thing."

He was Henrik’s friend and, after considering the situation briefly, understood what Henrik meant by ’favor.’

The young ’old’ Hunter felt no need to be polite, directly sitting in a chair in the room and taking off his hat to place it on the table.

Lann glanced around briefly; this three-story small building seemed to be subdivided by the owner for rent.

Because simply this level included all essential living facilities: bathroom, stove, and such.

If all three levels were usable space, this setup would be too cramped.

And Henrik’s friend evidently rented the lowest level, opening directly onto the old canal.

"I am Mark." The Healing Church clergy nodded in acknowledgment to Lann, "Thank you for saving Henrik once. He just became a Hunter not long ago and is still too reckless."

In Yan’an, people’s emotions seemed to always swing between insanity and cruelty, rarely settling in a normal middle ground.

Henrik and this Mark who verbally expressed gratitude.

Despite expressing thanks, both their expressions and tone were as cold as if discussing a stranger.

Giving Lann, a normal person, a sense of eeriness.

"Don’t worry about it." Yet the Demon Hunter impeccably controlled his expression and emotions, showing nothing outwardly. "Just help me sort out my identity; lending a hand last night was no big deal."

Only after Mark greeted Lann did Henrik, seated in the chair, start gesturing to the two.

"Lann, a Hunter from another land seeking ’Blood Healing’ in Yan’an, quite skilled."

"Mark, clergy of the Healing Church."

Serving as an intermediary, Henrik left behind two sentences, and then as if he’d completed a task, he fell silent.

Mark seemed entirely accustomed to Henrik’s style.

"So, you, as someone from outside, wish to become a Yan’an Hunter to pursue ’Blood Healing’?"

Mark said softly with a calm expression.

He appeared already familiar with such matters.

"Is it for these eyes? Oh, pardon me; I asked too much."

After expressing apology without emotion, Mark continued.

"It’s simple. To cope with increasingly severe situations, the Church is expanding its recruitment. I’ll help you with some paperwork, and soon you’ll enter the queuing process for ’Blood Healing.’

"Queuing process?" Lann himself had always kept a respectful distance from any blood in Yan’an, but he sharply captured a keyword in Mark’s dialogue.

The Demon Hunter asked casually, "Are many coming to Yan’an pursuing ’Blood Healing’?"

"There are still those from outside like you, but Holy Blood is now extremely scarce."

Mark explained.

"The Gray Blood disease is too severe; ultimately, ’Blood Healing’ is needed to save lives. Otherwise, how can this pandemic be cured?"

When medical resources encounter a pandemic, they are never enough.

Though Lann understood what Yan’an’s ’Blood Healing’ entailed, locally in Yan’an, it was undoubtedly revered and cherished as a treatment method.

"I’m not in a hurry." Lann spoke seemingly indifferently, "This disease won’t take my life anytime soon."

"But do you intend to apply ’Blood Healing’ to every Gray Blood Patient?"

Mark nodded earnestly, then shook his head.

"The Church wants to save people, but there’s not enough resources. Ultimately, we can only let the most severe Gray Blood patients enter the Medical Treatment House and attempt to rescue them through ’Blood Healing,’ while simultaneously understanding this disease."