Bear School Astartes

Facing Lann’s question without turning back, the usually calm and decisive Female Hunter did not respond.

She just lowered her triangular hat that had already been soaked by the rain, making it hard to see her expression.

After a long while, amidst the sound of raindrops pattering down, Maria finally spoke with some difficulty.

"No... that’s impossible."

The gentle and elusive voice was as usual, but there was an uncommon amount of hesitation and disbelief in its softness.

Usually, even though her voice was gentle, it was always firm and confident.

Maria even forgot to hang her Blood Nobility Fine Worked Firearm on her waist, just holding it while pressing down her hat.

Muttering, "[Blood Healing]... their blood vials are impure! Those blood vials are inferior products circulated among the populace!"

"Do you believe these words?" Lann followed Maria’s voice immediately, not giving her a chance to breathe as he continued to question.

"Being Old Hunters gathered by the Healing Church to execute a grand hunt, yet the Church didn’t equip them with blood vials? Letting them use those inferior folk blood vials?"

The Demon Hunter walked to the side of the Old Hunter’s corpse whose head he had just crushed.

Reaching into the accumulated water, he took out the blood vial the Old Hunter wanted to use but didn’t have time to.

The blood vial was well-sealed, and even though the outside of the glass bottle was muddy, it gradually returned to its original appearance under the rain, although the bottle was moist.

The Demon Hunter silently handed out the blood vial, extending his arm towards Maria.

That blood vial in his large hand looked just like a bottle of oral liquid.

[Blood Healing], believed by the Yan Nan People and preached by the Healing Church as the ’Universal Remedy’.

’Holy Blood can save everything’, the foundational creed upon which the Healing Church was established.

In the past, whether it was the Beast Plague or the Ashen Blood Disease, the Yan Nan People only thought the production of [Blood Healing] couldn’t keep up with the disease’s consumption, which was why people died.

As long as they received [Blood Healing], no disease or injury would be feared.

But today, right in front of Maria’s eyes.

——An Old Hunter who had already gone mad with beast transformation, even after injecting himself with a vial of blood, remained insane!

It was as if the holy blood merely rigidly restored his body, yet had no effect on the underlying Beast Plague! No improvement!

...How could this be?!

When such a situation was blatantly in front of Maria, it was no less than her worldview as a Yan Nan native being shattered!

"A bad day, right?"

Lann didn’t retract his hand, just suddenly said this sentence calmly.

After traveling through many worlds, he had seen many whose worldviews crumbled amidst massive upheavals.

Coupled with his own experiences, Lann was all too familiar with this feeling of collapse.

Sometimes, just experiencing a bad day is enough to ruin a person.

Upheaval always comes suddenly and violently, that’s why it’s called upheaval.

Maria took a deep breath.

In the end, she still raised her head and, with a complex expression, took the blood vial from Lann’s hand.

"I will... check this blood later."

The words coming from her own mouth uncertain, but Maria somehow managed to pull herself together.

After all, she was an excellent Hunter.

Being a Hunter in Yan’an, one must be mentally strong.

"These Old Hunters have all gone mad." While loading mercury bullets into her Fine Worked Firearm, Maria spoke seriously and lowly, "They actually massacred the villagers here."

"We have to rush back to Yan’an, the target here has already been hunted by my teacher and Ludwig, and the situation here must be publicized!"

"Yes, we need to go back." Lann first agreed, but then he looked towards the dim and rainy village.

"But I have unfinished business here, you and Adeline can go first."

Simon... this lucid Old Hunter, what exactly is his situation now, supposed to trace this grand hunt?

Maria took a deep look at the Demon Hunter.

She knew this person wasn’t simple, even this small fishing village could be linked to him.

But after today’s events, she had nothing to doubt.

"I won’t delve further with you; Adeline is still outside alone, and the Old Hunters can no longer be trusted."

She spoke calmly and coldly.

"I will go back and protect her, but we will wait for you to return together... everything is messed up now."

After she finished speaking, and with mutual nods confirming their agreement, Maria turned without hesitation and walked out of the small fishing village.

While the Demon Hunter turned to look into the hazy and dark distance, beyond the small fishing village lay the vast, boundless dark sea, eerily without any waves or wind sounds.

"Indeed." As Maria’s figure faded away, the Demon Hunter muttered to himself, "Things are getting more and more messed up."

And as the Hunter’s nightmare, does this escalating chaos foretell something?

-----------------

Time is slipping away, but because the sky above the small fishing village is so dark, Lann doesn’t really know how deep the night has become.

After all, it has always been very black.

There are many houses in the small fishing village being burned, and some cages emit a cold light.

It looks like the villagers of the small fishing village have extracted phosphorescent substances from fluorescent sea creatures to create bioluminescent light for illumination.

These extremely limited light sources are all the lighting conditions there is.

Many fishmen have died in the village.

These fishmen seemed to have made a final effort in their last moments.

They have mutated fins on their backs, tied with many fish spears and javelins.

The original fishing tools were not suitable for defense and combat, and under the skilled combat techniques of the Old Hunters, most fishmen’s bodies were torn apart.

Leaving behind the ghastly wounds caused by Yan’an’s transformable weapons.

But the javelins behind the corpses have not been shot out much.

The fishmen’s gray-white blood mixed with the stagnant water makes this already dilapidated small fishing village appear even more damp and decayed.

There is not much blood left here, so those old hunters who chase and indulge in blood also begin to leave aimlessly.

Lann spent over ten minutes searching in the small fishing village, finally finding his acquaintance on a barnacle-infested attic.

A sober Old Hunter, Simon.

But at this moment, he wasn’t in a good state.

The old hunter, dressed in a ragged coat, was lying on the attic floor, beneath him a large puddle of blood almost dried solid.

If it weren’t for the hunters’ extraordinary constitution, an ordinary person’s corpse would already be stiff by now.

Having found Simon, Lann wasn’t too tense, as he knew Simon had died many times in this nightmare.

He stepped forward, turning Simon’s body over, revealing a large, grim wound on his front.

It looked like it had been struck by a huge Morning Star Hammer.

Powerful blunt force mixed with injuries from sharp objects.

"Ah, it’s you."

Simon, with blurred consciousness from excessive blood loss, recognized who was beside him and spoke with difficulty.

"I think... I think I’ve messed things up."

"The bell, that bell kept haunting me, bringing in killers cloaked in beast hides."

"Over and over again, never ceasing."

Simon weakly waved his hand in the air, as if already falling into hallucinations.

Lann grasped his hand.

"I’m listening," the Demon Hunter said softly, "I know you’re in pain right now, Simon. But I beg you, try to give more clues, I feel I’m close to finding the secret, just a little more!"

"Just a little more! I might clutch the key to ending this hunters’ nightmare!"

Awakened hunters have already understood the truth of Yan’an’s [blood healing] in the long hunts, so most of them no longer use blood bottles like ordinary hunters.

Like Simon now, even if he’s about to die, he wouldn’t use it.

To them, losing this sobriety is more terrifying than death.

"Yes, you reaching here shows you’re truly, truly close to the key."

Simon’s lips moved weakly, but he still shared his discovery.

"This village is... the true secret. It’s proof of the hunters’ ancestral sins!"

"It perpetually nourishes the hunter’s nightmare."

Simon’s words came like feeble and muddled murmurs, filled with the realization that followed knowing the truth.

"Our ancestors made mistakes, mistakes that are tied to us, their descendants... Enough, it’s truly enough, we’ve... suffered too much. We can’t bear it anymore."

From Simon’s moribund and chaotic speech, Lann grasped a key point: "What mistake did those hunters’ ancestors make? Was it just the massacre of this small fishing village?"

Although Lann shows no mercy to the old hunters involved in the massacre, in fairness, would merely massacring a village that mutated into fishmen truly cause such a terrifying, profound, and persistent nightmare?

"Their sin isn’t just the massacre of this small fishing village!"

Saying this, Simon, already at death’s door, seemed to gather a final burst of energy, suddenly grabbing Lann’s small arm gauntlets with a slap.

His face, wrapped in dirty bandages, showed no eyes, only quivering lips, pointing to his agitation.

"The target of this Healing Church’s great hunt... is a—Godchild!"

Even someone as well-traveled and worldly as Lann found his pupils constricting in face of this statement.

A Godchild.

Birthing a Godchild of their own is all Ancient Gods dream of.

Everything happening in Yan’an, the terrifying ominous signs, the irrevocable tragedy, all stem from the Ancient Gods’ longing for their dreamed Godchild, along with their envy preventing other Ancient Gods from acquiring one.

The desires and jealousy of Ancient Gods entwine, stirring human desires and jealousy, and finally formed such a colossal mess!

And now, Simon says... there’s already a Godchild here?!