Chapter 66

A towering, muscular man stood before the three of them. His skin was dark, his body robust, and his muscles bulged so much that the black T-shirt he wore could hardly conceal the chiseled lines of his physique. His face was rugged, with thick eyebrows and large eyes, and even in human form, he exuded an intimidating presence that made people feel pressured. His bald head, where veins could be seen, made people who didn’t know him mistake him for a thug at first glance—honestly, he looked pretty menacing. It was probably hard to find a creature on this planet darker than Izaak.

Even after transforming into human form, Izaak was still very noticeable, and Hao Ren realized that even in human form, he still had to look up at him, which made him feel pressured about bringing this demon home: optimistically speaking, this bald thug would attract a whole class of police officers just by his appearance. If he stood in front of a police station, they would request backup without him saying a word...

But at least he was better than the fiery mountain he used to be.

"Alright, let's go," Hao Ren sighed. He had many questions to ask Izaak, but this place was not suitable for further conversation. The light and shadow effects from the demon's arrival had already drawn attention from the town, even though there were no roads nearby, the forest firefighters should have arrived by now. "We'll talk more when we get home... Hey, I just remembered something!"

Hao Ren slapped his forehead, recalling a puzzling point when Angus admitted to his deception: at the beginning of the haunting, many people in the town saw a fire coming from the direction of the castle, which was not caused by Angus.

"Was it you?" Hao Ren asked, recounting the cause of the haunting in the town. "Did you just arrive then?"

"Ah, it was me, I feel pretty bad about it," Izaak said, stepping out of the lava pool, shaking his feet to remove the molten slag from his pants. He wore a frightening smile (his face was scary no matter how you looked at it). "I arrived on this planet on a relocation ship from your Temporal Administration, but I flew myself when entering the atmosphere and ended up in the wrong place. The original landing site was a shielded area arranged by the Administration, where landing wouldn't draw attention, but I ended up here... just like what you saw earlier, it was quite a commotion. But I noticed the locals didn't seem to mind; they even seemed happy, so I didn't come out to apologize. I was told to try not to reveal my identity before I came."

Hao Ren broke out in a cold sweat, finally understanding what Angus meant by "huge fire." Recalling the fiery sea floating in the clouds when Izaak arrived, the scale was indeed red and visible from dozens of kilometers away.

Hao Ren led the group away from the castle ruins, but just as they were about to leave, Vivian remembered something: "Wait, shouldn't we clean up the scene here?"

Vivian pointed to the pile of stones on the high ground. The entire castle ruins were in a mess. Lily had dismantled nearly a wall's worth of stones to use as bricks, smashing the rest of the walls in the process. The place where Izaak landed still had uncooled lava, which would soon turn into rough glass. Nangong had also created a large hole in the center of the castle leading to the underground chamber, and there were numerous tunnels opened by the skeletal guards. The ruins were littered with hundreds of ancient armored skeletons—these skeletal guards, infused with demonic power, were theoretically unable to stand again, but there might be a few that could still move. Leaving this mess for ordinary people was clearly not appropriate.

Although Hao Ren wanted to wash his hands of the matter, he knew he had to deal with it...

"How do we handle this? Should we request a bombing to level the place?" Hao Ren shrugged. "That would be the simplest way. Otherwise, how can we clean up this mess in a short time? Also, I saw the shadow of vehicles in the distance, probably people from the town coming to see what's happening."

Izaak didn't understand what Vivian and Hao Ren were talking about, but he could guess. The demon scratched his shiny bald head and chuckled: "Leave it to me, you guys hide somewhere far away."

Hao Ren, seeing the demon about to use his powers, didn't ask what he planned to do and quickly pulled Lily and Vivian to a nearby small hill, leaving Izaak alone in the castle ruins. But before he could steady himself on the hill, he heard a thunderous voice from the castle: "Move further away! The farther, the better!"

Hao Ren was taken aback: "What's he going to do? Is he really going to level the place?"

He then patted Lily: "Hurry up, this big guy is going to make a big move—Vivian, go get Nangong and the old monk. They should be waking up by now."

Hao Ren judged the distance and thought that Nangong and the Indian monk, who were still in the "ghost hunter camp," might be in danger, so he quickly had Vivian bring them along. It was fortunate he was meticulous and hadn't forgotten about them—otherwise, it could have been fatal!

The group quickly moved to a higher ground further away, and Vivian found Nangong and the Indian monk still unconscious in the small camp. From their state of sleep, it was clear Hao Ren had hit them hard.

Of course, the hardness of the data terminal was also a decisive factor.

As Hao Ren waited for something to happen at the castle, a red light suddenly streaked across the sky.

The three of them looked up in unison and were stunned when they saw the source of the red light: it was a meteor.

A real meteor!

The massive meteor burned fiercely in the atmosphere, trailing a long, fiery tail as it headed straight for the castle. Hao Ren had only seen such scenes on TV or in games, but now this exaggerated thing was really happening in front of him!

Lily let out a long "Oh—" in amazement, and just as she finished, the scorching meteor hit the castle with a deafening "Boom!" The explosion was so intense that Hao Ren felt his skull protest. A mushroom cloud rose from the high ground where the castle stood, and even from this distance, the ground beneath their feet trembled. The shockwave followed, and a strong wind carrying the smell of sulfur hit them. If they were closer, it would have felt like the end of the world.

Hao Ren had one thought: a real meteor strike was much more exciting than in games.

When everything calmed down, the clouds in the sky had been torn apart, and the shockwave from the meteor had created a radial cloud void above the castle. As the first rays of morning sunlight illuminated the ground, the castle had completely disappeared.

The rocks, the high ground, and the underground chamber had all turned into a burning crater, and the surrounding area was covered with large shockwave cracks.

As Hao Ren stood there, stunned, the air nearby suddenly distorted in a vortex, and Izaak teleported to his side. The demon's expression was a bit awkward: "Was it a bit too much? I brought the meteor from the Kuiper Belt. I couldn't find one of the right size, so I chose this one, which seemed appropriately scaled, but I didn't expect it to have a manganese core—I thought it was ice, which would have been less powerful. By the way, the environment in your solar system is great for meteor strikes."

Hao Ren: "..."

Hao Ren, whose worldview was already unshakable, shook his head: "Alright, the hardest thing to explain is gone. The rest can be left to the British astrophysicists to explain the meteor event. Let's go... let's get out of here quickly!"

At this moment, Nangong, who had been lying on the ground, finally woke up (or perhaps the meteor impact had jolted him awake). The half-baked "demon hunter" got up from the ground, immediately groaning and rubbing the back of his head, then coughing from the burning smell in the air: "Cough, cough, what happened to me?"

This guy, who was good at neither success nor failure, woke up at just the right time!