The mirror was glued, the demon appeared, the seal was broken, and all this happened within a breath.
By the time everyone reacted, the black cat-like demon had disappeared.
Triss was the first to come to her senses. She stepped forward hesitantly and asked, "Lan... did you expel the demon?"
Lann glanced at the direction where the black fog finally disappeared: "It looks like it has been expelled."
He flipped his wrist and put the mirror back into the [Inventory].
Triss trotted forward and checked the skinned man lying on the ground. As a sorceress, she also learned the basics of medicine.
But the more I checked, the more frightened I became.
"His muscles were completely rigid and had no elasticity, and his nerves were basically dead. It was as if his entire body's reflex system was paralyzed, and he could not respond to any external stimuli."
Triss frowned. This was the first time she had seen someone like this. "This is simply a living corpse. If it weren't for the fact that it was still breathing, it would really be exactly the same as a dead person."
The snake-faction demon hunters who had gathered around were hesitant to speak, as they had never seen such a creature before.
Finally, it was Lei Suo who spoke up: "If there is no other way, let's free this fellow. This state... is worse than death."
Lann shook his head and said firmly: "He can still be saved."
He raised his head and met everyone's gaze: "Remember the abilities of the Ancient Blood that I told you about? This is one of them."
The last skill point that had been stored in the system was consumed by Lann, and a new vacancy suddenly appeared in the [Follower] panel.
Follower, contract.
During this period of time, after completing several side quests and demon hunting missions, and not knowing what Ace had done, Lann had accumulated a lot of experience points.
At this moment, these experiences seemed to be sliding down like an avalanche, almost hitting the bottom.
This was the first time that Lann had contracted a "follower" who was not loyal to him, and the power consumed was far beyond his imagination.
But fortunately, the decrease in experience points finally stopped before the values were completely cleared, and then a new follower system panel appeared in front of Lann.
[Follower: Kaiyan
Gender: Male
Race: Demon Hunter
Level: 1
Talent: Psychic
Experience value: 0/1000
HP: 1200/1200
Mana: 500/500
Inventory: None
Skills: Cat School Skills, Cat School Swordsmanship Advanced, Cat School Seal Intermediate, Alchemy Elementary, Riding Advanced, Precision Shooting, Combat Intuition, Pain Tolerance, Nightmare Enhancement
Mission: None]
[Shared Follower Talent: Medium]
[Medium: Improves resistance to mind control skills, and improves the ability to perceive demons, ghosts, ghost-like creatures and supernatural phenomena]
Lann raised his eyebrows, not expecting the other party to have such talent. He just didn't know whether this talent was born with him or was a "talent" left over after being possessed by the devil.
In the eyes of Triss and the four snake-faction demon hunters, the demon hunter lying on the ground suddenly began to tremble violently after Lann's palm touched him.
In just a blink of an eye, before everyone could even react to what had happened, the skinned man in front of them suddenly disappeared, and was replaced by a tall and strong man.
His breathing was steady and powerful, and his muscles were well-defined but not bulging, making him look like a well-trained warrior. However, his skin was very delicate and without a single scar, making him look like someone who had never been in combat.
In other words, this is a new born person.
Lei Suo's eyes widened. "Unbelievable. Ancient Blood... Is this the kind of power that the Wild Hunt seeks?"
"Lann!" Kolgrim shouted excitedly, "Is there any limit to your treatment? This is a means of bringing the dead back to life. If Chapelle were still here, he would kneel down and shout "It's a miracle!"
Hearing this, the man lying on the ground seemed to become unimportant at this moment, and everyone's eyes turned to Lan En.
Just like Kolgrim said, this is the power of resurrection, surpassing all known healing methods on the continent!
"I'm still exploring this power, and I don't know its limits and limitations very well." Lann smiled, "I can only say: if you are injured, try to hold on to your last breath, and then give me some time to prepare. I can at least save each of you once like this."
Everyone's eyes were filled with amazement again. This was like a second life, and they, who had experienced many battles, understood what this meant.
Maybe the crowd was too noisy, the man lying on the ground snapped his fingers a few times and slowly opened his eyes.
The eyes were still scarlet in color, but the whites of the eyes were clearly visible, and only the pupils were still emitting blood.
Fortunately, there was no more madness and killing inside, only confusion. He looked around aimlessly, and finally his eyes stopped on Lann.
For some reason, he felt that the blond young man with strange eyes in front of him exuded a friendly temperament, which made him feel at ease and he couldn't help but want to trust him.
"Hey man, are you still awake? Do you remember your name?"
"Name?" The man's eyes were dull for a moment, and he muttered to himself, but a word came out before he could think, "Kayan."
"Yes, Kaiyan." His eyes lit up, "My name is Kaiyan!"
Lann laughed. He saved this cat-faction witcher.
…
The cat faction is full of crazy people. This is a joke, but it is also true.
Lann sometimes wondered whether he should bring the Cat School into his plan to revive the Witcher. If he planted a time bomb in his own forces just to put together a school like "collecting cards", it would be too costly.
But after much consideration, Lan finally decided to accept the cat faction.
First, there are still rational people in the cat faction in the original book. Lambert of the wolf faction has a close friend who is also a cat faction. According to Lambert's own narration, this cat faction is more to his liking than Geralt.
Secondly, every school has its foundation, and the swordsmanship of the Cat School does have its merits, and it can be used as a reference when training new demon hunters or even elite mortal soldiers in the future.
Third, Lane believes that the madness of the Cat Party is not hopeless.
Before you understand why the people of Cat Party are so crazy, you need to understand the history of Cat Party:
At the end of the Demon Hunter Cult, the departure of Alzu made the cult lose its direction. Gradually, some Demon Hunters began to go against the grain, even turning their swords against their comrades in order to compete for commissions. Eventually, a large-scale conflict broke out among the Demon Hunters, leading to the dissolution of the cult.
It was at this time that a group of witchers wearing cat head pendants quietly left the witcher cult. They hoped to save the witcher's fading prestige and regain a good reputation for the witcher.
That's right, the Cat School, which made the witchers infamous, originally hoped to restore the good reputation for the witchers!
This group of demon hunters secretly took away a batch of mutation materials and experimental equipment, but they were eventually recovered by the demon hunter cult. They refused the cult's request to stay and were no longer willing to get along with the demon hunters who had changed their ways. However, they also lost the complete mutation formula and had to seek help from a new warlock.
Fate played a joke on these ambitious young demon hunters.
They headed south and eventually settled in Styga Castle. The Styga mages began to transform mutations based on the formula provided by the demon hunters, with the goal of blunting emotions and making the demon hunters more rational; but the result was the opposite, they created a group of cruel, sensitive, and irritable lunatics.
The mages put the failed products of these experiments into cages, trying to analyze the reasons for the failure. After all, biological weapons like the Demon Hunter are so rare at a historical level that they are too tempting for every mage.
At this time, a half-elf demon hunter named Gizlas crawled out from the corpse of his companion. He used his extraordinary courage and skills to free his companion. At the same time, he led his comrades to join the elf camp, seeking shelter and rewards by attacking humans, and strengthening themselves.
After growing fully grown, Gizrath led his companions back to Styga Castle on a cloudy night, and one by one they sought to settle accounts with the mages who created them, taking their lives in their sleep.
After sanity faded, madness enveloped, and blood boiled, the School of Cats was established.
The Cat School witchers no longer have a base, and live in constantly moving caravans. They continue to follow the crazy mutation formula and even create a female witcher by accident.
And they also discovered that the cult's neutrality had long been trampled under their feet, and killing people was much easier and more profitable than killing monsters. Out of hatred for the mages who sold their parents cheaply, the cruel experiments they conducted, and the unruly people who went back on their words, the cat faction was more often willing to accept the elves' commissions.
Fate likes to play tricks on people. The pioneers who first left the cult with the dream of reviving the school ended up doing unacceptable things. Every abuse and spurn that other witchers suffered in the countryside was due to their efforts.
The madness of the Cat Sect comes from the defects of mutation and also from the experiences of the first generation of Cat Sect members. It is also these first generation of Cat Sect members who passed down the madness.
Lann believed that by finding a true master of biological alchemy to re-study the witcher mutations, and then providing the new cat faction with a more cohesive and secure training environment, new and more stable cat faction witchers could be cultivated.
Moreover, even in today's environment, there are occasionally lucky cat-style witchers who can regain normal sanity. In the original book, Kaiyan is one of them. He is a "relatively sane" cat-style witcher.
For the reasons mentioned above, and after experimenting with his own [Follower] panel, Lann finally decided to recruit Kaiyan. Similarly, Lambert's best friend, the rational cat that players have met in the game, would also be recruited by Lann if he had the chance in the future.
Lann flipped his hand and took out the Cat Pie Badge Necklace from the [Inventory].
Handing the badge to Kaiyan, he chuckled and said, "It's back to its rightful owner, Kaiyan. Don't lose it again."
Kaiyan had just regained consciousness and was able to respond to Lann's words.
He stared at the badge blankly, and then a torrent of memories swept into his brain.
His eyes began to flash red, and his face, which had returned to smoothness, began to tremble as if with cramps.
Cargo ship, warlock, sea, storm...
Experiments, anger, pain, numbness...
Countless scenes began to flash back, and each one seemed to be stained with blood. Some scenes even had only clear lines, but Kaiyan could still sense the majestic emotions from them.
Until these fragments of memory are connected together and begin to piece together, combine, and make sense.
He remembered it all.
As a cat-faction demon hunter, he hated his identity since he was a child. After entering the life of a lone ranger, he soon got tired of the precarious commissions and didn't want to work for anyone anymore. He even rejected a prince's offer to be his personal bodyguard and became a bodyguard for a smuggling ship, where he lived a stable life for several years.
Until one day, the captain arranged a sorcerer into his room on the grounds that "the cabin was crowded".
At that time, he had already restrained his explosive temper that prompted him to fight with others. Unless he was fighting, he would often compromise in his daily life.
He was a sorcerer, full of wisdom, and made people feel relaxed and at ease when talking to him. Although he had an extraordinary enthusiasm for himself, Kaiyan did not care at first.
Later, the other party took advantage of his meditation and paralyzed him with magic and potion.
In his hazy consciousness, he vaguely heard the surging waves and raging storms outside the cabin, and the familiar voices were no longer laughing, but wailing; he was taken back to the laboratory involuntarily, and thus began a period of dark and bloody days.
He didn't want to recall the memories after that. He only remembered that the last moment of his consciousness was when he saw a cat statue with red eyes.
I remember it now. I remember it all.
Kaiyan looked up, his eyes were bloodshot, his face was cold, but his tone was gentle.
Looking at Lann, who inexplicably gave him a sense of affinity, Kaiyan asked, "You saved me?"
The griffin emblem hanging around the other person's neck made him feel even more familiar, more familiar than a cat.
"I am Lann of Cintra, Lann Lannister Rhaanron, witcher of the Griffin School, welcome back to the normal world." Lann asked, "How do you feel now?"
After hearing the question, Kaiyan closed his eyes and clenched his fists. He felt a force far greater than he had ever felt before surging through his body.
He twisted his neck and moved his limbs, making a crackling sound like fried beans. Not only that, the hidden injuries from previous training and the inconvenience caused by some long-standing illnesses also disappeared without a trace at this moment.
The vitality contained in his body shocked himself.
“I’ve never felt better.”
Kaiyan looked around at the four snake demon hunters and a sorceress around him, as if he had just discovered them: "You guys saved me too?"
Reso shook his head on behalf of the Snake Faction Demon Hunters: "We were only involved in part of the process of changing you back from that... appearance. It was Lan and Triss who brought you out of the underground laboratory."
Kaiyan automatically ignored the "Triss" in the words and turned to look at Lann, his eyes becoming more intimate and passionate.
Lann deliberately asked, "So Kaiyan, what are your plans for the future? Do you have any cat-sent companions to look for, or other friends to turn to?"
Kaiyan glanced at Lann and lowered his head in thought: "May I ask, what year is this year?"
"1264."
Kaiyan was prepared for this, but he still sighed: "It's been thirty years."
The sadness and loss in those words made everyone who listened to them sigh.
"Then, the people you knew before must have changed a lot. You have to take your time to find them, right?" Lann advised very considerately, "Why don't you stay by my side and help me now? Just think of it as a commission from me. To be honest, I am the Count of Cintra. Cintra is planning to rebuild the Demon Hunter Cult recently. We already have griffins, wolves and snakes. If you are added, we will be one step closer to our goal. However, I have encountered some troubles recently..."
"Okay!" Kaiyan's rationality seemed to suddenly break again, and his enthusiasm when he agreed far exceeded the level of gratitude he should have for his savior.
It seemed as if he was just waiting for Lann to invite him, and then he would accept it.
Lan was interrupted, but he smiled with satisfaction.
…
Will Lann empathize with Kaiyan, because he was subjected to cruel experiments and was outraged by his fellow demon hunters?
No.
Don’t forget who was the first demon hunter Lann met since his rebirth, and what happened between them.
Although Lann has been a demon hunter for a long time, his emotions are not so universal. He might risk his life for Ciri, Mossak, Geron and others, but as for others——
Even towards the Snake Faction, the good brother of the player in the previous life, Lan En was only friendly, not affectionate. In the final analysis, the relationship was not that deep.
So let alone Kaiyan, although his experience is pitiful, he is not a good person after all. Kaiyan was once hired by the prince to massacre a scientific expedition team, killing people and stealing treasures, and later became a bodyguard for a smuggling slave ship.
From the perspective of the world of this era, he is also a ruthless person.
In Lan's expectation, the most ideal member of the Witcher Cult would be a cat-faction like Lambert's best friend.
However, the existence of the [Follower] panel made him want to try to subdue Kaiyan.
Kaiyan may not be considered a good person, but there happen to be too many "good people" and "knights" of the first class around Lann.
Even the Snake Faction, which specializes in assassination missions, is actually a group of people with a very solid moral bottom line.
For a qualified leader, the people around him cannot be too homogeneous, right?
Fortunately, Lann's [Follower] panel did not disappoint him.
And according to the talents and skills shown in the [Follower] panel, even if Kaiyan is not as good as the mentor-level figures like Vesemir in the school, he is definitely far superior to ordinary demon hunters.
Lane couldn't have been more satisfied with the results of this trip to explore Temple Island.
Since then, Lann has officially gained the allegiance of four snake faction witchers, obtained a "follower" of the cat faction witcher, and gained the friendship of "Chapelle". It is expected that he will be able to gain the support of Novigrad, the "capital of the North" in the future.
Far exceeded expectations.
For a moment, he even felt that Mirror Master's mission was not so important, and what he gained from coming to Novigrad was enough!
Okay, just kidding, that's a bit too far-fetched.
The mission still needs to be done, but before that, the hands in the dark must be chopped off one by one to avoid any unnecessary complications.
Lan thought about it and returned to his original purpose.
"Leso, what are your plans from now on? Are you going to go back to Riens and lurk around?"
Reso shook his head: "We rarely meet with Reens. We only meet when we have an appointment in advance, usually to discuss missions."
It's a very loose team structure.
Lane asked again, "Then stay here with us first. When did you originally plan to launch an attack against me and Chapelle?"
Reso replied: "Seven days later."
Lan nodded. There was still plenty of time to implement his plan bit by bit.
"Kayan, I want you to do me a favor, too."
The new cat-faction witcher straightened up and pricked up his ears.
…
Chapelle's shapeshifter has a kind nature. He doesn't want his affairs to implicate the citizens of Novigrad, so he wants to get rid of the three gang leaders in advance to prevent them from launching a riot.
Oaks, Serrit, and Kolgrim went to assassinate the Beggar King, Hawthorne, and Machete respectively.
Because they were worried about alerting the enemy, the three did not attack immediately, but lay in wait at Lann's residence until there was only one day left before the planned riot, and then they dispersed in the night and showed their fangs.
Among them, Oaks's action was the fastest.
In the original game, the Snake Squad was once rescued by Geralt, played by the player, and has been loyal to the player ever since. They not only helped the player fight against the Wild Hunt and take care of the amnesiac Yennefer, but were also arrested by the Emperor of Nilfgaard and embarked on the path of regicide.
The original ending of Ox was very sad. In the game, he planned to assassinate the king of Kaedwen, but he ran into the player. At that time, Geralt, played by the player, lost his memory and did not remember his brother who had lived and died with him. In the end, he killed Ox by mistake.
Of course, Oaks' fate has changed now.
At this moment, he was tracking a homeless man.
According to his observation, the man was about to "pay taxes".
The Beggar King is a very unique existence in Novigrad. He is different from the gang-like Machetes and the family-like Hawthorne.
He named himself the Beggar King in order to mock the red tape of the court, but he also took some of its essence and actually established a functioning order in the underground of Novigrad.
"Paying taxes" is the most important part of the order he established, used to maintain his decent life and class authority.
Following the tramp, Oaks arrived at the Beggar King's territory known as the "Rotten Forest". The sealed gate and sporadic guards were no problem for the experienced Snake Faction demon hunter.
In the night, a dark shadow shuttled through the shadows of every corner and over the eaves.
Soon, Oaks found his target.
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