Kaiyan proudly tossed the heavy purse in his hand.

In addition to the rewards for hunting petrified lizards, there is also the caravan escort fee paid in advance.

Now there was no trace of blood on the blue hat merchant's face.

The other side.

The black-haired officer specially allocated four horses, three for the witchers.

Another horse was responsible for carrying the body of the petrified lizard, which was the witchers' trophy.

"The Duke summoned all the demon hunter masters some time ago, and seemed to be discussing some internal affairs among the masters. He specifically asked us to arrange for you to enter the city as soon as possible after seeing you." The black-haired officer said, "You can reach the capital as quickly as possible by following this road. You must have the emblem given to you by the Duke, and the sentries along the way will not stop you."

Kaiyan's face lit up with excitement.

Gaitan and Aiden behind him were also stunned for a moment, and then showed anticipation.

Combined with the description of Lann that Kaiyan had given them before, they could naturally imagine what big event would happen when all the demon hunters were summoned.

Kaiyan quickly suppressed his excitement and said to the black-haired officer: "I'm afraid you need to prepare another horse."

"oh?"

The black-haired officer had a puzzled look on his face as he watched Kaiyan gesture toward the caravan.

A man came out with his head wrapped tightly in a cloak.

Kaiyan approached the black-haired officer and whispered, "He contacted me through the 'Cleavers' of Novigrad - that guy has some credibility among the non-human races."

"This man is an elf, and the leader of the Scoia'tael. He calls himself 'Iorveth'. He has Lan's emblem on his hand, and he said he contacted Lan when he was having a meeting in Pontar."

Kaiyan asked: "I don't know much about what happened after you left Novigrad... Is there really any connection between Lann and the Scoia'tael?"

…

As one of the leaders of the Scoia'tael, Iorveth once led the Scoia'tael to assassinate the King of the North during the Northern Talks.

However, when he was about to succeed, he was stopped by Lan.

Lann did not simply intercept the actions of the Scoia'tael. He also placed a [Teleport] mark on Iorveth during his free time in the battle.

Lane then appeared at the gathering place of the Scoia'tael and had a cordial meeting with them.

During that conversation, Lann revealed his identity as the Ancient Blood, evaluated and improved the strategy of the Scoia'tael, drew a better blueprint, and finally expressed his desire to contact and negotiate with the elves behind the Scoia'tael.

This time, Iorveth returned with instructions from the depths of the Blue Mountains, replacing the current leader of the elves, Francesca Findaby, the "Daisy of the Valley", to make a second contact with Lann.

However, Lann did not leave his contact information with Iorveth at that time, so he could only rely on the relationship with the non-human races in Novigrad, and accidentally got together with three cat-faction demon hunters and came to Cintra.

"Please take off your cloak." The garrison outside the capital of Cintra said to Iorveth, calling back the consciousness of the Scoia'tael leader.

Although Iorveth also holds Lan's emblem, he still has to go through the most basic review process. This is the rigor of Cintra, and it is also a process created by Lan to prevent infiltration by unexpected people.

Iorveth frowned and had to take off his hood, revealing a pair of pointed ears.

He felt very uncomfortable. The Squirrel Party itself had an absolutely hostile relationship with humans, and now his true face was exposed at the gate of a human capital.

But to his surprise, the people of Cintra who were passing by did not look at him strangely: let alone hatred towards the Scoia'tael, they did not even show any rejection or alienation towards normal elves.

He even heard a few compliments on his good looks.

"Thank you for your cooperation and thank you for your service to His Excellency the Duke." The guard returned the lion emblem to Iorveth and saluted.

The guards then assigned one person to lead them to the Sintra Palace, where another white-haired man who looked like a butler took over and led them to a meeting room.

"Gentlemen, you can call me Ens." The old butler introduced himself to the elves and demon hunters.

The royal palace of Cintra looked damaged in many places, and it was obvious that it had been looted by the Nilfgaardians.

The recovery was short and there was no time to repair the building.

But it's neat.

The butler reported from outside the meeting room, then apologized to Iorveth, "The Duke is in a meeting, and these three demon hunter masters are related to the topic, so they can go in. But you may have to wait a while."

The door of the conference room opened, and three cat-faction witchers, eager to try, entered without any hesitation.

And Iorveth tensed up slightly.

After all, he is the leader of a Scoia'tael, but now he is trapped in a heavily guarded human palace.

In this tense state of mind, he saw several dwarves and halflings walking hurriedly through the palace, and the guards all looked at these non-human races with respect.

Then he heard a greeting.

"Hey, Scoia'tael elf, you're here too?"

Iorveth suddenly shuddered, turned around, and saw Saskia's hearty smile.

…

A room full of amber pupils stared at the three new demon hunters.

Looking at the room full of demon hunters, Kaiyan, Aiden, and Gaitan also showed expressions of amazement.

Lann, Geron, and Kelda from the Griffin School (Coen is still recuperating in the Dryad Forest);

Retho, Kolgrim, Ox, and Serrit from the Viper School;

Vesemir, Geralt, Eskar, and Lambert of the School of the Wolf;

Gerd of the Bear School;

There is also Ciri, a half-witcher who sneaked in as a reserve.

Since the Golden Age of Demon Hunters, there have never been so many Demon Hunters gathered on the continent. Even if there were a few gatherings, they often ended in tragedy.

The smiles on the faces of the three older generation masters in the room, Vesemir, Geron, and Kelda, have not yet faded.

In addition, three spellcasters, Mossak, Yennefer, and Triss, were also present in the conference room. They would be the resident mages of the Demon Hunter Cult in the future.

They were also looking at Kaiyan and his group.

Kaiyan is quite special. He was rescued from the underground laboratory in Novigrad when Lan was on his way north to attend the Northern Conference. Strictly speaking, he joined the team earlier than the others in the Snake Faction.

However, since they were left in Novigrad by Lann, most people in Cintra did not recognize them; among the demon hunters present, only a few people from the Snake Faction who had fought alongside him knew him.

The Griffins, the Wolf Faction, and the Bear Faction all didn't know him.

Everyone looked at the three cats with scrutiny. After all, it was well known that the cat faction was home to many crazy people - especially since there was a bit of a feud between the wolf faction and the cat faction.

However, the atmosphere at the scene was soon broken before it began to become serious.

First, when Lambert saw the visitor, he called out "Aiden!" in surprise, and then he warmly hugged the one with semi-long hair among the three cats, taking the lead in resolving the awkwardness between the wolf faction and the cat faction.

Then the Snake Clan members extended greetings to their old friend Kaiyan.

Finally, it was Lan, the host, who introduced the three cat faction members to everyone and gained everyone's trust.

…

Although Kaiyan was left outside, Lann and he had a lot of correspondence. He knew that since Kaiyan became famous in Novigrad, demon hunters sent by his classmates came to contact him.

Lane identified the two Cat Clan members through correspondence.

Gaitan, a sad character in the previous life game, is the protagonist of the extended side quest "Dances between Cats and Wolves". He once accepted a commission from a village to hunt down a deer-headed spirit. With his martial arts specifically targeting humans, he killed the powerful [Remnant] alone. Later, he was tricked into a barn by a villager who wanted to default on his debt and was seriously injured by a pitchfork. So he angrily slaughtered the village and left only a little girl who looked like his sister.

The player's protagonist can choose his own justice: kill Gaitan to pay for the lives of the villagers, or understand Gaitan and let him go.

Another demon hunter is Aiden, a cat-follower who only exists in the quest descriptions and a close friend of the wolf-follower Lambert. Lambert described him as "I like Aiden more than Geralt." He was involved in a political turmoil because he accepted a quest to help the Duke's daughter remove the curse, and was then killed by a killer hired by the nobles.

By the way, the killer who killed Aiden was named Judd Carradine, also a cat-faction demon hunter, and is now dead.

Lane did it.

The most important thing for Lann is that these two witchers, like Kaiyan, are the few rational people in the cat faction that is full of lunatics and have not been poisoned by the potion. They are the type that can be won over.

So as soon as he learned the news about them, Lann instructed Kaiyan to keep them and then bring them back to Cintra to join the construction process of the Demon Hunter Cult.

…

"I've heard about you, Kaiyan." With Lan's guarantee, Geron also took the initiative to show goodwill to the cat party he had never met.

In addition to Lann's letters, Geron also learned about Kaiyan from other sources.

"The caravans coming from outside often bring some ballads and news about famous operas." Jeroen smiled. "'Good Neighbors of the People of Novigrad' has spread to song and dance troupes throughout the North, with Novigrad as the center."

"Except for [Lion Lann] and [White Wolf Geralt], you [Proxima Cat Kaiyan] are the most famous among the demon hunters in the North."

The other witchers laughed out loud when they heard this, especially Gaitan and Aiden who came with Kaiyan. They were attracted to Novigrad to visit old friends because of this reputation, and they also watched this performance in person in the dance troupe.

This is an important move by Lann to use public opinion to change the image of the witcher in the entire North, and it now seems to be quite effective.

Kaiyan himself looked quite embarrassed. He didn't really like this form of fame. If it wasn't for Lann's request, he wouldn't cooperate.

"Well, let us first welcome the return of our old brothers and the joining of new brothers." Lan En said as he arranged for the three cats to sit down.

There was a grand occasion of five schools sitting together around the conference table. Except for the Manticore School which was far away and had no news for hundreds of years, all the current witcher schools on the continent gathered in Cintra.

Lan looked around at the colorful circle of eyes.

"I have long told you that I intend to rebuild the Demon Hunter Order in Cintra, revive the Demon Hunter's mission, and restore the glory of the Demon Hunter." Lann said solemnly, "Now it is time for me to fulfill my promise."

Ciri nodded along with them: "In the future, Cintra will become the headquarters of the Demon Hunter Order, just like Kaer Morhen to the Wolf Cult and Kaer Siren to the Griffin School. Cintra will be your strongest backing!"

The demon hunters all looked excited, and even Lambert, who was the most awkward, straightened his posture involuntarily.

"After the celebration of the restoration of Cintra is over, we will send a formal notice to the North, announcing the re-establishment of the Demon Hunter Order. In this way, we hope to reunite the Demon Hunter brothers who are away."

"Today is the first day to collect everyone's opinions: such as the location of the cult's headquarters, the establishment of the cult's institutions, the slogans that the cult will use to the outside world in the future, and the demands of various schools, etc." Lan En smiled, "After all, I am the least experienced among the demon hunters, so I still want to refer to the opinions of the seniors in this regard."

Lan En was very polite and respectful in his words. Everyone knew that these were just polite words from Lan En and should not be taken seriously.

Not to mention whether there is anyone present except Jielong who can beat Lann, even if the cult is officially established in the future, the land occupied, the money spent, and the technical support required will almost all depend on Lann alone.

Not to mention that the demon hunters present had a reason to gather together because of Lann.

However, they also knew that what this sentence meant was that Lann was willing to humble himself and allow the various schools to give their opinions.

Now let's bring out our respective demands for discussion and balance, have some arguments where necessary, and determine the general framework for the future of the religious group.

Interests are one thing, and future principles of conduct are another.

The former Demon Hunter Cult eventually fell apart due to differences in ideology. Now that the Cult is rebuilding, it naturally wants to avoid the same situation from happening again.

"There are still a few days until the Restoration Ceremony. Before, everyone was fighting for Cintra and might not have had time to think about these things. Now you can go back and think about it carefully." Lann said sympathetically, "I will hold another meeting later."

"In addition to this purpose today, I also want to announce a good news to everyone - a really good news." As he said this, Lan looked at Mossak.

The old druid felt the gaze and nodded and stood out.

"Everyone, I am very happy to announce to you: the demon hunter mutation technology has achieved an experimental breakthrough. It is - controllable!"

As soon as he opened his mouth, Mossak dropped a bomb.

The pupils of the demon hunters in the room lit up without drinking the [Cat].

The oldest demon hunters even began to tremble.

Since the new era, the older generation has abandoned the Demon Hunter Trial due to the high mortality rate of the Trial. This is their compromise with the kindness in their hearts, and they even accepted the sad future that the school would perish in their hands.

Now, there is hope.

"In the next few days, the two ladies and I—" Mossak looked at Triss and Yennefer beside him, "—will make preliminary preparations for the [Trial of Green Grass] and [Trial of Dreams]. It is expected that the first mutation of demon hunters in the new era will begin after the Restoration Ceremony."

"You can all visit this mutation trial together. Let's celebrate the establishment of the Demon Hunter Order with the first Demon Hunter of the new era!"