The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 651

Chapter 651: The Denizens of the Stars Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

While the Nangong couple were still curiously studying the furnishings in Raven’s mansion, Hao Ren had already finished debrief with his Goddess. “…this is what happened, and so here they are,” said Hao Ren.

Raven 12345 looked thoughtfully at the black metal box that Hao Ren had brought. “Another has died… and it was also destroyed by the First Born. Did you say this time that there was a race called The Denizens of the Stars?”

“Yeah,” Hao Ren nodded. “The people on the Ark called them The Denizens of the Stars while people in Holletta called them ‘allies from the starts’ but the basic meaning is almost the same. They all refer to space visitors. But what we have collected so far are just imagery, it is not known whether there are still Denizens of the Stars survivors in The Plane of Dreams or not.”

Raven 12345 looked at the images of The Denizens of the Stars on the hologram the MDT was projecting. The images was taken from the Ark host earlier. Then she found something. “It seems to be an energy body, a spirit with no physical element.”

Hao Ren had felt that Raven still had something more to say. “So what?”

“So it’s not as if it was bred from the Seed of Origin. I have analysed the lifeblood sample that you brought in and found that only the carbon-based and the sulphur-based creatures could evolve according to the pre-set template of the Seed of Origin. It could also absorb the semiconductor minerals contained in the planet to make silicon-based ecosystems – but they are all physical life forms. These Denizens of the Stars should be a naturally occurring species.”

“The sirens on Io were also born naturally,” it reminded Hao Ren of the ocean planet. There had been no trace of the First Born on the ocean planet. So he and Raven 12345 both came to the same conclusion that the siren was a natural race. .

Raven 12345 slightly nodded. “Yes, the siren is naturally produced and obviously not as developed as the Denizens of the Stars. Of course, Io’s environment had made it hard for the siren civilisation to develop. However, species with a physical body would develop faster than spiritual creatures. This is because spiritual creatures are inherently weak in their relations with the physical world. They are slow to respond to the physical domain. Therefore, they are less motivated to develop and they don’t like to pay attention to changes in the real world. Spiritual creatures will develop pure spiritual civilisation, and they will always immerse themselves in it until the day they die. So even though they are naturally gifted beyond the physical life, their civilisation is developing at a much slower pace than ordinary species, and this delay has greater impact than the ocean environment of Io.”

“And the Denizens of the Stars are obviously more advanced than the sirens…” Hao Ren finally understood what Raven 12345 was trying to say. “This race must be very old?”

“Very, very, very old…” Raven 12345 looked at the holographic projection next to her, her brows furrowed slightly. “They were able to go to warn the various Second Born civilisations in the universe ten thousand years ago, which shows that they are more advanced than all the Second Borns. Judging from the fact that they know how to destroy the first Born’s body, I suspect that the history of the Denizens of the Stars could even be traced back to the time of the first sowing by the goddess of creation, or even earlier.”

Hao Ren was surprised. “Can it be so old?”

“You bet. Don’t underestimate the retardedness of the spiritual creatures,” Ravens 12345 twitched her mouth. “They sometimes could even sleep for a million years on the spur of the moment, and their purpose is just to study ‘sleep’. Of course, this retardedness is just confined to the natural spiritual creatures. Spiritual creatures transcended from the physical species would not have this feature and they could develop very quickly.”

Those words of Raven had reminded Hao Ren something. “What if the Denizens of the Stars are transcended from ordinary-creatures?”

“They are not,” Ravens 12345 lifted his finger pointing at the holographic projection. “Can you see the little light spots in its body? This is a trace of the energy nodes left over from the evolutionary process, which is unnecessary for higher spiritual creatures. The thing is that the evolution of spiritual creatures does not follow the Use and Disuse Theory, so these evolutionary characteristics will stay with them forever. And the spiritual creatures transcended from the ordinary creatures have not gone through an evolutionary process, so their bodies will not have this ‘noise’.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment before he asked, “How can there be the same light spots in the Big Bluey? Did you not create them?”

Raven 12345 shrugged. “Well, I added it. It look cool.”

Hao Ren: “…”

He should not have asked such an obvious question! Had he not known this female psycho well enough after so long?

“Okay, okay, I got it. In short, what you mean is that these Denizens of the Stars should be even older than the Seed of Origin, and maybe even a species of the same period as the Goddess of Creation?” Hao Ren exhaled. “If that’s true, then they might know what happened to the Goddess of Creation in the past!”

Having a deeper understanding of the Denizens of the Stars, Hao Ren had unwittingly treated them as ‘human’.

“I suspect that these guys are still alive,” Raven 12345’s mouth twisted slightly upward. “Spiritual creatures won’t just die so easily. They are masters of parapsychology and spiritual power. The First Born is subject to its own physical form not matter how strong it is. So the spiritual creatures could easily find a weak spot in the First Born’s spiritual attack, and survive. They are not afraid of the First Born, but they couldn’t really kill it either. So they must have gone into hiding now.”

“So I have to find a way to find them out?”

“As you please,” said Raven 12345, shaking her hands in a way that without regard of her own image. “When I look for you, I’m expecting you to solve problem for me. So do whatever is necessary. Oh, by the way, you want to have a bowl of soup noodles?”

Hao Ren shocked. “Why are you so generous recently? You didn’t even give me a glass of water last time.”

Raven 12345 waved with a wry smile. “I have cooked extra and eaten noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the past three days and yet not finished. The two of you want some?” beckoned Raven to the couple.

After their first meeting with God, the Nangong couple went home with a stomach full of soup noodle. Their only impression of heaven was that the bowl was really big…

Hao Ren, who was a pope in name, felt very saddened by this fact: the soup was really salty! How could they just remember how big the bowl was?

The whole world was peaceful for three days.

How was he going to find the Denizens of the Stars? Hao Ren still had no clue. The universe in The Plane of Dreams was vast, but he could not use the powerful deep-space radar to scan all the constellations. He had to rely on the self-multiplying drones to explore slowly and that would take a lifetime. Plus, the Denizens of Stars must have certainly been hiding in deep space in order to avoid the First Born, finding them would not be easy.

Hao Ren told his family members about the problem. They did some brainstorming and came up with some suggestions that were mostly crap.

Lily smacking herself on the head before coming up with an idea. She had proposed for a universe-wide missing-person notice in the universe of The Plane of Dreams. Vivian had almost wanted to bury her alive with her little bats—because the only outcome of doing so would be that all the First Borns and brain monsters in the universe would be alarmed and hunting for the survivors of the catastrophe of extinction.

Even as brainy as Lily was, she could only come up with such crappy idea, much less the others who clearly were not as imaginative as Lily.

So at the end of the day, Hao Ren could not help but let nature take its course.

Putting the matter on the backburner, Hao Ren began to study the information he got from the Ark host.

The database had been handed over to Raven 12345, and as an inspector who handled the case, Hao Ren would go through the information several times albeit only briefly but at least it would help him understand more. He did this because he felt that he needed to do a good job. He felt it necessary at least to find out the truth of the civilisations that he had personally sent off in memorial of the dead.

“I feel more and more like a palliative care quack,” mumbled Hao Ren while connecting to the database. During this kind of virtual connection, only the MDT still have an uninterrupted mind connection with him.

The voice of the MDT ringed in Hao Ren’s head. “So you still think that your Pope title is just in name only? Let me tell you, everything was serious from the beginning—just as the pastor listens to the penitence of a dying person and soothes his soul, the Pope on the side of God is also responsible for sending off the stillborn civilisations. Everyone has his or her duty. However, when you just took office, you were as clueless as you appeared. Now… have you understood?”

“I feel like I’ve been conned,” Hao Ren sighed. “Anyway, you’re right. At first, I thought it was just some title and position but now I found that it is not just real but f**king real. But did you really tell me that before?”

“Casually, yes.”

Hao Ren: “…”

The link has been established and the database of the Ark Civilisation was laid bare in Hao Ren’s mind.

Chapter 652: The Goddess Has Died

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

In the spiritual space formed by virtual links, it was bustling with activity as the figures of inspectors from various parts of the world were shuttling through this chaotic space. Many were reviewing the innumerable materials of civilisations the entire macro world. Hao Ren was one of them.

The database of the Ark civilisation was laid bare in his head with vast amount of information flooding his mind.

Having had the experience with the Tannagost database, Hao Ren was already familiar with such ultra-high-bandwidth virtual connections and was no longer as over-excited as when he first made the link. He just stayed focused and slowly navigated through the vast amount of information looking for the things that were most representative of a civilisation – history, art, law, religion, and social models. Any civilisation that had left the ‘Doomsday Database’ would meticulously categorise things and place them in the most easily accessible location, just as plants leaving behind seeds, animals leaving behind their offspring, ‘preserving their own information’ was an instinct of all living things.

Witnessing a civilisation coming out from ignorance, stepping into space amid the flames, steel, war and peace, and finally disappearing in the night sky like fireworks was not a pleasant experience. Very quickly, Hao Ren had finished with the history section and begun to focus on the logs before the destruction of the Ark civilisation.

The people who left these logs apparently realised that their civilisation was teetering on the edge of destruction, they recorded in detail all the things that happened in the last days, especially the anomalies—the shaking of the earth, the changes in the sky, the magnetic field, and the sun etc. Everything had been recorded with great care. Like a dying victim in a murder, trying to leave behind as much evidence as possible, if things came to the point of no return, someone could help them find out the truth of the murder. Many of these clues were not of help, because the level of civilisation of the race that left behind the log was low, their understanding of the First Born was still superficial, and they did not know what clues were most useful, but Hao Ren still found something of great concern. It was a diary left behind by a scientist, reserved for the people to come.

“…re-compiling the astronomical records before the arrival of The Denizens of the Stars and found the record of the observations of a red supernova ‘Eaton’. This mystical object is one of the most bewildering phenomena to our race. It hangs in the emptiest sky and always maintains the same brightness, and no observation of it has ever determined the distance of this star. Its characteristics do not meet the standard of stars, and planet should not be so bright… Before the arrival of the Denizens of the Stars, ‘Eaton’ had exploded mysteriously and became the brightest star in the night sky before it disappeared completely in the universe… No technology could determine the cause of Eaton’s explosion and disappearance… These data may be of great value and should be preserved…”

“The red new star…” Hao Ren could not help but temporarily withdraw from the linkage. “As expected, there is also a record of the star here.”

The voice of the MDT sounded in his head. “Have you found a record of the red star in Io before?”

“The ancient instruments of Io was destroyed by the tsunami. Nasaton was just a colonial ship. The database was incomplete and there was no information of the red star.” Hao Ren shook his head. “But I have good reason to believe that the siren had seen a red star—but not sure if they had seen it exploded.”

“This star seems to be visible in any part of The Plane of Dreams and is equally bright from whatever viewing angle,” the MDT sounded very seriously. “This defies the optical rules. If so, maybe even if we could find the fourth observation point there is no way to confirm the position of the red star. When it doesn’t conform to the laws of observation, then we won’t be able to measure the distance. It could be at any point in the universe.”

Hao Ren had also thought of this, but he was out of option. “Wait until we find the fourth observation point, if we can find it. Anyway, the Goddess of Creation is definitely related to the explosion of the star… maybe she had exploded together with it.”

Putting these things on the backburner, Hao Ren continued to browse the database. This time he began to concentrate on finding out information about The Denizens of the Stars, and they were abundant in the database.

According to the description of aborigines of the Ark, The Denizens of the Stars not only was an amazing life form, but also possessed a special way of thinking and communication. They could not speak; they communicated with one another through telepathy—but communicating in telepathy required special talents, and the Aborigines seemed to be not very good at it, so they had difficulty understanding the overly complicated words of The Denizens of the Stars.

Some scribes who were known as ‘spirit whisperer’ specifically responsible for dialogue with The Denizens of the Stars had each of their exchanges with The Denizens of the Stars recorded in the database. A spirit whisperer named Freeman seemed to be a leading expert of telepathy had left behind the clearest record of his conversation. Hao Ren had found the record, which read something like this:

[Freeman: “…How did you come here from such a great distance?”

The Denizens of the Stars: “(a string of complicated thoughts, could be some sort of technical explanation, but incomprehensible) …The universes are interconnected, we use this connection to jump, like data transfer in your computer system, but much faster.”

Freeman: “…sorry I don’t understand these things, but I will record them truthfully. Does the kind of ‘natural disaster’ you mentioned appear everywhere in the universe? Is it a common phenomenon?”

The Denizens of the Stars: “(seems to manifest a pronounced mood swings) It should not have happened, but a shameful (unrecognisable thought) has caused this catastrophe. Now that it has spread throughout the universe, we cannot even predict to what extend it will develop but only minimise its harm.”

Freeman: “Is it a human-induced disaster?”

The Denizens of the Stars: “(Mood swings) It is human-induced. The roots of this universe are disturbed, seriously damaged by a group of unreasonable creatures… (An incomprehensible thought) but I cannot explain to you, you would not understand.”

Freeman: “What is the origin of the universe?”

The Denizens of the Stars: “Ninety percent of the lives in the universe is rooted in Him (then another completely incomprehensible thought) … It is impossible to explain to you. We are deeply influenced by this root, which makes it impossible for us to describe it to ordinary races His form of existence. In your understanding, He should be similar to a deity.”

This was followed by some unstructured conversations. At least, Freeman asked, “Is the disaster the result of someone attacking the ‘goddess’?”

The Denizens of the Stars: “They killed Her.”

Hao Ren completely pulled his mind out from the database and looked shocked.

“Someone killed the Goddess of Creation?” Hao Ren felt unbelievable. “And it looks the work of a group of mortals?”

“The Denizens of the Stars say so,” the voice of the MDT also shuddered markedly. “I think they would not fabricate these things out of thin air.”

“This information is… unexpected.” Hao Ren took a long whole to digest the facts. He had never expected there was such mind-blowing truth hidden in the Ark database. Whether it was the truth or not, at least it was an astonishing clue. Suddenly the admonishment of the dragon queen Galazur came to mind: “Do not ignore the little clues around you, because things happen when it least expect it.”

However, the records in the database stopped there. The exchanges between the spirit whisperer and the Denizens of the Stars were not smooth, and they were not paying too much attention to the problems of the origin and religion of the universe when the end of the world was imminent. They were more concerned about the technical details of the Ark. Hao Ren read repeatedly the log books many times and found no details of the ‘mortal killing Goddess’ incident. Either that no one asked, or the Denizens of the Stars had tried to answer but no one could understand.

“What a f**king problem of language barrier…” Hao Ren felt a pain in his eggs. “Why couldn’t The Denizens of the Stars study interstellar languages?”

“It seems that only by finding them can we find out the truth.” The MDT sounding regrettable too. “I always feel that there is a dark side to it…”

Hao Ren sighed. “Nonsense. Even the Goddess has died. Do you really think there’s no dark side behind all of these?”

After several unsuccessful searches, Hao Ren decided to pull his plug from the virtual link, and then compiled the information into a report and gave it to Raven 12345.

Raven 12345 took this information very seriously, but there would be no new instructions in the short term. So what is next? That Hao Ren himself would have to investigate it out slowly.

Chapter 653: The Grimoire

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren did not hide the shocking discovery that he had found on the ark’s data vault. Everyone, Vivian included was shaken by the truth.

The creator of life in the Plane of Dreams, the giver of life to 90 % of the life there, the almighty goddess of creation, was killed. By mortals no less!

Of course, the ark’s data vault only had limited information, and the details of what happened 10,000 years ago were still murky. The whole idea of the Denizens of the Stars was also unproven. But regardless, Hao Ren had managed a breakthrough in the investigation of the goddess of creation and the destruction of worlds. It was just that the progress was heading in a rather uncomfortable direction.

“I’m… not sure how I’m supposed to tell Big Beardy this.” Hao Ren sighed as he relayed the whole thing to everyone at home. “As open-minded as he is… I think he’ll probably off himself when he hears this.”

“Then let’s keep this under wraps.” Vivian raised an eyebrow. “Let’s at least find the remnants of the goddess before we say anything. I think a goddess as capable as her should’ve left something behind even after she died.”

Y’zaks nodded in agreement. “Yes. The goddess may have fallen, but her powers are still active. The divine abilities of the Disciples of Glory, and the resonance of their beliefs are real. Besides, the death of a powerful being at my place would probably leave some unusual phenomenon or trail behind, which could last for ages. A goddess of her stature shouldn’t lose to those country bumpkins at the very least.”

Y’lisabet was sitting on her papa’s shoulder, tinkering with a mini radio at the time. As Y’zaks finished, she quipped happily. “So, that’s why I didn’t believe that papa died. If a powerful king like papa died, he’d probably curse an entire race to its doom, and that’d be normal. The Allied Army was well prepared for one of the component races to perish at such a curse, but nothing happened after half a year. So, that’s how I came to believe that papa was still alive…”

Hao Ren gave Y’zaks an odd look. “…Your daughter’s thought process sure is something.”

Y’zaks awkwardly rubbed his bald head. “My bad, my bad…”

After they visited Nasaton upon arriving back on Earth, Mr. and Mrs. Nangong stayed at Hao Ren’s place. And just in the blink of an eye, half a month had passed. The searing summer heat was now at full force. The hot summer day had left Hao Ren sleepy, and the free days had left the somewhat intrepid adventurer bored. Knowing how he may get a new assignment all of a sudden, Hao Ren could only stay at home and spend time in his zoo-like household.

Lily was still up to her old routine. After breakfast, she would be out and about giving the local stray dogs veterinary check-ups. According to her, this was a peak period for contagious diseases to spread, and she wanted to give the strays vaccination to ensure that her Army of Woofensteins would be at peak performance. But no one could see the combat strength of that ragtag bunch, aside from them lining up more neatly than ever when Lily did a roll call.

Despite lugging her medical box outside for a good part of the day, Lily was still energetic when she got home by lunch. Tossing the box aside, she immediately flopped by the window to stare at the scenery. At the same time, an old, yellow dog was outside panting to cool itself down. Lily tilted her head before she stuck her tongue out as well. “Heh… Heh… Heh…”

Vivian was in the hall reading as she heard the noise. Her expression was incredulous. “Would you look at that.”

Lily had not registered Vivian’s presence and belatedly realized that her mortal enemy was just sitting right across her. She immediately stopped panting as her expression froze. “I was just having some fun. Say, where’s Wuyue? I want her to make some ice cubes to cool down.”

Vivian twiddled her fingers. “You want ice cubes? To cool down? Don’t move then. I’ll give you something to remember.”

Lily immediately bounced backward. “Hey, did I even antagonize you?”

“Vivian, turn on the AC. It is rather hot today.” Hao Ren was seated not too far away, fiddling with the MDT (he was actually playing DOTA). After hearing the bat and the dog’s argument, he added, “Wuyue and her parents are out. They wanted to get to know the layout of the land and see if there’s any way to earn a living in the modern era. After half a month watching TV, they’re probably anxious about assimilating back into society.”

Vivian shrugged, and with a snap of her finger, cold mist started to appear around her, and chill air quickly cooled the entire house down. The electricity bill saved from this walking AC throughout the summer could cover her rent.

Lily took a few deep breaths as she felt the cold air and let out a sigh of relief. “Well, there’s at least something Battie can do right… Say, just look at the Nangongs, and then at yourself. Even the two elders know that they need to earn a liv—”

Before she could finish, Lily only saw a gust of frosty wind coming at her, and the careless werehusky was turned into an ice block.

Vivian looked back down to continue reading. “Hush, you and your nonsense. Even Mr. Landlord hasn’t said anything.”

Hao Ren quickly went ahead to clear the ice off Lily’s body before he turned to Vivian with a curious question in mind. “You’ve been reading that since morning. What is it about?”

“I received it two days ago from Athens. Not sure where Hessiana got these ancient tomes from,” Vivian said as she lifted the ancient-looking, black leather tome. “Not sure who the author was, probably someone from the Middle Ages. It’s written in Latin. To humans, it’s probably some heretical nonsense… but I think it has something to do with me.”

Hao Ren’s interest was piqued as he went over to have a look. He saw four solitary words on the black, leather cover of the tome: “Spiritus Malignos et Mythologos” , the discussion of evil spirits and mythology. There was nothing about the author at all.

Vivian turned the tome, and Hao Ren noticed that the ancient tome was still well-preserved. The writings were still clear on the yellowed pages, which were inscribed with the very distinctive art style of the dark ages; the edges of the pages were framed with intricate patterns. In one of the drawings was a group of people around a bonfire. The smoke above the fire detailed a devil taking a peep. This reminded him vividly of the dark ages, of heretical lunatics, superstition, and dissension that spread from all corners of the land. It was clear that, regardless of the time, this was not a “normal” piece of work.

“You’re sure that this thing’s lasted all the way from the Middle Ages?” Hao Ren touched the pages out of curiosity, but a sense of dread immediately overwhelmed him as his fingers felt their texture. This was not your normal piece of paper. “F*ck… Is this…”

“No worries, that’s not human skin.” Vivian tapped the page. “It’s the skin of a black goat that was cured with magic. So, it’s not the same as your usual goatskin book. I’ve never seen this method for a long time… Making such pages would need one to raise a black goat in the darkest of caves… caves that would never see sunlight. And the sacrifice would need to be made on a moonless night. The subsequent curing and processing of the skin must also be done personally by the sorcerer. Ahh… very tedious stuff.”

Hao Ren was perplexed as he listened to the whole mumbo-jumbo regarding ancient sorcery. He failed to understand why. “That tedious? Why?”

“Well first of all, it could last a thousand years or longer.” Vivian picked up the book. “Next, using magic to cure the pages acts as an imprint to mark that the book is a real grimoire, not some knock-off, copy-pasted nonsense that swindlers try to paddle. These sort of grimoires were popular back then. Even with religious suppression, many people, nobles included, were enthusiastic about collecting these tomes to show how ‘learned’ they were. But most of the time, what they had were fakes as only real sorcerers, otherworldlings, demon hunters or clerics would be able to tell and obtain a real one. Lastly… books back then were very expensive stuff, and nobles would use expensive vellum to write and put gold ringlets on books, or add scents to the ink that they used to increase the ‘value’ and ‘class’ of the books. Those sorcerers could not help but indulge in it as well, so they kept coming up with more ridiculous ways to create their grimoires as living proof of their knowledge and mastery.”

Vivian then added, “Of course, I think anyone who does that is just a plain idiot. This will leave a very visible trail for the demon hunters, and if they were to get their hands on the grimoire, the author’s lifespan will be drastically shortened.”

“So they were spending their lives trying to act cool?” Hao Ren summarized with a stunned look.

Chapter 654: A Bizarre Ritual

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren never thought that he would have such an experience before: studying a grimoire from the Middle Ages with a 10,000-year-old vampire. This should have rightfully been confined to the silver screens. It was one of those scenes in paranormal or occult-type movies where the grimoire was studied in a dark, unlit basement. Yet, this ancient tome was being studied in broad daylight in a living room, and the person studying it was a reigning pope with a six-pointed amulet to ward off evil. There was also a frozen husky beside him… The author of the book would have never thought that his work would be studied in such a setting.

Vivian mentioned the various extraordinary happenings in human history as if it happened before her very eyes. At the time when “books” were a rare commodity, she was out and about between Europe and Asia. It was a time where clashes between the sorcerers and the Church were at their fiercest. The otherworldings whose powers had already waned by then had all retreated to their various sanctuaries, while the humans that had obtained forbidden knowledge, the sorcerers grew while the church was looking away. Almost half of the grimoires in the world were from that age, and Vivian had seen a few herself.

This was not one of them.

She gently pressed her finger against the magically cured pages as she recalled what happened back then. “The wrold was chaotic back then. Occult and superstition reigned throughout the land. The church hierachy too took a heavy handed away to suppress it. It was miserable for those at the lower rungs of society. Sorcery came about during the end of the Age of Mythlogy. They were simply thralls of the otherworldlings or heralds of the ‘Gods that ruled men’. Their position in society was however high, and they were regarded as priests or apostles. But as the Age of Mythology came crashing down, they splintered off into a sect of their own. They then absorbed many clerics whose faith were weak or nobles who had lost hope due to the war. As the church and the demon hunters were flushing out the remnants of the otherworldlings, these group took the chance to spread their influence. The peasents were easily enthralled by sorcery, while the high clerics who could dispel such magics were woefully little. The demon hunters… well they never quite bothered with the plight of the humans. So within a short period of time, sorcerers and witches were rampant.

“I remember there was a time like this mentioned in the history books.” Hao Ren nodded. “But they sure don’t sound anywhere close to your version.”

“The grimoires started gaining prominence then.” Vivian sniggered. “A book like this could easily cause two nobles to declare war against each other. Because many of the magics in the grimoires could be learned by humans, as long as a price is paid, in human life. And it was a time where leaders were willing to pay any currency, lives included to get what they want. I remember wandering about in the towns in Europe and there were many sorcerers or witches either hung or burnt, most of them were fakes though. They only wanted to make some money through the fake grimoires, and not every noble have the guts to receive such a thing, at least not in public. Doggie, how long do you plan to pretend that you are an ice scuplture?”

Lily shook her head with force as she shed the ice flakes from her hair. “I was just waiting to see when you’d grow a conscience! Hssshhh….coooooldddd…..”

Vivian glared at Lily. “What? A sleigh puller like you are telling me that you are afraid of the cold?”

Lily bared her fangs in response before shrugging. “Continue your tale. I’m rather interested. Never lived through that era.”

“Nothing much of note or importance happened that time. The whole of Europe was a mess, only the conflict between church and the heretics was something of note at first, but it got stale after a while.” Vivian said as she pushed the book forward on the tea table. “This thing that caught my attention was a record of a ritual, and no matter how I look at it I feel that it has something to do with me.”

“Oh? What ritual?” Hao Ren was curious.

Vivian turned the book open and flipped to a page with an insert art. The drawing had a oddly shaped five pointed star and there were many ritual items on each corner of the star. On the top of the star was a feminine figure with fangs bared. Her hands were open as they pointed towards the two devotees who were on all their knees. Towards the corner of the drawing, there was a castle-like structure.

Lily pointed towards the lady figure. “You mean to say that’s you?”

Vivian’s expression was conflicted. “In some ways… I might actually say yes…”

“But why it is drawn like Sun Wukong?” Lily interjected almost immediately.

Vivian smashed a small bat into Lily’s face. “That’s why I was not willing to discuss anything with you! Your mouth is more and more like Mr. Landlords!”

“Why did I ended up in your crosshairs too…” Hao Ren shrugged as he took gave Vivian an innocent look before lowering his head to look at the picture. “What does this picture mean?”

“The ritual to summon the King of Blood” Vivian pointed to the line beneath the picture. “Based on the picture of the five-pointed star, in sequence was the black goatskin, dried mistletoes, bat fangs, limestone and the ashes of a woman’s hair. The ritual was to be conducted on a full moon night. The person stands opposite the magical matrix and cut their fingers at the same time to let out blood. After the third drop, the King of Blood will appear. The King will then cast his spell on the two ritualists, and kill one of them, thus transferring half of the person’s lifespan to another, and taking the other half as tribute.”

Lily’s ears perked up as she listened intently, before blurting out. “What nonsense is this? What’s the end goal for all this mumbojumbo?”

“Sorcerers loves to record things like this.” Vivian shrugged. “But now all of these are lost. Back in those days however, it was very common.”

“Why do you think the King of Blood refers to you?” Hao Ren gave Vivian a perplexed look.

“While the drawing is rather horrid, see this…” Vivian pointed towards the lady in the picture, a cross was hanging from her chest. “At least this was clear, the only vampire that would wear a cross was me. The creator of this grimoire was a very diligent sorcerer, so this drawings must have some basis. Even normal sorcerers would not put a cross on a vampire for no reason as that risk them being seen as lunatics by their peers. The only possible reason is that, the author of the grimoire have met me before.”

“Have you?” Hao Ren looked up and asked.

“I can’t remember.” Vivian pursed her lips.

Lily gave Vivian an odd look. “I can understand the rest, but why are you cracking your head on something nonsensical as this? Don’t tell me you wanted to be the ruler of the world back then?”

“How would I know?” Vivian rolled her eyes. “Sorcerers are normal humans by birth. Their magical system differs from the otherworldlings. Who knows what this ritual is based on. Hessiana simply thought that the book was rather interesting so she sent it to me. Even she doesn’t know how the author was.”

In that dark age of occult and superstition, grimoires were very common, and there were no obvious way to catalog them. Most of them exchange hands in the shadows. The rituals that is inscribed to summon demons or other form spirits have been lost to time, and those that survived had been so muddled by local superstition that it’s practically worthless. Vivian was simply curious when she got hold of the grimoire, but Hao Ren’s curiosity was even more obvious. “Let’s give this a try?”

Vivian was stunned. “Try what?”

It was only on such fun-making schemes does Lily reacts fast and she quickly caught on to Hao Ren’s meaning. “Summoning you of course!”

“…Crazy.” Vivian rolled her eyes as she turned toward the kitchen. “I’ll prepare lunch. Leave me out of your insane schemes.”

No one knew where Lil Pea came from as she bounced happily after Vivian. “I’ll light the fire! Light the fire!”

“Keep her away from the gas tank!” Hao Ren quickly reminded Vivian before turning towards Lily. With a hushed voice. “So we try that summoning ritual?”

Lily nodded excitedly. “Hmm, hmm!”

“But it says that you need a full moon night to summon.” Hao Ren frowned. “That’s a rather troublesome requirement.”

Lily wagged her tail in excitement. “It’s a full moon tonight. I’ve been excited for a few days now…”

No wonder the husky was so energetic today!

Chapter 655: The Summoning Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The first thing the Nangong siblings saw after coming back home with their parents was to see Hao Ren and Lily huddled together studying something. As a veteran demon hunter, Nangong Wudi immediately sensed the presence of some fluctuating magics. Looking at the tea table, he asked. “What are you two looking at.”

“A grimoire.” Lily shook her tail excitedly. “Little Battie sent Battie a book, and Battie was drawn like Sun Wukong in it…”

There’s no changing the husky’s way of doing things.

Nangong Sanba let out yawn as he threw himself on the soba as he felt the cold breeze in the air he took a deep breath. “That feels good…. This air-conditioning is much better than my sisters. She almost turned me into a popsicle when I just asked for a small one earlier…”

“Say, have you managed to get anything from the trip?” Hao Ren smiled and Nangong Wuyue. “Have uncle and auntie found a way to earn a living?”

He was just asking out of courtesy but he never thought Ayesha actually nodded. “Yes. There’s a shop selling shaobing that is going to close. The owners of the shop is moving to the city to live with their children. We are preparing to buy that shop down. I have some culinary skills, perhaps we can start selling breakfast or something.”

Hao Ren was surprised. He never thought that Mr and Mrs Nangong were such determined characters. “Wow, that’s fast… But have you gotten used to the modern society? Like the currency, or the local laws on opening a shop and whatnot?”

“There’s no issues with the lifestyle.” Nangong Wudi smiled. “When me and my wife was in the sanctuary, wasn’t the place there even more high-tech than Earth? We have managed somehow. As for money and opening shops, it’s even simpler. Hawking and paddling goods have been around for thousand of years and have never changed. Would be rather simple to pick up.”

Hao Ren thought for a bit a nodded. While the two had indeed been detached from human society for a good hundred years, they had been living in a highly advanced sanctuary for the same amount of time. So it was a simple matter for them to operate all the modern electronics and there was not much issue in adapting back to modern life on Earth. But Hao Ren still decided to mention it. “Actually, you don’t have to worry about the cost of living. You can live here and everything will be taken care of. The Space Administration will be bearing the cost.”

Ayesha shook her head. “No, we just can’t stay idle. We need to do something so that we feel alive. It’s different than you youngsters…”

Lily immediately pointed towards the kitchen and with a whisper. “Don’t mention that, there’s a ten thousand year old freeloader there.”

Vivian’s voice responded almost just as quick. “Doggie, are you gossiping about me?!”

Lily’s ears shuddered. “Why is Battie’s ears even more sensitive than mine…”

Hao Ren looked at Nangong Wudi. “So you are starting a business. Do you have enough for capital? I can help with that.”

“No worries.” Nangong Wudi smiled as he pulled out a dense cloth sack from his coat. “I still have some silver coins and gold nuggets from back then. I suppose that even today, such things are worth something right? Demon hunters aren’t usually broke.”

Hao Ren shook his head. “Won’t do. I’ll help with the capital then. Lugging that amount of gold these days is just asking for trouble.”

Nangong Wudi then passed the sack of gold and silver to Hao Ren. “Then it’s all yours. I have no use for them anyway. Please don’t refuse it, both me and my wife owe you our lives. These are not something that can be repaid with just a sack of gold.”

With Nangong Wudi already putting things that way, Hao Ren had nothing to say. He took the dense sack wondering what he should do with it. Bereft of any ideas, he simply threw it into his Dimensional Pocket. It was Lily who was staring at the sack, mumbling to herself. “I want a piece to grind my teeth…”

Hao Ren glared at her. “Using gold to grind your teeth, guess you too have a death wish.”

By that time Nangong Wuyue had already started studying the book on the teatable. While she was not a demon hunter, she could sense the faint magical resonence from the pages. Turning the grimoire from the middle ages around, she saw the pictures and the Latin written in cursive. The book reeks of foul heresy between the lines, and the blasphemous magical knowledge that was inscribed throughout the book simply made anyone reading it uncomfortable. Frowning hard, she asked. “What is this? Why are you studying that?”

“Oh oh! We are planning to summon Battie!” Lily, excitable as ever quickly explained the origins of the book to Wuyue. “Battie doesn’t want to muck with it but we could do something with it. Tonight is a full moon anyway…. so wanna give it a try?”

Wuyue have Lily a confused look. “You… Vivian’s here, so what’s the point of a summoning ritual? Besides, do such a nonsensical ritual even work?”

“I think that this ritual actually has something to it.” Lily rubbed her cheeks. “And don’t you think it’s pretty interesting? If it really works we might be able to pull Battie out of her room… and give her a scare!”

No one present knew what to say about the husky’s thought process.

Regardless, the grimoire had indeed piqued everyone’s interest. A grimoire that contain information on how to summon an evil spirit, and that ‘evil spirit’ is someone they knew. If this were to happen to anyone, it would be something new. And thinking how Vivian was up and about running all over the place since the dawn of time, her appearance in ancient tomes or some religious rituals is not hard to imagine. Imagination is one thing, but seeing it happening is another. Imagine someone who was studying a paranormal activity actually running into one?

“What are you guys on about?” Vivian said as she noticed the group studying the grimoire as she came out of the kitchen holding the rice pot in hand. Frowning, she continued. “What’s the point of studying that useless tome anyway, it’s just a book written by some fools with loose screws in their head to ek out a living, and now there’s no value to it but putting it in the shelves. So put a stop to that and come eat. Doggie, go get Y’zaks and Y’lisabet back. They are fixing the motorcycle at the back.”

The motorcycle Y’zaks and Y’lisabet were fixing was Hao Ren’s old junk of a bike. Two days ago Y’zaks took Y’lisabety for a ride, but due to the mismatch of body type and them not knowing that the bike were already rickety at some places, the moment he got on and slammed the ignition, one third of the bike’s frame flew away, with Y’lisabet in tow…. While Hao Ren wasn’t too concerned about that junk of a bike, the two demons were rather determined to fix the bike. Their progress so far was to successfully dismantle the remaining two-thirds of the bike, and Y’lisabet wanted to put a demonic engine on it.

Because the original engine was destroyed by her dad.

And with that, the demonic way of life is really precarious.

Thus the day passed peacefully and dusk came, with the full moon in tow.

While Vivian herself was not interested with the summoning ritual written in the grimoire, but with Lily’s urging, everyone decided to give it a try.

The night was clear and the full moon hung high. A full moon was the perfect time to perform those evil rituals, mumbo-jumbo it may be. And the ritual side was behind the house. It was an empty field and would not create a commotion that could scare the neighbours.

Lily was like an excited kid lighting fireworks and was the first to go to the ritual site. By the time the rest got there she had already prepared the summoning circle and had placed most of the ritual items. The werehusky excitedly circled the summoing circle as she look at the full moon with a dumb laugh. Nangong Wudi was perplexed as he saw the situation. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Werewolf wannabe syndrome. Had been like this ever since.” Hao Ren quipped as he turned to look at the back of the house. Vivian was still inside the house. She was actually in the dark of their plans. Lily had gotten her to give Rollie a bath, and knowing how that dumb cat would react, they expect Vivian to be to preoccupied to notice what was happening outside.

No one actually told Vivian of the plan to test the summoning ritual, and that was of course Lily’s idea. The husky had planned to keep any possible intereference at minimal and to test the summoning ritual when Vivian is totally defenceless.

“To think that I’d actually joined in on this.” Hao Ren spoke wit a sense of self-mockery. It was true that the past few peaceful days and got him about as bored as Lily was. He flipped the grimoire open and studied the picture with the aid of the moonlight.” Heh, now that you mention it, it does look like Wukong…”

As the moonlight glowed upon the goatskin pages, a faint blood colour slowly appeared in the middle of the bright moon.

Chapter 656: The Ritual

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

It was the middle of summer, and yet the northern area of the suburbs was still cool. A group of people was assembled at the empty field behind the house, lighting candles, drawing the summoning circle and setting up the ritual items. It looked it some sort of heretical gathering. Hao Ren looked on as Lily was busying herself with the preparation. “If someone were to see us pulling this stunt, who you think would come first, the police or the mental hospital staff?”

“Probably the mental hospital.” Wuyue said as she lifted a leg and shook her body. Even when she was in human form she could not shake off her habits of being a snake. “If I was a normal person and saw a bunch of middle aged people summoning a vampire with a serious look on their face, I’ll definitely call the mental hospital…”

Nangong Wudi suddenly sighed. “Never thought that I, a demon hunter would actually join in on this. In the past, this is demonic.”

“What are you talking about?” Lily spat back without a tongue. “You are already married to one no? Don’t be so uptight.”

Lily said as she prepared the summoning circle. No one knew where she gotten the limestone from as she drew a crooked five pointed star summoning circle. The more Hao Ren saw it the more awkward it felt. “You think it’ll work? Your five pointed stars have four crooked points… and the last one is a curved edge?”

“Whatever works!” Lily was clearly excited. “I have placed the ritual items, now lets get someone to bleed.”

Hao Ren gave the items that Lily had placed on the five pointed star a suspicious look. “Where did you get all of these from? Will they work?”

“Of course they will. I gathered them myself.” Lily pointed towards the items on each corner of the summoning circle. “The dried mistletoe leaf is from my own specimen collection that I made while travelling, the bat fangs I got them from the wild. The limestone’s a plenty here, the ashes of a woman’s hair is mine…It hurts me to even do that.”

Hao Ren was flabbergasted as he heard before remembering that one of the ritual items was a black mountain goat skin, but he only saw a petite leather shoe on it. “…I thought we need black goat skin? Where did you get the shoe from?”

“The shoe is mine, and at any case the shoe box says it’s mountain goat skin…. Come to think of it there should not be any difference between that and a black mountain goat skin.”

Even Y’lisabet who came to join in on the fun was stunned. The little brat facepalmed. “If she could really summon something that’ll be quite an achievement.”

Nangong Wudi continued to sigh. “If all sorcerers were like her, demon hunters would have a very easy time…”

Hao Ren initially a little worried about testing the grimoire. He was afraid that it might actually summon some ungodly beings out into the open. While not much of a threat, but it will still be a problem. But after seeing how Lily’s doing things he swallowed his worries whole. With how the husky was doing things, even if she were to set up this in the middle of town, the only thing that she will be summoning is the city’s enviromental officers…

“Let me see…” Lily grabbed on to Hao Ren’s arm as she peeked at the illustration. “Hmm.. the positioning is correct… the summoning circle… seems alright… the moon is full… oohhhh, everything is ready. So lets give it a try, Mr Landlord?”

As Hao Ren just about to step forward, Nangong Sanba could not help but to warn him. “You sure you’re gonna go ahead with this summoning ritual?”

While the grimoire may be some gibberish nonsense to a common man, it is no plaything in the eyes of a demon hunter. The grimoire from the dark ages contained real heretical and forbidden knowledge. Every demonic or divine name on it resonated with the power of a living otherworldling or the remnants of their powers, and such rituals usually ends up creating more trouble. Such tomes were prevalent a few hundred yearas back, and many a kingdom or fortress was destroyed due to the uncontrolled use of such tomes; there were even records of large scale catastrophies linked to the grimoires. Not to mention quite a few nobles or heretics seeking hidden knowledge were possessed by evil spirits when they opened the grimoire. There’s no absolutely safe way to handle these things.

Hao Ren shrugged. “With Lily’s childsplay of a ritual, what can she summon anyway? And this ritual was supposed to summon Vivian…”

Nangong Sanba pondered for a moment before keeping quiet.

Hao Ren and Lily stood on the opposite corner of the summoning circle. Baring her fangs, Lily looked at hger finger. “So I really need to bleed myself… I feel its such a waste all of a sudden.”

“Fine by me.” Hao Ren had already shut off part of his shield and had also lowered the reinforcing nanomachines within his body to bleed himself. “You only need three drops.”

Lily replied with a “Oh” before giving her finger tip a bite. Hao Ren followed suit at the same time.

Fresh blood dropped on the floor and Hao Ren looked at the summon circle before him. The crooked five pointed star did not stir. “Seems like it failed. It was a whole load of nonsense I tell you.”

Lily showed her fingers as she retorted. “That’s because my skin regenerated before a drop even left the wound!”

Everyone present was stunned as Hao Ren spoke under his breath. Her werewolf constitution actually showed its prowess now!

“Lets try again!” Lily excitedly wagged her tail. “I’ll bite harder!”

Hao Ren went along as they tried again, and it was only to proof that the husky had no control of her regenerative ability. As she bit her finger tip, and before she could pull her fangs out, the wound had sealed itself. This situation left everyone in tickles. Even Nangong Wuyue couldn’t help but take a jab. “Looks like you’ll also face problems in performing a blood pact with someone.”

Lily stared stupidly at her finger before clenching her teeth and turning back to run into the house to get a straw. “Lets try again Mr Landlord! I’ll stick a straw in once I bite, I don’t believe it’ll keep regenerating!”

Cold sweat immediately appeared on Hao Ren’s forehead as he pushed the crazy husky aside asking for volunteers. “Anyone wanna take her place? Or else this husky will stick a straw in her.”

Nangong Sanba looked about before stepping forward with some self-awareness. “Seems like it’s only me then.”

The half-baked demon hunter’s regenerative abilities was not as overpowered as the werewolf and the summoning ritual’s last step was completed. Yet, when the third drop of blood hit the floor, the summoning circle still did not stir. There were no magical aura around, nor any supernatural phenomenon occuring that they could see. And of course. Vivian was still at home.

“Didn’t work?” Lily flipped the grimoire about. “There’s magic in it. It shouldn’t be fake. I heard from Battie that sorcerers back then, as unreliable as they were, will not inscribe a useless spell in a book. Their grimoires were their legacy.”

Y’zaks crossed his arms as he shook his head. “If you were to draw the four other points of the star properly it should probably work… they are all wavy. You think a magical circle can be drawn at whim?”

“Is it because that the ritual requires human blood?” Lily was still studying the girimoire, refusing to believe it was her crooked summoning circle being the cause of failure. “Lets get humans to try this out?”

Hao Ren looked about before something dawned upon him. There was no humans around him!

His place was a veritable zoo of otherworldlings…

“This…” Hao Ren shook his head. “We have everything here but humans.”

“Then forget it.” Lily looked down dejectedly as she passed the grimoire to Hao Ren. “Maybe try this again when we somehow manage to get two packets of human blood from the hospital.”

Hao Ren felt that none of the husky’s suggestions today actually made any sense, but remembering that it was a full moon, he didn’t dare to hope that the husky would be maintaining her logical thought process. He took the grimoire from her and simply flipped a few pages open. “Yeah… the book is real.”

What Hao Ren did not notice that, he was standing right in the center of the circle, and as the grimoire opened, the light of the full moon shone upon the illustration of the ‘Summoning of the Blood King’.

Cold air started forming on the pages of the grimoire as an eerie red glow started eminating from the pages of the grimoire and started spreading.

The summoning ritual did not fail. It was missing an important requirement. The book being on the energy focal point!

And now, the ritual activated.