The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 528

Chapter 528: The Void Node

 

Hao Ren separated the Lifeblood sample into several packs, encapsulated in a metal tube that could hold live specimens for a long time. When one opened the shell of the metal tube, one could see the bright red liquid that was sealed in the transparent crystal vial. The strange, life-like red liquid was moving slowly, feeling quite similar to the blood diffusing from the previous Firstborn, but the difference was that the Lifeblood showed a more gentle character, not as violent as the Firstborn’s blood.

If you touched the Lifeblood directly with your skin, you could even feel a sense of comforting warmth permeating you, like the mother of life.

Raven 12345 looked at the liquid in the crystal vial with interest and asked, “Living samples? Where did you get that?”

“From the Disciples of Glory. It’s said that their first pope collected it from the sleeping place of the Firstborn. It’s the residual liquid of the Seed of Origin, so theoretically it’s the closest thing to the Goddess in the Plane of Dreams. Also, the Disciples of Glory blessed their new priest with this. After inoculation with the Lifeblood, ordinary people can get various strange abilities, and are said to be able to communicate with the Goddess.”

“They can communicate with the Goddess?” Raven 12345 raised her eyebrow and said, “but according to the information I got… The information response of that Goddess of Creation has been collapsed. There’s a very high likelihood that she had fallen into some kind of broken state sleeping in the depths of the universe. Who are they communicating with?”

“Who knows?” Hao Ren shrugged and said, “Anyway, according to Big Beardy, devout believers will hear the Goddess’s voice in their mind after the inoculation, and may even learn the knowledge from the Goddess in prayer—one-third of the divine system of the Disciples of Glory is said to have been created out of thin air in this almost ‘tacit divine revelation’ state.”

“Interesting,” said Raven 12345 while fiddling with the crystal vial. Then she placed the other hand over it, some pale blue sparks leaping between her fingers. “But I can’t feel anything… There must be something missing, or the information it contains is too weak to be covered by my power. Maybe I need to do some research.”

Hao Ren then handed over a sample of the ‘Progenitor of Life’ to Raven 12345. He would also be responsible for the researching, and now he gave some samples to Raven for filing purpose. Then, Hao Ren suddenly remembered another thing. “Oh, one more thing…”

He removed a metal safe from his dimensional pocket. A line of words was floating above the metal safe: Civilization of Tannagost, all data, yet to be encoded.

“We have found out the truth of one of the unusual creatures, the Vengeful Spirit,” Hao Ren said while handed the safe to Raven 12345, “They came from a planet called Tannagost, which had perished. It’s destroyed by the Firstborn. This is all their data.”

“Tombstone…” Raven 12345 looked at the silvery-white metal safe and became serious, for the first time there was an inexplicable sense of divine sympathy coming from her like a true Goddess. She stooped and touched the cold metal safe, and said, in a way as if she was talking to both herself and Hao Ren, “you finally come into contact with this.”

“This is the last thing that needs to be handed over to you,” Hao Ren said and put the strange feeling aside, looking at the metal safe that was keeping all the data of the civilization of Tannagost and asked, “Where will this be sent?”

“There is a place dedicated to storing such relics,” said Raven 12345, “it will be treated properly and the data will be transferred to an infinitely large database. This civilization will not be forgotten, since it left a little trace, the empire is responsible for keeping it.”

Hao Ren nodded and then left the wonderful peaks floating in the universe together with Nangong Sanba and ‘Rollie’.

Raven 12345 paused for a moment, and then turned and continued to look at the splendid starlight she had been gazing at.

The distant and magnificent starry sky was still shining bright, seeming to be trying to show the most beautiful side to the Goddess standing on the top of the stars. Those twinkling starlight was sketching all kinds of wonderful picture, looking splendid, and revealing the mysterious and magnificent scenery of the universe.

However, in the reflection in Raven’s eyes, those bright stars were broken apart little by little, revealing the deep truth hidden beneath the surface. The power of Goddess allowed her to directly observe the unknown part of the universe. The dimensions beyond the mortal understanding and the structures that only mathematical formulae could explain unfolded in her eyes, revealing all secrets. Under the starlight, fine cracks were spreading.

It was rippling near the boundary of the universe. In some very remote areas where most mortal may never be able to reach, the physical law of the real world was fighting against some kind of erosion from the other world. An awful giant hidden beneath the real world was trying to break free and had achieved initial success. If there were intelligent creatures living in the remote and ice-cold regions, perhaps they would see the unbelievable strange phenomenon in the starry sky above them, and the cosmic background radiation they could observe was showing two distinctly different forms.

As if there were two universes superimposed on their heads at the same time.

Raven 12345’s eyes reflected the strange dark shadows at the edge of the universe. Certain phenomena took tens of billions of years to be transmitted to this place through conventional light speed, but she could see everything now.

“The border area is starting to get tangled.” Raven 12345 sighed and narrowed her eyes slightly, and the chaotic ‘real starlight’ and the bizarre cracks quickly returned to their original position, and the small chaos that took place on the cosmic border was quickly calm down. “Tsk, the cycle is getting shorter,” she said.

Then she snapped her finger and opened a small World Gate beside her. Meanwhile, a blue arcane servant emerged from the air.

Raven 12345 pointed to the silver box and said, “Take it.”

The arcane servant carried the box without saying a word and walked behind Raven 12345 into the World Gate.

Raven 12345 came to a special place. This was the void node that lying outside of many universes. It did not belong to any world but an eternal space created by the Xi Ling Celestials. Each node shone like a lighthouse in the void, like a server on a network.

Because of the different models, the void nodes also had various forms. Raven 12345’s void node was a continent that floated in the dark. There was a huge central management center in the center of the continent, while in other parts there were mountains and rivers and magnificent silvery-white towers. The whole continent had lush jungles and snowy plains, which was built like a complete world. If no one jumped out of this land, probably no one would ever think of that outside of this ‘world’ was a void.

Raven 12345 and the arcane servant stood on the tower of central management center. There was a series of observation platforms to see the whole space. She looked to the East and saw several small black spots cruising in the air. They were simple spacecraft driven by steel and magic power, and they were clearly not something that the Xi Ling Celestials had made.

This model of the void node was so vast and the habitable area was even as big as a planet, so the administrators here created a group of residents on the continent. After years of development, these residents had established their own country and civilization in corner of the lighthouse of the Xi Ling Celestials.

A young lady in a white dress appeared on the observation platform and said to Raven 12345, “Nimlotte is challenging the sky again. They are interested in the scenery outside the ‘world’. Several tribal states on the northern snowy plains have just completed an integration war. They seem to be suddenly enlightened and are learning Nimlotte’s magic technology.”

“Are they developing a little too fast?” Raven 12345 said and blinked, “They’re created just to make the nodal continent livelier, didn’t expect that they are so gifted.”

“Don’t underestimate their potential, after all, it was made by the Empire,” the lady in the white dress said with a smile, “and there’s good news. The Principality of Sanglan sent an expedition to the ‘Celestial Tower’ a few days ago. They seem to have an interest in the nature of the world. A bunch of inquisitive guys, maybe they’ll find the entrance here soon.”

“Fayna, when are you going to tell them about the situation of this world and what’s happening outside the world?” asked Raven 12345, “They need to grow up. You can’t always treat them as children.”

“Let’s wait until any one of them figure out the equation of mass-energy,” Fayna waved her hand and said, “but why do you have time to come here? Isn’t it nice to be a Goddess?”

“I also have to work,” Raven 12345 said and patted the safe in the hands of an arcane servant, “This is for the third sample library.”

Fayna frowned and asked, “Is it a ‘tombstone’?”

“Unfortunately, yes, it is. Another civilization has died.”

Chapter 529: Walking a Cat is More Troublesome than Walking a Dog

 

Let’s come back to Hao Ren. He had left Raven 12345’s house together with two people (including a cat). He was walking along the only commercial street in the Southern Suburbs. Rollie would not stop looking around and there were times when she almost transformed back into her cat form. But luckily, Hao Ren had been keeping an eye on her.

It was the first time that the cat girl could observe the old familiar street from a human perspective. After she transformed into a human in the wilderness the previous night, she went home to sleep early in the morning as usual. She did not have the time to go for a stroll on the street.

“It’s different,” the cat girl muttered while she touched her hair uncomfortably. Hao Ren quickly held her hand and warned, “Don’t take off your hat! Don’t wag your tail! If you get exposed, you’ll never be allowed to go out again.”

On the way home, Hao Ren suddenly remembered that he had to get two sets of clothing for Rollie. After all, she could not keep wearing Lily’s clothes, so he took her to the shopping street. In order to prevent the cat girl from exposing her identity, he put a soft, wide-brimmed hat on her head. He then hid her tail with a coat, and also got her to carry a small backpack to cover up. Such a disguise was supposedly enough. Usually, Y’lisabet just wore a hat and contact lenses, and it worked well. However, Hao Ren had apparently underestimated a cat’s nature. A simple act of keeping Rollie walking upright had already drained his energy… This cat was much more difficult to deal with than the demon princess!

Now he was glad that he had expected Rollie’s inability to control her tail. He had already tied her tail to her back, and he got her to wear a very big shirt, which easily covered the tail.

But even so, Hao Ren still felt a bit scared the entire time. He was thinking about how easy it was for the cat girl to expose her identity on the street. What was he to do in the future?

He did not think that he could keep the wild cat girl at home for long. It was difficult enough to control her when she was still a cat, not to mention now when she was a human. The girl had always wanted to go out, but Hao Ren could not just let her walk on the street with her cat ears on her head and a tail behind her. This would surely become a hot topic on social media.

However, the cat girl was not aware that her owner was worried about her. She was just strolling along the street when she suddenly saw someone selling grilled fish. She got excited and rushed towards it straightaway. By the time Hao Ren saw it, she had already reached the stall and…

Then she found a safe place to squat down. And then, she kept a sharp eye on the customers who were eating grilled fish, waiting for table scraps dropping from them while being ready to flee when someone threw stones at her. She looked so skilled in it that she obviously did it very often.

Hao Ren stunned for a moment before he could react. “Come back!” he yelled.

But he was too late as the boss of the stall found a beautiful lady rushing to his stall and squatting in front of him. He thought that she wanted to buy grilled fish (although the cat girl’s posture was a little out of ordinary). “Want a grilled fish?” he asked and handed her a freshly grilled fish.

The cat girl thought it was for her, so she quickly grabbed it and stuffed it into her mouth. The next second she spit it out, scratching her throat and crying, “Aargh, it hurts! Hurts so bad!!”

The boss was stunned. He had probably never seen such a sensitive tongue throughout his career and he thought that the girl was sent by the stall selling roasted mutton to disrupt his business. Luckily, Hao Ren and Nangong Sanba kept explaining and apologizing. They also bought some grilled fish from the boss and finally smoothed things out. Then, they quickly dragged the cat girl away and left the place.

“Don’t you know that cats can’t eat things that are too hot?!” Hao Ren stomped his foot while he scolded the cat. She was still stupid even after turning into a human. “And, don’t you know that you have to pay for the food!?”

“I don’t know!” the cat girl said it with pride even though her tears were on the verge of streaming down.

Hao Ren was angry, but then he thought for a moment and figured it out. Even if Rollie was able to speak the human language, she would not understand the rules of human society.

And for the first time, she knew that she could not eat anything hot. “So, that’s how ‘hot’ feels like? The food is very hot, so it hurts to eat? But, why was I never hurt when I was eating before?”

“Because I cooled the food down before I gave it to you, and you could never pick up anything hot on the ground when you roamed outside.” Hao Ren rolled his eyes and said, “Can you please listen to me? Did you forget what I’ve just told you? If you’re exposed, you’ll never be allowed to go out again.”

The cat girl was not listening to Hao Ren. She just stuck out her tongue to cool it down as she muttered, “Poop Scooper, I didn’t realize you’ve been treating me so well.”

Hao Ren was furious when he heard “Poop Scooper”. “How many times have I told you, stop calling me that! If you know I treat you well, then why can’t you show me some respect?!”

Rollie looked at Hao Ren blankly while he scolded her. She did not understand why Hao Ren was angry, so she rubbed her head against Hao Ren’s elbow and said, “Oh, Poop Scooper, feeling better now? In that case, give me a piece of dried fish!”

Hao Ren was at a lost for words.

Nangong Sanba suddenly realized something and tried to explained, “Wait, I think… Even if a cat is able to learn and speak the human language, she probably doesn’t understand the concept of commendatory word and derogatory word.”

Hao Ren looked at him curiously and asked, “What are you trying to say?”

“She doesn’t mean to make you angry when she calls you ‘Poop Scooper’,” Nangong Sanba explained, “She just really thinks you’re very good at… scooping poop. In the cat’s worldview, this could be a profession.”

Hao Ren was stunned. “…The hell?! Why do I always face such things?”

Rollie kept turning her head to looking around. Then, she scratched Hao Ren’s sleeve and said, “Dried fish. I want dried fish.”

There was nothing else on her mind.

Hao Ren could only give her the cooled-down grilled fish and said, “Eat this. There’s no dried fish here.”

The cat girl looked at the grilled fish in horror and licked it carefully. After making sure that the fish did not hurt her, she gobbled it right away. Hao Ren watched her eating the fish and felt pity for her. It was not easy for Rollie. After Lil Pea stayed in their house, everybody in the house stopped eating fish. Even if they were preparing sautéed fish, they had to do it secretly. When Rollie saw a fish, she would keep meowing at it, making sure that the fish would not suddenly jump up and hit her before she dared to eat it.

Fortunately, her brain evolved after she turned into a human, so she could tell that the grilled fish would not move. Otherwise, she would not have just squatted by the stall. There was a possibility that she would have greeted every single fish on the grill. That scene would have been more frightening, and she would probably be in the psychiatric hospital now.

“Well, I feel a little regret for bringing her out so fast,” Hao Ren complained. “I should have taught her about human common sense first, so that she’s well trained before she goes out.”

“Accidents are more likely to happen that way. You can’t tie her up with a chain. What if she runs out and causes trouble before her training’s over?” Nangong Sanba explained, “Might as well take her to the streets for a few times where you can see her. Getting her to be familiar with the environment as soon as possible will probably reduce the likelihood of trouble.”

Hao Ren sighed again. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly realized that Rollie was gone again. He quickly looked around and found that the girl had run across the road. It appeared that she was trying to put her head in the trash can!

A sanitation worker stood beside the trash can and he was already stunned by the scene.

Hao Ren could only ignore the people around them and yelled, “Come back here!”

The cat girl quickly ran back to Hao Ren. Hao Ren lectured her with a straight face, “No more rummaging around in the trash can! No more picking up something to eat on the street!… Wait a minute, why are you getting more and more unstable as you walk?”

The cat girl wriggled her body awkwardly and said, “Because of my tail… It can’t move, so I can’t keep balance when I walk.”

Hao Ren sighed deeply and said, “Forget it, let’s go home now!”

Chapter 530: Rollie’s Worldview Is Indestructible

 

On the way back to their house, Hao Ren felt that this short trip with Rollie was completely exhausting. He did not expect it would be so troublesome after this cat turned into a human. The cute and sensible cats portrayed in the stories were all lies. How could he not worry about this girl who had a cat’s logic but was able to move around freely like a human? This cat girl who had just turned into a human did not have the correct worldview at all!

Hao Ren could hardly remember how many times he had been talking about the same things again and again along the way. “No squatting at people’s feet… Don’t eat anything on the road… Don’t rummage around the trash can… Don’t climb the wall, get off the tree! Let go of that bird! Stay away from the dog… Don’t touch the rubbish… Stand up and walk!”

He felt like he was taking care of a small kid, and that the kid was much more difficult than Lil Pea.

The cat girl jumped off the wall for the third time. She was as dirty as if she had just returned from the Middle East war zone. She rushed to Hao Ren, bared her teeth and said, “Poop scooper, you’re so annoying.”

Hao Ren had given up correcting what the cat girl called him. He just reminded her feebly, “You have become a human, okay, so from now on you must change the way you live… You understand? Your lifestyle, behavior, and habit. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Not something to eat, but I can understand,” said the cat girl while wagging her head, “but why are there so many things in human language that have nothing to do with eating?”

Hao Ren stared at her and said, “Why are you asking so much, just do as I say!”

“It’s so troublesome to become a big cat. Quickly turn me back into a cat,” she snorted.

Hao Ren just ignored her. Well, he too, wished he could do it, but the problem was, shapeshifting was not like playing a video, you could not rewind as you like.

The three of them reached home and found that there were only Vivian and Lily left in the house. Nangong Wuyue was probably singing in front of a subway or a station or a mall. Big Beardy might also go to the wilderness to challenge nature, and of course, he might be giving lectures to the elderly women in the southern suburbs. Y’zaks might be collecting scrap on the street again. The former demon king was now reduced to jobless and wandering on the street and ended up collecting scrap with the demon princess in the southern suburbs. It was such a sad story, but Y’lisabet was quite happy with it.

Lily was writing. When she heard noise coming from the door, she turned to asked, “Landlord, you guys are back? Is everything clear?”

Vivian also came to them, looking curiously at Hao Ren and Rollie who was lying beside the couch.

“Because of the Golden Apple,” Hao Ren sighed and roughly told them what he had heard from Raven 12345, and then solemnly reminded them, “If you have any Gold Apples, don’t feed it to the animals. This stuff is too unsafe.”

“Aww…”Lily was not worried about it: she had already eaten all her apples. She then sniffed around the cat girl, sniffing and muttering, “There is the smell of the street… and grilled fish. You let her walk on the street? She didn’t run around?”

“Of course she did. To be honest, walking her is more troublesome than walking you.”

Lily heard this and immediately smiled happily. She actually took it as a compliment and asked, “Then when can you walk me again? I haven’t been on the street for days!”

“Can you have a little backbone?” said Hao Ren.

After lying on the floor for a while, Rollie looked up lazily and ordered Lily, “Hey big cat, I want to eat now! The grilled fish didn’t fulfill me!”

“Oh,” Lily replied and went to prepare food for the cat girl. Hao Ren was shocked to see this and asked, “Eh, aren’t you no longer afraid of her?”

Lily scratched her hair and said, “Yes, but preparing food for her has become a habit.”

Hao Ren could not believe that this husky would become like this. He thought the husky could finally escape from the food chain of dog < cat < fish in this family, turned out that she was already trapped in it.

And now Rollie had released her tail from her clothes. She stretched comfortably, then wriggled up the couch, turned on the TV and began to watch the pet channel and yelled, “Poop scooper! I want this toy! And this canned meat! This mat looks good too. Give me a new bed… I want a smaller one… Give me a little fish!”

Anyway, no matter what was she yelling about, the cat girl would not sit there quietly. This was also Rollie’s major feature: Compared to other quiet cats, this one was simply an ADHD patient. When she was a cat, she was either running around outside or fiddling around in the house. But at that time, it was not so annoying: No one could understand what she was talking about!

It was not the same now. The cat girl could speak human language. Hao Ren finally realized how annoying it could be when a cat could talk.

However, Hao Ren had accepted it. He could totally ignore this noisy cat and pretended that he did not understand what she was talking about. Anyway, everybody just ignored her when she messed around the house while she was a cat, and she was still content with it. And now everybody ignored her as usual, she should be able to get used to it.

Vivian looked at the cat girl who was lying on the couch watching TV and suddenly remembered something thing. “Oh, have you decided a new name for her?”

“A new name?” Hao Ren was puzzled.

“For the cat of course. Don’t tell me you are still calling her ‘Rollie’? Do you think it’s okay to call her that way in public?”

Hao Ren paused for a while and then realized that ‘Rollie’ had turned into a human now and therefore, she should get a normal name!

Otherwise, calling her old name in public would get him into trouble. The old men and old ladies in the southern suburbs did not usually pay attention to everything, but if they saw Hao Ren ‘walking cat’, they must be rushing to call to complain about his domestic violence!

Thinking of this, he patted the cat girl’s head and said, “Stop watching. I have something to discuss with you.”

Probably he was the first person ever who needed to discuss with the cat before naming the cat.

The cat girl turned her head and the pointy ears twitched twice, asked, “What’s up? Poop scooper.”

“Whatever…” Hao Ren sighed and said, “I want to say that it’s time to give you a new name.”

“A new name?” The cat girl blinked while asked, “what for?”

“We can’t call you ‘Rollie’ now.” Hao Ren tried to make this cat understand something about the human world. “Humans cannot be called ‘Rollie’. If I call you that way, I’ll get a complaint easily.

“I don’t know,” the cat girl answered honestly.

Hao Ren found her good side. Although she was very annoying in all aspects, she was absolutely honest. She was still as innocent as a newborn baby.

So he and Vivian’s next main task was to get the cat to understand why ‘Rollie’ was not a normal name. Hao Ren even tried to explain that the name ‘Rollie’ was a complete misunderstanding in the very beginning. But after they had tried everything to make the cat understand it, Rollie did not actually listen to them: she just pretended to be well-behaved, and soon she already curled up comfortably on the sofa.

As lazy and stubborn as before.

Lily brought the cat her food and saw Hao Ren and Vivian was sitting there with a frustrated face. “What’s wrong?” she asked curiously.

“Why is it so difficult to change a cat’s name?” Hao Ren sighed and complained, “It looks so easy for someone else to get a new name for their pets.”

“Of course. Who needs to discuss with their pets before changing their name? And who would rename their pets under normal circumstances?” said Vivian.

It seemed like what Nangong Sanba said was right. Even if the cat girl now had a human mind, there was no way to solve the problem of her worldview and general knowledge. There was no distinction between commendatory and derogatory words in a cat’s language system. Even if she knew what ‘Rollie’ meant, she would not find anything wrong to call her that way—just as she did not think it was a problem to call her owner a poop scooper.

Hao Ren decided not to discuss with the cat and just finalized the new name first. And this time he quickly came up with a bunch of new names: Hao Meow Meow, Hao Miaow Miaow, Hao Meow Miaow, Hao Miaow Meow. Anyway, his ability to create name was basically like this. The names sounded like a tongue twister when he read them out.

After he wrote the names on the paper and then proudly showed off to Vivian, Vivian poured cold water on his idea. “Well that’s a lot of names, but do you think she will listen to you?”

“Why not? Let’s try it.” Hao Ren said happily and called each name at the back of the cat girl, from the first one to the last one… No response from her.

Hao Ren could not believe it and tried another name. “Rollie!”

The cat girl immediately sprang from the couch and rubbed herself against Hao Ren’s legs.

Vivian patted Hao Ren’s arm and said, “I think… or we still call her ‘Rollie’. We won’t let her go out in the near future anyway.”

Chapter 531: Home Life and Vivian’s Wooden Box

 

Hao Ren had no idea how normally nymph came into being. He suspected that it would have to probably undergo a process of worldview-reshaping and developing new habits. Anyway, there was a stupid cat in his house as a reference: everyone spent the whole day trying to help the cat build a new worldview, but none did the trick.

The cat-maiden was still bigoted as usual, bad behaviours included but are not limited to rolling on the cushions in the living room, wearing shoes on the sofa, squatting on the coffee table, and nagging everyone for dried fish.

Later, when the others had returned home, they joined the ‘educating Rollie’ bandwagon. As a result, the cat ran to the roof to find some serenity.

Without making any headway after a whole day, Hao Ren was drained physically and mentally by cat-maiden. It was only until the time of dinner that he stopped.

Vivian had prepared a table full of food. The strange family—except Big Beardy who was grilling wild rabbit outside—sat around the table starting the most pleasant and enjoyable moment of the day: dinner. Y’lisabet held a bowl that was larger than her head, devouring food in a way that mimicking her dad, and at the same time sharing her fun experience of wandering outside earlier today. There was no temperament of The Princess of the Devil could be observed in her.

The little girl and Y’zaks had become celebrities in Southern Suburbs. Firstly, Y’zaks’ face was a well-known landmark in part of the town. Several police officers from the local police station had checked the list of criminals before confirming that this big guy was harmless. The surrounding residents slowly warmed up to his demonic look. In contrast, Y’lisabet, who looked like a little angel, was always seen always to follow behind Y’zaks, collecting discarded old home appliances on the street. You could imagine how viral the topic had become in the area.

The angel and demon combo had become an instant hit of street performing art, even if they were not at it. The fact that they always roamed around town was not helping either.

Southern Suburbs was originally a quiet, tiny town. The folks were always hungry for topic of interest to quench their boring life. So when Y’zaks and Y’lisabet appeared for the first time, they caused a sensation. Hao Ren did not witness it, but from what he had heard, it was quite lively: the anti-kidnapping squad had come thrice, and the city’s public security bureau had come twice. There was once when the two of them came to an old street intersection, five Liberation Army veterans were tailing them but pretending to be mooching around—but all them had a walkie-talkies…

Fortunately, the fake ID Raven 12345 gave them were convincing enough.

In fact, there was no need for Y’zaks to find a job to support his family; let’s not mention the whole demonic city which was more than willing to support the demon king, even the unconditional reimbursement Raven 12345 gave to Hao Ren for the otherworldlings expenses could have easily supported everyone in the family. Collecting old appliances was entirely for his daughter’s interest. And the latter had actually built something out of that hobby. Y’lisabet claimed to have mastered the skill of repairing old washing machines, she was now taking up challenge to repair refrigerators and air conditioners. Her next goal was to rent a store in Southern Suburbs to open an appliance repair shop. She felt that this was the happiest career on earth. After a few years, she intended to start learning about some professional skills such as imperialism…

It was not known how she linked these two things together, probably it was a special logic of the demon princess.

Anyway, the little girl’s plan was dismissed by her dad from the very beginning: minor was not allowed to register for business permit. Even if she was given an adult identity, the little girl was only a little more than a meter and three—while standing on her toes…

While listening to the bragging of the demon princess, Hao Ren Ren looked sideways: a girl with cat’s ear and tail was squatting beside his feet, holding a cat bowl, gobbling food down its neck. In the eyes of the unsuspecting, it looked like a frenzied domestic violence. But there was a chair, she just did not want to use it!

“Can’t you just sit on the chair and eat?” Hao Ren patted her on the head. “And couldn’t you use the normal rice bowl? Didn’t I have prepared a bowl and chopstick for you?”

“Sit is uncomfortable,” said the Cat-maiden, without lifting her head. “And there was a familiar odour on the rice bowl. I don’t like to change it. Once changed, the food would become less tasty.”

Lily held her rice bowl and nodded repeatedly. “Well, the second point, I feel the same way. I used to have my own bowl because it had my scent. But I’ve changed. My old rice bowl had become an art and was sold to a Sichuan guy who dealt with collections of Republic of China era for thousands of yuan.”

“Look at you,” Vivian sneered at the must-have-own-rice-bowl habit. “This is an animal instinct, looks like you haven’t completely transformed. It was just a rice bowl from the Republic of China—have you ever used bronze tripod for cooking?”

That was the reason why Hao Ren had always felt it hard to chime in their conversation.

But Hao Ren was not the only one who found it hard to join in. Nangong Sanba, who was now the personal instructor of demon hunting fish staying temporarily in Hao Ren’s house had hard time interpose. At present, he was still trying to adapt to the group’s way of life, not knowing whose conversation he should butt in to. So he rather gave Lil Pea an impromptu lesson. He pulled out a rune card and pointed it with a chopstick, teaching Lil Pea to read the runes. “This are Letta Runes which every demon hunter must learn. This symbol means ‘fire’…”

Lil Pea patted her tail happily and when reached forward and took a large bite of the rune card. Nangong Sanba was startled.

“I suggest you don’t teach her using the rune card. If you have to teach her the runes, then you should change your props.” Nangong Wuyue looked up and said. “It’s not that you don’t know she likes to eat wood fibre. Oh, by the way, she is biting your chopsticks now.”

When Nangong Sanba came to his senses, the chopstick in his hand had been gnawed in half.

After the dinner, everyone went to their own business. Rollie had taken the sofa as her territory and began to flip channels looking for her favourite pet show. This time, she was doing it in front of everyone. Hao Ren went up and poke the cat’s head. “You may sleep in Wuyue’s room tonight. Tomorrow I will clean up the room on the westernmost corner on the first floor for you.”

The cat-maiden was confused. “Why is it?”

Hao Ren was more confused by her question this time. “Of course it is your room. You can sleep there. Aren’t without your own room now?”

The cat-maiden pointed her tail to a shadow on the corner of the stairs. “Bed.”

Hao Ren looked up and saw a basket covered with velvet blankets. It was a cat bed Rollie used to sleep in. He forced a smile and said, “That’s for cat. Can you still fit in that bed?”

The cat-maiden hurried over and tried laid herself in the cat bed but she almost broke the basket. She came back up with a crying face. “Oh, I could no longer fit in. I’ll sleep on the blanket tonight, you make me a new bed!”

“No! You have to sleep in bed from now on!” Hao Ren eyeballed her. “Sleep in bed. Learn to wear pyjamas. Wash your face in the basin. And not roll on the mat. You must learn all these!”

The cat-maiden began to lose patience as she listened. She yawned lazily, wriggled and climbed up to the cushion beside the stairs before curling herself up and dozed off.

Hao Ren’s attempt at teaching the cat had failed again.

Lily suddenly came up to Hao Ren out of nowhere and patted on Hao Ren’s shoulder. “Relax and take it easy. She would eventually learn about human life. Don’t you see I was very dignified and elegant while in front of outsiders?”

Hao Ren eyeballed Lily and said, “Could you please not add to yourself those non-existent settings?”

“I only go bananas in front of acquaintance.” With arms across her chest, Lily rolled her eyes before ambling out. “As a senior, I have to share with her my experience.”

Well, after Rollie became a humanoid, she lost her deterrent power against Lily. Now this husky could act like a boss.

Hao Ren was not interested in the cat and dog affair and went to the basement looking for Vivian: He wanted Vivian’s help to look at the lifeblood samples. The latter certainly had not hit the sack yet.

As he came to the basement, he found Vivian was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a finely crafted wooden box in a daze.

“What are you doing?” Hao Ren casually asked.

“This is the box that Pavel gave me,” Vivian said, lifting the wooden box. “According to him, I gave it to him in a very solemn manner. The box must be very important, but I couldn’t recall anything about it…I don’t know what was going on. I always feel that there is something in there.”

Chapter 532: The Ancient Memories

 

“Huh?” Hao Ren looked curiously at the small wooden box in Vivian’s hand. The thing was glowing with a black and red luster. The fine carving on it was of a 300-year-old European style. Due to its age, the edges of the wooden box had some fine cracks. Aside from that, it was not much different from an ordinary jewelry box from that era. “Maybe this is the only valuable thing you had back then, that’s why you were solem when you passed it to your servant.”

“Yes, I was poor, but I’ve never really cared about stuff like this.” Vivian opened the wooden box and looked at the velvet lining inside. “My main concern has always been filling my stomach. What’s so special about this box?”

She put the box under her nose and sniffed it. “There’s a slight stench of blood—my own blood. It must be a sign. It’s been 300 years, and the stench has thinned out. The runes in the box contain no special information.”

Hao Ren took the box in his hand and shook it slightly. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind. “Perhaps there’s an interlayer… Do you want to take it apart?”

Vivian was a bit hesitant. Actually, she had this idea a few days ago when she received the box, but she could not make up her mind on ripping the box apart: after all, the item looked elegant. She knitted her brows together as she had been struggling internally for a long time before she finally nodded softly. “Instead of preserving it, I think we may find something by ripping it apart. But, be careful not to break the board. Maybe we could put it back together.”

Hao Ren twitched his mouth, knowing that Vivian was experiencing heartache despite saying she did not care.

Hao Ren put the small wooden box on the table, and took out a small guillotine knife as well as a screwdriver. He then pried open the box very cautiously, lest he would damage the interlayer. After removing a few small planks, he discovered something inside.

There was really a hollow layer at the bottom of the box.

“Is something really hidden inside?” Surprised, Vivian extended her nail so that she could reach inside the crevice. She then pulled out a yellow-white cloth, which felt like satin along with a blood-red crystal, which was only a few millimeters thick. It was smaller than the size of a thumb.

Hao Ren looked at it expectantly, he felt that the whole matter was magical: from the three-century-old ancient jewellery boxes, a hidden interlayer, the hidden secret knowledge of the witch, the three-hundred-year-old immortal custodian of the treasure box, and the basement where they did the unboxing; aside from the fact that the witch was a poor bat, everything was jaw dropping.

Vivian carefully unfolded the strange ‘fabric’. It was unexpectedly thin and tough, the kind of material which was far beyond the reach of ancient human textile technology. It was nearly three square feet when laid unfolded, letters written in dark red ‘pigments’ covered a third of the fabric while the rest of the fabric had simple drawings on it and large blank area seemed to be reserved for future use.

“This is… a fabric used by the Egyptian gods. I remember that Horus once gave me something like this and asked me to help him treating a plague.” Vivian looked at the three-square-foot ‘satin’ thoughtfully. “These fabric was not something that humans of that era could produce.”

Hao Ren found that the colour of the handwriting on the fabric was somewhat strange and inconsistent, not a one-time writing but was written over a course of many years. “Did you write this?” Hao Ren asked.

“It’s my handwriting, and the writing materials are of my blood, otherwise it wouldn’t last for so long,” Vivian diligently examined the text to find its logical sequence. “…My handwriting at that time was really ugly. It’s written in an old language which no one can read today.”

Hao Ren: “…..”

“This is the beginning,” Vivian pointed to the corner of the fabric and slowly read it out. “Some records were lost, disappeared with the memory, and could no longer be found. I couldn’t even know for sure what I’ve lost. Keeping records in a dormant place or burying them was unreliable and unattended. They could be damaged by changes in the natural environment, and I wouldn’t be able to remember them after waking up. So I made a duplicate of them before losing everything and put them in custody of my trusted servants, or in a human museum. That way even if I lost my memory, they were at least preserved and might be rediscovered one day.”

Hao Ren frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean these manuscripts. It seems that I have kept other similar text, and saved copies of them. But each time I woke up I would find some of my manuscripts were lost,” said Vivian as she tried to recall her memory. “I tried to keep them with me by burying them underground before I hibernated. But I found out at least that if these manuscripts were left unattended, things would went wrong. So in the end I chose to give them to servants, or induce human archaeologists to put them in museums.”

Vivian nodded her head and continued. “Well, though humans are short-lived, they preserve their inheritance in a way better and more reliable than otherworldlings. At least … it’s more reliable than my memory. Human archaeological system seems to be a good way to save the relics.”

Hao Ren said wryly, “Nowadays, yes. But might not be the case in ancient times. Have you not seen the burning of books and burying of scholars, and fire in the Library of Alexandria?”

Vivian’s mouth twitched. “I’ve seen fire in the Library of Alexandria, but the burning of books and burying of scholars wasn’t as serious as said. When Qin Shi Huang burned the books, the only extant copies were spared—he hid them in his library.”

Hao Ren: “Let’s us read your last words… err, manuscripts.”

Sitting at the table, Vivian worked hard to read the ancient texts written hundreds, or thousands, or even tens of thousands of years ago. No one could understand the symbols. They might be hieroglyphic writing of the early humans, or mysterious text unrecorded in history and only Vivian could remember they were originated from a certain tribe or god. Of course, it also included a small part of Letta Runes. Due to the fact that Letta Runes was not suitable for record-keeping purpose, this language formed just a small part of the manuscript. Vivian knew the meaning of these words, but couldn’t tell where they originated from. It could be said that this was a secret letter that only one person in the world could interpret, it would become a sensation if it had landed in the hand of the archaeologists.

But that was destined to not fall into the hands of those experts. Now the author was struggling to recall the meaning of those words and interpret them piece by piece:

“… The following are copied from other old manuscripts and recalled from memory. They may not be as accurate, and the earliest ones could no longer be recalled.”

“…Awakened in the wilderness, the place where the sun rose is a beach, and where the sun sets is a mountain range. The glacier has receded and the earth seems to be recovering, breathing more comfortably. Walking in the direction of the warm breeze, you can see the grasslands and the trees are waking, and traces of humans in stone piles. They have survived the winter and are now hunting. I’m regarded as a goddess and received food offerings and began to restore strength.

“…as two hundred seasons went by, the tribe began to fear my longevity and strength. So I left. I moved in the direction of the sun, scaled over the mountain, flew over a vast area, and met the white tower and palace. This place is beyond human skills could attain, perhaps it is a place for people like me to stay.

“The people in the tower did not welcome me, so I left. I met Amon and Osiris in the wilderness. They were traveling to a place with a large river. They invited me to join them. But I was sleepy, I needed to find a place to rest. Also I have been irritated recently and had been inexplicably fighting with someone, it was best not to join anyone in their journey.

“Found a safe cave, I laid down a defence perimeter and ready to drop. The final night was a night of full moon. It was bright but I had no energy to watch it.”

“…waking up in the cave, cold and snowing outside. Hopefully not a long icing season again. Traces of human settlements were found outside the cave. There were some abandoned stone houses and tools. It seemed that a tribe or a small kingdom had appeared during my hibernation. This time I moved toward the direction of where the sun set and found a large plain with a large-scale human settlement. They were tenacious.

“Physical strength has recovered. The sense of weakness after a period of slumber had receded. Heading towards the direction of the cold wind, more memories about my strength has come back to mind which seemed to be a good thing. Met Zeus and Hera who was an interesting couples quarrying on the mountain. They were thinking of herd group of humans, but they did not know how to go about it.

“Physical recovery has been quick. It seems that it has returned to its heyday and has easily defeated a group of beasts and skeleton warriors. But after that there was a strange sense of anger lingering on as if the herds and the masters behind them were my enemies. Probably related to some lost memories….The power continued to increase and finally destroyed the lord of the skeleton warriors that invaded the territory. The anger had slightly subsided, but the drowsiness took over and I needed to find a sleeping place. This time I have chosen to sleep on a hill.”

While translating, Vivian added his own speculations. “The beginning was the late glacial period or later, and the second time was like seven or eight thousand years ago… Zeus had not yet created Mount Olympus. He only paid attention to the human kingdom several thousands of years after that.”

“It seems to be a diary for every time you woke up and hibernated.” Hao Ren’s brows knit together. “What did you keep recording that?”

Vivian shook her head. “I don’t know … let’s keep reading for now.”