The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 533

Chapter 533: The Messed-Up Memory

 

The manuscript was not a record of any ancient magic, or lost treasure. In fact, it was only a simple and highly compressed log. Vivian began recording intermittently thousands of years ago. The main content was what she saw and did before she went into hibernation each time and also after she awakened. There were also stories of her activities in the world. Since the manuscript contained some memory recollection in the beginning, its record could actually be traced back more than 10,000 years ago, or even more. Due to the appearance of the Quaternary Ice Age at the beginning of the manuscript, 10,000 years was a conservative estimate.

However, Vivian had completely forgotten everything. If it had not been for her fortunate reunion with Pavel, the precious non-duplicable information would have been lost forever. Cold sweat trickled down Hao Ren’s spine as he though how close Vivian had come to that. The maiden’s lack of memory made him uneasy.

Time after time of hibernation and revival, with various key events as nodes, the manuscript recorded the experience of an immortal over the past 10,000 years along a blurry timeline. The primitive appearance of the earth’s Prehistoric Period could be seen in the text. Ancient demons that vanished following the end of the Mythical Era were frequently mentioned in the manuscript.

Hao Ren’s thoughts seemed to drift back to the age of human ignorance age with Vivian’s voice—to the earth, it was a recent memory, but to the humans, it was an unsearchable era. At that time, humans were just wild creatures who dwelled in the caves while ancient beasts and the invincible nature ruled the earth. The ancient otherworldlings with godlike powers ruled the entire world. Most of them did not even think of establishing theocracy in human society, but their activities had deeply affected the primitive humans at that time. Hence, the humans produced the most primitive and ignorant belief systems in the primitive gods. They were confused between the various natural phenomena and the otherworldings, who could summon nature. Humans deemed them as primordial gods. While Vivian roamed the world aimlessly, she was also deemed as one of the primordial gods on specific occasions and time.

But every single time, she did not roam the world long enough: the inexplicable drowsiness always haunted her.

The records on the manuscript continued, and human civilization began to emerge. This was an interesting phenomenon for Vivian.

“…awakening in a subterranean crevice, the stone chamber in which I slept had completely sunken deep into the earth as if there had been an earthquake during my hibernation. Fortunately I did not fall into the underground magma. It is spring season on the surface. And once again everything has become unfamiliar. The place where a big lake was supposed to be has now become a grassland. The soil around it has also become very fertile. Humans are found to raise herds in the pastureland. They no longer wear animal skins, and their villages have great changes—houses built of stone and wood seem to be sprouting fast. The clothes on my body are worn out, it is increasingly unnecessary to use magic to maintain them. Perhaps something can be sourced from the humans…

“Additionally, I found the lithograph I had left nearby the pace where I hibernated. It recorded the bad feelings I had before going dormant. It is weird. I have got no impression about it. But I still decided to copy it down like I used to, perhaps it might be useful in the future.

“Advancing along a river, a more fertile lands and larger human settlements appeared before my eyes. They have increased in large number in the wilderness. It was amazing. There must be something helping them resist the threats around them. Humans could deal with beasts, but not my fellow beings….on the upstream, I found human asylum run by my old friends, Amon and Osiris. They were protecting a human kingdom. This is very strange, but a pleasing encounter. Their attitude towards humans was better than that of my other peers… I think of Zeus whom I had met in the past and … um, should it be Hella or Hera? The couple seemed to have similar thinking, but I have no idea where they are living now. Perhaps I should go to them. My physical strength is recovering, it is a good time to embark on a journey.

“… I couldn’t find Zeus couples because I was lost in a strange place under the red moonlight and feeling irritated, there were hostile villains who hated me. No matter how much I kill, it could only make you even angrier… Maybe there is some kind of illusion here. Anyway, the drowsiness hits again, I must go to sleep.”

Hao Ren’s brows pulled together as he seemed to have found something suspicious in between the lines while Vivian continued to translate:

“…waking up in the water, I might have been soaked for a long time. Looks like there was changes during the sleep as water from underground river had poured in. This world is always changing, no matter where you sleep, there is no absolute safety. Even if you bury yourself in the ground to escape the harassment of others and beasts, it is difficult to deal with geological changes. I found the notes I had left before I slept, and it was written about the fighting with people and emotional problems. But as always, I have no impression on the strange emotions of that time, and I can only believe that they really happened. I now have a new way of taking notes and I can have those records on the slate and rags be transferred to the soft yarn that Horus had given me.

“Remembering the previous plan and setting out to find Zeus and Hera, I remember that they have settled on a high mountain and I should be able to find them referring to the position of the stars. I hope the change of the stars will not be too great.

“…I found Zeus couples and we were happy to meet each other. The humans they sheltered were also very prosperous. The humans have even built huge cities and wonders of stones. Although the buildings have no magic power, they are almost as large as the temple. As if Poseidon was dissatisfied with this, he does not like to see that mankind has the ability to build the same wonders as God.

“…I compiled some previous records in my spare time. I was puzzled by my sleepiness and awakening. Others— including werewolves and wraiths—do not experience the sleepiness like I do. Then I found some patterns…”

“Some patterns…” Vivian put down the manuscript, her face gloomy. “Mr. Landlord, I feel weird.”

Reading between the lines, Hao Ren had long felt a bizarreness, but those things were vague and difficult to grasp. He looked at Vivian, scratching his chin. “You can’t remember about the manuscript at all?”

“Not at all,” Vivian frowned. “But according to the sporadic memories of the manuscript, I had forgotten some of the things recorded in the past, but would always leave behind a fragments of memory so I was only later be able to recollect the bit and pieces and add them in the manuscript. However after the last hibernation… I simply forgot everything, even the manuscript itself.”

“The last time you slept… it was after fighting with the vengeful spirit three hundred years ago,” Hao Ren looked at Vivian. “That was the most serious because you had lost the most important part of the memory: You forgot the fact that you had been writing dairy for the last ten thousand years.”

Vivian looked at the manuscript. The simple drawings recorded what she saw on earth during a certain period, but more of all sorts of bizarre monster-like creatures. Every time before Vivian hibernated she would be irritated and angry and exterminate the monsters in battle. Then she would fall into a deep sleep. Before that, she would draw an image of her own enemy as if she wanted to remind herself during the next wake-up to stay vigilant when she met these monsters again.

Looking at those weird drawings, Vivian whispered while thinking. “In summary, there were two kinds of sleep: one was when I was doing nothing, or when I was about to starve to death because of poverty I would actively choose to sleep through my hard days. This kind of dormancy is controllable, and it looks like there are no sequelae. After waking up, I would only lose a fraction of my memory or did not lose anything at all and without significantly weakening my physical strength. But the manuscript had recorded exactly the second scenario: I would have to sleep when drowsiness hit.”

Hao Ren looked into Vivian’s eyes. “After this uncontrollable drowsiness was over, you would lose a lot of memory and your body will be abnormally weak after waking up?”

“I’m not really sure,” Vivian said, waving and forcing a smile. “The most difficult thing for a person with amnesia is to recall what one have forgotten in the first place. I don’t really have any impression of the many details in this manuscript. And after a few times of waking up from deep sleep, I did feel unusually weak…”

“Including the last time,” Hao Ren tapped the table with his knuckles. “Your last sleep happened after you destroyed the vengeful spirit. And it was an uncontrollable sleep caused by the sense of drowsiness, so you are now in a state of weakness?”

Vivian looked at herself and said, “But I still feel energetic.”

“Don’t be kidding. People always feel energetic before they die.”

“…Mr. Landlord, you’re being caustic.”

Hao Ren hemmed and said, “Well, I mean figuratively. In short, I don’t know if you’ve noticed a minute detail: you would experience the same thing every time before you fell asleep!”

Vivian was wide-eyed. “Now I got it; arrogance, anger, getting into conflict with people for no reason, and… the unknown fights I’d gotten into. I’ve no clue of who are the enemies the manuscript mentions. And the drawings look unfamiliar to me.”

“But you were the one who authored the manuscript,” Hao Ren stared into Vivian’s eyes. “Are you sure you can’t remember the contents of this part? The last time you had slept was three hundred years ago. Can’t you even remember the phenomenon?”

Chapter 534: Out-of-Control Hibernation

 

Vivian carefully tried to recall her memories before she shook her head. “I have no impression.”

“Do you remember what happened before you slept 300 years ago?” Hao Ren felt like he was now a psychologist. “After you were done with the vengeful spirit, you went into hibernation because of drowsiness. Do you have any impressions of those days?”

Vivian’s brows were knitted together as she struggled to recall. After a while, she shook her head. “I still don’t have any impressions. But I’m sure I forgot about some details before I slept, including giving this box to Pavel. I only remember that I was tired and sleepy after defeating the vengeful spirit. The only thing on my mind that time was to find a quiet place so that I could sleep. I still vaguely remember handing two pieces of stone to two minions, but I have no idea under what circumstances they were given those stones, and what other items I’ve also given out. I totally have no impressions whatsoever.”

Hao Ren drew on the table with his finger and put the information revealed by the manuscript and the clues he gathered. “Now talk about what is known. Just like you said, you had two types of sleep; one is that you went into sleep on your own to get through hard times. Let’s not talk about this type now. The other type is drowsiness and you couldn’t help but sleep, resulting in a substantial weakening of power and amnesia. This type of sleep has one thing in common: you experienced a state of irritability, and it was usually followed by a fight. Sometimes you didn’t even remember who you were battling, but nevertheless you had to fight with someone before you exhausted yourself and fell asleep. After waking up, you forgot about what had happened earlier, especially the negative emotions. You only learned from the manuscript that you were plagued by those negative emotions after waking up.”

Vivian gently nodded and pointed to a sentence near the end of the manuscript. “I have left some comments here, which should have been written seven hundred years ago. It says ‘I have been confused. A detailed reasoning was carried out seven hundred years ago but it failed to figure out this matter. So I decided to set aside the truth for the time being, and concentrated on keeping a record of every sleep and waking up, hoping to accumulate enough information to crack this strange phenomenon in the future.”

“Besides, I don’t know if this is an important, there was one more thing in common before you slept,” said Hao Ren, his hands locked together under his nose, his face serious. “I was only after the restoration of your strength that you started another sleep. The manuscript mentioned that in more than one occasion that after your ‘full recovery of strength’ you decided to take on a journey or do something. But every time after that you became restless and looked for fight.”

Vivian blinked. “Is my passive sleep related to my recovery of strength? As soon as I recovered my full strength, I would immediately feel drowsy again?”

“It’s just a guess.” Hao Ren scratched his chin and his face gloomy. “Anyway, I feel that something is amiss. Your condition… is a bit worrying.”

“I’m worried too,” said Vivien, compressing her lips anxiously. “I don’t even know what’s going with me… For the first time ever that I feel forgetfulness is bad. I’ve been used to the forgetfulness but now I feel that the most troublesome thing in the world is to have forgot what I have forgot. Even I’ve forgot that I’ve forgot what I’ve forgot…”

Hao Ren was stunned, drawing with his finger for a long while trying to figure out what she was saying before he finally looked up. “I think the most troublesome thing in the world is to understand what you’ve just said.”

Revealing her fangs, Vivian said, “I suddenly feel helpless. I can’t believe that I’ve lost control of it.”

Then the two of them were silently for a while before Hao Ren suddenly broke the silence by asking, “You feel sleepy now?”

“A bit,” Vivian took a little stretch. When she saw Hao Ren’s reaction, she laughed. “Don’t worry. It’s just a normal drowsiness. I think there’s still some time before the next sleeping cycle hits, at least after my strength has recovered to its heyday. The symptom of my passive sleepiness is very obvious, you should be able to notice my abnormal emotion. Remember to remind me, maybe… maybe this time I could be controlled.”

Hao Ren laughed, confidently patting on his chest. “Don’t worry, I have high technology—if I can’t figure it out, I can ask the Goddess to treat you. Like the old saying goes: Prolonged illness makes the patient a good doctor. Raven 12345 has had several thousand years of brain damage, treating your amnesia would be just a walk in the park.”

Vivian was almost freaked out, thinking that the goddess couldn’t even cure herself, what made her capable to treat others? But at the end of the day, the vampire maiden still feared the Goddess, she did not say it out.

But judging from the magical power of Raven 12345, Vivian’s faith in the Goddess had increased a little. As incompetent as the Raven 12345 was, she was still a Goddess and should have no problem treating the mortal.

If her ‘amnesia’ was really an illness.

The two of them continued to discuss the contents of the manuscript, and about the discrepancies between what Vivian had recall and the contents of the manuscript. At last they found out that Vivian’s amnesia had a strong pattern, she would forget everything about the ‘negative emotions before the hibernation’. The records of these negative emotions in the manuscript were all written before the sleep, and were copied again word-for-word after waking up. For now, there was no discrepancy between her memory and the contents of the manuscript. Also, the authenticity of these records was unquestionable: Vivian would absolutely not be wrong in regard to her own blood.

Apart from that, there was not much progress made.

Luckily, though Vivian had completely forgot about the manuscript, she had found it back somehow—it was the luckiest moment for this 10,000-year-old poor vampire.

Looking at the small wooden box that was ripped apart on the table, Hao Ren could not help but say, “Why did you hide the manuscript in the interlayer of the box? Have we not ripped it apart today, I’m afraid no one’s going to find it.”

Vivian was not surprised. “It’s a safety measure. A three-hundred-year-old jewellery box is still a box no matter how exquisite it is. It would not attract attention when placed alongside your grandma’s old dowry. But thing would be very different for a well-preserved manuscript from the ancient Egyptian era—the fabric is unknown, the ink is unknown, the text is unknown, carbon isotope detection can trace it back thousands of years ago, who would dare to let it be exposed on the outside? But then I didn’t know that Pavel could live until now. I must be worried that his descendants would be unreliable, so I hid the manuscript in the wooden box.”

Hao Ren was silent for a moment and suddenly stared into Vivian’s eyes. “No matter when your next sleep would be, we must find a way to solve this problem now. I don’t want to suddenly find you in a hibernation and could only say hello to you after a couple of centuries.”

“Me too,” Vivian smiled. “And it’s hard to find a good life like now… I don’t want to forget about everything this time around.”

The two of them felt the atmosphere was a bit boring. Hao Ren steered the conversation away as he pointed to the blood-red crystal that was brought out along with the manuscript: “What is this again?”

“I don’t know. There’s no mention in the manuscript.” Vivian caressed the crystal with her hand. “But I can feel this thing is a condensation of my blood. The time of making should be three hundred years ago. I must have probably forgot to record it down. By keeping till this day, it must be of something useful.”

Vivian said, shoving the blood-red crystal into her pocket and then looking up at Hao Ren. “Let’s not talking about me. You come here for something?”

“Oh, I want you to see the lifeblood.” Hao Ren passed a tube of lifeblood sample to Vivian. “Part of the samples are being nurtured in the spacecraft lab. Please help study this sample by using your blood magic and see if you can find a way to contact the goddess. I have been staring at this thing for a long time but haven’t been able to figure out its relationship with the brainwaves.”

“Is it urgent?”

“Not at all. Things about The Plane of Dreams is a big project.” Hao Ren waved his hand. “Take your time.”

The two of them chat for a while before Hao Ren left the basement and returned to his room.

He looked out of the window at the moonlight in a daze. He then summoned the MDT that was projecting a movie for him on the table. He said, “Write a report to Raven 12345.”

Chapter 535: Amulet

 

Hao Ren was having a lot of strange dreams tonight.

He dreamed of the wonderful scenes of the prehistoric times which he read in the Vivian’s manuscript. He dreamed of the primordial humans survived the Ice Age and began hunting and planting on a warmer earth. He dreamed of an unknown change that had opened up the barriers that separated the two world, and sent the otherworldlings in exile on this blue little planet. He also dreamed of deity-like otherworldlings causing great changes in this world, and the frightened ancient people knelt in front of the miracles. He dreamed of the rise of the demon hunters, the collapse of the shrine of the ancient deities, the flourish of human cities, and then the demise of demon-hunters; heavy buildings constructed in rocks and mudstone replacing the light tower of magic, the power of steel and flame driving the world forward; people fought, assimilated, created, destroyed; machines ran and furnace burned, hot weapons replacing knight’s sword as well as eliminating the last remnants of the otherworldlings. This blue planet was ruled by the powerful creatures of the other world for 10,000 years and eventually returned to the hands of the aborigines.

In each drawing, there was a woman who was always alone, like an unconcerned spectator witnessing from within. She flitted through the fire on the Great Wall, the gates of Troy, the coronation ceremony of Alexander the Great, and the London fire of 1666 aimlessly, watching the rapidly changing world and marvelling at it.

In the process, she was trapped in the uncontrollable, endless cycle of sleep and awakening like an eternally chaotic incarnation.

Hao Ren was so disturbed by these chaotic dreams that he woke up early in the morning and then gazed at the ceiling in a daze.

“What are these dreams about?” Hao Ren rubbed his eyes, squirmed trying to sit up. A sudden gust of wind blew from beside him as he was halfway sitting up. He managed to turn his head and saw a figure as agile as a cat pounced at him. He fell back in the bed. A maiden sat on his chest, then jumped up and down excitedly before she smacked Hao Ren’s face with her paw, then lowered her head, biting his nose, pulling his hair and licking his ear…

Hao Ren was startled. It took him a few seconds before he came to his sense and scoffed, “Roll away!”

He forgot these words would only be counterproductive. As always, the maiden became even more excited.

She had thought Hao Ren was calling her name.

Hao Ren began to wrestle with his cat as he tried to push it away. It was used to be a common scene where Rollie habitually woke its master up using paws and weight. But now circumstance had obviously changed: the cat-maiden had transcended, and with the help of golden apple, her combat strength had got a big boost. She was no longer a namby-pamby whom Hao Ren could easily push away. He had a hard time now as the cat-maiden thought that Hao Ren was playing with her. The more he resisted the more excited she became, all hell broke loose in the room. Lil Pea who were sleeping in the pot on a small table nearby heard the noise and poked out from the pot and watched the drama in excitement, and cheered on Hao Ren.

The noise in the room caught the attention of others. Lily pushed the door open. “Mr. Landlord, what the noise is all about…”

Seeing Rollie lying on top of Han Ren, Lily was startled. “Wow, not even cat could escape your lascivious grab!”

As we have said many times before, this innocent-looking husky was actually quite dirty-minded.

Hao Ren blushed. He pushed Rollie off the bed with all his might. “We’re not as what you think, okay? She was the one pinning me on the bed early in the morning.”

Lily’s face became even more amazing. “Oh, Mr. Landlord, you’re the victim!”

Thanks to Lily, her voice had almost alerted everyone in the house in the quiet early morning. To Lil Pea, the drama was more fun than a barrel of monkeys as she splashed and yelled in her pot. Hao Ren managed to stop the chaos brought by the cat and the dog and took them into the living room and hauled them over the coals.

As naive as Lily was, she was a mentally and worldview matured—whether she was an adult werewolf was debatable. But Rollie was different. Even though she wore the skin and intelligence of a human, she was still a cat deep inside her, she did not know why Hao Ren was angry, she just felt that the teasing was very interesting, so she had decided to do it again tomorrow and she really wanted to have a dried fish right now.

To the cat, Hao Ren’s reprimand had just fallen on deaf ear.

“So you can’t just jump on me like that it in the future, you know?” Hao Ren squeezed Rollie’s ear trying to get her behave. “Could you not play with your tail? You have to learn to be a human…”

Rollie lowered her head and rubbed Hao Ren’s leg, and placed her tail into Hao Ren’s hand as she knew Hao Ren liked to pinch his tail. “Let you pinch it, so you’re happy.”

Hao Ren: “…..”

“Was she not in your room last night?” Hao Ren looked up at Nangong Wuyue. “How did you manage to slip into my room?”

“Do you think anyone can really guard this cat?” Nangong Wuyue rolled her eyes. “To make sure she stay in the bed for the first half night isn’t already easy, how did you not realise she had slipped into your room?”

Hao Ren felt that Nangong Wuyue was somehow right. He was speechless.

“In terms of teaching the cat, there’s still a long way to go.” Vivian watched the farce with a smile. She seemed very calm.

As Hao Ren had stopped preaching, Rollie gave her body a little stretch before going away to find a place to nap.

Hao Ren let the cat be. He glanced at Vivian and said. “I have already reported your situation to Raven 12345. She should be replying in…”

Before he finished, a strange sound was suddenly heard in the living room.

A blue light flashed out of thin air, and then condensed into a tall humanoid. Everyone was astonished. Rollie turned around under the stairs and looked nervously at the light, her back curled and her tail straightened. If she was still in cat form, the hair on her back must have erected by now. However, when she discovered that the blue light looked familiar, she quickly calmed down and continued squirming on the mat.

“Big Bluey?” Hao Ren looked at the uninvited guest in surprised. “Why are you here?”

It was the arcane servant of Raven 12345. This weird energy creature handed a small silver-white pendant to Hao Ren and sounded a series of groans that no one could understand. “The Lord orders me to hand it over to you. This is a talisman capable of suppressing the mental disorder symptom. It’s universal model.”

Hao Ren instinctively looked at Vivian, then took the feathery talisman. The voice of Raven 12345 sounded in his head as soon as he touched the talisman. “Hey, Hao Ren, I’ve read your report regarding the bat-maiden. Now I’m giving you a talisman to calm her brain and prevent narcolepsy. It’s pretty effective. Though it’s a universal model, it will work on the bat. Of course, this is just a stopgap measure. I’ll leave to you to find a safer, permanent solution to her problem. After all, she’s your tenant and you’re responsible for them. Oh, by the way, this time it’s free postage.”

Hao Ren: “…..”

“This thing… is for treating my amnesia?” Vivian took the amulet over curiously. “It feels warm.”

“It won’t cure amnesia,” said Hao Ren. “But it seems to be able to prevent you from falling into another uncontrollable sleeping state. So you can avoid more memory loss. It should also suppress your temper before you sleep, probably.”

Vivian hesitated for a while before put the amulet on her neck. “I believe in the Goddess, her strength is always more reliable than you and me.”

Chapter 536: A Cat’s Worldview

 

Lily shook her ears and looked puzzlingly at Hao Ren and Vivian. “What are you two talking about? The glittering feather’s from the goddess? Is it for me?”

“No, you don’t have amnesia.” Hao Ren put his hand on Lily’s head and pushed her away. “It’s for Vivian to treat her narcolepsy and amnesia. Can you please take the garbage in the kitchen out?”

Lily grunted and ran to empty the trash. Hao Ren then turned to Vivian. “Is this thing working? How does it feel now?”

“I felt a little hot just now, but the sensation’s gone now.” Vivian touched her chest, and took out some stuff that was on her—a Mahogany sword, a cross, a Bagua mirror, a sacred stone,a Bodhi-seed and a dazzling array of stuff as if she had just gotten back from traveling. “It’s probably more useful than these things…”

Hao Ren looked at Vivian’s six-pounds worth of sacred objects, rolling his eyes. Hopefully, all these amulets would not make her develop “drug resistance” in her body.

‘What the goddess is giving is definitely better than your six pounds of scraps.” Hao Ren coughed twice. “Why haven’t you thrown them away? They’re obviously useless.”

Vivian ticked the objects back into her clothes—God knows how she did it. “At least psychologically, they make me feel better!”

At this time, as Big Bluey had completed his mission and found no further business to attend to, he made a buzzing sound before turning into a beam of light and disappearing into the air. Hao Ren said, “I didn’t expect to get a reply from Raven 12345 so fast. I thought it would take her a few days before she would give me any reply, but here she is, sending this.”

“But, the amulet seems to only dampen my drowsiness, it’s just a palliative approach.” Vivian blinked. “I’ll still feel nervous until the underlying cause of my drowsiness and amnesia is found.”

Of course, this problem needed to be solved. However, both Hao Ren and Vivian had no clue at the moment: routine physical examination would not detect the problems. Vivian had lain in the medical pod and the routine examination had confirmed she was as fit as a fiddle, and as an otherworldling which specialized in blood magic, Vivian knew her physical state well, the lethargy and amnesia she experienced was definitely not a physical condition. Hao Ren suspected that this was related to occultism and might even be related to The Plane of Dreams—the home of all otherworldlings. Obviously, this was not a problem that could be solved in a day or two.

Moreover, Hao Ren was also concerned about the descriptions he had read from Vivian’s manuscript: Before she fell asleep, Vivian had portrayed some weird scenes, such as the earth under the blood-red moonlight, distorted monsters, enemies which were between alien and human shadows. These scenes had appeared repeatedly in the manuscripts, and Vivian’s account of them was very vivid and certain. Although she would forget these scenes after each waking up, but judging from the manuscript these things had indeed happened.

However, Vivian was quite certain that except the bloody moon, the distorted and other monsters mentioned in the manuscripts did not actually exist. There were no such otherworldlings on earth. There had no similar wild creatures in the ancient times.

They had only appeared in the manuscripts—where did the things Vivian saw right before she slept come from? Was it real or just an illusion?

The truth might have been buried the long river of history. Even the other ancient ones might not be able to answer: Vivian was a lone wolf and she always found some quiet and secluded places to sleep in, she could not find any former friends who had witnessed the scenes depicted in the manuscript with her.

Y’zaks and Nangong Sanba were also very curious about what happened to Vivian. Hao Ren and Vivian told them what they had read in manuscripts in the basement yesterday. The husky had heard the story too but she was not good in reasoning, so she went into the kitchen instead. Vivian had also showed the original manuscript. Of course, nobody at the scene could interpret the lost ancient texts, she did that just to show off her own literary heritage, that she could single-handedly create such literary relics.

“I’m sorry to hear such thing happened to you,” Y’zaks scratched his head. “I’m not good at this complicated and sophisticated knowledge… Demon is only good at simple and crude problem-solving. When it comes to curse and spiritual issues, it’s out of my depth.”

“I have read some articles about the ancient times in my father’s collection, and books similar to the encyclopaedia.” Nangong Sanba recalled the half-baked demon-hunter education he received in the past. “The ‘Encyclopaedia’ had record of all the otherworldlings and exotic beasts that had appeared on Earth. There had no mention of the monsters mentioned in this manuscript, especially the illustrations at the end of the manuscript… in my humble opinion, these things look more Like a children’s graffiti, pure imagination, don’t look like it was born out of evolution.”

“Encyclopaedia of the demon hunters?” Vivian immediately became interested. “I have heard of such a book. Its records of otherworldlings are even more comprehensive than the records the otherworldlings themselves have. Do you have it?”

Nangong Sanba smiled embarrassingly. “It has long since disappeared with my old house. And to tell the truth, I also don’t remember much of the contents of the book. Although I like books, my father didn’t let me into his study room. The training of the demon hunters was very onerous, there was not much time for books—”

Before Nangong Sanba could finished, he was smacked on the head by a snake’s tail. Wuyue said, “Let’s not embarrassing yourself; since when did you not after the many editions of The Golden Lotus every time you ventured into father’s study room? And you have the nerve to say that father hadn’t allowed you into his room…”

Everyone: “…..”

Holding a small screwdriver in hand, Y’lisabet was passing by and overheard their conversation. She stopped in her track and asked curiously, “Uncle Ren, what is The Golden Lotus?”

Y’zaks quickly carried away his daughter under his armpit. “Kid shouldn’t ask so many question, you know. Now, go and read two classical literatures, while waiting for the dinner.”

Y’lisabet’s cry echoed in the room. Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat off his forehead and murmured, “It’s not easy to be a demon princess, eh?”

“In short, this manuscript is strange. From the professional perspective of a demon hunter, the texts sound strange.” Nangong Sanba rubbed its head. “I’m very sceptical of each of Vivian’s encounters before her hibernation.”

Hao Ren and Vivian nodded spontaneously. The latter kept the manuscript and said, “Thing won’t be sussed out anytime soon. Anyway, I’ve a talisman keeping things under control now; there won’t be a no problem. We have time, at least a couple of hundred years. By then we’ll be able to suss it out.”

To Hao Ren, a couple of hundred years seemed like an eternity. He did not feel the urgency at all. So he got to his feet and about to go to feed the cat. But he noticed something strange with Rollie.

The cat-maiden had just come out of the washroom, and sitting like a statue in the living room while eyes gazing into the direction of the washroom, motionless. Hao Ren took a gander of her and was shocked to discover the maiden was in tears.

“Silly cat, what’s wrong with you?”

Rollie glanced up at Hao Ren, suddenly started to bawl as she grabbed his trousers. “Poop scooper, are you going to die soon? Please don’t die!”

The silly cat’s bawl had everyone scared. They came up to her, some checking out Hao Ren, some checking out the cat. Vivian patted Rollie’s head and asked, “Why did you say so?”

The cat maiden lifted her finger and pointed in the direction of the washroom, tears kept running down her cheeks. “I just discovered that I could use the toilet…”

Hao Ren was a little puzzled. “So?”

The cat maiden wiped her tears and said, “So you are going to die, you poop scooper, aren’t you?”

Hao Ren finally came to his senses. He jumped to his feet and raged, “Is that what you see me? A poop scooper.”

When a cat became human and possessed the logic of a human being but still retaining a cat’s worldview, it made your blood run cold.

Chapter 537: Cats Are Actually Very Simple Creatures

 

It turned out that the golden apple could give wisdom to a silly cat, but it could not empower it with cognition. When a cat gained the wisdom of a human but retained a cat’s cognition, the sparks of collision between the worldview of the two species were just spetacular. When she discovered that she could handle the toilet affair on her own and cat litter was no longer needed, reality struck in her not-so-sound mind.

I don’t need cat litter anymore.

Because of that, the poop scooper has lost his meaning of existence.

Hao Ren is dying.

This magical three-paragraph inference scared the wits out of the naive maiden.

The silly cat wiped her tears away as she held on to Hao Ren’s trousers, crying. This was no ordinary cat’s reaction. Due to the intelligence and emotional complexity required, ordinary cats would not have had so much affection towards their masters. No ordinary human behaved that way too, because humans who possessed a proper worldview would not take the post of “poop scooper” seriously. However, the ordinary demonic cat did. She took it very seriously, and sadly. Her feelings were complicated enough that she could understand the intimate relationship between her master and herself. However, her cognition was just simple enough that she had no clue what mankind did for a living.

Hao Ren forced a smile after he figured out the logic of Rollie’s thinking. His first reaction was to grab the silly cat by her neck. He was about to spin her around twice, but he hesitated. Then, he decided to slowly explain to the silly cat what kind of complex beings humans were, and that changing cat litter was just a trivial part of human life. Life was definitely not made up of only “preparing food for cats” or “changing cat litter”.

But the more he explained it, the sillier he felt; he could not believe that he was actually explaining this things to a cat… This question was illogical from beginning. Every word felt utterly ridiculous, but he had to try not to laugh!

Rollie listened quietly and looked at Hao Ren suspiciously. “You’re not lying lie to me? You’re not dying, are you?”

Hao Ren is almost out of his breath. “Why would I die? When will your worldview come to be normal?”

“I don’t know what the worldview is, but what big cat does daily is give me food and clean my toilet.” Cat-maiden blinked and her tail finally softened. “Bigcat does have something else to do daily?”

“Since when my exciting life was simplified into two parts in the eyes of a cat?” Hao Ren hugged his head, feeling his value of life challenged. “Could anyone of you who understand the worldview of cats care to explain to me?”

Everyone around immediately shied away, declining to have anything to do with this edgy topic.

Hao Ren held up the cat-maiden and wiped the tears off her face with his hands. The latter blinked nervously. “You poop scooper, are you sure you’re not going to die?”

Hao Ren forced a smile. “I’m not going to die… I didn’t mean to die in the very first place.”

The cat-maiden nodded assuredly. “Oh, well, then give me a little dried fish.”

Hao Ren replied, “…do you have something else in mind?”

“Whar about large dried fish?”

“No fish in the house!” said Hao Ren, shooting the silly cat a glare before he took out a ham from his dimensional pocket and shove it in her hand. “Eat this… and tear off the wrapper before you eat!””

The silly cat stuffed the ham into her mouth with the plastic wrapper on. “Why does it taste so bland?”

Hao Ren sighed. He helped the cat-maiden remove the wrapper and said, “I’ve been doing everything for your since day one. Now it’s time for you to do everything on your own. You’ve to solve problems on your own, and learn to use chopsticks, not eating like a cat anymore.”

While eating, something suddenly crossed the silly cat’s mind. “Poop scooper, are you thinking of abandoning me? I can find my own food outside, you just let me come back to sleep at night…”

Hao Ren’s arms akimbo. He felt the cat was irritating but he was not angry. “Have I said that? What I mean is from now on you have to learn to use your current physical form to live. Now you can do many stuff which I did for your in the past.”

The cat-maiden nodded with only a vague idea of what Hao Ren meant, but she looked at ease now. The cat was a sensitive creature; a slight negligence by the family could let her land in troubles.

Hao Ren looked at the silly cat and said, “Also I have to tell you, don’t call me by that name again. Look at how messed up your worldview is now.”

“I don’t understand,” said the cat, swallowing down her ham. “I’m Rollie, you’re poop scooper. They sound good. It’s not good to change them.”

She stretched her head rubbing Hao Ren’s arm as she purred in her throat. “Rollie and poop scooper are together. I’m very full and not cold, so I’m fine.”

Hao Ren grabbed the silly cat’s head and pushed her away. He felt that the cat was not as stubborn and lazy as before. In fact, she was a very simple: the most complex cat was simpler than any human being. By nature, she would occasionally get annoying. But when one had become familiar with her nature and could communicate with her, anyone would perceive the simple nature of this cat.

After all, all she cared about was small dried fish—big fried fish at most.

Hao Ren thought for a long while and finally thought of one name that Rollie could accept and which she had just called him that too. “You can just call me a big cat… At least that’s better than poop scooper.”

“But there are too many big cats,” the cat-maiden blinked. “I can’t tell which is which.”

Hao Ren was hapless.

But the cat-maiden thought for a moment and came up with an idea. “I’ll call you Big Big Cat.”

Hao Ren became very interested. “What do you mean?”

“The most powerful big cat,” said the cat-maiden as her eyes glowed. “because you’re very good in foraging!”

Hao Ren thought for a moment and realized that it was because he was responsible for buying groceries and picking up food back home… In a cat’s worldview, it was an achievement worthy to be accoladed the King of Cat title.

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief after finally solving the cat’s problem. He turned and found that Vivian and others stared at him quirkyly. He shrugged and said, “I ran out of option. Educating the cat is a gradual process, bombarding her with too many words would only confuse her.”

“But the name ‘Big Cat’ doesn’t really go anywhere,” Vivian scowled. “Now we’re all big cats.”

Lily squinted at Vivian. “Be grateful. Have I told you that since I called a silly big cat from the beginning?”

Everyone sighed, thinking that the girl was really broad-minded.

At this time, the MDT suddenly flew over and rammed into Hao Ren. “Still busy with the cat?”

“Just finished,” Hao Ren reached for the MDT, “What is it?”

“Let’s go to the spacecraft, you might want to see the progress in the cultivation tank in the laboratory.”

Hao Ren was elated. “The Seed of Origin’s been cloned?”

“As badly as you want it, but there’re just some organs.”

But even only a few organs were enough to make him overjoyed. Hao Ren was going to the spaceship to check out the results. However, there was someone more excited than him: Y’lisabet had just finished her study and overheard the word ‘spaceship’ when she passed through the living hall. She suddenly cheered. “I want to go too!”

Hao Ren waved his hand. “Let’s us go together and see how the organs of the Seed of Origin look like.”

Vivian’s brows knit together. “The things sounded have somehow sounded weird through your words. Hey, don’t be hurry, let’s take our breakfast first!”

After the breakfast, everyone departed, leaving Rollie at home. Big Beardy was told to keep an eye on the silly cat in case she ran out again. Then they were teleported to the Kuiper Station.

For the entire time docking at the bay, the Petrachelys faithfully carried out the remote command from its owner. It had already produced the first samples of tissue in the own laboratory. These tissue samples were grown from the cells extracted from the Divine Sarcophagus.

When they arrived at the spaceship’s laboratory, they saw the weird-looking organs moving slowly in a huge crystal container.

If they were indeed the organs of the Seed of Origin.