The Record of Unusual Creatures

Letta runes were something new to the Lily of this space and time. She had never seen any magic, curses, runes, or supernatural beings other than herself so far. Everything before her eyes was an eye-opener. So when Hao Ren put his hand on the Letta runes, the “werewolf” maiden quickly approached him, staring and waiting to see if there were any changes to the symbols.

The Letta runes twisted as soon as Hao Ren’s finger came into contact with them. They evaded his fingers the way an animal would avoid fire. The dark-red blood marks moved and faded on the stone and ice. A sizzle and a plume of pungent black smoke later, the powerful characters burned and disappeared silently.

Lily looked on, wide-eyed.

The distortion of the runes on the stone wall was only the beginning. Following the rubout of the suspected magic-circle node by Hao Ren’s magic-immune physique, a stream of air suddenly formed in the small cave and spun rapidly, rolling up the snow and ice shards in their surroundings. Soon, it developed into a cold whirlwind, which almost blinded both their visions. Accompanying the tornado were red luminous lines and words that were coming out of the dark stones. There also seemed to be phantoms and mist between the lines and text. The entire cave suddenly expanded and became many times larger than before. Grotesque images along with the crying as well as the howling of ghosts frantically twirled around Hao Ren and Lily. The dark stone wall softened and rippled before wraith-like creatures burning in black flames crept out from beneath it, only to fall to the ground and shatter. There was even a creature that looked like a bone dragon, poking its head out from the ceiling above. But before the bone dragon could let out a roar, it broke and turned into ashes in the wind. It vanished within a few seconds once it touched the ground.

Are these wraith guards that protect Vivian during her hibernation, an effect of the legendary blood magic? Hao Ren thought to himself.

Their sudden appearance startled Hao Ren a little. He could now faintly feel what kind of person the gentle and diligent “housewife” was before they met—she was the terrifying creature that human parents often talked about to coax their kids to sleep. At that point, the “werewolf” girl was on all fours, baring her fangs and looking threateningly at her surroundings. She growled, and the muscles in her body convulsed.

“Relax. These things are not a threat anymore.” Hao Ren quickly appeased the husky who was about to lose control of herself. “I’ve just disabled the alarm system. All you see are their broken pieces.”

It was just as Hao Ren said. He had defeated the alarm system in the cave. Had the wraith guards come out earlier, they would have been in trouble. But Vivian probably sealed the wraith guards with blood runes to avoid hurting the innocent. The wraith guards would only be activated under certain conditions, which played right into Hao Ren’s hands. He just needed a little bit of contact with the runes to create a chain reaction that would completely destroy the wraiths.

The horrifying vision in the cave went away as quickly as it came. In just a matter of a few breaths, everything in their surroundings had come down, and the real face of Vivian’s place of hibernation revealed itself.

The small cave had widened in just a short time and was now several times bigger than before. The stone walls and low-hanging icicles were all magical illusions. After they all vanished, the cave was really just a rectangular stone chamber. There were coarse marks of corrosion and cutting on the walls. Vivian had to be the one who created them before she hibernated. At the end of the chamber was a flat boulder with a sarcophagus lying silently above it.

That was the only thing in the chamber.

“It seems that this is indeed her place of hibernation.” Hao Ren could not help but sigh.

Just as Lily was about to calm down, the sight of the creepy tomb made her hair stand on end. “Big Brother, is this where your friend sleeps?”

Hao Ren nodded and walked up to the sarcophagus. “She just likes to sleep in such places.”

Lily was stupefied. Cold sweat ran down her back when she saw Hao Ren pace around the sarcophagus. “Wait a minute! What are you doing? That’s a coffin!”

“I’m opening it and waking her up of course!” Hao Ren said without looking at her.

Lily woofed and bounced two meters back. “You’re going to dig a grave! You’re a tomb raider! Have you been fooling me all this time?”

Hao Ren finally figured out what the husky girl was thinking. He looked at her and forced a smile. “What are you thinking? My friend is sleeping in this coffin. Can’t you see my honest face? Is this the face of a tomb robber?”

Lily looked suspiciously at Hao Ren. Apparently, she was not convinced.

Hao Ren helplessly spread his hands out. “Look at the empty chamber and ask yourself; do you think anyone would want to plunder a tomb this poor?”

Lily looked around and finally figured that what Hao Ren said did make sense.

“In that case, you’re not a tomb raider then.” The husky moved forward cautiously. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier. My gosh, there are actually people who like to sleep in coffins in this world. How long has your friend been dead?”

Hao Ren almost choked and coughed his lungs out. Right when he was about to correct the husky maiden, the sarcophagus suddenly shook.

The two of them were wide-eyed, and they observed it quietly. The sarcophagus shook again, and this time, it was so violent that the cover began to tremble and slide to the side.

Lily jumped two meters up into the air and almost slammed her head on the ceiling. “Big-Big Brother! The cover over your friend’s coffin is coming off!”

“Get out of the way! Get out of the way!” Hao Ren took Lily by the hand and stepped back. “Don’t get too close. We don’t know how long she’s been sleeping. We’ve woken her up, and she might get grumpy!”

Before his voice trailed off, a loud bang sounded within the sarcophagus and blew the half-ton stone cover away.

A shadow rushed out of the sarcophagus, formless like smoke. The shadow quickly turned into a storm in the air, and the temperature in the cave dropped rapidly by at least 20 degrees. A 20-degree drop in a hellish place like Siberia was no laughing matter. No matter how robust Hao Ren was physically and no matter how good Lily’s physique as a sled dog was, they could not help but begin to sneeze.

The heavy, metallic smell of blood began to condense in the chamber. When this happened, Hao Ren knew that one of the situations he expected had come true.

Vivian was not fully conscious.

“Your friend seems to be really pissed.” Lily blinked in the cold while she held down her standing hair. “She spins when she gets grumpy.”

Hao Ren grabbed the husky girl by the arm and ran towards the exit.

Before Lily knew it, Hao Ren had dragged her away and out of the frozen cave. As soon as they were out of the cave, a strong air current rushed out from behind them and blew them a dozen meters away. They crash-landed and broke a large boulder as well as a solid piece of ice. With the protection of his Steel Membrane Shield, Hao Ren was basically unscathed. But without any protection, Lily was a sight to behold. Her old clothes looked even more tattered when she pulled herself out of the pile of broken rocks.

The husky maiden patted herself and cried loudly. “Hao Ren, your friend’s really pissed. Do you owe her a lot of money?”

“The reverse is true—she owes others a lot of money.” Hao Ren grabbed Lily and ran again. “How on earth could she have money to lend to others!”

*Boom!*

An earth-shattering explosion came from behind when strong energy erupted from the cave. The blast broke the mountain wall in half. Hao Ren staggered in his steps and looked back instinctively. The cave had vanished with only thick black smoke billowing from the site where the cave was. A mushroom cloud was rising up into the air.

Did Vivian get so pissed that she blew herself up after someone dug up her coffin while she was asleep? Hao Ren thought.

While that wild thought ran through his mind, Hao Ren did not slow down. He dragged the muddleheaded husky maiden and ran all the way to the entrance of the valley.

The powerful energy bursts and booming sounds were still audible from the valley.

“All right, I think this distance is safe enough.” Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. They were now standing in the dead forest, which bordered the pine forest and the valley. “Let’s wait here.”

Meanwhile, Lily was still in shock. “Wait here? Will she come and kill us all?”

“Don’t worry, she won’t,” Hao Ren said while he fished out the fabric with Vivian’s handwriting from his Dimensional Pocket. “I know her habits well. As soon as she wakes up, she’ll recover her humanity. She won’t be that aggressive anymore. What happened in front of us earlier should be the result of her stress response due to our premature breaking of her seal.”

“What’s a stress response?” Lily asked innocently. “You know a lot of difficult words.”

“When you’re soundly asleep with a big bone, and someone suddenly takes that bone out of your arms, you’ll subconsciously bite. That’s called a stress reaction.”

“Arf.”

Soon after, Lily thought of another question. “How long does it take for her stress response to go away?”

“It depends mainly on whether she’s hungry or not.”