The Record of Unusual Creatures

The door to the cemetery was right in front of their eyes. It was just as Hessiana had said; it was a barrier formed by twisted thorns and roses. The strange barrier was in front of the foyer on the north side of the castle. It extended out infinitely on both sides and above as if dividing the world in half. Supposedly, a barrier of that size was hard to miss. Hao Ren and Lily should have seen it when they were in the courtyard. But in reality, the wall did not appear until they crossed the foyer.

Apparently, it was a strange spatial phenomenon, or perhaps, a purely spiritual illusion.

However, with real bones piling up under the Wall of Roses, even a fool would not think that the barrier was just a harmless illusion.

“We have seen the barrier.” Hao Ren knew that Hessiana was busy dealing with the control system of the Soulless Guards, but he had to talk to her just to be sure. “Are you sure as long as we have a strong will, we will be able to go through it? There are at least 300 skeletons under the wall. Some of them seem to be of giants and super creatures. It looks like the thorns killed them instantly.”

With so many skeletons here, there had to be some among them who had strong wills. Yet, they all died, Hao Ren thought to himself. He was damn sure that his will was strong especially after the mental enhancement procedure. But he was not so sure about the husky.

It took Hessiana three seconds to reply. “There is one final test. Other than a strong will, those who pass through the wall must not have ill intent. Those who have the slightest ill intention towards Lady Vivian will not be able to get to the graveyard. Are you two all right?”

Hao Ren’s mouth twitched. Realizing that the Little Bat was waiting for him to finish the journey, he patted his chest with confidence. “You deal with the Soulless Guards. We are now going into the cemetery. Be quick. We need the support of the Soulless Guards as we may not be able to hold back Vivian’s avatar.”

“Do not worry.” Hessiana sounded impatient. “I’m almost done.”

The conversation ended. Hao Ren and Lily exchanged looks and nodded at each other.

Then the two strode towards the Wall of Roses, which looked fascinating but was full of strangeness and dangers.

They were just inches away from the wall. Hao Ren was nervous instinctively. And then he felt that he had just passed through a cool water curtain, and a breeze blew on his face. He opened his eyes and found that he and Lily were standing in a place that was not supposed to exist in the castle: a steppe.

Colors had come back to the world.

It was a night with the moon hanging high in the sky. Bright moonlight sprinkled on the earth, where knee-length green grass spread out in all directions. The steppe looked endless under the night sky. Dimensional wise, the steppe had exceeded what the castle in the Shadowy Realm could accommodate.

It was not the cemetery that Hao Ren had imagined.

Hao Ren looked back; the castle had disappeared. The Wall of Roses was the only thing that stood behind them. Thorns and the blood-red roses grew into an arch with fireflies fluttering around.

His gaze moved away from the wall and searched for Vivian, or maybe the Malevolence on the steppe.

But he saw nothing.

The grassland was empty. There were no hiding places under the moonlight. If Vivian or the Malevolence had awakened, they were unlikely to hide. So everything was just as Hao Ren had predicted.

Vivian had not woken up. The Malevolence might be active now, but it had not materialized into the physical body. That was precisely why only negative energy was detected around Haron’s Castle, and no observable calamities were happening yet.

“Is this the deepest part of the dream that Battie has made for herself?” Lily asked, twitching her mouth upward. “Heck, she has never gone to school, yet her dream looks pretty poetic, eh? I thought she was only thinking of a big house and stuff like that. Mr. Landlord, why are you staring at me?”

Hao Ren’s faint smile made the husky uncomfortable.

“Why did you still say there was no love lost between you and Vivian?” Hao Ren looked at the husky maiden who was still clueless about what he meant. He could no longer hold back his laughter.

“When did I become Battie’s friend?” Lily jumped to her feet as if someone had stepped on her tail. “Mr. Landlord, be careful of what you say. Let me tell you, as a former empress, I am a person of principle.”

“Anyone who is hostility to Vivian cannot possibly pass through the barrier of the graveyard,” Hao Ren said. “What do you have to say about that?”

Lily was rendered speechless.

The husky maiden did not know how to respond. But when she saw Hasse whom she was carrying on her shoulder, she argued matter-of-factly. “If so, why was Hasse fine them? He may not have come to kill Battie, but this is the Hasse of 600 years ago. How sure are you that he is not hostile towards Battie? So it’s the barrier’s problem—”

Without waiting for the maiden to finish, Hao Ren said, “Heck! He is now in a deep coma and no different from a turnip, let alone hostile.”

While he spoke, Hao Ren noticed the old demon hunter twitch and whimper on Lily’s shoulder. They were signs of waking up.

Lily reflexively dropped Hasse to the ground and raised her broad sword aiming at his neck. Just then Hasse opened his eyes. He saw Lily holding a big sword and recalled that this neurotic girl had knocked him out a few times this way, he was severely hurt mentally. The psychological shock had even overwhelmed his killing instinct. The deadpan senior demon hunter quickly cried, “Wait a minute! Are you dear to reason?”

“Bah!”

“Lily, wait!” Hao Ren stopped Lily at the last moment before she smashed the sword down on Hasse. “That would not be necessary anymore!”

“Huh? We don’t need to knock him out this time?”

“It is time for Hasse to do some stretches,” Hao Ren said while his eyes scanned the steppe for any suspicious movements. “You see, Vivian has apparently not woken up yet, and the Malevolence has yet completely awake. This time, the situation is different from the brute force hack in the Siberian cave. Vivian has laid down a comprehensive security system in her hibernation place, we need the guidance of an expert. Hasse, let us cooperate.”

Hasse glared at Hao Ren, then stared dead at Lily. His eyes filled with wariness and hostility—the killing instinct in him had activated. In this space and time of six hundred years ago, Hasse had not gotten rid of that hostility that was ingrained in the blood and soul of the demon hunters, so he was able to instantly tell the girl was an otherworldling. But that killing instinct he felt towards Lily was not as strong as he had towards other werewolves. He only vaguely knew that Lily was a supernatural creature with a complex bloodline, similar to a werewolf, but not enough to even trigger a quarter of his impulse to fight. The old demon hunter was confused.

Hao Ren laughed when he saw Hasse’s reaction. Before resolving the innate hostility problem, he had conducted an experiment on Lily and demon hunters, especially Hasse. The test showed that the demon hunters were hostile to the husky, but the hostility was much weaker than to ordinary otherworldlings. Lily was not a pure otherworldling, and there had to be two different races from the Plane of Dreams for innate hostility to arise. Lily was originally a demon hunter before she later became a mixed-blood canine monster in soul and in blood. She was apart from the demon hunters, but not entirely different, which led to her having a scent that was confusing to the demon hunters.

In short, when demon hunters saw Lily, they identified her as a werewolf, but they lacked the motivation to fight her.

A regular, uncontrolled demon hunter would not hesitate in killing the otherworldlings. The Mythological War, which lasted thousands of years, had turned the demon hunters into sworn enemies of the otherworldlings. But now, Hasse did not meet that condition. After staring at Lily for a long while, he turned to look at Hao Ren. “There is no reason for me to cooperate with you, especially with all the dirty tricks you have used on me.”

Lily bared her fangs. “The Hasse of this era is such a harda**. The one we know is so much more welcoming.”

“Did we not fight with him when we first knew him?” Hao Ren said. He crouched down and looked at Hasse, who was restrained by the energy restraining device. “We both have a common goal: to save the world from Vivian Ancestor, who is about to go on a rampage. I have a much higher chance of success. Tying you up is a forced choice. After all, there is no other way to let demon hunters work with the outsiders.”

Hasse found what Hao Ren said ridiculous. “Hah, do you think I will work with you this way?”

“Your willingness is not important. What is crucial is that you are not stupid,” Hao Ren said with a smile. “You must be curious to where I have brought you. Come and see this place for yourself. This is the deepest part of where Vivian is hibernating. I have not met her, of course. But I am sure she is somewhere here and about to wake up. You only have two choices: we work together to calm her down, or we leave you here with these shackles on and see what the mad Countess will do to you.”