The Record of Unusual Creatures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hao Ren gave Y'zaks an odd look. "...Your daughter's thought process sure is something."     

Y'zaks awkwardly rubbed his bald head. "My bad, my bad..."     

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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