The Record of Unusual Creatures

"To tell you the truth, I'm a little surprised that she managed to come up with this wild idea of eating her splits." Raven 12345 peered at Vivian and sounded like she was in awe. "But, don't worry, clones are just that—clones; they aren't as stable as the original being, and they lose their self-awareness after some time. The fragmented soul will not interfere with Vivian's mind. Of course, a little extra memory may have a short-term impact on her life."     

Vivian nodded immediately. "A little. I was having this dream about my life during our first few days on planet Inferno. It was a memory from 10,000 years ago. Sometimes, when I woke up, I had to beat my brains out trying to figure if I should cook or go out there to maintain world peace."     

Hao Ren tensed up. "What about now?"     

"I'm fine now." Vivian shook her head. "The confusion only lasted for a few days."     

Hao Ren let out a sigh of relief and scratched his jaw, staring at Vivian's clones with a thoughtful expression. He knew that they were irrational evil spirits and madder than the "ancestor of evil spirits" on Inferno. If released, they would bite indiscriminately just like the red-haired Vivian from the magic book. Hao Ren wondered why Raven 12345 kept the evil spirits there.     

"You didn't collect these splits for fun, did you?" Hao Ren slid a glance at Raven 12345. "Are they of any use? Or, are you planning to put them together and make a chimera version of Vivian?"     

Vivian forced a smile. "I find myself getting more amazing by the minute."     

"I've been studying what these splits mean," Raven 12345 said, pointing at the crystal containers. "Although I still can't figure out what kind of existence they are, by categorizing their power, I've found that each split represents a negative attribute. You can take a look at them; each of them has a tag."     

Hao Ren went up to the crystal containers and walked around curiously. Sure enough, he saw a tag in front of every crystal container and the word on every tag. He read it from left to right, "Rage. **. Fear. Rot. Plague. I suppose the empty one is the first evil spirit that we killed the last time? She represents 'death'?"     

"Yup." Raven 12345 crossed her hands over her chest. "Rage and fear are usually negative mental forces; rot and plague cause great damage to living things; ** is a fascinating ability. I didn't find any obvious manifestation when I tested it. I thought it was a harmless individual at first, but soon I found that she can drain one's energy by the dozens or even hundreds when one uses power. It doesn't affect me, however, it could be fatal to others. Then there is 'death', which you're familiar with. Vivian, you should have already mastered this skill, though you might not be as powerful as the original."     

"These negative forces came from me?" Vivian was wide-eyed. "I don't remember having these powers. I didn't have so many evil skills even when I was at my peak."     

Raven 12345 snapped her fingers and said, "Let's change your way of thinking. Once these negative energies emerge in your body, some protection mechanism will begin to discard these negative energies as 'clones'. The root cause of your splitting may be due to an unstable soul, which probably produces some impurities. And these impurities eventually form the evil spirits. Whoa! What a perfect chain theory."     

"Continuously generating negative forces, then rejecting these negative forces as clones. I feel weird that this is happening to me." Vivian stuck her tongue out. "That being said, my every split represents an attribute? In that case, what's my attribute?"     

"Probably 'poverty'," Hao Ren and Raven 12345 said in unison.     

Vivian could not help but roll her eyes.     

"That's not important." Hao Ren hemmed and steered away from the topic. He then looked at Raven. "The problem is that even if your theory's correct, you still can't explain where Vivian's negative forces come from. She can't possibly produce them out of thin air. How can a sunshine vampire divide herself into so many eerie clones?"     

Hao Ren seemingly mentioned the key without realizing. Raven 12345 was silent for a while before she said, "The answer may lie deep within her, in the deepest part of her memories when she first came to the Surface World or even earlier than that, before her first split. The root of her negative forces should be there. But it's difficult to intervene in external forces. I've designed several programs, but none are safe."     

Hao Ren always thought that Raven 12345 was omnipotent, but when he heard her words, he was curious. "Unsafe? Why?"     

"I couldn't determine the attribute of the 'root'. Vivian's soul is akin to a complicated black box; you don't know what's in there before you activate it. If the 'core' that produces negative forces gets out of control, can you imagine the consequences?" Raven 12345 pouted at the crystal containers. "She may become one of them, or be devoid of rationality, constantly releasing evil spirits."     

In the eternal spring of Heaven, Hao Ren felt a chill suddenly run up his spine. Vivian also felt the same, but she was calmer than Hao Ren was. "At least things seem fine at the moment," she said.     

"You've been through this for 10,000 years, right?" Raven 12345 put on a subtle smile, which magically allowed Vivian and Hao Ren to feel at ease. "Since the evil spirits that split from you are all negative, it means that you must have some kind of 'detox' mechanism in your body. This mechanism could ensure your safety. Before you split the next time, I can find you a safe solution. Don't underestimate my research ability. It's just that sometimes, it may not be the right moment, not that I have no ideas."     

Hao Ren and Vivian breathed a sigh of relief. The mood swings had them catching their breath. Then something came to Hao Ren's mind. "Is the lifeblood I collected from planet Inferno still here?"     

After they killed the evil spirit from the magic book, it became a pool of dead lifeblood, and Hao Ren passed it to Raven 12345 as a sample. When the super-giant Vivian of Inferno died and turned into a pile of blood-colored crystals, the evil spirit at the center of the seal was completely absorbed without a trace left. Wondering what specimen he should collect, he merely took back some crystal stones, which came off demon-god Vivian, and the lifeblood near the giant organ. He handed the specimens to Raven 12345 a few days ago, but he did not see the crystal container that corresponded to the demon-god version of Vivian.     

"Those specimens are just ordinary blood." Raven 12345 shook her head. "The primary split in Inferno appeared to be special; she left no residue of herself behind. She must either be a purely spiritual body, or a hybrid of the First Born and Vivian, formed in the span of 10,000 years. Anyway, I already have more than 20 specimens here, having one less is of no difference."     

"Where did you collect all these clones from?" Hao Ren asked curiously. "When you first parachuted into your position in this universe, Vivian should have already split several times. Did you go and pick them out one by one?"     

"Yup, from all over the world." Raven 12345 rolled her eyes. "It took me a while and some elbow grease since many of them were sealed in some far corners of the world. One time, I found the wrong grave and dug up Vivian, who was sound asleep in there. I was like, oh my gosh, and quickly buried her back. Of course, Vivian, you had no idea; I was very cautious."     

Raven 12345 was not always as serious as she was that day. But alas, it turned out that her seriousness was short-lived when the conversation quickly turned comical. Cold sweat started to trickle down their forehead, and Vivian's face was a kaleidoscope of expressions.