The Record of Unusual Creatures

Waking up from a series of strange dreams, Hao Ren found that it was still dark at night.

He shook his head and climbed out of bed. The moon was still hanging high in the sky. Its bright, silvery light sprinkled into his room through the thin gauze curtain, casting some weird shadows of the familiar furniture on the floor.

Most of the furniture had Lil Pea’s bite marks.

Massaging his head, he tried to make himself more alert. He had had many strange dreams, the scenes of which still flashed in his mind, which made him feel like a trance. He could only faintly remember that he had seen the view of the Plane of Dreams again, or probably he had actually connected to it however slightly. He dreamed that he had returned to Holletta, with Becky and Ophra standing at the top of Dragonspine Ridge overlooking the crazy First Born breaking free from the bondage of the earth and the inexhaustible tentacles and blood surging in the valley. Then, he dreamed of Tannagost the golden planet, where the dead tentacles of the First Born coming back to life in the mountains of wreckage and slowly surging on the horizon. Finally, he even dreamed of Zorm, that planet in fire falling into the sun, with the giant body of the First Born bursting out of the crust, as if chick hatching from an egg, becoming a horrifying giant flower that even the sun could not kill it.

He kept dreaming of these bizarre scenes until he was awakened.

“Oh gosh! Was it just a nightmare?” smacking his mouth as he said to himself. “I must be thinking of the past.”

But very quickly he shook his head. It was not as simple as just being a nightmare because Zorm had appeared at the end of the dream. The First Borns of Holletta and Tannagost were indeed the source of nightmares because they were crazy and one of the most potent enemies he had ever fought. But Zorm was a gentle and friendly guardian as well as a friend of his in the Plane of Dreams. There was nothing between them that could be a cause of nightmare.

Therefore, those dreams might have nothing to do with what was in his mind. The dreams did not even seem to be his mental projection. His brows knit together; he suspected that these dreams were related to the so-called premonition.

Not a prophet himself, but Hao Ren thought that his dream had a particular meaning. Since he became Raven 12345’s assistant and a demigod, there were already changes to his soul though not as really as almighty as a god. These changes to his soul had been keeping nightmares away from him all this time.

“Is it the sword?” Hao Ren’s heart missed a beat. He quickly took the Godslayer out of the dimensional pocket. The black sword was dotted with starlight at night, and the blue glow around the blade was tranquil. He could sense that the sword was not the cause of his nightmare. He felt a sense of tranquility holding the sword in his hand, the blessing of Raven 12345 was mighty that it had isolated the negative influence of the sword entirely. Even the last trace of uneasiness caused by the nightmare had dissipated completely when he held the sword by the hilt.

As for the whisper, it would not have any effect on him. So he could care less.

He suddenly heard the sound of water splashing. Turning his head, he saw Lil Pea had come out of the water, poking her head out of the pot and rubbing her eyes. Looks like he had awakened her. “Dad-dee, you couldn’t sleep?” she asked.

“Nay, I’m okay. Just having a nightmare,” Hao Ren said, putting away the sword. The last trace of the nightmare had faded away. Unable to think of any revelation from the dream, he decided to put it at the back of his mind. If Hao Ren dreamed again, he would let the MDT record it down.

Lil Pea nodded before jumping out of the pot. Aiming at Hao Ren’s direction, she launched herself at him using a talent of demon-hunting fish: near-field teleportation. The next second, Hao Ren felt a slippery tail slammed on his face. He skillfully caught the little guy with his hands. She then huddled in Hao Ren’s arms and patted him on the arm with her tail. “Dad-dee, watch stars!” she said.

Hao Ren was struck dumb. “Watching stars? It’s cold out there.”

Lil Pea was insistent. Clinging to his arm and patting with her tail. “Dad-dee, watch stars!”

Totally defeated by a fish baby, Hao Ren surrendered to the will of the little guy. Since nightmare had already woken him, he might as well take this opportunity to go outside to get some fresh air. After putting on his jacket, he grabbed Lil Pea and tucked her under his collar, both hands supporting her so that she would not slip down through his coat, allowing her head to be exposed. The air outside was still freaking cold at this time of the year. At just a few degrees above zero, the temperate would be low enough to send Lil Pea into hibernation in a few minutes.

He left the room, tiptoeing to the back door, carefully opened it and got out to the open space at the back of his house.

To his surprise, he found that he was not the only one who could not sleep tonight: Lily was also standing on the outside!

The husky maiden was in her werewolf form, her silver hair glittered under the moonlight. Wearing thick winter pajamas with cute puppy patterns all around, probably she was the only werewolf that came out at night watching the stars in puppy-patterned pajamas.

The sound of the door opening alerted Lily, who had sunk into thought. Her pointed ears flickered as she turned her head around “Ahh, Mr. Landlord?”

“Apparently, I’m not the only one,” Hao Ren said and brought Lil Pea up beside Lily. “I couldn’t sleep, and Lil Pea was babbling about stargazing, so I took her out to get some fresh air.”

Lily poked Lil Pea on her tiny head with her finger and asked casually, “You had a dream too, Mr. Landlord?”

“You too?” Hao Ren’s heart missed a beat. “Nightmare?”

“It’s not a nightmare,” Lily replied, grabbing her hair. “Probably it is related to the combined memories; I’ve dreamed of some things in my previous life — things that happened when I was still the first sage. But it was all vague and didn’t make sense.”

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief quietly. Looks like Lily’s condition was different from his. But then again, he was a little worried. “Didn’t you say that the combined memories would not affect you?”

“It didn’t.” Lily now poked her lower lip with her finger. “Even when I dreamed, it was like watching the footages of others. It was just that when I saw I was such a high-flying sage in the previous life, but am living a dog’s life in this life, I became emotional. So I come out to ponder about life.”

It knocked his socks off. It seemed that recovering Lily’s memory of the first sage was not really without implication. At least the husky had now begun to ponder about life!

By just looking at Hao Ren’s eyes, she already knew what shit was in his mind. She bared her fangs and said, “Mr. Landlord, you’re such a bad concealer. You must be thinking that how could a person as dumb as I am pondering about life. I would have to explain to you the difference between dumb and stupid. But then you forgot again next time, and I would have to explain it all over again. Sigh, it’s really exhausting.”

“But I haven’t said anything yet.”

Baring her fangs again, Lily snorted and turned away to look up at the huge moon in the sky. Only now Hao Ren realized the reason why the husky was so awake tonight; it was not entirely due to the memory of her previous life but more to the full moon of tonight.

“You already know who you are in this life and even who you were in the previous one, do you still get aroused during the full moon?” Hao Ren was a little curious.

“I can’t help it; it’s a habit.” Lily rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why I’m doing it.”

Hao Ren twitched his mouth and said, “Think of it, you are really damn unlucky; you were so successful in the previous life, but now a nobody.”

Lily waved her hand. “I’m not the only unlucky one; the entire demon hunter race is ill-fated too.”

Hao Ren could not deny that. He used to think that demon hunter was a powerful, violent and terrific race, but after the Coldpath incident, he was surprised to find that this group of people was so star-crossed that they were not just driven mad by a sword, but also their race was brought back to the prehistoric era because of the civil war. Spending their whole life hunting the demons, at last, they found that their boss was actually the demon itself. That was not all; even one of their ancestors had become a dog in this life, not to mention an outsider leading 100,000-strong demons had overrun their lair.

When thinking about that, Hao Ren could not help but almost shed a tear for the demon hunters; their life was freaking too miserable.

However, compared to the ancient gods that the demon hunters had slain, their encounters were not that bad.

But taking a step further during the ancient times, those humans whom the old gods enslaved to be even more unfortunate.

After weighing everything, Hao Ren had only one conclusion. “It is like a Most-Tragic Competition…”

“Arf?”

Watching the moon and the few stars in the night sky while pondering about life in the cold night wind, with Lil Pea chiming in occasionally, they chatted past midnight into the early hour of the next day. Suddenly, there was a burst of sound coming from the northeast direction before a large shadow swept across the night sky. The shadow stopped and condensed into a figure behind them. “What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?

It was Vivian who had returned from a walk outside.