The Record of Unusual Creatures

Lily’s writing shocked everyone in the family. But she did not have a bit of self-consciousness. Lily even thought that her housemates were making a mountain out of a molehill. She had never hidden her scripts from others, but it was just that the family members had never paid attention to what she wrote because they never thought that the writings of the husky worth a look.

Now Hao Ren knew, Doggie was not dumb. Really. It was just that no one had paid attention to her when she used her noodle.

Never had Hao Ren expected the husky had turned his experience around the universe into a fantasy novel. He heard that Lily’s story was commanding quite a decent number of readership on some online platforms. Hao Ren felt it weird. What was even stranger was that the husky had been using the money she earned from her novel to pay for her room rental and commanded a moral high ground among the freeloaders in the family.

Hao Ren vacillated for a long time. He did not know what to make of it. Hao Ren could not stop Lily from writing. Instead, after reading her novel, Hao Ren began to think that Lily, the four-time graduate of Peking University, was a pretty good writer. He was nowhere near Lily’s level. It was a money-making opportunity that only young literati could master. But then again, having people record those stories on his behalf was not a bad thing after all, although Lily had become the protagonist instead of him, and it was a fantasy novel.

It was evening when they arrived home. After the hustle and bustle in the house, it was late at night. Silence returned to the house. When looking from the outside, only Lily’s room still had the light on. She was burning the midnight oil to clear her backlog. Two months without fresh updates had quite a severe consequence.

Hao Ren had wanted to compile his mission report but thought better of it when he looked at the clock. Having just completed an epic quest had wholly drained him. Hao Ren began to think of taking a vacation. So he hit the sack.

However, Hao Ren did not sleep well.

He had strange dreams again. In his dreams, Hao Ren vaguely saw Lockmarton’s fragmented soul and his early memories. And then the scene changed. He saw the goddess of creation launch the Seeds of Origin. He was tied to one of the seeds and flew into deep space, passing by the stars, taking root on a planet, and hatching the First Born. This further created the first Blood Tide, from which life multiplied. He began to observe the stars and sent out various signals for the goddess of creation. The scene changed again. Now it was darkness, an indescribable shadow that shrouded the entire galaxy. There was a beating red heart amid the shadow. He saw a goddess holding a pair of black swords lunging at the shadow. The goddess’ body became as large as the galaxy. After that, an explosion engulfed the goddess, and the shadow—the primordial energy of the universe—destroyed everything. The two figures at the center of the blast tangled, melted, and slowly disappeared, leaving behind groups of dark-red matter drifting in the dark. After a while, the sound of water rang in his ears. Hao Ren felt like he was standing by a river. The current was strong. Occasionally, water splashed up onto his face and felt cold.

The cooling sensation felt real. Hao Ren was jolted from his sleep and found that there was indeed water on his face.

He sat up and saw Lil Pea poking out from the pot on the bedside table. Her wet hair stuck to her face, her pair of beautiful eyes were reflecting the moonlight in the dark, and her tail fell back on the water with a splash.

“Lil Pea, go to sleep.” Hao Ren thought that the baby fish was disturbing him.

“Lil Pea was sleeping!” The little mermaid stirred the water. “But Daddy was sleeptalking!”

“I sleeptalked?” Hao Ren was startled. “What did I say?”

“I have no idea. It didn’t sound like a human voice,” the fish baby just told him whatever she heard.

“Not like a human voice.?” Hao Ren knew the little one did not lie. He knew he must have been sounding indistinguishable. What surprised him was not only that the dreams, but also the sleep-talking. Ever since Hao Ren became an inspector and had his body enhanced, he had excellent control over his body. Sleep-talking was a rare thing.

Hao Ren got to his feet and shook his head trying to clear his mind. He could no longer sleep.

He gently pressed the mermaid’s head and shove her back to sleep. After that, he put on a jacket and crept out of the room.

Coming to the living hall, it was dark. Moonlight was shining through an angle into the hall. It was not very bright but enough. Lily’s room was at the other end of the living hall. Light slipped through the gap under the door, and there was the tapping sound of the keyboard occasionally. Hao Ren shook his head and smiled.

It was a rare scene to see the husky was such hardworking.

Hao Ren did not want to wake the others up, so he did not hang around the living hall but instead slipped out of the back door to open ground at the back of the house.

It was a winter knight, where wilderness behind the house looked bleak, as vegetation had withered, leaving only a barren landscape and the dark shadows of the distant mountains. The cold moonlight sprinkled on the ground gave the illusion of frost and snow.

Hao Ren just wanted to stand quietly outside for a while before going back in. But he heard something flapping in the night sky.

This unconcealed noise was exceptionally loud under the silent night sky.

Hao Ren looked up and saw a small dot quickly grew large in his vision and it turned out to be a swarm of bats. The bats flew over the open space behind the house and circled in the air a couple of times before they finally form-shifted back into the body of Vivian.

“Just got back from a ‘stroll’?” Hao Ren quipped.

“Just flew around for a while.” Vivian floated up to him like a fog. “What are you doing here? In a bad mood? Had strange dreams again?”

While still thinking of how to explain away his presence at the back of the house, Vivian’s words of concern startled him. Hao Ren was touched.

“Yeah, I was dreaming again,” Hao Ren replied. “I can’t sleep now.”

“You’re stressed.” Vivian looked into Hao Ren’s eyes. “Don’t lie, I can see it. I’ve lived for 10,000 years, and I’m not dumb like Lily.”

Hao Ren looked at Vivian’s bloodred eyes. He knew he could not hide it from her. He nodded and looked a little depressed. “I can’t hide it from you. The truth I discovered in Collow has disturbed me. I’ve just had a bunch of strange dreams, which I’m afraid has something to do with the truth.”

“You are disturbed to know that the goddess of creation may be the mastermind of the deicidal plan? Or is it because the Mad Lord may be more difficult to deal with than expected?”

“Both are also true,” Hao Ren nodded. “But more of the overturn of my previous theories. I feel that things are a bit out of control now. You know, I don’t like the loss of control.”

“In my opinion, the plan of the goddess of creation was out of control since the beginning. When she decided to delete her memory to contain the Mad Lord, she had lost control.” Vivian sighed. Of course, she knew that Hao Ren was talking about the loss of control in another aspect, but Vivian still dragged the goddess of creation into the picture. “I think she never succeeded in isolating her memories. Even though she may not have been aware of it, those memories had been affecting her the entire time.”

Hao Ren looked at Vivian curiously. “What have you found?”

“The wardens in Collow and the guardian giants are different in terms of the ‘material,’ but they look alike in other aspects. The crystal disc in Collow is obviously the Gilded Disc. The Ark of the Sacred Covenant, no matter how you look at it, is the prototype of the Creation Engine. If the goddess of creation had sealed her memory completely, how did she make the second generation of those things? So I think about her memory of the last era still lingered in her subconscious mind. These remnants of her subconsciousness were probably causing things to deteriorate.”

Vivian detailed her analysis. Her bloodred eyes were filled with a sense of seriousness. She apparently had been seriously thinking about these matters all the while.

“You have surprised me with your analysis.” Hao Ren said.

“I just want to tell you that you’re not the only person who are facing these things. At least you have me to share the burden with you,” Vivian said with a smile.

“Even the seemingly confused Doggie had come to me to discuss the Plane of Planes. But her opinion is usually not useless; it’s all novelist’s ideas,” Vivian said in a way as if she wanted to steer away from the original conversation.

“Lily also thinks about it? That’s really a surprise.” Hao Ren laughed.

“Doggie has many ideas,” Vivian said. “But most of them are not for normal people’s consumption.”

Normal people? When did his house has a normal person? Hao Ren thought to himself. He nodded to Vivian and said, “Thank you, I feel more relaxed now. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t be bothered by those things.”

“If so, let’s go back to sleep.” Vivian blinked. Her eyes had restored to the black eyes of a human. “Do you need me to hypnotize you?”

“Have you forgotten that your blood magic doesn’t work on me?” Hao Ren quipped.

Vivian raised her fist in the air with a sly smile. “I mean hypnotize you using this.”

Hao Ren was dumbstruck.