Chapter 1 The Last Revival

In the late Middle Ages, the supernatural forces on this planet welcomed their last historical resurgence—although the growing power of witch hunters and the Church made it increasingly difficult for aliens and wizards to survive, the gradual divergence between the Church and witch hunters gave some small families and esoteric sects skilled at concealment a chance to breathe. According to Vivian's memories, the period from the tenth to the fifteenth century AD was a stage in which the dark forces of this world were re-divided. By that time, the aftermath of the mythological era had completely subsided, and the more powerful aliens (including the ancient ones) had either died or gone into hibernation. After the decline of alien rule, the Church and witch hunters began a series of disputes over the new order of this world. The Church represented the power of humanity itself, while the witch hunters, although theoretically inclined towards "humans," were still a different race from humans, so it was natural for differences to arise between the two sides.

The history of this divergence is not important; Hao Ren was just moved by the sight of this lost town that had been exiled. The entire town was completely erased by black magic, and the commotion back then must have been considerable. Baptiste (the wizard Hao Ren and the others were looking for) was obviously able to succeed by taking advantage of the infighting between the witch hunters and the Church. Moreover, he not only banished the entire town with magic, but also studied witchcraft right under the noses of ordinary people—this abandoned house was full of traces of his magical experiments.

Various magic books were scattered on one end of the long table, all of which possessed a creepy texture and an unsettling atmosphere. They were mostly made of black goatskin or special paper soaked in grease, written with ink made from blood. The contents were profound and obscure, and usually accompanied by abstract and bizarre illustrations. Without Vivian's help in interpreting them, Hao Ren would hardly have known what these ghost-like drawings were all about.

The first magic book he saw at first glance was a handwritten work, mainly discussing various spatial phenomena and secret summoning rituals. Its author was clearly not Baptiste. A disgusting stench constantly permeated between the pages of this heavy book, and the black and red cover depicted a distorted gate and an eye peering out from the gate. The title page had the initials "d.r," which should have been left by the book's author. Baptiste must have often consulted this book, as he left many annotations and memos on the pages, and his handwriting was surprisingly neat and beautiful. According to these annotations, Hao Ren could immediately see what this wizard was most concerned about: the method of opening the gates of purgatory, and the secret arts for maintaining the stability of spatial channels with soul power.

He found the most frequently consulted part of the book. The paper in this part was severely worn and blackened. In this seven-page chapter, the author of the magic book detailed the historical records of the Gates of Purgatory and his speculation on how to open them. Baptiste left almost more annotations on the pages than the main text, and Hao Ren read them one by one with curiosity:

"...The records of the Gates of Purgatory in ancient times are not reliable enough. The rulers of the world in that era were the Old Gods, and they did not allow others to inherit too much knowledge. It is best not to pay attention to this part...

"Master Auben Moore's discussion on the 'Seven Obsidian Ritual' is inconsistent with this. The grease that generates magic in obsidian may be more critical than the obsidian itself. According to my own experiments, Master Auben Moore's view should be more credible. The relevant experimental data is in...

"Unique insight, the essence of the Gates of Purgatory is completely different from other gates leading to alien spaces. The process of opening purgatory is naturally the same. Strictly speaking, our goal is not to 'open a door,' but to attract purgatory over. Cracks will naturally occur in the process of the collision of the two spaces. Therefore, the basis of the experiment is not the portal structure, but the summoning ritual...

"The most important task after connecting the two spaces is to ensure the stability of the channel and to identify the signs of its collapse. I must at least allow time to go to the second layer of purgatory, and also consider how to rebuild the path back to the Prime Material Plane from the other end of the gate once the Purgatory Gate collapses prematurely. Master Vladkov's calculation formula is not accurate enough, so the grass on his grave is already half a meter high. I should re-channel these data..."

Hao Ren muttered while flipping through these obscure records, "How does this feel like scientific research? Is he a wizard or a space scientist?"

Vivian was holding a dark glass bottle, looking at it over and over. After hearing Hao Ren's words, she casually replied, "Wizards themselves are knowledgeable guys. Leaving aside worldviews, they can all be considered true polymaths among ordinary people."

Hao Ren casually put the book back where it was, "This Baptiste seems to have been committed to opening the gates of purgatory for a long time. All the information he left here is related to space magic. But there is no mention of why he wants to summon the Blood King, nor is there any mention of what happened to this town of Domir. By the way, what are you studying? Are there any good things in this bottle?"

"It's sulfur spring water, a specialty of the Purgatory space, although only half a bottle is left," Vivian threw the small bottle to Hao Ren. "Plus the Purgatory Ripper specimen that Hesperides found earlier, this Baptiste must have successfully opened the Gates of Purgatory once, but his attempt to open the door this time should have failed. Probably the duration was too short, and he only had time to bring some materials from the first layer of purgatory, which clearly did not meet his initial expectations."

At this time, Nangong Sanba walked over with a thick book and took over Vivian's words, "You're right, he did open the door once, and the result made him very dissatisfied. He summoned the Blood King probably to borrow the power of the ancient ones to help stabilize the door."

Hao Ren pointed to the thick book in Nangong Sanba's hand, "What's that? A diary?"

"No, it's a record of magical experiments, which happens to mention the successful opening of the Gates of Purgatory. The first time he opened the Gates of Purgatory, it only lasted for less than an hour, and he himself almost died in it. In addition to the experimental records, there is a lot of cursing and complaining. According to this, the reason why the Gates of Purgatory closed prematurely was that there was not enough energy, and the surrounding environment was not stable enough. The constant rejection of purgatory by the real world led to the collapse of the door. He mentioned that he needed to accumulate more abundant magic power to open the door, and between the lines, he meant to ask for help from those ancient aliens... I'm thinking this is the reason why he summoned the Blood King."

"He wants to use the power of the evil spirit Vivian to open the Purgatory channel?" Hao Ren blinked. "But the key question is how he knew about this ritual—and where did that red-haired evil spirit come from?"

"It doesn't say here," Nangong Sanba shrugged. "This place is too messy. I guess we have to rummage around for a while."

Hao Ren said "oh" and curiously asked Vivian, "By the way, what is there in the second layer of purgatory? This Baptiste is so obsessed with going there."

"In fact, no one knows," Vivian shook her head. "It's already quite difficult to operate in the first layer of purgatory, let alone go deeper. Moreover, the connection between purgatory and the earth is too unstable, and such a short time is not enough for people to make a round trip to the second layer, so no one knows what's deeper."

Hao Ren touched his nose, "Such a completely unknown place, I really don't know what's so attractive about this kind of place... By the way, why do I keep smelling a strange smell?"

"It smells like something is burnt," Lily raised her head from the pile of debris next to her, sniffing her nose. "I smelled it too!"

At this time, the others also raised their heads from their busy work. The strange smell permeating the surrounding air had become so strong that everyone had noticed it. It was not just the smell of something burning; it was also mixed with a fishy, rancid odor and a peculiar sour scent. Hao Ren raised his head, looking for the source of the smell, but suddenly found that the fog outside had infiltrated the house at some point. A layer of pale mist was floating in from all the window and door cracks. The mist seemed to be alive, wriggling and filling the entire interior space, looking as strange as it could be.

"It smells like some kind of magical grease..." Nangong Sanba muttered while subconsciously reaching into his arms. "I feel something is wrong."

Hesperides' first reaction was to look up at Heimdall, who had brought everyone to this place, but she found that the man was sitting stiffly in his chair like a stone. She stepped forward and tapped the other person's shoulder with the handle of her long whip, "Hey, this is..."

Before she could finish her words, Heimdall silently collapsed into a pile of black ash.

At the same time, an ear-piercing siren came from outside the house.

Hao Ren immediately shouted, "Something's wrong, everyone get out!"