Chapter 1 A Startling Clang

With a resounding crash—not an easy sound to produce in the thin Martian atmosphere—the mysterious, red mist-wreathed evil spirit was sent flying a dozen meters by Vivian’s frying pan. It left a trail of black, corrosive, and decaying scorch marks on the ground. Vivian hadn't even processed what happened; her swing was a purely subconscious action, and she was just as startled as anyone: “What is this?!”

She coughed after speaking. The thin, unbreathable Martian atmosphere, though not lethal to the Other, was far from comfortable. “Cough, cough, this place has terrible air… where did you guys run off to?”

“Put on your life-support collar!” Hao Ren shouted a reminder, but there wasn't time to explain in detail. “Careful, that thing’s coming again!”

The evil spirit, having been bizarrely swatted away by a frying pan, was of course uninjured. She rolled a few times on the ground before soaring back into the air. Her long red hair danced wildly without wind, and the chilling aura and red bloody mist around her almost formed a tangible storm. However, she no longer possessed her initial imposing manner. After seeing Vivian, a flicker of wavering finally appeared in the dark light of the evil spirit’s eyes. She howled anxiously, darting back and forth in the air, as if caught in a state of extreme confusion. The others were bewildered by the situation but didn't dare rashly approach, so they simply watched the monster go mad from the side. Vivian, meanwhile, frowned, instantly transforming into her vampire form, surrounded by the same chilling wind and blood-colored mist: “…What is this? Where did you provoke such a thing?”

“Don't know! It jumped out of a magic book!” Lily yelled. “I was going to ask you what's going on—why did another you jump out? Do you have other alts besides Hespera?”

“Looks exactly like me?” Vivian was immediately stunned, looking in surprise at the evil spirit flying around not far away in mid-air. “How can you tell… this thing doesn’t even have a face, does it?”

Hao Ren was gripping his spear, ready to fight again, but paused upon hearing Vivian’s words: “What did you say? No face?”

“Right,” Vivian pointed to the figure in mid-air that was almost identical to her. “A mass of shadows, the face is a blurry mass of bloody mist… Since when does such an Other even exist?”

Everyone was immediately surprised. They all looked at the red-haired Vivian, whose appearance was clearly distinguishable. However, Vivian herself couldn't see the monster’s appearance: in Vivian’s eyes, what danced before her was just a mass of mist with a human form!

But the others didn't have a chance to verify the truth. After being in a state of confusion for a while, the evil spirit seemed to suddenly regain consciousness. She roared again and pounced on everyone, and this attack was filled with tyranny. If her previous attacks were somewhat elegant and gentle, now she was simply a bloodthirsty beast seeking the destruction of everyone. Seeing this situation, Hao Ren immediately stepped forward: “Enough talk, let’s take her down first!”

With a soft “噗嗤” sound, the plasma light of the silver-white spear left another penetrating wound on the evil spirit’s body. Hao Ren also quickly felt his life force begin to drain after being touched by the other's finger. He didn't hesitate to dodge in mid-air, and Lily cooperated seamlessly by wielding her Frostfire Blades to fill the gap in close combat. Behind this close-combat duo, Izaac and the Nangong father-son team were preparing powerful spell attacks.

This evil spirit's power was strong and bizarre. Wherever her gaze and fingers pointed, great destruction would occur. Even the rigid shield couldn't withstand many hits. Now Hao Ren only rejoiced that he had initially lured the monster away from the residential area, and then decisively had the data terminal teleport everyone to this deserted place—otherwise, with the red moon shining, the moonlight would probably bring about a disaster!

Although Vivian was still unclear about the situation, her long-term cooperation with the team allowed her to react immediately. While Lily was wielding her claws to entangle the enemy, she had already begun to brew a powerful lightning storm. A large group of bats swirled in the air, forming two tornadoes. Powerful electric currents emitted bursts of thunder in the bat storm. Vivian floated in mid-air, directing the electric current to converge on one point, and the corner of her eye happened to see Lily cutting into the enemy’s body with a claw: “Dog, raise your hand!”

Lily didn't know what Vivian wanted to do, but she subconsciously obediently raised her other claw blade. The next second, there was a crack of thunder… and she was struck by lightning.

The powerful electric current surged into the evil spirit's body along the two Frostfire Blades, and Lily turned into a bright torch on the spot. By the time she fell down with a thud, she had been shocked like a chow chow—and a black-haired one. The husky girl was furious: “Bat, you psycho!!”

“I calculated the intensity, your body is fine!” Vivian was not guilty at all—she had absolute confidence in her control over her power.

The evil spirit, however, suffered ninety-nine percent of the lightning storm's damage. Just like when she was swatted away by the frying pan, she was blasted away hundreds of meters without resistance, and began to disintegrate in mid-air, with large swaths of red mist erupting violently from her body. Clearly, the damage she suffered this time was even worse than the previous attacks from the crowd. Izaac immediately saw the trick: “Let Vivian do it! Her power seems to suppress this monster!”

“Although I don’t know what’s going on…” Vivian led a group of bats and pounced. “Just leave it to me!”

The red-haired “Vivian” immediately let out a series of screams after seeing the dark cloud of bats attacking, as if she finally felt fear. Large swaths of land rotted and turned black under the erosion of the red mist, and unstable magical energy surged in the air. However, Vivian (the original) seemed to not see any of this at all. She ignored the evil spirit’s attacks, and slammed directly into the enemy with a large group of bats.

Electric light surged in the storm formed by the bat swarm, and the huge explosion and the hiss of electric current were dizzying. All of this quickly subsided, and the bat swarm re-condensed into Vivian's appearance. She frowned and looked at a charred pit left on the ground: “Seems like… it’s dead?”

“Dead?” Hao Ren was shocked and quickly stepped forward. “I wanted to capture it alive… hmm?”

Only a dark pit was left where the two “Vivians” clashed. The figure of the evil spirit was no longer visible at the bottom of the pit, only a pool of red liquid was slowly surging, as if it still retained a tenacious life. Lily cautiously threw a small stone into the pool of “blood,” but nothing happened.

The liquid gradually calmed down, as if losing its last trace of vitality. It turned into a pool of unremarkable blood, like the traces left by ordinary blood magic.

Nangong Sanba looked at the edge of the pit for a long time, panting with lingering fear: “So what the hell was this thing?”

Hao Ren frowned and carefully went down along the pit's edge. He took out a small metal tube and collected some of the liquid: “I don't know… but professional habit tells me that when you encounter something you don't recognize, it's best to collect a sample.”

Vivian found the frying pan she had thrown away on the rocky beach, and looked at the dent left on it with distress: “I was just about to make an egg pancake for ‘滚’… By the way, what the hell are you guys doing? Why did you suddenly start fighting? And where is this place?”

“More importantly, how did you get here?” Hao Ren was even more puzzled than Vivian. “Do you know how far this is from our house?”

“I don’t know,” Vivian shrugged. “I finished bathing ‘滚’ at home, and she was clamoring for egg pancakes, so I went to the kitchen to make them for her. Then I found that you were all gone. I came out to look for you, and saw a glowing pentagram array behind the house. I just went over to see what was going on and was teleported to this place.”

After Vivian finished speaking, she frowned and looked at the desolate world around her: “What the hell is this place… It feels like I've arrived on an alien planet.”

“It really is an alien planet,” Hao Ren twitched the corner of his mouth, not knowing where to begin explaining. “This is Mars.”

Vivian: “Huh?!”

“It’s a long story,” Hao Ren scratched his head awkwardly. He remembered that this incident didn’t seem to be just Lily’s whim, he also had a share of the responsibility. “Do you remember that magic book… In fact, Lily and I experimented with it a little.”

Vivian was dumbfounded.

But just as she was about to ask something else, Lily suddenly called out from the hillside next to them: “Don't chat yet! There’s something going on over here!”

Nangong Sanba looked up: “What’s going on?”

Lily was lying on the hillside, sticking her head out like a scout: “Damn, it seems to be a Mars rover…”