Chapter 1 The Truth

Hao Ren didn't hide his startling discovery in the Ark Database. Everyone, including Vivian, was utterly shocked by the truth.

The creator of ninety percent of the Dream Plane's ecosystem, a creation goddess of unbelievable power, had actually been killed—and by the hands of mortals!

Of course, due to the limited data in the Ark Database, the details of the event ten thousand years ago remained unknown, and there was no certainty that the Starry Sky race's claims were reliable. But in any case, Hao Ren and his team had made astonishing progress in their investigation of the creation goddess and the apocalyptic disaster, even if the results weren't exactly pleasant.

"I don't know how to tell the old beard and the others about this," Hao Ren sighed after telling his family about it. "I figure even if he's open-minded, he'll probably become a martyr after hearing this..."

"Then don't say anything yet," Vivian said, raising her eyelids. "At least wait until we find the remnants of the creation goddess... I think a god that powerful should leave some traces behind, even after death."

Izhaks nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Although the creation goddess has fallen, her power is clearly still at work. The Radiant Church's divine magic and the mental connections of its believers are all real. Anyway, in our world, powerful individuals often leave behind strange phenomena and traces after death, which can last for tens of thousands of years. The creation goddess shouldn't be worse than those bumpkins."

Elizabeth, who was sitting on Izhaks' shoulders fiddling with a small radio, waved a wrench and happily shouted, "That's why I never believed my dad was dead—my dad was such a powerful demon lord, if he really croaked, he would have cursed an entire race with resentment. The allied forces of all races that came to attack were prepared to be cursed to extinction, but half a year passed and nothing happened, so I thought my dad must be alive..."

Hao Ren looked at Izhaks with a strange expression. "...Your daughter's way of thinking is really worthy of her race."

Izhaks scratched his bald head awkwardly. "Lack of discipline, lack of discipline..."

After the Nangong couple returned to Earth, they first went to Naxxatoon to visit relatives, and then stayed at Hao Ren's house. In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed, and the scorching summer quickly showed its power. The hot weather made people drowsy, and the idleness of the past few days made Hao Ren, a half-baked adventurer who had barely adapted to the life of travel, feel bored. However, considering the sudden nature of the inspector's mission, he could only honestly wait at home, spending his days with his zoo-like family in noisy fun.

Lili still maintained her habit. After eating and drinking her fill in the morning, she roamed around the city to give the dogs a round of checkups. According to her, this was the season with a high incidence of infectious diseases, and she had to do a good job in preventing diseases for the stray dogs to ensure the sufficient combat power of the team—but everyone really couldn't see what kind of combat power her paparazzi had, except that they had become more and more orderly when Lili gathered them to line up recently.

Carrying her medicine box and running around outside under the scorching sun for half a day, Lili was still quite energetic when she returned at noon. She threw the medicine box into the living room and lay on the windowsill to look at the street scene. At this time, there was an old yellow dog squatting on the street outside, panting with its tongue sticking out to dissipate heat. Lili tilted her head and watched for a long time, then stuck out her tongue and followed suit: "Huff, huff..."

Vivian was reading a book next to her. She looked up when she heard the noise and said with contempt, "Look at your image."

Lili didn't expect her nemesis to be sitting next to her, so she quickly retracted her tongue and put on a stern face: "I'm just entertaining myself. Where's May? I want her to help me get some ice water so I can cool off."

Vivian held up a finger and shook it: "Want ice cubes? Cool off? Stand there and don't move, I'll give you something stimulating."

Lili immediately jumped back more than two meters: "What did I do to provoke you?"

"Vivian, turn on the air conditioner, it's really hot today," Hao Ren said, fiddling with the data terminal (actually playing DotA) in the distance. Hearing the bat and the dog arguing, he looked up and said casually, "Also, May went out with her parents. Her parents want to familiarize themselves with the environment and find ways to support their family in the modern world—they've been watching TV for half a month, and now they're in a hurry to integrate into modern society."

Vivian shrugged and snapped her fingers. Immediately, wisps of pale white cold air appeared around her, and a gentle breeze quickly spread throughout the living room, gradually spreading to the entire building. The electricity bill she saved this summer was enough to cover the rent.

Lili opened her mouth and took a few deep breaths of the cold air, then sighed comfortably: "Bat, you're only useful at times like this... Speaking of which, look at Nangong's parents, and then look at you. They all know how to work and support their family..."

Before she could finish her words, she saw a cloud of cold air coming at her face. The careless husky girl was instantly frozen into a dog-shaped ice sculpture.

Vivian lowered her head and continued reading: "Too much nonsense. The landlord hasn't even complained yet."

Hao Ren quickly stepped forward to help Lili clear the ice from her body, while curiously looking at Vivian: "Speaking of which, you've been reading a book since early this morning, what are you reading?"

"It was sent from the Athens Sanctuary a few days ago. Hessiana collected it from somewhere, an ancient book," Vivian held up the black-covered book that looked classical and gorgeous. "The author is unknown, but it may be from the late Middle Ages, a Latin book. For humans, it should be a sensational thing that promotes heresy... but I suspect this thing has something to do with me."

Hao Ren was immediately intrigued and leaned over to take a look. He saw that the cover of the book was bound in black tanned leather, with only a solitary title on it: *On Evil Spirits and Myths*. Other than that, there was no information about the author.

Vivian opened the book, and Hao Ren saw that the old book, which had been around for many years, was well-preserved. Clear handwriting and illustrations with a strong European Dark Ages style could still be seen on the yellowed pages, and exquisite patterns could be seen on the edges of the pages. On one of the pages, there was an illustration of a group of little people dancing around a bonfire, and a devil was peeking at the earth from the clouds above the picture—which couldn't help but bring to mind the things that were born in the darkest period of European civilization, when heretical beliefs, strange worships, and evil legends continued to grow in the shadows. Obviously, this book should not be a "proper work" in any era.

"Are you sure this thing has been circulating since the Middle Ages?" Hao Ren curiously reached out and twisted the well-preserved page, but he felt a creepy softness at the touch, which was completely different from the touch of ordinary paper. "Damn, this thing..."

"Don't worry, it's not human skin," Vivian tapped the page. "It's black goat skin, and it's been treated with witchcraft, so it's different from ordinary parchment. I haven't seen this kind of technique for a long time... To make this kind of page, black goats need to be raised in sunless caves, and after a period of time, they are slaughtered on a moonless night, and then processed into parchment by a wizard. Ha, what a waste of effort."

Hao Ren was stunned. These ancient witchcraft knowledge sounded mystical, and he felt very incomprehensible: "So troublesome? Why?"

"First of all, it can be preserved for more than a thousand years," Vivian held up the black book. "Secondly, using magic to process the pages themselves is a sign—proving that this book is a real 'magic book', not a chaotic copy made by those swindlers, without any magic or secret knowledge. Many years ago, this kind of magic book was very popular. Despite the high-pressure control of the church, many people, including nobles, were keen on secretly collecting such books to show their 'knowledge', but they could usually only find fakes. Only genuine wizards, aliens, demon hunters, and monks could identify and obtain truly effective magic books. Finally... in those days, books were expensive things. Nobles would use pretentious means such as writing in expensive paper, making gold buckles on books, and mixing spices in ink to enhance the 'taste' of books, and those self-proclaimed wizards would of course join in the fun, so they competed to use more complex rituals to create magic books to show their witchcraft knowledge and professionalism."

Finally, Vivian added: "Of course, I think people who do this are idiots—this will only leave clues for demon hunters. Once a magic book falls into the hands of hunters, the authors of these books won't live long."

Hao Ren was stunned: "Is this using your life to show off?"