Chapter 1 The Holy Shrine Jewel Goes Missing

The news of the Holy Shrine Jewel's disappearance sent shockwaves through the Holleta royal family and the church. They immediately launched a large-scale search operation, while all the knights and even the church clergy responsible for guarding the jewel that day were subjected to rigorous investigation. The area around Lake Beinntz Blood already had outposts set up by the church and the kingdom's knights, but now the blockade in that area had become even stricter, even prohibiting single mercenaries from entering and exiting. To enter, one had to be a mercenary team accepted to participate in the search or a member of the Knights. This was also one of the few instances of the authorities massively recruiting mercenary teams – a testament to the seriousness of the whole affair.

This world's tales of goddesses and ancient civilizations seemed very interesting, and aroused Vivian's great interest. As an old vampire who had lived through the entire history of human civilization, Vivian loved to study other people's histories. She asked Becky a lot about ancient legends, until the mercenary girl began to suspect that this group of people in front of her were not normal – even the most basic common sense questions had to be inquired about for a long time. Fortunately, Becky was a standard mercenary, and a little careless. She mostly only considered whether something was profitable for her and whether it would harm her. As long as she was okay, she didn't care if the outside world was flooded. It was estimated that even if Izhaks transformed on the spot into a living volcano, Becky wouldn't care unless someone posted a bounty...

The group had decided to go to Lake Beinntz Blood, and Becky would go with them. On the one hand, the latter wanted to take this opportunity to see if she could strike it lucky and get that unprecedentedly generous reward: an estate and a noble title. Everyone in the team that found the jewel would get a share. This reward was enough to tempt any mercenary. On the other hand, even if she couldn't find the jewel, she could take this opportunity to collect some rare materials around the Blood Lake. Now that the area around Beinntz was under martial law, and the search for the jewel took precedence over everything, the various Beinntz specialty magic materials on the market were facing a shortage of supply. Becky felt that there was a business opportunity here. Hao Ren and the others asked Becky to be their guide, but in fact, Becky also needed a group of people like Hao Ren and his team: she needed to hitch a ride with a team, and preferably one of those newbies who didn't know much about the mercenary business. She was used to being alone and didn't want to team up with those experienced mercenaries. Moreover, experienced mercenaries might not be willing to absorb an outsider into their team at this time. She and Hao Ren's group of five hit it off.

As for the strength required to go to the Beinntz area, Becky didn't feel the need to worry: these five in front of her could teleport directly from the Northern Empire to Holleta without bringing anything. How could this ability be small?

The group came to a fork in the road leading to the town entrance. Becky waved to Hao Ren and the others: "Let's split up here first. I need to go home and prepare some things for the long trip. By the way, do you need to prepare anything? Is it okay to set off today?"

"The sooner the better, we don't have anything else to do anyway," Hao Ren said with a smile. "Of course, if you have any private matters, we can wait until tomorrow."

Becky thought for a while: "I'm fine, let's set off today then. You can wait for me outside the main gate of the town. Let's meet at noon, and we'll set off at noon. We'll go west along the grassland, and if nothing unexpected happens, we can reach a small mountain village by evening. I know the village chief there. We'll rest for a night and then go west along the mountain range bordering the grassland – this is the shortest route."

Becky rattled off a lot of itinerary issues like popping beans, and arranged it without caring whether Hao Ren knew these place names. Then she turned and walked in another direction: her home was that way.

"She's really a woman of action." Hao Ren muttered as he looked at Becky's back.

Lily ran around Hao Ren in circles: "Landlord, landlord! Let's find a place to play! We finally came to another world, I want to buy some local specialties to take back..."

"But you have to have money," Nangong Wuyue clapped her hands. "Oh, I just remembered this: Where are we going to get some money from this world? Now we can't even find a place to eat!"

Hao Ren and Vivian finally jumped out of the problem of exploring another world, and first realized this immediate trouble: they had no money! And they didn't know where to earn it...

"Don't even think about swindling, we'll talk about it after meeting Becky at noon. If it really doesn't work, we'll borrow some from her. I'll bring something really valuable next time I come in to pay her back," Hao Ren said, looking around. "There's still a long time until noon, let's split up and explore the town, paying attention not to attract too much attention. Vivian, pay more attention to the Leyta runes. Everyone else, do whatever you want. Oh right, Lily, you come with me."

Hao Ren finally had a bit of a "leader" look when he assigned tasks, but Lily was a little curious: "Why do I have to go with you?"

"You don't want to?"

"It's not that, I'm happy to be with the landlord." Lily flitted in front of Hao Ren happily.

Hao Ren spread his hands: "Then that's fine, can't I randomly pick someone to be my bodyguard?"

He was really embarrassed to tell the truth: he really didn't dare to let this girl Lily out of his sight. She had been in a state of excitement since entering the dream plane. If he let go, she might run off to who knows where. It was possible to exceed the range of mental synchronization. Don't forget that there were four people in the team who were relying on Hao Ren's "dream wifi" to move in the dream plane. The data terminal had calculated that the furthest distance between the five-person group in the dream plane was about the size of the town, at most a circle larger. As a husky, Lily would definitely have the motivation to run all the way into the grassland after leaving people's sight...

Now Hao Ren regretted not being able to put a collar and chain on this girl.

So the group split up and went in the directions they were interested in. Vivian went to the largest spire building in the town, while Hao Ren took the husky and wandered around a quiet street with not many people. He first found a deserted place to open the lid of the pot to let Dou Dou breathe. The little guy curiously poked his head out and looked out. When he saw the vast unfamiliar environment around him, he was immediately shocked: since being cooked out by Lily, Dou Dou had been living in the house. She thought the whole world was divided into four parts: the guest bathroom, the kitchen, and the bedroom. Now seeing the vast sky outside made the little mermaid a little stunned.

But the little guy just stared blankly at the vast world outside, and had no intention of jumping out of the pot to stroll around, which surprised Hao Ren a bit: the little one's mobility and curiosity had always been quite strong, how could she seem so honest today?

"Maybe she's scared," Lily squatted on the ground and stared at Dou Dou in the pot, while poking the little guy's face. "Landlord, I think you should often take Dou Dou out to see the world..."

Hao Ren didn't think much of it: "Aren't you afraid that she'll be sliced by the Chinese Academy of Sciences?"

Lily's ears twitched, and she suddenly remembered something: "By the way, landlord, I seemed to see a werewolf when I came from that intersection in front!"

Hao Ren was immediately stunned: "Why didn't you say such an important thing earlier?!"

"Because I was too surprised at the time, and I only reacted now," Lily pouted. "And isn't it natural that there are werewolves in this world? Raven said that all the Inhumans came out of the dream plane."

Hao Ren really wanted to smack the husky's head, who was never helpful in key matters: "The problem is witnessing it with your own eyes!"

Hao Ren had a serious face, but Lily didn't see it at all – she was busy teasing Dou Dou (look how smoothly these three words are connected), and muttered without raising her head: "It's okay, there will be plenty of opportunities to see them in the future. I heard that the more you go west, the more werewolves there are."

Hao Ren let Dou Dou breathe some fresh air outside, but found that the little guy didn't have much interest in strolling around except for looking around. On the contrary, she was more interested in the data terminal in the pot. It seemed that the overly vast world outside made the fish baby, who had not been hatched for long, a little scared. So he put the lid on again and led Lily to continue wandering around the town.

Walking on the streets of another world, wearing strange clothes that would make the locals stop and watch, with a clingy beautiful girl by his side, and carrying a kettle – it was estimated that Hao Ren's family was the only one of this type of transmigrator...

Near noon, the group met outside the town as agreed. Except for Hao Ren, who was focused on sunning his daughter and walking the dog, everyone else seemed to have gained something.