Chapter 107 Old History

Hao Ren stared blankly at the large portrait before him – a simple, heavy wooden frame with exquisitely patterned edges and gold studs, displaying the typical extravagance of the nobility of that era. Anyone could tell from the ornamentation that this portrait held special significance for the Andrei family. The portrait depicted an elegant young woman in a long black dress, standing amidst a field of roses, with a vaguely gloomy and oppressive background. The girl had a faint smile on her face – it was Vivian's face.

Hao Ren heard Vivian's voice and turned his head in astonishment. "Is this really you?!"

Vivian looked at the portrait, and fragments of memory finally reassembled themselves in her mind. "...Yes, that's right, I did have such an outfit back then... I saved up for two months to have a French tailor make it. And yes, I did live here back then."

Then she frowned, looking around. "But things weren't like this back then..."

Becky looked at Vivian in horror. "You... you're the witch recorded in the Andrei family history?!"

"They didn't call me that back then..." Vivian frowned, searching her mind. She waved her hand at Hao Ren. "Wait a moment, I need to remember. That particular period is the most blurred in my memory, and... the changes here are too great. Just a moment."

Vivian summoned a group of small bats to create a seat, sat down, and closed her eyes, falling into thought. Bai Huo looked at this scene in astonishment. She hadn't thought to look for the witch's portrait when she came here earlier – as a demon hunter, she was only interested in her prey, and the witch who had left hundreds of years ago was clearly not worth her attention. But now her curiosity about this matter had been piqued just like everyone else.

Hao Ren pinched his face to make sure that the whole thing wasn't a hallucination, and then couldn't help but look at Vivian with a subtle expression. This prehistoric creature really could bring out a string of jaw-dropping black history at any time. Now, even if she suddenly stood up and announced that the Code of Hammurabi was actually written by her, no one would be surprised...

Lily held up the Fiery Joy and happily shone it on Vivian's three-hundred-year-old portrait, comparing it to the real person and muttering to herself. "Bats used to be so refined back then – how did she turn into a *doubi* who can haggle over two mao for eggs for half an hour?"

Before she could finish speaking, Vivian suddenly stood up. "I remember!"

Lily was startled by the sudden movement, and with a "poof," the Fiery Joy pierced into the antique portrait that was at least three hundred years old. Hao Ren's eyes almost popped out. "That's a three-hundred-year-old antique!"

Lily's tail stood up with a "bang." "This paw of mine has ruined at least five million..."

Vivian ignored the two unreliable guys. She quickly said what she had just remembered. "That's right, I did know a human named Andrei back then... He, and another guy, we did business together!"

"Doing business?" Hao Ren heard those three words, and combined with Vivian's financial luck, he immediately became alert. "Weren't you done harming the Romans and Egyptians? What did Tsarist Russia do to provoke you?"

"I felt like I had a great advantage back then," Vivian put her hands on her hips. "Back then, I was on the Kama River... or maybe the Kama River region... I can't tell what the current place names correspond to back then, but anyway, it was near there that I met those two people. They were both small merchants, not able to get rich but not starving either. But in reality, those two people were equivalent to my followers: Their village was attacked by werewolves, and I helped out a bit, but when I was fighting the werewolves, those two humans saw it. They thought I was a witch and were afraid I would kill them to silence them, so before I could explain, they swore allegiance... People back then were like that, very superstitious, and the lower classes were used to enduring hardship. Then I thought, my own financial luck is a bit bad, but if I find two human followers and let them earn money to support me, wouldn't that work? So I decided to try it out. They used their financial luck, and I used my accumulated knowledge and magic. The three of us partnered to do wool business..."

Hao Ren raised an eyebrow. "And then?"

"Then they lost everything but their pants," Vivian rubbed her hands and lowered her head. "Not only did they lose all their capital, but they also ran into trouble that caused the Tsar to exile them to Siberia to dig potatoes. After digging for a few days, they were scammed again, forced to go north to the coldest place to wait for death..."

Everyone: "..."

Lily muttered, "Fortunately, those two went bankrupt early, otherwise Tsarist Russia would have been destroyed three hundred years ago, and there wouldn't have been any February Revolution later on."

"They were exiled, but I wasn't affected," Vivian scratched her face a little embarrassedly. "So I felt very sorry for them, so I went to Siberia to find them... Oh, right! That's when I met the Rage Spirit!"

Hao Ren's spirit shook, knowing that the main topic was coming.

"The prisoners in the exile area were digging potato cellars to store food for the winter, and the Rage Spirit ran out from underground, and I happened to arrive," Vivian clapped her hands lightly. "It was this place. At that time, I sealed the Rage Spirit, and in the process of sealing, I found two things underground... um, in a 'nest'. I didn't know what they were for, but they looked very beautiful, so I gave them to those two followers."

As Vivian spoke, she looked around again, her gaze seeming to pass through the stone walls of the hall and see further away. "Back then, this place was also a strange space, but it was much more stable than it is now, and there was only one cave. After sealing the Rage Spirit, this place became completely stable, and I built a rather large sealing altar inside... But I didn't expect that after three hundred years, it has loosened to this extent, and the entire space has expanded so much that I don't recognize it."

Lily couldn't wait to know what happened next. "And then? What happened after you sealed the Rage Spirit?"

Vivian chuckled twice. "Ah ha... Maybe the consumption was too great, but after I gave the two 'gems' I found underground to my followers, I felt a little sleepy, so I found a place to sleep... When I woke up, Alexander I was already dead. Then I just wandered out of Europe..."

Hao Ren covered his forehead. "You completely forgot about those two unlucky kids."

Vivian had no choice but to continue smiling foolishly without speaking.

Bai Huo had been listening on the side, and by this time had figured out the whole story. She looked at Vivian in surprise. "...You're actually the witch from back then? You really forgot the whole thing?!"

"She's very forgetful," Hao Ren spread his hands with a wry smile. "And it's not her fault. Living from prehistoric times to the present, how many things must she have experienced in her life? If she remembered them all, I'd be exhausted just thinking about it for her."

Bai Huo's eyes changed instantly, and she stared at Vivian with a wary expression. "Prehistoric... wait! Could you be the legendary Countess?"

"You know about me too?" Vivian blinked, then realized. "Oh, right, I guess every demon hunter knows my name."

"You're written about in our textbooks," Bai Huo nodded honestly. "The oldest vampire, with a strange personality, likes to mix in with..."

"Likes to mix in human society, poor, unlucky, with terrible financial luck, and severely forgetful – okay, if you know, don't keep saying it," Hao Ren waved his hand to interrupt Bai Huo, and looked at Vivian with a look of embarrassment. "Now we've finally figured things out. It turns out the so-called witch is you, and the ancestors of the Andrei family didn't steal anything from the witch at all. You just forgot about it. So how did their family become wealthy later?"

"Anyway, it definitely has nothing to do with the bat's financial luck," Lily curled her lips. "Maybe it was because the bat ruined those people so badly that even God couldn't stand it anymore, and then as soon as the bat left, God quickly gave them some wealth to calm them down."

"It was those two 'stones' that I gave them," Vivian revealed a look of realization. "Although there are many places in 'legends' that have been distorted and fabricated by later generations, the foundation is always true: The Andrei family records that their ancestors found wealth in the stones left by the witch. Such a big thing can't be completely fabricated!"

"Okay, we can go up and ask Igor where those stones are, hopefully he didn't lose his ancestors' things," Nangong Sanba stood up, listening to the distant sound of the wind outside. "I feel like the snowstorm is going to gather again... Right now, we better figure out how to deal with the Rage Spirit first."

Several pairs of eyes fell on Vivian at the same time. The latter's memories were rapidly recovering, and she showed a confident smile. "Don't worry, I know what's going on with this Rage Spirit."