Chapter 1 Hao Ren's Surprise

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment before realizing he was resting his head on Lily's lap. He was immediately surprised because, in his mind, such ladylike behavior had nothing to do with this husky. Lily's normal style should be holding a brick and waving it around his head, taking aim…

"What happened to me…" Hao Ren casually pushed Lily's tail aside, propped himself up, and sat up. "What's going on with the sky?"

"You fainted just now, Landlord!" Lily wagged her tail happily, though she didn't know why she was happy, but she was always happy. "Then the giant shattered into pieces, and a lot of monsters ran out of the giant's corpse. Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control, Vivian simply cast a big spell and summoned the moon… Oh, Vivian, you're back?"

Hao Ren turned his head and saw Vivian emerge from a group of bats. The vampire girl put her hands on her hips and looked at the husky spirit: "Big dog, what are you doing? Didn't I tell you to let Hao Ren rest properly?"

"But the Landlord woke up!" Lily wagged her tail triumphantly. "I knew it, a beautiful girl's lap pillow is the most effective – and the effect of a beautiful girl's tail is doubled."

Hao Ren was immediately embarrassed and coughed twice: "Ahem, normal beautiful girls don't have tails…"

Vivian stepped forward and pushed Lily aside, looking at Hao Ren's face with concern: "How are you now? What happened just now? After Heracles died, you were still in a deep link state. The data terminal said your spirit was connected to an unknown target."

Hao Ren thought of the "illusion" he had just experienced.

The scene in the illusion was still fresh in his mind. The hazy and distorted starry sky and the strange borders of the starry sky were deeply imprinted in his mind like a brand. But what did that illusion mean? He tried hard to recall what he had seen, but found that it was just a still starry sky. The cold and silent stars seemed to hide countless secrets, but they revealed nothing.

"I should have entered an illusion, but unfortunately, I probably don't have enough observation skills to understand what the illusion means," Hao Ren frowned and shook his head, then looked at Vivian with even more concern, as well as the red light behind Vivian. "How are you now? Is it a big burden to summon the Red Moon? What happened here?"

"Just like the big dog said," Vivian showed a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I just lost a lot of power, but my mental state is better than ever – although I don't know what's going on, it seems that the sequelae of summoning the Red Moon have disappeared. In the past, every time I summoned this thing, I had to fight with my own mental runaway first, and the moonlight was also more dangerous."

At this moment, the Red Moon had passed its peak and was slowly receding. Its lunar wheel had shrunk by more than half, and the moonlight appeared more clear and transparent. Under the pure moonlight, Vivian seemed to be covered in a layer of light. Her smile had a sense of inexplicable holiness, which made Hao Ren a little stunned for a moment. He quickly shook his head, took a breath, and said, "It's good that you're okay. I'll tell you more about the illusion in detail after we go back. Now let's go back to the tower first, and then find a way to return to the real world. Do you need to rest for a while, Vivian?"

"What's consumed is only magic power. Besides, I'm still much stronger than ordinary people," Vivian waved her hand. "Let's go."

On the small hill in the wilderness, the old house still stood intact, but the magic tower behind the house was completely unrecognizable.

Its surface was covered with terrifying cracks, and the spiderweb-like cracks made the tower seem like it would shatter into pieces at any moment. The magical metals around the tower all showed signs of melting, and the Lyetan runes embedded between the bricks had faded in color, turning into ordinary carvings without any power.

"Master Mohabon is no longer here." Hathaway just looked at the tower and said lightly.

Lily hadn't reacted yet: "Ah? Where did he go… woof…"

Hao Ren covered the husky spirit's mouth and dragged her behind him, looking up at the magic tower that had lost its function: "I will pray for him. But first, how should we leave here?"

As soon as he said this, Lily, Vivian, and Hesperides couldn't help but look at the little weakling: the little imp was still in the canned bottle, but at this time, Vivian was holding the canned bottle. This little thing seemed particularly quiet now for some reason, and didn't cause any trouble along the way, but even if she calmed down, everyone still didn't dare to release her casually: Heaven knows if this crazy little thing was brewing the next wave of trouble.

The reason they entered this space-time seemed to be related to the little weakling, but the latter didn't have any awareness at the moment. Noticing everyone's gazes, the little thing just shrank her body and raised her hand and shouted perfunctorily: "Wahaha! Hisss…"

"Like she's out of power," Vivian shook the canned bottle. "She's probably really hungry this time."

Hathaway smiled: "Don't worry, it's not difficult to leave here. You just need to return to the place where you came from, and leave the rest to me."

The group returned to the big house as instructed and came to the corridor where they had just entered this space-time. Then, Hathaway silently recited the spell to reverse this space, and in an instant, the light and shadow changed.

Hao Ren woke up from a moment of trance and saw that he was surrounded by the remains of those broken buildings and fragments all over the ground. The shadows of the forest trees were shaking not far away, and the sound of leaves rustling in the breeze came from the forest.

He looked up diagonally and could see the tower behind the main house through the large hole in the wall. And just as his gaze fell on the tower, the ancient but still well-preserved building suddenly shook.

The tower quickly filled with cracks, and silvery-white flames emerged from every gap. In just a few breaths, the entire tower silently turned to ashes, as if it had never existed.

The air in front of him twisted slightly, and a slightly blurred figure floated in mid-air. Hathaway also entered this real world. She looked around and let out a sigh: "Ah, two centuries… It's been two centuries since I last saw this place with my own eyes."

During the days of guarding the cage, she couldn't leave that space-time. Therefore, although she knew that the external real world had undergone great changes and could perceive what was happening in the real world, she had never personally seen what this place where she once lived had become. Now that she finally saw this forest after a long absence, she couldn't help but feel a lot of emotions.

"We're going to leave here," Hao Ren looked at Hathaway. "What are your plans?"

"Me?" Hathaway tilted her head. "I don't know. What do you think a ghost can arrange? I'm already dead. The world of the living has nothing to do with me. Most of the pleasures in the world are meaningless… so I'll probably stay here for a while, even if it's to reminisce about my old friends, and then find a place to wander, or simply say goodbye to this world. Anyway, the mission is completed, and there are no regrets."

Vivian interrupted her: "Go to Corpus."

"Corpus?" Hathaway was a little surprised, then shook her head. "I'm afraid they won't accept me. I'm an oath-breaker, and a ghost at that. There's no precedent for that among the demon hunters of Corpus."

"We said before, times have changed," Hao Ren waved his hand. "Demon hunters are no longer as stubborn as before. The Elder Council and the Saints Council of the past have now been replaced by a younger council, and they will accept you. Moreover, the war between demon hunters and aliens has just ended, and Corpus is in ruins and needs manpower."

Vivian also chimed in: "That's right. You can come with us. We'll take you to Corpus. Those guys should give me some face. And the information you bring back can help them fill in the last part of the blank about the Olympian forces."

Lily nodded vigorously: "That's right, that's right, we have a lot of face over there! Let me tell you, I am your former emperor!"

This time, no one stopped her…

But Hathaway didn't understand what Lily meant. She just thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay, I can't refuse your kindness."

Before leaving this place, there was still some finishing work to be done. Hao Ren and his group first returned to the small village in the forest.

Hathaway gained the talent of invisibility after becoming a ghost. She concealed her figure and floated behind Vivian.

As expected, with a great change in the different space-time, the small village in the forest also underwent earth-shattering changes.

It was as if the stagnant space-time of the past two hundred years had accelerated and filled the void in an instant. The village completed its decline in just a few hours. The ancient wooden houses had disappeared, and the spreading forest had swallowed the border of the village. The vines, weeds, and shrubs almost completely covered all traces. Only some rotten wood and gravel roads occasionally appearing between the plants could vaguely prove that there was once a human settlement here.

The space-time distortion phenomenon had completely disappeared.

Using the communicator left behind earlier for positioning, Hao Ren quickly found Pierre, who was guarding behind a large tree, as well as the Wang brothers and Catherine, who were still a little confused.

Only the four of them remained.