Chapter 1 Hao Ren is Completely Stunned

Hao Ren was completely stunned. He had calculated everything, but never imagined that the "noble family" who once lived in this mansion were actually demon hunters!

And demon hunters who had broken away from the Demon Hunter Order and were mixed up with a heretic!

Hesperides looked incredulous. "This is impossible! If the previous notebook and the voice just now were real, then did these demon hunters defect from their Order? This has never happened before in history!"

"Demon hunters are extremely united and infinitely loyal to the Order. Even if there are major internal conflicts, they will not turn into defection," Vivian said, shaking her head gently. "At least until we解除先天敌对的束缚 (jiechu xiantian didui de shufu, freed from the shackles of innate hostility), they have never had an example of defecting from the organization... let alone running out to help Hercules, this 'heretical remnant.'"

At this moment, Hao Ren suddenly remembered a detail he had heard from the 回响 (huixiang, echoes) just now: "Wait a minute, didn't we hear someone in the house say that Hercules drew power from the artifact and then freed them from their shackles… Could the shackles here be referring to 先天敌对 (xiantian didui, innate hostility)?"

Vivian exclaimed, seemingly realizing something, "Ah, so that's what that sentence meant... What the hell is that artifact?"

"It has the power of bats, and somehow解除 (jiechu, released) a group of demon hunters from their 先天敌对 (xiantian didui, innate hostility) curse, and it also seals a big villain inside," Lily said, scratching her hair, her tail swaying restlessly. "Why are there so many strange attributes?"

Hao Ren didn't say anything, just looked up at the towering tower behind the main house. In this ancient house located in a different space, the tower remained intact. It was built of stone and plastered with white mortar, and the slender windows were decorated with iron ornaments on both sides. Looking at some of its details in its complete state, and recalling what he had just heard, Hao Ren realized that this was actually a magic tower.

It was just disguised as a secular building.

"The 回响 (huixiang, echoes) we've heard so far seem to follow us," Hesperides said. "Wherever we go, we hear the sounds, and they all sound like major turning points in events."

Vivian nodded gently. "Perhaps someone deliberately set these up to give us hints, or perhaps a living person stepped into this space, triggering the magic that has remained here for centuries. This phenomenon often occurs in ancient ruins."

"That tower," Hao Ren pointed to the tower behind the main house. "I think the turning point of everything happened in that place."

The group quickly found the path to the tower. They passed through the path between the main house and the annex and came to the back of the mansion. It may have originally been a small garden, but now only gray-white strange gravel and a semi-crystalline twisted substance could be seen in the flower beds and stone flower pots, and the tower was located at the end of this "small garden."

Lily plucked up her courage and was about to step towards the tower door when she suddenly heard a fierce argument in the nearby air:

First, a dignified male voice: "Enough! Sylvie! Your research is becoming increasingly dangerous. If you continue like this, you will sooner or later step into the darkness on the other side of the boundary!"

Then a young female voice: "I know what I'm doing, Master Mohabon. I respect your knowledge, but despise your timidity—didn't you see? The wonderful scenery on that side? That darkness is not empty! Except for..."

"Except for madness, what else do you want to find?" Mohabon's voice became even louder. "Before you completed your first adulthood trial, you should have heard your mentor say countless times that there are indeed countless mysteries in this world, but not every mystery can be touched by mortals. Behind some secrets are forbidden and twisted worlds, and some secrets lead to the dark side of the universe. And you are now standing only a line away from the dark side of the universe! From today on, you can no longer meet Hercules, and you are not allowed to touch that artifact again. I want to keep it forever..."

The voice stopped abruptly, and this short echo ended.

Hao Ren looked at Hesperides. "It seems that, as you said, as long as we arrive at a place where a major event has occurred, we will trigger the spacetime memories here."

Lily came to the tower door, sniffed with her nose to confirm that there was nothing suspicious inside, and then pushed open the door that looked unusually heavy, made of oak and iron bars.

The moment the door opened, Hao Ren seemed to hear countless voices rushing towards him. It was a series of fragmented whispers, intermittent arguments, and meaningless daily chats, as if hundreds or thousands of invisible people were hiding nearby, pointing and whispering while discussing here. And these mixed whispers were so blurred that he couldn't hear any meaningful fragments at all.

It wasn't until a dozen seconds later that these whispers gradually weakened and disappeared, but there were still a few scattered voices floating from nearby. Facing the dark magic tower door, these whispers coming from nowhere were terrifying.

"This is a magic focus," Hesperides also heard the sounds, but she was more professional. "So a lot of extra sounds were recorded."

Hao Ren nodded, and together with Lily, took the lead and stepped into the tower. Those whispers followed them like shadows.

The structure inside the tower was surprisingly simple—perhaps because he had explored too many large-scale ruins and seen giant magic towers like the "Spirit Realm Clock Tower" that could be described as having a universe inside, Hao Ren almost forgot what a normal tower should look like inside. The interior of this building had almost no decorations or rooms, only a wooden spiral staircase extending upwards along the curved walls. In the middle of the tower, you could see several platforms protruding from the walls, and apart from that, you could directly see the floor on the top floor.

On the lowest level, Hao Ren saw many wooden shelves arranged along the walls. The shelves were filled with suspicious potion bottles, silver sacrificial utensils, and scrolls and books of unknown age. Perhaps due to異質化 (yizhihua, heteromorphization), all these things were distorted and chaotic. The glass bottles became curved, the sacrificial utensils glowed with abnormal luster, and the books and scrolls were blank when opened.

When stepping on the stairs, everyone heard the 回响 (huixiang, echoes) of the past again, but this time the sound was mixed with the surrounding whispers, and was itself severely distorted and interfered with, so much so that it was impossible to tell whose voice it was:

"It's finally starting to enter the real world... Our measures haven't had much effect. The power of that artifact cannot be sealed. It far exceeds our understanding."

"So we can only build a prison..."

"In the end, we still have to use Sylvie's results. Although her research caused the boundary to be broken ahead of schedule, it was also she who found that ray of possibility."

"Can Sylvie come back?"

"I only found her research notes and the destroyed ritual site... She has probably been sucked into the other side of the boundary. In the dark side of the universe, no mortal can escape. It's a pity, we lost a very promising demon hunter. She was actually the best researcher I've ever seen. If she stayed in Corpus, she might even become a scholar in the library of the Spirit Realm Clock Tower... But she ran out with us, and her impatience led to her death."

"Forget it, forget it, I'm going to die soon anyway. It's you, old pal, this burden will fall on you and Hathaway. You must persevere."

"Haha, Hercules will be there with us both, don't worry..."

The sound gradually faded away, and the spiral staircase was about to reach its end.

"They must have performed some kind of ritual on this floor," Vivian raised her head and looked at the end of the stairs. "And created the village's 'barrier'."

After walking the last few steps, Hao Ren grabbed the wooden handrail next to him, poked his head out to look at the situation on the top floor of the tower, and then let out a soft "Huh."

The top floor of the tower was a circular room, furnished with a large number of shelves and desks. Four narrow windows were symmetrically distributed on the curved outer wall, and in front of one of the windows, there was a black chair, and a white-haired man was sitting there!

He was facing away from the stairs, so he couldn't see his face, but Hao Ren saw the demon hunter battle suit the other person was wearing, and a holy silver longsword lying across his legs, with half of it exposed.

"Someone?!" Lily was right behind Hao Ren, and she couldn't help but exclaim when she saw the situation above.

"Big dog, your tail hit my face - what's going on up there?"

"Excuse me..." Hao Ren walked towards the old man sitting in front of the window, but the other person didn't respond.

From here, he could already see the other person's appearance. This was an old demon hunter. Although he could still see some of his former heroic spirit from the contours of his eyebrows, he was now very old and frail. He slumped in the chair, facing out the window, his eyes half-open and half-closed, seemingly still alive, but he couldn't feel any vitality.

Hao Ren reached out his hand, but just as he was about to touch the old hunter's shoulder, a faint female voice came from not far away: "Do not disturb the warden."