Chapter 1 The Number Is Off

Hao Ren glanced around and immediately sensed that something was wrong with the number of people present.

Besides the witch who had unfortunately died during the demon hunter raid, one person was missing.

After a moment of recollection, he realized that it was the warlock who always hid his face under a large hood.

"Barn got separated from us when we rushed out," Madam Marie said. "We haven't seen him since we left the cemetery. We didn't dare to go back to look for him, because we weren't sure how far the demon hunters would chase us, but we left signs along the way. He should be able to find us."

"Barn is missing?" Hao Ren frowned involuntarily. His sixth sense made him feel that something was wrong.

As if to confirm his sixth sense, Hesper suddenly exclaimed, belatedly, "Oops! That guy still has my key!"

Lily didn't react for a moment. "Key?"

"The key to enter the shadow world!" Hesper finally became anxious, scratching her ears and jumping up and down. "Didn't we get ambushed by demon hunters when we were passing around the key? The key was in Barn's hand at the time… How could that useless warlock get lost!"

Hao Ren's sixth sense grew stronger. The "Barn" in his mind was becoming more and more suspicious. After piling up all kinds of coincidences, he suddenly remembered a nonsensical sentence that the warlock had blurted out before.

"What are the Night Watch Knights of Haroun?" He turned to look at Hesper. Although he didn't have a clear reason, he felt that the little bat spirit probably knew something.

Sure enough, Hesper was immediately surprised when she heard the name. "How do you know about the existence of this knighthood?"

"You really know about this organization?" Hao Ren was overjoyed. A piece of information that he thought was useless had now become a clue. "What does this knighthood do?"

"This knighthood was removed from the rolls many years ago. Few people know they ever existed, except for a few who have been paying attention to this place," Hesper explained casually, seemingly without any intention of keeping it secret. "The Night Watch Knights of Haroun were originally the guardians of this place, composed of a group of warlocks and dark knights. Their mission was to protect the sleeping place of Vivian from being disturbed."

"Guarding Vivian?!" Hao Ren was even more surprised this time. "How could Vivian afford them?"

Hesper: "...Ahem, you really know Vivian well..."

Hao Ren: "..."

After an awkward moment, Hesper continued, "Indeed, this Night Watch Knights of Haroun was not personally established by Vivian, but was secretly established by a vampire noble named Haroun. After Vivian chose this place to sleep, a well-informed dark noble came here. He rebuilt an abandoned castle here and developed the area around the castle into a territory. He and the Night Watch Knights of Haroun that he formed guarded this place for nearly a century, hoping to wait for the day Vivian woke up."

Lily let out a long "Oh." "Oh—so he wanted to please Vivian?"

"That's normal. In the vampire race, which values hierarchy and bloodline, gaining the appreciation of an ancient vampire means gaining great honor and practical benefits throughout the entire race. However, most ancient vampires are reclusive and eccentric. Dealing with them, let alone pleasing them, often leads to beatings. Therefore, pleasing the kind Vivian has become the choice of many young vampires, especially since Vivian doesn't like owing favors. If she knew that a junior had guarded her seal for a century, she would definitely reward them—although she doesn't have money, she can just write a note and hand it to any force, which would be enough for the person holding the note to walk sideways. Who can resist such a great temptation?"

"Then how did the Night Watch Knights of Haroun get removed from the rolls later?" Madam Marie, who was also engrossed in the story, couldn't help but ask, "Could it be that the vampire noble couldn't hold on any longer? Or was he hunted down by demon hunters..."

"Later, the dark noble's investment failed, and he went bankrupt due to natural and man-made disasters. The Night Watch Knights of Haroun continued to守卫(shǒuwèi - guard) for twenty years, but disbanded due to lack of funds. The last Night Watch Knight left this place nearly a century ago. Look, there's a house by the riverbank over there. That's where the last knight held on... Tsk tsk, it was a miserable sight. It is said that he had to beg for food to go back."

Actually, Hao Ren had guessed the truth before Hesper spoke. He was not surprised at all when he heard the little bat spirit finish the story. He just sighed with a headache: "Those unlucky guys wouldn't have been trapped in this place if they had read a few more books. They should have thought about it. Why could such a kind and amiable ancient vampire like Vivian end up with no friends? Do they really think that pleasing Vivian is so easy..."

"Young people are ignorant," Hesper shrugged. "And even those who know Vivian's 'reputation' wouldn't think that her 'power' is so great without experiencing it themselves. Too many people are blindly confident, always thinking that they can resist fate. Tsk tsk, they overestimate themselves."

The little bat spirit's tone even carried a bit of pride, as if Vivian's god-of-poverty halo was a power worthy of awe!

A group of witches had never heard of Vivian Ansaissance's deeds. They were still on the fringes of the supernatural world and couldn't reach big figures like Vivian at all. So, they were confused by the exchange between Hao Ren and Hesper.

Hesper didn't bother to explain to the witches. After sighing, she looked at Hao Ren curiously: "By the way, you haven't said yet, why did you suddenly mention the Night Watch Knights of Haroun?"

Hao Ren rubbed his chin with his fingers: "I think there's something wrong with Barn—he was the one who told me the name of the Night Watch Knights, and after realizing that I wasn't on the same side as him, he was very careful not to mention it again."

"That Barn knows about the Night Watch Knights?!" Hesper immediately narrowed her eyes. "In other words... he is very likely aiming for Vivian's resting place! Damn it! He still has that key!"

After the little bat spirit finished speaking, she suddenly opened her bat wings behind her, her tone full of murderous intent: "We must stop him!"

"Wait," Hao Ren stopped Hesper. "Before that, there's something more important."

"Isn't this important enough?" Hesper's scarlet eyes stared at Hao Ren. "That warlock is going to disturb Vivian's sleep! He has the shadow key. The soulless guards in the shadow castle can't stop him. No matter what that guy is after, I must stop him!"

"You don't need to stop him. That Barn will most likely die inside," Hao Ren glanced at the little bat spirit. "If my information is correct, he will run into a Vivian 'avatar' in a berserk state."

He didn't directly say "evil entity," because Hesper didn't know about this yet. Using the word "avatar" was easier to understand.

"Avatar in a berserk state?" Hesper frowned. "What does that mean?"

"Didn't you notice that there is a powerful negative force lingering here—that dark noble Haroun has been gone from this place for a whole century. These things are definitely not left by him, and how could Vivian normally release such a powerful negative force? If I'm not mistaken, Vivian should have created a 'clone' with powerful power during this sleep, and this clone woke up earlier than her..."

Hao Ren told Hesper everything he had learned from the demon hunters, but he concealed the complex relationship between the evil entity and the main body. The little bat spirit was not stupid, and she knew something about Vivian's strange berserk cycle, and might even know some phenomena related to the evil entity, so it didn't take much effort to understand these things.

Her expression became serious.

"I know... it seems that a similar phenomenon happened before. When Vivian was sleeping, a guy who looked very similar to her suddenly appeared, and it caused a lot of trouble at that time... I always thought that it was some clueless guy who was acting recklessly in the name of Vivian, and I investigated this matter for a long time," Hesper waved her hand. "Okay, this information is too important. In this way... we have to re-plan. First of all, the witches must stay outside the shadow world. They will only be killed if they face the 'avatar' you mentioned. In addition, we must find a way to control the soulless guards in the shadow world. Those are the guards that Vivian created in her sleep. With them, it will be much easier for us to deal with the 'avatar'."

Lily blinked: "The shadow key was taken away by Barn. Can you still do this?"

Hesper was silent for a moment, and took a deep breath: "I'll risk it—the shadow key is just a convenient medium. Without that thing, can't I still handle my own shadow magic! No matter what, my shadow power is inherited from Vivian, and it belongs to the same origin as 'that world'. It's not a problem to temporarily intervene."

At this time, Hao Ren couldn't help but think of the time when he woke up Vivian in Siberia. At that time, he exploited the loopholes in the "defense system" set up by Vivian, and used his magic-immune physique to destroy the entire system before the entire system could be activated. He originally planned to use the same trick this time, but he didn't expect that the plan couldn't keep up with the changes. In the end, he still had to borrow the power of the "soulless guards"...