Once they escaped into the wilderness, the power of human cities was no longer a threat.

Well, for Hao Ren and Lily, even in the city, those pampered soldiers weren't much of a threat… but without them, it would be a bit dangerous for a group of witches with limited magic and mortal bodies.

After leaving the city, the witch Helen summoned shadow steeds. The gloomy, sunless weather was a great help to the witches. The power of shadows was still quite strong even during the day, allowing them to quickly get away from the city's control and escape the eyes of possible church exorcists. After half a day of hard riding, the group returned to the witches' stronghold: the Graveyard in the Mist, as the sun set.

This never-ending thick fog seemed like a conspicuous anomaly, but in reality, without the witches' magical guidance, ordinary people could never get close to the edge of the fog. At least until the demon hunters found this place, using this graveyard as a stronghold was still quite safe.

Madam Marie decided to rest at this stronghold before leaving this place: the lost spellcasting materials and mental power needed to be replenished.

Well, they hadn't yet realized that their splendid rescue operation had actually stirred up a hornet's nest. Hesperiana was a person who understood the big picture. Although she had cursed a lot when the witches first appeared, she remained quiet during the escape. Now that the witches were stopping to rest, she found a place for herself, sat down calmly, and waited with a gloomy face for the first unlucky person to come and provoke her.

"Are you okay?" Hao Ren got off his horse and didn't pay attention to Hesperiana for the time being. Instead, he came to Lily's side as soon as possible. "Were you shot by a musket just now?"

Lily's long skirt had a few small holes, and patches of blood were scattered on the hem, but other than that, she was still quite energetic. After hearing Hao Ren's concern, the husky girl shook her arms vigorously to prove her health: "Ah ha, completely fine! It's just a matchlock gun, not even close to the level of later guns and cannons. I'm not afraid at all!"

After saying that, she wrinkled her nose: "But it really hurts… Landlord, you weren't lying to me. My combat power in this body is too weak. A few matchlock guns can actually break my defense, and swinging such a light city gate twice actually made my arms feel sore… Such anxious physical fitness."

Hao Ren: "…"

This physical quality was already shocking enough!

Lily checked her clothes to make sure there was no risk of exposure before looking up at Hesperiana's direction. Then she tugged at Hao Ren's sleeve: "Landlord, landlord, the little bat spirit doesn't look very happy…"

Hao Ren curled his lips: "Nonsense, don't provoke her at this time. She's on fire."

As if to confirm Hao Ren's words, he had just finished speaking when he saw Madam Marie walking straight towards the little bat spirit. The middle-aged witch seemed to have completely ignored the gloomy expression on the latter's face, or regarded it as some kind of "aloof temperament" that a big shot from a large organization must have: "In the name of black magic, it is my greatest honor to meet an envoy from the City of Shadows. I am…"

"Idiot."

Madam Marie didn't react for a moment: "...Huh?"

"I said you're all a bunch of idiots!" Hesperiana's voice suddenly rose by at least eight decibels. "Do you know what you've done?!"

"Lord Hesperiana, I don't know what you mean…" The witches were completely confused, and Madam Marie was even more dumbfounded. "We saved…"

Hesperiana took a deep breath, followed by a storm: "Who told you that I needed someone to save me?! Who told you that I was caught?! I don't even know you guys, okay?! You just ran out and robbed a freaking execution ground! Robbed a freaking execution ground! If you want to get close to me, couldn't you have picked a better time?! I was winking at you guys like crazy at the execution ground, but you didn't even see it!! You bunch of morons whose brains have been burned out by potions!"

Not to mention the witches being dumbfounded, even Hao Ren couldn't help but be shocked again: the little bat spirit he knew was a rather dignified matriarch. Although her personality was outstanding among vampires, she at least had a bit of restraint, but the version in front of him from six hundred years ago could only be described as broken. This endless ability to curse people could only remind Hao Ren of one thing: this brat really lacked maternal love for a long time, which led to the distortion of her personality…

"Okay, okay, take a break first. Cursing too hard can easily lead to pneumonia, you know," Hao Ren finally couldn't help but open his mouth, seeing that the little bat spirit didn't leave any face for anyone. "No matter what, they were well-intentioned, risking their lives to 'save' you. Even if they did a good deed badly, don't you think you should be politely grateful?"

"But they ruined my important affairs!" Hesperiana glared, but still changed her tone slightly. "Okay, I'm quite grateful, alright. No matter what these witches are planning, they were really hardworking. The City of Shadows won't forget this."

That was exactly what Madam Marie was waiting for, so as soon as these words came out, the witches' faces, including hers, immediately turned from cloudy to sunny, as if all the unwarranted accusations they had suffered before had vanished: in this precarious era, being able to get a trace of protection was enough to make them willing to endure all injustices.

"Then can you tell me what's going on?" Hao Ren looked at Hesperiana. "I know you couldn't have been caught by humans."

The surrounding witches also looked over curiously. After the baptism of the "storm" just now, they finally roughly knew that they had stirred up a hornet's nest, so they were naturally full of doubts about this "Shadow Ambassador's" actions.

Even the wizard Barn, who had remained silent in the corner, curiously approached a little.

"You have to tell me who you are first," Hesperiana confronted Hao Ren without backing down, looking fearless. "Why do you know Lady Vivian's name? What is your relationship with her? And how do you know that I am... that something?"

"I'm her friend, a close friend," Hao Ren said while thinking about how to quickly and effectively establish enough trust between himself and this little bat spirit, and it would be best to establish a bit of prestige. If he were facing the little bat spirit six hundred years later, this would probably be difficult, but at this moment, he had the advantage of information asymmetry, and more importantly, the little bat spirit at this time didn't have the stubborn bad impression of him that she would have six hundred years later, so there was a lot of feasibility. "I came here to find her—if I guessed correctly, she should still be sleeping at this time, or just waking up. I have something to discuss with her. But meeting you was an accident."

"Is that so…" Hesperiana looked at Hao Ren suspiciously. It seemed that it wasn't so easy to make her believe the words of a "stranger." "Then how can you prove that you are very familiar with Lady Vivian? Even I don't know that she has a friend like you."

"Nonsense, how many times can you meet Vivian in a century?" Hao Ren revealed the truth mercilessly. "Has she been hiding from you in recent centuries?"

Hesperiana was hit in her sore spot, opened her mouth but couldn't say anything, and a hint of grievance faintly surfaced in her eyes.

Although she was already an adult at this time, her mind was obviously not as mature and steady as it would be six hundred years later.

"Hey, hey, don't be like this, I just said it casually," Hao Ren quickly said. "To be honest, sometimes I also advise her, telling her not to always hide from you. Anyone who doesn't know would think there's a conflict between you two…"

Hesperiana pouted: "Lady Vivian really doesn't like me."

"That's not true," Hao Ren knew that this had always been a heartache for the little bat spirit, and she would continue to think so even hundreds of years later, so he opened his mouth to defend Vivian. "She's mainly worried that her bad luck aura will affect you, so she doesn't let you stay by her side all the time…"

Hesperiana frowned and sized Hao Ren up and down a few times. After this conversation, she felt that this stranger in front of her should indeed have a good relationship with Vivian, at least he was quite understanding, but this still couldn't make her completely trust him. "What you said is indeed something that ordinary people don't know, but if you have the intention, you can also investigate it. You need to have more powerful evidence to prove that you are friends with Lady Vivian."

Hao Ren thought seriously, and actually found that it was really difficult to find such evidence:

The Vivian he knew was the Vivian six hundred years later, and his understanding of the latter was completely based on that time period. He could say a lot about Vivian's characteristics and habits, but these things couldn't be used as ironclad evidence. If he forcibly fabricated a story that he and Vivian had known each other for centuries, there was a high probability that Hesperiana would directly expose him. There were also some things that Vivian had used in his personal space, such as a mobile phone, which did have the other party's aura left on it—but Hesperiana didn't know that thing! Explaining the origin of that thing that exceeded the times would be a huge trouble, and Hesperiana wasn't as brainless as Lily!

Just as Hao Ren was racking his brains, a flash of light suddenly crossed his mind.

He suddenly remembered that he did have one thing—absolutely possessing Vivian's aura, and there was no need to explain the background of the times!

He had a little bat in his personal space…

Hao Ren had actually completely forgotten about the existence of this little bat before. If the situation hadn't just reached this point, he would probably have let the little guy sleep soundly in his personal space forever: that was something that Vivian had specially created and given to him to save during an operation. At that time, it was to prevent accidents, so that the little bat could be used as a coordinate for Vivian's return or the basis for her rebirth, but later the incident ended peacefully, and the little bat didn't come in handy. Hao Ren forgot about it in his personal space.

If Hao Ren didn't remember it all the time, it might even silently cultivate into Hesperiana Number Two…

"This can prove it, right?" Hao Ren opened his personal space and found the little bat that was always in a state of sleep. "Vivian gave it to me because she is often forgetful, and sometimes she even forgets the names of old friends, so she left this as a token."

The little bat shook in Hao Ren's palm, and finally woke up from a long sleep. It slowly wriggled twice, hugged one of Hao Ren's fingers, and then stopped moving.

Because Vivian's main body was sleeping, this little bat, as a clone, only had the most basic intelligence, and its mobility seemed particularly low.

Hesperiana stared blankly at the little bat that Hao Ren took out. This time, she finally completely believed the words of the strange man in front of her…