Chapter 1 The Stillness of Time

On the Moonlit Prairie, now frozen in time, a grayish-white light shone down, illuminating the fragmented land, only a few hundred meters in circumference. The boundless darkness congealed around it, making the small patch of earth seem like a solitary island floating in a sea of dark chaos. Vivian, who had just fully awakened, hugged her knees and sat directly on the grass, a serene expression on her face.

"I had a very, very long dream," she said. "I dreamed that I became super, super, super rich and lived in a particularly huge castle. The castle was decorated in a magnificent style everywhere. I also had many, many treasure rooms, filled with gold and silver jewels that I couldn't even use up. I also had two very beautiful gardens, and the artistic sculptures in the gardens could fill the Louvre several times over… sigh."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you were definitely dreaming."

Vivian sighed again. "So, the outside world is already in chaos?"

In the conversation just now, she had "again" heard the story from Hao Ren and learned about Hao Ren's efforts to save the situation. She also knew that Hao Ren had actually succeeded in "waking her up" once—unfortunately, the Vivian who was awakened in the Siberian snowfield had already entered the deepest part of this distorted space-time along with the timeline, and she who was awakened at this point in time did not have the memory of that time.

"To describe it as chaotic is simply not enough," Hao Ren shrugged. "I don't know how long the entire Sandbox System can last, but I must find all the you from various periods in history as soon as possible, and so far, I have only traced back a mere six hundred years… Compared to the entire ten thousand years of history, this is only a negligible first step."

"I believe you can go on," Vivian just smiled at Hao Ren and nodded firmly.

Without excessive polite thanks, without superfluous encouragement, and without any other tangled emotions, Vivian just firmly believed that Hao Ren could accomplish this feat, and then said it so naturally.

Then she looked at Lily again: "Big dog, I really didn't expect you to be so diligent in helping me."

"Tch, I'm just here to wander around in your messy memory space to digest my food, okay?" The husky girl turned her head away, her tail wagging behind her. "That's why I say old people are useless when they get old. Look at you, you almost got yourself into trouble just by having a dream. I, the wise and mighty, had to come in to save the day. You owe me a big favor after you get out. Let me tell you, you might not be able to repay this favor even if you make me braised pork ribs for the rest of your life…"

"Okay, okay, braised pork ribs, I'll let you eat until you throw up," Vivian laughed, then stood up lightly and came to Hesperide, who was still in a gray-white "frozen" state. Her eyes swept over Hesperide and Hasson, who was not far away, and finally glanced at Baptiste, who was keeping his last expression. "The little girl and Hasson from six hundred years ago, it's really a bit nostalgic. If I'm not wrong, after I officially 'return' later, they can both 'enter' through that loophole or something?"

"Strictly speaking, it's the projection of consciousness into their historical bodies, not a complete entry," Hao Ren shrugged. "These guys are watching the show and playing mahjong outside. If I don't use them as coolies after they come in, I'll feel sorry for the mahjong tiles provided free of charge by Raven 12345."

"You should just think about how to explain the big bump on Hasson's head to him," Vivian chuckled, and finally looked at Baptiste next to her.

"This human wizard… I really didn't expect that this guy would have a shadow in the turmoil six hundred years ago. I don't have any impression of him at all."

Hao Ren couldn't help but ask curiously: "By the way, I wanted to ask you just now, how did you get awakened and attracted by this Baptiste? Shouldn't you have been sleeping in the necropolis? How did that evil thought body take your place instead?"

"This Baptiste should have come with the purpose of waking me up from the beginning," Vivian said. "As for why I wasn't in the necropolis, but was replaced by an evil thought body… well…"

Seeing the embarrassed look on Vivian's face, Hao Ren's curiosity couldn't be stopped: "What exactly happened?"

"I was most likely sleepwalking."

Hao Ren and Lily: "…"

"I knew you would definitely react like this," Vivian's face turned red. "It's just sleepwalking, sleepwalking, okay! It's not a big deal!"

"But you are definitely the first person who can sleepwalk in their own dream world," Hao Ren looked at Vivian in disbelief. "Next time, I will definitely try to find you directly in the real world, and I will never deal with your shadow domain no matter what. The space you create when you sleep is as weird as an ancient secret realm!"

To be honest, if it weren't for this evil thought body jumping out to cause trouble, Hao Ren wouldn't have drilled into this shadow world to fight head-on with Vivian's dream guards. He would have directly cracked it violently from the outside like in Siberia.

"Don't worry, in most cases, it won't be as troublesome to wake me up as this time… Even in the entire ten thousand years of history, it's not common for me to arrange my sleeping place to this extent," Vivian smiled a little awkwardly, and then changed the subject slightly stiffly. "Speaking of which, I really can't remember the turmoil six hundred years ago, especially the part about Baptiste and the evil thought body… I have no impression at all."

"Isn't it just that you forgot what happened back then again?" Lily looked askance at the forgetful oldest vampire with her arms folded. "So many demon hunters fought to the death to help you deal with the evil thought body, and there was also a Baptiste running around to be your little brother. In the end, you just turned your face and forgot about it. You really have a bad memory when you get old."

Vivian rolled her eyes at the husky girl: "You can't expect ivory from a dog's mouth."

Then she sighed: "But you're right, I really forgot about it again accidentally: after all, I'm usually confused when I first wake up, and most of the things that happen during this stage are not clear."

Hao Ren was a little curious: "I wonder what exactly happened on this day in the 'real history' without me and Lily's intervention."

"Then you can only ask Hesperide or Hasson," Vivian smiled. "After all, my memory… has never been very reliable."

Her figure gradually became illusory.

"Ah, it's time for me to leave," Vivian looked down at her already semi-transparent hands. "Can we only have such a short conversation? It seems that this 'Sandbox System' is really not very stable."

"We can meet again in the next era," Hao Ren looked into Vivian's eyes.

"Of course," Vivian smiled, raised her hand and waved to Hao Ren and Lily. "Then let's meet again in the next era…"

As soon as the voice fell, her breath also completely disappeared in this space.

"She's gone," Lily scratched her hair. "Then what are we going to do, landlord?"

Hao Ren smacked his lips: "If we follow your experience of 'coming in' last time, then those two guys should…"

Before he could finish his sentence, he heard Hasson hiss in a cold voice: "Hiss—you two guys are really fighting?!"

Hesperide's voice also followed: "Someone's ability to fool people is really amazing. How could I have been so easily fooled six hundred years ago?"

Well, everything was as expected, Hasson and Hesperide entered the arena.

Hao Ren turned his head and saw Hasson walking towards them while complaining. The bumps on the old hunter's head looked particularly obvious: when he was still an "enemy" before, he didn't show any concern for these injuries out of unwillingness to show weakness, but now that he didn't have to pretend, he walked over while carefully touching the bumps on his head with his hands: "You two are too unkind… It's okay to fool me, but you still hit me with these bumps, and you used so much force?"

Hao Ren quickly explained: "Hey, make it clear, I admit that I fooled you, but Lily was the main one who hit you with these bumps… I only hit you once, and I didn't knock you unconscious…"

Lily immediately jumped up like she had been stepped on her tail: "Landlord, didn't you tell me to hit him!"

Hasson was also indignant: "You still have the nerve to say you didn't knock me unconscious? —It would have been easier if you had used more force and really knocked me unconscious! Do you know how uncomfortable it is to stay in your portable space? I relied on the meditation method of the demon hunters to carry it down… hiss, it really hurts."

Lily muttered: "Who told you your head is so hard? I was already being gentle."

Hesperide also walked over at this time. She glanced at Hasson: "Stop complaining, you don't know the situation. Did Hao Ren and Lily have a choice? —You were a madman six hundred years ago, and you would argue with anyone except demon hunters. If you want to pull you over to join the team, what other way is there besides kinetic anesthesia?"

Hasson: "Kinetic anesthesia…"

Hesperide sighed: "Hey, I'm also resentful, Hao Ren, couldn't you have waited a little longer? I was watching three hands in a row."

Hao Ren was dumbfounded: "Holy crap—you're still playing mahjong outside?!"

"We have nothing to do every day," Hesperide said with a straight face, putting her hands on her hips. "The entire earth is frozen, and we can't go back. Raven 12345's big house is full of things that we don't understand, and nine out of ten doors are guarded by god servants, so we can only play cards all day long. Fortunately, the flow of time inside here is faster than the flow of time in the outside real world. If you mess around here for a month or two, only two or three days will pass outside, otherwise we would have been bored to death waiting outside."

Hao Ren: "…I'm saving the world and saving your Vivian in there, why are you talking so much nonsense?"

Hesperide spread her hands: "So isn't that why I came in to help?"

Hao Ren opened his mouth, and suddenly realized that it was a waste of time to argue with such a mischievous child, so he decisively changed the subject: "Okay, okay, let's not discuss these broken things, let's talk about something related to the current situation. By the way, I'm curious about one thing, in the 'real history' where me and Lily didn't intervene, how did you two solve this mess six hundred years ago?"

Hao Ren's curiosity was simply overwhelming, because no matter how you look at it, the events that happened here six hundred years ago were no small matter. A Vivian evil thought body that was about to awaken, a hunting team led by an elder demon hunter, a quirky little bat spirit with wild ideas, and a male wizard with ulterior motives and a group of clueless witches who were used as guns, so many people gathered together, it would be a shame if nothing big happened.

"Six hundred years ago…" Hesperide's face showed a tangled expression. "To be honest, I would have forgotten if there wasn't this opportunity to trace back to history. Six hundred years ago, I almost died at the hands of the demon hunters."

"But she still ran away at the critical moment," Hasson took over the conversation. "I was indeed leading the team at the time, but just as we were about to attack Hesperide, the suddenly appearing 'unknown vampire', Vivian's seal suddenly broke out, and her evil thought body ran out."

Hesperide curled her lips: "Then all the demon hunters had to deal with Vivian's evil thought body, and I took the opportunity to run away."

"We didn't find out that it was an 'evil thought body' until the end," Hasson showed a helpless wry smile. "My hunting team suffered heavy losses. In the end, we didn't actually eliminate or repel the evil thought body, but the evil thought body suddenly lost interest in us. She took the initiative to leave and let us save our lives."

"As for those witches and that Baptiste, they hardly contacted me," Hesperide continued. "After all, in the original history, they didn't find powerful foreign aid like you and Lily, so there weren't many opportunities to be active on the front. But it's certain that Baptiste was still very capable. He must have contacted Vivian through some other means, otherwise there's no way to explain how he opened the gates of purgatory later, and maybe the evil thought body running out early in the original history also had a part of his contribution. Tsk, to be honest, I admire this guy. As a human wizard, he really did something big."

"To find his mentor and lover at all costs, even if it means getting involved in the terrifying vortex of demon hunters and ancient vampires…"

Hao Ren murmured to himself, looking at the male wizard standing not far away like a gray-white statue.

For some reason, he felt that his journey to find Vivian across ten thousand years of time now resonated with this male wizard's journey to purgatory.

"But I won't go down your old path."

Hao Ren said in his heart.