Chapter 1 The Death Valley

The valley beyond the pine forest originally had no name. In this sparsely populated snowfield, the scope of human activity was greatly compressed, and even the most seasoned hunters dared only to leave a small hut in the pine forest. No daring adventurer would ever cross the entire jungle ruled by wolves and brown bears, and then name a lifeless valley—so Hao Ren simply called this valley Death Valley.

The junction of the pine forest and the valley was a forest of diseased trees, with dry and twisted plants seeming to warn reckless adventurers not to approach this place easily. Beyond the diseased forest, there was an open valley. The valley itself was not large, roughly triangular in shape, with two low and bare stone mountains standing on either side, gradually merging together in the distance, forming a terrain where the valley was surrounded on three sides. Therefore, crossing the pine forest was the only shortcut to reach the valley. The small valley was lifeless, with no vegetation. The bare land extended from the stone mountains on both sides all the way to the valley floor, with only vast snowdrifts and black rocks occasionally protruding from the snow, as well as the remains of tree trunks that had withered and died countless years ago: in this icy and snowy environment, dead trees were preserved longer than elsewhere.

Hao Ren stood at the edge of the diseased forest, craning his neck to look into the distance, trying to find any possible landmarks in the bare valley, but he saw nothing except a wasteland.

Could Vivian be slumbering in this isolated and desolate place?

Combining the information gathered by the wolves and the abnormal ecological environment of this place, the possibility was indeed quite high.

"Hiss—" The husky girl inhaled beside Hao Ren, with a touch of nervousness on her face. "I feel like a grand adventure is about to unfold. I've never done anything like this in my life... Huff... a little nervous, a little nervous..."

It seemed that her personality of being strong when facing the weak and cowardly when facing the strong had existed since more than half a century ago.

"There should be an energy field in the valley that can continuously diminish life force, or some kind of curse... It doesn't matter if you don't understand, just relax," Hao Ren glanced at the husky spirit beside him, who looked as if she was facing a formidable enemy. "That thing is fatal to ordinary animals, but it has no effect on you and me, especially you... your life force is strong."

"Really?" Lily looked at Hao Ren in surprise. "You're so amazing! You know so much!"

"Of course, I know a lot," Hao Ren smiled and took the lead to walk forward. "Follow me, and pay attention to the smells around you."

The snow made a creaking sound under their feet, and occasionally the sound of snapping twigs under the snow could be heard, but apart from the sound of their footsteps and breathing, there was almost no sound in the vast valley. In this clear and windless weather, there wasn't even a trace of wind. Hao Ren walked through the valley, feeling as if he was walking in a still, white world, and everything between heaven and earth became vast and empty.

Lily, who was experiencing such a grand adventure for the first time, followed him with a nervous expression. This still-tender "werewolf girl" pricked up her ears, listening to every subtle movement around her, while constantly sniffing, dutifully acting as a tracking dog.

Hao Ren stopped. A skeleton lay quietly in front of him. The skeleton should belong to some large herbivore. Most of it was covered by snow, and the exposed parts showed fragile and decaying bones. In this extremely cold place, lacking scavengers, it would probably take many years for a corpse to become such a "clean" skeleton. How long had this victim been lying here? Half a century?

Hao Ren bent down to examine the condition of the skeleton, trying to reconstruct the cause of its death. Lily muttered beside him, "Didn't you say that animals don't dare to enter this valley? How come there's one dead inside?"

"Those who don't dare to enter are those who are rational and normal, but over so many years, there's always some unexpected situations, right?" Hao Ren curled his lips. "Maybe it was chased in by some enemy in a panic, or maybe it was too hungry and wanted to come in to find food, or maybe it was just brainless—anyway, as long as you enter the valley, you'll get lost and never get out again."

"How did this one die?" Lily looked curiously at Hao Ren examining the corpse, feeling that his work was quite professional: this girl's assessment of bones had always been limited to whether they were delicious or not, and anything more advanced was beyond her understanding.

Hao Ren stood up. "There are many black腐化(fuhua) traces on the bones, which look like poisoning. There are also some twisted deformations caused by high-temperature burning... I suspect it's the blood boil phenomenon. Here, wear this around your neck, it can protect you."

As he spoke, he took out a life-support collar from his dimensional pocket and handed it over. Although this thing's formal function was to help users survive in extreme environments such as space, it also had basic protective functions, which was quite useful for the old version of Lily, who lacked combat experience.

Lily took the collar and, under Hao Ren's guidance, put it around her neck, feeling that it fit quite well. "You have so many strange and good things... By the way, what is the blood boil phenomenon?"

"Blood boils. My friend is an expert in manipulating blood. When she sleeps, she may unconsciously release power, so the creatures around her sleeping place may inexplicably die from boiling blood. But don't be afraid, the collar I gave you can resist blood boil."

Lily was frightened by the first half of Hao Ren's words, but calmed down slightly after hearing the second half. Then, she suddenly sniffed and turned to look in a certain direction.

Hao Ren immediately noticed this. "What's wrong?"

"Smell... I seem to smell that smell," Lily pointed to the depths of the valley. "It's coming from that place."

"Hurry up and take a look! Maybe that's it!"

Lily's good nose lived up to expectations, and she found a clue so smoothly. Following her guidance, Hao Ren quickly found a recessed entrance in the valley wall: the smell was coming from this place.

Hao Ren looked around at the surrounding environment, confirming that the recessed cave in front of him was a naturally formed cave. It was actually quite hidden, not only was it covered by huge rocks, but the angle was also just right to hide in the shadows formed by the interweaving of the mountain walls. Without Lily, he would probably have to walk around the entire mountain to see this cave entrance.

Hao Ren stood at the entrance and looked inside. There was only darkness in the cave. A faint stream of air blew out from the cave, and the temperature seemed to be a few degrees lower than the icy and snowy outside, making him shiver involuntarily.

"Your friend sleeps in a place like this?" Lily muttered while poking her head inside. "Wow—the conditions are really harsh. She doesn't even pick a good place to sleep. Our village's doghouses are better than this."

"Her conditions have always been harsh." Hao Ren was also facing Vivian's sleeping place for the first time, and his curiosity about it was no less than that of the husky girl. Therefore, he left these words and strode into the cave, while Lily hesitated for two or three seconds behind him, and finally curiosity overcame her nervousness, and she followed.

The section of the cave just inside was extremely narrow, and Hao Ren needed to turn sideways to barely enter, but after going in a few meters, it quickly opened up, eventually becoming a cave more than ten meters wide, and then... then there was no road.

Hao Ren blinked, quickly adapting to the dark environment inside. He saw that the cave was open and flat, but he could not see any traces of artificial chiseling. Ice pillars of unknown age hung on the cave walls, and snowflakes blowing in from the entrance formed an extremely slippery ice surface in the front half of the cave. Apart from this, there were no other forks and entrances, and the situation in the entire cave was clear at a glance.

"Hey—is anyone there!"

While Hao Ren was still seriously observing the environment, Lily suddenly shouted loudly. This reckless husky spirit looked around while shouting loudly: "Wake-up-la! Don't-sleep-la! Your friend is here to wake you up!! Don't-sleep... By the way, what's your friend's name, Hao Ren?"

Hao Ren was startled by the sudden movement, and quickly waved his hand: "Her name is Vivian—don't call her like that! The 'slumber' I'm talking about is not the same as sleeping as you understand it! She won't wake up if you call her like that!"

"Oh, how does she sleep then?" Lily said while wriggling her nose. "By the way, where is she sleeping? How come I can clearly smell the scent but can't see anyone?"

"Perhaps this is her way of preventing herself from being disturbed..." Hao Ren frowned and observed carefully, while quickly reasoning in his mind:

Judging from the situation, Vivian has not yet woken up from her slumber, but Lily can already smell the leaked aura, which shows that the seal in this place has begun to loosen, and perhaps Vivian's slumber is also coming to an end. Next, he has two choices, either to find her and wake her up directly, or to simply wait here until Vivian wakes up naturally. The latter is a simple method, but it's really not a good one, because he has no idea how long Vivian plans to sleep—this "almost awake" is also relative to the total length of her sleep, which is at least half a century. What if she plans to continue sleeping for three or five years? Should he just wait here?

Just as Hao Ren thought of this, his eyes were suddenly attracted by an anomaly in the corner of the cave.

It was a small patch of dark red marks.

"What's this?" Lily also noticed the marks with Hao Ren.

"莱塔(Laita) runes, a kind of symbol with magical power," Hao Ren was now completely convinced that this was indeed Vivian's sealed place. He even saw her handwriting in the Laita runes, and couldn't help but get excited. "She left them... she left them!"

"Magic power? Sounds awesome," Lily exclaimed. "What are these symbols for?"

"If I'm not mistaken... this should be what Vivian used to protect herself during her slumber... tsk tsk, probably no one can break the 'Red Moon Countess's' seal, but it's too easy for me."

His magic immunity physique, that can perfectly crack Vivian's blood magic!

Thinking of this, he directly put his hand on those blood runes containing powerful forces.