A man-made probe the size of a car was slowly moving on the red surface of Mars. It moved so slowly that is was almost limping—due to the distance between Mars and Earth, the time lag in controlling things such as rover remotely could be very huge. It must move at a very slow pace to prevent accidents from happening. However, while the rover was slow, it had been busy. The front-mounted camera was snapping photos as it went. Now it was moving toward Hao Ren and his team’s direction.
Considering the speed of the rover and the distance between it and the hillside, it might take the little guy a long time before it got here, but it would eventually reach the rolling slope as long as it did not change its course halfway.
Hao Ren looked over his shoulder at the scotched marks on the ground behind him and the vitreous crystals that the Plasma Flare and Demonic Flare had caused, as well as all the debris. He was wondering. “Why this thing happened to us? How could we stumble into a probe in place as big as Mars?”
“No matter what; you’ve got to pick up the mess,” the MDT snorted. “This is an untouched planet. The humans on Earth will be sending send more probes eventually. You think you can get away with it by leaving the mess behind? Before the rover reaches here, clean up the scene but remember not to damage the rover. That thing is protected by the imperial law.”
Nangong Sanba turned around and looked at the mess. “How do we even clean up this mess? Shall we scoop the entire place away?”
“There are two options now,” Lily said. “One; scoop the hell of out here. Two; find an LCD TV, play a Mars video, and I’ll carry the TV in front of the rover’s camera…”
Hao Ren could not believe Lily’s ingeniousness; she was beyond repair.
“Taking into account the conscientiousness and precision of science, we must ensure that all clues here are eliminated,” said Y’zaks, rolling up his sleeve. “I’m an expert in this field, so I will handle this with surgical precision…”
Staring at the runes on Y’zaks arms, cold sweat trickled down Hao Ren’s forehead. “Are you sure it will be accurate enough? Sound not very convincing to me—”
Before he could finish talking, a light appeared in the sky, a meteorite was crashing down at an angle from the sky. A loud boom was heard followed by a small mushroom cloud rose up slowly into the sky. It was done.
Y’zaks had figured the precise impact force and angle of the meteorite. The rover was outside the impact zone. Traces of evidence were completely destroyed, including the blood stain (of the evil spirit) had vaporised. The vapour had mixed with meteorite steam and other space gases and instantaneously blown away by the shock waves. It could never be detected.
Of course, the rover must have seen the moment of the falling meteorite, but that easier to explain away as a normal meteorite strike than trying to justify there had been aliens fighting on Mars. To be honest, Hao Ren and his group could not care less about this issue now.
They must find out what that thing was, and the relationship between that thing and Vivian.
They double-checked everything making sure no evidence was left behind. And then they quickly left for home. The first thing Hao Ren did when back in his house was to check out the Summoning Circle. What was left behind the house was only a piece of scorched land in the open, and some white ashes. Looks like the Summoning Circle that Lily built had self-destructed when it ran out of energy. The husky stared at the ashes, almost crying. “My shoes… I was planning to wear it this winter…”
“Can’t you not whine about that now,” said Hao Ren, dragging Lily back into the house by her tail. “Let’s first see Vivian’s condition.”
Siting on the sofa and surrounded by everyone, Vivian was baffled by what had happened this evening. It were Lily and Hao Ren who sneaked out, conducted that freaking test and dragged her into this. The vampire maiden now felt she had gotten herself at the wrong end of it. She checked herself making sure she was all right. “I feel completely fine… just a little tired. That thing was really badass.”
“Indeed,” said Hao Ren, pursing his mouth. “She challenged us all singlehandedly and had almost succeeded. Had I not cut her off from the moonlight, I’m afraid everyone would be in trouble. Only you – Vivian. You could hurt her. Is something going on between you and her?”
“You’re saying that it was the experiment of the summoning ritual that had brought ‘her’ out?” Vivian frowned, eyes on Lily. “Didn’t I told you that don’t try to study those mystic things? What for aside from getting us all into trouble?”
Lily spat her tongue out, pointing her finger at Hao Ren conveniently. “I’ve said long ago that it was Mr. Landlord’s fault…”
“Don’t kid me. Mr. Landlord might be whimsical at time, but without you, thing would not come to as such,” Vivian had known the husky and Hao Ren’s characters for a long time. “Let’s not talk about this. Did you say that the evil spirit looks like me?”
“Spitting image,” said Y’zaks, hissing. Her was always more truthful. “Only the colour of the hair and her aura are different. Couldn’t you see her face?”
Even Y’zaks had seen the face of that thing, so most likely it was true. Vivian’s brows knit tightly together, perlexed. “Spitting image? I don’t know what was going on. All I saw was just a figure, red in the dark, like a shadow. Its face was as blurry as it could get, I didn’t even know whether its was a man or woman, less so the look.”
“This precisely shows that the evil spirit has something to do with you,” Hao Ren looked at Vivian, face serious. “Only you that couldn’t see its face, or that the evil spirit was hiding from you, or that there was some kind of mutual interference between you two so much as that the evil spirit was also confused when she saw you.”
“Battie could hurt her! By using a skillet!” Lily blurted. “If that is no connection, then I don’t know what is.”
Though Hao Ren was rendered speechless by how Lily saying things, he must admit that Vivian’s reaction at that time was no less stunning, especially when she smashed the evil spirit with a skillet and blew it twenty metres out—her skillet skill could rival that of the Sword of Heaven.
Vivian was still in heartache for her losses today. “That was a good skillet…”
Hao Ren took the small blood sample out from the dimensional pocket. The tube was a dedicated bio sample container with transparent crystal shell on both sides to facilitate the observation of the sample inside. Now the viscous liquid inside had completely calmed down, looked just like normal blood. He twisted the bottom of the metal tube where there from a dedicated sampling port that prevented back-flowing contamination, and dripped a drop of blood sample into a petri dish and handed it to Vivian. “Please analyse it see if it’s blood.”
Vivian took the blood, sniffed it under her nose, and stuck out his tongue to taste it. Hao Ren hurriedly reminded her, “Careful! This thing is of unknown origin!”
Vivian thought he was right. She divided a small bat from her body and tasted the blood inside the petri dish. She frowned. “It’s blood… but it’s strange. I can’t tell what species it is. It’s been changing.”
“Change?” Hao Ren looked at the sample container in his hand. “Is this thing still alive?”
“No, it’s dead. There isn’t a single breath of life is left,” Vivian and the little bat sucked their mouth in unison, seemingly sharing the same sense of taste. “But it’s still changing in the state of death. It’s constantly transforming into the blood of other creatures… no, not right. It just feels like other creatures, but in reality, it is just a type of disguise. The blood’s original characteristics are unknown; it only shows similar characteristics of biological blood.”
“How could this thing even exist?” Hao Ren knew not much about blood magic, but he still could recognise what Vivian said did not make sense. “You mean this thing is not really blood?”
“Could ordinary blood turn into a person and fight with you?” Vivian rolled her eyes at Hao Ren. “Anyway, I have to ask Hessiana about the origin of this magic book. Wizard who left this behind must not some ordinary fellow, but I have never heard of any wizard who has such a high attainments in blood magic.”
Vivian did not believe the ‘summoning ritual’ recorded in the magic book. She felt that it was more like a seal. The book contained a magical creature based on blood magic. The so-called ‘summoning ritual’ Lily and Hao Ren performed had accidentally release the creature.
Anyway, it seemed that Hessiana would soon had her wish granted: Vivian was going to look for her.
Her visit was going to be punitory in nature, though…