“I think you should name your skill,” Hao Ren said, looking at Vivian after speculating about the red-haired version of her.
“A name?” The vampire maiden looked down at her hand. She felt that what Hao Ren said did make sense. “Hmm… I think I should. After all, the skill does look really cool. How about Finger of Withering?”
Finger of Withering; inflicting 99,999 points of real damage to its target and bringing death as well as destruction right up to the 18th generation of ancestors and even their tombs. Hao Ren felt that the name was totally apt and cool as hell. He looked at Vivian in surprise. “I never thought that you could come up with such a cool name for your skill, considering you’re such a low-key person.”
“You think everyone’s as awful as you?” scoffed Vivian, rolling her eyes. “And to be honest, I can’t see what’s so cool about the name. Don’t even get me started with Big Guy’s Finger of Death. I’ve asked; when he first started using the name. It was only to indicate that it killed whoever it touched. He had never thought about its coolness…”
Therefore, Hao Ren began to understand how the minds of the strong worked.
When the two returned to the living room, Hao Ren still could not help but ask, “By the way, have you experienced any psychological side effects such as irritability or aggression after you ‘absorbed’ the evil spirit? I remember novels and movies all depicting this. Just in case.”
“I feel nothing.” Vivian looked down at her body. “Maybe these amulets did their job?”
Meanwhile, Lily had just returned from strolling outside and was watching the TV on the couch. She raised her head and asked when she saw Hao Ren as well as Vivian coming in from the back door. “Where have you two been?”
Hao Ren told her about the development of the “new feature” in Vivian. That became breaking news.
“You slurped that thing up?” Lily looked at Vivian like she was a monster. “How could you eat so indiscriminately?”
Vivien glared at the husky. “You still have the nerve to talk about my diet?”
Experienced and well-informed, Y’zaks took things seriously. “It sounds like an absorption of power fragments… Mr. Landlord’s speculation makes sense. Something similar happened in my world. The power of the strong sometimes materializes and separates. If someone stole and sealed it, then recovered it later, the same symptom Vivian’s experiencing now would happen. However, I haven’t heard of fragmented power separated from the body having the ability to evolve into a humanoid.”
Hao Ren turned around and looked at Battie. “When it comes to Vivian, anything is possible. Even her bat doppelgangers have almost evolved into perfection. What’s more, this book was brought by her little bats.”
Lily listened to their conversation for a long while, eyes blinking. Suddenly, she clapped her hands. “If there are clues in the book, let’s just try all the other rituals in it. Maybe we can summon more—”
Before Lily could finish presenting her freaking ideas, Vivian her face with a bat. “You still have the nerve to say that! Don’t get me started with what you did last night; the summoning ritual? If it weren’t for you, things wouldn’t have gotten so out of hand. You know, this time—”
Without waiting for Vivian to finish, Lily covered her eyes and yelled back. “Why are you picking on me again? Was Mr. Landlord not the first one who wanted to perform the summoning ritual yesterday? And haven’t you already given me an earful last night?”
“Do you think you’ll ever learn even after I’ve scolded you so many times? Do you think that I’ve never studied how to deal with a husky in the past year? You have the nerve to blame it all on Mr. Landlord… Oh, Mr. Landlord, you too, please sit down, I have to tell you off too! Please don’t touch anything of unknown origin in the future. I’ve told you many times; such paranormal beings are very nasty to deal with. Don’t ever look down on the antiquated wizards on Earth. Sometimes, these things…”
Hao Ren had thought that with Lily being the lightning rod, he could safely stay clear of the line of fire. Little did he expect Vivian to suddenly switch her target and train her gun on him. Hao Ren and the husky sat side by side on the sofa and soon fell into a state of madness. While Vivian lectured the two freaking rascals, Nangong Wuyue happened to pass by not far away. The siren maiden nervously glanced over the living room before she patted herself on the chest. “Luckily, I don’t play around with such ancient things.”
“That snake over there, you come here too! You were too timid last night. You should’ve at least…”
Sensing the atmosphere, Y’zaks lifted his legs, ran off to the corner of the living room and pulled out a motorcycle repair manual. He then called on his daughter to study together. Y’lisabet said in a lowered voice, “Papa, we didn’t provoke her yesterday, right?”
“Shh! Don’t make a sound, eyes on the book.”
It was noon when Vivian finished lecturing the hapless ones. Had Vivian not remembered it was lunchtime, she would have chanted until the evening. After the lunch, Hao Ren summoned the MDT. He was ready to report what happened last night to Raven 12345: He felt that there was more to the matter than meets the eye. It was best to let neuropath know be it big or small. However, just before he had managed to dial the heaven hotline, a message unexpectedly popped up:
“Mr. Landlord! We’ve found the lair of The Cult of Origination. Please come and help – Becky.”
Hao Ren was startled for a moment, before he realized the matter: he had been busy lately, and there had been no news from Holletta for over half a month, he had almost forgotten about the brain monster!
While helping Vivian cleaned up after lunch, Ayesha felt as if something was going on, she curiously asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, we have found the lair of The Cult of Origination. The other brain monster might be hiding there,” said Hao Ren, rubbing his hands as he got to his feet. He must not let thing go wrong this time. Ayesha and Nangong Wudi seemed to be unable to make heads or tails of it, Hao Ren only realised that the two of them had not been to Holletta yet. “It’s another planet, in The Plane of Dreams too. I have to go over there.”
After telling the other about the news, they all got up immediately; everyone was in high spirit and ready to fight. Even Rollie raised her claw and waved frantically as she meowed. Of course, she had no clue what was going on, but she thought if she could get people’s attention, she might get to eat some dried fish. Y’zaks still remembered how the brain monster escaped last time, he reminded. “This time we must not let it slip away after capturing it.”
“Then we have to capture it first.” Hao Ren smiled. He decided to hold back his report to Raven 12345 until he got the brain monster. Just to save some hassle. He sent a reply to Becky. “I got your message. Let Ophra monitor it. Don’t try to come into contact with it to void being mind-controlled.”
Then he assembled his ‘battalion’ and headed overs to Holletta.
Holletta Kingdom, in Becky’s big house.
As before, they all emerged from the basement of Becky’s house. As soon as Hao Ren arrived, he found the basement was different: The entire wine cellar had been removed; the piles of casks and bottles, and exquisite high-end wine tools were nowhere to be found. The portal was placed in the centre of the wine cellar and the basement looked very spacious after stuff were removed.
Lily sniffling. “There is still a scent of wine, but where’s the wine?”
Becky’s voice came from the direction of the cellar door. “Of course I moved them all away; I don’t want them to meet the same fate again like last time, I still feel the pain, you know. It was my entire two-month-worth of wine, all went down the drain.”
Hao Ren let out a smile when he heard the familiar and spirited voice. He cheerfully looked up and saw Becky standing right there in a special knight costume, with an escort. She was all smile looking down at them. It had been a long time. Hao Ren went up enthusiastically to say hello. “Hey, look at you look … cool, eh? Why are you not wearing a noble dress?”
“Don’t mention it,” said Becky, waving her hand. Like a mercenary, she was still as carefree as ever. “You need two hours to that thing on, and two hours to take it off; it walks like being tied up with a rope and the worse thing is you will soak in your own sweat in no time. I wonder if those aristocratic dresses are designed to make people reminiscing the past hardships to remind them of their happiness today. Anyway, after wearing those dresses a few times in banquets, I would never wear them again.”
When Ayesha and Nangong Wudi came up from behind, Becky looked at these new faces in surprise. “I’ve never seen them before. New friends?”
“They’re parents of the Nangong siblings,” said Vivian with a smile. “Just found them not long ago.”
As if she had found her own family, Becky stepped forward shaking the hands of Nangong siblings. “Oh! Congratulations…”
Hao Ren hemmed and pointed at Lil Pea who was swinging her head in his collar. “Let’s get out of here first before catching up with one another. It smells of wine here, Lil Pea is getting woozy.”