The Record of Unusual Creatures

The basement was a total mess, and aside from the super-resilient as well as divinely-imbued Xi Ling equipment being totally unharmed, the entire room was thoroughly damaged. The shattered glass from the lightbulbs and glassware were strewn all over the floor, plus the wall bore burn marks of a power surge. Even the ceiling was scorched in many places by the bouncing lightning. Lily’s Flame-effing-joy was the only light source in the room, and under the wavering light, the basement looked even sorrier.

“Seems like I’ll need to thoroughly clean the place up again,” Vivian said as she placed her hands on her hips, knitting her brows slightly. But she did not seem overly perturbed by the turn of events. For someone like her who had been unlucky since the ancient times, she had gone through much worse. Her home that she spent a very long time to build was burned down by a torch-wielding mob, so this was almost nothing to her. “Well, that’s that. Let’s leave it for later. Hao Ren, you really think that was something left behind by the goddess? Power? Spirit? Will? Or something else?”

“A sentence, just one sentence.” Hao Ren nodded. “I’ve gotten in touch with her, and I’m very familiar with divine powers, so I can confirm that it was left behind by the goddess of creation. Only the words of a divine being can have such power.”

“And only the words of the divine can force me into a reboot!” The MDT flew up swiftly. “My word, that was really something. I’ve only encountered this twice. One was just now, and the other time when Madam Raven toyed around with me after taking me out of the box…”

Lily recalled the imposing aura that the “words of God” carried. Her tail was still bristling, and her eyes shone in the dark. “The words of a god are that powerful? Whenever Raven speaks to us, I don’t see us getting blasted away.”

Hao Ren glared at Lily. The dumb husky’s unsightly reaction was still fresh in his mind. “Nonsense, she never once opened her mouth, even when she spoke to us. She made sounds. However, these sounds are ‘phenomenona’ created from her powers, something like a taped response. If she was to really speak, anyone aside from Y’zaks would go crazy the instant they hear her voice. Of course, I’m excluded from that as well; I’m a demigod. My resistance to divine powers is quite high.”

“So real gods are that powerful, huh?” Lily stuck her tongue out. “But, why was Zhao Xi…”

Vivian bumped Lily on the shoulder. “You sure have lots of questions. We still have things to do, let’s go check Zhao Xi out before anything else.”

Hao Ren nodded and turned towards the doorway before looking back at Vivian. “Oh right, you won’t have any place to sleep tonight…”

Vivian gave Hao Ren a wry look. “Don’t tell me you want me to share a bed with you?”

Hao Ren immediately let out an awkward cough. He did not dare say it, but that line of thought did run through his head. Vivian saw through his awkwardness and smiled. “No problem, I’m an expert in cleaning up. And I’m quite adaptable in terms of finding a resting place. You don’t have to worry about me.”

As she said this, she summoned a massive swarm of little bats. They flapped in the dark towards every corner of the room and started to clean the place up. Some of the bats carried electrical charge within them and flew in pairs, lighting the room up like an arc lamp. Some of the bats cleaned up the shattered glass on the bed and floor, while the rest put the scattered furniture back into place. The scene was surreal and noisy.

Hao Ren sighed as he thought that Vivian’s abilities were indeed convenient. The ancient vampire had probably placed all her talent points in housekeeping and could forget about doing anything else…

Vivian left a couple hundred bats in the basement to clean up as she and Hao Ren returned to the living room. As they had expected, the entire house’s electrical circuit had burned out, and the house was pitch black. Even the street lamps outside were dark.

Within the dark hall, Hao Ren saw greenish pupils glowing. The pair of eyes silently came from the table. It swiftly approached him and started to circle him. Hao Ren immediately caught a slightly nervous whimper. He bent down and patted Rollie on the head. “It’s fine. It’s just a blackout.”

“I’m not afraid of the dark.” Rollie rubbed her hands on Hao Ren’s pants. “There was something… very scary underneath just now… Ugh… Very scary…”

She was probably referring to the divine aura, but the cat girl’s vocabulary was limited, and she struggled to describe it. Hao Ren caught on to what she was trying to say and patted the dumb cat’s head to calm her down before looking up in Zhao Xi’s direction.

Zhao Xi was seated together with Liu Sheng on the sofa. She had regained her consciousness, but looked rather worn out.

A series of heavy footfalls were heard outside the door as Y’zaks pushed the door open. “Over half the street has gone dark. Heh, Y’lisabet is outside fixing the transformer. She said the wiring outside is fine, but ours is probably done for.”

No one knew how any passerby would react upon seeing a meter-tall loli hanging on an electrical pole, fixing a transformer. Crazy goddess above, that little demon was nowhere as tall as a proper transformer!

Vivian searched the drawer by the door for a bit and pulled out two spare lightbulbs shortly after. She summoned a larger pair of bats and had them open their mouth to hold on to the bulbs. The next second, the room was lit up again.

The two innocent bats lay on the tea table with their mouths wide open, holding onto the lightbulbs. It looked almost like a fortune teller’s table.

Hao Ren gave Vivian a big thumbs up, showing that he was impressed before he went up to Zhao Xi. “How do you feel now?”

“It felt like a very long dream…” Zhao Xi looked slightly pale, and her facial expression was numbed as usual. But this time around, she looked even worse as it seemed like her spirit had not gotten back full control of her body. “What happened?”

Hao Ren sat before the confused demon hunter. “What do you last remember—before you blacked out?”

“I was dragged into the Netherrealm Clock Tower by the council’s lackeys.” Zhao Xi frowned. “I thought I would’ve been immediately disposed of, but after being brought there, I realized something was off. Everyone was wandering about aimlessly, and I became one of them… After that, what happened? The war ended?”

“It ended about half a month ago,” Hao Ren nodded as he explained to Zhao Xi what happened after the Battle of Coldpath. Zhao Xi’s condition was different from the others suffering soul detachment. Her senses were not muddled as she was knocked out cold, and for a good half of one month, her spirit was separated deep within her body.

After speaking to Zhao Xi for a bit, Hao Ren stood up, having a rough idea of what was going on. “Seems like the goddess of creation has left something at Coldpath. It’s probably just a shred of her thought, and this thought managed to stay hidden within the Netherrealm Clock Tower for over 10,000 years. It was suppressed by the Godslayer for the entire duration, but managed to escape. The reason is the rituals the elders conducted on the Godslayer, thus dispersing its powers. Zhao Xi was an accidental host.”

While there may be some holes in Hao Ren’s guess, the rough idea was correct. And the process itself was immaterial. The goddess’ thought was what mattered.

Vivian subconsciously repeated what “Zhao Xi” had said earlier, “‘I forgive all the wrongs of my children. My amnesty is eternally theirs.’ Hao Ren, what you think?”

“Very great, very forgiving, very touching.” Hao Ren shrugged. “For a mother who was stabbed in the back by her child, the goddess of creation is probably the paragon of loving mothers. But I don’t think that’s all to it… There’s probably something more.”

Lily blinked. “Something more? This is rather straightforward, no? Not holding a grudge towards her children for what they did.”

“I’m not saying if there’s any hidden meaning to it, but simply why only these particular words were left behind.” Hao Ren glanced at Lily. “Such a simple sentence has been lying dormant in Coldpath for 10,000 years. I think it was left behind on purpose… Probably, the goddess thought of communicating with future generations through this message.”

Y’zaks did not put too much thought into it. “A will before one’s death, moreover one of a god being reserved until now is normal. For a parent, I think it’s normal for one’s thoughts to be of their children before they die. Perhaps the goddess knew that her death would bring on divine wrath, and still wanted to spare her children from it. So maybe, she wanted to use this to prevent that? Too bad she failed though.”

“Divine wrath brought on by a real god’s death cannot be stopped. This is the world’s self-preservation mechanism, and the basis of the universe.”

Hao Ren looked at the pale Zhao Xi as he swallowed every question he had and let out a heavy breath. “…Seems like that’s the only explanation we have.”