Y'zaks once said that the history recorded by a short-lived race like humans was not credible. This was because they had short lives and were easily trapped in their emotions. Their records always had fatal deviations after several generations. Now it seemed to be true.
If it had not been for the portrait of the witch, which remained unaltered due to its preservation in the different dimension, and Vivian finally recalling what actually happened in the past, probably no one would have imagined that the penniless vampire was the witch of legend, circulating in the Andrea Family for 300 years. The truth was really simple. A penniless vampire met two humans by chance. However, the two humans lost their fortune because of her, and she felt remorse for it. After destroying a vengeful spirit, she gave treasures to the two men as a gift. One of the men was a descendant of the Andrea Family.
It was difficult to find out how the subsequent descendants accumulated their wealth, built the castle in this ominous land, and became entangled with the vengeful spirit for 300 of years. Nonetheless, they could roughly guess the process.
There had to be something wrong with Vivian's seal and the gift she left behind for the family's ancestor.
Vivian found the way to deal with the vengeful spirit from her memory, and she finally remembered why the vengeful spirit was sealed in this world.
"This hall... It wasn't like this when I was here," Vivian said as she pointed around. "It was rebuilt by the Andrea Family's subsequent descendants. They enlarged the crypt and reinforced this place with boulders, but I can still sense the smell in the hall. It's the blood seal I left behind. With the smell, I should be able to find the location of the seal."
Hao Ren kept Vivian's portrait in his Dimensional Pocket, then he quickly stood up and pushed the heavy door open. "Let's go."
The creaking of the old hinges, and the cold wind mingled with gray-white snowflakes swept in from the outside. The vengeful spirit seemed to be recovering rapidly, and the snowstorm, which had been far away from the little mound was now coming together. The snowstorm was a projection of the creature's strong malice. Something shimmered in the deep darkness and some an old, malicious energy eyed them.
Nangong Wuyue cast Misty Shield to ward off the ever-increasing blizzard, allowing Vivian to lead the way in front of them. Vivian tried to recall the rest of her memories while she walked. "I remember going into a cavern to defeat the vengeful spirit... There was a door in the cavern, and the vengeful spirit entered the physical universe via that door. At that time, the vengeful spirit created another dimension as well, but it wasn't as big as this place now. I think we're in the cavern at this moment—Andrea's descendants must have built this castle on the site of the seal."
Lily raised her claws to illuminate their surroundings. Looking at the vast expanse of dark snow, she said, "...I don't think this is a cavern."
"Your memory is hopeless." Nangong Wuyue was surrounded by many layers of mist, which blocked off the blizzard around them. She was making fun of Vivian. "It's just been 300 years ago."
"I didn't associate it with my memory fast enough," Vivian said awkwardly. "This place has changed too much. Besides, the Andrea I knew was just a hapless woolen merchant, and the seal I left behind was just a big rock in the depths of the ground—who knew 300 years later there would be a family and an ancient castle? Three hundred years... Man-made things change too fast."
Hao Ren accepted this explanation, because he could not even remember his primary school teacher's name. It was easy for people to forget about things that they did not really care about.
More importantly, it was hard for Vivian to associate a super-rich family with herself: starting from the age when Cleopatra was killed by the Romans, she did not expect to have any connections with a wealthy person...
White Flame was looking at Vivian curiously. The eccentric demon hunter behaved quite differently from other demon hunters. Not only did she remain calm, she did not conceal her interest in the group of people before her. Vivian, of course, noticed her gaze. "Why are you looking at me?" she asked.
"You are very... abnormal. Different from what I imagined," White Flame said honestly. "You're also quite different from what I've read in the books. Many of our elders are very wary of you, and they are even a bit in awe of you. They call you the elder and advise us not to have conflicts with you. I thought you were a moody, stubborn freak. That's how the young demon hunters describe you when they talk about you."
Lily could not hold back, she burst out laughing. And of course, she was punched.
"You're also different from the demon hunters I know," Vivian said, looking White Flame up and down. At the same time, she pointed to Nangong Sanba and said, "Not including this guy. He's a problem child and I don't want to talk about him now. The demon hunters I've seen are as stubborn as stones. The only thing on their minds is to kill us. But, you're strange. I could feel your hostility at first, but I know you're not going to kill us, and now… your hostility towards us is gone."
White Flame nodded and said, "My tutor told me the same thing too. He's always been trying to develop my killing instincts for otherworldlings, but it doesn't seem to have much effect. The elders said that I should have a natural hostility when I see such creatures, but I find it strange: why should I be hostile to a creature that I don't even know?"
Then, White Flame blinked. It appeared as though she was thinking about something else. Shortly after, she continued, "He told me my mentality's a kind of disease. I used to think so too, but today, when dealing with you guys alone for the first time, I've found that you guys aren't very different from us. You guys seem to have feelings too? If that's true, then there isn't anything wrong with my point of view."
"Of course, we all have feelings," said Hao Ren.
But Vivian looked surprised. She looked at White Flame in disbelief and asked, "You're saying you don't have the killing instinct when you see creatures like us?"
White Flame nodded, and Vivian immediately asked another question, "Is there any other demon hunter like you?!"
White Flame looked at Vivian warily and asked, "Why do you ask? Trying to spy for information?"
It seemed that although the attitudes of this strange demon hunter towards the unusual creatures were more moderate than that of other demon hunters, her hostile heart, which had been fostered from an early age was still the same. However, Vivian had found the answer from White Flame's reaction and she stopped asking. Hao Ren on the other hand was baffled and he asked, "What's wrong?"
"Do you remember the innate hostility between the Blood Clan and werewolves?" Vivian asked.
Hao Ren immediately recalled it: Under normal circumstances, werewolves and the Blood Clan were inherently hostile towards each other. Even if they had never seen each other, even if they did not know the existence of each other, they would still be hostile towards each other the moment they met. In fact, not only werewolves and the Blood Clan had this hostility, all the other unusual creatures did face a similar situation. However, this phenomenon did not exist in the Plane of Dreams. So, Hao Ren had been wondering about the thing that led creatures, who came to Earth from the Plane of Dreams to this bizarre heredity.
"As far as I know, the hostility demon hunters have towards all otherworldlings is similar," Vivian whispered. "And the demon hunter's innate hostility towards creatures is so serious that the moment they meet, they will definitely kill each other without the need to introduce themselves."
"However, the innate hostility of the younger generation of werewolves and Blood Clan members has weakened for unknown reasons." Hao Ren immediately realized something and said, "In addition, the demon hunters..."
"There must have been some kind of mutation when they time-traveled from the Plane of Dreams to Earth," Vivian sounded very serious. "I think I'm starting to connect a lot of things and it makes sense now... This 'innate hostility' in their veins is weakening, and it seems that the situation among demon hunters is more serious. The bodies of their offsprings have weakened as well... except White Flame. She's a gifted child."
White Flame looked at them with suspicion and asked, "What are you muttering about? Conspiracy? If you want to fight, just say it! I'm in a hurry!"
"The way you speak really irritates me!" Hao Ren was annoyed.
At this moment, Becky suddenly saw something in the snow in front of them. She interrupted Hao Ren, "Is that the seal?"
Hao Ren and White Flame immediately turned their heads at the same time.
They could saw a vaguely grotesque giant stone in the blizzard. A lavender light curtain was rising and surging above the giant stone.
The blizzard suddenly began to grow stronger.