The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hessiana sounded very casual when she talked about her findings. But Hao Ren knew that there was more to what Hessiana said than met the eye. After all, it was not the first time Hao Ren had met the little bat. Hessiana built everything she had in the Athens Sanctuary single-handedly and was the matriarch of the Hessianite Family. She knew the order of priority. The fact that Hessiana came personally to see Vivian over “something strange” spoke volumes of the substance of the matter.

“What the hell is going on?” Vivian asked. “What have you found?”

“Strictly speaking, it is a city… probably,” Hessiana said after suppressing her cheeky face. “I suspect that an alien dimension outside the main material world has met with our real world. But the connection is volatile. Since my men discovered it, the alien dimension has shrunk by nearly a quarter, and its edges are falling apart. I have asked several scholars in my family. They have not been able to determine the origin of the city in the alien dimension. They only say that it is part of ancient Earth. Are you guys interested?”

“A city? An alien dimension?” It was something out of the ordinary and truly interesting. “Since you know it is a city, why did you say ‘probably’?”

“Because that city is on the skull of a massive creature. I really have no idea whether I should call it a city or a big skull,” Hessiana said with exaggerated expression. “Do you know how surprised I was when I saw that stuff? It is a freaking city! I may not be comparable to the modern human metropolis, but it is an ancient city with all the functions of a city! The most surprising thing is that it is on the head of a creature! The first person who discovered it was an human employee of the subordinate of the subordinate of my subordinate. That guy almost peed in his pant on the spot.”

“Built on the skull of a huge creature?” Hao Ren was stunned.

“Big bones?” Lily jumped up excitedly.

“Don’t bother about her, she was epileptic occasionally,” Vivian said as she dragged Lily to a side. “An ancient city built on a huge skull? It sounds mythological. But I don’t remember which ancient city was built like this in the Mythological Era,” Vivian said, feeling a little puzzled.

Hao Ren looked at Vivian with a strange look. “Were there many such strange cities during the Mythological Era?”

“Many things looked incredible during that era,” Vivian said. “As you know, Yggdrasil has not only brought a bunch of refugees through the Wall of Reality but also stuff such as the solar ship and Mount Olympus that these refugees brought. The city built on a giant creature skull is no big deal. Have you forgotten about Nasaton that is wrapped up in a distorted dimension under the deep sea?”

That was really no surprises if those things were taken into the picture, Hao Ren thought.

It must be the exaggerated expression of Hessiana that made the whole thing sounded incredible, Hao Ren figured.

“Tell us more about the old city,” Vivian said. “How many people know about it?”

“Not many. I have put an embargo on it. At present, only members of the Hessianite Family know about it. The human employee who discovered the site is under quarantine.” Hessiana said. “Once the legacy of Mythological Era is exposed, many people would become restless. But these restless guys are mainly laymen who know nothing about heritage protection and preservation. If they were allowed to go in, this historical site would become as good as a ruin. I know that you are into antiquities, so I have the site secured beforehand.”

The little bat tried to make herself look serious, but her tone of voice involuntarily pitched higher, and her eyes yearned for praises. Unfortunately, Hessiana was anything but a good girl in the eyes of Vivian, who seemed to be unmoved at all. “Ahh, well done, Hessiana,” Hao Ran said.

Vivian suddenly came to her senses and smiled at Hessiana. “Really, you have done a good job this time,” Vivian said.

The little bat’s eyes brightened up, and she smiled like a Cheshire cat. “You commended me! Vivian, you commended me! Did you just commend me?”

“Vivian, you must have starved her of praises. Look how pitiful she is,” Hao Ren said.

Hessiana pouted and made a face at Hao Ren, but this time, she was no hostile. “The ancient city is complicated. I have not figured it out what. It should have been in the ancient Mesopotamia area because we have found the symbolic imprints similar to cuneiforms. But its architectural style is not quite like that of the area. You better go with me and take a look for yourself,” Hessiana said.

Hao Ren could not help but glance at Lorissa. “While you are on vacation here, we bump into this.”

Lorissa could not care less. She smiled and said, “It is also an interesting experience, isn’t it? If I am just sightseeing, I would like a little too bored.”

Hessiana met Lorrisa during the Holletta tour. They were no friends but acquaintances. Hessiana knew that Hao Ren brought people from the Plane of Dreams for an experiment in the surface world, so she was not surprised to see Lorissa here. “You must know a lot of things. The lost dimensions here are mainly brought from the Plane of Dreams. You may be of help if the city is related to Holleta,” Hessiana said with a nod.

“In this case, then let us get ready,” Hao Ren said, looking at the others. “Who would like to follow me there?”

Hands raised in the air, which included the cat maiden’s feet.

Hao Ren buried his face in his hands. “Well, then let us go check it out. By the way, where do you guys find the enthusiasm? We have just arrived home a few days ago.”

“We are not going to go,” Nangong Wuyue said as she waved her hand. Her brother, Nangong Sanba, was beside her. “The two of us have to help out at our parents’ restaurant. Also, there has to be someone at home looking after Lil Pea.”

“That’s right. Somebody has to feed Noobie too.”

Lily edged closer to Hao Ren and said, “Did I just hear ‘somebody has to feed Snoopy’?”

Hao Ren was confounded.

With the MDT’s teleportation function, and travel necessities stored inside Hao Ren’s dimensional pocket, Hao Ren could have gone to Mars to set up a colony at any time without needing much prior preparation. Without ado, everyone got changed and headed straight to one of the territories of the Hessianite Family through teleportation. They emerged in an excavation site.

Stepping out of the portal, Hao Ren saw a vast flat valley covered with gravel. There were towering mountains on both sides with undisturbed nature, which meant it was far away from human settlements. In the vast valleys, however, there were a group of large machinery and engineering vehicles, a simple concrete road extended from the entrance of the valley to the end of the gravel beach, where there were rows of instant houses, which looked like the corrugated steel dormitory on the construction site.

It was an excavation site—not of archaeological excavation but more like an old mine.

“Here is the south of Brazil, far away from the city. Other than the mountains, rocks are everywhere. The mountains and rocks themselves are treasures,” Hessiana said while walking in front. “The Hessianite Family has been operating quarries and integrated mining in the area since 1942. I have been looking forward to finding some gemstones, but as it turns out, rocks are omnipresent.”

“Battie, I have more than once doubted whether this little bat is really your split,” Lily said as she quietly poked Vivian’s arm. “She is doing so well, but you are still broke as a joke.”

“It is survival of the fittest,” Hao Ren jested.

Vivian’s face scowled, but she could not refute what Lily and Hao Ren said. “Hessiana, how large your business empire has become in the human world?” Vivian asked, steering away from the original topic.

“Among all the families in the Athens Sanctuary, the Hessianite Family has the biggest business empire in the human world. It is more interesting to do business in human society than to deal with the oldfags in the Athens Sanctuary. At the very least, we get to earn some money out there,” said the little bat with a smug face. “But I did not start the mining business here to make money in the first place.”

“Then what have you been doing here all this while?” Hao Ren was perplexed.

“Back at that time, Hitler was digging holes around the world. I heard that he was looking for something called the Earth’s axis or the axis of the world. I thought it was some treasure. So I followed suit. After digging in Brazil for two years, only I began to find out that bugger had been sending men to Tibet. I tell you what, if not for that World War II has ended, I would have to go to Berlin to beat the daylights out of that bugger!”

Hao Ren was rendered speechless.

Again, Lily poked Vivian’s arm. “Battie, I believe now that the little bat is your split. Just look at her attitude—it’s the exact carbon copy of yours.”

Vivian was stupefied.