Chapter 1 The Mutation

Hao Ren hadn't reacted when the magic book showed signs of abnormality. It wasn't until a bloody, chilling gust of wind hit his face that he shuddered and threw the book to the ground: "What the heck is this?!"

The magic book landed on the ground, its pages flipping open to face the moonlight. The illustration of the Blood King being summoned was almost entirely covered in red. The constantly surging red seemed to take on texture, like blood. It was as if the book was bleeding, the blood soaking the pages, a sight that made one's hair stand on end!

At the same time, the summoning circle suddenly changed. The crooked chalk patterns that Lily had drawn seemed to come to life, twisting and changing shape, quickly self-completing into the correct formation. The sacrificial offerings for the summoning spontaneously combusted, turning into balls of pale flame floating in the air. Lily immediately jumped up when she saw this: "Ah, my shoes! My shoes!"

"You're worried about that at this crucial moment?!" Hao Ren jumped out of the summoning circle in a flash. Hearing Lily's exclamation, he couldn't help but smack her on the back of the head. "Something's wrong!"

The Nangong family of four reacted almost simultaneously to the anomaly. Nangong Sanba and Nangong Wudi immediately retrieved their hand crossbows and holy silver daggers from their waists, looking like ace hunters regardless of their actual combat strength. Nangong Wuyue and Elsa, without a word, entangled and rolled into a corner – Hao Ren finally knew where Wuyue's cowardly nature came from.

As quick as lightning, the changes in the summoning circle were developing at an alarming rate. Almost as soon as everyone reacted, a mass of bloody mist had spread from the pages, twisting wildly in the air, gathering more and more. It was as if some evil spirit sealed in the book was breaking free, or as if the bizarre witch book was spewing out a large amount of blood. At the same time, a ray of moonlight tinged with a faint blood color shot down from the very center of the sky, forming a strange pillar of light in the summoning circle and a large area around it. The pillar of light encompassed Hao Ren's entire house!

Seeing this, Izhaks unhesitatingly reached into the formation to destroy the strange book. However, just as he made his move, a sharp whistling sound came from the cloud of blood – the summoning ritual seemed to be complete.

Izhaks quickly took a half step back to protect his daughter, and concentrated on observing the changes in the blood aura.

The blood mist pulsed a few times, like a beating heart, and in the next second, it suddenly contracted into a human form. Hao Ren had already taken out his silver-white spear from his dimensional pocket, ready to blast the blood mist with plasma flames, but when he saw the figure that appeared in the blood mist, he, like everyone else, was instantly stunned.

It was Vivian… it really was Vivian!

The "Vivian" that appeared in the blood mist was wearing a black gown of indistinguishable texture, like a noble lady about to attend a banquet. She stood in mid-air with her eyes closed, her long, blood-red hair dancing wildly without wind – this blood-red hair was the only difference between her and the Vivian that Hao Ren knew.

"Bat, what are you doing?" Lily was holding her ice and fire claws, her face full of vigilance. When she saw that the person in the blood mist was actually Vivian, she immediately got angry. "So what if we dragged you out of the house, do you have to be so mysterious and scary…"

Before the husky girl could finish speaking, the red-haired Vivian had slightly opened her eyes. Her dark eyes lingered on Lily for a moment, with a hint of impatience in her gaze. Hao Ren suddenly felt a sense of danger at that moment, and quickly pushed Lily away. "Be careful!"

A ball of dark red light appeared out of thin air where Lily had just been standing. After the red light flashed, the plants and trees illuminated by it withered, and the hard rocks seemed to have weathered into dust after experiencing ten thousand years in an instant.

Lily's tail exploded on the spot. "Mommy!!"

"This isn't Vivian!" The data terminal suddenly popped out of Hao Ren's pocket. "Everyone be careful, don't let anything she releases touch you!"

At this time, "Vivian" seemed to have awakened from the chaotic state of being summoned. She tilted her head stiffly, her eyes finally fully open, and a strange cackle came from her throat. She looked down at the crowd outside the summoning circle, and uttered a few syllables in a hoarse voice. Hao Ren concentrated and barely managed to hear what she was saying. She was saying, "Return…"

Just as her voice fell, a mass of red light suddenly descended from the moon!

Wherever the red light shone, grass and trees withered, iron and stone turned to ashes, and even Izhaks' skin instantly sizzled with white smoke. Hao Ren raised his spear and was about to fight when he suddenly saw the lights in the residential area in the distance turning on, so he quickly shouted, "Lure her into the wilderness!"

After shouting this, Hao Ren rushed towards the red-haired Vivian in mid-air, and stabbed at her with the plasma blade in his hand, but the attack was unsuccessful. The other party seemed to have predicted the attack from the very beginning. She dodged rapidly in the air as if she had no weight. The plasma blade on the spear only left a wound on her arm, and she was expressionless as if she felt nothing, just tilted her head, and pointed at Hao Ren, "Return…"

Hao Ren didn't expect the attack to be very effective. He just wanted to attract the other party's attention, and after confirming that the aggro had been transferred to him, he turned around and ran towards the depths of the wilderness, shouting loudly to the data terminal as he ran, "Quickly find a suitable place to fight! I'm worried that the wilderness won't be enough for her to mess with!"

A ray of red light split from the moonlight and shone on Hao Ren's shield, and the latter immediately felt his body sink. He realized that this attack probably contained many incomprehensible forces, and that a simple rigid shield could only offset part of its power. But there was no time to analyze too much at this time, so he could only bury his head and run forward!

The red-haired Vivian then looked down at the wound on her arm, and let out a strange roar that didn't sound human, and then chased Hao Ren into the depths of the wilderness.

Lily blankly blurted out, "The landlord can finally hold aggro steady…"

Nangong Sanba and Nangong Wudi took out a few talisman cards from their pockets and threw them in all directions. These talisman cards spontaneously combusted in mid-air and quickly formed a series of almost transparent walls of air. An invisible force spread out to interfere with ordinary people's perception of the area, and the houses in the distance with their lights on quickly returned to calm. After doing this, they immediately led the others towards the direction where Hao Ren and the red-haired Vivian had left.

This strange pursuit team ran all the way to the deepest part of the wilderness. The evil spirit, who looked exactly like Vivian but was manic and strange, kept attacking all living things within her sight, leaving behind a large number of withered and dead plants and weathered rock and soil on the path of the chase. While Hao Ren was carrying his shield to "kite" the monster, he was secretly shocked: the power of this evil spirit seemed to be similar to Vivian's, but the level of danger seemed to be even greater.

Her power seemed to be able to directly transform objects into a state of decay and death!

After confirming that he was far away from the residential area, Hao Ren finally stopped. He looked at the dark horizon in the distance and breathed a sigh of relief. He raised his spear and turned to face the red-haired Vivian, and at the same time, the others had also arrived. Without much talk, they, with their rich combat experience, had already cooperated to launch a siege. For a time, all kinds of attacks rained down on the "Vivian" in the center of the encirclement!

Evil energy fireballs, holy silver crossbow bolts, exorcism talisman cards and plasma orbs, as well as two murderous ice and fire double blades – the combined attacks were flawless. The red-haired Vivian seemed to have no way out, but just as the attacks landed on her, an unexpected situation occurred:

The evil spirit suddenly turned into a ray of red light, merged with the moonlight, and then disappeared from everyone's sight.

Lily slammed on the brakes, narrowly avoiding crashing into the attack range of others. She held her ice and fire double blades and looked around. "Did we scare her away?"

"It's not that simple…" Hao Ren frowned. He suddenly noticed that the moonlight was reddish, and the reddish moonlight was shining on everyone. Under the moonlight, a deathly gray-white color was rising on his skin. "Moonlight, watch out for the moonlight!"