Chapter 1 A Most Peculiar Experience

Hao Ren never imagined he'd one day have such a novel experience: poring over a medieval European magic book with a ten-thousand-year-old vampire. This was the stuff of movies, those dark, eerie, abstract films that promoted mysterious occultism, and it ought to be happening in a dimly lit basement. But now, the ancient magic book was spread out on a sunlit living room table, being studied by the current Pope and someone adorned with six pounds of warding charms, with a freezing husky standing nearby... The wizard who left behind this book would never have imagined that his work would be studied in such an atmosphere.

Vivian recited anecdotes from human history as if they were family treasures. In an age when "books" were a luxury, she mostly wandered around the Eurasian continent, a period when the conflict between wizards and the church was at its most intense. By that time, the heteromorphs had declined, retreating into their sanctuaries, while humans who had learned forbidden knowledge—the wizards—flourished while the church was off guard. More than half of the world's magic books came from that era, and Vivian had personally seen quite a few originals.

This one was not among them.

Vivian caressed the magically treated pages of the book, recalling the past: "The world was in chaos back then. Mysticism and all sorts of dark ghost and god legends ran rampant, and above them was the even more terrifying pressure of the church. The survival of the lower classes was extremely difficult. Wizards originated in the late mythological era, when they were merely hunting dogs kept by the heteromorphs and spokesmen for 'gods ruling over humans.' At that time, their status in human society was lofty, known as 'priests' and 'divine messengers.' But after the collapse of the mythological era, the wizards became an independent faction. Later, they absorbed many monks with wavering faith and nobles who had lost hope because of war. While the church and demon hunters were busy dealing with the heteromorph remnants, this group developed rapidly. Poor commoners were easily bewitched by witchcraft, and the number of high-level monks with demon-exorcising abilities was limited, and demon hunters didn't pay much attention to ordinary people's pleas for help—so for a short time, wizards and witches were rampant."

"Human history books also mention this period," Hao Ren nodded, "but it's definitely different from your version."

"This kind of magic book became popular at that time," Vivian smiled. "Such a book could even cause infighting between noble lords because many of the spells recorded on them could be learned by humans, requiring only sufficient payment—usually in human lives. And the lords of that time were willing to pay any price, especially human lives. I remember wandering around European towns at that time, and I often saw wizards and witches being hanged or burned, but in fact, most of them were fake. They just wanted to create some fake magic books to cheat some money, but not every noble had the guts to accept such a thing, at least not openly. By the way, Big Dog, how long are you planning to pretend to be an ice sculpture?"

Lily shook her head vigorously, flinging the ice shards from her hair: "I just want to see when you'll feel a little guilty! Jeez... I'm freezing..."

Vivian glanced at Lily: "What did you say? You're a sled dog and you're telling me you're afraid of the cold?!"

Lily bared her teeth in threat, then waved her hand: "Continue your story, I'm quite interested—I didn't experience that era."

"Actually, what happened at that time was basically meaningless. The whole of Europe was in chaos. The petty squabbles between the church and heretics were interesting the first time you saw them, but after seeing them too many times, they became boring," Vivian pushed the book onto the coffee table. "What makes this thing interesting is that it records a ritual that I feel is related to me."

Hao Ren was very curious: "What ritual?"

Vivian opened the book, found an illustration, and depicted a bizarre pentagram. In the corners of the pentagram were placed various sacrifices, and above the pattern was the image of a fanged woman, her hands outstretched, pointing to two prostrating worshippers on either side of the picture. In a corner of the picture, indicating a distant location, one could see a castle-like structure.

Lily pointed to the woman in the picture: "So you're saying this is you?"

Vivian looked strange: "In a sense, I think maybe, possibly, perhaps..."

Lily blurted out: "Why is she drawn like the Monkey King?"

Vivian plastered a small bat on Lily's face: "That's why I don't like discussing issues with you! Your mouth is getting closer and closer to the landlady's!"

"How did I get shot while lying down..." Hao Ren spread his hands innocently, then looked down at the bizarre illustration on the page, "What does this hocus pocus mean?"

"A ritual to summon the Blood Queen," Vivian pointed to a passage below the illustration. "Draw an inverted pentagram according to the markings in the picture, and place black goat's pelt, mistletoe sprigs, bat teeth, limestone, and a woman's hair ashes in order. Hold the ritual on the night of the full moon, with two people standing on either side of the magic circle, simultaneously cutting their fingers and dripping blood. After the third drop of blood lands, the Blood Queen will appear. The Blood Queen will cast a spell on the two people performing the ritual, killing one of them and transferring half of the deceased's remaining lifespan to the other, while the other half of the lifespan is taken away as payment."

Lily listened with her ears perked for a long time, and finally blurted out: "What the heck is this? What's the point of all this mumbo jumbo?"

"Wizards like to record these things," Vivian shrugged. "They've just been lost now, but back then, this was commonplace."

"Why do you think the Blood Queen written about here is you?" Hao Ren looked at Vivian in confusion.

"Although the illustration is terribly drawn, look at this..." Vivian pointed to the woman in the illustration, who was wearing a cross on her chest, "At least this thing is very clear. I'm the only bloodkin in the world who wears a cross. The wizard who made this magic book was very meticulous, so these illustrations of his must not be random, and an ordinary wizard wouldn't idly draw a cross on a bloodkin, his colleagues would think he was crazy, so the only explanation is—the author of this book may have seen me back then."

"Did you see him?" Hao Ren asked, looking up.

Vivian twitched the corner of her mouth: "Forgot."

Lily looked at Vivian with a strange expression: "I can understand everything else, but what were you trying to do with such a silly summoning ritual? Back then, did you have great ambitions to rule the world?"

"You ask me, who am I supposed to ask," Vivian rolled her eyes at the sky, "Wizards were originally ordinary humans. Their magic system is different from the heteromorphs, who knows what the principle of this summoning ritual is. Hesperiana just felt that this book was interesting and sent it to me, she doesn't even know who the author is."

In that dark age when occultism prevailed, there were many kinds of similar magic books, with no rhyme or reason to their classification, and they all circulated in secret. The methods of summoning devils or gods recorded on them have basically been lost, and even those that have been passed down have been submerged by other miscellaneous folk superstitions. After Vivian got this book, she just studied it out of curiosity, but Hao Ren's interest was obviously greater at this time: "What do you say, should we give it a try?"

Vivian was stunned: "Try what?"

Lily's reaction was especially quick when it came to this kind of funny thing, and she immediately understood what Hao Ren meant: "Summon you!"

"...Nonsense," Vivian rolled her eyes, turned and walked towards the kitchen, "I'm going to cook, you two can just mess around."

Dou Dou immediately popped out from who-knows-where, cheering and following Vivian: "I'll help light the fire! Help light the fire!"

"Keep her away from the gas tank!" Hao Ren quickly called out from behind, then turned to look at Lily, lowering his voice, "Should we try the summoning ritual on here?"

Lily nodded excitedly, her tail wagging wildly: "Okay, okay!"

"But it says here that you need the night of the full moon to summon," Hao Ren frowned, "That's really troublesome, and it's even at a fixed time."

Lily wagged her tail excitedly: "Tonight is the full moon, I've been excited for days~~"

No wonder this husky has so much energy today!

(Still have to go out to run errands, and it will be a whole day again, so update in advance... Speaking of continuous errands, I finally used up all my saved chapters =.=)