Chapter 1 Yi Chang Sheng Wu Jian Wen Lu

The siren city of Nasaton is a mysterious metropolis completely hidden on the Pacific seabed. It existed for countless centuries, its glory predating even the mythical age on the surface. No one but the sirens know how to reach that city. Neither modern humanity's advanced detection technology nor the powerful aberrant gods of old have ever successfully set foot in Nasaton. Some speculate that the entire city lies at the bottom of a deep-sea rift, with plumes of smoke from underwater volcanoes concealing its whereabouts. Others guess that the sirens have built huge invisible barriers above their home to prevent outsiders from spying—but in fact, none of these guesses are correct.

Nasaton is located on Earth, but not entirely on Earth. It is trapped in a spatial rift that intersects with the real world. The closure of the space-time curvature renders the city invisible to all means of observation, even impossible to reach at all. Only the sirens know the secret to opening the city gates—in the past ten thousand years, only a very limited number of visitors have been allowed to enter Nasaton. They include some aberrant scholars and a few lucky humans. Those fortunate enough to visit Nasaton have often left behind fragments of stories about this wondrous city for posterity.

It's just that the stories they spread are generally regarded as delirious ravings, and eventually appear to later generations in the form of myths and folk tales.

"In a space-time rift?" After hearing Shakira's description, Vivian was very interested. "How did you build such a thing? The Athens Sanctuary spent many generations building a similar shadow city, and they left loopholes that can be broken through. How does Nasaton manage to be completely hidden?"

"I don't know about that," Shakira shrugged. "From the moment I was born, there was a blue water dome above my head. The entire city seemed to have been lying in the spatial rift in that state from the very beginning. No one talks about who the original builders of the city were, and few people actively ask about it."

Hao Ren glanced sideways while driving. "Let me ask a question, it might be a little offensive—aren't sirens immortal? Doesn't the city have elders who have lived since the beginning of the city's construction? They should know who built the city, right?"

"Sirens are indeed immortal, but we will proactively choose 'cycle' at the appropriate time, returning to the water to complete our rebirth," Shakira vaguely mentioned the sirens' life cycle, then shook her head. "There are indeed such elders, although there are very few of them, they do exist. It's just that they never talk about the city's origins either—one of Nasaton's rules is not to talk about the past. We abide by the commandments and live peacefully, without disturbing anyone or being disturbed by anyone, and thus cycle for a long time, as if the city is eternal... until the queen ordered people to go ashore."

"Do you occasionally allow outsiders to visit your city?" Elizabeth leaned on the back of Shakira's seat, stretching her head hard. "Do you usually learn about the outside world?"

"Rarely, but like I said just now, there have been exceptions," Shakira nodded slightly. "We are also curious about the outside world, so we occasionally have exchanges with the surface. In the past, we would send a few sentinels to travel on the surface every few centuries to increase their knowledge. The sentinels used deep-sea orbs to record the situation of the outside world and bring it back for everyone to see. In ancient times... that is, the mythical era you speak of, we also established short-term alliances with some coastal aberrant families, but they all disappeared quickly."

Vivian smiled. "What do you think of the surface world?"

"In the very early days, the surface world was a bit boring, and the changes in many things were very slow. People used bronze for thousands of years. We changed two batches of sentinels before we saw them switch from bronze to iron. And those great families who called themselves gods were even slower to change than humans. Many times our sentinels went ashore again after a thousand years, and they were still relying on watching humans fight and fighting with wild beasts to pass the time. But later, the changes in the surface world accelerated. The end of the mythical era was beyond everyone's expectations. The speed at which demon hunters and humans rose far exceeded the speed at which the mythical era collapsed. Every time the sentinels went ashore, they would see new human kingdoms. The spokespersons of the surface world were constantly changing, and then there were machines and industries... Although it is still not as great as Nasaton, the skills that humans have shown in the last hundred years are really surprising."

Vivian nodded with some agreement. "Yeah, I think so too—the changes in this world are really getting faster and faster. Before, when I woke up from a nap, humans would still be using bronze, or iron, but later when I woke up, they had gone from windmills to steam engines. Then, after dozing off a little, they started to electrify. Now I don't dare to sleep, for fear that I might accidentally oversleep and wake up to find that all the people on Earth are gone, leaving only a few launch towers standing there, and all of humanity has immigrated to Centaurus."

Hao Ren listened, amused. "Look at you, don't exaggerate so much."

Vivian snorted. "You can't empathize, but I'm telling you this is all true. Sleeping in is really not good—I used to know a blood clan named Audrian, who was also considered a fierce general who survived to modern times after the collapse of mythology. He once obtained an ancient treasure and prepared to go into seclusion to absorb its power, but he ended up sleeping to death."

Lily was shocked. "How can you sleep to death?"

Vivian shrugged. "He dug a hole in Novaya Zemlya in 1950 and went to sleep. Later, the Soviets threw a total of two hundred nuclear bombs there in the next forty years. No one knows which explosion the unlucky guy died in. It's estimated that he was completely dead the first time. Anyway, I haven't seen him since then. He should have turned to ashes."

Hao Ren's face was covered in cold sweat. "..."

"So it's best not to do things like going into seclusion for hundreds of years after picking up a treasure," Vivian sighed. "It was okay in peacetime or in the old slow-paced era, but doing so now is just courting death. Humans' development speed is like they're on drugs. In just a few years, they've evolved from firing squads to intercontinental missiles. If you really find a place to go into seclusion for a few hundred years, Earth might be blown up by humans while you're in seclusion. With humans' ability to court death, I wouldn't be surprised if they blew up Earth someday—so the smartest thing for contemporary aberrants to do is to keep their eyes glued to the news and newspapers, and be ready to evacuate with the main force at any time... Why aren't you guys talking?"

Hao Ren patted Vivian on the shoulder. "I think if we have the chance, we should find a way to cure your hypersomnia as soon as possible."

Shakira, who was next to her, remained silent with a blank face. As a siren who only glances at the surface every few hundred years, it was awkward for her to say anything at this time.

Later that day, the team arrived at the planned departure point. This was a desolate and rocky primitive beach, far from cities and highways. Human development had not yet begun here, so there was no need to worry about causing unnecessary attention by triggering supernatural phenomena. There were some steep granite walls by the coastline, and the layers of impact marks on the rock walls recorded the passage of time here. Shakira couldn't help but sigh when she saw the scene here. "I remember there were still many coastlines like this when I first went ashore a hundred years ago... The place where I landed had a cliff similar to this. But now it's becoming more and more difficult to find a place where no one is paying attention to go swimming."

Hao Ren put away the vehicle, faced the sea, stretched his arms as far as possible, and took a deep breath. The open ocean scenery made people feel happy, and the cool sea breeze with a slight fishy smell was particularly pleasant. Nangong Wuyue was doing the same stretching posture next to him, with a look of joy on his face, but also a faint hint of unease.

Hao Ren keenly noticed this. "A little nervous?"

"Maybe it's just homesickness," Nangong Wuyue said with a smile. "Mother has always told me to stay away from the deep sea, and I'm afraid she really foresaw the Nasaton's mutation from the beginning. But now I'm finally going to break my mother's teachings... I hope she won't blame me."

Hao Ren smiled. "She's just worried about something happening to you. If we guarantee your safety, then your mother won't blame anyone."

Gun Gun had been a little uneasy since getting out of the car. She crouched down close to Vivian's feet, widened her eyes and looked at the vast sea, meowing softly and nervously: this was the first time she had seen the sea.

"Let's hurry up, we'll be able to reach the first island to rest before nightfall. Of course, if you're not tired, we can go straight to the center of the Pacific without stopping," Shakira squinted her eyes and felt the information coming from the sea breeze. "Today is a good day for a sea trip."

As she spoke, a layer of water rippled around Shakira. She was preparing to change form and send everyone into the sea, but at this moment, the Data Terminal suddenly jumped out of Hao Ren's pocket: "Wait! There's a spatial anomaly—someone has teleported over!"

Vivian frowned immediately. She read familiar magic frequencies from the surrounding spatial fluctuations.

"Be vigilant, it's a demon hunter!"

(Requesting monthly tickets at a critical moment! I almost forgot!)