Chapter 1 Vivian's Connections

Vivian reestablished her psychic connection with all her bats. Most were successfully dispatched to their destinations, but only a small fraction found the people they were looking for. Most of those hermits hadn't been contacted in decades or centuries and didn't stay in one place for long. Vivian had been out of touch with them for too long, and now it wouldn't be easy to gather her old friends. In the past, Vivian wouldn't have cared. In the past few millennia, she had rarely contacted other supernaturals, and most of the acquaintances she knew met by chance. Whoever she bumped into, she bumped into, but now she had a bit of a headache: as a veteran vampire, she felt that her understanding of the supernatural world was probably less than some demon hunters, which made her feel quite useless.

But in any case, she managed to contact some old folks and get a lot of useful information. And the news that the "Countess Who Summoned the Red Moon" had suddenly reappeared and taken the initiative to contact the ancients would probably spread quickly in the supernatural society. Vivian understood how much unnecessary speculation this would cause, but she couldn't help it: "The Oldest Vampire" was already too big of a name. Even if she were indifferent to the world, this title would make those who didn't know the truth make too many guesses. As for those busybodies who wanted to stir up some big news... let them do as they pleased.

She was only focused on whether the vegetable soup was done, and whether she had kept the hungry ghosts at the table waiting too long—she felt this was the most valuable time in her ten thousand years of life, more interesting than the noisy, running around, fighting and killing mythical era of the past.

"Dinner's ready, dinner's ready!" Vivian summoned two groups of little bats to bring the stewed hot soup and freshly baked Doudou to the dining table. A circle of listless hungry ghosts suddenly perked up like they had been resurrected. Hao Ren pulled out her chair with unusual diligence: "We've been waiting for you, let's eat, let's eat—"

Lili was the most enthusiastic about the food. Before the bats could put the soup pot down, she reached out and scooped herself a bowl of soup: "Ha, a bowl of vegetable soup in the morning, a happy and pleasant day..."

This kind of life was indeed more interesting than the so-called mythical era.

But as soon as Lili took a sip of the vegetable soup, she frowned, "Hey, Bat, this soup doesn't taste right... not only did you forget to add seasoning, but it seems like a lot of ingredients are missing, right?"

Hao Ren didn't believe it: "How could that be? When has Vivian's cooking ever had a problem..."

But before he could finish speaking, he heard a splash in the pot next to him. Doudou poked her head out of the pot with a head full of scallions and vegetables, holding two wrinkled coriander leaves in her hand. The little girl's face was flushed, and she was exuding the aroma of vegetable soup...

When Vivian saw this, her face turned red, and she immediately realized what was going on: she had been chatting too happily with people on the long-distance call just now. It was true that multitasking went wrong. While she was cooking the vegetable soup, she was also cooking Doudou. She added some salt to the soup and sprinkled some scallions to Doudou. And the little girl didn't even say a word: Didn't Doudou think the vegetable leaves floating around her were strange?

"Oops, distracted, distracted." Vivian waved her hands embarrassedly. Hao Ren, next to her, waved a spoon in front of Doudou: "This... can it still be eaten?"

Doudou really was a good girl. She immediately pulled the scallions and vegetables from her hair and put them in the spoon, then scooped several handfuls of water into it with her little hands. Finally, she diligently pushed the spoon over: "Pa pa... eat... eat..." Although she was born eating bamboo and wood, she knew that these things in the pot could be eaten by Hao Ren.

Hao Ren put the spoon back in the pot: No matter how strong his nerves were, he couldn't eat it at this time.

"Actually, I contacted an old friend, and I was too engrossed in the conversation just now and got a little distracted," Vivian said with an embarrassed smile. It was rare for a god-level chef like her to make such a low-level mistake, so she quickly tried to divert Hao Ren's attention. "Most of them have moved, but I still managed to contact six or seven who were too lazy to move."

When Hao Ren heard this, he stopped paying attention to Doudou and the vegetable soup. He was concerned about information about the Day of Return: "Any new news?"

Vivian brushed her hair back: "First of all, it can be confirmed that the 'Day of Return' has indeed spread to all supernatural groups, and even the smallest organizations are planning for it. Several prestigious families of the Blood Clan are active in Northern Europe. They seem to be preparing to excavate a ruin in the Arctic Circle, but it is said that demon hunters got wind of the news in advance, and the excavation plan has been temporarily shelved. In addition, some supernaturals are seeking foreign aid outside their race—this is a new phenomenon."

Supernaturals were a self-imposed group. Although it was a bit too direct to say so, it was the truth. Most supernatural families were closed off. Despite their decline, they always maintained an almost paranoidly arrogant posture. They almost never sought help outside the family, let alone sought any foreign aid from outside the race.

The above was Vivian's original words to Hao Ren.

But now, the stimulation of the "Day of Return" seemed to have loosened the stubbornness of the supernatural races. They were beginning to abandon their prejudices and seek cooperation, even seeking cooperation outside their races.

Hao Ren clicked his tongue: "It seems that this matter is quite a big deal, but I estimate that they can't unite. Not to mention whether the demon hunters will let these dangerous elements band together, just the deeply rooted, mutually exclusive mentality of the supernaturals themselves will be difficult to solve."

"Yes, so no real united forces have emerged yet. At most, some more active families are wooing some 'old seniors,' such as those who have survived from the mythical era and the post-mythical era. These old guys have lived too long and have been living in seclusion for many years. They don't care much about racial differences anymore, and they must be very interested in the Day of Return, so there is still a possibility of them leaving the mountain. The few guys I contacted have been wooed to varying degrees, and two of them who aren't very bright seem to have decided to leave the mountain... tsk, to be so easily pulled out of their homes by a bunch of juniors, have they really lived all these years in vain?"

Lili slammed the table: "Just say it, can you not use such examples! In what year haven't I lived on a dog?"

Hao Ren grabbed half a steamed bun and stuffed it into Lili's mouth to shut her up: "Eat properly, you're everywhere. You're blindly sensitive when you shouldn't be, and you're blind when you should be sensitive."

Then he turned to Vivian: "So... you should also be in the range of being wooed, right? After all, you are considered... uh, quite experienced."

Hao Ren almost said the words "old guy," but when he looked at Vivian's youthful and beautiful face, he couldn't say those words. The age problem of supernaturals was really too outrageous. How could you believe that this older sister had kicked hundreds of people into the moat during the Trojan War? How could you believe that this eighteen-year-old girl was only eighteen years old thirteen thousand years ago? And how could you believe that she still plans to continue to be eighteen years old thirteen thousand years later...

Vivian smiled at Hao Ren. He didn't know what her mentality was, but not only did she not avoid this age problem, but she even liked to joke about it herself: "Yes, this old woman is also considered an object of wooing—unfortunately, they either can't find where I live, or they knew from the beginning that I would definitely not come out and meddle."

Lili swallowed the steamed bun with great effort: "Or there's a third possibility: they all know that you've been malnourished for years, resulting in amnesia. You haven't even remembered your full name, and you've forgotten a lot of your fighting skills. You can't rely on you at all."

Hao Ren had no choice but to stuff another steamed bun into Lili's mouth.

"Is there any more specific information about the Day of Return?" Hao Ren glanced at Becky without showing any emotion. The latter was nibbling on a steamed bun while teasing the quirky Doudou with chopsticks, and then stared blankly at the unevenly bitten chopsticks, temporarily unable to pay attention to this side. "Especially... information related to things like 'the gate'."

In Hao Ren's impression, the most essential thing about the Day of Return should be something similar to a "gate," or rather a natural phenomenon. As long as he could find this loophole that caused the supernaturals to travel to Earth tens of thousands of years ago, not to mention that Becky's problem would be solved, he would also be a great asset to his job as an inspector, so he was most concerned about this.

"I was just about to say it," Vivian nodded. "A Blood Clan family seems to have found a very important ruin, located on the Greek Peninsula. And they also want to woo an ancient living in the area to unlock the secrets of this ruin together. I got this information from that ancient. If you have nothing to do... maybe we can go there?"