Chapter 1 A Glimpse of the Past

The translated portions of the fragmented notebook were sparse, with much of the content rendered indecipherable due to its disjointed nature, but even these fragments provided crucial clues.

As the data terminal deciphered the remaining parts of the notebook, Hao Ren was finally able to piece together some of the events from that time.

Pierre's investigation only partially aligned with the truth, and the reality was far removed from the spiritual detective's findings.

This "family" was not as destitute as believed. In fact, judging from the contents of the notebook, this family was not a group of exiled nobles from the French Revolution. They possessed considerable power, but they were not an aristocratic family. The specifics were not recorded in the notebook, but it was certain that the challenges this family faced at the time did not include the impact of secular forces. There was only one reason they moved to this place: they came at the request of Fernand, also known as Hercules.

This mysterious family seemed to have known Hercules for a long time and was fully aware of the Olympian descendant's identity. They also knew about the divine artifact Hercules carried, but they seemed uninterested in it. The only reason this family came here was that Hercules was suffering from the backlash of some "unspeakable dark force," and they were here to help suppress it.

And to kill and suppress Hercules when he could no longer control himself.

This dark force that backfired on its master seemed to originate from the divine artifact Hercules carried.

Fragment after fragment of text was reconstructed, and the data terminal projected them all into the air:

"...The construction of the magic tower is going smoothly. The impoverished locals don't care who they work for, nor do they care about the meaning of the symbols and magical items, as long as there is enough silver... can overlook the village from the high ground... as a pillar of suppression."

"...A loud noise was heard... Hercules visited in the rainy night, his body transformed into a terrible form, causing... in the village... must prepare for the worst, but Sylvie is interested in the artifact, believing that it can be used to... extract its power to slow down Hercules'..."

Vivian interpreted these passages: "It seems to be saying that this family built a stronghold in the forest, which is where we are now. This is a magical nexus, and it can observe the entire village. At the same time, the corruption happening to Hercules is getting worse and worse, so much so that it's starting to hurt innocent people, so he came to seek further help. From here on, this family's attention shifted to the divine artifact in Hercules's hands. They seem to be trying to suppress Hercules's transformation by artificially controlling the power of the artifact."

Lily stroked her chin and nodded, "According to the usual script, this is where they start courting death. Judging from the current situation, they really died."

Hao Ren pointed to the next batch of parsed text: "That's right, it's clear that their research on the artifact ran into problems, here: '...leads to a realm of dark curses, there is a boundary outside our reality...' a large section is unclear, but here it mentions that they seem to have accidentally opened a door, or some evil force that was originally sealed tore a rift, and they failed to stop it."

Further on, the latter half of the notebook became messy and disorganized. Even if the text could be restored, much of the content became meaningless due to its madness and incomprehensibility. From the fragmentary records, it could only be roughly judged that some members of the family were bewitched by a mad will residing in the artifact. Although they realized that once this mad will was freed from its restraints, it would cause unimaginable disasters to the real world, they insisted on concealing the widening rift and eventually led everything to spiral out of control.

"...The last barrier of the boundary has been opened, our real world is about to be exposed to its gaze," Hao Ren pointed to the last remaining passage in the notebook, "...we have finally been able to glimpse the world on the other side of the boundary and learn that it represents the dark side of the entire universe, however... constantly penetrates, but there is no way to stop it, blind and mad power is polluting this land, our foolish actions have finally brought about the greatest evil... to prevent more people from falling into disaster, we can only make sacrifices..."

The last few pages of the notebook were missing, not destroyed by fire, but with obvious signs of being torn out, as if the person recording all this was worried that some of the most crucial secrets would be known, so they simply destroyed them completely.

Vivian was familiar with the magical realm: "Judging from the symbols on the previous pages, the last few pages probably recorded the specific rituals and locations for sealing this evil force. If some chuuni (delusional) world-destroying enthusiasts with brain problems got these records, they might reverse the ritual and release the sealed thing, so destroying the last record was a wise move. But this causes us a lot of trouble."

Hao Ren put the incomplete notebook into his personal space, feeling that the development of the matter seemed to be heading in an unpredictable direction: "What do you think the 'evil force' they faced was?"

"The power of the artifact around Hercules is obviously very bat-like," Lily said, arms crossed, tail wagging, "so the evil force sealed in the artifact must be another evil thought entity of the bat—that thing is a disaster for humans, isn't it?"

The canned bottle in Hao Ren's pocket immediately swayed in response, and a tiny voice shouted inside: "Ssi ha—"

Hao Ren shook the canned bottle, and a series of clanging sounds came from inside. After a while, it became completely quiet.

Anyway, everyone now understands that if you want to quiet this little evil spirit, you can only use force: there's no way to communicate with this little thing at all!

"I also thought of an evil thought entity," Hao Ren carefully opened the lid of the canned bottle, confirming that the little thing was just curled up in a ball with its head in its hands but wasn't hurt, before continuing to express his views, "Of course, not this kind of weakling—Vivian's 'normal' evil thought entity. But there's one thing that can't be explained. This notebook and the previous undead have been emphasizing something about 'boundaries' and 'crossing the border.' What does this mean?"

Vivian thought for a while, "Sounds like some kind of alien space, or a tunnel leading to an alien space. Wizards often use this ambiguous way of describing the magical realm. They are used to using words like 'boundaries' and 'another world' to describe the supernatural world."

"So, that artifact opened a tunnel to an alien space and summoned some evil force from the alien space to Earth..." Hao Ren guessed, "But this is different from the evil spirits we know: so far, except for the evil spirits discovered on Purgatory Star, all the evil thought entities are split from Vivian during her life on Earth. These evil thought entities are committed to destroying the world on Earth and don't seem to have any tendency to drill into alien spaces. Even if they are sealed in some small secret realm, the owner of the notebook wouldn't use 'the dark side of the universe' to describe that place, would they... It always feels a bit exaggerated."

At this time, the little evil spirit became energetic again: "Ssi ha—"

"Oh, some evil thought entities have a tendency to drill into rat holes. By the way, can't this little thing be quiet for a while!"

Vivian looked at the canned bottle in Hao Ren's hand, "Could it be hungry?"

"Not necessarily, it's not time yet," Hao Ren glanced at the little thing in the canned bottle, who was jumping up and down inside like crazy, "By the way, why is she so... Hey, wait a minute, is something a little wrong with this little thing?"

"Ssi ssi—scared! Ha!" The little evil thought entity was frantically tossing around in the canned bottle, crashing everywhere while making random noises. Usually, when she tossed around, it was to attack someone nearby, but this time, her process of jumping up and down seemed to have no target at all, as if the surrounding environment was stimulating her into a frenzy. Hao Ren could tell at a glance that this little thing was in an abnormal state, but no one had the ability to communicate with the evil thought entity, and no one knew what was happening.

And at this moment, the undead who had been silent all along suddenly made a sound again, just a long sigh: "Alas..."

As this sigh fell, Hao Ren suddenly felt a shaking under his feet, and the surrounding scenery also began to spin!

The dilapidated ruins of the ancient house collapsed with a bang, and dazzling lightning flashed across the cloudy sky. A howling wind roared through the forest, causing bursts of mournful wails among the craggy old trees!

This process lasted only half a minute, and then all the howling winds gradually subsided. The collapsed ruins of the house began to rapidly revert, the beams lying on the ground returned to the air, the unrecognizable furniture, the broken porcelain, and the portraits destroyed by the fire all recovered their former glory as if experiencing a reversal of time.

A few minutes later, Hao Ren found himself standing inside a magnificent aristocratic mansion, surrounded by bright lights and luxurious decorations, and the faint sound of people talking was coming from the front.