Chapter 170 Daydreaming

A large group of small bats formed a shadow like dark clouds in the night sky. With a rustling sound, the bats gathered and solidified into Vivian's appearance. She straightened her clothes and curiously looked at Hao Ren and Lily, wondering what these two were doing up in the middle of the night.

As a vampire... or at least, a self-proclaimed vampire, Vivian had quite regular and bizarre habits. She was full of energy all day long, then spent most of the night wandering around outside, and finally went back to sleep for a short while during the hours when the power of shadow was strongest. This was enough to maintain her all-day vitality. Hao Ren had curiously inquired about this with the real vampires in the Athens Shelter, so he knew very well that the bat spirit's routine was strange even among vampires: not being afraid of the sun during the day was one thing, but her sleeping in the latter half of the night was precisely when normal vampires were at their most energetic...

Just based on this incompatible routine, it was hard to imagine how this lady had steadfastly considered herself a vampire for thousands of years… It was probably the same principle that allowed Lily to steadfastly consider herself a werewolf.

Lily saw Vivian return and casually waved to greet her, pointing to the moon above: "Couldn't sleep, came out to bask in the moonlight."

"Full moon..." Vivian looked up and shrugged. "A husky spirit being so sentimental. What are you doing, Hao Ren?"

"Had a nightmare, couldn't sleep," Hao Ren said with a smile, then pointed to Dou Dou, who was waving her little arms vigorously at his collar to greet Vivian, "Then the little one insisted on coming out to see the stars, so I brought her out for some fresh air."

"Not sleeping in the middle of the night," Vivian chided, completely unaware of the fact that she had just flown around outside for a long time. Then she looked at Hao Ren with some curiosity, "Nightmare? You still have nightmares?"

"So I suspect it wasn't just a dream." Hao Ren didn't hide anything, and immediately described the strange scenes he had seen in the dream. He hadn't explained his dream in detail when chatting with Lily earlier, mainly because he doubted that a simple-minded husky could help him analyze anything...

"With your current soul strength, you're still having dreams like this... There's definitely something fishy," Vivian was yawning and preparing to go back to sleep, but when she heard Hao Ren's description, she immediately perked up. She simply summoned a group of small bats to form a cushion in the air and sat lightly next to Hao Ren. "Clearly, the commonality of these dreams is the appearance of the 'First Born,' and it looks like… a crazed First Born."

Hao Ren was quite surprised by Vivian's ability to summon small bats as a floating cushion. He immediately felt that this move was both amazing and impressive, especially when used by an old vampire, like a dark queen in a fantasy movie: "That's a nice trick..."

"Hey, it's nothing. I couldn't afford a chair back then, so sitting on this is a little softer," Vivian waved her hand. "Could these dreams be related to the Godslayer Sword?"

"Checked it, it's unlikely to be the sword's influence," Hao Ren wasn't too nervous. "And I had the data terminal rewind my mental fluctuations when I was dreaming, and it didn't seem to be affected by external forces, so this is probably just a premonitory dream or something that I generated myself. I've already had the drone swarm strengthen the exploration and monitoring of the dream plane, and enhanced the interference barrier of the Crystal Core Research Station. Whether this dream has any deeper meaning or not, it's always good to add another layer of protection."

As he was talking to himself, Vivian kept looking at him with a smile that wasn't quite a smile. Hao Ren felt his skin crawl after a while under her gaze and couldn't help but twist his neck: "Uh... why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"

"You've really changed a lot in the past two years," Vivian just smiled faintly, exuding a tranquil and reassuring aura. "Two years ago, you were just a reckless hothead. If you encountered this situation, you wouldn't be so calm and collected, coming out to watch the stars with your daughter, and easily arranging everything. Two years ago, you would have panicked, and maybe even come to me for help. Two years, such a short time, and you've made such great progress."

Hearing this, Hao Ren just scratched his hair in embarrassment: "Have I improved that much? I don't really feel it."

"Because your nature hasn't changed, of course you wouldn't feel it," Vivian said with a smile. "Only your abilities have changed. To be honest, I've seen too many humans, enough heroes, generals, emperors, and sages to hold an Olympics, but you're still quite outstanding. When I first met you two years ago, I just thought you were an ordinary good person, just a little more capable, no different from the ordinary people I knew. But now... I increasingly feel that you are going to achieve great things."

Hao Ren was a little embarrassed by Vivian's straightforward praise. He rarely heard these things from her: Although Vivian was a gentle and kind girl, she had a rather introverted side, and as an Elder, she always had a kind of arrogance in her bones. This arrogance wasn't annoying, but it made her almost never actively praise anyone: even for Izhaks's great achievements, she only commented that they were "pretty impressive."

But this time, she generously praised Hao Ren a lot.

"Of course I have to praise you when you make progress. You're the one who took me in, how could you not be amazing," Vivian said with a smile, then casually glanced at Lily, "Anyway, you can't get anything out of discussing life with a husky here, so I might as well build up your confidence."

Lily was perking up her ears and listening curiously, but then suddenly got shot and couldn't help but jump up and howl: "Bat, if you want to talk, just talk, why drag me out for criticism for no reason!"

Their relationship was no longer as hostile as it had been at the beginning, but two years of arguing had become almost a habit between them. They immediately started arguing again at the slightest disagreement, and the content of the argument was also unoriginal, basically just calling each other "bat" and "big dog"... But it was this almost childish way of arguing that made the two superwomen argue with such enthusiasm, as if arguing itself had become a kind of hobby.

And Hao Ren had long been accustomed to this situation. In the past, he had tried to intervene, but since seeing that these two only argued and never fought, he was left with nothing but watching the show.

Dou Dou was happily waving her arms, cheering for the two "sisters", the little one had no idea what was going on, but she thought it was very impressive to do so.

After the bat spirit and the husky spirit had been arguing for a while, Hao Ren couldn't help but mutter, "You two have a pretty good relationship now."

The two superwomen said in unison: "Who has a good relationship with her?!"

"A karmic tie, a karmic tie," Hao Ren laughed, then said with some emotion, "If you two don't count as a karmic tie, then there's really no such thing as a karmic tie in the world."

He looked at Vivian and Lily, two close friends from six thousand years ago, but because of a Godslayer weapon, one of them died at the hands of the other. Six thousand years later, the reincarnated Lily actually ended up with Vivian again as rivals. If this wasn't a karmic tie, what was it?

"The cause and effect of fate, it's really amazing." Hao Ren held Dou Dou, looked up at the starry sky, and sighed softly.

Even a simple-minded girl like Lily could hear a lot from Hao Ren's sigh. She also subconsciously looked at Vivian, and thinking of her entanglement with this bat, she surprisingly didn't express any objection.

"I'll go make you some calming soup," Vivian suddenly said to Hao Ren, "It probably won't solve your problem of having乱做梦, but at least it can help you sleep well."

Lily followed excitedly: "I'll go help!"

"You'll only make things worse—just say you're hungry, it's not like I won't cook for you."

"Oh, then I'll go help eat... make me a fried pancake, no need to thank me."

"Do you even have any shame?"

"Yeah—just make the fried pancake vegetarian..."

The two arch-enemies went back to the house arguing, leaving Hao Ren in the moonlight, staring at the sky in a daze. After a long time, he smiled: "This is still the most comfortable life... right, Dou Dou?"

The little mermaid crossed her arms and nodded with a serious face: "Right, Dou Dou."

Then the little one shivered and slipped back into Hao Ren's clothes: "Daddy, cold, I want hot water..."

Hao Ren smiled slightly, holding the fish baby through his clothes and turning back to the house: "Vivian, boil another pot of water... uh, never mind, just throw Dou Dou in while you're making the soup."

Outside, the moonlight grew stronger.