Chapter 1 The Expression Freezes

Hassu's expression slowly solidified.

He began to observe his surroundings—this prairie deep within the dreamscape was so vast and possessed an environment so similar to the real world, completely different from the black and white shadow fortress he had seen before. Therefore, when Hassu first awoke, he hadn't realized there was any difference between this place and the real world. But now, reminded by Hao Ren, he calmed down and finally felt the ubiquitous sense of disharmony from the surrounding breeze and fields.

The wind blew constantly, never changing, with no variation in intensity or direction from moment to moment. The green grass in the field swayed gently in one direction, unchanging, constantly repeating. The bright moon in the sky also seemed to be a lamp fixed in the background of the sky, without the slightest movement, and it looked brighter and larger than a normal moon.

It even made the entire prairie shimmer with a faint silver light.

The old hunter was not stupid, of course. He, like all demon hunters, was simply susceptible to having his judgment affected by the strong impulses generated by his hunting instincts. But at this moment, he had only Hao Ren and Lily in front of him. One of them didn't trigger his hunting instincts at all, while the battle impulse elicited by the other could be resisted with willpower. Therefore, after deciding to calm down, Hassu quickly regained control of himself. He confirmed that even if he wasn't in Vivian's sleeping space, he was in an abnormal domain isolated from the real world. He looked at Hao Ren with a calmer and more serious gaze: "What exactly do you want?"

"I told you, my goal is the same as yours demon hunters: to stop Vivian before she goes crazy and loses control," Hao Ren shrugged. "But I didn't expect there was another group of demon hunters with the same goal. You and I both know that demon hunters and other races have an irreconcilable relationship, so even if we have the same goal, we'll still fight each other when we meet. That will definitely ruin things, and in the end, no one will benefit. On the contrary, the situation will completely lose control. You're a smart man. You should know that I tied you up because I had no choice."

Hassu frowned. Logically, he couldn't refute the facts Hao Ren stated. The war between demon hunters and other races was an unreasonable slaughter frenzy. In this era when innate hostility was completely unavoidable, even if a few people could realize the absurdity of this war when alone, they were powerless to do anything about it. Even when facing other races, they themselves would uncontrollably join the battlefield.

At this moment, in a calm state, Hassu admitted that Hao Ren made a lot of sense.

But he was clearly not happy with his current treatment.

"Your idea is naive," he said, looking into Hao Ren's eyes. "Even if you say that sincerely, I must tell you that you're too naive. You're actually trying to seek reconciliation between demon hunters and异类 (Yi Lei, different species)?"

"I never said anything about reconciliation from the start," Hao Ren shrugged. "I just said that in the current state, at this moment, in this place, we can cooperate to deal with Vivian's rampage. But after that, our two groups can continue fighting if we want to. Use your brain and figure out what's appropriate."

Hassu didn't speak. He just looked at Hao Ren, then gradually shifted his gaze past Hao Ren's shoulder, towards the sky.

The bright, gigantic full moon hung high in the sky, but at some point, a trace of blood-like red had appeared on the originally silver-white lunar disk. The red lines spread from the edge of the lunar disk towards the center, making the entire moon look like a giant eyeball filled with blood vessels.

"It seems we don't have much time to think," Hassu smiled. "She's already noticed us."

Hao Ren also noticed where Hassu was looking. He turned his head and saw the scene of the moon gradually being stained with blood.

"Are you going to open these shackles with peace of mind?" Hassu raised his hands. Two metal rings were locked on his wrists. The faint blue light emitted by the metal rings constantly suppressed his power, making his current mobility worse than that of an ordinary human. "Once they're opened, it won't be so easy for you to put them back on."

"I don't need to open them. I just need to reduce their power."

Hao Ren smiled and snapped his fingers casually. The metal rings binding Hassu's hands and feet immediately emitted a faint buzzing sound. Then Hassu felt his power return to his body—but the metal rings themselves still showed no sign of loosening. Obviously, these things could instantly re-seal all his power when the situation required it.

"Don't think about using force to remove these rings," Hao Ren saw through Hassu's thoughts. "These things are definitely more solid than anything you can imagine. If you have to make a comparison… they're as indestructible as the bricks of those ancient temples in the Corpus space."

Hassu gave up on the idea of exploiting loopholes as soon as he realized how these rings worked. He was standing next to a werewolf, the fastest-reacting race in close combat, so he knew that even if he suddenly attacked, he wouldn't gain any advantage from the surprise attack. After a delay of one or two seconds, the metal rings would reactivate, and his resistance was destined to fail.

After hearing Hao Ren's casual words, his eyes widened even more: "Who exactly are you? Why do you know so much about Corpus?"

"I not only know where your Corpus is, but I also know that there's a 群星之塔 (Qun Xing Zhi Ta, Tower of Stars) that serves as the internal and external passage of Corpus. I know that your Ice Fortress has twelve barracks and seventy-seven towers, and that your Frost Temple has triple spires on its main gate. You have an elder named Grigovon, who's older than you, and you have a very good private relationship with him. And that Elder Grigovon was a naughty kid when he was young. He once in the barn… cough cough, let's not talk about this digression."

Hao Ren's bombardment left Hassu completely disoriented. The old hunter was directly confused: "Have you been to Corpus?"

"Want to know? It's very simple. After we solve the crisis in this place, I'll tell you everything in detail," Hao Ren deliberately said a lot of information that would definitely make Hassu's heart itch, but stopped at the most critical point. He looked up at the moon in the sky, which now had a clear red tinge in its moonlight. "Now, it's your turn to speak—don't tell me you led an elite hunting squad here without investigating any information. Vivian hasn't woken up yet, and we can't even see where she is. What were you originally planning to do to fight her?"

Hassu looked into Hao Ren's eyes and finally sighed helplessly: "...Okay, although our initial plan was to wait until the Countess woke up and entered the real world before taking action, we also have contingency plans. If we are forced to enter this shadow world and fight her before the Countess wakes up, here's what we should do..."

"The Countess will awaken from two worlds. First, she wakes up in her own dream. Her avatar in the dream world is the shadow in the moonlight. Then, she wakes up in the real world, and everything in the dream world will collapse into reality—if we have to face her in advance, we must not let this process complete, otherwise she will be so powerful in the shadow world that everyone will despair," Hassu said, taking out his holy silver short sword. Under Lily's wary gaze, he cut his finger with the short sword, and drops of blood with a faint silver light overflowed from the wound, then floated in the air against common sense. "This is knowledge that many demon hunters exchanged for their lives. In an operation more than a thousand years ago, dozens of seasoned warriors were annihilated in the process of the dream collapsing into reality, but they sent back this information before they died... By holding a blood sacrifice ceremony, we can make the Countess awaken in advance."

More and more blood floated in the air, and gradually formed complex and mysterious patterns under the traction of magic. These patterns revolved around Hao Ren and the others, reflecting the increasingly bright and red blood light, as if reaching some kind of wonderful resonance.

The changing speed of the moon in the sky suddenly accelerated.

Large patches of red began to appear on the lunar disk. At first, they appeared as constantly growing lines, but soon they turned into continuous patches of color. The huge patches of color spread across the lunar surface at a speed visible to the naked eye, like ink drops falling on rice paper. In almost a few breaths, the originally bright silver moon turned completely red!

However, this red moon was not the "Red Moon" that Hao Ren knew. It only carried an eerie atmosphere, but it didn't have the power to make any living being fear and go crazy.

At this moment, Hesperide's voice suddenly sounded in the communicator: "The control of the Soulless Guard has been settled."

Hassu immediately turned his head: "What is that?"

"Just a little gadget for keeping in touch," Hao Ren said casually. "What did you just do?"

"I made the Countess wake up in advance," Hassu said, "Before she enters her full state."

It seemed that although the demon hunters had been tormented by Vivian for so many years, they had made some progress.

A black shadow appeared in the moonlight.

At first, Hao Ren thought he was mistaken, because the black shadow was extremely thin and appeared and disappeared intermittently, but before long, the black shadow enlarged and solidified to the point where it couldn't be ignored. At the same time as the black shadow appeared, some kind of "thing" that was as red as blood began to overflow around the red moon. They were like blood tears condensed by the red moon, forming a circle of trembling red light around the lunar surface.

A moment later, a blood-red light poured down from below the overflowing "blood tears."

This was a beautiful and indescribable scene. The red moon condensed blood, and the blood poured directly from the distant night sky to the earth. The boundary between reality and illusion seemed to disappear at this moment. Hao Ren could hardly distinguish whether what was pouring down from the sky was moonlight or blood. All he knew was that the black shadow that appeared in the center of the lunar surface descended along the pouring "pillar of light."

As he had expected, it was a newly awakened evil thought body.

"Alas, in my original plan, I would lead seventy-five seasoned demon hunters to fight the Countess," Hassu sighed, putting away his short sword and taking out his crossbow and rune cards. "But now I have to fight her with the two of you. Can the two of you be worth seventy-five demon hunter warriors?"

"More than that," Hao Ren smiled and took out two long swords as black as fragments of the universe from his dimensional pocket. At the same time, various turrets and missile launchers gradually emerged from the void behind him. "And we have reinforcements."