Chapter 1 History's Retrospection

The journey through history is filled with magnificent scenery, but it is also incredibly long, easily causing one to become deeply immersed.

Traversing through fragmented historical moments is a great test of a person's will. Whether it's the emperors and generals recorded in historical materials or the unknown common folk, when you personally experience their history, they are no longer just images from historical memory, but real beings with flesh and blood. They have their own joys and sorrows, their own emotions. Whether it's an epic of heroes or a mundane life, they will leave indelible marks in their own time and space.

As a passerby, Hao Ren does everything possible to place himself in the position of an observer, maintaining a detached, third-party perspective throughout this historical retrospection journey—because he knows that only by maintaining this perspective can he complete this entire ten-thousand-year historical journey while maintaining his own identity, without being swallowed and assimilated by the endless historical phantoms.

Maintaining this state is not easy. For ordinary people, it is probably an impossible task, but Hao Ren has persevered, relying on the mentality he has developed as a "Censor" over the past few years.

Time after time, jumping, retrospecting, and meeting different versions of Vivian in history, then bidding a hurried farewell and embarking on a new journey.

Not every historical retrospection journey is worth detailed recounting, and not every awakening of Vivian goes according to plan, but in any case, Hao Ren and his friends have come all this way. The journey across the Siberian snowfields and the trip to France seem like a long time ago. After that, they traversed the vast primeval jungles of the Amazon, crossed the endless, desolate Taklamakan Desert, and even drifted on the boundless sea for half a month—until they found an ancient city that had been submerged for thousands of years on the seabed, and in this city, destroyed by a magical explosion, they found the ancient secret chamber where Vivian's coffin was stored.

They dealt with the werewolf hermits of South America, and joined hands with the reclusive descendants of the Silver Witches on the Mesopotamian Plain to fight against demon hunters. With Hasse's help, Hao Ren even successfully infiltrated the demon hunters' Asian headquarters and smuggled Vivian's coffin out of the depths of the Himalayas under the noses of thousands of demon hunters.

Genghis Khan's iron cavalry, the palaces of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, the city-states of the Aztecs—one after another, things that were famous in history, almost becoming symbolic, floated before their eyes like fleeting clouds. In this constant journey of retrospection, Hao Ren seemed to experience the same feelings as Vivian: time passes, the world changes, and the entire world is constantly transformed by its inhabitants. Although the sun still rises every day, the setting sun always shines on new lands. The human world, the world of "gods," is constantly reshuffled and reorganized in this ever-flowing history. Even the most glorious, the greatest, and even the dynasties that the rulers themselves believed would last forever, often struggled to last for several generations.

The only constant is the observer's eyes of the historical passerby.

"We'll meet again in the next era."

Vivian's figure had gradually dissipated into the air, but her voice still seemed to linger in his ears.

After a long while, Hao Ren exhaled and stood up, looking at the people standing beside him.

Hesperianna was absentmindedly carving a grayish-white piece of wood with a small knife, seemingly trying to see if she could leave a mark on this "material" frozen in time. Hasse was carefully checking his demon hunter equipment to ensure that these powerful weapons were always in the best condition. Lily was sitting not far away, concentrating on eating shrimp crackers and potato chips taken from Hao Ren's portable space.

The place they were currently in was a small room, with wooden floors, wooden walls, and a wooden ceiling. A latticed window covered with thick paper was set into the wall beside Lily. The window was propped open, but outside they could only see a hazy scene. There were no decorations in the room, only a low square table in the center, surrounded by several cushions. A person dressed as an ancient Chinese military general was standing in the corner with a surprised look on his face, his shocked expression covered with a layer of grayish-white due to the stasis in time.

Hesperianna put away her knife and casually said, "That fire at Red Cliff really burned fiercely."

"No wonder Cao Cao lost so badly," Lily said without looking up, "He actually set up camp on top of Vivian's underground palace. You don't even need Zhuge Liang for that, I could've won."

Hesperianna retorted, "Keep bragging. Just with your brute strength? Even if tens of thousands of people stood there and let you kill them, you'd still exhaust yourself to death…"

Hao Ren watched the little bat spirit bickering with Lily just like Vivian and couldn't help but smile. Then he stood up and walked towards the wooden door of the cabin, which was faintly letting in a ray of light.

"Let's go. The next stop is waiting for us."

The door opened, revealing another brand-new fragment of time and space.

Hao Ren squinted his eyes to adjust and found himself standing on a wide, straight avenue.

This was a wide pedestrian walkway paved with stone slabs, with orderly, tall houses made of gray-white stone and wood on both sides. The houses had a typical classical Greek style, extremely exquisite, and at the end of the street, one could see a huge square with fountains and sculptures.

A bustling crowd of people came and went on the avenue, mostly wearing white or gray "robes." Part of the "robe" fabric was draped over their shoulders, forming mostly decorative hanging folds. Women's clothing was more complex in design but still mainly white in color. It was not difficult to judge from the clothing that these people were at least at the level of being able to live a carefree life.

This seemed to be a big city—and the cleanliness of the city was even better than that of a fourteenth-century European city.

Hao Ren looked back and found that he had come out of a wooden door embedded in the base of a huge statue. This abrupt wooden door was obviously an abnormal existence caused by the time-space dislocation. Such a bizarre entrance naturally attracted attention, especially since this was a bustling city avenue, so soon quite a few pedestrians stopped around, curiously looking at these guys who "came out of the sculpture."

Hasse followed Hao Ren out. Noticing so many onlookers, the old demon hunter frowned and waved his hand, releasing a powerful mental force, "Looks like we've arrived at a very lively place."

The "dispersing bystanders" spell, most often used by demon hunters in covert operations, was the most convenient thing Hao Ren felt about Hasse joining the team. Under the effect of the magical power, the passers-by who had been constantly gathering around seemed to forget what they were paying attention to and left, shaking their heads in confusion.

Hesperianna looked at the surrounding architectural style and then at the clothing of the passers-by, quickly making a deduction, "It should be in ancient Greece… This is… Rome?"

As the little bat spirit spoke, a different kind of radiance slowly appeared on her face. The surrounding buildings full of ancient Greek style seemed to bring her an unusual sense of familiarity, "Heh, this is really a long-lost scene."

Lily looked at her in surprise, "You're quite familiar with Rome?"

"I cultivated into a spirit in the ancient Greek region! Then I wandered around all the city-states around ancient Greece and finally ran to Rome!" Hesperianna put her hands on her hips, "Wait, let me think… I should have met Vivian for the first time in Rome after I cultivated into a spirit here!"

"You're a Western fantasy-style vampire who immediately says 'cultivated into a spirit' as soon as you open your mouth, don't you think it sounds awkward?" Hao Ren's first reaction was to complain, and then he immediately realized, "Wait, you said you met Vivian for the first time in ancient Rome?"

"Yes," Hesperianna scratched her head, "But I don't remember what happened at that time very clearly. After all, I had just transformed from a little bat into a human form, my brain wasn't very good, and I didn't have much concept of what was happening around me. I just vaguely remember some fragments of Vivian finding me and taking me around ancient Rome to make a living. At that time, this city was just like what I see now… probably."

Lily couldn't help but roll her eyes, "Why is your memory so unreliable? Just like the big bat."

"Can I help it!" Hesperianna put her hands on her hips, "The night before, I was still a bat hanging upside down in a cave. When I opened my eyes the next day, I was walking upright. Would you be able to figure out what happened to you? It's already good enough that I remember some of the local customs. You're much better off just remembering pulling a sled and running wildly in the woods when you were a kid!"

"I…"

"Alright, alright, can't you two be quiet for a moment?" Hao Ren glared at the two of them, thinking that it was hard enough that the husky spirit didn't have to bicker with Vivian anymore, but she found Vivian's little clone to continue arguing with. "It's important to take care of business. Hesperianna, you said that you used to wander around ancient Rome with Vivian. What era was that?"

Hesperianna thought for a while, "Anyway, Caesar wasn't dead that year."

"What round have we regressed to?" Hao Ren blinked and looked at Hasse.

"No need to calculate, it's probably around the years before Christ, with an error of less than a century," Hasse said with his arms folded, but his eyes were scanning all the details of the surrounding buildings and pedestrians, "According to the clothing style of the pedestrians, it should be during the Roman Republic period. The empire has not yet been established, and the streets are orderly, so there is a high probability that Caesar is still in power—but I don't know if he has already become a dictator."

Hao Ren looked at Hesperianna, "We may have arrived at a very delicate point in time—where did you and Vivian live back then?!"

"…Oh crap, wouldn't it be such a coincidence…" Hesperianna was a little confused, but she quickly reacted and showed a somewhat frustrated expression, "It's been more than two thousand years, how can I remember clearly."

"Then let's look for it slowly," Hao Ren showed a relaxed and happy expression, "This time we might be able to directly find a Vivian who is still awake."