Chapter 119 The Key

Vivian looked up at Hao Ren. This time, the look in her eyes was no longer that of facing a stranger.

Hao Ren knew his guess was correct: the key medium to awaken Vivian was not something else, but the key to her home.

That meant the only place for thousands of years where she could truly live in peace, sheltered from the wind and rain.

This key was so important to her that even when caught in a vortex of memories and space-time distortion, she materialized it and brought it with her. The weathering and erosion marks on the key should be the result of space-time distortion. From this, it could also be judged that Vivian was not really unresponsive before falling into the memory vortex. She probably had a very brief period of time to react, leaving behind a key that could "wake" her up. In that only opportunity, she chose to hold on to the key to her home.

"You fell asleep," Hao Ren looked into Vivian's eyes. Although he had only been "separated" from her for less than two days, he felt as if they had not seen each other for years. "Then all your evil spirits resonated, causing historical information in your soul to overflow and pollute the real world..."

The sound of wind and snow outside the hunter's hut gradually stopped. The storm that seemed to engulf the world finally subsided. It seemed that after the owner of this space-time awakened, a restless and twisted force followed and retreated, hiding again in the deep darkness. In the quiet cabin, Hao Ren was telling the whole truth about what happened in the outside world and what he knew.

There were many things that might not be easy for Vivian to accept, but he had to say everything, because only in this way could Vivian fully recover herself as soon as possible and escape this dream, so that his journey of backtracking could continue.

He looked at Vivian in front of him, and knew that she had not truly "woken up". Although she seemed to have recovered her memory and was quite awake, she was still sitting here, which was enough to show that she had not yet escaped this space-time, so more effort was needed.

"My slumber caused the entire Earth to fall into distorted space-time?" Vivian listened quietly to Hao Ren's statement, her expression changing from surprise to disbelief, and then gradually calming down. She knew that he would not deceive herself, so she chose to believe these incredible facts. "And... I am the evil spirit? Even the biggest one..."

"I understand that this sounds a little unacceptable," Hao Ren carefully chose his words, "but evil spirits are not necessarily bad, and there are also harmless situations. Look at how cute Xiao Ruo Ji usually is. You are even safer than Xiao Ruo Ji, after all... you are just poor..."

Vivian sighed: "Do you know that if you can't comfort people, you can't hold back a little?"

Hao Ren: "..."

"You don't have to comfort me," Vivian saw the tangled expression on Hao Ren's face and suddenly smiled. "I'm not as fragile as you think, and in fact, I had vaguely guessed what was happening to me before this."

Hao Ren's eyes widened: "You mean... you already felt that you were a..."

Vivian nodded lightly: "Well—I had a hunch before, and after returning from the ancient city of E'Thos, I became more certain of my guess. In fact, from the beginning, I felt that it was very strange that I kept splitting evil spirits. I split so many 'clones' with negative factors, and this splitting phenomenon never showed any signs of ending. How could I be completely 'pure'? The pollution is in my body, and I am even the source of the pollution myself. I have been mentally prepared for this."

"Then you..."

"I will not be defeated by this difficulty, and I have no intention of compromising with the 'pollution' in my body. No matter whether it comes from the Lord of Madness or from some third-party mastermind, my will is my own, and no one can interfere with it," Vivian said lightly. "This memory vortex trapped me here? On the contrary, I have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time... I want the shadow hiding in my soul to know that it is not me who is trapped beside it, but it is trapped beside me!"

As Vivian's declaration-like voice fell, the outside of the hunter's hut was finally completely silent. It was quieter than before, as if the entire hut was floating in the empty universe. Hao Ren looked around and found that everything in the hut was fading in color and stilling. The crackling bonfire in the hearth became gray and white still blocks, the dried meat hanging on the wooden walls became black silhouettes, and Lily, who was originally stirring the big pot next to the hearth, also froze there, as if the scene had been paused.

Vivian's figure gradually became illusory. Hao Ren could almost see the wooden wall behind her: she was awakening and leaving this dream.

"I should leave," Vivian looked at Hao Ren. "I can feel that this space-time is rejecting me as I become more and more awake. If I guessed correctly, after I wake up in 'this period', I will go to the deeper part of the space-time distortion before you. There, there is a battle that has lasted for ten thousand years. My two parts of the soul have been fighting there until now, waiting for the final decisive moment. Hao Ren, every time I fall asleep, I leave a part of my power in a historical fragment. You must continue to backtrack and help me send these powers to the deepest battlefield..."

Vivian's figure faded faster and faster, and soon there was only a vague outline left in the air. She quickened her pace, trying to explain things clearly before completely dissipating: "...Be careful of those evil spirits... I will be in this space-time, and they will be too. You have almost a fifty percent chance of running into them when you find my sleeping place... The barbaric era is full of dangers, and there are many that you can't cope with... You may meet the former Hesperian, she is not bad in nature. If possible, be sure to win her trust. She likes the novel creations of human beings, and likes to eat strawberries and honey..."

Vivian's figure finally disappeared completely into the air, and only her faint voice could be heard from nowhere:

"Hao Ren, take care of yourself, I will be waiting for you in the next era..."

This short reunion ended like this.

Hao Ren stood up and silently tidied up his wrinkled clothes from sitting for a long time. The snowflakes that had fallen on his collar and shoulders had already melted, and the slight dampness and coldness made him more awake and calm.

This was too short a meeting, but he did not feel frustrated, because he had successfully awakened Vivian once, which meant a correct path. Everything is difficult at the beginning, and if the beginning is smooth, then the whole thing will be smooth for the most part.

Next, he only needs to continuously awaken Vivian in each era until the beginning and end of ten thousand years.

Hao Ren looked at the gray and white still hunter's hut. After Vivian completely left this dream, the hunter's hut still did not collapse and dissipate, but a faint glow lit up outside the door of the hut at some point, which made Hao Ren roughly guess what he should do next. But he did not leave this place immediately, but sorted out the brief information he had just obtained from Vivian.

As the creator of this distorted space-time, Vivian herself obviously knew more about this world.

She mentioned that there was a battle in the deeper consciousness, and that battle was still going on.

She mentioned that she was scattered in this distorted space-time structure, and a part of her power was left in each space-time structure.

Hao Ren had to awaken Vivian in each historical period during the backtracking process. Each awakening was equivalent to sending a force to the battlefield in the deepest place, becoming Vivian's help.

And in the end, these returning forces will determine the winner of the entire battle, and also determine whether it is a divine clone or an unprecedentedly powerful evil spirit that returns to the real world from sleep.

These were all situations that Crow 12345 had not expected when she was outside before. Hao Ren felt that he was very lucky to be able to grasp this important information as soon as possible.

So after sorting out the information, he cheered up and walked towards the wooden door of the hunter's hut.

Then Lily's loud voice suddenly came from behind: "Ah!! Landlord, why am I here!!"

Hao Ren's mood of 'the wind is howling, the Yi River is cold' that he had just sorted out was immediately shattered by the husky's exclamation. He almost jumped up in place, and when he turned his head suddenly, he even heard a loud "crack" from his neck:

Lily was standing not far behind him, still wearing the old leather jacket she had worn in Siberia, and holding the long-handled spoon she used to stir the big pot in her hand. She looked completely like the "old version of Lily."

However, from the fact that she just shouted "Landlord", Hao Ren could be sure that the one standing in front of him was definitely not the old version...

"Lily?" Hao Ren sized up the husky girl for a long time as if he had seen a ghost, and then tentatively opened his mouth and said, "Are you... the Lily from the twenty-first century?"

"Landlord, what are you talking about? Of course I'm Lily!" Lily lowered her head and looked at the spoon in her hand, and immediately exclaimed, "Ah—this spoon... isn't this the one I used back then... and this outfit too... wasn't I playing mahjong outside? How did I suddenly get here?"

Hao Ren was stunned: "Playing mahjong? What playing mahjong?"

Although Lily's personality was a bit silly, she was not slow-witted. At this time, she quickly made up for it: "Cough cough, I mean I was waiting for you outside, how did I suddenly get here?"

However, Hao Ren had already guessed what was happening in the outside world: "I'm here saving the world, and you're actually playing mahjong outside?!"

"No... the Nangong siblings and Lao Wang are playing Dou Dizhu..."

Hao Ren: "..."