Chapter 1 How Did You Judge That?

Hearing Loli Sa's firm and confident tone, Hao Ren recovered from his initial shock and looked very seriously at the magical emperor replica in front of him, "How did you judge that?"

"The Star of Creation is filled with sacred energy, which can be clearly felt even in the illusion, and its surface is a liquid ocean. This primordial sea reflects a special halo in space, which is very distinctive," Loli Sa explained in detail. Hao Ren didn't actually know these details she mentioned before, "And the red moon in the illusion...it's completely different. I have seen it twice in prayer. I can be sure that it does not have the kind of sacred energy unique to the Star of Creation, and you can see strange shadows and patterns on the surface of that red moon, which looks more like a solid shell just from visual inspection. In every illusion, the red moon hangs high above a dark and barren land. It rises from the horizon, and its light seems to envelop the entire world. A sense of trembling grips your heart, which is completely the opposite of the peace and tranquility you feel when gazing at the Star of Creation."

Loli Sa's description completely negated the remaining guesses—the characteristics she described matched Vivian's summoned red moon one hundred percent!

"What's wrong?" Loli Sa noticed the strange expression on Hao Ren's face and couldn't help but ask.

"No...it's nothing," Hao Ren shook his head. "Your information is very important, but I need more detailed information about the religious life during the ancient magic empire, as well as every oracle the Creation Goddess gave you in her final years. I need all of it."

"Of course, no problem," Loli Sa smiled. "There is still a lot of time, I can tell you slowly."

It was already late at night after Hao Ren finished his long conversation with Loli Sa.

Several of the family members who went to bed early had already returned to their rooms to rest. Even Gun Gun, who was the most energetic at night, was tired and fell asleep early because he had been playing too hard these past two days. So at this moment, besides Dou Dou, who was still趴 (pā) beside the water basin, nodding her head up and down, only Hao Ren and Loli Sa were left in the living room.

When they were discussing serious matters earlier, the atmosphere looked quite serious, so the others didn't come over to disturb them. Having been together for so long, the housemates and landlord had long become familiar with each other. Everyone knew that if things were important, Hao Ren would definitely take the initiative to say so, and there was no need to rush to inquire when he didn't say anything. Therefore, after it was time to sleep, everyone went back to their rooms.

But Hao Ren knew that Vivian should not be sleeping yet: according to her habit, she should be tidying up the house on the second floor at this time. After tidying up, she would fly directly out of the skylight to "take a walk", bask in the moonlight and inspect her "territory". By the time she came back, it would basically be the second half of the night. In fact, she was the person who slept the least in the family, basically sleeping only two or three hours a day or even less. No wonder Lily would joke that Vivian's hibernation phenomenon was to save up the sleep she lacked every day, save it for three hundred years and sleep for a hundred years. Periodic hibernation was purely because she was sleepy...

Hao Ren thought for a while and decided not to look for Vivian to talk about the red moon tonight. After all, it was late at night, and even if he told her, there was no way to verify it immediately. It would only add a night of insomnia for no reason. It would be better to find an opportunity to mention it tomorrow.

"Your room is upstairs," he turned to Loli Sa and said. "Vivian has already cleaned it up for you. Just go upstairs and find her."

Originally, there were no spare rooms in the house, but these days, Nangong Wuyue's parents' small restaurant had become more and more successful. After the couple discussed it, they simply rented a house next to the restaurant at the street corner and moved in. Hao Ren also had an extra empty room here.

"I'll be bothering you these few days," Loli Sa stood up, with a smile on her face, and bowed gracefully. "Then good night, Pope of another world."

Hao Ren smiled and did not try to correct the other party's strange title. After watching Loli Sa go upstairs, he also turned and returned to his room.

That night, nothing happened.

The morning sun sprinkled on the old roofs and streets of the southern suburbs, awakening the city that had been sleeping all night.

In Hao Ren's mansion, a new day always started with a flurry of activity—either Gun Gun scratching the door and being scolded by Hao Ren, or Lily waking up hungry and howling in the living room, waking everyone up, or Nangong Sanba oversleeping and being dragged out by his sister, who used her tail to卷 (juǎn) him up and make him a大风车 (dà fēng chē, literally: "big windmill"; a game where someone is spun around). Even if none of these happened, a little weakling would come out of the mouse hole on time and run to everyone's room to biubiubiu (sound of laser guns) at their faces...

Eventually, everyone would get up in a noisy rush.

Vivian had prepared breakfast early to prevent the husky who would have a brain spasm when she was hungry from howling again. A large pot of steaming multigrain porridge and red bean buns steamed last night were placed on the table. This was the simple and delicious breakfast in the "Papal Palace". Lily sat cross-legged on the chair, holding chopsticks in one hand, with three buns串 (chuàn)ed on the chopsticks like candied haws, and holding a bowl of porridge in the other hand, gulping it down her stomach. Vivian, who was sitting opposite her, couldn't help but frown when she saw this situation: "Can't you pay attention to your image? You're still a girl..."

She was poor, even poor for ten thousand years, but the self-esteem of the dignified "Ancestor of the Blood Clan" was still there. She insisted on table manners even when she was so poor that she only had one meal a day. She really couldn't stand Lily's eating style, which had a high含沙量 (hán shā liàng, amount of sand; meaning it's uncivilized).

But the husky spirit didn't care at all. She was quite justified: "I eat a lot and consume quickly (chew chew). If I eat according to your vampire rules, I will starve to death in a few days (gulp). And I have something to do later, so I have to go out after eating quickly (chew)..."

Vivian looked at her suspiciously: "What could you possibly have to do?"

"The 'Doubao' in the back street had a litter of puppies with a bitch who came from out of town. Then that bitch stayed at Doubao's place and wouldn't leave. It's fine if she stayed, but she kicked Doubao out, and then found a 土狗 (tǔ gǒu, a local dog, often used derogatorily) to occupy his nest—Doubao is now homeless and sleeps in the trash every day. The former 南郊 (Nanjiao, South Suburb) gang leader is now worse off than the old yellow dog in the north street. That unlucky guy is now so depressed by other dogs' ridicule that he has lost his dog life goals. He's been depressed lately. I'm going to give him some psychological counseling later, and also take a look at that litter of puppies..."

Nangong Sanba listened in stunned silence: "Damn, the dog's圈子 (quān zi, circle) is so chaotic too..."

Vivian shook her head. She had long been accustomed to the various situations that occurred in Lily's army of dogs, and she had seen things a hundred times more chaotic than this—could it be more chaotic than Mount Olympus back then?

"No matter how big the matter is, wait until you finish eating. At least put your legs down and sit properly. It wasn't easy to educate Gun Gun to sit normally these past two days, and you're giving her a bad example here, leading her astray again," Vivian glanced at Lily, then grabbed a slice of raw meat specially prepared from a small plate at hand and threw it in a certain direction without looking, "Little Weakling, eat!"

A团 (tuán, a mass of) black shadow suddenly rose from the corner of the wall, rushing into the air like lightning. It turned out that 手办 (shǒu bàn, model) Vivian had窜 (cuàn, darted) out from the corner where she was hiding. She caught the meat slice steadily in the air, and finally fell on the ground with her limbs spread out—but the little one didn't care about this small mistake. She rolled over and got up, rolled up the meat slice,扛 (káng, carried it on her shoulder) and ran back to her mouse hole quickly. The whole process was extremely skilled...

To be honest, Hao Ren had suspected more than once that the little one's current madness was装 (zhuāng, acting). Look at her alertness when she was being fed, how could she not have a brain?

"You are getting more and more skilled at feeding her," Hao Ren swallowed the last mouthful of porridge and couldn't help but say, looking at the mouse hole where the little weakling lived, "She seems to be a little bit more human-like because of you feeding her."

"No way, she hasn't improved at all. As long as she's full, she's crazy again," Vivian撇撇嘴 (piě piě zuǐ, curled her lips in a gesture of disdain). "She's the same as the big dog, she forgets who made the food after she eats it."

Lily immediately became unhappy when she heard this, and put down her bowl: "Bat, pay attention to what you say! At least find someone with a brain to compare with me, okay?"

Hao Ren coughed twice to interrupt the two of them: "Ahem, okay, okay, can't you two have a day of peace? Vivian, I want to ask you about something."

Vivian was about to get up to clean the dishes when she heard this and stopped: "What is it?"

"That red moon you summoned...do you know what it is?"

"Red moon?" Vivian couldn't help but frown. "Is this question important?"

"Quite important."

"Okay, to be honest—I don't know either," Vivian spread her hands. "Most of the times I summon the red moon are in a chaotic state before hibernation. At that time, I may not even remember my own name. And the experience of summoning the red moon in a sober state is very limited: this is a huge drain on me, and it can even make me lose control of my own sanity, so if I'm not forced to, I won't use it."

Hao Ren frowned. The other party's answer was within his expectations, but he still didn't want to give up: "Then do you think that the moon actually exists or is it just a projection?"

"How could it actually exist," Vivian couldn't help but laugh. "Can I really summon a celestial body?"

Hao Ren didn't laugh when he heard this, but thought with a serious expression: "Even if it's just a projection...I'm afraid it's not that simple. Have you ever thought about where the red moon you summoned is actually located? Since it's hanging in the sky and everyone can see it, then optically speaking, it can be 'reached', at least there is something—whether solid or light and shadow—located there. Have you ever studied this?"

Vivian realized the seriousness of the question from Hao Ren's tone, and she couldn't help but become serious as well: "To be honest, I have been curious about this. Once, after summoning the red moon, I flew towards it, but no matter how I flew, I couldn't reach it..."

Lily噗 (pū, a spitting sound) laughed: "Have you heard of the carrot on a stick? That thing is projected based on you, and it moves with you when you move. How can you fly up there!"

Vivian immediately glared at the dog girl: "Do you think I wouldn't know that? Later, I even sent little bats to fly towards the moon, and I waited on the ground myself, but it didn't work!"

Hao Ren nodded after hearing this: "There are two explanations for this. Either, the red moon's existence is beyond our understanding, and the light it emits may be spatially discontinuous, or even not based on general spatiotemporal laws, so it cannot be reached. Or, it is as huge as a real celestial body, and its position is far in the planet's orbit. Vivian can't break through the atmosphere, so naturally she can't fly up there."

Vivian looked at Hao Ren curiously: "You want to..."

"I want to study the red moon you summoned," Hao Ren said seriously, "It would be best to be able to go and see it with my own eyes."