Chapter 485: It’s a Small World
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The longer Hao Ren knew the vampire maiden, the more he found the girl to be a miracle of the cosmic's malice. The things that were happening in front of him further convinced him that.
While Vivian was extremely poor herself, the bat who dropped off her body had transcended and become rich. Her landlord, who was working for God already had a billion followers; even the menial whom she had given a broken piece of stone had garnered tons of gold and given birth to the Andrea Family. This girl was like a propitious ornament, if used properly, she could bring health and prosperity to others at the expense of herself.
Of course, this auspicious "ornament" seldom brought a positive effect. Most of the time, she was better at bringing bad luck to the people around her. Those close to her who had low bad-luck resistance would either lose money, choke while drinking, suffer toothaches after a sneeze and stuff like that. Even the Romans and Egyptians back then had something to say about this matter. Hao Ren felt that the people of Troy could have thrown a pan at this auspicious bat, who worked like a double agent back then.
Perhaps the Andrea Family had less resistance: they gained amazing wealth from the gifts left behind by Vivian, but they were tortured by a terrible evil spirit for a full 300 years. These 300 years of torment may have cost more than the value of a few tons of gold.
Lily patted Vivian on the shoulders, not letting any chance of teasing the bat slip away. "Your clone is doing better than you are. Now, even your teammates have surpassed you. I think the greatest value of your existence is to serve as a foil to others."
"Is this a dimensional storage device?" Hao Ren move forward and picked up the triangular gadget. He quickly swiped his fingers over the several ridges and the opening in space closed. It seemed like it still worked perfectly after so long.
The MDT flew over and studied the device. "Dimensional storage function would be more accurate. This module is only one of three parts. The rest are in standby mode and the whole thing will only work when this is in resonance with the other devices. It's like a wireless device."
"Another stone..." Hao Ren looked up at Vivian. "Where's the other stone now?"
Vivian shrugged. "I don't know. I just found out that my first minion became the ancestor of the Andrea Family, but the second minion, I don't know whether he's still alive or not. The other 'stone' looks different from the one in your hand. It may not have brought wealth to its owner. The second minion was probably not as lucky as Andrea, and he may have died in the snow of Siberia."
"Did you know that?" Hao Ren turned and looked at Igor, briefly telling him about the two humans who followed Vivian in Siberia. "There were two people following the witch. Aside from your ancestor, there was another guy who also received a 'stone'."
Hao Ren did not have high hopes, until Igor actually nodded his head. "...There's a mysterious man living in St. Petersburg. He should be the descendant of this person you've mentioned."
Hao Ren was somewhat surprised. "Mysterious man?"
"For 300 years, the Andrea Family has always had intermittent contact with another hermit family." Igor rubbed the button on his chest, which seemed to be a habitual gesture when he was thinking or nervous. "It's unclear what the circumstances of the other family are. We don't know whether they are poor or wealthy. This intermittent contact has been a ritual passed down from our ancestors. We normally exchange news about our current conditions, like whether the family members are healthy, whether some 'dark forces' have signs of getting out of control... Aside from that we don't reveal much. The letters we receive usually sound vague, and sometimes we ourselves weren't very sure about the contents of the letters—this was to avoid triggering the curse of the evil spirit. At any one time, the other party will only send a representative to exchange letters with the Andrea Family. All we know about the hermit family is limited to that one person—a very mysterious person that is."
"Isn't that troublesome?" Nangong Wuyue could not wrap her head around it. "Why not make direct contact? Since both are descendants of the witch's minions, is it necessary to be so mysterious?"
"They're also plagued by another curse, perhaps their behavior is related to the contents of their curse," Igor said. "This was the habit of our ancestors. Although our respective ancestors worked together 300 years ago, since the terrible curse took effect, our ancestors chose to livein isolation from each other. Their descendants didn't know why but still followed the tradition diligently. When there's an evil spirit hanging around, you have to always be careful."
Then Igor took a pile of letters out from another small room nearby. "These are the letters."
As the evil spirit in the castle had been expelled, Igor was no longer afraid of angering the evil forces.
The letters were well-preserved though some looked old. From the level of yellowing on the paper, one could almost tell the era it was from. The oldest letters even had the coat of arms from the Catherine period. Hao Ren picked up a letter randomly and read it, but the words were hard-to-understand. It was full of obscure idioms and metaphors.
"...Friends from afar, our situation is steady. The dark voice has never left, but it has also never spread to the outside beyond the nightmare. This year will has been more difficult than the previous years, and the winds in the North have been giving out an ominous vibe. Two of the family's juniors may not be able to survive this winter: their bodies are gradually becoming empty as an indescribable darkness is slowly replacing their souls. I can't say for sure if their skins will still be their own when the next month comes along..."
Again, Hao Ren took another letter. It was written more than 10 years ago and it seemed to have been sent from St. Petersburg.
"To my friend from afar, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Ogyust and I will replace my father in keeping contact with you. My father has left this miserable world and the nightmare has finally left him. I hope that the dark forces will not continue to harrass his soul in the other world. My situation is a bit worse now as the hungry voice has started to sound during the day, but this may be because I'm not skilled enough..."
Hao Ren randomly picked up several more and found that they were basically filled with the same obscure, nonsensical stuff. When mentioning the evil spirits, the writers of the letters were very cautious, and tried not to reveal too much details of their circumstances. Their fear could be felt when he read between the lines. However, Hao Ren felt that something was out of place. He asked Vivian, "How many vengeful spirits are there?
"One." Vivian pointed down. "The one we've just captured."
Nangong Wuyue frowned. "If there's only one vengeful spirit, then what's haunting Ogyust' family?"
"We'll find out when we find him." Hao Ren held up the last letter, which was written a few months ago. "At least we have his address. Let's find him and ask him to return the stone. Igor, could you help contact him?"
Igor rubbed his hands with an embarrassing expression on his face. "Maybe I can write him a letter... Apart from that, I'm afraid there's not much I can help you with. Ogyust and I have completely relied on this obscure communication method for more than 10 years. We know little about each other's family, and we're unable to have a deeper personal friendship. Due to the forbiddance handed down from the ancestors, our families have never met. But if the witch was to reveal her identity to him, I guess it might work."
However, Vivian thought otherwise. "Don't pin your hopes on this completely. He may not necessarily be the same as you..."
Nangong Sanba suddenly chimed in, "Wait a minute, I need to figure out something; Igor, didn't you say that Ogyust is living in St. Petersburg? Is his full name Ogyust Futoryak Rakikh?"
Igor nodded in surprise. "Yeah, how do you know?"
Wuyue looked at him, surprised. "Brother, you know this man?"
"It's a small world." Nangong grinned. "Ogyust, I helped him perform a soothing ritual three years ago. He was about 50, a lone wolf, living in an old house on the outskirts of St. Petersburg."
Everyone was astonished. Igor also found this turn of events incredible. He eagerly asked about the other family who used to serve the witch. "How is the Rakikh Family doing? Their family..."
"Family? They no longer have a family." Nangong Sanba shook his head. "Just as Vivian was worried about, the other person is unlike you: Ogyust is an old man who lives alone in the countryside. He has no relatives or friends. I didn't see anything related to the witch in his house. I'm afraid the family has already come to an end. It's difficult to say whether he even knows of the witch."
Igor's eyes widened, and all his emotions turned into a long sigh.