Hao Ren peeked out from the window and found that the SUV was driving across a wasteland. The road was rugged. Even with the SUV's superb suspension, the ride was still quite bumpy. Except for more desolation, the surroundings did not change much.
Hessiana asked Turcan drove the vehicle up to a higher ground and let everyone get off. She said this was the destination.
"Nothing unusual here," Hao Ren said as he looked around the barren terrain, broken stones and patches of snow remaining in the cracks in the rock. The Arctic wind blew all day long. There were no signs of life here except a handful of low-lying, tenacious plants persevered in the cracks on the leeward sides of the boulders.
Hessiana looked up at the sky. "Wait," she said.
The sun was slowly setting. As it set closer to the horizon, two huge shadows gradually extended from behind them. Hao Ren turned his head and found that two huge boulders sitting close together on a small mound not far away were casting the shadows that looked like a tuning fork. Looks like the gap between the two shadows was pointing towards the direction of the river.
"We found the way of accessing the 'mysterious realm' in another manuscript," Kassandra explained. "Every month, there are seven-day window when you can enter the mysterious realm. During this period, the sun will shine on the two boulders on the riverbank and cast a shadow that acts as a pointer. The position of the 'gate' is always changing relative to the position of the sun. When the path appears, you still need a bell made by the wizard to disturb the water surface in order to open the 'gate'. Of course, Master has already got the bell."
"Wizards like to do these weird and incomprehensible things. Back then, they were competing with each other to hide their own hermitage in the most complicated way. Their method became weirder by the day. Sometimes, even the wizards found themselves having to spend hours figuring their way back," said Vivian. "They did this to evade the pursuit of the demon hunters, but soon they turned it into a sport in disguise, where wizards secretly competing with each other to create the best and most creative secret realm. I knew a guy got himself killed by the demon hunters on the way home because he couldn't find the door back home."
Nangong Wuyue looked at Vivian sideways. "How did you get to know so many people?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "You might as well ask her why the people she knew all ended up dying…"
At this time, the sun has set to the position where the shadow of the boulders had reached the river. Hessiana took the lead. "Let's go, the path has appeared."
They follow path to the riverbank, but Hessiana kept going. The strange thing happened, she stepped her foot on the water and walked on the surface right to the middle of the river.
The weather was cold but not cold enough to freeze the river surface. There was thin layer of ice formed on the river edge but it was not known whether this was because of the weather or the influence of supernatural forces.
Turcan and Kassandra followed from behind Hessiana. By now, Lily figured that it might be magical environment of the mysterious realm, so she took up her courage and ran to keep up with them.
But she ran into the water.
Lily got the shock of her life and jumped out of the water frantically. She was soaked from the knee down. Hessiana glanced over her shoulder, asking curiously, "What are you doing?"
Lily staggered up the riverbank, embarrassed. "Isn't the river surface walkable? Why I couldn't do that?"
"Who told you that you?" Hessiana threw an inexplicable look. "We have magic helping us to walk on the water."
Everyone: "….."
Feeling embarrassed, Lily banged her head against Hao Ren's arm. "It's my fault, I was over imaginative. It's my fault, I was over imaginative…"
"Guys, please wait on the riverbank." Hessiana motioned with her hand and yanked out a quaint copper bell. When she had found the exact position, she gently rang the brass bell.
A thunderous sound came out of the bell!
That caught everyone by surprise. As the bell rang, a shockwave burst under Hessiana's feet and ripples on the river spread. The ripples reached the water edge, onto the mud and then up the rocks on the riverbanks. The surroundings was rippling like water, pulsating in tandem with the rings of the bell!
Then the weird thing happened. Buildings and trees that did not exist before began to emerge on the wasteland. Swaying shadows that looked like houses rose up on the riverbanks while ghost-like figures emerged between these wavy shadows. Hao Ren began to hear voices engaging in trivial conversations in some ancient European language. Hao Ren instinctively switched on his translation plug-in. A few fragmented conversation drifted into his ears, it was about some seigneur.
Suddenly, the illusions disappeared, and the vision before Hao Ren's eyes normalised.
Everyone looked around and found himself still standing by the river, at the same spot before the vision. Something not there before had now existed. Houses, streets, wooden towers; it was a small town built on the riverbank.
Hao Ren looked at the houses, they were very ancient, most of them were constructed of wood and stone, and wooden trestles that seemed like docks of fish boats extending out from the houses into the river. Most of the roads between houses were dirt roads, but there were some slated or pebbled roads. Black oil lamps were hanging from the lampposts on both sides of the roads.
The town seemed as old as hundreds of years—or even longer. It was as if a medieval town that came straight out of a movie.
Lily looked up at the sky and found the sky had changed. A thick layer of smoke of unknown thickness was now shrouding the town. The smoke seemed to have come from a fire that had been burning for days. The dim surroundings made the quiet structure look even spookier.
"Is this the mysterious realm?" Hao Ren appeared a little surprised. "I thought... I thought it was only a castle or something."
Hessiana and her team returned to the shore. They laughed at Hao Ren's naivety. "A witch's lair doesn't mean it has got to be small."
"But this is just too big," Hao Ren said, pouting his mouth at the surroundings. "This is simply out of scale with a hermit's home."
"I don't know what happened back then. But it seems that the wizard had dragged the whole town into his enchantment," Hessiana said, nodding. "We hadn't had time to explore the town in the past. This is only my second time here. As Kassandra said, there is only a seven-day window. The last time I came, the window was closing; I managed to linger for a half an hour before it kicked me out. So be careful, my experience may not be of help."
Nangong Sanba quietly took out his magic props from his toolbox. He placed Letta rune cards on the houses, poured some pungent-smelled magic oil on the ground and ignited them. Immediately, the magic oil burned. Despite the wind, the flame was steady. Under the illumination of the flame, some small shadows began to retreat.
Hessiana's brows knit together and coughed when she smelled the burning magic oil. "What's that?"
"It stabilises the spiritual dimension." Nangong Sanba looked serious; his eyes glowed in white in the dark, as if his pupils had disappeared had disappeared from his eyes. "I see many spirits. I am afraid our presence has disturbed them."
Lily immediately drew out her Frostfire Claws. "I'm not afraid of ghosts."
Nangong Wuyue also raised her hand. "Me too. Elemental creature has no feeling towards the spirit."
Hao Ren looked at the two in surprise, wondering when chicken duo had suddenly become so darling.
Nangong Sanba shook his head and said, "The spirits may not be a threat in themselves, and they keep the place stable. If they get out of control, the dimension might crumble. So I need to stabilise it."
"It's your call." Hao Ren nodded and rubbed his arms instinctively. "After hearing what you said, I start to get goose bumps."
Hessiana gave him a sideways glance. "People like you are still afraid of ghost?"
"Not that I'm scared. But imagine that there are hundreds of pairs of invisible eyes staring at you in the dark…"
"Stop it, Hao Ren!" Hessiana snapped. She started to rub her arms too. "I've got goose bumps."