The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-1428

Chapter 1428: Life as a Tour Guide

A sudden realization made Hao Ren regret his action of asking Lily to sniff Vivian’s belongings. She probably still thought that she was a werewolf and was clueless about her husky-Pekingese lineage. In other words, Lily was proud of her own race. With this in mind, the husky maiden may not be happy if Hao Ren treated her like a search dog. Lily could feel humiliated and get angry. She would bang the table. But there was no table there, so she would hit her thigh with her hand and rise in anger.

However, Hao Ren’s worry did not materialize. Lily did not react like an angry wolf. She just froze for two seconds before she was all smiles again. “Oh, you’ve found the right person. I am a good searcher. Let me take a look.”

Hao Ren was startled. He began to realize something: Lily may not have been aware that she was a werewolf. She may not have even known that werewolves existed in the world.

Lily only knew that she could transform into a powerful, half-human, half-wolf creature. The so-called dignity of her race was not yet in her mind. Her concept of werewolves likely came from her exposure to human society, books, and movies several years later.

Lily must have caught Chunibyo¹ from too much TV.

This was a time when the husky maiden was at her most real self.

Hao Ren was suddenly relieved. He then reached into his Dimensional Pocket and took out an item. Many people would like to think that it was Vivian’s most intimate personal belonging. But since Hao Ren was not a pervert and Vivian had never needed Hao Ren to keep her clothes every time she transformed, it was a disappointment to these people because it was only a mobile phone.

Besides lingerie, the mobile phone was Vivian’s most intimate item, which she would never part with.

“What is this?” The gadget caught Lily’s attention. Her eyes lit up. The shiny surface of the mobile phone screen looked too similar to the glowing stones in her collection.

“This is a magic item belonging to my friend,” Hao Ren said. “Sniff it and keep the scent in your head… Hey, you just need to sniff it. Don’t lick or bite it! Be careful, this thing is made of plastic! Argh, you don’t have to know what is plastic!”

Lily took the phone in her hands, and her nose began to do its job. The husky maiden acted like she had found treasure while Hao Ren looked on in satisfaction.

Hao Ren knew that Vivian had been hibernating for many years, and it was impossible for a dog to find her by scent alone. But all was not lost. Firstly, Lily was not an ordinary dog; she was a super husky and master demon hunter incarnate. Conservatively speaking, she could sniff out the recipe of what someone ate three days ago just from the person’s breath if she or he was within a hundred miles. So if Vivian was hibernating nearby, Lily would be able to find her. Secondly, a long time had passed since Vivian fought the vengeful spirit in Siberia, the pauper should have woken up by now. The hibernation spell should have begun to lose its power, and her scent should have leaked out. The chances of Lily detecting her smell was very high.

Nonetheless, Hao Ren could not rule out the worst case scenario: Vivian had to be very sleepy. It was possible that she was not waking up anytime soon and the hibernation spell was still in effect. Or probably, Vivian had already woken up and gone to the southern hemisphere. If she was still in hibernation, Hao Ren only had to comb the snowfield and dig out the coffin she was hibernating in. But if Vivian had woken up like the second scenario, Hao Ren would curse the high heavens. Either way, he still had to find Vivian no matter where she went.

While Hao Ren was having these thoughts, Lily was done, inevitably licking the phones a few times. She could not help it because the shiny object was too irresistible. The husky returned the phone to Hao Ren reluctantly. “Here you go. I’ve registered the scent in my head.”

“When are we departing?” Hao Ren could not wait already.

“Let’s eat first.” Lily pointed to the pot of steaming meat porridge and grilled salmons. “After dinner, take a rest. We will search for her tomorrow. Don’t worry, I can still remember a scent after 10 years, let alone a night.”

Hao Ren initially could not wait. He was worried that the situation may turn against him with every passing minute. But he needed to take into account what the husky was thinking. She had only gotten to know Hao Ren for less than a day. Her offer to help was a passion out of congeniality. Hao Ren figured that he should not ask for more.

When Hao Ren looked out through the door gap, it was dark. It was nightfall in Siberia. Traveling at night in the snow land of Siberia was not a good idea. It was not because of the dark and freezing temperature—Hao Ren had no problem with that, but because Vivian’s power became even stronger at night. Her place of hibernation would only become harder to find under the influence of the moonlight.

So, Hao Ren reined in his impulse and stayed in the wooden cabin for the first night of his journey back to the future.

The steamy and scrumptious yet rustic meat porridge, the fragrant and unique smoked salmons, the hunter’s cabin in the pine forest, the harsh Siberian cold wind roaring outside, and the swaying fire in the pit; Lily sat across the fireplace, her face filled with a happy and innocent smile. Her big eyes were as bright as amber in front of the fire.

That was the impression Hao Ren had on his first day.

Oh, he could not forget the neverending howls from the wolves outside the cabin.

The next day, it seemed that the wind and snow decided to stop to give Hao Ren a good start.

Lily had gone out before the sky turned bright. She first pulled a few pine trees out of the ground to train her muscles. Then she brought her wolf pack hunting for food. They robbed any poor soul who happened to pass by and almost turned the entire pine forest upside down. When Hao Ren woke up, the husky had already returned with a half-eaten wild boar.

“Today is a good day to find someone,” Lily said in an almost unintelligible manner. Her mouth was stuffed full of roasted wild boar meat. “It isn’t snowing, and visibility is good. I also sent the wolf pack out to scout the nearby forest a little. Didn’t you say that there would be anomalies in the sky if your friend was sleeping nearby? I don’t know what a sky anomaly is, but the wolves apparently found something strange somewhere. We can go there and check it out.”

“Something strange?” It immediately caught Hao Ren’s attention. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a small valley once you pass through the pine forest. Protected from the wind and snow, it’s a natural shelter with a hot spring. It should be a place that’s thriving with life, but the reality is, there’s nothing there. It’s barren. The forest stops abruptly before the valley, and no animals dare to venture into that area. It’s said that those who go there lose their way and die in the valley eventually. How could someone get lost in such a barren and open space? So something must be wrong. The brown bear who lives nearby the area has said that every twelve days or so, there would be a loud noise like that of a landslide in the valley.”

Hao Ren could not wait to go investigate. “That’s right! That should be the anomaly I was talking about. Let’s finish our breakfast and go.”

Hao Ren and Lily wolfed down their breakfast and embarked on their journey to find the valley. The wolf pack led them from the cabin through the forest. It was an arduous journey for ordinary human explorers, but not for Hao Ren, much less Lily and her wolf pack.

With knowledge of the terrain and their extraordinary physical strength, they passed through the pine forest in no time and drew close to the Valley of Death, as known to the wild animals in the woods.

Their surroundings began to appear unnatural.

The forest became less dense, and the vegetation was short as well as withered. It looked as if they had caught some illnesses and weakened. The barks of the trees were dried up and cracked. Hidden underneath the tree barks were signs of disease. Bushes grew close to the ground and were twisted. Many more had dried up and died out.

The pine forest seemed to be fighting an invisible force. The conflict of life and death formed a battlefield there.

Moving farther forward, trees became even fewer than before. Their surroundings were utterly silent. Siberia may have been freezing, but life was thriving in the forest. The howls and cries of animals could be heard everywhere, but near the valley, those sounds were non-existent.

The wolves began to flinch.

Lily rebuked them, and several braver ones moved a few steps forward. But they stopped again.

“We can’t count on them,” Lily said. She knew that something in front was scaring the wits out of the wolves. “Let them return. We can enter the valley on our own.”

Hao Ren looked up past a few dying pine trees. The Valley of Death was already within sight.