The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-463

Chapter 463: The Traveling Ascetics

They traveled by spaceship back to the Kuiper Belt before they were teleported back to the basement at home. There was no reason for them to take a detour this time, because they had Y’lisabet with them. The little girl was too active to be running safely in the streets. The main culprits were the two little, cute demonic horns on her head, which may have been difficult to explain even if she was disguised as an anime lover. The Southern Suburbs was a calm and pristine place. Any little thing that happened would quickly become headline news in the community. If Y’lisabet were to stand on the corner of a street, those overzealous old ladies would definitely take turns condemning Hao Ren for raising a child in a bad way.

Out from the portal, Hao Ren was very satisfied to see the house clean and dusted. It seemed Becky, who stayed at home this entire time, had been very dedicated. For a mercenary to do house chores, it was pretty extraordinary. Y’lisabet jumped and ran around in the basement. “Is this where Uncle Ren lives? It’s a little dim in here…”

“It’s Uncle Hao… Anyway, never mind.” Hao Ren facepalmed and finally gave up correcting how the little girl should address him. “This place is the basement of my house, Vivian lives in here. My house isn’t as large as your dad’s castle. Earth’s living space has always been scarce. Let me warn you first, though; don’t ever touch anything in my house, especially things down here in the basement. Those equipment are very important. You got that?”

Y’lisabet had wanted to poke the white “coffins” with her small screwdriver for some time now. After that, she could only put it away in frustration. Seeing her restless eyes darting around the room curiously, Hao Ren knew this little girl would absolutely not be able control herself—she was daring enough to even jab the alien spacecraft, so she and Y’zaks were definitely cut from the same cloth.

But Hao Ren had faith in the empire’s techology. No matter how hard the mischievous child tried with her screwdriver, she would not be able to do any real damage…

Lily stretched her body and it made her look like she was having convulsive seizures as she let out an “Arf”. It was only after the stretching that she sighed comfortably. “I’m home, at long last.”

When they were out, the husky showed no signs of being home sick. She only lamented about it now.

The movement in the basement had caught the attention of people upstairs. Hao Ren heard footsteps on the staircase beside him. Shortly after, Becky’s head poked through the doorway. “Yay, you’re back, Landlord!”

Becky had really adapted and become an earthling through-and-through. The rustic appearance she used to have when she first came from the Plane of Dreams was no more. Wearing baggy cartoon themed pajamas, and a pair of flurry slippers, she was even holding a TV remote in her hand when she poked through the doorway. Not only did she fully adapt to the life there, she also treated the rented house as her own.

Y’lisabet was a curious bunny. When she saw the human, she lunged towards Becky excitedly. “Who are you?” she asked.

Hao Ren stepped forward and pulled Y’lisabet back as he introduced her to Becky, who seemed to be a little startled. “She’s Y’zaks daughter, Y’lisabet.”

Becky’s reaction was exactly the same as Hao Ren Ren when he saw Y’lisabet for the first time. She almost could not believe that this almost Barbie-doll-like girl was actually Y’zaks’ daughter. But seeing the two sharp horns on her head, Becky could not deny that it was a fact. Becky reached out to touch the horns on Y’lisabet’s head. “Are these real?”

The girl suddenly exclaimed proudly, “Of course they are. My horns are the most beautiful!”

As she spoke, the little girl pulled a small box of varnish out of nowhere. She then lathered it on her horns and rubbed it up with a handkerchief. It was no wonder why Hao Ren always found the girl’s horns to be shinier than the other demons’. He initially thought it was because she was young, only to find that she had been waxing her horns all this while… Was it in their genes?

They came out from the basement into the living room and found that the TV was on. It was dark outside. No wonder Becky was in her pajamas, it was late at night.

Y’lisabet’s eyes still darted around curiously. She cheered when she saw the TV.

This time, without needing a glare from Hao Ren, Y’zaks picked the girl up and forfeited her little screwdriver. “Don’t! Don’t touch anything! Otherwise, I’ll have to send you back to school in Helcrown!”

The little girl immediately shrivelled like a flattened balloon in the air. “Aye…”

Looking at the lively scene, something suddenly crossed Hao Ren’s mind. “I just realized—we don’t have enough rooms upstairs. Where is the little girl going to stay?”

Without much thought, Nangong Wuyue said, “She will stay with her father.”

Y’lisabet immediately covered her chest with both hands after hearing this (Y’zaks was still holding her up by her collar). In a serious manner, she said, “No—like Lanina said, girls must not sleep with daddy after one hundred.”

Hao Ren almost choked. “One hundred…”

Discussing age with this long-living race was pointless as the gap was obviously a little too huge.

Becky looked at Hao Ren, then Elizabeth, before hesitantly saying, “Actually, there’s a room now.”

Hao Ren immediately looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“The four ascetics… I mean the four masters, have now become one. The other three have gone to travel the world,” said Becky, sticking her tongue out. “So, now there’s a vacant room.”

Hao Ren was perplexed. “What? Travel the world?”

Just as Becky about to speak again, the sound of the back door opening was heard. Hao Ren turned and saw Big Beardy walking in. He was chewing a half-charred bun. Apparently, he had just finished his day of practice in the wild and he was coming back in for a nap.

Big Beardy saw Hao Ren and the others. He was slight startled before he smiled. “Oh, all of you are back! Is everything good?”

“Yeah, pretty good.” Hao Ren nodded automatically. Then, suddenly things came to mind. “Wait a second! What is all this travelling around the world about? Where are the others?”

Big Beardy smiled solemnly as though it did not concern him. “Walking the path of the goddess requires one not to be trapped in a single place. One must go out and experience the trials and tribulations of sweetness as well as sorrow in the world. It’s normal for the three of them to set out to travel the world.”

Cold sweat trickled down Hao Ren’s back instantly as he burst out, “Don’t you know who you are? Yet, you guys still roam around? Don’t you know you guys are otherworldlings in this world?”

Big Beardy smiled as he pointed to Vivian and the others. “Who among us is not an otherworldling here? Since they are free to move around, why aren’t we?”

His reply stifled Hao Ren’s words. There was truth in what Big Beardy said, but he still found it extremely not right. “But your case is different: you guys are from the Plane of Dreams, it—”

The bearded man smiled and interrupted him. “No matter how far we go, we’re still under the eyes of Raven, the goddess. If something happens, I wonder if you’d have trouble finding them. You even crossed the bridge of the world, didn’t you?”

Hao Ren was again stifled. Thinking for a long moment, he finally figured what was wrong: it was the four ascetics’ alien way of life! As alien as Vivian was, she had been living among the humans. As transcendent as Lily was as a husky, she had been doing pretty well among the literati. Nangong Wuyue had recently been hailed as a little pop-folk queen. Even Y’zaks looked like a nice guy when his face was covered up. They would not be easily spotted in the crowd, because their expertise was assimilation. But the four ascetics… the habit of living in the wild alone was enough to earn them a five-minute slot on the prime time news.

Hao Ren’s eyes turned, looking at the TV. He feared that the three other ascetics may suddenly popped up on the broadcast news. “Poachers have been spotted in Kekexili. The trio have been wantonly hunting the Tibetan antelopes. The suspects have good survival skills and they are now in a standoff with the anti-poaching team…”

With their living habits, a situation like that was not entirely impossible!

Big Beardy seemed to know what Hao Ren was thinking. He smiled calmly. “I know you’re worried about us being unaware of the local rules and customs, that we’ll make a mess in this world. Rest assured, since the day we learned it was not allowed to set up tent under the TV tower, we have been studying the various ways of life around the world. We don’t lack common knowledge of life on Earth. The three of them have even brought along a list of endangered species when they left…”

Hao Ren was speechless.

It seemed that the masters were indeed pretty self-aware.