The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 441

Chapter 441: The Gigantic Spaceship

 

The Helcrown had been floating in the boundless chaos of the dark space for a long time and it finally arrived at the pitstop. On the tower terrace, the crowd could see some big and small shadows emerging from the dim sky. There were a lot of weird pieces of fragments and they were rapidly being magnified in front of the crowd. Hao Ren soon found that these fragments were much larger than he had imagined.

The largest of them was even the size of the Helcrown!

The Helcrown began to slow down and drift cautiously through the huge fragments. Pieces of weird, mountain-like things continued to sweep past the city. Their surface was covered with rough potholes and eerie ridges, which to Hao Ren appeared like the fractured exterior of some gigantic object that had been torn apart by brute force. Nangong Wuyue emerged out of the water and was surprised to see the “floating island” hovering over the city. “Whoa…”

Lily, who was running around in the city noticed something strange in the sky and immediately scurried back to the tower. She ran towards Hao Ren and started to bare her fangs as well as brandish her claws at the gigantic objects in the sky. “Wh-What are those?”

A swarm of bats flew to the terrace and re-emerged as Vivian. Vivian frowned at the objects in the sky and said, “They look like… pieces of a wreckage?”

Hao Ren had a feeling that the floating fragments were not ordinary objects too. Not only because they looked like wreckage bits, but also because he saw man-made traces in those fragments!

He saw a flat groove in some of the larger fragments and noticed neat surfaces that did not form naturally. On other pieces, he could even see something like a broken pipe sticking out of them. All the torn pieces of wreckage carried the same luster of somthing between metal and plastic. Although he did not know what it was, it was obviously not stone—these things were man-made!

“Didn’t you study these things?” Hao Ren looked at Y’lisabet. The young lady immediately put her hands on her hips and said, “Of course we did! They were blown up and detached from a huge man-made object. The main body of the man-made object isn’t far ahead, let’s go. However, I don’t know what it is.”

At this point, Lily saw a huge shadow amid the dark clouds in the distance. She immediately tugged on Hao Ren’s clothes and said, “Landlord! Look over there!”

Hao Ren looked towards the direction of Lily’s finger and was shocked right away. In between the dark thin clouds, there was a huge thing gradually emerging. It was like a mountain range that stretched across space, but its length was difficult to estimate. It could have spanned hundreds of kilometers. As the Helcrown was getting closer, Hao Ren confirmed the details of the gigantic object. It was a symmetrical structure, composed of two main bodies, and the main structure had been ripped apart. The torn towers and thee pierced armored bands were proof that the behemoth had suffered a thrilling catastrophe. Despite that, its miserable appearances still could not conceal its grandeur. Even after becoming a wreck, it was still a stunning… gigantic starship!

“It’s a spaceship!” Lily perked up her ears at once. “A spaceship!”

Y’lisabet immediately looked at them curiously and asked, “You’ve seen this thing before?”

Hao Ren was still in shock, but he did not forget to answer the young lady’s question. “I’ve never seen it, but it’s a classic structure. It’s a spaceship for navigating in space.”

“A spaceship?” Elizabeth was not unfamiliar with the concept of a spaceship because her father spent his life studying how to build one. But, her concept of the spacecraft was obviously not the same as the gigantic object in front of her, and the scale was absolutely not to this extent. If Hao Ren and the others had never seen spaceships made by various civilizations, which allowed them to determine this sort of thing intuitively, they would have probably not been able to immediately confirm that the unrecognizable object was indeed a spaceship!

At this time, the air around them twisted. Y’zaks teleported directly out from the engine room. He patted Hao Ren on the shoulder and said, “Hey! Did you see that thing? It looks like a spaceship!”

Y’zaks’s patted Hao Ren’s shoulder so hard that his feet sank more than two inches into the ground and his body was now covered in his protective shield. Hao Ren immediately grimaced with pain. He lifted his legs and punched Y’zaks. “Can’t you pat my shoulder a little lighter? Don’t you know that you’re a walking chariot!”

Y’zaks scratched his big, bald head and apologized. “I was too excited… Y’lisabet, you said that the two energy cores in the engine room were found from there?”

The demon girl nodded vigorously. She then pointed to the middle of the gigantic ship’s wreckage and said, “They were dug out from that place. There was a huge hole that allowed us to get into the wreckage.”

The Helcrown had now drifted towards the wreckage, and it was slowing down to find a place to dock. The city’s obsidian walls released a series of huge hooks, ready to be fastened to the wreckage. They could not wait for the city to stop in order for them to go and explore the giant ship. Y’lisabet saw it and insisted on following them. Hao Ren was surprised. He glanced at the young lady and said, “You want to come with us too? It’s a place full of radiation, not a place to play. Your little body probably won’t be able to handle it.”

It was not a problem for higher-order demons like Y’zaks and Lanina to enter the space without bringing anything with them. After all, their physical conditions had reached the peak of perfection. This short and skinny little demoness on the other hand, made Hao Ren worried. With her physical condition, she was probably considered a handicapped child among the demons…

Y’lisabet snapped her fingers and covered herself with a shimmering energy shield. “My body is a little weak, but I’m not stupid. Can’t you use your brains?” Y’lisabet said

Y’zaks patted Hao Ren on the shoulder and said, “Knowledge is power.”

“…”

As the Helcrown docked near the wreckage of the ship, they left the tower to venture into the depths of the wreckage. Lily, Vivian, and Nangong Wuyue also put on the life-sustaining neckbands to join them. Soon, they came to the “great hole” and they were startled by the scene before them.

The middle section of the gigantic wreckage was twisted and nearly broken off. A huge radial hole was present in front of them. The spacecraft itself spanned hundreds of kilometers, and the hole was like a large crater, which lay across the ship. Its width was almost one-third the size of the hull. The spaceship’s armor belt near the hole had obviously suffered a tremendous impact, leaving behind ripple-like folds akin to melted plastic. The thick and strong hull structure was torn and warped. It was pointed towards the vast space, looking sad and dreary.

Hao Ren’s attention did not linger too long on the ship itself as he soon discovered that there were more things around the hole that they should be aware of: a large number of entities, which looked like plant roots or tentacles emerged from the hole and stretched out in all directions of the ship’s hull. The ship was almost wrapped up by those tentacles, making it look strange and creepy.

Lily was agitated at the sight of the tentacles. She kept moving her hands in the air, and jumping up and down. Hao Ren grabbed her tail and asked, “What’s wrong with you?!”

Lily just remembered that she could use the communicator, and immediately shouted, “Run!”

Vivian glared at Lily and said, “Can you please stop being so useless? Those tentacles are obviously dead, okay?”

While she spoke, she started the propeller to move closer to the huge hole, albeit not expertly. Hao Ren was worried about them and quickly moved to her side.

Indeed, as Vivian said, those tentacles were “dead”.

The tentacles on the hull of the ship’s wreckage had withered away. Although they still seemed frightening, there was no breath of life in them. Y’zaks then stepped on one of the tentacles lightly, and it quietly broke into pieces.

A lot of broken tentacles could be seen near the hole. These were traces that Y’lisabet had left behind when she led men there to explore.

It was the carcass of a First Born.

It was already dead.

Chapter 442: Wreckage

 

They slowly drifted into the spaceship through the hole in the center of the wreckage. Everyone was careful, including Y’zaks.

The huge hole, cracked deck, and structure of the spacecraft, which was earlier hidden in the dark; these things suddenly appeared before them and even Vivian, who was rarely afraid of anything felt a little nervous. Additionally, the strange tentacles that grew out of the hole gave her goosebumps. Hao Ren and Y’zaks floated at the front of the team. Y’zaks summoned a demonic flame to disperse the darkness in the hole, but the dim light made the giant tentacles around them look grim and eerie. Those tentacles were were entangled with the surrounding armor debris like a shadow monster that spread from the abyss of sin, and made everyone shudder.

Y’lisabet once led a man there before to explore, so she climbed onto Y’zaks’s shoulder to give directions. They found an entrance on one side of the wall under the little girl’s guidance. It seemed like an explosion had happened there, and some of the tentacles had been blown off, revealing a dark passage.

Hao Ren was the first one to enter the channel. He found that the number of tentacles in the channel was slightly lesser, but the channel had clearly been occupied by the First Born as well. Thick roots pierced the surrounding walls and ceilings, twisting and growing around them. Of course, just like the other places, the tentacles there were already “dead”.

Hao Ren took the MDT out. “Check the surroundings,” he said.

The MDT emitted a faint blue light, scanning key clues hidden behind the corridor walls. It then muttered, “This ship isn’t recorded in the Xi Ling Empire’s database. Its probably not a product of a civilization under the Empire’s rule, nonetheless it looks very advanced.”

Lily had her tail tucked and she followed Hao Ren from behind, brandishing her Frostfire Claws. She would poke the tentacles anxiously from time to time as she passed by to confirm that the First Born was completely dead. She kept saying, “They seem to be completely dead… This feels a little bit like cement when I touch it…”

Y’lisabet looked at their caution and nervous behaviour curiously while she pointed the way. She asked, “Are these tentacles horrible? Have you guys seen the First Born before?”

“Yes, it’s very powerful, and humans would basically be killed in seconds. However, I’ve only seen this thing in the other world.” Hao Ren nodded and said, “I can’t figure out how it came to be here… So, the First Born can even travel from another world? When did time traveling become so easy?”

Y’lisabet was surprised. “Very strong? Even stronger than Dad?”

Y’zaks smiled and nodded. “Much stronger than me. I tried to smash the thing with a meteorite but I still couldn’t kill it—didn’t expect to see a dead one here.”

Y’lisabet was shocked and began to get a little scared when she recalled the time she led a team to explore the place for several days. Meanwhile, the MDT completed scanning a wide range of the channel and discovered a few things about the state of the tentacles as well as the spacecraft. “The First Born appears to have grown with the ship.”

“Grown with the ship?” Hao Ren was astonished.

“Yes.” The MDT floated up and down as it explained, “The tentacles invaded the ship’s various structures, which did not happen in a short period of time. According to the distribution of the tentacles and the deformation of the spacecraft’s structure, this invasion process should have lasted for a while—like a growth process.”

Vivian released her Blood Mist to cover the surface of the tentacles along the way and easily corroded a large chunk of the tentacles. She then collected a biological sample of it at the same time. She looked interested in the matter and said, “I never thought the First Born would naturally die… I thought they were imperishable.”

“How did it die?” Hao Ren asked curiously.

“It starved to death.” Vivian smirked. “The nutrients in the tentacles are basically gone, and some of the biological tissues have signs of self-digestion. The difference is obvious when compared with the sample of the First Born I found in the Plane of Dreams earlier on. These tentacles are obviously malnourished.”

Hao Ren was shocked. “Starved to death!? How can the First Born starve to death?”

“No matter how strong it is, it’s still a living creature. Whatever it does it’ll have to consume energy, but it’s not like the goddess, who can create things out of nothing,” Vivian dispersed her Blood Mist and told them about her speculation. “I guess the First Born was accidentally dropped here, probably via a plane crash.”

Lily was wielding Flamejoy, and enthusiastically “cutting the grass”. When she heard Vivian’s words, she looked up to ask, “How do you know it was an accident?”

Vivian stared at her and said, “The First Born is obviously a highly intelligent being. How could anyone with a normal brain find a place that will cause starvation upon himself? It appears as though it crashed into the spaceship, then got hurt and couldn’t get away.”

Lily looked at Vivian from head to toe and said, “But, before you met our landlord, you would starve yourself wherever you go…”

“My situation was different!” Vivian said angrily.

“Enough! Can you two not quarrel right now?” Hao Ren quickly came in between the two enemies. “Lily, you continue scratching the walls. Vivian, you have a point. I also think it was a plane crash. Don’t forget, there’s a big hole in the ship. According to the hole’s diameter, I don’t think it’s likely that the people on the ship opened the door in a peaceful and friendly situation…”

They went deep into the spaceship through the passage, which was completely eroded by the tentacles. The farther they went the wider the path became. They seemed to have entered the main corridor of the spaceship, but the situation there was equally bad: the First Born had fully integrated into the vessel with its tentacles occupying all corners of the ship.

After searching around in the main corridor, they finally saw something.

They arrived at a rectangular hall, which looked like the main control room of the ship.

The hall was also covered with tentacles and roots. The black withered tentacles made the hall as eerie as the jungle. They could see some alloy pillars of different sizes in between the tentacles. The pillars were supposed to be the spaceship’s control board, but now, they had become supporting pillars for the First Born’s roots.

“It looks like the ‘core’.” Hao Ren noticed the peculiarity of the place in a glance: a lot of roots seemed to spread from this spot. Huge, big roots that were far bigger than the rest, which stretched out from the holes in the walls. The tangled tentacles on the ground were interwoven at the center of the hall. In the middle of all the roots, a large batch of dead biological tissue could be seen.

The pile could only be described as “a batch of biological tissue” because the First Born’s appearance had always been abstract. Even a biologist would not know what to call it.

Lily help up her Flamejoy, cautiously drifting forward. At the same time, she sniffed her surroundings solemnly and said, “I smell the stench of death…”

“Stop acting. You can’t smell anything on a life-sustaining neckband,” said Hao Ren. He came to the center of the hall and stopped at the edge of the large, nameless biological debris. He bent forward to look at the withered, dead tissue and said, “This First Born is much smaller than the one we dealt with in the Gnarled Grove. Its body makes it look like its just this big. Is this considered a cub?”

“Severe malnutrition leads to the inability to grow,” Vivian said as she looked at the center of the debris. She hesitated for a while and decided to release a small bat. The little bat fluttered and disappeared into the air…

“Come back! Come back!” Vivian said quickly.

Hao Ren covered his face and said, “This place has no air. Don’t suffocate your bat.”

After Vivian turned the bat into Blood Mist and took it back, Y’lisabet pointed to the middle of the indescribable dead tissue. “Its energy core has been plucked from it. At that time, they were wrapped in a layer of fossil shells. They kept glowing, so I dug the core out.”

Hao Ren looked up and found something in the area Y’lisabet was pointing to. Some thick shells that looked like plant pods were scattered there. Some broken “leaf stalks” were also visible around the thick shells.

“‘The energy core is the First Born’s seed?” Nangong Wuyue muttered as she touched her chin.

“In comparison,” Hao Ren frowned and said, “I feel that this First Born isn’t the same as the one we encountered in the Plane of Dreams.”

Chapter 443: A Huge Amount of Information

 

“Not the same? What’s the difference?” Vivian looked at Hao Ren and asked, “Because this one’s still a ‘baby’?”

“Not just because it’s still a ‘baby’,” Hao Ren looked at the tentacles as well as biological tissue debris around him and said, “the First Born we saw in the Plane of Dreams was closer to some kind of plant and it had precise differentiated functions such as the woods on the surface, the tentacles in the rocks, the ‘heart’ buried in the ground, as well as the various nerve tissues. But, this one looks like it didn’t experience a complete evolution. It’s more like an embryo.”

Nangong Wuyue also added, “And how it came into this world from the Plane of Dreams is also a big problem.”

Hao Ren looked around the hall. This was the hub of the spacecraft, and there were many passages leading of to some location. The tentacles of the First Born spread along these passages, and there was a possibility that some of its organs could be found elsewhere. Hao Ren thought about it and decided that they go for it separately. “Let’s split up. It’ll be more efficient. Let’s contact each other immediately if any one of us finds anything.”

Everybody agreed and divided into groups; Lily and Hao Ren; Y’zaks,his daughter and Lanina; Vivian and Nangong Wuyue. The three groups set out in three directions after a rigorous process of guessing coins and turning sticks.

Lily held up her Flamejoy and walked cheerfully ahead. She wanted to play, so she was not timid. Hao Ren followed the husky girl and cautiously observed his surroundings as he walked forward. Their exploration had taken them a long distance from the hall and they found some empty compartments. However, the compartments were either empty, or contained ordinary tentacles that were of little value.

However, Lily was very excited. Whenever she found something rare in the spaceship, she would pick it up and stuff it into her pocket. Soon, she filled every single pocket on her body. In the end, she could only stuff the rest into Hao Ren’s Dimensional Pocket. Hao Ren looked at the girl, unable to understand why she was doing all of this. “It’s understandable if you’re collecting unique and bizarre stones, but what’s the point of collecting useless debris?”

Lily answered seriously, “It doesn’t matter if they’re useful or not. Just take them back first. This is common sense for werewolves!”

Hao Ren then thought, The kind of werewolves Lily had in mind probably included those pulling sleds in the Arctic Circle as well…

The two of them chatted while they walked forward. Finally, they found an empty room. The door of the room was almost completely blocked by tentacles. Without waiting for Hao Ren’s command, Lily waved her paws and cut them up happily. She soon cleaned up the withered tentacles and Hao Ren held the MDT up to light up the room. “Seems like there’s no… Wait a minute! There’s something there!”

The MDT’s blue light scanned the room, and a reflective thing immediately caught Hao Ren’s attention. He quickly floated in and dug the thing out of a pile of tentacles. He found that he was right; it was a small device and it still looked intact.

They had been having a bad feeling all the way because there was nothing but tentacles along their path. The big ship was so clean that it felt like it came out fresh from the oven. Whatever happened did not feel like a sudden attack, but an orderly evacuation. And now, they finally found something interesting.

The small device was only the size of his palm. It was shaped like an oval pancake with a smooth surface, but there were no buttons on it. Hao Ren asked the MDT, “What is it?”

The MDT floated over, scanned it and answered, “It appears to be my foreign friend…”

“What?”

“Oh, I mean this thing appears to be a data processing device, like a PDA, but I don’t know which civilization made it.”

Hao Ren immediately asked a follow-up question, feeling hopeful. “Can you retrieve its data?”

“The difficulty is high.” The MDT turned around the small device, touched it and asked, “Hey, hey, buddy, still alive?”

There was still no response from it. The MDT sadly shook its body and said, “It’s already dead.”

Hao Ren took out the alloy brick from his Dimensional Pocket to aim it at the MDT and threatened it, “Do you believe that I’ll knock you with this? Want to try?”

The MDT immediately sprang back to the small device and said, “I’m just trying to ease the atmosphere here. Don’t panic. Let me retrieve it…”

The MDT clung to the old device, which had been scrapped for tens of thousands of years. It released a faint blue light as it started to crack any information that may have remained inside the device. Because it was hard to determine the storage mechanism and the object’s structure, the MDT was slowly fidgeting about while retrieving the data. Lily looked at the scene and touched her chin as though she was thinking about something. Then, she said, “Why do I feel like the MDT’s molesting the corpse…”

Hao Ren slapped Lily on the head and scolded her, “Can you not think about such things! You were so pure when you first arrived. How did you end up becoming so wretched?!”

Lily covered her head. She looked at Hao Ren with feelings of injustice and said, “I’m very pure. I haven’t even gone into heat yet, but you can’t stop me from reading everything.”

Hao Ren suddenly realized the cultural difference between the young lady and himself.

The MDT was occupied as he listened to two people without moral integrity discuss the issue of moral integrity. The MDT really could not stand it any longer, and muttered, “Okay, enough. I’m not interested in this dwarf device with four redundant processors. I long for a bold and unconstrained host with full processing cores, expansion slots all over the body, coupled with 16 threads. Of course, preferably the one on the battleship…”

Hao Ren was surprised to find that there was also a cultural difference between his PDA and himself!

At this point, the MDT seemed to have finally found something. It suddenly exclaimed in surprise, “Huh, seriously ! There really is a small amount of data saved in here!”

“Show it to me, now!” Hao Ren could not wait to see it.

The MDT then processed the data. “Wait a minute, I’m translating it and putting aside the useless materials. Don’t tell me you’re interested in alien pornography?”

Hao Ren held up the alloy brick and threatened the MDT, “Want to try it?”

The MDT shuddered and hastened to release the processed documents. “Let’s see, this should be the log of the spaceship’s crew. Probably, information on the First Born eroding the ship is recorded in here.”

The log was translated and the most valuable part of the intelligence was extracted. Hao Ren and Lily quickly read it with caution.

“Log one, keywords: navigation record.

“We have arrived in this galaxy for six months. At present, we have found a large number of living star systems and habitable planets. It should be a thriving land of life. These days, we’ve been busy recording coordinates and collecting data from the planets. It’s quite boring, but we feel happy when we discover a living planet. We noticed the creatures called demons. They are highly intelligent, but they seem grumpy and unable to negotiate. Perhaps, it has something to do with the harsh environment in which they live in? Some of those planets aren’t really good places to live in. This is the first time I’ve seen a creature that can move in magma.

“Log two, keywords: unexpected disasters.

“There was an incredible accident and I should be glad that I’m still alive… May the winds of the homeland bless us. We do not know how long this spaceship can persist! A huge… Strange things suddenly appeared in space and something crashed into the spacecraft. It contains an incomprehensible energy. At the moment of contact, it overloaded the ship’s shield system and almost broke the ship. Now, the weird sphere is stuck in the central hangar. It’s unbelievable that a ball, just a couple hundred meters wide caused a hole more than 10 kilometers wide. This should be related to some kind of space phenomenon. A serious gas leak occurred in the spacecraft and thousands of people are dead or missing. The emergency control device has successfully stopped the gas leak and the spread of fire, but we may not be able to repair the ship.

“Log three, keywords: growing, bizarre.

“Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable! I can only express my surprise. I am a biologist, who has spent my life studying the creatures of the universe. But I never thought that the sphere, which crashed into the spaceship’s hangar would be some form of life! It was just a sphere yesterday, but today, its surface has cracked and something strange is growing out from it… I’m sure that’s a sign of life. It has moved across the span of space, surviving in the universe. It possesses a mighty power. Why is there such a thing in the world? Today, the people on the ship had a meeting to discuss what to do with the sphere. Some suggested throwing it back into space, but soon, we found it impossible. The sphere has ‘taken root’ on our ship, and its powerful supernatural forces have prevented some of the more violent tests from being carried out. We can only watch it lie there now and pray that it will not bring harm to us.

“P.S. The navigator also came face to face with a bad situation. For some reason, the space around the spacecraft seems to be closed. We appear to be temporarily trapped in a warped space bubble. The only consolation now is that the technicians look like they are able to repair the hyperspace modules of the escape boats. They seem to be planning an evacuation. I should probably study the thing that is growing out of the sphere before I leave.

“Log four, keywords: a gentle seed.

“I’ve been dealing with the weird creature that has been growing fast in the sphere these past few days. To my surprise, it is gentle. Although we still can’t communicate with each other smoothly, it seems to realize that it is on someone else’s ship, so it has cautiously slowed down the speed of its expansion. If I’m not mistaken, it also tried to express its apologies to me. Of course, other people don’t care about my little discoveries. They are busy investigating the changes in space. The ship is trapped in a state more serious than expected.”

Hao Ren was stunned when he read this, and asked, “It says the ‘First Born’ was very gentle?!”

Lily was also stunned by what she had just read. When she recalled the savage tentacles, the fur on Lily’s tail suddenly stood up on end. She kept shaking her head, and said, “How could it be gentle?! I was almost eaten by it!”

At this point, the MDT was still extracting data from the log. Hao Ren temporarily put aside his confusion and continued to read the next record.

“Log five, keywords: mutation of space.

“I really want to keep track of that ‘space sphere’, but I have to record a worse situation today: the spatial structure around us seems to have changed to a detectable range.

“It is now possible to determine that the spacecraft is indeed trapped in a weird situation like a warped bubble. The surrounding space has been closed off, as if the entire universe has shrunk to a mere 10 million kilometers in diameter. The detector that we released met a closed space wall and after flying in one direction, it came back from the other side of the space bubble. The technicians calculated the detector’s looped path and finally concluded that the center of the enclosed space is our ship. What happened? Has the universe collapsed around us? No matter what, the technicians are still looking for the cause of the mutation, but I am not optimistic.

“Log six, keywords: none.

“We know too little about the universe.

“That strange, sphere creature—I can only call it this way, now—seems to be the root of everything. The technicians were analysing the instrumental records of the sphere creature when it suddenly appeared near the spacecraft. They were surprised to find that it was not a spatial leap in the ordinary sense, but rather a more peculiar phenomenon of teleportation. The records show that when the sphere appeared, the laws of nature around it were distorted as if the sphere ‘dropped’ in from a universe that was different from ours. It may be that this ‘time traveling’ behaviour triggered a spatial pattern of confusion, causing us to be trapped in a closed space bubble. Fortunately, there are indications that the space around us is not completely sealed. Some unstable teleportation points can be opened at a fixed location, and technicians are testing the opening rules.

“Log seven, keyword: bubble, spreading.

“We have finally confirmed the situation outside, whereby the ‘outside’ refers to the situation outside the space bubble.

“Things are more bizarre than we thought. There is a strange atmosphere in the spaceship and everyone is upset. It is clear that there has been a great change outside the space bubble for some time, but we know nothing about it: The outer space structure has been torn apart.

“Technicians have opened several teleportation portals to the outside world. The detectors succeeded in teleporting and turning back. The news they’ve brought back is surprising. The outside is also full of space bubbles—one after another. They are warping spaces that are connected by the hyper-spatiotemporal channel. They are all respectively closed. None of the detectors found the shadow of the stars. Maybe the whole universe has mutated? No one knows what the real situation is.

“It’s like a pot of calm water being added to a foaming agent, and then wildly stirred. Now, the universe outside us is completely different from the universe we know. The visible and accessible space we know has been broken. All this was caused by… a mere seed; a seed that may have come from another parallel universe.

“It’s still growing. Although it has slowed down, it has completely occupied the middle part of the spacecraft, and it’s spreading to the power core. I still believe its nature is gentle, but its natural instinct is gradually disintegrating our ship.

“A group of soldiers tried to destroy its tentacles. They made some gains, but it was meaningless. The soldiers’ mental state became abnormal after they returned. There is probably no new action on getting rid of it. This morning, I found some small bumps in the corner of my cabin. The tentacles are about to spread here too.

“Log eight, keywords: none.

“We finally decided to give up on the ship, including the ‘sphere creature’, which has been in a fully symbiotic relationship with the spacecraft. Oh, it’s not a sphere now. It’s like a forest, spreading across half the spacecraft.

“Technicians have roughly predicted a spatial model. They think that the area of change should be limited. The laws of the universe will soothe the intrusion of foreign information. The space bubble phenomenon is probably just a ‘cosmic self-healing method’. We have enough small crafts to evacuate. According to the route speculated by technical staff, as long as we follow a certain law, jumping continuously between the space bubble will enable us to leave this strange star area.

“The sphere creature seems to know that we are leaving and expresses some kind of regret. I don’t know how to tell anyone about how I communicate with this weird creature: it’s a spiritual connection. It’s probably because my room is close to one of its nerves. I can hear its voice in my sleep.

“It says that it cannot leave this place. This was a failed sowing and it will continue to grow here, at least to complete its own ‘first generation hatching’ mission. If it has enough power, it intends to evolve into a small, short-term biosphere within its own coverage. I don’t quite understand what that means, but there seems to be more powerful, higher beings that made it carry out a seeding task. Anyway, we know too little about the universe.

“This concludes the log.”

Hao Ren and Lily looked at each other. The journal revealed something so significant that it was far beyond Hao Ren’s initial expectations.

It seemed that a lot of problems were suddenly solved!

Of course, a lot of problems emerged on the spot as well.

Lily stretched out her paws to scratch the wall and muttered, “How old is this ship? So, that was how the space bubble was formed?”

“I’ve detected it.” The MDT floated in front of them and said, “This will scare you. After converting the time scale, this ship was abandoned at least 200,000 years ago.”

“Oh, 200,000 years… What?!” Hao Ren was shocked.

“Two hundred thousand years ago. This amount of information is really huge…” the MDT sounded serious.

Just as Hao Ren was about to say something, they suddenly heard Vivian’s voice coming from the communicator. “Landlord! We found something strange here!”

Chapter 444: The Mystery is Slowly Unravelling

 

When Hao Ren heard Vivian calling him over, he hurriedly dragged Lily along to meet her. He stuffed his MDT and the older version of the data terminal together in his pocket. The MDT shouted in his pocket, “Hey, hey! What are you doing? Would you please not squeeze me in here with this hick? It’s already so crowded in here…”

“If you think it’s too crowded, come out and fly!” Hao Ren said, and that shut it up.

As the both of them followed the direction of the communicator to find Vivian, they found that the rest were already there. They were studying something in a circle.

“What’s the sitch?” Hao Ren asked. He was holding on to Lily and slowly moving towards them. He found this place to be a very broad area. Although it was surrounded by jungle-like tentacles, the original structure was still visible; it was probably a storehouse. There were a lot of neat platforms that were slightly above the ground, and the remnants of some fixed brackets could be seen amid distant tentacles.

He looked up and found a big hole, but it was completely covered with criss-crossing tentacles.

“It appears that we were just below this big hole when we came in earlier.” Hao Ren approached Vivian and asked, “You found a way in?”

Vivian nodded and pointed to an object on the ground. “Look at this, it’s extremely weathered and it looks older than the tentacles around it.”

It was a large piece of an irregular-shaped object. It felt like skin and it looked a little red. Too much time had past, and coupled with the activity of the surrounding tentacles when they were still alive, it was already rotten as well as broken. Hao Ren moved forward to flip the thing and broke off a big chunk easily.

“There’s a lot more here!” Y’lisabet shouted to them not far away. Hao Ren followed the direction of her finger and found a large pile of the same thick skin among the tentacles. There were also some floating skin-like substance that were detached from the tentacles.

Hao Ren looked at the lines and markings on the surface of these thick pieces of skin and they suddenly reminded him of something.

He recalled seeing something similar “somewhere”… Yes, in the mirage of the gigantic brain! The seed of life that rose up from the scarlet sea had the same skin!

Although these pieces of skin were old and dried up, the extraordinary “creatures” had physical strength beyond comprehension. After all these years after their death, the pattern on their skin was still discernible. In addition, the mirage produced by the gigantic brain was truly impressive. Hao Ren quickly associated the two things together.

“I probably know what’s going on here…” Hao Ren said. He threw the thick skin aside and took out the ancient device that he found with Lily from his pocket. “Let’s go back first. I’ll tell you everything.”

They then returned to the palace of Helcrown. Hao Ren told them in-detail about the ship’s discovery and his theory based on the “sowing mirage”. Everyone was shocked right away. After reading the contents of the log, Y’zaks kept repeating to himself, “So, that’s how the space bubble zone was formed…”

“Now, we can smooth the whole thing out.” Hao Ren was subconsciously knocking his hand on the MDT while talking. “First of all, we can confirm one thing. It was not the First Born who hit the ship, but a seed. The First Born was hatched from the seed after that—”

Before he could finish, the MDT jumped up from the table and yelled at him, “You can pretend to be deep, but you don’t have to keep knocking me!”

Hao Ren passed the MDT to Lil Pea. “Flip it.”

The little mermaid immediately played with her favorite “merry-go-round” happily. The MDT was angry, but it did not dare show it. Hao Ren began to discuss the relationship between the goddess in the Plane of Dreams and this place. “According to the information we collected in the Plane of Dreams, especially the mirage I saw in the gigantic brain, the goddess of the Plane of Dreams should be an ancient creature similar to the ‘origin of life’. She created a large number of seeds to explore the outer planets. Those seeds were very powerful; they could live throughout the universe and could fly over time and space. A tiny piece dropped from it could become a legendary creature, possibly with the First Born hatching from it. And now, we’ve confirmed a new function: they can also travel across the universe. Forget the principles—just think of it as a plot device…

“The spaceship outside could have been left behind by the native civilization of this universe. According to the MDT’s calculation, the spacecraft was abandoned 200,000 years ago. At that time, this place was not a space bubble zone as the log clearly recorded. Hence, the dimension of this place was still continuous. The aliens on this spaceship came here to explore the ecology and then the accident happened.”

Lily put her hand on her chin quite solemnly and said, “They were literally slapped by the goddess of the Plane of Dreams!”

Vivian pinched Lily’s pointed ear, pulled it vigorously and said, “Be Serious! We’re talking about world peace here!”

“The seed travelled across the void and crashed into the alien spacecraft, changing the entire galaxy due to world hedging—or perhaps, a larger range of space structures, creating a space bubble zone in the process,” Hao Ren said while he came in between Lily and Vivian. “Some of the aliens died, while the rest retreated to the safe section and recorded what happened afterwards. The seed mistakenly thought it had ‘landed’ and proceeded to hatch the first generation of creature, the First Born according to procedure.”

Nangong Wuyue sighed and said, “I can understand. It’s just like how I’m very excited when I see water. I’d jump down only to find out that the water is frozen…”

They immediately looked at the siren with a very perplexed look. Lily patted Wuyue on the shoulder sympathetically and said, “I didn’t expect you to have a similar experience…”

Hao Ren coughed and said, “We now know the origin of the space bubble zone. The aliens have either managed to escape this mutant galaxy, or they died halfway. But, these historical issues are not important at the moment. The thing is… the First Born recorded in this log is not the same as the one we met in the Plane of Dreams.”

“In the log, the First Born has a gentle personality.” Vivian knew what Hao Ren meant and said, “The aliens who left the record didn’t have to lie on this issue. It seems that the First Born that hatched from the seed was likely a very peaceful creature at first. The one in the Plane of Dreams had turned berserk.”

Y’zaks laughed and said, “It went berserk because the Second Born was treacherous. It demolished and sold their house as well as dug up their ancestral grave. In those days that was equal to digging up their own mother’s ashes and using it to study immortality. So, it’s understandable that the eldest brother beat up his younger brother.”

Nangong Wuyue curled her lips and said, “However, it ended up beating him to death…”

“Going berserk is not the point.” Hao Ren waved his hand and said, “The point is that the First Born in the log was able to communicate!”

Everybody then realized it: the author of the log made it clear that he had communicated with the First Born in his sleep. Even outside his sleep, he observed the First Born’s intention of “talking” to the outside world—but, the First Born they met in the Plane of Dreams was a chaotic creature with no logic, just frenzy!

“That time, I asked the MDT to try all kinds of communication channels, including reading the nerve pulses on the First Born’s body. We concluded that it was impossible to communicate. In all fairness, I think the version that can communicate is the normal version.” Hao Ren slammed the table and continued, “The one in the Plane of Dreams was not a normal version from any angle. Why did it lose its mind?”

Lily leaned forward and asked, “Could it have been driven mad by the Second Born?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think the Ancient Magic Empire was capable of that. They were all killed by the First Born.” Hao Ren waved his hand and said, “In short, 10,000 years ago was a very critical point of time: 10,000 years ago, the Plane of Dreams and the Surface World were connected, unusual creatures appeared on Earth and the First Born went mad before destroying the world. These are the things that happened after that point in time. And before that point of time…”

Hao Ren gazed in a certain direction and seemed to look through the walls of the palace to see the wreckage outside. He then said, “The First Born who was lost 200,000 years ago was mentally normal.”

Y’lisabet looked at the circle of adults, and she did not understand what these guys were whispering about. She was just curious about one thing. “What was the energy core that I took back?”

Lily thought about it for a long time and gave a creative answer. “Maybe that was the fruit of the First Born. After all, it’s a tree.”

After that, she licked her lips and said, “I’m hungry.”

Vivian grabbed a fruit from the table and threw it towards Lily. “Your life is all about food. Can you stop being so useless!”

Hao Ren stood up and said, “Anyhow, I have an idea now.”

Everyone looked at him eagerly at once.

“Let’s drag the spaceship back. We’ll go back and study it slowly,” Hao Ren said as he smiled. “Didn’t we need a reason to move Wang’s entire city back? Now we got a reason.”

“What reason?”

“Buy one, free one!”

Chapter 445: Pack Up

 

Hearing what Hao Ren’s words, almost everyone at the scene threw him a “you’re-f*cking-kidding-me” look. Vivian stepped on Hao Ren’s foot under the table and said, “Do you think this is going to work?”

Nangong Wuyue scratched her chin, looking serious. “The goddess is just neurotic, she’s not stupid.”

After getting to know Raven 12345 for some time, it seemed that everyone had accepted her neurotic tendencies. It was the same for Nangong Wuyue, who had finally become less prudish.

Hao Ren guffawed. “Do you think you guys know her better than I do? She couldn’t be happier if there’s someone to take advantage of the loophole on her behalf. After all, so many Aerymian elves have moved there, adding a couple hundred thousand more won’t make much of a difference. Peatopia is so, big but sparsely populated; it’s facing labor shortage right now. But, I have to discuss this with Hilda first. After all, that place has now been leased to them.”

Hao Ren had made up his mind to move Y’zaks’ entire city to Peatopia. After the war, the demon army was exhausted, and their morale had basically been worn out. Most people in the city were hoping to live a peaceful life.

Something crossed Lily’s mind at this moment. She looked up at Y’zaks and asked, “You guys have no problem living in Peatopia?”

“The environment is similar to that of the human world here.” Y’zaks nodded. “Demons don’t necessarily have to live in environments with high heat. In fact, most of the demons are capable of staying in the human world, although we like the smell of sulfur in the Demonic Plane.”

Y’zaks was very grateful to Hao Ren as he said that. “Now we, the whole country are indebted to you. I really don’t know how to repay your kindness.”

Hao Ren quickly waved at him and said, “Please don’t say that—we’re one family after all.”

Just when his voice trailed off, Lily pinched her nose, imitating Hao Ren’s tone of voice. “Since the day I saw your daughter, you and I were destined to be brothers… Ouch! Don’t pinch my ears! Don’t pull my tail! Don’t knock my head…”

Lily must have eaten something wrong; although the maiden was dumb, she had never been so sleazy—until now. Was she going to be on heat soon?

He left Lily to Vivian for education. Meanwhile, the call to Raven 12345 was connected. Instead of the usual voice on the other end, a powerful hymn-like music sounded. Hao Ren froze for a moment, thinking he had accidentally dialed Jesus’ number. Just when he was about to hang up, he heard Raven 12345 yelling on the other end. “Hello? Who’s that? Hao Ren?”

“What’s all the music about?”

Raven 12345 sounded like she was in a good mood. Every word she uttered seemed to be a quarter of a note higher. “It’s a ring tone! I’ve studied it for several days and I finally installed a new ring tone for the prayer system. Everyone can hear it now, whether it’s staff calling or believers praying.”

“If you have so much free time, why don’t you help solve some practical problems? You should have diverted all that effort in downloading a ring tone for the heaven hotline to studying world peace!”

“That would be a little too difficult—My colleague and I have been at odds with each other,” Raven 12345 did not mince her words. “Well, how’s everything going?”

“I’ve found them,” Hao Ren collected his thoughts. “However, there are more people than expected. So, I’m asking if they can come along?”

Raven 12345 asked, “How many more?”

Hao Ren cautiously gave a number. “Not much, about five to six hundred thousand only.”

Raven 12345 was silent for a moment. Then she said, “Oh, well then, please stay where you are. I’m going to give you a blessing.”

Hao Ren quickly jumped to the side before a cracking thunderbolt appeared out of thin air and struck where he stood earlier. Cold sweat trickled down his back. “Hey, calm down. I’m not finished yet. Well, first of all, we’ve shipped so many Aerymian elves before and there haven’t been any problems; secondly… I’ve discovered something else, which is far more significant than those few hundred thousand individuals.”

Hao Ren told the psychopath about the alien spaceship wreckage he had found and the world-traveling ‘First Born’. Raven 12345 was unusually quiet, which was something he totally did not expect.

“Great job!” Finally, a delighted voice was heard from the other end. “You have not disappointed me. I knew it, you’re a born bad hat! Things happen wherever you go!”

Hao Ren immediately felt a hidden meaning behind her words. His stomach churned. “Wait a second, what are you talking about?A born bad hat? What do you know?”

There was a good reason to be nervous; after all, she was a goddess. He had to take her word seriously. If someone else had said it, he would have just shrugged it off. But here, it came from the goddess… There had to be more to what she said. He had to quickly find out what she meant.

As though Raven 12345 could see Hao Ren’s face, she said, “Worry not, I’m just saying it colloquially. If you feel uncomfortable, I’ll say it artfully: you are a bearer of karma, you’re destined to experience things that are hardly imaginable to ordinary people. Even if the world falls apart, well, I can assure you that you’ll be resurrected if you die. So, don’t be worried.”

Hao Ren was none the wiser after listening to what she just said. His conclusion was, the term “bearer of karma” in novels probably meant “bad hat” when used colloquially.

After Hao Ren was silent for a long moment, Raven 12345 quickly tried to divert his attention. “Okay, okay, let’s discuss about it only when the world falls apart. Meanwhile, I’m really happy that you’ve finally found something really incredible… That spaceship must be brought back immediately. As it has experienced the moment of collision of two worlds, where the process is similar to the collision between the Plane of Dreams and the Surface World, the spaceship is of great reference value.”

Hao Ren smiled wryly and said, “There are still 550,000 people… since Helcrown isn’t as big as the spaceship, why don’t you take it as a gift?”

Raven 12345 was amused. “Now you’re lazy to even think of a proper excuse, eh? Well, anyway, it’s not a big deal. Their level of civilization hasn’t even reached the stage of space colonization yet, so I can approve it. I will open up a temporary World Gate. You just have to send me the coordinates by then.”

As the communication ended, a satisfied Hao Ren looked up at Y’zaks, who was already in anticipation. “Permission is granted. You can pack the entire city as well as the spaceship and move. You can now inform the entire city. Let your people know what’s going to happen next. To leave or to stay, let them decide for themselves.”

Y’lisabet blinked and looked around, pulling on Hao Ren’s sleeve as she asked, “Uncle Ren, you really can move the whole city?”

Hao Ren froze for a moment and his mouth twitched. “It’s Uncle Hao…”

Very quickly, Y’zaks instructed his men to announce the imminent migration as succinctly as possible. This included the antecedents and consequences of the migration, as well as the new environment. Meanwhile, Hao Ren sent the MDT out to the area nearby the wreckage to collect the environmental readings to determine the location of the World Gate’s opening.

Y’zaks and Hao Ren could breath a sigh of relief as instructions had been issued and carried out. Of course, compared to Y’zaks, the burden Hao Ren carried was far less heavy. The demon king leaned on his huge throne and watched as Lil Pea played with Y’lisabet. His eyes were filled with emotion. “At long last, this child will be able to live a peaceful life…”

“What’s your opinion about this space?” Hao Ren asked as he looked at Y’zaks.

Y’zaks knew Hao Ren was reffering to the origin of the space bubble zone. He replied with a smile, “As I’ve said before, the old man predicted the existence of such a space when he was still alive. Although he died without finding the way to access this dimension, he calculated that the entire bubble zone would be distorted abnormally just as it is today. There is a central point in this ‘distortion’ that is the Spectral Dimension. He was a fantastic guy. Though bound by the earth’s gravity, he managed to calculate the secrets of the entire universe. How would things be if he was still alive today… I could let him visit your spacecraft; the old boy would surely jump for joy.

With a forced smile, Y’zaks said, “But destiny is a b*tch, tsk tsk.”

Suddenly, Zadamor pushed the door open as he reported in. “My King, General Lamadenor and some of his trusted men have disappeared.”

Y’zaks was silent for a moment before he nodded slightly. “I got it.”

“My King, this is mutiny,” Zadamor said, his face looking solemn. “You—”

“I let him.” Y’zaks nodded. “Send my word: everyone is free to go. Zadamor, you’re also a demon. You should understand that it’s not easy to change a demon’s thinking. The place we’re going has no place for them. Let them leave.”

Then, he grinned. “In fact, when I first returned, I already knew things would develop as such. I knew what they were thinking and doing for the past one year while they were in the city. If I were to come back a year or two later, I’m afraid things would be very different… As for now, their departure is good for everyone, so let them be.”

Zadamor bowed his head as he took a step back. “Yes, understood.”

Hao Ren noticed that Y’zaks’ face looked a little sad. Just as he was about to say something, the voice of the MDT suddenly sounded in his mind. “The dimensional calculation is complete. I have bad news and worse news, which one do you want to hear first?”