The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 492

Chapter 492: Alamanda, the Desolate City of Gold

 

The group ventured through the desolate city. No one knew how long it had been abandoned, but all were astounded by the wondrous buildings before them.

Great spires and high walls all had a faint glint of gold. The streets also seemed to be coated in a smooth layer of molten gold. Despite the scenes of desolation, destruction and ruination, it was not hard to imagine what the city looked like in its heyday.

It was a city from the mythologies, a heroic city made out of bronze and gold. A glorious civilization once stood there, yet today it was silent, a remnant of an age long lost.

The group arrived at a collapsed, monumental building. It appeared to be a public building for huge gatherings. There were many roads leading to it, and a rather large plaza before it. The building itself was split in two, possibly by a disaster similar to an earthquake. Half of its walls had already turned to rubble, along with its wide interior and intricate floating corridor structure. Lily was in her element as she leaped from wall to wall, collecting some golden pebbles as she went. “Mr. Landlord, look! Good pebbles! Good pebbles, I tell you!”

“How long has this place been abandoned…” Hao Ren looked around the large, wrecked area. The building materials were clearly different from the ones on Earth, and they had no signs of weathering. Aside from the destruction caused by an external force, everything including the rubble, looked as good as new. “Did the vengeful spirit create this place?”

Anna was carefully flanked on all sides by the party. She was the only one who could unveil the secrets there, and she was aware of the fact too. Hence, she had been frowning hard, trying to recall something from her jumbled memories. Using the desolate city before her as a base, and comparing it to the images the spirit had left in her head, she finally spoke, “Alamanda. This city is called Alamanda, one of the last three cities.”

“What do you remember?” Hao Ren looked at Anna in anticipation. He knew that the girl’s memory was key to their investigation of this lost world.

“Alamanda was one of Tannagost’ last refuge. It was made out of metal casting, and the city was protected by a great barrier.” Anna gave her temple a little knock. “Guessing from the scene around us, we’re probably in the city center. The image left in my mind looks different. In my memories, Alamanda was the perfect city. Its skies were eternally painted purple, every building shimmered in gold, and there were many… people.”

“Seems like the scene before the city’s destruction.” Vivian rubbed her chin. “The vengeful spirits… a group of spirits wouldn’t create such a city. These buildings were clearly meant for a race with physical bodies. Look at those steps and handrails; their users were probably humanoids.”

“Then there’s the two keys as well. The spirits obviously don’t have fingers, they couldn’t have been using them…” Hao Ren pulled the keys out from his pockets. He was surprised to see that the two devices slowly changed color, from black to the faint gold of the buildings around them. “Ugh… how did this…”

Becky recalled the stone pillars in the snow field. The advertisement board, the public transport signage, the notice boards… The color of the pillars did not match the colors of the city, but after seeing the keys slowly turning to gold, she thought she understood what was happening. “So, this is their original form. They probably oxidized on Earth.”

Lily gave Becky a weird look. “Don’t just throw out terms that you don’t fully understand. Oxidization and deoxidization don’t work like this, right?”

Becky placed her arms on her hips. “For an otherworlder like me to pick up enough vocabulary to start a flame war online isn’t easy you know! Don’t start throwing the dictionary at me!”

Anna and Nangong Sanba were stunned for a moment. They did not understand what the “otherworlder” meant. But Hao Ren too did not give them the chance to ask, as he spotted something beneath the rubble in front of them. “Looks like a statue!”

Lily immediately pounced at the opportunity to dig a hole and went forth, howling with excitement. By the time Hao Ren and the rest caught up to her, she was already half way through the rubble. There was indeed a golden statue beneath it. Lily tried to pull the statue out, and as she exerted her strength, she said, “Waaaa! This thing is heavy!”

Hao Ren looked at the human-sized statue in awe. It was a humanoid statue with a lithe figure. Its face was flat but wide, its eye sockets were deep, the ridge of its nose was high, and its arms were long. The figure was clad in a complex and gorgeous dressing. The statue’s arms were overlapping on its abdomen in a very elegant standing posture. The statue was probably a decoration of some sort.

This was unquestionably how the citizens of the lost world looked like.

And they looked unquestionably dissimilar to the vengeful spirits… Umm, scratch that, totally different is the correct description. Say… did the spirits have a face to begin with?

“This is a Tannaean.” Anna touched the statue’s face and a sudden nostalgia welled within her. However, she knew the emotion was not hers. It was a gush of emotion, which came from the memories that the spirit had imparted in her. Or perhaps, the spirit was reminiscing on the times when it had a body. “That was the look the people of Tannagost, but they all perished.”

“Tannagost…” Wuyue blinked. “You’ve mentioned it before. Is that the name of the planet we’re on?”

“Mhmm…” Anna nodded. “But, I still can’t remember many things. Maybe I’ll be able to once I see more of the ruins.”

Waving his hand, Hao Ren smiled. “Sure, we’ll head farther in…. What the heck are you doing, Becky?”

As he turned, Hao Ren saw Becky standing there, staring at the statue in a stupor. The latter seemed to be hypnotized as she stroked the statue’s arm. It took her a while before she yelped, “Oh my God, gooopldddd! Gooooolddd!!!”

Hao Ren was caught by surprise by the volume of Becky’s screech and jumped. “What you saying?!”

“Th-Thi-This is gooolddd!” Becky stomped the ground a couple of times before jumping onto the statue to try to drag it away with her. “Gold! Gold! Goooolddd!!”

Lily’s rolled her eyes as she witnessed the situation. “Mr. Landlord! She’s at it again!”

Hao Ren walked towards the statue, and after tapping the statue, he gave the frenzied mercenary a tap as well. “You sure?”

“I may not recognize myself in the mirror at times, but I never mistake gold!” Becky still tried to pull the statue with all her strength. Her face was red from the effort. “Gold give me strength…. Damn, the laws of physics trump willpower. This thing weighs a ton. How did you pull it out?!”

Lily stepped forward and lifted the statue onto her shoulder. “It’s not that heavy.”

Becky was still hugging the statue as Lily lifted it. From a distance, it looked like the mercenary was picked up by the collar. “Let’s bring this back! I don’t have to worry about money forever! Mr. Landlord you can even buy a whole street with the money!”

To be honest, everyone around Hao Ren was rather confused. It was also too much to process for Vivian, the eternally poor vampire. Nangong Sanba pinched his thigh as he asked, “How ridiculously rich were these people…”

“You’re surprised?” the MDT’s smug voice broke everyone’s excitement. “Look around you.”

Hao Ren turned his head from left to right, and all he saw were the faint golden buildings.

“Everything here has a certain amount of gold, but the walls have a lesser gold element. It’s only used as a paint job, while the statue here is pure gold. Gold is not something that resembles wealth on this planet. It’s a very common ore here. Because it’s dense, it has to be used alongside cement or any other type of lighter ores, similar to sand.

Everyone was speechless.

“Under the right conditions, you may even run into a planet made out of diamonds or gold somewhere in the universe. Of course, the chances of this happening is miniscule. Gold isn’t released in huge quantities in a supernova. But back to that, under the right conditions….”—the MDT circled around the party—”you may find a place like this… Gold everywhere.”

Only then did Hao Ren snap out from his stupor. He massaged his arm and turned to Becky. “Just take a small piece as a momento. Time to get busy.”

Becky was stunned. “Huh?”

The MDT gave Hao Ren a satisfied bump at the back of his head. “Very good.”

Chapter 493: Transcendence

 

Gold, the symbol of wealth. In fact, many see it as their raison d’etre, their reason for living. This shiny metal was a rare commodity in most planets throughout the universe. It could drive normal men to the greatest of heights, or the most devious of deed. However, for the Tannaeans in the past, gold was something so common that they would use it to build their houses and other daily items. It was not in any shape, a valuable item to them.

If a world was filled to the brim with gold, what was the value of it then?

If a person could reach a new plateau beyond mortal needs, what was the use of gold to such a person?

Hao Ren was astounded by the truth behind Alamanda, the City of Gold. A land filled with gold was akin to a heavenly city in some a mythological tale. The originators of the tales had used their base desires to describe the most ideal of cities to their eyes. But Hao Ren quickly realised that gold to the Tannaeans, was nothing but a cheap and heavy building material. It was heavily, rough, and not a particularly condusive metal, the only advantage it had was its stability. Hence it was used as a stabliser in building materials after being mixed with cement and other form of metals. Its use was for the cheapest parts of the city, the walls, and roads, or even as material for statues.

Even Hao Ren had no use for them. He had seen many other civilisations had forswore the need for such base materials. Come to think of it, he did not need them either, they bring more harm than good most of the time.

“Gooolddd!!! It’s really goooldddd!!” Becky was still jumping about in excitement. “Let’s dig the whole place up! Aren’t you interested?”

“Just take a bit, you might use it back home.” Hao Ren nodded at Becky. “But don’t overdo it. The tax officials aren’t stupid. Getting rid of a half a tonne worth of gold is no joke. Everyone else too, just take some as souvenirs, but don’t bother dreaming of carrying a tonne back home and call yourself a billionaire. We are not short of money, with a goddess behind us, we’ll have what we want, what we need. Just make sure you don’t attract the attention of the special branch with the amount of gold…”

Vivian raised at eyebrow towards Hao Ren, her look incredulous for a good while, before she nodded approvingly. “That’s work Mr. Landlord. I never thought you’d see things this way. I was busy thinking of how to get you to calm down.”

Lily on the other hand did not pay much heed to gold. Her concept of money was rather simple, in fact the only reason she earned a living because pork ribs did not come free. Looking slightly surprised at Vivian, she asked. “Battie you don’t need the gold? I thought you were dirt poor?”

“Even if I had gold with me it’ll go missing somehow. Besides, staying with Mr. Landlord means even if i have the gold I won’t be spending them. So, why do I need it again?

The others had since recovered from their daze as well, and were not totally consumed by the endless sea of gold. Nangong Sanba too cut a few pieces of gold from the statue, not to sell them of course, but as catalyst for his demon hunting tools, and as repair materials. Becky looked at the rest with unbelieving eyes. Pursing her lips, and tears in her eyes, she followed Nangong Sanba in taking a few tiny pieces from the statue. Her eyes were still watery as she looked at Hao Ren after taking a slice off the statue. “…Mr. Landlord… I’m still not done cutting, can we come back a second time?”

Hao Ren was deeply amused by the greedy mercenary lass. “Alright, sure. Take as much as you want, just make sure you can carry them back. I’m not gonna carry it for you now though. Will only store it for you once we leave here.”

Becky jumped in joy as she heard that, and with a blinding flash she took off a couple more chunks of gold. Only then she stood up and caught up with the rest. As she went she turned back to wave at “her” golden statue… almost like she was saying farewell to dead relative…

Hao Ren had never seen someone so enamoured by gold before, but at least she was not obtuse about it. Her greed was so transparent and apparent, she did not bother hiding it. Neither did she scheme behind one’s back, nor did she hide her greed behind a mask of virtue. She loved money, but she did not steal or cheat. Even when she stayed at Hao Ren’s place she made sure that her bills were itemised. The lass was even cracking her head on how to earn some cash to pay rent from the first day on Earth.

Everyone loved Becky the greedy mercenary, but she could be a tad bit too greedy at times.

“I now understand why the first key had so much gold stored in it.” Vivian said as she walked beside Hao Ren. “I first thought the owner was probably some tycoon of sorts, but now most likely he’s just a bricklayer in Alamanda…”

Hao Ren raised his eyebrow. “A bricklayer needed to carry gold in his pocket?”

“To sell his wares of course. Like how you have samples in your workbag.” Vivian elbowed Hao Ren’s arm. “Don’t fret too much on the details…”

“You can tell your papa about this when you go home.” Nangong Wuyue suddenly turned towards Anna. “And tell him that this is the witch’s treasure trove. Every piece of it is cursed. You know why we need to tell him such right?”

“That’s for his own good.” Vivian added. “But I think it’s better if we keep Alamanda a secret. Don’t tell him about it. Even if he had no interest in the gold, the people around him might. Secrets have a tendecy to leak, and someone within the castle may be overcome by the allure of the gold and crossing the fissure in their search for gold. They’ll probably perish in the poisonous atmosphere.. but worse…”

Hao Ren nodded. “We’ll set up a few more sealing and monitoring devices. We’ll place a screen around the dais as well, to prevent anyone else from approaching it. Tanngost still have vengeful spirits wandering around, if they were to escape from the fissure it’ll be trouble.

“We need to be vigilant too, might run into those things.” Nangong Sanba gripped his crossbow tightly. This was his first time into another world, and he was much more nervous than others. “Just make sure your girl is find. If shit hits the fan, we might need to depend on her.”

Lil Pea immediately popped out from Hao Ren’s chest pocket, mumbling happily. “Depend on her! Depend on her!

Seems like the little one was in a good mood.

Lily could tell the various scents in the air just by sniffing, but she could not detect any living thing near them. Her nerves got the better of her as she mumbled. “Say… the spirits came from here right… They were formerly Tannaeans?”

“Maybe Tanngost had a catastrophic level disaster, and the vengeful spirits are the souls of the dead.” Hao Ren purposely used an ominous voice to explain. “Look as this place, there’s no one else. With so many dying at the same time out of fear and horror, it’s no wonder that they became vengeful spirits.”

Lily’s fur immediately bristled. “Can-can you not use a tone like this?!”

Vivian took a sideway glance at the husky. “And there you were, fearless agains the spirits. Now you’re afraid of a little ghost story?”

Lily’s retort came almost immediately, “Of course! I don’t think that much when I fight! Now when I listen to one I’d naturally think about it!”

Hao Ren was rendered speechless with the dumb husky’s logic and attitude while Vivian rolled her eyes in contempt. “What the heck are you afraid of anyway? Even if your nerves were to be tested, it’s not with a ghost story.”

Lily was stunned. “Why?”

Vivian gave a professional look all around the husky, “Dog blood wards off evil. You’re a bloody husky, of course you’d ward off evil, and you’re afraid of ghosts?

Lily actually demurred for a moment. “…That’s rather logical, heh!”

Even Vivian was dumbstruck. “That idiot actually believed it!”

At the same time, Anna’s voice broke the idle banter. “The ‘vengeful spirits’ that you talk about are not the spirits of the Tannaeans, they were the Tannaeans, Tannaeans that had changed their life form.”

As she spoke, Anna pointed towards a tower complex not too far from them. “I remember more now… The Tannaeans transformed themselves, a transcendence of sorts and turned the whole race into spirit form. They did not become spirits after death, it was done when they were alive. The tower before us is one of those Towers of Transcendence… It’s possibly the last one standing. There should be records on how the Tannaeans transcended… transcended into the ‘vengeful spirits ‘ you’ve been talking about.”

Chapter 494: That‘s How It Happened

 

After a long time of destruction, Alamanda, the Desolate City of Gold was no longer glorious. Despite the splendor of the ruins, the entire city was filled with broken walls and debris. There were very little buildings in the city that were still intact. Only those that were most important and strong were preserved.

A key facility called the Tower of Transcendence was one of them.

This was a pentagon tower with a base circumference of a few hundred meters; the scale was enormous. Other than the door at the bottom, there were no other door and windows in the entire tower. There were only a few bumps and a metal bracket like an antenna across the bright and clean pale gold exterior . Anna followed the messy memory in her head and led them to the high tower’s door. The door was broken and torn apart. It seemed that had something burst out of it and left the huge hole.

Hao Ren walked in front of them and he was surprised to find that the inside of this windowless building was very bright. There were a lot of mysterious beams of light coming down from above to illuminate the hall as bright as day. Thin dust fog swirled around the beams of light, looking very ethereal. It was not hard to imagine what a sacred place it used to be.

There were no complex structures on the ground floor of the tower. It was just a magnificent hall, and the most amazing thing was, there were no pillars supporting it. Thinking of the tower that was hundreds of meters high, the hall without any form of support allowed them to marvel at the Tannaeans’ advanced costruction technology and material science. There was a golden device in the hall. It was a pillar of about a meter or so, and its upper surface was tilted, making it seem like some kind of console panel. Lily patted the pillar curiously, but there was no reaction.

“Forget it. These things, even if they’re not damaged, there’s no energy to start them,” said Hao Ren as he held his arms and walked around the hall. Suddenly, he saw some exquisite murals on the walls. “Hey, check this out. Looks like murals left by the Tannaeans.”

Everyone was immediately drawn to them as Hao Ren found the starting point of the murals. He looked at them in amazement: the murals did consist of earth-shattering scenes; there were no heroes or mythological images; and they were not exquisite, decorative paintings. What was depicted on these murals were just simple daily things.

The murals depicted the Tannaeans’ whole civilization.

In the first mural, the Tannaeans lived in the coastal areas. They were depicted as amphibious creatures that gradually transitioned into a terrestrial life due to some kind of change in the marine environment. They dressed in waterweeds and animal skins, built houses on the coastline, adapted to drought, hunted animals, and ignited the first bonfire of their civilization.

In the second mural, the scales on the Tannaeans had faded and the structure of their fingers evolved. The environment in which they lived in had apparently shifted from tidal flats and swamps to drier plains. They built villages on grasslands, reared livestock in pens, planted and harvested.

They built the city, developed metal tools, learned how to smelt and made alloys. They understood the power of “electricity” from natural phenomena and soon merged it with a certain spiritual ability that was present in their own race. In later murals, they were shown holding a ritual around a towering metal pillar. Lightning struck the pillar, and in their bodies, there was another magical energy that resonated with it.

They lived, studied, and tempered with their spiritual power. Their innate ability to evolve rapidly made it easier for them to gain power from nature. They explored their entire planet, built great information networks and global energy broadcasting systems. They even developed space technology, but their greatest strength was still a wondrous skill called the “Power of Soul”. This was the result of their evolving spiritual talents. This wonderful skill was also the only hope for the people to save themselves when catastrophe came.

Yes, a great catastrophe. In the late stages of the murals, everything changed. Some kind of unspeakable catastrophe broke out on the planet. The power of the Tannaeans was not worth mentioning in front of this calamity. The magnificent city forged by metal was uprooted, and their weaponry had no effect on this enemy. The murals showed the horrific slaughter of the Tannaeans, and the flames of war burning across the planet. However, the enemy’s face was just frenzied lines. The man who left these murals seemed to have trouble describing their enemy in a logical way. He could only use a cluster of shadows and curves to show some kind of disaster. And hundreds of millions of Tannaeans were wiped out by these frantic lines.

In the end, the remaining survivors retreated to the three cities on the planet. The murals showed the situation of the three cities via exaggerated images: the three cities were molded from metal and enveloped in layers of protective walls and energy shields. Outside the protective layers lay boundless chaos and death. Survivors lived behind the protective walls for years, but the walls had been weakened and eroded by the ravages of disaster, thus destruction was inevitable.

Anna touched the lines on the murals gently, and said, “This is the ‘Origin Scourge’. The power of mortals could not fight against it. In the end, the Tannaeans were finally aware of the regular pattern of the disaster. They decided to survive by changing their life forms—”

Anna raised her hands and pointed to the last mural.

The lines on the murals changed to a simple form. The magnificent and complex physical world was hidden away. A man was floating in the air, and half of his body had transformed into a misty shadow, which represented the transformation of life form. At the bottom of the scene were a bunch of messy lines, which represented the disaster. This mural seemed to depict a Tannaean, who had finally emerged from the disaster after changing his life form.

Anna sighed. The last piece of memory in her head was finally pieced together. “They left these murals to record the course of their civilization, because the Tannaeans were not sure what would happen after they turned into spirits. In order to deal with the worst, they left this simple and straightforward record in many buildings to make sure that other intelligent creatures who visit this planet someday would know what kind of race lived here before.”

“So this is how the Tannaeans turned into vengeful spirits.” Vivian frowned and shook her head. “But, the vengeful spirits they turned into aren’t logical at all. They’re even as unpredictable as natural phenomena, let alone higher intelligence.”

Nangong Sanba scratched his head and asked, “So, what’s that catastrophe all about?”

Hao Ren gulped. A vague speculation in his mind was gradually forming. He glanced at the scenes depicted on the last few murals, and suddenly ran to the exit as he yelled, “Follow me!”

They all followed him. Hao Ren led them to the front of a high platform. Anna could not climb such a steep building so Lily put her on her shoulder. They climbed up the high platform and came to a position where they could see beyond the city walls. The sight outside the heavy protective walls of Alamanda became clear.

Outside the city was a primitive and barren land. It was an unusually frightening sight: the ground was covered with huge ravines and craters like a giant face full of potholes. On one side of the city, there was an unprecedented mega-crater. Its size was so huge that they almost suspected it penetrated the core of the planet. And in the countless ravines as well as potholes, the most shocking thing froze their blood—tentacles.

The Firstborn.

“I knew it…” Hao Ren gulped and said, “The same thing that happened in Holletta also happened here.”

Nangong Wuyue was startled and whispered, “Oh my…”

“The condition of this planet is worse than that of Holletta. The eldest son had apparently completely purged the second son,” said Vivian as she frowned and looked back at the ruins in Alamanda. “The Tannaeans went extinct.”

Anna and Nangong Sanba were seeing this horrible thing for the first time. Nangong Sanba was a demon hunter, so he could still take it, but not Anna. Anna was startled and she almost fainted. She suffered a double scare; one came from her own human instincts and another from her memory of the vengeful spirit. She was now almost half-Tannaean. She almost fainted when she saw the tentacles that destroyed the entire civilization.

This was the calamity that the Tannaeans faced, the reason why they had to give up their bodies and change their life forms.

Chapter 495: The Calamity of the First Born

 

Like many ecological planets in the Plane of Dreams, Tannagost was born due to the sowing of the Seed of Origin. The First Born was buried in the depths of the planet, and the Tannaeans were the second batch of life from the Seed of Origin.

What happened on that planet of Holletta (the people in Becky’s hometown had not named their planet yet, so Hao Ren could only temporarily refer to it as Holletta) also happened on this planet: the First Born woke up frantically and attacked the Second Borns mercilessly. Unlike those on the planet of Holletta, the Tannaeans had significantly worse luck: the First Born they faced was not controlled by any security device. The planet’s biosphere was reshaped, and the Tannaeans who had created a glorious civilization were killed.

“Even here…” Lily already had a phobia of the First Born. She had goosebumps the moment she saw the huge tentacles. “I feel the hairs on my tail standing up!”

“Looks like I guessed correctly. The First Born is a common phenomenon in the Plane of Dreams. Many of the eco-planets were created by the Seed of Origin, and the first life created by the Seed of Origin was probably the First Born,” Hao Ren said, and gulped. “The goddess of creation’s a really great god… How many planets has she transformed?”

“No matter how many planets have been transformed, the point is why the First Born here became violent,” Vivian said. She then looked at the sea of tentacles as a large group of bats slowly appeared around her. “We should expand the scope of our exploration.”

A large group of bats scattered in all directions, and the next second, they became a bunch of blurry dots in the sky. Lily did not forget to remind Vivian, “Don’t forget to take them all back. We don’t need Hessiana No.2.”

Vivian suddenly shivered as she stared at Lily and said, “Can’t you say something nice?”

“Those tentacles seem to be dead.” Hao Ren looked at the sea of tentacles and asked, “Shall we go and have a look?”

Vivian nodded, then turned to look at Anna and said, “You have to go back first. Our exploration isn’t just going to be ‘dangerous’. We’re facing an ancient creature that’s far beyond your imagination. Eeven the remains can be a huge threat.”

Anna was terrified when she saw the horrible tentacles outside the city, and she finally stopped trying to be brave. So Hao Ren nodded at Lily and said, “Send Anna back, directly to the entrance of the underground part of their castle. And, take this…” Hao Ren handed over a silvery white gadget while he spoke to Lily, “Put this near the crack. This is an energy sensor. If any vengeful spirit passes through the cracks, we’ll know it.”

Lily carried Anna on her shoulders, and soon, she was far away from them. Nangong Wuyue shouted to remind Lily, “Run a little slower! Control your speed! Anna’s just an ordinary person!!”

After Lily successfully sent Anna away and came back to join them, they sped towards the sea of tentacles. They passed broken buildings along the way and also saw the ruins of the protective wall. There were 15 layers of thick alloy armor around Alamanda’s periphery. Those arc-shaped armor were more than 10-m thick. They were not only made from special materials, they were even molded with the base of the entire city.

But, even a protective wall like that had fallen under the powerful force of the First Born.

The First Born was rooted in the earth. Part of its body was several kilometers or dozens of kilometers deep underground. It supported a whole piece of geological structure. Hao Ren once saw this power in Dragonspine Ridge. When the First Born woke up and stretched its body, it easily destroy a whole area. No doubt, Alamanda also suffered the same fate. The protective wall of the city itself was made of alloy, but the First Born must have created a severe earthquake, causing the thick armor plates to become brittle. The First Born then stabbed the fragile cracks with its tentacles and entered the city. On the outer layers of the protective walls, Hao Ren could see the giant tentacles that pierced deeply into the armor plates. Those tentacles were dead and decayed, but it was still frightening.

And at the outermost layer of the city, there were some special-looking tentacles that meandered along the protective walls, trying to invade the city from above. These tentacles, which looked like vines had traces of being scorched, and at the top of the inner wall, they could see what appeared to be a weapon fort. This was also a remnant of that terrible catastrophe. The Tannaeans’ technological prowess was indeed more powerful than the mage-emperors’. At least, the Tannaeans were able to hurt the First Born and temporarily block it outside the gate.

Nonetheless, it was all meaningless in the end: almost all 15 layers of armor were breached, and the Tannaeans completed the transformation of their life form at the very last minute.

They walked along a wide passageway drilled by tentacles and left Alamanda, which was protected by layers of armor. Hao Ren looked back and found that, from this angle, he could see the shocking situation of the golden city more intuitively. Its walls were strewn with rifts, and the vines of the First Born almost completely encircled it. Everything was enveloped in death and an eerie atmosphere. Alamanda looked like it had been dragged into the abyss by a demon, and this scene chilled their blood.

“Those should be the wreckages of the shield generator, and some of the weapons towers,” the Data Terminal said as it used a light beam to indicate a mechanical device on the surface of the protective wall. “It’s a pity. This should’ve been a very promising civilization.”

“These tentacles are indeed dead,” Vivian said, and stooped down to examine a tentacle that spread from the depths of the ground. The tentacles were withered and gray. They had been dead for a long time. “I don’t feel any breath of life in it… The parts connected to this tentacle are also dead.”

“Look at the plants in the distance,” Nangong May said, gazing into a distant hillside. She could see dense and slightly golden woods: the woods were growing on the remains of the tentacles. “The woods probably grew after the biosphere was reshaped.”

The First Born would try to reset the ecosystem of an entire planet every time it went crazy. If it did it, all original life in its range of effect would be extinct. The First Born of Tannagost apparently fulfilled this mission. So, any creature that appeared on the planet now had to have been developed after the biosphere was reshaped. Looking at the trees that were thriving on the remains of the tentacles, Hao Ren could roughly guess what had happened after the First Born destroyed the planet.

The last part in the chain of creation-madness-destruction-remodeling had been fulfilled.

“It looks as if the First Born withers after successfully destroying a biosphere. Then, a new ecosystem is born out of its remains,” Hao Ren said. “Since the First Born and Second Born have consumed the ‘Lifeblood’ contained in the Seed of Origin, the First Born acted as the Lifeblood in the process of resetting the biosphere.”

“So, after the Tannaeans and their biosphere perished, the tentacles died,” said Lily. She kicked the tentacles at her feet and continued, “Why would it do that? It doesn’t gain anything… After it destroyed the world, it died as well.”

“Yes, why would it do that?” Vivian repeated. “There’s a rumor in Holletta saying that the ancient mage-emperors’ blasphemy angered the First Born. But, what about this place? What did the Tannaeans do? They were just studying lightning. What’s wrong with that?”

Hao Ren remembered the remains of the First Born in Y’zaks’ hometown and said, “Perhaps, they were crazy. After all, the First Born is able to communicate in a normal state and possess a gentle nature. MDT, check when these tentacles died.”

The MDT answered directly, “Don’t have to. Just as you guessed, it’s about the time when the goddess destroyed Holleta.”

“Perhaps all the First Born in the Plane of Dreams went mad,” said Lily with a slightly trembling voice. “The same thing could have occurred in every planet that was seeded by the Seed of Origin… Hence, the aliens who made a pact with the mage-emperors didn’t come; the Origin Scourge occurred in Tannagos; and so many otherworldlings appeared on Earth: they’re not all from Holletta, but from the whole Plane of Dreams… They were all refugees.”

Many of their previous speculations had finally turned out to be true. The problem had to be at the root of all the First Borns—the goddess of creation.

Chapter 496: The Observatory

 

The goddess of creation had always been the one that Hao Ren was concerned about the most. Every time Hao Ren had a deeper understanding of the Plane of Dreams, he realized that the goddess of creation played a very influential part in it. In the beginning, Hao Ren thought that the goddess of creation was just a mighty mortal, or a primeval creature in Holletta, but now, the goddess of creation was starting to look like a real god.

She had created ecosystems on countless planets in the Plane of Dreams via sowing. The Seed of Origin she created could breed creatures like the First Born, and her influence spanned along numerous planets across time and space. The power of the goddess could be sensed by the Disciples of Glory. But, the First Borns on different planets seemed to be in a frenzy and it probably had something to do with the goddess of creation.

“If only we could find more ecological planets. If there are any traces of the First Born and the end of the world on a third planet, our guess is basically correct,” Vivian said. She stooped down to pick up a piece of dark gray debris that fell off the tentacles, and twisted it into dust. “I wonder if there are any surviving First Borns… It would be great if we could follow this clue and find the goddess of creation.”

“I saw a planet covered in an endless sea of blood in my vision,” Hao Ren mentioned the vision he saw under the influence of the gigantic brain creature. “It should be the place where the goddess of creation is. Maybe we can start with that giant brain…”

“The thing is, Holletta has to first be able to catch that cult. Only the members know how to summon the giant brain,” Nangong Wuyue said. “The First Born destroyed the whole of Dragonspine Ridge, and I’m afraid that no clues were left behind. Can the Disciples of Glory find those heretics?”

“Let’s talk about it later. If there’s no other way, we’ll do it ourselves… Or, we can ask Marshal Ophra to help out,” Vivian said as she dusted the dark gray powder off her hands. Upon looking up, she gazed at her surroundings. “Do you guys feel that… something isn’t right with the direction of the wind?”

Hao Ren then realized that there seemed to be something wrong with the atmosphere around them. The strange wind that kept changing speeds was blowing from all directions. There was a chill in the messy wind. Just as everyone was beginning to be aware of this, the wind seemed to realize that they were raising their vigilance, and instantly increased its speed several times. All of a sudden, the surrounding dust was flying around in the air!

“It’s the vengeful spirit!” A layer of colorful magical halo immediately appeared around Becky’s body. She lifted her sword and shouted, “Defense, now!”

The ancient ghosts of Tannagost were still wandering the planet. These strange creatures that had been turned into vengeful spirits, though unconscious, still identified intruders who entered their territory. Apparently, there was a vengeful spirit wandering around Alamanda, and Hao Ren as well as the rest of them were being targeted.

A misty protective barrier suddenly appeared around Nangong Wuyue and enveloped everyone in its safe protective layer, but the strange wind around it had rapidly evolved into a strong storm. Debris and dust on the ground were rolled up in the air by the storm, forming a tornado up to hundreds of meters in size. As the chaotic wind wall approached them, pale phantoms and bright lightning constantly appeared in the storm.

However, they had dealt with a vengeful spirit before, and they were all experienced. They started to attack the wind wall. Hao Ren then took his demon-hunting fish daughter whem the storm was slightly weakened. “Lil Pea, get ready—sing!”

The little kid immediately sang, her words all over the place. “@##￥￥! ##@￥@%%… ￥&…”

A strange creaking sound came from the storm. The tornado, which was hundreds of meters high abruptly stopped and the sand, gravel as well as dust in the air began to crackle down like hail. Vivian looked at Lil Pea with a weird expression and said, “It really works, but I still find it weird no matter how many times I look at it.”

“Well, when do we ever look normal?” Hao Ren was holding Lil Pea by her tail like she was a hand-held loudspeaker. Her singing caused a big hole in the storm wall, whichever direction he was pointing her at. He looked like he was playing happily with his fish daughter. “Although the song has no lyrics, she actually sings it quite well… Lil Pea, next song,” he said.

The MDT hit Hao Ren in the back of his head and said, “Stop playing around. More and more vengeful spirits are coming this way. We should leave now!”

“Which way is safer?” Hao Ren immediately yelled—he was not ready to leave Tannagost. There was still a lot to figure out in this lost world.

Vivian immediately focused her mind to communicate with the little bats she had released. Then, she clapped her hands and said, “A bat has found a very suspicious relic. Let’s go that way.”

The MDT shouted, “If we rush out by force, we might be caught by the vengeful spirits on the way. Tell me the bat’s approximate position, let’s go there by teleportation.”

Vivian immediately focused her mind on the topographical map that her little bats had provided. She then passed it over to the MDT telepathically. The next second, everyone disappeared from the crumbling storm.

A second later, they came to a hill, hundreds of kilometers away from Alamanda. The vengeful spirit did not seem to notice this place: it seemed quite calm.

Lil Pea was still singing in Hao Ren’s hands, but she suddenly realized that the environment had changed. The little kid opened her eyes and saw that the storm had vanished and clapped her hands happily: she thought it was because of her.

“What is this place?” Hao Ren looked around and found that it was a barren hill. Behind him was a peculiar tower-style building, glittering with a light golden luster. “What is this?” he asked.

“I don’t know. The bats found it half way. Could be one of the relics left behind by the Tannaeans.” Vivian beckoned her little bats back into her body and continued, “Looks like it’s intact.”

Lily was surprised. “Why didn’t the First Born tear down this place?”

“The aim of the First Born was to destroy the Second Born’s ecosphere. If there’s no one here, of course, the First Born would be too lazy to care about it,” Hao Ren said while he approached the building. It appeared to be a lookout platform. He discovered the gate and found that it was open.

The Tannaeans who had been stationed in the tower must have evacuated the place when the First Born approached their line of defense. They did not think of returning, so the place was abandoned in a hurry.

Like all the other buildings belonging to the Tannaeans, the tower also had an unknown source of light to illuminate it. Hao Ren walked in and found that it could actually be a research facility.

After passing through two gates, they could see that there was an old equipment room inside. All kinds of instruments and equipment occupied almost half the space of the big room. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, but they did not see any big damages on those devices. The technology of the Tannaeans was very advanced, especially when it came to material science. The things they made were more durable than things made by other mortals.

“Landlord, look over there.” Lily dragged Hao Ren by his sleeve and pointed at a wall not too far away. There was a huge star chart hanging on the wall and also some boards that seemed to be used for keeping a record of events.

Nangong Wuyue dusted the hanging board with mist and found that it was a complicated planetary motion record along with some confusing formula charts. “This place looks like an observatory, doesn’t it?” she asked.

The MDT was emitting a faint blue light and floating around in the room. It scanned the ancient devices, which had been around for 10,000 years, and suddenly, it emitted a loud whistle. “Yo, I’m a genius. I think I’ve found a readable memory.”

Everybody’s attention was immediately on the MDT, but Hao Ren was attracted by something else.

He saw something strange on a console of some sort not far away from him. The air there was slightly distorted, and there seemed to be an invisible energy field or gravitational anomaly.

He walked forward slowly, while the distorted air did not experience any abnormal movement. Seeing this, Hao Ren boldly stretched his hand out.

A strange memory suddenly materialized in his mind.

Chapter 497: The Truth About the Vengeful Spirit’s Insanity

 

Hidden in plain sight under the complex material world, there were many things that far exceeded human comprehension. What the naked eye could see was only the insignificant camouflage of the other world. In the vision of the soul, the other world was much more complicated than what was manifested.

Since Tannagost was ravaged by a supernatural catastrophe, the planet had been completely transformed. Its material aspect may have been daunting, but the hidden part of it was even more horrifying. Innumerable restless, ancient souls roamed the planet. The tide of energy and information produced by the the First Born had been surging on the planet for 10,000 years, leaving behind countless visible as well as invisible supernatural footprints. The memories of the Tannaeans were divorced from their bodies. They floated along the tide of the planet, distorting and entangling themselves with other information as they became indescribable monsters. However, at certain nodes, the ancient souls, which were still capable of thinking could still be contacted, as long as one was gifted with a certain talent.

When Hao Ren reached his hand into the distorted air, for a moment, he felt as if his consciousness was being pulled out. At the same time, a massive spiritual force was pouring into his mind and interrupting his perception of the outside world. He felt like he was standing in a vast void, surrounded by chaotic gray haze, and a… No, countless shadows were standing in the depths of the haze, watching him.

Hao Ren awakened from the shock and instinctively focused on escaping from the experience. He had mastered the mental power to resist spiritual invasion. Just as he was about to make a move, a voice suddenly called out amid the phantoms, “Please don’t be nervous, strangers. We are not malicious.”

“Who are you?” Hao Ren asked while he looked down at his body. As expected, only his conscious was floating in the chaotic dimension. He could still feel his body in the real world, it was just temporarily disconnected. This reminded him of the experience he had with the gigantic brain creature.

“We are the aborigines of this planet,” the phantoms in the haze spoke. Hao Ren did not know whether the voice was of a male or a female. He could not really perceive the distance from which it was coming from as well. He even had no idea if it was a shadow or an infinite number of overlapping shadows speaking. He could only feel a series of echoes. “We are the Tannaeans.”

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment before he calmly replied, “I expected as much. I thought only mad, vengeful spirits existed on this planet.”

“Indeed, only mad souls exist here,” the phantom said steadily. “All the spirits have lost themselves. Strictly speaking, the group of ‘us’ in front of you are only a set of data. We can no longer call ourselves life forms… We are the memory of all Tannaeans.”

“I know about your change of form.” Hao Ren did not pursue the distinction between “memory” and “soul”. He felt his connection with the chaotic field weakening. Perhaps, Tannaean psychic ability had difficulty connecting with the minds of humans on Earth. “What went wrong? Why couldn’t you escape despite your change in life form? How did you become senseless monsters?”

“We thought that by getting rid of the body, we would be able to escape the ecological disaster. Little did we know that the slaughtering in the material world was only the mildest form of the entire disaster. After leaving the material world, we faced even more terrible distortions and chaos,” said the floating phantom. Hao Ren felt another spiritual force approaching. “Stranger, please see for yourself.”

This force was not invasive. It was only showing a memory. After knowing it was safe, Hao Ren began to calm down and look at the ancient memory from 10,000 years ago.

He discovered that he was standing on a magnificent city wall, surrounded by a magnificent city built with gold. The wind was whistling in his ears. Numerous tall, semi-transparent figures were running around him and shouting, “The third protective wall has been shattered! The robot couldn’t stop the tentacles!”

“Medics, we need medics here. The wounded from the protective wall need medical attention…”

“Earthquake, there’s an earthquake again!”

“The tentacles have penetrated the foundation and the protective walls are cracking…”

Hao Ren realized that this was a scene from those 10,000 years ago. He was looking at it from the perspective of a soldier, who was standing on the wall.

He discovered “his” perspective slowly moved past the city walls and he looked out the city quiveringly. The trembling revealed an incomprehensible fear in him.

Beyond the city, the earth was cracking and huge mountains were rolling around like wild creatures. It was a real living thing—that mountain range was actually part of the First Born’s tentacles!

The whole world seemed to have been covered by the tentacles as well as giant trees, and the massive First Born was all consuming. In between the tentacles, a dark-red fluid flowed slowly. The substance looked like bone marrow and it decomposed any remaining life residue outside the shelter. The sanctuary was the last surviving starlight in the hellish world: it was teetering, and insignificant as the First Born angrily whipped Alamanda’s last two layers of defense. The entire city’s geological structure was shaking. A large number of tentacles had crossed the wall and spread to the city’s energy shields, almost burying the last light in the city.

It was an absolutely terrifying, and hellish vision.

Hao Ren felt his perspective shaking again. Then, the scene of the “transcendence” ceremony appeared before him.

The surviving Tannaeans gathered in the square near the Transcendence Tower and were carried up into the sky by an inexplicable power. The gold tower released a nebula-like electric awn and the Tannaeans’ inherent spiritual power was transcended in resonance. Their spirits were extracted and materialized, then their bodies gradually decomposed into heavenly light spots. At the last moment of of their end days, the Tannaeans finally realized that the spreading tentacles were tracking life signs. They had to completely abandon their own corpses, lest the massacre of the city by the tentacles continued.

As the last group of people transcended into spiritual bodies, the dome of Alamanda emmitted a splendid glow, which was a lethal radioactive ray. It was the final “life cleansing order” set by the Tannaeans. All the regular organisms in the city would rapidly die under the radiation, including the most stubborn single-celled organisms.

Only by wiping out all sense of life would the First Born’s killing stop.

From that moment onwards, there was only one creature left on Tannagost—the overgrown First Born, which had become stronger than ever.

Hao Ren’s consciousness continued to move forward with the foreign memory. He finally experienced the perspective of the Tannaeans as spiritual creatures. He “noticed” that he was gradually rising up into the air, surrounded by countless transluscent spirits. The owner of the memory was looking at the material world and the spiritual world from a new perspective. After adapting to his new “body”, he looked into the horizon and saw the surging tentacles as well as the weird, massive creature within.

A strong sense of panic rose from the memory.

An enormous shadow of unprecedented horror hovered above the tentacles as a large amount of crazy mental energy quickly spread out from the gaps between the tentacles and grew into a dark tide that enveloped the entire planet. The First Born’s tentacles waved wildly in the dark mud of chaos, as if it was ridiculing the Tannaeans, who thought that they could escape by transforming their life forms.

No one had ever seen such a thing around the First Born until the Tannaeans turned into spiritual beings. They finally realized that their enemy was far more terrible than expected.

In the spirit’s vision, the First Born was far more formidable than its physical form suggested.

“It has an incomparable soul power, even stronger than its tentacles and Red Tide. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize it until we became spiritual entities. This transformation is a one-off, irreversible, and time-critical. We couldn’t even let some people transform first to confirm how it worked. We have suffered a catastrophic disaster.” Hao Ren’s consciousness exited the horrific memory. He heard the “collective souls” of the Tannaeans speaking to him. “It shattered the ‘self’ of every Tannaean. It must have been a terrible electromagnetic storm, by which all souls were fused together. Millions of thoughts, memories, and personalities were forcibly fused, becoming…”

“Vengeful spirits.” Hao Ren finally understood. “The essence of it is, it’s a kind of mix-up.”

“Everything is over now, and only we are left,” said the phantom flatly. “We are a memory of falsehood, a copy of the Tannagost Civilization. Perhaps the power of destruction didn’t even think of us as a life form: we are non-material and non-energy creatures, so we’ve survived till this day.”

Hao Ren sighed. “What can I do for you?”