The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 543

Chapter 543: The Crimson Nova

 

“A myth that is similar?” Hao Ren gave Big Beardy a surprised look. “What do you mean?”

“A part of the tomes of the Disciples of Glory have records and knowledge learned from other religions. These records are not part of the scripture but every high level clergy would study them, to get a better understanding of what had happened in the past and this includes stories and myths.” Big Beardy explained slowly. “I’ve read this from the tomes, that a small sect south of Holetta had propergated the story about the Manular Nova.

Hao Ren’s ears perked up. “Tell me more.”

“The Manular Nova is as also called the Manular Banestar, it was a story from the south of Holetta and was used as part of the heresy by a heretical sect to influence the people. The stories say that east of the skies lay hidden an ancient banestar that is playing dead. It was called ‘Manular’, the eye that the Goddess of Creation left to monitor the world after the destruction of the old world. This Banestar was red as blood, and it was engulfed by a flame that burnt for eternity. Ten thousand years ago, the prelude to the Goddess’s destruction of the world was the appearance of the star in the sky, and with Manular’s gaze, the land went ablaze. After the apocalypse, the Goddess closed her eyes, and the Banestar too went back into its slumber in the darkness. But after a period of time, The Manular Nova will reappear like how it did ten thousand years ago, and heralds the end of the world.”

Hao Ren rubbed his chin. “Seems like it’s very close to the records of Tannagost… A supernova?”

“Seems very close indeed.” the MDT agreed. “I’ve calculated the calender of Tannagost and Holetta, and the incident happened at the same point of time. The crimson supernova recorded probably refers to the same thing.”

A bold assumption appeared in Hao Ren’s mind, and it seemed plausible with all the evidence that he have as of now. Trying his luck, he hypothesized. “Could that be the Goddess’s real form?”

The MDT seemed to immediately catch on what Hao Ren had in mind. “Based on the scene you saw last time?”

“If what I saw was real, then the Goddess of Creation is probably on an oceanic planet that is covered by a sea of blood. At least the colour matches. Perhaps some sort of supernatural power allowed this planet to be seen like a star elsewhere.” Hao Ren nodded. “All this… are just too coincidental. Both Tannagost and Holetta saw a red supernova before they were destroyed. Seems just too fishy to me.”

“But therein lies a problem.” The MDT reminded. “Both Holetta and Tannagost are at least billion of light years apart and even light would need billion of years to travel that distance. So that is to say, after Arkana I or Manular went supernova, it would take tens of billions of years for the Holletans and the Tannaeans to see it. If that is the case, the speed with the coming of First Born Apocalypse and the supernova is simply too horrifying.”

“What if the First Born only went on a rampage after being radiated by the crimson light?” Hao Ren rubbed his chin.

The MDT agreed with the theory. “Hmm.. there is a possiblity. If the Goddess of Creation is a real god then anything to do with her may indeed defy the laws of the universe.”

Lily was chomping on the rabbit leg as she listened to Hao Ren and the MDT discussed about the Goddess of Creation. She suddenly looked up. “Can we pinpoint the position with the information we have?”

“We won’t be able to triangulate its position with just two points I’m afraid.” Hao Ren waved his hand. “You will need at least four points. And we don’t even know how far the crimson star is from Holetta or Tannagost. We only know that the explosion could be seen from both planets. So we need to look for two other points in space, and base on the supernova’s timing only can we discern where it actually is at. Besides, this is based on the waxing and waning of the glow being on a regulated rhythm, if it is random, then there’s no way to look for it.”

“If it is even there in the first place.” The MDT interjected. “Based on the various reports…. after the supernova the star was no longer visible. It could very well be totally annihilated.”

“There should be something left.” Hao Ren shook his head. “Even just debris will do. At least I’ll gave something to show to Raven12345.”

At the same point, Big Beardy spoke, his voice grim. “You think that the Manular Banestar is the Goddess of Creation herself.”

Hao Ren then remembered he had a member of the clergy beside him and quickly added, “It is just a possible home for the Goddess of Creation…. while this may be heresy, but you too know that the history of the Disciples of Glory were spotty, so we need to look at this from all angles. Say… what became of that heretic cult?”

“Them? Heh, after years of doomsay prediction and none of it happening, their heretic pope ran out of ideas and could not come up with an excuse. So he found a convenience excuse to expunge his heretical scriptures, and he was beaten to death in front of his house by a bunch of disenchanted followers. We were lucky to manage to recover two of their tomes.”

Hao Ren had cold sweat running down his forehead. “Well… that’s one lesson to not dig your own grave…”

“So, this supernova will be included in our future searches and this is at least something on the Goddess of Creation.” The MDT’s surface glowed in blue as it included the data regarding the supernova into its system and it then tapped Hao Ren by the shoulder. “Say… you plan should give this star a proper designation? The Tannaeans call it Arkana I, the Holettans call it Manular, we should have a unified term for it.”

Hao Ren rubbed his chin again as he demurred. “This star is red as blood, and it heralds death and destruction. How about we call it the Red Comet?

Lily smacked him by the arm with her tail. “Copyright infringement.”

“Then…. Sparkly Red Star?”

Lily literally bit into the bone of her rabbit leg as she heard that. “Mr Landlord, give it some more thought.”

Cold sweat quickly formed as Hao Ren tried to figure out another name. “If we are to go by Holettan myths, this star is on the east… so shall we call it Eastern Red….”

Lily gave out a long sigh. “Can’t we just call it the Crimson Nova? If you want it to sound cool, just at Nova will do the job…”

The MDT quickly recorded the name in file as Lily rolled her eyes at Hao Ren. “Your name ability is worse than a husky.”

Hao Ren was stunned. This dumb lass was previously so indignant when someone called her a doggie, and now she was so proud of her own identity… This is clearly a case of cognitive dissonance!

So the star that appeared in the legends of both Holletan and Tannaean was named the Crimson Nova. As of now Hao Ren had no way to work on this celestial body, and so just bookmarked it until he could gather more information on the star when he come across them.

Two days later, a message came from the Petrachelys. The mass production of the disruption formula used to put the First Born into a slumber and the cognitive suppression device (ie an imitation of the Sacred Sacrophagus) had been completed. Hao Ren now planned to visit New Aerym and activate his one billion tenants.

Y’lisabet new that she was about to go back to see her people, and had woke up early to doll herself up. At least now she looked the part of a princess, rather than the runt who kept having soot on her face. Y’zaks too would be tagging along. He wanted to see how Helcrown was doing.

Aside from that, Lily and the Nangong siblings too joined the party. The husky was a given, going out without her is nearly impossible. Nangong Sanba wanted to see things for himself. He had never seen the one billion tenants on Hao Ren’s planet, and Hao Ren thought it was high time to show the demon hunter what an ‘Inspector’ actually do.

Nangong Wuyue’s reason to visit was rather simple: She missed New Aerym’s vast oceans and planned to go for a long swim, enjoying her life as a mantis shrimp…

The rest stayed home to look after the house. Besides, the teleportation gate to New Aerym was just at the basement. This was not a long voyage in any case, at least for this bunch who had cross-dimension teleportation.

As Hao Ren led his crew down and was about to activate the teleporter. Rollie appeared out of nowhere. Happily the cat girl circled around Hao Ren. “Boss Cat! Are you going out to play?”

Hao Ren did not understand her, “No, I’m not going to play, I’m going out for some business..”

“Meow? So you are playing business?” she seemed to have totally misunderstood him. Happily meowing about, she put on her collar and passed the rope to Hao Ren. “Bring me along! Bring me along~~!”

Hao Ren was taken aback, but something then struck him as he nodded cheerfully “Come on, lets go!”

Chapter 544: Digging a Pit

 

Leaving a teleportation device back on Aerym was indeed a wise move. Hao Ren knew that he would need to commute between Earth and New Aerym from time to time, and using a teleportation device was much simpler than flying a spaceship. It was also easier to walk a cat that way.

At least, he did not need to worry about the cat girl messing around with the bridge controls.

As the flash of light faded, the scenery from the basement changed to that of a wide and bright round hall. All around the hall, there were plenty of elvish leaf carvings, while the floor was engraved with the intricate Aerymian emblem: seems like they had arrived to the basement of Hilda’s Royal Palace.

There were guards within the hall at every single moment, and before the teleporter was activated, they already had advance noticed that important guests were visiting. Hence, by the time Hao Ren and the rest got their bearings, a large group of elves were already coming their way. Among them were guards and ministers, as well as the leader of the group, who was a familiar face: the Queen of the Aerymians, Hilda.

“I heard that you were coming but I could not prepare much due to time constraints.” Hilda smiled with her usual grace. “So, there is another huge project?”

Hao Ren smiled. “Let’s wait till we get to a better place to talk about it. This time it’s much more complicated.”

The queen’s entourage started to chatter amongst themselves while Rollie—her eyes wide—curiously surveyed her surroundings. With a comprehension ability of a cat, she did not understand how she ended up in a place so different from home after crossing a veil of light. She turned back to look at the direction that she came from and saw the veil of light vanishing after the teleporter shut down. The cat girl was rather frightened. She took a peak at the elven guards as she cowered behind Hao Ren. “We can’t go home….meow….”

“Don’t run around. I’ll bring you home when the time comes.” Hao Ren patted Rollie’s head. “Don’t be afraid. This is our place.”

The cat girl immediately calmed down when she heard it, and she was amazed by the holding of the ‘King Cat’: She didn’t know he had such a holding! Upon remembering that she was the number two at Hao Ren’s place her instincts kicked in, she stuffed the leash in Hao Ren’s hand. “You don’t have to say anything else. Bring me for a walk! Now now!

Hilda gave the new face a surprised look. “This is…”

Hao Ren gave an embarassed look as he took the leash off the dumb cat. “This is my cat…. Things are just a bit too complicated, I’ll explain later… Behave yourself! You’re a human now you know? You don’t need a leash when I walk you in the future!”

Nangong Sanba nervously followed the entourage, and he too surveyed the surroundings incessently since arriving. He glanced a the brightly dressed elven guards and the intricate statues and arches along the way. Even though Aerym was still in a difficult rebuilding period, the architecture was still majestic. “My god, are all this Mr Landlord’s property?” Nangong Sanba could not help but mumble to himself.

“All these are the Aerym’s property.” Lily laughed. “But the land they stand on is Mr Landlord’s, the whole planet in fact.”

Nangong Sanba thought for a bit before pulling his sister’s arm with his other hand pointing at Hao Ren. His face serious, “Seduce him.”

Wuyue was stunned. “HAH?!”

“Seduce him.” Nangong Sanba’s face was serious. “For the glory of our family…”

Hao Ren only heard a splash behind him before a white fog temporarily blinded him. By the time he regained his vision he saw the siren had already transformed into her serpentine form, and was spinning her brother with her tail in circles. Nangong Sanba’s was swung around in the air so quickly that his face was a blur. Only his voice could be heard. “I”m…. just…. giving… a …suggestion…”

“Ah I forgot,” Hilda had already gotten used to the antics of Hao Ren’s crew and was not surprised. She gave the spinning half-baked demon hunter a curious glance. “I’ve never seen him before.. He is?”

“A WINDMILL!!!” Wuyue gritted her teeth.

The Aerymians gave much reverence to the hyperspace teleporter. They see it as an important facility that maintains contact with their ‘lord’. So the device was placed deep within the palace grounds and the party had to go through level upon levels of guards posts before arriving at the surface. Hilda had intentions to show Hao Ren the city’s development and chose to come out from the Royal Spire’s exit.The group went into the elevator as soon as they reach the surface and reached the top of the spire which could see a good half of the city.

Standing on a half-moon terrace, Hilda proudly pointed towards the coastal city that had grew in size. “The capital’s basic infrastructure are already working normally. We have dismantled some of the available equipments from the floating islands, while they were old, they were still reliable. We are now building a main trunk road towards the nearest city. Another city is on the northside of the shoreline. There are plenty of edible seaweed and mineral resources by the shallow waters. The days are getting better.

Hao Ren was totally out of his element. He never thought the day that he would be inspecting a city’s growth like a great leader should. So he could only put up a show, and nodded approvingly. “Hmm, very good, very good indeed…”

Rollie was following behind Hao Ren joining in the fun, and as soon she saw the city below was surrounded by trees and greenery, she immediately got excited. She tugged Hao Ren by his sleeve. “Lets go play! Lets go play!”

The reason Hao Ren brought Rollie here was to bring her to a place that she could have fun and shift her attention from leaving home and go out to the streets. The cat girl was so excited that her eyes sparkled. Hao Ren patted the dumb cat’s head. “I’ll go do my business. You can go out to play. Can you find your way back?”

Rollie nodded excitedly. “Yes, yes! I definitely can!”

Hao Ren thought for a bit and was still a bit worried, and he pulled out a tiny locator beacon and placed it on the cat girl’s collar. He then smiled at Hilda. “Send her down with some men, she’ll be happy just running around.”

The guards then escorted the excitable dumb cat off the terrace and Lily, biting her nails threw Rollie a jealous glance. Hao Ren turned towards the dumb husky. “You plan to go down to run about as well?”

Lily’s tail immediately shrunk. “I’m a proper adult…. I’m not as childish as that cat….”

Hao Ren gave Lily the glare before turning towards Hilda. “Say… how is Helcrown faring?”

“The Kingdom of Aerym have not interfered with their internal politics, but we have helped them construct a path linking to the mainland, and also adaptation to the local enviroment. We have recently formed our diplomatic corps and are discussing the matter of drawing the borders, trade and economic cooperation. We are happy that they are a very amiable neighbour. As awe can maintain this sort of relationship. I’m sure that everything will work out fine.”

Y’zaks nodded. As the former ruler of Helcrown (in truth, the citizens of Helcrown still sees him as the de facto ruler), he was still concerned about the future of his people, and he knew that living and co-existing with a foreign kingdom on the same planet was a sensitive yet important matter. But he believed that the two kingdoms could co-exist peacefully. The reason was simple. They were only renting, the land was not theirs and there were no reason to fight for it, it’s just a matter of delegating what’s whose….

Hilda too knoew that Hao Ren was here for serious business and did not bring the rest to inspect the city. After briefing him on the progress of the Kingdom and Helcrown she led them to the Royal Hall. Hao Ren motioned for the MDT to display the already prepared information. “The project this time around isn’t big, but it is tricky: This planet, I shall call it Holetta for now, there are two harmful plantlife hidden in the planet’s crust south of the main continent. I need a few big equipments to excavate the plants and move them off planet. You don’t have to worry about the transportation and placement process that comes later. You just need to arrange for the experts in digging holes.”

“Plantlife?” Hilda was surprised. “How big? And you actually need a fleet for this?”

Hao Ren spread his hands open. “The bigger one is about two hundred meters in diameter, the smaller one is at least half the size. And they are buried about hundred meters underground. We need to beware of the lava flow during the excavation process.”

“…..Eh?”

Hao Ren sighed. “I know that’s quite a hole to dig….”

Chapter 545: It’s Unusual

 

Hilda was no stranger to the planet of Holletta. Strictly speaking, she was no stranger to the Hollettan Kingdom. After all, she had accidentally dropped in on this kingdom during her time-traveling episode. But at that time, she just went around in a hurry, not knowing the situation of the planet. She did not even know what was went on beyond the plains and the Beinz parish, therefore Hao Ren needed to introduce everything to her. After hearing about the First Born, she was completely stunned.

Hilda flickered for a few moments before stopping. She folded her hands on her chest and asked Hao Ren earnestly, “Are you sure it is a plant?”

“You can also say that it’s an animal. After all, plants are rarely able to use tens of thousands of tentacles to attack people. But according to its current state, it’s rooted in the depths of the planet’s crust, therefore it’s closer to a plant,” Hao Ren explained and sighed, handing a holographic data disk to Hilda. “This is information about the First Born, a variety unique to the Plane of Dreams. You should be thankful that they exist only in the Plane of Dreams.”

Hilda was reading the contents of the data disk, looking more and more surprised. The powerful strange supernatural creature was obviously an eye-opener for Her Majesty, and Hao Ren had to cough to remind her. “Relax, the First Born will not attack this place. You’re flickering too fast.”

As she hastened to calm down, she suddenly remembered the ancient, giant spaceship on New Aerym’s orbit and asked, “Wait, the space fortress that is docked on the synchronous orbit… The shape of those tentacles within it is very similar to these.”

“Yes, that’s the First Born.” Hao Ren nodded. “But don’t worry, it’s already dead. And not all of the First Borns are menacing. The tentacles on that ancient, giant spaceship are gentle at the very least. But unfortunately, it’s dead.”

Hilda frowned. “We are willing to follow your instructions, but I want to ensure the safety of this course of action… This creature known as the First Born is beyond my knowledge. It is dangerous and is a natural enemy of all life. Are you sure it is safe to dig it out of the planet?”

Hao Ren smiled and said, “Of course I’m sure. We have created nerve suppressors and drugs that will allow the First Born to fall into a deep sleep. Even a nuclear bomb won’t wake it up. You should believe in our technology.”

Hilda thought about her planet, which was created by the Xi Ling Empire. With their technology, it should not be a problem, so she finally nodded. “Alright, please forgive me for the question. I have to be responsible for my people. ”

After Hilda agreed, Hao Ren felt relieved but also a little sorry at the same time. “I feel quite sorry about asking for your help all the time. After all, your planet’s in a difficult situation too…”

Hao Ren still saw himself as an ordinary person, so he felt sorry every time he asked for help from the elves of Aerym. However, Hilda did not think of it that way. Her Majesty smiled gracefully and said, “You are the landlord of this planet. Is there a psychological burden in you asking for help from us?”

Hao Ren touched the back of his head and smiled awkwardly. Nangong Wuyue muttered, “Well, don’t let them work too hard. Remember how King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty died, how the First Emperor of Qin died, how the Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty died…”

“Can’t you say something nice?” Hao Ren condemned.

After receiving instructions from Hao Ren, Hilda told them that she needed a little time to gather manpower and prepare those large construction machines. Aerym had lots of large machines. It was a piece of cake to ask them to gouge out a 200-km pit on another planet. After all, they had dismantled their own planet before. Hao Ren remembered that the only stable passage leading to the Plane of Dreams was the spatial rift beneath Andrea Castle, hence the large machinery would not be able to go in. So he reminded Hilda, “Let me know when the equipment are ready. I’ll put them into my Dimensional Pocket.”

Hilda did not understand what he meant by “put them into”, but she nodded and said, “Okay.”

After talking about the project, Y’zaks and Y’lisabet wanted to visit Helcrown, so Hilda warmly invited all of them aboard the Royal Airship. Currently, the Kingdom of Aerym was rapidly building their infrastructure, and transportation was one of the fastest-growing projects. There were temporary and permanent routes already opened between all the large settlements on the planet. Hilda also personally approved a direct flight route from Minas Elenion to Helcrown.

Although they could go by teleportation, trying the airship created by the elves looked like a very interesting experience, so they agreed.

They left the Royal Tower and went to the landing platform. Y’lisabet looked around curiously along the way, and when she went out, she suddenly saw something interesting. “Hmm, you guys engrave your own guardian beast on the door too?”

Hao Ren looked in the direction of the little girl’s finger and found that the gate of the Royal Tower was engraved with the current guardian beast of the Aerymian elves: the left side of the door was engraved with a husky, and the right door was engraved with Lily…

As mentioned before, Lily had been chosen as the guardian of the Kingdom of Aerym, given her mighty look in beast form. This was proof.

Hao Ren looked at Lily’s image on the door and could not find the right words to say. However, Lily did not feel awkward at all. Lily proudly put her hands on her hips, posing in the same posture as the image on the door and asked, “Landlord, do I look powerful enough to ward off evil spirits?”

Hao Ren covered his forehead, sighed and said, “You’re also an unusual creature.”

Y’lisabet blinked while she looked at Lily’s image on the door. Suddenly, she said, “Actually, I think my father’simage more suitable to be engraved on the door. Look at how powerful my dad is, he’ll surely ward off evil spirits…”

Hao Ren looked at Y’zaks’ face that could not only ward off evil spirits but also act as a contraceptive. He imagined how it would look like if his face was engraved on the door of every household. He scared himself a little and said, “Forget it. Your dad’s face looks like a wanted criminal. It’s better to draw a husky.”

Y’zaks was speechless.

Nangong Wuyue poked Hao Ren on the shoulder with the tip of her tail and asked, “And why is it that I can’t speak again?”

The airship had been waiting for them on the landing platform. Lily suddenly remembered something and asked, “Where’s Rollie?”

“Oh, my cat!” Hao Ren smacked his forehead and turned to Hilda. “Please send someone to look for my cat… Umm, where is she?”

Then, they heard a bright voice saying, “There is no need to find her, she is here.”

Hao Ren looked around and found Vimm standing not too far away. The silly cat was squatting proudly right next to him. When the cat girl saw Hao Ren, she trotted happily towards him and said, “Meow, this place is really good!”

Hao Ren came forward to say hello to Vimm. The young prince regent smiled gently and said, “Sorry, for not coming over to greet all of you earlier. I was in the Heavy Industry Institute.”

“Never mind. Coming here via teleportation is easy anyway,” Hao Ren said happily, and asked, “But, how did you meet her?”

Hao Ren asked as he looked at Rollie. The cat girl was squatting there, rubbing her head against his leg. Hao Ren immediately stopped her. “Stand up! How many times have I told you to walk upright…”

“She climbed up to the eaves of the Industrial Institute but could not come down. After that, a few guards came to me for help.” Vimm shrugged, then asked, “So, this pair of furry ears… Is she also a ‘werewolf’?”

There were no cats or dogs in Aerym. Vimm thought that the cat girl and Lily were of the same species. Hao Ren hurriedly explained, “No, no, this is a cat…”

“Oh, so the cats on Earth look like this?” asked Vimm.

“…Normal cats don’t look like this, but most of the creatures in my house aren’t normal!”

Vimm pondered about the distinguishing features of the group of people around Hao Ren. He then nodded and said, “Indeed, they all look distinct.”

Hao Ren immediately thought to himself, I didn’t expect the virtuous and sincere prince to say something like that…

After Rollie returned to the team, all of them went aboard the Royal Airship and set off.

Vimm and Hilda were standing together, watching the Royal Airship disappear into the sky under the escort of several cruisers. Something suddenly crossed Vimm’s mind and he asked, “Mother, did you forget to take your body back?”

Hilda was speechless.

On the airship, Hao Ren was looking at the curved horizon outside the porthole (the long-distance flight was usually navigated outside the atmospheric layer). At the same time, he was pressing down on Rollie’s head to prevent the cat from going out, and mumbling to himself, “Why do I feel like I’ve forgotten something?”

“It’s probably not important anyway,” Lily muttered as she pressed her face against the porthole. “Hey, Landlord, I can see Helcrown!”

Hao Ren gave her the side-eye and said, “We’re outside the atmospheric layer, you can’t see… What the heck?! Really?!”

Y’zaks also saw the situation outside the porthole and was shocked. “Isn’t it docked on the south coast? How did it float to the top of the atmosphere? ”

Chapter 546: It’s Not Safe to Use That Thing

 

Everyone moved to their nearest porthole and looked at the view outside in surprise. They saw a huge shadow floating in less than dozens of kilometers from the convoy fleet, and the shadow was the Helcrown. The black city, which was supposed to be docked near the southern coastline of the continent, was now floating around the edge of the atmosphere.

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and looked at Helcrown, and suddenly exclaimed, “The dome shield is not turned on!”

Hao Ren was shocked: The oxygen was very thin in this position and space was only one step away. If the shield was not turned on, that would be the same as floating in space, and only a small part of the residents had the ability to survive in this situation. A thought flashed through everyone’s mind: something was wrong?!

“Quickly call the airship control room,” Y’zaks said immediately. But as he finished his words, the VIP cabin door was already slid open silently and several elf mages ran in hurriedly, looking anxious and said, “Sun King, the Helcrown is floating in the vicinity of the course…”

Hao Ren was baffled before he realized ‘Sun King’ was him, but now was not the time to correct the name. He hastened to inquire about the situation, “How can the Helcrown drift to this place? Have you been notified?”

“No, we had contact with the terminal tower of Helcrown before we set off and everything was fine over there,” the leader of the elf mage team answered anxiously, “shall we change course to see what’s going on there?”

“Of course, now!” Hao Ren replied anxiously.

The convoy fleet immediately changed course towards Helcrown and the huge airship also turned into low-speed mode after a few seconds, slowly approaching the dark, eerie, floating city. The convoy fleet flying in front of the airship were circling several miles from Helcrown. A series of signals were issued, but no response was received.

“Why do I feel the Helcrown looks weird?” Hao Ren suddenly discovered that the outline of Helcrown did not look right. After he thought for a moment, he realized what was going on: Now there was a sun rising from the other side of the horizon and shining on Helcrown, but the reflection of sunlight was blurred everywhere in the city, and the edge of the city was strangely translucent. The news that was soon reported back from the convoy fleet proved his feelings. An observer reported, “We have entered the periphery of the city. This is an illusion.”

“Illusion?” Nangong Sanba was surprised to hear the news. “The mirage of the alien planet is so high-tech?”

“No. Mirage doesn’t look like this,” Wuyue was occupying three seats alone and hissing to her brother, “maybe the people of Helcrown are studying high technology again, and this is projection technology.”

Y’lisabet stepped on the seat and looked at the unreal image of Helcrown and said, “But I don’t remember we have this kind of projection technology in Helcrown.”

The convoy fleet gingerly entered the ‘city’ that floated in the top of the atmosphere and circled between the shadowy towers. After the actual contact, they were completely certain that the whole city was some kind of very high fidelity image, just the illusion was so much more real than the mirage that it almost identical with the real city, except it did not look right in the sunlight. They could even see the residents on the streets of the city.

If this was a natural phenomenon, it could only mean that Raven 12345 was high when she was creating the planet.

Hao Ren let the airship and the convoy fleet back to the course. No matter what the situation was, they would find out after they met Lanina.

The next step was to accelerate the journey, and the airship quickly reached the southern coastline of the continent. They saw the real Helcrown was docked there. The black giant city had been fixed on the coastal continental shelf. The mages raised a huge stone bridge from the bottom of the sea to connect the city and the coastline. At one end of the bridge, a small market town was being built. Some of the residents in the city were moving to the continent, and they intended to build the first local town on the other side of the bridge.

Everything looked good as usual. There was no sign of any chaos in the city at all.

Not far from the new town was the terminal tower of Aerym. There were several glittering characters on the huge square: the North Station of Helcrown. Hao Ren immediately felt those words downgraded the whole city…

Y’zaks’ subordinates heard about his visit and were already waiting for his arrival. The moment Y’zaks had just stepped down the ramp, Lanina immediately came up to greet him, “King, we haven’t seen you for a long time. I’m glad you can come.”

Y’lisabet jumped on Lanina and grabbed her demon horns and shook them vigorously. “And me and me!”

“Yes, yes, and Your Highness…” Lanina smiled and put Y’lisabet down, touched her little horns and said, “You’re growing up and soon to be a big demon. You can’t behave like a kid anymore after the seventh rings on your horns have grown.

Y’zaks pulled his daughter back and asked directly, “Is there anything unusual in the city recently?”

“As usual,” Lanina said and nodded, but she found that Y’zaks and Hao Ren looked unusually serious. “What’s wrong?”

“We saw an illusion of Helcrown at the top of the atmosphere.” Hao Ren roughly told her what they saw and asked, “Have you guys studied anything like this lately? Like a mirage system or something…”

Lanina was baffled. “No… We have been busy building new towns and exploiting wasteland recently and almost all of our manpower is in this area.”

“Is it really a natural phenomenon?” Y’zaks frowned and glanced at Hao Ren and suggested,” or ask the Goddess?”

Hao Ren hesitated. He really did not want to bother the Goddess because of these messy things. After all, she seemed to have a bad habit of giving people her ‘blessing’ lately, but after hesitation, he had to connect to the heaven hotline: After all, only Raven 12345 knew the situation of the planet.

The Goddess’s voice sounded fierce as usual, and she seemed to be in a bad mood at the moment. “Who? What’s up? Asking for longevity? No way. Asking to get rich? Get lost. Asking for a baby? Go and see the doctor. Asking for world peace? Go back and read the Bible again…”

“Ahem, it’s me… So you’ve been annoyed with prayers lately?”

“Oh, Hao Ren,” Raven 12345 sounded better now. “Nothing, just two days ago the pope held a celebration of ‘3000th Anniversary Prayers Big Bargain’. I was so angry with their crazy requests. Don’t talk about me first. What’s up?”

Hao Ren told her the unusual phenomenon of new Aerym planet carefully, and then asked, “Is this a natural phenomenon? Or is it the surprise you left for the planet?”

Raven 12345 yelled back at once, “What surprise? Do you think creating a planet is a game? The natural laws of the whole universe are the same. Go and check if there’s something out of order in the city, like an oversized holographic projector or something. That’s it, I’m hanging up.”

Hao Ren turned to look at them, shrugged and said, “Not a natural phenomenon. The Goddess suggested that we check the city.”

Y’zaks frowned while pondering. Suddenly, he remembered something and immediately walked ahead of them. “Let’s go to the power furnace.”

Others hurried to catch up. Hao Ren asked, “Do you suspect that there’s a problem with the power furnace?”

“I’m familiar with all the things in the city, except for one thing,” said Y’zaks. “The core of the power furnace is part of the remains of the Firstborn. It’s the only thing I don’t know much about.”

Y’zaks was two steps faster than all of them. The little Y’lisabet could not catch up with her dad and yelled anxiously, “Dad, wait up…”

Finally, the little girl gave up. She just pulled a hook from her pocket and threw it toward Y’zaks, and then she grabbed the rope and crawled to her father’s shoulder. “Phew… Dad, you’re walking too fast.”

The way they get along was always so surprising.

Soon, they reached the power furnace deep underground and met the technician who was responsible for operating the equipment. Y’zaks waved to interrupt the technician’s salute and said, “No need to salute. Is there a problem with the power furnace?”

“The power furnace is functioning as usual, but its core has been releasing some kind of signal since one hour ago.”

They looked at each other and thought: Something was not right!

“I knew it. It’s not safe to use that thing,” said Y’zaks.

Chapter 547: Are You Afraid of the Balls?

 

Hao Ren and the others had arrived just in time as the problem regarding the “First Born’s remnant” in Helcrown’s energy core only arose an hour ago. However, in the eyes of those in charge of the power reactor, the situation was not as serious: it was just releasing some seemingly harmless, low intensity signals. Plus, these signals had not caused any fluctuations of magic power within a hundred-mile radius. Therefore, the technicians only reported the situation to the technical supervisor, but did not issue a high-level alert.

If it Hao Ren and the others had not spotted the illusion of Helcrown above the atmosphere when they arrived, no one would have thought that the city was having a situation. On top of that, the illusion would not have been associated with that particular energy core.

The rotunda where the power reactor was installed was as bright as ever while the energy core was running. The center of the energy extractor constituted of multiple concentric circles, and the bloody red “seed” was emitting a light pulse as the energy extractor ran. Technicians stood around the circular platform and carefully observed the large equipment, whose inventor did not even fully understand it. They all recorded its latest readings.

Holding a boxy alchemy device she took out of nowhere, Y’lisabet shone its light around the energy core. The alchemy device was emitting some noises very much like radio disturbances. She looked professional. “There’s an interference, and then there’s a real interference.”

Hao Ren poked the MDT, which was resting on his shoulder. “Can you detect anything?”

“This thing is releasing electromagnetic waves, similar to brainwave activity.” The MDT projected a ray of blue light, pointing to the red ball in the center of the reactor. “Due to environmental restrictions, I’m not sure if it’s related to the projection in the air. However, there’s certainly a problem, and the electromagnetic waves are getting stronger.”

The Ethereal technicians had noticed the serious expression on Y’zak’s face and they became nervous. “My king, isn’t the core issue very serious?”

“I can’t guarantee it for the time being, but using this thing as the power core is certainly not safe enough…” Y’zaks turned his head around. “Does the city still have to reply on this power source? Do we have any other alternative energy source?”

“At present, the city doesn’t need to fly, the most power-hungry unit is in not in use. So the previously used magic reactor should be suffice,” replied the Ethereal technician. “It’s just that this energy reactor produces more power, and since it hasn’t shown any problem at the beginning, it is used until today.”

Y’zaks thought for a moment and consulted the other technicians. Then he turned to Lanina. “Power up the original reactor, we are going to temporarily cut off this core and see how it works.”

Hao Ren also patted the MDT on its case and said, “Get above the atmosphere and keep an eye on Helcrown.”

The MDT hummed into blue light and disappeared into the air. And the energy reactor technicians immediately sprang into action under Lanina’s command.

There were two energy sources in Helcrown. The one before Hao Ren was actually a new invention. When the city was swallowed up by space storm and fell into a different dimension, this energy reactor was activated to harness energy from the ‘seed’ left behind by the First Born. And above the hall there was an old energy reactor built during the reign of Y’zaks. This old energy reactor could also provide energy supply for the entire city, but due to its energy output was not enough to power the city’s flying function, it was temporarily shut down. Now Helcrown had been grounded the surface of the planet, the two energy reactors had no practical difference.

Hao Ren did not understand what the technicians were doing. He saw that there were some neat rune lines on the floor of the hall moving and rearranging into a closed array, and the energy extractor in the middle of the hall was slowly quieting down. The concentric rings began to stop one after another and eventually settled into their respective slots beneath the hall.

And the red ‘seed’ was still floating in place under the force of anti-gravity magic. After losing the catalyst of the energy extractor, the red light on its surface gradually turned dark, and the strange humming sound eventually ceased.

A few seconds later, the MDT sent back a message: the Helcrown projection above the atmosphere had disappeared.

“Looks like it was caused by this thing,” Y’zaks looked at the ball inconceivably. “What the hell is it doing?”

“Before answering this question, we must first understand what it is.” Nangong Wuyue squirmed and came up to the side of the ball. She observed the lines on it and tried to peek through its translucent leather case to see if there was movement inside. “We used to think that this was the seed the First Born had left behind. But does the First Born really have seeds?”

As soon as the siren’s voice trailed off, Hao Ren thought to himself: Right, as similar as the First Born to a plant, does it really have seeds?

Lily thought very hard for a long moment before a thought crossed her mind. “Hey, you know, Mr. Landlord, we’ve already seen the tentacle of Tannagost; it withered and died and we didn’t find any seeds on that planet.”

Hao Ren shrugged. “But we didn’t really look for it seriously at that time. God knows if the seed is hidden somewhere on the planet.”

At this time, a flash of blue light appeared beside Hao Ren. The MDT was teleported back from the edge of the atmosphere. It rested on Hao Ren’s shoulder and spoke like an expert. “In short, this thing is very suspicious. We had just scanned the structure within the ball but we hadn’t studied it in depth. Now I would recommend to disable this reactor immediately and then send the two red balls for further study…”

Hao Ren asked, “What is the hell is red ball?”

“Just take it figuratively, all right?” the MDT hit Hao Ren’s head. “Considering your naming ability, you should’ve just listened to me.”

Hao Ren was speechless.

There was obviously a problem with the ‘seed of the First Born’ which was being used as energy core, so this reactor was going to be shut down. Lanina ordered the spare core—the red ball the MDT had mentioned—be checked and then handed to Hao Ren. Hao Ren was quite nervous, though: nothing came out good from the First Born; the seed was thought to be dead but it had deceived everyone and almost created a mess. It was fortunate that its problem was discovered soon enough before it caused a real mess.

Y’zaks asked nervously if the reactor had problems in the past. Knowing that everything was normal, he breathed a sigh of relief and vowed not to use any little-known brands of batteries anymore.

After all the hoo-ha, Hao Ren stared at the two red balls in front of him and said, “Are you sure you’re going to let me put these things inside the dimensional pocket?”

The MDT hovered around Hao Ren and assured him, “Don’t worry, the dimensional pocket is a safe place and I’m not asking you to simply throw them inside. There’s a safe deposit box.”

Hao Ren looked at the balls and felt unconvinced. “… to be honest, I don’t really like things that have anything to do with the First Born.”

The MDT snorted. “Why are you harping on this? They’re just two little balls which discharge electromagnetic waves. Are you afraid of the balls?”

Hao Ren thought for a second and gave in. He pinched his nose, frowned, and took out two large safe deposit boxes before directing an autonomous robot to place the two seemingly ‘seeds of the First Born’ into his dimensional pocket for future research purpose.

After that, he asked Lanina with concern. “After getting rid of these energy cores, will your city have a black out?”

Lanina was startled for a moment before she figured what black out meant. The lady succubus smiled charmingly—she did not mean it. “It doesn’t matter. As long as we don’t activate the flying mechanism, there will be enough energy for the city.”

Hao Ren nodded and added. “Unless extremely necessary, don’t’ use any unknown batteries.”

La Nina: “…..”

Y’zaks scratched his head and said, “in fact, I wanted to say that too.”

As the problem was temporarily resolved, Y’zaks and Y’lisabet could now devote their time catching up the old times with Lanina. Meanwhile, Nangong Wuyue could not wait to rush to southern wall of Helcrown lunged down; she could now swim as long as she wanted, because there would not be a spot where she could get ashore before she reached to the other side of the city.

Meanwhile, Rollie took the opportunity to hit the streets again, mooching around the unfamiliar city. But the cat was not as shy as other cats; she was a homeless, her ability to adapt to unfamiliar environments had almost reached God-level.

Hao Ren had also planned to bring Lily making a few laps around the city, but Raven 12345 had suddenly sent him a message:

“The building module that you want is here. Make time to collect it from the heaven’s office.