The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 366

Chapter 366: The Originator of Life

Based on the MDT’s long range scan, Hao Ren realised that beneath the vortex lay a hole that went far into the ground. This made it very possible for the vortex to be related to the missing spaceship. He suspected that the initial “crash” had already destroyed the geological structure of the lake bottom. The ship itself was just acting as a cork to seal the hole that it had created. This was probably why nothing happened until the Kerbalians went underwater to excavate the lost ship. That action of theirs had caused the weakened structure to start unravelling.

The gap did not cave in immediately, so there was probably a thin layer of crust supporting it. Hao Ren then remembered the void they left behind after the ship was teleported away. The subsequent crash of millions of gallons of water alongside the built-up pressure against the lake bed caused the whole place to just cave in.

The crust held out for a day or so, after which it became undone by the immense weight and pressure.

That theory was based on the data shown by the scan. Hao Ren and Vivian were pretty sure that was the case.

“Seems like we need to pick up the pieces.” Hao Ren sighed. “Thank goodness no one died, or I’ll feel even worse. We can’t let Ophra know about this.”

Vivian knew Hao Ren was very principled in this area. His sense of responsiblity was strong and he certainly blamed himself for the screw up. Hence, she went to comfort him. “Don’t blame everything on yourself. The land’s structure was probably already ruined when the ship crashed. Even if we didn’t do anything, the appearance of the vortex was just a matter of time. Besides, you can’t be leaving the ship there forever, right? What we could have done better was to do a thorough check. If only we had used the MDT to properly scan and survey the place.”

Hao Ren nodded and looked enviously at Lily, who was busy making friends with her fellow werewolves. “Sometimes, I really admire her…”

“Well, she’s a simple one, ain’t she?”

“It’s that simple mind of hers that I’m envious of…”

By the time Lily, the simpleton had wandered three whole circles around the camp and gotten to know her kin, Bishop Gelton as well as his Church Knights finally arrived. They were actually not late. In fact, you could say that they were extremely quick. They had left slightly earlier than Marshal Ophra and the Royal Knights, plus they utilised divine spells to increase their speed. Believe it or not, they actually used an hour or so to cover a track that a normal soldier would take half a day to complete. However, Marshal Ophra was another beast altogether and her rapid deployment and marching abilities were almost cheating. By the time they got moving, it did not take long for them to leave the Church Knights in the dust.

Gelton saw that the Royal Knights had already arrived before him, but his frail old face did not seem to bear any surprised expression. In fact, he pretty much expected that the no-nonsense marshal would toss whatever doctrines they had aside under the circumstances. It was the few regular clergymen who frowned when they found out that the Royal Knights had arrived first. But, they dared not say anything with them still around.

The eagle-eyed Becky spotted the four ascetics among the Church Knights and she happily waved at the them. Big Beardy seemed to have sensed it as he looked up and smiled at Hao Ren as well as the rest.

Gelton quickly looked for the leaders of the survivors and got a run-down of the situation regarding the vortex in the Blood Lake. When he heard that the whole church had sunk, he started coughing. His already frail body appeared strained due to the intense cough. It almost looked like he was going to meet the goddess any time soon. “Ugh… the whole place sank?!”

“Yes,” the tall and lanky clergy spoke. His face was grim.

Gelton’s pale face suddenly turned red as he asked, “How about the Divine Sarcophagus?”

“The Divine Sarcophagus is kept under the church and it is within the spell’s field. But, even in normal times, it would take at least a quarter of an hour to activate it… As the situation was critical… the Sarcophagus…” The clergy had guilt written all over his face. “Bishop Gelton, we have failed the goddess. We did not have time to evacuate the Sarcophagus and it went down with the church into the vortex.”

Gelton started coughing hard again and Hao Ren really thought the old Bishop would be on his way to meet his maker this time. But after a few pants, he recovered. “Goddess have mercy. This is surely one of her trials and such a momentus undertaking is not something a pair of hands can manage. I’m sure the goddess will forgive you… but we need to recover the Divine Sarcophagus! If need be, we will go beneath the waters! Magus troops, we shall march towards the vortex!”

The old bishop turned to face Ophra as he spoke, “Marshal, we may have our disagreements, but please forgive me. This is my duty and I hope you will stand together with me on this. In the name of the kingdom and the goddess, we must recover the sarcophagus!”

“I thought you would still be a stubborn, old coot even at this time.” Ophra smiled and pointed at her Royal Knights. “Don’t worry, I’ve brought the best of the best that I have.”

Lily was bouncing behind as well. “And, there’s us too! We’re also professionals!”

Bishop Gelton gave Hao Ren and the rest a surprised look. He was already curious about them when he saw them in the camp. Now that they were volunteering to help, he could not surpress his curiosity any longer and decided to question them. Lily immediately immitated Hao Ren. “Well… because we’re true patriots and fervent believers of the goddess. If you don’t believe it, I can cook up another—”

Hao Ren quickly pulled Lily back. “You can just leave that last part out!”

Becky looked really perplexed as she slowly backed away. “Actually… Can I sit this one out?”

It was a reaction totally befitting a normal mercenary. However, Becky was already onboard with Hao Ren and his gang, so most times, she had to act all heroic even if she did not want to.

“All of you have had a hand in ensuring the safe return of the Orb. This is reason enough to trust your sincerity.” Gelton demurred as he measured Hao Ren and his merry band before nodding slowly. “This is a dangerous mission, but if you can proof that the goddess indeed does watch over you and come back safely, the church will reward you greatly.”

While the old bishop may be a pious man, he was not oblivious to how the world worked. Most people had their vices and wants, and he knew that. That last bit was simply a bait…

A bait… that got Becky all heroic again…

This time around, Wuyue was not with them, but Gelton and Ophra had with them a couple of aquamancers. After a short time of preparation, they headed towards the Blood Lake.

Gelton and Ophra led the team with about a dozen mages from the Royal Knights as well as the Church Knights in tow. Hao Ren, the four ascetics and the rest followed closely behind. It was Hao Ren’s first time seeing Big Beardy since the night before, and he purposedly walked at the back to get some information from the ascetic. “What’s the deal with the Divine Sarcophagus?”

Big Beard looked at Hao Ren and there was hesitation in his eyes. However, after considering Hao Ren’s origins, he relented and created a noise-cancelling barrier around them. “It’s a sacred being under the church.”

“A sacred being? What’s it for?”

“It’s the oldest of the sacred beings.” Big Beardy’s face was serious. “The Divine Sarcophagus contains the first ever Originator of Life created by the goddess herself. She spread these Originators throughout the world to use them as a counterbalance and as ‘insurance’. In the event that the world comes face-to-face with a calamity, the Originators can maintain the balance and even renew life. There are three Divine Sarcophagi and all of them are within Holetta with Beinz being one of the places.

Hao Ren blinked as he thought about it. And after comparing it with the legends that he knew so far, he asked, “How about the old civilisation? If the Originator was created by the goddess, doesn’t that mean the Sarcophagi were already around during the old civilisation?”

“No, the Originators were created by the goddess, but the Sarcophagi were only made during the reign of the first pope,” Big Beardy said softly. “An Originator is neither a living thing nor a corpse, but it’s a special thing that contains the powers of the goddess. They have been laying underground since the time of the Ancient Magic Civilisation. After the attempted destruction of the balance of the world by those evil mage emperors and the goddess’ subsequent destruction of the world, the Originators surfaced from their underground caverns. They received the word of the goddess, protecting the surviving innocents and creating new life. They then retreated to the same sacred caverns from whence they came from. A few thousand years later, the first pope received guidance from the goddess and created the Divine Sacrophagi to replace the ancient seals. He placed the Originators in locations where the goddess’ blessing was the strongest. At the same time, he brought out the holy blood from the caverns, which then became the source of divine magic.”

After that, Big Beardy stopped for a while before he looked Hao Ren in the eye. “Oh, I should be forthright with you on this as well; the place that we’re going to is the sacred cavern!”

Hao Ren immediately squinted his eyes.

Chapter 367: Can the Prophecy Be Trusted?

Hao Ren squinted as he looked at Big Beardy. “You’re saying that there’s a sacred cavern under Beinz? And the entrance is at the bottom of the lake?”

Big Beardy’s expression did not change. “Yes. The Cavern is one of the three sacred grounds. Every Originator of Life is being sealed at the closest point where they were found, and the sacred cavern is one of them. This is the goddess’ will in her order to us.

Hao Ren was surprised to find that the Diocese of Beinz had such a special place in it. It was not only contained the ruins from the time of the calamity, it was also the place where the Originator of Life was sealed. The location of the sacred cavern was just by the side of Dragonspine Ridge, the Gnarled Grove, the Blood Lake, the monsters that were created by the mage emperors… All this are gathered in one same spot!

“You already knew that the cavern would be opened?” Hao Ren raised an eyebrow at Big Beardy. “And it was opened by us… How did you even thought of it?”

Big Beardy kept his straight face. “There’s no ill intention, really. And I never thought that you would be able to open the place and so just let you try it. Ever since the first pope had opened the cavern to retrieve a few sacred items, all three caverns had since shut by themselves. Based on the Holy Prophecy, the chosen of the goddess’ will come from a place beyond sky and earth, the guests from the stars, as they are known. It had been something that many had tried to uncover for thousand of years, until our disappearance into another world. I believe the chosen ones are the people like you, the ones who can freely crossover worlds.”

Hao Ren was stunned, and a very strange feeling came welling up. “You mean to say someone had already prophesied our coming three thousand years ago?”

Prophecies, omens, fates, all these nonsensical mumbo jumbo had been totally ignored by Hao Ren. No one actually likes to feature in an ancient prophecy, it almost as if his each and every movement was pre-determined. But if the prophet was a god or a goddess like Raven 12345, then it was understandable at the very least. Lets take Raven 12345 for example, even though she was omnipotent and a rowdy excuse of a goddess, she did not dictate how Hao Ren should do things. And now the person who foretold their coming was a old coot from the Plane of Dreams three thousand years ago!

That sent chills down Hao Ren’s spine.

“The first pope had spoke directly to the goddess and had received an inconceivable amount of divine power. Him being able to foresee this is nothing weird.” Big Beardy nodded. “You all came from another world, and the place that you are heading to is the bottom of the sacred lake, that just so happen to be the entrance into the sacred Cavern. The thing that you did was to take away something from there, and that matches that the prophecy said. So I decided to let you lot try. It was until the entrance had really opened that I was only certain that you were really the ones in the prophecy, so I decided not to tell you about this at first.”

“Now that the vortex had appeared that you believed that we are the chosen of the goddess?” Hao Ren was rather confused. “And so that’s why you are so forthright now?”

Big Beardy nodded. “I hope you understand why I did things the way I did. I don’t know why the goddess will choose a group of unbelievers to activate her sacred vaults, but her orders are absolute. If that is her will, so it will be my calling without question, and I will see to it’s completion without a flaw.”

Hao Ren waved his hand, motioning that he was still confused and need something to think. Vivian who was listening by the sideways then looked towards Bishop Gelton, “It seems like only four of you knows about this? That bishop over there looks awe-struck by the vortex.”

“The tale of the sacred cavern is not a secret.” The hoarse-sounding female ascetic spoke. “But its location is secret. Only the first pope and a few ascetics know that under every Divine Sarcophagus is a sacred cavern. Not even the bishop in charge of protecting the sarcophagus knows it, much less anyone else. So before we were certain that you were the chosen ones as foretold in the prophecy, we could not risk telling you this.”

Hao Ren was mumbling to himself. Things were progressing a little too fast that before he could react that things had already sped along. At present only the ascetics led by Big Beardy know about the sacred cavern. They had simply looked on when Hao Ren and his group had unknowingly worked to open the cavern, and it was only now that they revealed it to him. That, was just too much for Hao Ren to digest.

Vivian pointed towards Gelton, Ophra and the mages, “If the sacred cavern is a secret, why did you let these people near it?”

“No matter, the ‘key’ to open the core is with us after all.” Big Beardy said almost nonchalantly.

“How do you see this?” Hao Ren asked his group after the ascetics had left them.

Lily pondered for a moment before going, “I’m hungry.”

Vivian glared at the dumb husky and pulled out a pack of spicy stick and stuffed it into her arms. “Go then, nothing to see for you now.”

“I feel that the whole chosen thing is hogwash,” Y’zaks was rather serious about the question. “I don’t think a mere mortal could foretold this three thousand years ago. Even if the prophet was their goddess, it is probably a fake entity that only exists in this world. This ‘goddess” ability could not even be projected beyond her domain, and you expect me to believe a mere believer could predict someone’s coming three thousand years later?”

“But things are weird as it is.” Vivian frowned. “We did appear just like the prophecy, and we also opened the entrance to the sacred cavern. I’m keen tobelieve that the previous popes of the Disciples of Glory had tried other ways to open the cavern, but none of them were successful, and they had made up a story that only the chosen of the goddess can open the entrance. And the situation now…”

“We blew a god damned hole in the place…” Hao Ren swallowed his saliva.

Becky simply blinked as she swallowed her saliva even harder. “You think someone will off me to keep things under wraps?”

She was just a simple mercenary and had been dragged into the whole matter almost unknowingly. She was almost vibrating when she said that.

Hao Ren did think there was some element of danger to that. The four ascetics were onboard with them so they are not a threat. But who knows what awaits them in the sacred cavern, what if the “goddess” had required a few chosen as blood sacrifices to open the vault? That goddess had wiped out a whole world without as much as blinking. Certainly not as kind a deity as Raven 12345!

Now the whole choosing of the goddess had a rather omnious feel to it!

Hao Ren pulled the MDT out of his pocket, “Stay on alert later. If there’s any traps or whatnot immediately cut the connection with the Plane of Dreams. Also, just keep an eye out of Wuyue’s position. Don’t let her get into trouble. This whole place is getting weirder by the minute.”

“I understand. But you are holding me the other way around. The face with the serial number face upwards remember?”

Hao Ren frowned as he flipped the MDT over. “As a PDA you are sure demanding.”

“Nonsense, for someone who had been speaking to another’s butt, you’re sure acting all normal.”

“…”

By that time, the party had already reached the vortex in the middle of the Blood Lake.

The aquamancers had already created a wide path on the surface of the lake and the party walked towards the vortex on the surface of the water. While this was not as elegant as how Wuyue manipulates water, this was more well suited to landlubbers. Hao Ren felt a sense of amazement as he looked at the roiling lake waters beneath him. Lily was busy chewing on her spicy sticks as she mumbled. “I think we will be jumping into the vortex soon…”

“Stop eating! You might accidentally transform later from a bloated stomach!” Hao Ren tried to pull the spicy stick from Lily’s mouth but the werehusky responded with a gnashing growl. It is indeed difficult to pull food out of a dog’s mouth.

Lily licked her lips as she hugged her precious spicy sticks. “I’m getting all ready to transform. My six sense tells me that a fight is coming up.”

The vortex was a scene of storm and fury and the heart of it stood in front of the group. It was almost too terrifying a sight to behold and the two dozen people standing before it were nary but gnats that would be swallowed by the raging waves at any time. The aquamancer’s water path towards the side of the mouth of the vortex was the furthest they could go. Once there they started creating a magical circle to strengthen the ‘base’ beneath their feet.

Becky stretched her head out to look at what was before them and the moment she saw the vortex she quickly turtled back. “Goddess preserve me, can I still quit now?!”

“The eye of the vortex… where does it leads to?” Gelton fearlessly stood in front of the vortex. He was covered by a seemingly divine golden shroud, almost as if he was a divine being. His cloudy eyes looked into the heart of the vortex, and almost as if he could see through the deep swirling blood waters. “There’s something at the bottom of the lake, probably a cave.”

Ophra was clad in her usual gear as she stood beside Gelton. “Seems like there’s only one way down. There is some sort of spellwarding at the bottom of the lake, and the current is very rapid. I’m afraid the mages are not much help here. If there’s a hole under the lake that’s all fine, but if it’s just a vortex…. we’ll probably be trapped there.

Gelton’s suddenly turned serious. “… I’m already very old…”

Ophra raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

Gelton did not reply and simply just stepped into the vortex.

Chapter 368: The Sacred Cavern

Looking at the old man stepping towards the vortex and vanishing within the swirling waters had Hao Ren stunned. Gelton looked like he’d kick the bucket any time soon, but Hao Ren never thought that old man still had nerves of steel, he didn’t even hesitate when he stepped into the vortex.

He had thought to call the MDT to scan the vortex…. but that doesn’t seem to be necessary now.

The mages, regardless if they belonged to the church, or were under Ophra’s command was stunned by the old bishop’s bravado. Even Vivian could not help but frown, “… Piety is a good thing, but the old bishop didn’t need to do this… he could use another way to check what’s at the bottom of the vortex…”

At the same time, a faint gold pillar of light shot up from the vortex and broke Vivian’s speech. Ophra nodded as she saw the light. “That’s the signal from Bishop Gelton, seems like it’s safe down there.”

As she said that, the general adjusted her gear and turned towards her men, “Wait here, if we cannot return normally we’ll use the teleportation runes to teleport back to the church. If that happens, the usual contact protocols.”

After finishing giving her orders, she looked at Hao Ren and his group. “Seems like the situation here is worse than we thought. It’s hard to determine what’s exactly going on under there. You have the right to withdraw from this. As mercenaries, you had already went beyond the call of duty of your kind. No one will ridicule you for taking a step back…”

Hao Ren interrupted her before she could finish, “What the hell are you on about? We’re the Good… company that always keeps our words. If we promised to come along, we’ll bloody well see it to the end. So.. who first?” He had to keep up the heroic pose, as the four ascetics were right behind them. Given how stubborn these four are, they will probably drag the chosen into the vortex themselves if push comes to shove.

Ophra took a deep look at Hao Ren, there were all sort of complicated thoughts in her eyes. She did not say anything else and turned towards the vortex. An aura-like shield emanated from her as it pushed aside the lake water and she too disappeared into the vortex. The old werewolf behind her jumped it not long after.

Becky grabbed Hao Ren’s hand, “Please make sure that ’emergency stop’ button outside is working…”

Before she could finish, Lily dashed forward excitedly, “Let’s goooo!!!” and rammed the whole group down into the vortex.

“The goddess preserve us.” The ascetics made a prayer gesture on their chest before jumping into the vortex.

The whole group quickly vanished in the vortex as the storm the continued.

Hao Ren felt that the world was turning upside down for him. Even if his shield could block out the lake water, it could not save him from being spun about like a rag doll in the vortex. Almost like clothes in a washing machine. He could no longer tell the direction and could only rely on the dimming light to know that he was fast approaching the bottom of the lake. How he wished that Wuyue was here. If the Siren was around the journey to the bottom of the lake would’ve been a stroll in a park. He really missed that water-manipulating super support character!

After being thrown about in the water for a while, Hao Ren saw a flash of light and he started falling, almost like being carried down a waterfall into a deep pool. After struggling for a while he managed to float to the surface..

Lily’s voice followed soon after, “PFAHHHH!!!! I thought I was gonna die! That feels like being strapped to the ceiling fan at top speed…”

Hao Ren suddenly felt a furry head plonking into him. Lily was still dizzy and after paddling in the water for a while she had relied on her innate sense of smell towards the most familiar scent.

“Are you guys alright?” Hao Ren tried to reorientate himself as he called out the rest. Vivian and Ophra responded from nearby. A few moments later a rather loud plunge rang throughout the place and Y’zaks got up the surface. “I’m here too…”

He demurred for a moment before he went underwater again as if to grab something. “I think I knocked into someone…”

Hao Ren immediately had cold sweat the moment he heard that. He knew Y’zaks was a giant and a fall from that height he was almost like a cannonball, and he did not know which unlucky sod that he knocked into. As he was wondering who the poor fellow as, Big Beardy surfaced near Y’zaks. “No worries, no worries, this is a test from the goddess…”

Hao Ren turned around to look, and exclaimed, “Master, lets stop the bleeding first…”

“No worries, no worries, her trials are always sudden…”

“Nonsense! She’s not putting your ability to resist tetanus to the test!”

After ensuring that everyone was safe that Hao Ren had the time to survey his surroundings and look for the shore. He turned his head about and realised that he was in a massive, awe-inspiring giant cavern!

From the looks of things the cavern was almost a full circle, he couldn’t tell the exact diameter but the scale of it was massive. The cavern walls were encrusted some shiny objects, not sure whether they were minerals or glowing algae, but thankfully because of that, the whole pace was not pitch black. With Hao Ren’s enhanced vision, he could move about the place unhindered by the darkness. He noticed the cavern walls in the distance had may tunnel-like holes on them and figured that they will probably lead them quite rather way, perhaps all the way to the Gnarled Grove.

The center of the cavern was a concaved shape and water had pooled into a mini-lake. The reddish water is proof that the water was from the blood lake. Hao Ren looked up towards the top of the cave and found a structure almost too neatly placed together, almost as if man-made. The reverse-dome was at the very top of the cavern and the middle part had cracked open, the lake waters gushed down like a waterfall from there and the gushing sound echoed throughout the cavern.

There was were the group had fell into.

Hao Ren saw that Ophra and Gelton had already made for shore and he quickly swimmed over. Before he got far he felt a tug on his back and a group of bats carried him all the way to shore. Vivian then reformed beside him as she put him down. “You’re the captain, you need to keep your heroic poise here. I never thought you’re such a poor swimmer without Wuyue’s help.”

Hao Ren had no words to retort. At the same time, Lily had struggled as she paddled to shore. Pouting at Vivian, she complained, “You’re bias! Why you didn’t help me!”

Vivian smirked. “Your dog paddling is rather… stylish?”

Hao Ren ignored the bickering duo and looked back towards the pool, the water from the top of the dome was still gushing into it. From a glance the pool may not look big, but it was indeed massive. If the crack on the top of the dome did not expand any further, Hao Ren was confident that the place would not be flooded any time soon. Hao Ren realised that with the tunnel system on the walls that this underground world is much much bigger than he first thought. Even if the whole lake were to be drained the place may not even be half-filled.

As everyone had their own ways to ward off the water – even Becky had got a outer space life-support shield generator from Hao Ren – So no one had to dry their clothes after getting ashore. After getting their bearings they started exploring the place. Big Beardy and the rest of the ascetics were rather excited, this cavern was like a divine remnant to him, and clearly fit the bill of the sacred cavern that they knew of. And that reaffirmed their belief that Hao Ren and his motley crew were indeed the chosen of the goddess.

Hao Ren muttered to himself, even he was awestruck by the scale of this underground cavern and had believe that the first pope who had found this place deserves some respect for that. He softly said to Vivian, “Can it be true that we are really the chosen ones that we had access to such an amazing place?”

Vivian looked upwards towards the rock patterns on the dome, and her expression suddenly changed. “I’m afraid not… Seems like we screwed things up rather royally…”

“Eh?”

Vivian pointed towards the shining lines on the dome. “That’s some sort of magical circuit, while I’ve never seen one like this.. I think it’s just to detect the chosen of the goddess… it has the features of a long-range reconnaissance spell…”

Hao Ren had no idea what Vivian was on about, “And then?”

Vivian pointed towards the hole on the dome. “The magic circuit was not activated because it detected the chosen, but… it was destroyed when the ship exploded. I’m afraid the true chosens have yet to even arrive!”

“…”

It seems true that you just cannot take those man-made legends at face value, whatever thing they had about ‘the chosen one’ to open a sacred treasure is clearly nonsense. In the face of ‘fate’ any big KABOOM of sufficient strength can solve anything. The entrance towards the sacred cavern was not opened due to the arrival of the chosen ones. It was because it was blown apart.

Hao Ren wiped off the cold sweat on his head. “Let’s not tell Big Beardy about this yet…”