The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 601

Chapter 601: An Unexpected Conversation Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Wuyue looked at Lily awkwardly. “Are you sure you want me to turn into an aircraft carrier?”

The canine maiden was serious, and this time she was all excited. “Of course, of course! I’ve never sat in an aircraft carrier and I saw it on TV before! Now that I know you can transform into one, I’m really looking forward to it—surely you’d also want it, wouldn’t you, Mr. Landlord?”

Hao Ren rolled his eyes. “Why are you dragging me into this?”

Wuyue pursed her lips. “Well, I’ll do my best. However, I can only swim for a while. When sirens turn into ships, it’s more form than function, and only for entertainment purposes. Moreover, I have to maintain a large cloud, lest human satellites spot me…”

Lily spun her tail excitedly. “Hurry up!”

Nangong Sanba also joined in on the fun. “Do it, Sis. I’d like to see it too.”

Nangong Wuyue could not help but glance at the siren queen, who even gave her an encouraging look. Therefore, the siren maiden could only turn and jump into the water. At this point, even Hao Ren and Vivian could not curb their own curiosity. They had seen General Vanaessa’s phantom ship, and they were especially excited about what their very own siren could do. Though one had to admit that this was rather frivolous, after re-emerging from the deep sea, they needed to have fun and relax themselves.

After a moment, they started to hear a thunderous roar coming from the deep waters as if something massive was rising out of it. Soon, the sea before them billowed with bubbles, and a massive steel figure began to rise like a spectacular waterfall.

It was an old aircraft carrier—rust, seagrass, corals, and unknown sediments were all over it. The ship’s hull had massive holes and tears from explosions too.

Halfway through her excitement, Lily froze as she wagged her tail and stared. “Why is it so different from what I imagined?”

Nangong Wuyue’s voice came from somewhere within the aircraft carrier, “This is the USS Lexington—after it sank. I’ve told you before that sirens can only take the form of things that are completely submerged in water. This was how the USS Lexington looked when I first saw it. Don’t even getme started with the Titanic yet—that’s even more horrible.”

Vivian patted Lily on the shoulder. “We’ll go first. You can take your time and enjoy the cruise on board the aircraft carrier.”

Then Vivian hurried the others to run off quickly. Shaqira immediately got the hint. She opened up an air bubble, enveloped everyone inside, and took off at 50 mph. A few seconds later, Lily’s voice came from the back. The poor husky was paddling and chasing after them. “Wait for me! You guys! Wait for me! I’ll have nightmares if I get on that ship!”

After they swam off, the old aircraft carrier came to its senses and blared its horn—Wuyue’s voice blasted through the sky. “Don’t you guys want to come on board?”

Long story short, in the end, everyone ended up riding in the air bubble and they got back to the deserted coast where they had originally come from. Nangong Wuyue was feeling a bit depressed. “I finally changed into a shipwreck and you people didn’t even show me your support…”

Nangong Sanba twitched his mouth. “Because that look was simply unpalatable. It was too freaking realistic…”

The siren queen looked at the land and gave herself a stretch. She could not help but sigh and say, “The last time I came ashore was like 1,000 years ago… and that was just out of curiosity. I have no idea how much the world has changed.”

“There’s been massive changes. Humans have at least acquired a dozen new ways to kill themselves. I even think that compared to their spirit of asking for trouble, putting a maelstrom over your own head is just child’s play,” said Hao Ren, grinning. He then turned to look at Hasse. “Well, we’ve landed. What’s your plan now—follow us on an eye-opening trip or report back?”

Hasse thought for a while and gave Hao Ren a surprising answer. “Maybe next time. I have to report back to demon hunters’ headquarters.”

“Aren’t you interested in the Otherworld?”

“Of course I am.” Hasse’s face was still deadpan. “But interest can only be interest. For now, it’s less important. Don’t forget, I still have a promise to keep; I need to make sure that no demon hunters invade Nasaton before you blow that maelstrom up. For that, I must go back.”

Hao Ren smacked himself on the forehead. “Well, I almost forgot. In that case, I wish you all the best. Don’t always pull a straight face the next time we meet. In a sense, we’re now comrades after all. At least, try not to be a stickler for the differences between demon hunters and otherworldlings when we’re together. I’m looking forward to seeing you someday.”

Hasse glanced at Vivian and nodded slightly. “I’ll think about it, but I can’t help it when it comes to my straight face.”

Vivian was perplexed. “Still as stubborn?”

Hasse looked at Vivian strangely. He lifted his finger and pointed at his blinded eye. “My elder, have you forgotten that you blinded my eye with a Blood Curse and partially paralyzed my face?”

“Wait a minute!” Vivien was dumbfounded. “When did I blind you with a curse? Hasn’t your eye been blind all this while?”

Hasse was angry, and his reaction was not fake in the very least. “..Mmy elder, the war between the demon hunters and the otherworldlings has existed since time immemorial. The situation was even more intense during the Mythological Age, so I’ve never borne a grudge against you for the scars you caused me. But it’s inappropriate for you to pretend to not know—have you forgotten your raid of the assembly on the demon hunters?”

Vivian was baffled. “You’ve reminded me of a question I’ve been wanting to ask: When did I raid your headquarters?”

Hao Ren had only been listening, but something suddenly crossed his mind. “Wait a minute! How did that happen? You two care to tell me?”

A light flashed across Hasse’s eyes as he felt the seriousness in Hao Ren and Vivian’s tone. He had also noticed from Hao Ren’s expression that there was more than met the eye. He knitted his brows tightly together as he looked up at Vivian and recalled, “…In the early days of Olympus, in the middle of a forest in the Middle East, you raided our headquarters. I was ordered to intercept but I was instantly defeated by you and lost one of my eyes as a result. After the end of the Olympian Era, you started a melee fight with a group of European shadelings, and the fallout destroyed a branch of the demon hunters. At that time, I was in said branch, but I managed to withdraw in time. After that, I only heard about your several moody ‘combat records’. The last time I witnessed you in person was in 1426 when you bafflingly took to Egypt. The victims were the remnants of an undead tribe, besides 20 demon hunters, a wizard priory, a group of lions and… ”

Hasse paused with a weird look on his face before he continued, “…a large group of rats. The last scene I saw was of you battling with a group of rats and you looked serious. Those otherworldlings and demon hunters, whom you had injured escaped under your nose. In the end, you were chased by the rats and you fled from the plains.”

Rollie looked at Vivian, feeling confused. “You’re a novice? I can teach you how to catch rats!”

“Knock it off. Here’s a little dried fish, move aside.” Hao Ren dragged the silly cat away and looked at Vivian seriously. “Ring any bells?”

“I… Not at all.” Vivian’s facial expression took a change. “But I remember in 1426… I took a deep sleep that year!”

“Why hasn’t anyone mentioned these things to her before?” asked Hao Ren, staring at Hasse. “Haven’t any of the wretches, whom she tortured mentioned these things to her?”

Hasse found it incomprehensible. “Who would want to bring it up? Moodiness is common among the ancients. The countess is already the most gentle of all the ancients, at least she only goes mad once every few hundred years. And facing such an ancient one… few people would dare ask her for an explanation, don’t you think?”

Hao Ren felt that it made sense. It was not about two people getting drunk, fighting, and then questioning each other the next day. This ancient vampire had thousands of years of combat experience; whoever escaped from her would only question which brainless dude in their family had provoked her, and would never think of asking, “Why did you attack me?” to Vivian’s face. What if the moody elder decided to beat you again when she felt happy? Or what if she beat you up even harder when she was unhappy? Hao Ren thought.

After all, the unusual creature societies were unlike humans; a cat-and-dog life was common to all unusual creatures.

Chapter 602: Disoriented? Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Vivian gently massaged her temples with her fingers and spoke nothing for a long time. Hasse was curious as he kept looking at Hao Ren then at Vivian. “Can anyone explain to me what happened?”

“It’s about Vivian’s memory and her disorientation,” Hao Ren said. He was unsure if he should tell Hasse, so he just gave a cursory response. “She sometimes would become disoriented and have no impression of what happened.”

Vivian suddenly looked up at Hao Ren. “Where’s my manuscript?”

The dimensional pocket had become a conveninet storage where they usually put their important but rarely used stuff in Hao Ren’s custody. The ancient manuscript that contained more than 10,000 years of Vivian’s past was in the dimensional pocket. Hao Ren took out a piece of white cloth written with symbols from the dimensional pocket and unfolded it on a nearby flat rock. Vivian immediately came up and examined it carefully.

The rest of them also stopped what they were doing and came up to take a gander.

“…the early Middle East of Olympus period…Europe after the Olympus period…Egypt in 1426…it coincides in terms of time and place, and each and every battle,” Vivian’s finger moved quickly across the symbols and drawings, the time and place of which matched with Hasse’s statement. “Things that happened every time before I hibernated…”

Lily looked at Vivian worriedly. “Are you at it again, Battie?” she asked.

“No, I just try to figure out what I was doing in the past,” Vivian suddenly raised her head and turned to Hao Ren. “Is it all … hallucination? Or is it something else controlling my mind?”

The most unexplainable part of Vivian’s hibernating cycle was her ‘combat record.’ According to the manuscript, every time before the hibernation, she would bitterly fight a group of distorted otherworldling creatures. Though Vivian had no memory of this, the manuscript records appeared exceptionally realistic. Hao Ren had always thought that this was only a problem of her memory, but the situation was making a surprising turn.

If Hasse was right, then Vivian could have actually fought with the demon hunters and otherworldling, and rats too.

Now thing only got confusing.

Hao Ren scratched his chin and asked, “No one could tell what happened to her back then. Hasse, since you were a witness, did your notice anything unusual about Vivian when she went amok?”

Hasse’s face still deadpan. If not for his stiff muscles, his face would have looked sardonic by now. “Unusual? Who would still study her expression when she burned the entire with her Lightning Strike? I only know that whenever young people questioned whether the Countess of the Crimson Moon was worthy of its name, the elders would always use these historical materials to teach them. Of course, the rats were not included.”

Hao Ren and Vivian looked at Hasse with a solemn face. Hasse’s brows knit together in deep thought. Only after a long while, he nodded and said, “Of course, anyone who have dealt with the Countess would definitely feel something was wrong. She is a peace-loving, gentle and hardly in conflict with anyone though she was moody occassionally. So when she went berserk, people found it unbelievable. We thought that someone might have rubbed her the wrong way. After all, no one is perfect, person do get angry about things sometimes. But now it looks like the truth is still out there.”

“Of course the truth is still out there!” Hao Ren sighed, shaking his head. “Do you think any higher Blood Clan in their right mind will fight with a bunch of rats—and lost it?”

Vivian looked at Hasse’s eyes. “I’m sorry, looks like I’m really responsible for the lost of your eye. I’ll help you cure it if given a chance in the future—if you’re willing to accept help from an otherworldling.”

Even Teuton who was taciturn, and White Flame who had been trying hard to stay in the background were stunned, let alone Hasse. Incredulously, Hasse said, “You… apologize to me?”

“Why are you so surprised? I’m even more surprised by your big-heartedness,” Hao Ren said weirdly pointing at Hasse’s only eye. “You look as if you couldn’t care less even the enemy who has blinded you is in right front of you.”

Hasse shrugged and said nothing; no one knew what was in his mind. These long-lived creatures had a very different worldview. Their views on hatred and memory were bewildering normal people. So, Hao Ren always found it hard to strike up a conversation with them on similar topics.

The conversation ended. Hasse left with the other two demon hunters. Vivian rubbed her forehead and asked, “Mr. Landlord, do you know what I was doing?”

Hao Ren pulled his brows together. “You obviously lost your judgement before the hibernation, and it was serious. You would see normal people and animals as monsters. Every fight mentioned in the manuscript is true. God knows how many people you have offended…”

Lily raised her hand, reminding. “The rats too!”

Burying her face in her hands, Vivian said, “Don’t mention the rat again! At least, I won every other fight!”

Hao Ren waved his hand and said, “Okay, okay, let’s not mention the rats. Now I know how you got your prominence. I had thought it was based on seniority.”

Vivian pasted a smile. “I too have never thought about that before. I thought that they feared me was because I was the most senior of them all. How could I have known that it was because had beaten them in the past? I feel so bad now.”

Y’zaks had probably understood the circumstances of the events. He sulkily asked, “Honestly, has anyone pointed this out to you in the past? Don’t you have friends?”

“I do, but we’re not really close, much less with others,” Vivian shook her head. “More importantly, convenient alliances and frequent break-ups have been a norm during the perennial war among the otherwordlings. No one would make a fuss out of that—even if it is most ancient ones. Of course, it’s possible that someone might have mentioned this to me, but I’ve forgot…”

Hao Ren smacked himself on the forehead as he felt that the last phrase was probably true.

He tucked away the manuscript, looked at the sunset, and sighed. “Let’s go home. We can’t do anything without more fresh leads. We have enough headaches to deal with now.”

Their next destination was the Plane of Dreams. Their target was to locate Io, the planet of the sirens. However, before that they got fully prepared. Considering that a brain monster had come to this world through the space crack, Hao Ren suspected that more such monsters had already gathered on Io. Perhaps the brain monsters had assembled an army near the space crack waiting for their compatriot on this side to open the door to invade the surface world. He must respond in advance.

If there was really an army on the other side, the maelstrom was not the only thing that they needed to blow up; they might even need a higher level of armed support to deal with the situation.

After returning home, Hao Ren immediately submitted a report of the Nasaton incident to Raven 12345 before he checked the munitions of the Petrachelys. At the same time, he also sent the MDT to New Aerym to restock his conventional arsenal.

With three more sirens, the already crowded living space in his house became packed to the gills. After stuffing the three sirens and Nangong Wuyue into a single room for a night, Hao Ren took everyone directly to Andrea Castle the next day.

However, he left Dumb Cat at home this time.

“Big Boss Cat, do you really want to leave me at home?” The cat maiden squatted in front of the MDT and looked at Hao Ren sadly, with her tail and ears drooped. “I had been very obedient last time.”

Hao Ren knew it because the cat-maiden had really stood out during the Nasaton’s mission. She was obedient and brave enough to fight, she did not do anything stupid to the mermaids (this was what Hao Ren was worried about this initially). However, this time he was not going to take this cat to Io anyway—the reason was simple; compared to Nasaton, which was only a city and the situation was more or less controllable, Io was a more dangerous place.

The cat was still far from being able to cope with the situation.

Not only the Dumb Cat had to stay, Lil Pea must remain in the safety of the home, and in order to take care of the two fellows who were almost bound to cause incidents, Y’lisabet would stay: the little demon was only a child, but during the absence of Y’zaks back then she was the commander. Sometimes, she was more reliable than other adults were.

“You stay home and take care of Lil Pea,” Nangong Wuyue bent down and patted on Rollie’s head. “If you listen to Y’lisabet, we will definitely bring you out more often.”

Hao Ren also stepped forward and rubbed the cat’s ears. “Haven’t you already learned how to mix rice? This time try to learn how to clean the table from Y’lisabet. I’m going to ask Y’lisabet how you are doing when I come back. If you do well, I’ll let you eat a week of grilled fish.”

The demon girl immediately patted her chest and pledged, “Take it easy, Uncle Ren, I can handle that! Remember to bring me some interesting machine parts back from Io!”

The cat-maiden looked at Hao Ren and found the master was resolute. She could only nod her head, frustrated, then turned to the Nangong Wuyue and made the last request. “Then can you turn into a fish tail and let me lick? When I am finished, I’ll be a good girl and stay home.”

Wuyue: “…..”

Hao Ren turned his face way and said, “Just let her lick.”

Wuyue looked into the sky and lamented, “What kind of family is this?”

Chapter 603: Calibrating the Star Map

 

Lil Pea sat on the dumb cat’s head, waving her little arm and saying goodbye to her daddy. The little one now understood the reason why Hao Ren and the other adults in the family often had to travel. With her rapidly growing mind, she was now not as stubborn and clingy as before. If necessary, the little one would stay at home obediently. As long as someone was keeping an eye on her and keeping her out of trouble, Hao Ren could leave her at home in peace.

The cat girl cautiously allowed the fish to sit on her head; she was licking her mouth, enjoying the aftertaste of Wuyue’s tail. She meowed at Hao Ren, who had walked into the teleportation light beam as if she was saying her final goodbye.

In a flash, Hao Ren and the others found themselves standing in the dark, snow-covered hinterland.

A large, lavender-colored spatial rift was in the air, and several silvery-white, light-emitting devices surrounded it. There were alarms and a light beam generator around these devices, which illuminated the surrounding snowfield.

There was nothing else there.

“I think that instead of thinking about building a frosty town in other parts of the snowfield, it’d be better to renovate the place around the spatial rift; not a fortress, but at least a shelter.” Vivian stomped the snow off her boots. “While the nearby Alamanda has almost developed into a capital airport, the portal here still looks like a bicycle shed.”

The strange coldness of the dark snowfield rushed in from all directions. The three sirens, including the queen, were all frozen. They were not as accustomed to their human form as Nangong Wuyue was. When they arrived, they were all in their sea serpent form. By now, a thin layer of ice had covered their tails, and it made a crackling sound when they moved. Shaqira hugged her shoulders and looked around. “What is this place? The water element here… is weird. It’s difficult to manipulate, and the chill they carry is colder than ordinary ice and snow.”

“This is the entrance to the Plane of Dreams,” said Hao Ren, lifting his hand and pointing at the spatial rift. “This is a buffer zone between the real world andthe Plane of Dreams. The atmosphere of the Otherworld is distorting everything around this place, hence the weirdness.”

The siren queen curved her tail into a question mark. “We’ll reach our homeworld after we cross this rift?”

“No, we still need to calculate the coordinates, probe, navigate, and check for hidden dangers. This is an adventure. Although it’s your homeworld, I don’t think it’s safe now.” Hao Ren shrugged and crossed the spatial rift. “Let’s go and take a look.”

All of them followed Hao Ren and passed through the gateway. A different scene compared to the dark snowfield suddenly appeared before their eyes.

It was a brand new silver hall.

The spatial rift was right in the center of the hall. The lavender light illuminated a dozen meters into its surroundings. The hall had a circular wall made of natural, silver-white metal. The wall was more than 10 m high, and it gradually formed into an arc as it rose. The clear sky could be seen through the translucent light-blue energy shield above. The floor was a magnificent gold color, which was the only original structure preserved in this transit station—Alamanda Square.

Some advanced, newly installed equipment were at the side of the hall. Several autonomous robots were flying around, debugging the equipment. One of the autonomous robot had sensed the return of its owner and emitted a string of sounds to report the progress of their work. Hao Ren tapped the mechanical squid on its shell and said, “Looks like work is progressing well. The station is almost completed… Oh, is the nearby radio tower also completed?”

The siren queen suddenly screamed and bounced several meters back when she saw the mechanical squids. She cautiously said, “What are those?!”

“They’re my workers… Katreina, you don’t have to be so nervous.” Hao Ren could not help but laugh at the sight of the siren queen’s reaction. “They’re very nice guys. They’re just working here. This station was in ruins. If it weren’t for them, you probably wouldn’t be able to breathe the air here today.”

The siren queen regained her composure but was still guarded. “I just can’t get over those tentacles… especially the ones with tentacles right under their head.”

Lily was dumbfounded. “Then, would you freak out when you transform into a giant squid?”

The siren queen froze for a moment; a sense of frustration suddenly hit her. “Gosh, my life has forever lost a possibility…”

Vivian was shocked. “Looks like she suffers from a pretty serious psychological trauma.”

Hao Ren looked around, feeling like he had forgotten something. After thinking for a long while, he suddenly realized it. “Dang it! I’ve forgotten to inform Becky! You guys, please wait a minute—”

Hao Ren quickly switched on the radio. In order to keep abreast with Holletta’s situation, he had requested Becky to carry a radio. Becky’s voice came through the radio after several rings. “Hello, Mr. Landlord?”

“What are you doing over there?”

“Me? I’m participating in an event. It’s awesome. Is something up?”

“Something important,” said Hao Ren quickly. “Have you obtained the brain monster on your side?”

“Not yet,” Becky’s voice suddenly sounded serious. “What’s wrong?”

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Tell Ophra, let the sleeping dog lie, and don’t try to go after it alone! That thing has an overwhelming mind-control power that must be contained with special means. Inform me immediately when you lock on its position, understand?”

Becky quickly responded. “Got it. By the way, what are you doing right now, Mr. Landlord?”

Hao Ren let out a long sigh. “We’re going to blow something up.”

Becky suddenly sounded excited. “Blow something? I like that! A balloon or trumpet?”

Hao Ren almost choked. “I mean blow up!”

Becky said, “Wow… What an exciting life, Mr. Landlord.”

Hao Ren ended the radio transmission and pursed his lips. “That girl… Let’s go, we have no time to waste.”

He released the Petrachelys from his portable space and brought them on board. The spacecraft then climbed directly overhead through the transparent shield above the Alamanda transit station. The desolate City of Gold could be seen underneath as the spacecraft rose. Images of construction works in the city were fed through the external camera into the cabin. Several silvery white spire devices outside the city walls had begun operation. The projects that Hao Ren had left behind were being carried out effectively as autonomous robots and construction equipment were working around the clock. The planet was now developing to become a real base.

The siren queen and her two followers looked in amazement on the bridge. They had learned from the holograms that they were now in the relic of another civilization, which was being transformed into a large one fortress. Shaqira could not help but look at Hao Ren. “What is this place?”

“Tannagost, another ruined civilization. What they had encountered was far worse than you had—they didn’t managed to launch their escape ships when the disaster struck, and their chosen self-rescue technology didn’t work, and they became extinct. The only thing left in this planet is the hollow echo, which the spires are trying to eliminate. But this has little to do with you.”

Shaqira poked the seat in front with her tail. “Do you know what happened to this universe?”

“I know.”

“Than… who are you?” Shaqira finally could not hold back. “Of course you don’t have to answer me. I’m just too curious. The ability of you people is completely beyond any humanity and aliens.”

The spacecraft gradually moved away from the atmosphere. Tannagost’s pale gold and grey-green surface appeared smaller and looking from the monitor. The glow of CARS was rising from the other side of the horizon like a silver moon. Hao Ren gazed at the splendid scene in space and call up the star map. “It’s a long story. Let’s talk about that later while during the journey. MDT, start calibrating the star map.”

Although the star map stored in the Nasaton database was reliable, it did not in fact conform to the requirement of the interstellar travel. The siren back then had not achieved the technological level by which they could travel to any point of the universe as they wished. Their star map could only mark the range that they could explore—compared with the entire space. That was just like a grain of sand on the beach.

Marking the position of a star in the universe is a complicated subject. You could use a few supernovae and connect them together to determine the position of a particular star, or you could detect enough stars to build a complex three-dimensional coordinate system. However, you would still face a problem: the universe is too vast, and it changes every moment. As the stars move, form and die, the coordinates of any star will become increasingly inaccurate over time. The Xi Ling Celestials could scan a snapshot of the entire universe through something like a sovereign hub, so they did not have to worry about this. However, ordinary races would not be able to do that. They must think of ways to counteract this ‘star map shift,’ and one of the ways was to map as much as possible the entire space, as enough celestial bodies and a large enough span of stars would give them more backup links to determine the location of a star.

However, the siren’s star map was a primary star map. It might have already not that accurate at in the beginning, after 10,000 years, its accuracy had been greatly reduced. Therefore, the MDT needed to recalibrate the starlight, overlay the current map of the universe with the old star map then they would be able to determine the location of Io.

Chapter 604: The Spiritual World

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

In deep space, starlight was the only companion to the boundless darkness. A bright silver arc suddenly swept across the darkness as the Petrachelys jumped in and out of the sparial rift as part of its star chart calibration sequence.

The Petrachelys followed a general direction while it headed towards Io, using warp jumps and regular flight alternately. Soon after the voyage neared its end. The spacecraft’s navigation system had recalibrated the star lens two days ago and entered the star chart from Nasaton into its navigation program. After some comparisons, the ship’s host found a star region where the siren’s home planet was probably located. The spacecraft was now heading in that direction.

Since the siren’s star chart was not accurate, and the drift of celestial bodies over 10,000 years had seriously affected the reliability of teleportation, the spacecraft would not be able to reach the coordinates directly. For safety reasons and in order to collect as much information as possible of the universe, the Navigation Assistant recommended that the spacecraft performed a series of warp jumps and subluminal flight alternately. Although it would probably take a slightly longer time, the delay caused no harm.

The spacecraft was now flying in a monotonous and boring region of the universe. It was cold, and empty with some extremely thin but radioactive clouds. Apart from the far-away starlight and a bright, star-forming nebula, there was nothing else. Hao Ren sat in his captain’s seat, staring at some documents in boredom, while enduring Lily’s occasional crazy howls.

He was not the rookie who first came into contact with the sea of stars a year ago; the scenery of starlight no longer attracted his interest. Of course, the sight of the universe was still as spectacular as ever, but he had something more important to do.

He was studying the data extracted from the computer in Nasaton.

“Io… the planet of water. Ocean covers one hundred-percent of your home planet, where huge ice floes and storm clouds formed in an annually cycle. The ecosystems started out in the deep sea. Only until your ancestors built an outpost on the first ice floe that you all knew the concept of ‘atmosphere’,” Hao Ren said while holding the MDT and looking at the siren queen. “Such is the fun of exploration—the universe is so big place that you will always find some strange places out there.”

The siren queen looked at the star chart on the navigation computer screen, feeling very incredible. “I can’t believe it. I’m here at this moment. I lived with my people in the deep sea for ten thousand years. We thought that living in the deep sea is the nature of the sirens, but our ancestors had studied the secrets of the stars. Do you often do this kind of travel?”

“Almost. We are experts,” Lily said, leaning on the seat back and wagging her tail. “Have you ever heard of space dog? Let me tell ya…”

Hao Ren knew that the husky was going to spew nonsense. He tucked the MDT back into his pocket and headed to the door. “I’m going to the lab.”

Nangong Wuyue had curled up in a ball with Shaqira and Sorma resting on the flight deck. She suddenly opened his eyes and pulled herself out. “Wait, I’m going with you. It’s boring here.”

Hao Ren looked stupefyingly at the snake-maiden who crawled and rollied up before him. He then glanced at Shaqira and Sorma, who were curling into new ball. “It’s really hard to understand the culture of the sirens…”

“It’s the symbol of friendship!” Nangong Wuyue shook the tip of her tail in the air like a rattlesnake. “I just learned from them!”

After Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue left the flight deck, Shaqira and Sorma looked at each other and said, “She still needs to familiarize with this way of resting.””Yeah, she’s too loose and will fall out after asleep.””No, I mean she had just tied me up with her.” “Oh, that was me. I was having a nightmare.”

Nangong Sanba was holding a magazine pretending to be reading. He suddenly put the book on his face and said, “The world is just too amazing…”

Hao Ren brought Wuyue leaving the flight deck and went to the laboratory through the central isle. Various equipment and platforms used in the First Born research used to occupy the laboratory, but now the research project had been transferred to the CARS, the laboratory became empty now. There were only two remaining projects running here: one was the Vengeful-Spirit Scanner’ that had yet completed the decoding process, and the other was a large restraint instrument, which was brand new, in the center of the laboratory.

“Looks like it’s still trying to study the memory code of the vengeful spirit,” said Hao Ren as he and Wuyue walked past a set of scanner. He saw the instrument flashing with a regular glimmer. The glow in the groove in the center of the instrument had not changed compared with last time. “I hope this gadget could quickly come out with result.”

Wuyue glimpsed at the vengeful spirit. She felt a sense of uneasiness. She quickly turned to look at the center of the lab. “Are you sure it won’t suddenly get out of control?”

In the center of the laboratory was a large transparent container. It was a crystallized vertical pipe that reached nearly ten meters in diameter and emitted a faint blue light. There were various sensors and recording devices around the container. There was a weird creature, a lump of swollen meat that almost looked like a brain, was suspended inside the container.

It was the brain monster that Hao Ren had captured in Nasaton.

“The protective crystal ulluminates this thing for twenty-four hours a day. It can’t escape,” said Hao Ren as he pointed to the bottom of the container, which was inlaid with a colourful diamond-shaped crystal. The crystal shone light on the giant brain, causing it to twitch from time to time. “It’d be fine as long as it doesn’t collapse inside.”

Wuyue curiously pressed her face on the container looking at the brain inside. “I heard this thing would eat anything.”

“We’ve successfully tested it with several organic compounds,” Hao Ren said, nodding. There was a robotic arm handing meat to the brain, which grabbed it with its tentacles before absorbing it in the blink of an eye. “It uses tentacles to eat. The tip of the tentacle secretes a super corrosive, digestive fluid, and open a series of fine ‘teeth’ to catch its prey. Hasse used to ask where its mouth was: it’s the tentacles. I now feed this guy according to the recipe given by the sirens. It needs to eat four to five times a day; plants and meat could be used. However, according to Katreina’s memory… it likes raw meat more. But don’t mention this in front of her,” he said.

Wuyue stuck out her tongue. “… then I’m not going to ask about its excretion process,” she said.

“Before we get to the station, I will try to communicate with it again,” Hao Ren said as he started a device next to the container.

There was an invisible traction field in the container that bound the brain monster, which was slowly pushed to the edge of the container and one of its tentacles was fixed to a silver-white cylinder. A similar cylinder had also risen up in front of Hao Ren and the hologram above the cylinder showed the words ‘Connection Ready.’

He did not want to get into direct physical contact with the tentacles to read the thoughts of the brain every time, so he had ordered the design of this device. This device replaced direct physical contact with the subject. It not only sustained a perfect mental connection function, but also enhanced the connection and record the data during the connection. In other words, Hao Ren could now not only see the memory of the brain monster but also visually record it. Although the recorded data was always severely distorted, it was an important function nonetheless.

In this way, he could rewind the video to find the footages that appeared in his subconscious mind but were ignored by the conscious mind.

Hao Ren placed his hand on the top of the silver-white cylinder, and a wave of strange thoughts immediately came into his mind.

The chaotic red, the cloudy sky, the slanting falling starlight, and all kinds of grotesque sights came into his field of vision as if they were all real. Hao Ren realized that he was on a certain doomed foreign planet. However, this was not what he wanted.

A mushroom cloud rose beside him, and countless horrifying shadows came from all directions as if to rip him apart. he stayed in the illusion for only a few seconds and began to be baptized by the horrifying images. There was a bust of rumbling and incomprehensible screams in his mind. The screams and the surrounding scenes seemed to join forces to bring the world’s most horrifying thoughts into the minds of the invaders, using fear—the inborn weakness of mortals—to drive the invaders out of its spiritual world. Hao Ren stood in the illusion of a star-studded alien scene. He watched the strange things tearing his body in pieces, over and over again. He looked up at the starry sky that was constantly falling, and called out aloud from the depths of his heart.

“You know it’s useless! Come out and talk to me face to face!”

There was only an empty echo that came from all directions in the chaos of the mind. the brain monster refused to answer any further prying questions.

Yes, this complete brain monster had the ability to build a mental barrier. Even if Hao Ren could directly peer into its memory, it was difficult to maneuver.

Chapter 605: Divining Intentions

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

In the world created by the monster, it was doomsday and the earth and sky was coming apart.

Beneath Hao Ren’s feet was a piece of land soaked in blood. Fissures started forming as under the violent quakes as poisonous steam broke through the surface. A endless storm blew as lightning and brimstone scorched the earth. A series of horrifying howl rang across the place and the sheer force alone could drive a man insane. After the storm subsided, the rain of brimstone became a full fledge storm as massive blocks of flaming rocks smashed against the ground, causing it to rupture in a burst of lava. Just as the spewing lava formed into a giant molten wolf. Hao Ren found himself in a desolate planet that was being torn part as countless of comets smashed against the land around him.

Various doomsday scenes played around him, and it changed wildly without any rhythm, almost as if the scenes were drawn from human’s impression of what an apocalypse would look like. Each and every scene was bone chilling at their own right, and within the visions of doom countless of bizzare and horrifying scenes played out: like giant flaming corpse ravaging the land. This was almost like the depiction of hell in some religious stories, but the difference is that the depiction of hell was too scare people away from sinning, while this was clearly a defensive mechanism against an intruder.

Hao Ren stood before a soon to erupt volcano and before him was a wave of scorching toxic steam and brimstone. Truth be told, it was rather scary but his mental resistance had been bolstered by the psychic screen and his experience so far had prepared him to at least not fall apart under such an onslaught. He looked up to the sky and roared at the invisible person pulling this stunt. “Aren’t you bored by now? If you really want me to stay away, in the future then answer my questions!”

A mocking roar came in reply from the skies as the volcano burst into life. The burning volcanic ashes then turned into a rain of piercing blades.

“You should be well aware now that your powers are weakened by the crystals. Your illusions won’t hurt me, and my resistance is even higher than yours.” Hao Ren said as he sat cross-legged on the ground, letting the blades sink into him. “It’s the reverse now, its now my psyche is invading yours. Your attempts at a stand off will just bore both of us. I cannot peer into your conciousness, but can you at least talk to me? I believe you are able of understanding human language and psyche.”

Another thunderous roar came from the depths of the earth as rainfall replaced the volcanic smog and completely blocked out Hao Ren’s vision.

It was the same as the last few attempts when Hao Ren tried to forcibly connect with the brain, all his attempts were thwarted by the falling rain as the monster would not respond to him any further. All the visions of catastrophe and the howls of terror had ceased, and in their place, an endless rain that kept pouring and pouring, until Hao Ren gave up.

But Hao Ren still wanted to give it a try. He knew that the monster would never relinquish its hostility towards him, and had never carried hope that the monster would actually ‘sit down and talk’. He only wanted the monster to show its true face, even just a word, even if just a curse, he could use it to track the monster’s mental activity. Yet the monster seems to be vary of this and had yet to raise to the bait.

Hao Ren sat in the middle of the rain, and looked like he was talking to himself. “You know, I’ve seen many many races and species, some even more curious than you, I’ve seen a living, breathing, thinking Mimosa plant. You’re nothing special, just simply throwing visions of death is not enough to make you special. You are no different than a slug in my eyes, just a slug with some secrets….”

The rain kept on pouring.

“Why are you so hostile to the other races? Let me rephrase that, why bring death and destruction where ever you go? Your kin had messed about with the peole of Holetta, you had brought chaos to the Sirens, you even sought to sow discord amongst the supernaturals on earth… What are you trying to achieve?”

The rain still poured, but it had gradually turned rain, almost like it was raining blood.

“What are you to a First Born? Oh, you may not call them that, but you know what I mean. I’m pretty sure that you and the First Borns are not the same type of creatures. But there’s a niggling thought within me that you two are interrelated. Both of you work the same way…. and harbours the same hatred to all things living. Are you distant relatives?”

The rain had now turned into a fullfledge bloodstorm, and the vicious roars thundered again.

Hao Ren was surprised, and elated that he somehow had managed to elicit a reaction from the monster.

“Ah, seems like you’re pretty sensitive about this topic. Maybe we can go further.” Hao Ren raised his hand to collect some of the rain water. It was as red as blood, with some suspiciously similar stickiness to it. “This reminds me of the lifeblood. The Disciples of Glory believed that the lifeblood is the Goddess’ own blood and with it they are made whole. Despite them not having seen the Goddess before, yet they spoke her words with conviction. So lets talk about the Goddess of Creation? The one had gave life….”

Before he could finish however, another thunderous crack shattered the skies as Hao Ren felt an uncontrollable rage and hostility was coming from all directions towards him. The ravenous energies had perhaps collided the defensive crystal’s suppression effects, as Hao Ren felt his mental state being shaken. Within the violent explosions, he could make out a violent roar, “….Treacherous child… you DARE speak of Mother?”

The land then came apart.

Great chasms formed in the hundreds as the entire land buckled, as if the plain was build with a layer of thin rocks above the abyss. Now the entire surface was collapsing inwards as everything was swallowed by the swirling void.

A overwhelming sense of falling descended upon Hao Ren as he felt his conciousness was just about to leave the place. Just before he fully woke, he looked down and saw a faint glow in the abyss.

There were nothing in the light, but it was warm.

Hao Ren opened his eyes abruptly as he stood in the laboratory. Before him was the floating brain within the sealing container. The latter has floating there without any movement, but there is still an undiguised, unbridled hatred coming from the monster.

“It kicked me out again.” Hao Ren took a deep breath, “This is the fourth time.”

“Seems like you managed to stay connected for a few seconds longer.” Wuyue gave Hao Ren a curious look. “Any luck?”

Hao Ren scratched his head. “Just a sentence, and an unknown light. The moment I spoke about the Goddess the monster was instantly enraged and destroyed the virtual world it had created. It seems to call the Goddess ‘Mother’, and it called me a treacherous child… I think it may have mistaken me for the Second Born in the Plane of Dreams.”

“Treacherous child? So was this about the Second Born’s betrayal of the Goddess?” Wuyue’s tailed swung about. “Didn’t we cleared that up? Holetta’s apocalypse was caused by the First Born, and had nothing to do with the experiments of the Mage-Emperors no?”

Hao Ren frowned as he ran through his thought before something struck him. “May be the Second Born are not just limited to Holetta!”

“Uh…. aside from that?” Wuyue too scratched her head. “What about the light?”

“Beats me. It seems like it is in the conciousness of the monster but it was not making it easy to discern what it is. I only felt a very warm and peaceful aura from it… Maybe it’s some ancient memory, before the Goddess’ fall… Ugh…. I have no idea.”

Hao Ren and Wuyue continued to talk about the scenes that appeared in the monster’s mind before setting a transcriber to record all of the images. Hao Ren hoped he could catch something that he had missed by going through the images again. But all of it were merely visions of doom, and nothing particular stood out.

Seems like the monster’s outer conciousness does not contain that much secrets.

Hao Ren could only sigh as he reviewed the pictures again “The real body is really much stronger than its clones and its defenses against memory reading is really high. Looks like we still have a long way to go before…”

As Hao Ren was just about to finish, the MDT spoke. “The last warp jump is in two minutes. We will arrive in Io soon.”

“Lets get back to the bridge.” Hao Ren shook his head. “We’ll leave the brain monster for later.”