The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 631

Chapter 631: Feast of the Dragons ##

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The main purpose of Hao Ren’s visit to Saint Sur IV was to get his hands on the vengeful spirit. This purpose was finally achieved, and Galazur had her hands on the instrument as well as the technology needed to analyze the vengeful spirit. Everyone was happy.

“I have to go now,” Hao Ren told his newly-acquainted colleague, whom he had just met for barely a day. “I’ll leave the analysis instrument to you. If you find any new information, you know where to find me. I’m working on the Plane of Dreams case.”

Galazur was a bit surprised. “In such a hurry?”

Hao Ren glanced at the Nangong siblings next to him. “I need to help these two find their parents who were taken away by the vengeful spirit. I’m here to find clues to read the vengeful spirit’s memory, and now that things are done, you have to return quickly.”

Nangong Wuyue dragged her brother along and they bowed to express their gratitude to Galazur. They felt emotional, as for the first time in many years, they finally saw hope in finding their parents. Galazur raised her eyebrows and said, “What’s the hurry? You’ve come so far from the first galaxy, at least be my guest today. Don’t let people get the impression that the Kingdom of Dragons is slighting our guests.”

With her arms akimbo, she stood upright. “I’m teling you, you’re very lucky; us dragons are rarely this hospitable—it’s been 600 years since we last invited guests for dinner.”

The Nangong siblings looked at each other and nodded slightly. Then Wuyue said to Hao Ren with a smile. “In that case… we should accept the invitation gracefully.”

Lily blinked as she looked around. Knowing that the invitation was the real deal, she excitedly pulled on Hao Ren’s sleeve, urging, “Let’s go eat!”

Hao Ren looked at the husky helplessly, spreading out his hand as he said to Galazur, “Considering your hospitality, it’d be ungracious of me to not accept your invitation.”

Galazur brought them back to Pyroxene Peak and ordered that a banquet be prepared in honor of her friends. The banquet was to be held in the massive square at the foothill of Pyroxene Peak. The old square was where the dragons regularly met. Its grandness exceeded all human imaginations. Hao Ren felt like he was standing on an airport runway eating barbecue. No matter which direction he looked in, it was an endless flat boulder. It was said that the dragons created the square by levelling an entire mountain. Looking at the towering mountains and cliffs surrounding the square, Hao Ren could not help but believe that the legend was true.

This was a new and interesting experience for everyone: They were on the land of an alien planet, surrounded by grand and magnificent dragon peaks. They were also joined by a group of dragons in a feast. Such a scene only appeared in mythical stories. Lily was especially excited. Although she had participated in various foreign feasts in Holletta, New Aerym, and Helcrown before, none of them could match the grandeur here. The reason was simple—looking at the huge dragons and eating with them was an adventurous as well as thrilling experience!

Curiosity was in the husky’s blood, and she had now quenched it.

The dragons were of course curious about the guests at the banquet. Hao Ren had attracted the eyes of many young dragons on the way. However, the dragon queen had supreme authority there. So, when Galazur ordered them to entertain her guest, even if her guest was just a cat, no one would question it. Hence, the dragons just looked at the guests with curious eyes before they turned to enjoy the banquet.

“Dragons like to party, at least on this planet,” said Galazur, who accompanied the guests in her human form. She smiled and pointed at the huge creatures around them. “As long as ther’s a party, these guys won’t ask questions. They don’t care who you’re entertaining or why you’re holding a banquet, as long as there’s a place to eat and have fun.”

Lily was having a mouthful of barbeque. Gravy dripped down her mouth as she muttered, “Mmm… I like this lifestyle!”

Hao Ren was sitting on the floor like everyone else. It was a unique experience to eat among the creatures who were a dozen meters tall. He began to see things in Lil Pea’s perspective—at least he now understood how the little mermaid felt as she saw the world on the dinner table. He looked at the food in front of him and noticed that the dragons’ diet was unexpectedly… simple. Aside from meat, there was more meat, and all of it was cooked in barbecue style. It looked like these rugged creatures did not waste much time in studying food culture, which made him understand the reasons why Galazur enjoyed the snacks so much earlier. It seemed like this was not entirely her dietitian’s problem…

“Roasted whole elephants, roasted whole cows, roasted whole camels, roasted whole whales, and… I can’t even recognize it all,” said the Nangong Sanba, looking wide-eyed at the huge bonfires and huge pieces of meat everywhere. The dragon feast was a curious journey. “Should I be relieved to learn that these are at least cooked?”

Galazur smiled and shook her head. “Actually, some of the more traditional dragons still prefer raw meat… Of course, they would season it with salt.”

While she spoke, she raised a half-barbecued piece of meat and spewed out flames to cook it. After it was done, she stuffed it in her mouth. “But, I prefer cooked meat.”

Nagong Sanba’s jaw dropped to the ground.

Rollie was walking around a huge roasted whole elephant. The cat girl had a hard time deciding where she should bite first. She meowed for a while, but no one came to help. She had no choice but to help herself by lunging at the mountain of meat—the dumb cat had decided to dig a hole and eat it from the inside out.

Galazur had little interest in the food. She also saw that Hao Ren did not seem to like the greasy barbecued meat too, so she beckoned him to a quiet place. Looking at the sunset, the dragon queen said very casually, “I learned from the General Data Network that you’re now fully responsible for the Plane of Dreams?”

“The goddess assigned it to me.” Hao Ren shrugged. “To tell you the truth, I’m still confused; from the moment I took up this job till today, everything’s been a little like boiling the ocean. But fortunately, all missions have been successfully completed.”

“No one’s ever been responsible for the Plane of Dreams before,” said Galazur, leaning against a huge stone pillar. Her slightly curled long hair glowed under the glorious evening sun. “The work of an inspector is rather disorganized. We’re often required to deal with emergency situations, so the goddess generally doesn’t give us fixed, long-term tasks.”

Hao Ren sensed a deeper meaning to what Galazur said. “You mean there’s a problem with this mission?”

“A mission is a mission. I think the goddess has a good reason for her arrangement,” said Galazur, who spat out a little flame. “It’s just that the Plane of Dreams is… special. You should be careful, and not just focus all your attention on the mission itself, because sometimes revelations come from where the place you least expect.”

Galazur spoke with a smile, “Sometimes in order to show that we’re worth our salt, we need to go above and beyond the call of duty.”

“Do you know something about the Plane of Dreams?” Hao Ren asked curiously.

“Every inspector knows about the Plane of Dreams, but nobody except you really tries to understand that world. It’s a very unstable place, where there is a constant mutual interference with the real world. We wouldn’t go there if it’s not necessary. I went in there once hundreds of years ago to track an anomalous space phenomenon… I used a very complicated conversion instrument and only stayed there for a few hours. It rejects foreign matters, just like other regular alien worlds.”

Hao Ren suddenly found that something was wrong. “Rejects foreign matters? Why didn’t I feel it?”

He told her about his experience of entering the Plane of Dreams, and the stable portal he found. He had never felt any difference between the Plane of Dreams and the Surface World. On the contrary, the relationship between the two worlds was so close that the mutual influence had become very common.

Galazur blinked after she listened to Hao Ren’s narrative. “Looks like a lot’s happened to the Plane of Dreams recently… It gives me the feeling that the process of convergence is accelerating.”

“Raven said that this is resulting from the gradual collapse of the Wall of Reality.” Scratching his chin, Hao Ren continued, “But it’s not yet certain what the problem is with the Wall of Reality.”

Galazur frowned for a moment and suddenly said, “The relationship between the Plane of Dreams and the Surface World has been stable for more than 10,000 years. The accelerated collapse of the Wall of Reality has just happened in recent years… It doesn’t look like a natural phenomenon.”

“It’s man-made?” Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. “I suspected it, however it didn’t seem to be the case after I checked out a few clues. It looks like no mortal race, including the First Born, has the ability to influence the operation of the Wall of Reality, unless—”

Before Hao Ren could finish his sentence, the MDT suddenly called out to him telepathically. “Boss, there’s news from the spacecraft’s laboratory!”

Chapter 632: Clues ##

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

After he received the notification from the MDT, Hao Ren had to cut his dinner short and leave the banquet. He excused himself before heading straight back to the Petrachelys, which was in Saint Sur IV’s orbit. In the spaceship’s laboratory, the analysis of the vengeful spirit was completed. A messy but readable report was presented before everyone’s eyes.

The MDT plugged itself into the laboratory’s host computer, buzzing away. “Things are still confusing, but it’s a matter of post-processing. Most of the vengeful spirit’s memories have been successfully recovered.”

Nangong Sanba immediately stepped forward. “Have you found our parents’ whereabouts?”

“That’s why I’ve called you people in. There are too many people appearing in the vengeful spirit’s memory. The host doesn’t know who your parents are.” The MDT pointed to an autonomous robot next to the analyzer with a light beam. “Can either one of you two please step forward as the system needs to extract your memory to compare with the images appearing in the vengeful spirit’s memory? Don’t worry. The autonomous robots are safe. Their tentacles won’t pose any health hazards… well, except psychological ones.”

Nangong Sanba glanced at the mechanical squid that was waving its tentacles. “…Isn’t there a more normal instrument on board? Alternatively, you can just let me look at the vengeful spirit’s memory. Freeze the visual when I spot my parents…”

“Aside from the mechanical squid, what we have is the electronic coffin, which you two are even more allergic to,” the MDT sounded as b*tchy as ever. “And do you know how large the volume of the vengeful spirit’s memory is? In human years, this thing has at lived ‘lived’ more than 15,000 years. Are you prepared to live in the lab for the rest of your life to look through these memories?”

Wuyue slapped her brother in the back of the head using her tail. “Just cut the cackle and do it.”

Nangong Sanba bit his lip and climbed into the chair next to the autonomous robot. “I’m ready. By the way, would it stick a tube or something into the back of my head?”

Before Nangong Sanba’s voice trailed off, the autonomous robot had already lifted its tentacles to tap his temples. Meanwhile, another one of its tentacles scanned the back of his head with a small scanning device. A moment later, images of Nangong Sanba appeared on a hologram. He looked surprised. “Where-Where am I right now?”

The MDT explained, “It’s a secure interface. It’s necessary to extract your memory and compare it with another memory, which would create a high load on the mortal brain. So, we have to first transfer your consciousness to the laboratory instrument. After that, you have nothing else to do, the system will do everything automatically.”

“Cool stuff,” said Nangong Sanba, looking very relaxed. “Isn’t this the legendary virtual reality reconstruction stuff? It doesn’t feel any different from the real world. Hey, Mr. Landlord, do you have AV in your PC?”

Everyone was wide eyed. Wuyue crept up to her brother as her tail emitted a rattling sound. The MDT’s b*tchy voice then sounded, “Be mindful of what you think… During the extraction of consciousness, you’re vulnerable to exposing your subconscious mind. Of course, it’s a bit too late as we speak.”

Nangong Sanba was still not getting the drift. Hao Ren buried his face in his hand and sighed: it looked like the dude was going to get a mega windmill ride today.

While Nangong Sanba rattled on, the instruments in the lab worked to compare his human memory to that of the vengeful spirit to find the whereabouts of the missing couple from 100 years ago. It was a job of precision. In the vengeful spirit’s 15,000-year memory, they were only looking for what happened on that one particular day.

Nangong Sanba was relaxed and even cracking jokes during the entire memory extraction procedure. However, if it was not to find their parents, no one may have wanted to go through the “memory extraction” procedure. After all, it sounded scary.

After a long wait, the MDT suddenly whistled. “Stop! Found it!”

Wuyue immediately released her tail from her brother’s neck and crawled over. “Let me see!”

The MDT began to flip the images in the hologram. “Are they your parents?”

Appearing on the visual was a blurry imagery of a man and a woman in front of a farmhouse. The visual was distorted. The couple seemed to be on alert. It seemed that this was the moment their parents first encountered the vengeful spirit.

Despite the vague images, Nangong Wuyue immediately recognized it. She pursed her mouth, and choked before she nodded. “It’s… It’s them! Can you find out where the vengeful spirit brought them to?”

The images flipped quickly. In a series of constantly shaking, distorted and oscillating images, they saw the short battle from a hundred years ago. The couple in the visual was in a fierce confrontation, but the last scenes in the visual were completely filled with static. When the visual finally came back up, the farmhouse and the couple had disappeared. The perspective turned upwards, and a starry sky appeared before them.

However, the visual of the starry sky was also very blurry, but the perspective was more stable and clearer than that in the previous battle scene.

Lily turned her head to look at Hao Ren and then at the MDT. “That’s it? Just a bunch of stars?”

‘”What do you expect? A set of coordinates?” The MDT asked back. “It’s already a pleasant surprise to be able to see the stars; otherwise we have to use information extraction to determine where the vengeful spirit had gone to. Now we can use this starry sky to find out the location… Starlight is a valid location reference in the universe, at least within a short period of time. One hundred years will not make much of a difference in cosmic terms as long as we find where this scene is in the universe.”

Rollie curiously watched them as they worked with a bunch of weird instruments. She then reached out to tug Hao Ren by the sleeve, demanding, “Dried fish, please…”

Only then did Hao Ren notice Rollie. He was taken aback. “How did she come in? Why is she so dirty?”

The cat girl looked like a drowned mouse. Not only was she covered in oil, there were also dust and dirt stains on her face. She looked very much like a stray. However, she did not mind at all albeit a slight feeling of discomfort. She pulled up her clothes, licked her hands and cleaned up her face.

Lily flicked her tail and stood up. “She buried herself in the roasted elephant. It took me some time to drag her out.”

“Take her away to the shower!” Hao Ren waved his hand and turned to look at the MDT. “Can you find out where this sky is?”

“The host computer of Sovereign Hub K3 keeps a record of all the celestial bodies in the universe. We can request a visit there to find out where the scene of the starry sky’s from.”

Hao Ren nodded. “I’ll leave it to you.”

In just a moment, the MDT was granted access to the sovereign hub’s data interface, and it began to search through the snapshots of the universe.

Hao Ren never expected that he would one day use the function of a sovereign hub. He was very impressed with the three bases of the planet—the law of the heavens and the universe was running in the giant, fabricated celestial body. He had always assumed that he would never have the chance to get his hands on such a level of technology. Now, the inspector profession seemed to hold endless possibilities. No one could tell for sure what one would come into contact with in the mess of everyday tasks.

“Strange…” The MDT was puzzled. “K3 has traversed all the celestial bodies of this universe, but no such stars were found.”

Hao Ren blinked. “What do you mean?”

“This may not be a scene from this universe.” The MDT was a bit disappointed. “I have a very bad feeling…”

Nangong Wuyue’s tail suddenly stiffened. “Could it be in… the Plane of Dreams?!”

“The vengeful spirit brought them to the Plane of Dreams?” Hao Ren was equally surprised. He reached for the tip of Wuyue’s tail. “Relax… Can you not curl it around my legs?”

“It’s possible—let’s not discuss how that’s possible since the vengeful spirit itself has a lot to do with the Plane of Dreams.” The MDT suddenly popped itself out of the slot. “That one probe we released has already flowed a few billion light years away. It has roughly mapped the distribution of the celestial bodies along the way, so it’s time to gamble on it—let’s hope that the Nangongs’ parents are on some planet within those few billions of light years.”

Chapter 633: Empty ##

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren regarded himself as a man of knowledge. Well, that was subjective, but he was indeed a man of vision.

He had made some arrangements the last time he left the Plane of Dreams. However, he never expected that these arrangements would one day be used to find someone. At that time, in order to explore space in the Plane of Dreams and draw a star chart, he ordered the Petrachelys to send out a batch of self-multiplying probes. These probes could continue to replicate themselves as needed and think using their super-light antenna network. They could plan their best exploration routes on their own, continue to move deeper into space, map all the objects they encounter along the way, and build a small observatory station at certain intervals to form an advanced drone network.

The operating protocol of the probes was to first send a group of high-speed units to rapidly scan the space. They would then dispatch high-precision units to gradually fill in the details so that Hao Ren could grasp the distribution of celestial objects in the Plane of Dreams.

After some time, the drones did come back with a set of preliminary star charts, which only included the distribution data of major celestial bodies within a certain range. To find out if these celestial bodies had signs of life, specific scans were needed, and they were not so easy to do. It required subsequent slow-speed probes to make accurate observations. So far, the drones dispatched by Hao Ren were still conducting preliminary charting works. After that, they would carry out the life detection stage. It was not until a few days ago that the drones returned the first star chart. The star chart was now coming in handy.

The fastest probes had now completed mapping the stars that were billions of light-years from Holletta.

The MDT then retrieved the preliminary star chart. It tried to find if there was a point within its range that observed the same starry sky, which coincided with the memory of the vengeful spirit.

Nangong Wuyue waited anxiously during the process. Meanwhile, Nangong Sanba was done with the memory extraction procedure. He joined his sister in keeping an eye on the search progress. He was fortunate enough to escape her mega-windmill punishment this time. Hao Ren consoled them, “Don’t worry; those drones are on the way into outer space. They’ve covered a vast area of it, and sooner or later, we’ll find your parents.”

Wuyue gently poked Hao Ren in the leg using her tail. “It’s okay. After all, we’ve been waiting for over a hundred years.”

The lab door silently slid open and Lily sneaked in with the freshly cleaned cat. The dumb cat’s hair was still a little wet, and both of their clothes were almost soaked… Yeah, it was truly not easy to bathe a cat.

“What are you guys doing?” the husky sensed the serious atmosphere and immediately swallowed her words before she asked Hao Ren in a whisper.

Rollie cleaned her face with her paws and said, “Surely they’re looking for a way to get me some dried fish.”

Hao Ren patted Rollie on the head. Just as he was about to say something, the MDT interrupted. “…I’ve found what highly seems to be the place, but…”

Nangong Sanba chimed in immediately, asking, “But what?”

The MDT retrieved the hologram, which showed an empty space; a probe had sent in the visual from the Plane of Dreams. “A drone drew the chart while it passed through the spot in space. The location and characteristics of these stars are the same as those in the vengeful spirit’s memory. However, the problem is… there are no celestial bodies in this spot.”

“No celestial bodies?!” Nangong Wuyue shouted. Then something crossed her mind. “Have my parents been sent into space?”

The MDT wobbled a little and said, “Logically speaking, this shouldn’t happen. Teleportation usually requires objects with mass as the destination. This is caused by gravity’s disturbance to space. Right now, this location is a bit strange… There’s nothing there, no celestial body, only a cloud of debris, which suggests that there was a big explosion many years ago. The information returned by the drone is limited. That’s as much as I can tell.”

Hao Ren’s mind was blank and he remained silent for a long while before he finally patted Wuyue on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, at least your parents weren’t sent to the sun…”

Lily shot Hao Ren a sideways glance. “How many times has Battie reminded you; don’t console anyone if you don’t know what to say. You really need a good beating for that.”

Embarrassed, Hao Ren said, “Okay, let’s not think about that for now. Shall we go check out the actual situation? The star chart won’t lie; the vengeful spirit has certainly been there. Let’s go back and talk to the others. We need to set off to the Plane of Dreams as soon as possible.”

The Nangong siblings said nothing but nodded silently. They were not in the mood at that moment.

The tense atmosphere even made the dumb cat quiet down. She found an inconspicuous spot and squatted there, carefully rubbing her face with her paws while muttering, “Big Boss Cat is not happy. I don’t want any dried fish now…”

No one spoke a word after that. Hao Ren picked up the radio and told Galazur about the situation. Then, they went back to Earth through the space warp.

When they finally got home, it was already midnight on Earth; Y’lisabet and Y’zaks were sleeping soundly. Vivian was the only one still staring at the idiot box, singing and knitting her scarf. When the vampire maiden saw them coming out of the basement, she greeted them with a big smile. “Ahh, you’re back! Have you had your dinner? I made some sticky soup in the evening.”

Hao Ren waved his hand as if to say that they already had their dinner outside. He then sat down next to Vivian. “We’ve cracked the code of the vengeful spirit’s memory, which may lead us to the Nangongs’ parents.”

“Really? That’s good.” Vivian stopped the work in her hand as she sensed that there was something more. “Is there an issue?”

“They could be somewhere in the Plane of Dreams. The drones I dispatched before happened to find a highly probable star region,” Hao Ren told her about the situation. “…The problem is, there aren’t any celestial bodies there.”

“That can only be verified by going there,” said Vivian, rubbing her fingers against her chin. “Can we leave tomorrow?”

Hao Ren looked at the Nangong siblings. “Let’s have a good rest tonight. We’ll depart tomorrow.”

The next day, Y’zaks and his daughter learned about the vengeful spirit’s memory and volunteered to go with them. Taking into account that they were travelling by spaceship this time, someone may need to stay back on board when needed, Hao Ren decided to bring along everyone in the family, including the cat and the fish. So, he did not have to worry about the two making a mess at home while he was away. He called Raven 12345, and confirming that she had no new mission for him, he set out with his own team.

The Petrachelys flew through the vast expanse of space. The spacecraft glowed in a faint light as starlight shone on its silvery-white body. Flying along the drone’s flight path, the spacecraft knew that it was fast approaching its destination.

At 0.3 light-years from the target, the spacecraft decelerated temporarily for the first time as it jumped out from a space warp and moved closer to a silver-white structure in space.

The structure was small, only one-third the size of the Petrachelys. It looked like a section of a short and thick tower in space. Suspended above it were four symmetrically distributed crystal plates. There were also some small, floating bastions around the structure. The bastions contained the small outpost’s defensive weapons, which were powerful enough to deal with any wandering celestial objects and invaders (if any). In the case of greater threats, the entire outpost would just move away. After all, it was just a broadcast antenna; it did not have to fight with the enemy head-on.

This outpost was one of the results of the drones released by Hao Ren. While the drones continuously moved into deep space, they were also building a huge network along the way. They could multiply themselves and look for suitable celestial bodies in the universe to build production bases. They would also build signal relay stations in space, which was the current structure according to a blueprint.

Together, these things formed an autonomous drone cluster. Although there were not many things the simple, low-tech drones could do, they played an important function in helping inspectors with their exploratory mission.

A light beam connected the Petrachelys to the outpost’s structure as the Petrachelys read the latest observation data from the structure. The crystal plate at the top of the structure turned to face deep space; it was contacting the drones that were hustling through space, and relaying information back to its owner.

On the flight deck of the Petrachelys, the MDT relayed the observation report from the outpost. “Two probes have been ordered to return, providing us with more precise navigation of the constellations in this area. There are no celestial bodies in the target area… only a pile of ashes.”

“Ashes? What ashes?” Vivian asked curiously.

“Solar ashes.”

Chapter 634: Rogue Planet ##

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

“Solar ashes,” the MDT responded briefly.

“A pile of solar ashes?” Hao Ren was a little surprised. “From a dead star? What else?”

“Not much; no planets, no asteroid belts, and no artificial celestial objects. The drone network has compared it with the image in the vengeful spirit’s memory and found the spot where a similar starry region could be observed. It matched 99.99 % of the star chart. This only means that the vengeful spirit was looking at it from the same spot—but this spot is now empty. The nearest object is a dead star. The good news is, the dead star isn’t far from this location, just about two astronomical units away. So the Nangong couple hasn’t fallen into the sun, instead they’re on some other planet circling the sun. The only question is: where is this planet?”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Lily sat back in her seat and said, “Let’s check it out then.”

Hao Ren nodded. He commanded the spacecraft to disconnect from the outpost and retracted its contact beam. It faded into a silver light as it flew away and disappeared into deep space. The tiny outpost re-adjusted the angle of its crystal plates and resumed its routine operation.

The spacecraft arrived at its destination after a short voyage. The observatory platform on the upper deck of the Petrachelys extended out slowly. As the shade lowered, the scenery outside appeared before their eyes. It was dark and vast.

The MDT pointed to a direction in space with a light beam. A faint dot of light, as small as an egg, was out there. “That’s the ash, a dead star. It didn’t turn into a black hole. Its core is still emanating heat. Apart from that, there’s pretty much nothing left. This space is filled with fragments of the star—gases, shrapnel and things like that, which we can ignore.”

Hao Ren nodded. He could see that the cosmic background had an abnormal grayish-brown color. This consisted of the dust and gases left behind by the explosion of the star. Since the dust and gases had spread out so far, the spot that they were in had to be within the blast zone. If there any planets existed in the region, they would have been blown away by the supernova.

But even if the planet shattered, there would surely be debris.

The MDT emitted a series of beeps. “Checked. There’s nothing left.”

“Is it possible to widen the search area?” Hao Ren looked at the distant star. “When the star exploded, the shockwave may have blown the celestial body out of the way.”

“You think I never thought of that?” The MDY shook its body. “Let me remind you that according to calculations, the star you see now has exploded more than 10,000 years ago. Even if it blew away its own planet, it happened way back then. The star region in the vengeful spirit’s memory was only a hundred years old; during which this spot was as calm as a millpond. So, if we can’t find anything here right now, more often than not, you wouldn’t find anything here a hundred years ago.”

Y’zaks suddenly came up and said, “Unless, the planet here ran away on its own a hundred years ago.”

Y’lisabet emulated her papa’s usual style, crossing both arms and nodding. “What my papa says makes sense.”

Vivian waved her hand at the little girl. “Do you even understand what your papa said?”

Y’lisabet held her head high and replied, “Whatever my papa says always makes sense! This is the law of nature!”

Just as Hao Ren was about to say something, a ring of light suddenly appeared in the space near the spaceship. A small rectangular object emitting a silver light jumped out of the ring and approached the Petrachelys silently. Hao Ren recognized the object; it was the probe he had released earlier. However, he was damned sure it was not from his original batch. This one was of a later generation—a cloned probe multiplied from the original probe, responsible for mapping the universe in that region. The smart drone had sensed the position of its master and flew directly to the observatory platform. The rear section of the drone swung open on both sides before a small metal device came out of its belly. The device entered the observatory through the shield and landed before them.

Lily grabbed the gizmo but found that some components were missing. It was obviously not made by the Xi Ling Celestials.

Hao Ren was surprised. “Where did it come from?”

The MDT went up to the probe and “talked” with it. Then it said, “It came from several light years away in space. This thing was flying at three percent the speed of light.”

A thought crossed Hao Ren’s mind and he gave an order. “Track in that direction!”

The drone lighted up in blue before it flew away and disappeared before their eyes. The MDT brought up a hologram, showing a real-time radar visual transmitted by the probe. The visual began with the probe rapidly pulling away from the Petrachelys and flying out into deep space. A moment later, the MDT suddenly sounded a loud whistle; a bright red dot appeared in the visual. “The probe has found a planet! However, the planet is flying away from us with the help of a bunch of thrusters. It’s at least eight light years away from us… ”

Everyone was stunned beyond words. Their eyes landed on Y’zaks in unison. Scratching his big baldhead, Y’zaks smiled. “It really can run away on its own…”

Y’lisabet’s arms were still crossed as she proudly proclaimed, “See—my dad is always right.”

The Petrachelys immediately traced the signal from the probe and caught up with the flyaway planet. What they saw had them drop their jaws to the ground.

A dim, gray planet was moving across space, alone. Huge and neat gullies filled its surface; they were marks left behind by massive reconstruction works. In spots where those gullies converged, there were propellers symmetrically arranged along the axis. These propellers were as large as mountains, and they looked incredibly huge even from space. Some of them were in operation, thrusting out several hundred thousand miles of jet flame. They pushed the planet away in a gradual acceleration.

The technology that was driving the planet looked “primitive”. They used the same propulsion technology as a thruster. Technologically, it was light years behind the Coordinate Propulsion Technology of many interstellar civilizations. However, this simple and crude propulsion method had given the entire planet a jaw-dropping sense of raw power.

The Petrachelys flew parallel to the gray planet and Hao Ren looked down from the observatory at the planet below. “Why didn’t the probes detect this planet?”

“The earlier batch of drones were primarily tasked to draw up the star chart. The larger sources of gravity and light overshadowed the planets as well as smaller objects in space,” the MDT explained. “Besides, this particular planet here has been traversing along the flight boundary of the two probes, which is a blind spot. So, this could be an oversight. After all, this planet doesn’t emit light, is not massive, and has a very low infrared signature.”

Rollie lay on the side of the observatory and meowed in awe, her tail swinging in the air. “That’s what Big Boss Cat’s been looking for?”

“What is that?” Vivian also turned and asked.

The MDT was measuring the trajectory of the rogue planet. Using the planet’s trajectory and speed of acceleration, it could trace it back to its original location of 100 years ago. However, this required a complex calculation and the result would only be an approximation of an ideal condition—stars were a constantly changing reference system. The celestial bodies in motion involved many reverse calculations. Fortunately, the time span that the MDT needed for its calculation was only a hundred years. Within those hundred years, the relative position of the stars would not have changed much.

“Firstly, we need to assume that the planet has been maintaining its current rate of acceleration after breaking away from the star system. We’re assuming that it hasn’t changed its course for 100 years and it hasn’t been captured by other large-mass objects. Finally, after considering the perturbation of nearby gravitational sources…” the MDT muttered as it calculated. Hao Ren began to run out of patience. “Please get straight to the point.”

“Oh, this should be the planet we’ve been looking for,” said the MDT, smacking Hao Ren on the forehead. “One hundred years ago, it was probably dozens of astronomical units away from the coordinates that we originally calculated. In interstellar terms, this deviation is almost negligible.”

Lily then poked Nangong Wuyue in the waist. “Your daddy and mommy should be down there… Probably.

Chapter 635: Badlands

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The Petrachelys did not land on the planet; it cautiously circled the planet a few times and learned as much as it could before they touched down. It was a strange flying planet, traveling alone in space.

At first glance, the planet was flying with the help of a series of massive thrusters. There were more than 160 huge engine nozzles as big as mountains on its surface, but only a quarter of them were fired up. Behind the planet, there were plasmic exhaust flames, which went as far as a thousand kilometers. Together, they looked like a weird but huge comet with a tail, creating a spectacular scene in space. Except for those huge thrusters and exhaust flames, the rest of the planet was lifeless—no vegetation was visible on the surface, while the oceans and lands were frozen over with ice that had not melted for years. Ninety percent of the planet was dark. The only bright area was around the giant thrusters, as it was seemingly illuminated by the exhaust flames.

Zombie planet , Hao Ren thought.

It was like a zombie of the celestial world. It was dead but the thrusters were still faithfully carrying out orders to fly the planet away.

“There are only traces of life on the surface of the planet: lower organisms, algae, or other single-celled creatures were detected,” the MDT’s voice interrupted Hao Ren’s thoughts. “No traces of large, advanced life forms have been found. They may be of course buried underground. There is a shield layer on the surface of the planet, which may have formed from the geomagnetic field. This could be the reason why it survived the supernova more than 10,000 years ago.”

“Any other dangerous things?” Vivian turned around and asked.

Light flashed on the MDT as it tried to pull more information from the spacecraft’s radar system. “Nothing yet,” the MDT replied.

Hao Ren had a thought. “Y’lisabet, stay on the spacecraft with the cat and fish. The rest, follow me. Let’s check out the planet down there. MDT, you stay too. You’re going to keep the spacecraft in the orbit and back us up from space if something happens down there.”

Hao Ren had learned from his last encounter in Io. He realized the importance of support and reinforcement. Whenever he went out to explore an unfamiliar planet, leaving behind a support team in space could be useful—had he gone ahead without the MDT’s support in the orbit of Io, he would have been trapped and frozen in the ice.

The MDT immediately knew the importance of its role. Shaking its body, the MDT proudly said, “You got it!”

Y’lisabet pursed her lips, feeling upset. She looked at the dumb cat who was lying on the ground, and Lil Pea, who was yawning on the dumb cat’s head. Feeling slighted, she said, “Am I just your daughter and the cat’s nanny? I can help too!”

Y’zaks flicked his daughter with his finger, landing her five meters away. “Listen to your uncle and stay back in the spaceship.”

Y’lisabet gave in, running back and crying. “Alright…”

Hao Ren was wide-eyed. Though he knew that the way demons raised their kids were a little crazy, he still found it a miracle for Y’lisabet to survive to this day. The little girl was tough! Imagine that: when Y’zaks flicked her away, he could hear a sonic boom.

The spacecraft found an open landing spot on the equator of the rogue planet. It hovered above it and teleported everyone directly onto the planet surface.

The planet was covered in badlands. They walked out of the teleportation beam and saw the endless snowfields, bare hills, and dark sky. The idle thrusters stuck out like faint shadows in the distance. Behind the shadows was light, which came from the plasmic exhaust flames. Those were the only things on the planet that were worth seeing.

Their surroundings were quiet. Weird, low-pitched roars that were extremely weak and indiscernible seemingly came from the massive thrusters in the distance. The thin atmosphere prevented sound from traveling far. With their superhuman senses, they could only hear the sound ever so vaguely. In fact, the planet retained its atmosphere, but the ultra-low temperature had turned gases into solid ice on the surface of the planet. Essentially, Hao Ren was standing on solidified carbon dioxide and many other gases.

The spacecraft had scanned the environment below before they landed. Except special guys like Hao Ren and Y’zaks, the others were wearing life-support collars. Lily stomped her feet on the ground and sent gray dust flying. “Looks like no one’s been here.”

Nangong Wuyue looked into the distant darkness. She could hardly hide the worry on her face. Nangong Sanba was scratching his jaw, frowning. Vivian looked at them and knew that the two were feeling hopeless. Trying to remind them, Vivian said, “Can sirens and demon hunters survive in this environment? If so, for how long?”

Only then did Wuyue realize that her parents may have survived on the planet. She carefully took off her life-support collar and knitted her brows together. “It’s… uncomfortable, but not life-threatening. We could survive for a long period, relying solely on heat energy and liquid water—if we can find a source. The planet has a magnetic field, so it would shield us from cosmic radiations. My mom will be able to live in this environment.”

“For a hundred years?” asked Lily.

Wuyue frowned. “…Theoretically, yes. Sirens can live as long as there is water, but here… maybe mom survived the hundred-year journey in space by hibernating in a frozen state. At most, she’ll lose some memory and energy. Sirens are like water; we can exist in three different states. Sometimes when the environment turns extreme, sirens survive by changing into one of the three states.”

Awed by the siren ability, Lily could imagine the sight of Nangong Wuyue melting, and evaporating according to the different seasons. It suddenly felt magical and horrific at the same time.

Nangong Sanba was still scratching his jaw in deep thought. “Dad isn’t as strong as the other demon hunters. He may not be able to survive this place, but with mom’s help, he may have been able to make it through these hundred years. Demon hunters have some surviving skills in extreme conditions too.”

“Anyway, if they’ve survived on this planet, they would have surely gone in that direction.” Y’zaks pointed into the distance, where several huge flares were rising from the horizon. “The thrusters. That’s the only place on the whole planet with heat and liquid water.”

Hao Ren immediately yanked out his official ride from his Dimensional Pocket—the tiny Northstar. “Climb in. We’re going to the thrusters.”

The little Northstar hustled across the icy planet, kicking up large amounts of eye-catching ice and snow in its path. The whole scene looked like a group of white monsters running on the ground. Hao Ren did not travel by teleportation or flight. He wanted to see the surroundings as he was very interested in the planet.

Much of the scenery was monotonous. Only boundless white and grey greeted them, but something strange began to appear as they approached the thrusters. The massive, dark nozzles and steel scaffolds stuck out of the snow as though they had actually grown out of the earth. One was reminded of vines surrounding its fruits, and thousands of roots propping up giant trees. The size of the pipes and scaffolds was massive. From their appearance, one could not help but think of the First Born. They spread across the dark earth, looking strange under the starlight.

Their car passed silently under a huge steel scaffold. Lily poked her head out of the window, watching in surprise as mentally repressive black shadows flew past above her. As a young, literary woman, she suddenly felt a little sad.

While these things still worked, where was their maker?