The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 691

Chapter 691: Abnormal Phenomenon

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren looked at the weird container in Big Beardy’s hand, feeling a little nervous. “Should I lie on the floor, topless?”

“Just sit here,” Big Beardy said, slightly smiling. “It’s merely an inoculation of the lifeblood. But, I still suggest that you concentrate and try to call out to our goddess in your mind. Although it is difficult to say how effective it’ll be without genuine faith, I suppose it will still help however slightly.”

Hao Ren gritted his teeth and nodded at the MDT next to him. “Help monitor my physical condition. If something unexpected happens—”

The MDT’s voice was particularly full of anticipation. “Rest assured, I’ll knock you out the moment something goes wrong.”

Hao Ren had always felt that the MDT sounded a little evil to his ear. Big Beardy had set up the container with a sharp needle on his forehead. He felt a cool sensation but nothing had happened.

Big Beardy hemmed twice. “Can you deactivate the shield for the moment?”

Hao Ren smacked on the back of his head. “Oh, I forgot.”

The lifeblood permeated his skin with the needle. A warm and wonderful sensation began to pervade from his forehead.

The fluid, true to its name, contained an eternal and original vitality. It was not cold or felt foreign. On the contrary, when it penetrated the skin, Hao Ren almost felt that his body was actively welcoming the foreign substance. A mild and slightly itchy sensation spread under the skin and gradually flew to his limbs. Then there was a thought flashed across his mind:

He was getting gutsy by the day. Injecting oneself with an unknown microorganism was a freaking red-flag endeavor, which was an unimaginable to him a year ago. But now he was enjoying the experiment.

When the thought popped up in his mind, Hao Ren had a moment of hesitation: Why would he look forward to inject the lifeblood into his own body? Was this in line with their own cautious character? The urge to carry out the Branding Ritual seemed to have arisen from the time when he first saw the ritual… Was this impulse just a curiosity?

Hao Ren felt his spirit was slowly diverging. A sense of expectation of the lifeblood and a sense of security that seemingly came from returning to his mother’s arms came at the same time. This not only diluted the doubt he just had, but he also felt a sense of delight and satisfaction.

The holographic projection of the MDT showed the spread of the lifeblood in Hao Ren’s body. It appeared to be expanding like a mist, unhurriedly but vigorously. Lily looked on, nervous. She could not groaning in her throat. “Is this okay? I feel like it’s some illegal medical experiment on television?”

“It’s just a temporary vaccination test,” the MDT sounded indifferently. “Don’t be worried, this guy’s reinforced genes will soon break down foreign substance. Before that, we will see what he can ‘listen’… huh?”

The MDT seemed to be surprised suddenly. Everyone saw something anomalous: In the holographic projection, the lifeblood that had gradually spread in Hao Ren’s body had disappeared suddenly.

Vivian pulled her brows together; a dark shade of shadow appeared on her face but had quickly subsided. She had recalled a similar incident in the past.

Lily stretched out her hand to poke the MDT. “Did you sensor malfunction?”

“Bullshit. I am working perfectly,” the MDT shook a few times, before quickly flying around Hao Ren. “It’s gone… No. It seems it has all been absorbed in a flash. Hey, Big Beardy, is this normal?”

Meanwhile, Big Beardy and Cardinal Orben were both perplexed. Obviously, this was something abnormal. Cardinal Orben immediately came over and examined Hao Ren. “This has never happened before… Whoever does this, there must be a long adaptation period after the inoculation. The body should have shown obvious changes… Foreigner, how are you feeling now?”

Hao Ren had only withdrawn from the inexplicable experience. He looked down at his hands. “Nothing has changed. Is this over?”

“The lifeblood has disappeared in your body.” The MDT replayed the visual. “It seems it was absorbed in just a split second, and your body has shown no changes, and there is no trace of the lifeblood.”

“Absorbed?” Hao Ren blinked. “But I felt it hadn’t started yet.”

Big Beardy holding the container thought for a long time. He then gritted his teeth. “Try again!”

Without waiting for Hao Ren’s response, Big Beardy had already pricked the needle on the container to his forehead. After a moment, the MDT screamed again. “It has been absorbed!”

Seeing Big Beardy’s itchiness for another try, cold sweat trickled down Hao Ren’s forehead. He quickly waved his hand. “That’s enough. Don’t do it again. It’s not normal saline drips, okay!”

Big Beardy reluctantly put the container aside. Lily jumped up to them in excitement. “So now what that mean?”

“I only knew that there had been a similar situation before,” Vivian bit her lower lip as she began to tell Hao Ren’s bizarre physique. “He was immune to some magic. He used to absorb my blood when I used blood magic on him last time.”

“He even absorbed vampire’s blood sucks?” Nangong Wuyue looked at Hao Ren in shock. “Who are you two?”

Vivian turned her face away, embarrassed. “I admit I’m not that really good in this thing.”

“Forget about your recipe problem,” Hao Ren waved them off. “The key to the problem now is what happened to me. Could it be that my magic-immune body works on the lifeblood too?”

“It could be a matter of divine conflict,” said the MDT very quietly. “If it is the life blood’s divine part that has an effect on other creatures, then it will surely conflict with the divinity of your body, so neutralisation is possible.”

The MDT had mentioned ‘neutralisation’ rather than ‘consumed’ because it was to take care of the feeling of the Disciples of Glory believers. But Hao Ren understood the meaning. He realised that the Goddess of Creation of this universe was divinely weaker than the lunatic Goddess was. So, the divine power of the former did not affect him. This was something to be proud of, but now it had obvious affected his work unexpectedly.

“But how are you going to explain this,” Y’zaks knew a thing or two about the ‘divinity’ knowledge out of curiosity. He felt that something was wrong. “The lifeblood here is a later reproduction from the Seed of Origin, a substance of many generations. Its connection with the Goddess of Creation should have weakened considerably. And we apply the logic that all lives in the world are born from the lifeblood, and the lifeblood is divine, and then are flies and mosquitoes divine too? If so, when Mr. Landlord landed on this planet earlier, there would have been explosion here.”

Vivian’s eyebrows knit together. “But if this is not the case, how do you explain the disappearance of the lifeblood in Mr. Landlord’s body?”

Nangong Wuyue crawled around Hao Ren curiously, (as she was in the form of a sea snake right now). “Leave that for a moment. Could you hear anything from the Goddess if you focus your mind?”

Hao Ren thought it made sense. He immediately closed his eyes and focused his mind, silently calling the Goddess of Creation who might be somewhere in the universe. Everyone remained silent not to interrupt him. The room became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

A faint sound came from nowhere. “Crunch…crunch… crunch…”

Hao Ren opened his eyes and felt a bit confused. “I heard a strange crunch.”

Lily raised her hand. “Me too!”

Hao Ren checked around and was surprised to find the little mermaid was chewing the table leg not far away. “… Lil Pea are gnawing the table!”

After some chasing around, the slippery Lil Pea was finally captured. And needless to say, Hao Ren’s attempt to listen to the Goddess failed.

He could not carry out the Branding Ritual. Not only that, he could not even make any contact with the lifeblood.

Big Beardy and Cardinal Orben had tried several times with other methods. The last time they smeared the lifeblood on the skin of Hao Ren. But the lifeblood was quickly sucked dry, leaving no trace behind.

“Speaking of it… I had never come into direct contact with the lifeblood. I had been observing it through the shield of the container or using a glove.” Hao Ren looked at the back of his hand in a daze. A few seconds ago, there were still some warm red fluid on it. “Only now I have discovered this phenomenon.”

“But I seem to have no such problem.” Lily raised her hand, offering her thought. She had volunteered to do the experimented too but the lifeblood had not disappeared on her.

Other than that, Lily had not established whatsoever spiritual connection with the goddess.

So their attempts had failed.

---

Chapter 692: Of Course There Is a Problem

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

In the end, no one was able to produce any results with the “branding”.

Y’zaks’ demonic bloodline rejected the lifeblood; none of the inoculations were possible. Vivian’s Blood Clan lineage meant that she was immune to all foreign bloods. Nangong Wuyue and Ayesha, who were elemental species among the sirens also rejected the lifeblood. The substance only stayed a little while in their bodies. The others, like Lily showed neither acceptance nor rejection towards the lifeblood.

But, none of them could directly make the lifeblood vanish from their body like Hao Ren did.

“Looks like there must be devout faith and long-term spiritual training in order to make contact with the goddess.” Big Beardy looked at Lily and shook his head. Then he turned to look at Hao Ren. “As far as you are concerned, I have no explanation for it. Maybe your God can give you the answer.”

“Okay, never mind,” said Hao Ren, not upset at all. “I’ve had a lot of bizarre things happened to me. Anyway, I’m really appreciate for what you’ve done, and I know by performing the Branding Rituals on the otherworldlings, you have broken the rules.”

Cardinal Orben still looked emotionless. “It’s okay. I think it all happened for a reason. The goddess would be happy to bring her blessing upon you guys.”

Hao Ren smiled at the cardinal. But before he turned and left, he asked Big Beardy what he might be doing next.

“We have solved the cult problem. The First Born is no longer a threat. Do you still like to stay?” Hao Ren asked.

Big Beardy nodded indifferently. “The Pope has died; it’s a time of turbulence. We need to calm and guide the believers. And the truth of the death of the goddess… I’m afraid I can’t leave now. When you see the other three, let them come back. I need them here.”

“Do you want me to go and look for them?” asked Hao Ren. “They might be travelling all over the country.”

Big Beardy shook his head. “No. The goddess will guide the way of the ascetics. If they come, it is the will of the goddess. If they do not come, then the goddess will have something else for them.”

Hao Ren scratched his head. To him, religion was beyond common sense, very much like Raven 12345…

Bidding farewell to his Hollettan friends, they headed over to CARS to check out the giant before returning to Earth.

Hao Ren had not much time at home. After a night of rest, he immediately went to report to Raven 12345.

With a flash of the light, Hao Ren and the MDT had found themselves emerged in front of a gorgeous house suspended in an unknown space. They vaguely felt something was wrong.

The usual clear blue sky was no more. It was dim and gloomy; the lush green in the garden had withered completely withered; the fountains had dried up, leaving only the a few water elements still wandering in the dry pool. Gusts of cold, strange wind, which filled with smell of decay, blew from all directions. If was almost like the advent of late autumn, everything was so dead. Hao Ren was shocked. “Has the goddess broken something again?”

“Most like she has got the heaven a change of theme,” said the MDT. “Do you think this landscape has quite a feel to it? It must be intentional.”

“Doing such a miserable and disastrous theme intentionally? Did she need to ruin her own garden just to get the autumn theme?” Hao Ren looked queerly at the weird exotic plants that had withered on both sides of the road. “And it doesn’t look quite like Raven 12345’s aesthetic taste…”

As soon as his voice trailed off, he heard the Raven 12345’s voice, loud and energetic. “Of course it’s not true. I’ve just done something stupid.”

Hao Ren looked into the direction where her voice came from and saw the goddess reeling out from behind a shriveled bush, hair covered with pieces of grass, as if she just crept out from underground. He was taken aback. “What happened to you?”

“Just did a little experiment and yeah, I blew it,” said the Ravens 12345, waving carelessly. “Don’t worry, I’ve got years of experience…”

Just when Hao Ren was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Raven 12345 continued. “…screwing up the experiment.”

“I knew it!”

“You will get used to it,” said Raven 12345. As always, she was just fooling around before she quickly steered the conversation away. “Let’s not talk about my garden. Are you just back from The Plane of Dreams? If I’m not mistaken, you have made an incredible discovery?”

Hao Ren marveled at Raven 12345’s intuition. He told everything about his find in the Plane of Dreams as he followed her deep into the garden behind her. Even the death of the goddess had the lunatic goddess become serious. No more gagging around. She listened attentively, nodded her head, and occasionally asked some questions. Obviously, the seriousness of the matter had her attention.

The two of them were treading along the trail covered with deciduous leaves and grass. They soon came to the middle of the garden where Hao Ren was also familiar and Raven 12345 often cooked her noodles on a pot on this small open space… No, Hao Ren could not help it. There was nothing classy about this goddess.

In fact, the MDT was right; the withered ‘Heavenly Garden’ was beautiful when looking from a certain perspective. But Hao Ren still had no mood for this. He only saw that the vacant land that was blossoming in the past had become a dying scene like the other places. That the three green walls that used to be covered with flowering vines had only a few withered vines left. That the shrubs and flowers next to the walls were left with messy branches. That the dried leaves had covered the carved round table.

Obviously, everything here had just withered. Raven 12345 had not the time to clean up, much less rebuild her garden.

“Although you have shifted the topic, but I still want to ask … Is this really just an experimental accident?” Hao Ren’s brows knit together as he looked at the scene. “What experimental accident that could make the goddess’ garden wither?”

“It’s just a little accident,” Raven 12345 let Hao Ren sit on a chair. She swept away the dried leaves on the chair with her hand and flung herself in it without a fuss. “Don’t worry; I will get it restored in a while, just a matter of seconds. Did you say that a group of mortals murdered the goddess of the Plane of Dreams? How powerful was that mortals?”

“The Guardian did not make it clear, but according to his description, those mortals who were capable of defeating the space-time defense of the goddess, attacking the ‘kingdom’ in a special dimension, and resistant to the occult to some extent. So they must have mastered the probability weapons and stolen the power of the goddess… I still couldn’t figure out the ‘stealing’ part, but I guess it all comes from the lifeblood. Probably they had created their own ‘divine technique’ with lifeblood.”

“Don’t make too detailed speculation when there is lack of more information,” Raven 12345 had rarely given Hao Ren advice, except this time. “It’s not so easy to duplicate ‘divine technique’. God’s power is not just ‘power’ per se. God’s governance of the world is like how humans manage their computer systems, and the mortal resistance to God is just as difficult as a computer program to kill the operator sitting in front of the computer. That’s how you can draw the analogy.”

Hao Ren fell into deep thought for a long moment before he said, “How could this be possible?”

“It’s possible as long as the conditions are there. But the rate of success is just a little better than zero. So I don’t think an indigenous race in the Plane of Dreams cold really beat such an odd,” said Raven 12345, sitting still, her face serious. “Unless the goddess they were plotting to kill had an obvious weakness; one that is half-baked, without an orthodox education, has no clue how to apply their divine power, and lame governing skill. Then, it is not so difficult to kill such a God.”

Hao Ren was surprised. “Didn’t you say that the goddess of the Plane of Dreams was a true God? Of Xi Ling Celestials or the Galacticus Lords?”

“Her true God identity is confirmed, but which pantheon she belonged to is still a mystery,” said Raven 12345, scratching her head, looking a little awkward. “So I can’t really answer your question. Just tell me everything about the death of the goddess. I want every details of her death.”

Hao Ren told everything he knew about the story of ‘The murder of mother by her treacherous children’ to his boss until Raven 12345 interjected. “Wait a second! You said that the goddess was crying out to her own people for help when she was dying so that her people would provide her power through their prayer?”

Hao Ren nodded. “Yeah. Is there a problem?”

“Of course there’s a problem!” Raven 12345 knocked on the table. “A true God does not need the prayers of the believers to provide power—because mortal prayers are useless to us!”

---

Chapter 693: A Few Questions

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren vaguely remembered Raven 12345 once giving him a lesson in this respect. However, everyone knew that he slept through the lesson. He was pathetic when it came to study motivation.

So, he put on an act. “Did you?”

“I remember telling you this before, or did I mess up? Fortunately, Raven 12345’s memory did not serve her well and she had given up on treatment. She wondered for a while and said, “Anyway, a true god doesn’t need help from believers. Whether it’s the Galacticus Lords, Xi Ling Celestials, or the distant Xylonic Pantheon and fellows opposite the void, external help is not needed. That’s we are the origins ourselves. We are the origin of all evolution, we control everything in the universe and we create things out of nothing. If you were a money-printing machine yourself, would you still need your salary?”

Raven 12345 paused for a second and then continued. “One more reason; the ‘power’ we use is very different from what the ordinary races think. For example, the secondary psionic energy that I let youuse, you find it unreal because it works on all things in all dimensions at the same time, and it unconditionally affects everything in the universe. But the power the celestials use is at another level. The prayer of the believers is mere mortal power. They couldn’t recharge their power source.”

Hao Ren scratched his jaw. “So it’s like lighting up a nuclear reactor with a torch.”

“The Goddess of the Plane of Dreams possessed the characteristics of a true God, but she needed the prayers of the believers to give her strength…” Raven 12345’s brows knit together. “There seems to be only two possibilities; either her “true-god” characteristics were fake and we were all wrong from the beginning, or she was a true god but she did not know how to control her power. She had the divinity of a god, but she did not know how to use it. She was running in the lower power cycle all this while… so much so that she needed help from believers.”

Hao Ren looked at Raven 12345 expectantly. “What do you think?”

Raven 12345 beat on the chest. “I swear on my dignity, I would say it’s the second scenario.”

“…You serious?”

“Trust me. You don’t have anyone else to trust, do you?” Raven 12345 raised a finger and waved it in front of Hao Ren’s eyes. “It must have been the second scenario. After losing her memory and forgetting her own skills, she had to fumble through the basics and learn from scratch…”

Hao Ren’s face suddenly became solemn. “This happened in the celestial world too?”

The goddess’ answer was rather anticlimax. “None I’ve heard of. But I have seen it on TV.”

Hao Ren could no longer stand it. “Dang you! Can’t you be more serious—”

“Bang!”

Hao Ren looked at the goddess with his lightning-fried hair. The goddess shrugged. “Don’t look at me. It was the will of the universe to punish you.”

Hao Ren had given up arguing. He endured the nonsensicality of the Goddess and began to consider seriously the possibility that the Goddess of Creation had lost her power because she lost her memory. After all, according to Raven, true Gods always knew how to replenish their powers in a more advanced way. While the Goddess of the Plane of Dreams possessed a true god’s characteristics, she was still dependent on the believer’s prayer for help. That only reinforced the view that she was a half-baked Goddess.

After all, Hao Ren, too, did not want to believe that his and Raven 12345’s analyses were wrong.

The matter was so concluded, for now. Hao Ren folded his arms across his chest. “I’ve another question. It’s about the silence from all the races on the distress call of the Goddess of the Plane of Dreams. The guardian claims that the treacherous children had incited rebellion among the mortal races so that they could gain the power of eternal life after the Goddess died. But I’ve pondered that point for quite a while…”

“There are always some bad apple in every bunch, and by the same token, not all children in the family are scoundrels,” said Raven 12345. She knew exactly what was vexing Hao Ren. “The Plane of Dreams is a very broad universe. According to my analysis about the goddess’ ability, if she were really obsessed with exploring the universe, she would have at least sown hundreds of thousand, if not millions of civilisations. And those who still remembered their mother was still by the tens of thousands. It’s impossible that no children have ever remembered her name.”

“Although how you put that across is a bit weird…but basically that’s how it is.”

“The goddess did call for help, and according to record, the Hollettans did indeed receive the distress call. After the deicidal incident, they willfully altered the history by hiding their sins against the creator,” Raven 12345 tapped her finger on the round table as if she was knocking out the key points. “These points are all consistent with the Guardian’s statement. But there’s a problem that you can’t verify just as the guardian couldn’t—there’s no way to confirm that the other planets have heard the distress call.”

Hao Ren’s face turned somber. “You mean…”

“Without adequate information, give them the benefit of the doubt. As long as it is logical, it is possible,” Raven 12345 said, lecturing her immature assistant, “The distress call could have been intercepted, or the power of the goddess was so weak that her message had only reached to a limited range of the universe, or the mortal races had heard the distress call and responded but their prayers were intercepted. So the guardian mistakenly thought that all races had betrayed the goddess. There could have even more ridiculous possibilities out there, as long as you dared to think. After all, time has scraped away the truth.”

The Goddess words had opened Hao Ren’s eyes. He finally knew what was going on in his f*cked up mind all day long yesterday. He knocked on his head. “What is wrong with my imagination…”

Raven 12345 looked at Hao Ren, giggling. “You’ve stressed yourself too much. You can’t be creative and make sound judgment when you’re stressed out.”

Hao Ren was surprised. “How do you know? The intuition of God?”

“Intuition my foot! By just looking at your face, I’ve already known you had a sleepless night last night. Try to pray when you can’t sleep, I don’t expect you to have faith in me…”

Hao Ren was very touched. He did not expect the Goddess was so concerned for him. But Raven continued. “But I hope you can trust my lullaby. It was my mistake to have sung it out of tune last time. Let’s try again next time…”

“Oh, God, shall we stick to business, please” Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat off his forehead and steered away from the conversation. “What you said is possible. But how could have the guardian never thought of that? Had he done a little investigation in his head, he should have realised it was impossible for all mortals to be in betrayal of the Goddess at the same time…”

Raven 12345 stared straight into Hao Ren’s eyes until a chill ran up his spine. “You mean he should be calm when his mother was blown up before him?”

“…”

“The guardian giants you mentioned might be stronger in power than the ordinary mortals, but I know them. They are only mortals, albeit stronger, in my eyes,” Raven 12345 exhaled. “Sensual, fragile, capable of emotions and humanity, have weak concepts of good and evil and attitudes, and more importantly, none of the above are controllable… except for the divine nature, they are not much different from mortals.”

Raven 12345 paused again before she sighed as if talking to herself this time. “Anyway, the situation at that time must have been so chaotic that investigation was impossible. The entire kingdom of Godwas blown away, the First Born’s network collapsed, every mortal species was devastated by natural disasters, and the heart of the universe was in a mess… The guardians who survived could have donenothing to investigate. Even today, even the slightest clues must have been scraped clean by the passing of time.”

After a few seconds of silence, Hao Ren nodded. “No matter what, he should calm down now. After all, ten thousand years have passed, and I have talked with him a lot … I’ll tell him about this when we meet next. Well, I hope he would listen.”

“You have other questions, don’t you?” Raven 12345 asked, looking into Hao Ren’s eyes, smiling. “You looks hesitant. It’s okay, you can ask anything you like. Worse comes to worst, there would be only lightning strike, but you will survive.”

“You are such a…” Hao Ren shook his head helplessly, unsure of his Goddess’ intention. “In fact, yes, Ihave a question that I don’t know whether I should ask. But I will still ask— what would you do if your creation decides to forsake you one day?”

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Chapter 694: God’s Attitude towards People

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

“What would you do if your creation decides to forsake you one day?”

Hao Ren looked straight into Raven 12345’s eyes. He hesitated for a long time before opening his mouth, but he finally said it. He felt a sense of relief as he waited for an answer from the genuine goddess, whose unbelievably beautiful eyes glimmered in a mysterious light. After a moment, Raven 12345’s eyes curved up slightly and she smiled. “What do you mean by ‘forsake’?”

“Umm…” Hao Ren was a bit stuck. He suddenly realised he had been too rash. He did not even understand the many key definitions or criteria in mind. “Probably… not trusting you, denying that you’re their creator, or simply worshipping other gods and the like.”

“Oh, looks like the ‘creation’ you’re talking about here is intelligent life,” Raven 12345 said, snapping her fingers. Suddenly, the surrounding landscape turned upside down, the withered heavenly garden vanished in a flash, and the starry sky and empty space suddenly appeared as if it was a scene in a dream. A sense of weightlessness hit him. He found himself was already standing in space when he finally got a grasp of what happened. Some planets were rapidly zooming in, even though he did not feel he was moving. He realised that he was flying across space with Raven 12345.

“Creation… Although I haven’t created the universe yet, I usually like to make some objects such as stars and planets, as well as larger nebulae. I think these things are creations, but they obviously won’t produce what you call ‘forsaking the creator’ idea.” Raven 12345 led Hao Ren flying past some stars, and gradually approaching a grey-blue planet. “During my free time, I also made some life… Sometimes from scratch, letting life evolve from a single cell organism. Sometimes as in the mythical story of humanity, creating a complete ecological circle, and planning everything for them so that they could start multiply and evolve right away. The former takes a long time to evolve and the latter will become as lively as the earth in just a short period. This is a very interesting work, not just a research project.”

The surface of the planet zoomed in quickly before Hao Ren. He saw the planet was already full of vitality. A civilisation of swords and magic was multiplying on the surface. He could see soldiers riding on demi-dragons patrolling the lower atmosphere. Chargehands were hurrying some tall demi-humans to finish the construction of the walls. While the world’s north pole had a magnificent tower, where several groups of army wearing different costumes fighting nearby. The thunderstorms that magicians had created were clearly visible in space.

“Oh, the four northern nations are fighting for Etainnia Tower. They believe that this tower will lead to the origin of the world. The power in the tower could fulfil any of the mortal wishes, including even eternal life, but soon they will find themselves making a ridiculous mistake… This tower is just a weather controller and it has been abandoned for a long time. The equipment has been removed. Now it is only a stone shell.”

It was the first time Hao Ren observed a civilisation from this perspective, and a true God narrated next to him. A weird feeling rose from within his heart, but he quickly returned to his normal state of mind. “You created this place?”

“Yep. Thousands of years ago, completed with planet and the entire ecosystem,” Raven 12345 laughed. “No earlier history and no biological evolution. This ‘worldview’ may be scientifically challenging in the eyes of the humans on Earth. But in reality, there are more than one such planet. The aborigines on these planets still live very well. As long as they can develop smoothly, sooner or later they will gain more knowledge from other planets.”

Hao Ren looked at Raven 12345 curiously. “What all these have got to do with my question?”

The goddess smiled. “Everything— atheism is the predominant belief on this planet. They took down my temple many years ago. Of course, I had never contacted them even when the temple was still there. After all, they were doing very well, there was no need for intervene. So strictly speaking, they don’t even know my existence. The original temple was just…hahaha, some weird stuff.”

Hao Ren nearly fainted.

“Is it so incredible?” Raven 12345 smirked at Hao Ren’s miserable reaction. “A world of swords and magic is more atheistic than many science-orientated planets. The reason is simple: They were exposed to supernatural power a bit earlier, and they had special talent. So from a long time ago they already had control some of the natural forces though a bit weak. They had got rid of the fear of natural forces and seen thunder in nature as merely a more powerful version of their lightning skill. They no longer believe the one living in heaven is God but a very powerful magician.”

“…that’s incredible.” Hao Ren did not know what to say; he was in awe.

“This is the interesting part of genesis, because it is difficult to foresee how the things you have created would evolve. Sometimes two almost identical worlds will take on completely different paths of development; the biological ‘intellectuality’ is the reason for the difference. After all, the way that many races think is different.”

Hao Ren had some doubts. “You didn’t reveal yourself that you are the true God?”

“Why should I?” Raven 12345 hugged her arms. “They can solve their own problems in life; they don’t need God. There is no problem with the operation of this planet, so I don’t need to show up. Since neither side has the need for contact, should I reveal myself just to show off the fact that I created the planet? I’m very busy, you know—and Xi Ling disciples despise cheap behaviour.”

What she said was so reasonable, matter-of-coursely. But Hao Ren still felt it unbelievable. After all, there was quite a variation in the image of many gods of the worlds. Raven 12345 could read his dilemma. But she just smiled indifferently. “Everything happens for a reason. Some races establish contact with God because they have this need. Some races rely on atheism to maintain their society; they have come to this stage of development. The civilisation on this planet may one day realise that there is a true God in this universe—for example, when they explore the deep universe and find the corrective traces, or when they discover the artificiality of the planet. But that would take a long time and their understanding of God will be very different from other races then… but anyway, that’s their problem.”

Raven 12345 paused, and shook her head slightly. “I did not create life to let anyone worship me, and I believe that neither the Goddess of the Plane of Dreams did so. Even though she looked half-baked, from your description, I can see her simple sense of purpose in creating life: on the one hand to explore the universe, on the other hand… simply to make the surroundings a little more exciting.”

“I think I get it,” Hao Ren got the drift. “It seems that to the true God, the forsaking of the mortal is a false proposition in itself… or it is something non-existent.”

“No expectations, no disappointments. Sometimes gods are not just tolerant toward people but also simply a matter of different values. So they don’t feel that humanity has forsaken or offended them. After all, religion is a humanly social activity, and God… is just a mascot to sizzling up the atmosphere of their activities, and would only do them some favour when feeling sorry for them. Anyway, that’s my personal opinion. But I’m not going to discuss about the Galacticus Lords, they are a little different culturally.” Raven 12345 pasted a smile on her face and spread out her hand. “Last year, at a whim I compiled all the prayers from the entire universe. Guess what was the most religious and heartfelt prayer of all of them?”

Hao Ren shook his head; how was he going to know?

“‘Thank Goddess for the ten-day holiday’—a child’s prayer!” Ravens 12345 forced a smile. “They celebrated religious festival once a year and the school closed for that celebration.”

“… That is too realistic!”

“Most people are very realistic, especially when they know that praying to God would not help them realise their desire to conquer the world and achieve immortality, they rather pay more attention to those things that give them real benefits,” Raven 12345 said, waving her hand and suddenly dragging Hao Ren flying to a side. “Let’s get out of here. A dark elf has just assembled a telescope and is now trying out for the first time. It is looking in our direction.”

Raven 12345 only stopped after flying out a distance. She squinted at a star on the horizon; on the surface of the planet below, an elf was watching the same starry sky with the telescope.

Raven 12345 thought for a moment. She then gently moved her fingers; the pattern of the starlight was temporarily changed. The starry sky seen from the planet suddenly became brighter, though it was barely noticeable to the naked eye but enough to give a little surprise to the stargazer.

“Let it see more clearly. It’s not like there’s always a perfectly clear sky,” said the goddess with a wry smile on her face. “Anyway, they haven’t accurately calculated the interference of the atmosphere with the starlight.”

---

Chapter 695: The Nature of the Blood Sample

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

After leaving the planet that Raven 12345 created, the two of them continued to loiter among the stars and carry on with their conversations telepathically. Hao Ren did not expect the slaphappy goddess to be so exquisite. He expressed how pleasantly surprised he was, but the goddess just smiled carelessly. “Aha, I may be bold and rough, but I’m no slack when it comes to work.”

“Does a mortal’s religious attitude not matter to God?”

“How should I put it…? This is a very complicated issue. It could be a yes or no. It depends on the civilised form of the mortal race and whether the civilisation needs a religion,” Raven 12345 said slowly. It appeared that she was trying to find the best words to use in order for Hao Ren to understand the concept. “Xi Ling Celestials ‘value supremacism’. Only valuable things make sense. This value is varied, but basically it is to maintain the stability of a world and its cultural diversity.”

“Are the Galacticus Lords the same?” Hao Ren suddenly became interested in another celestial system.

“Not quite the same, they are more… well, emotional,” Raven 12345 shook her head. “Let me put it this way; they are milder than Xi Ling Celestials. And even Xi Ling Celestials was different more than ten thousand years ago, we were more rational, and in the eyes of many ordinary races, we were a little bit stereotypically detached from humanity. But there have been changes since. Bah, it’s all history; you don’t have to delve into it. It’s not that I could explain it all in a few sentences.”

Hao Ren did not really understand what she meant, he did not pursue further. “Oh… Well, if that’s the case, if the races in the Plane of Dreams don’t believe in the Goddess, or believe in other gods, aren’t they wrong in the eyes of most true gods?”

“They’re not. Because it’s a proposition that has no judgment value. It is as if discussing how nice or bad a house is without having a house at all. It is meaningless to discuss mortal offerings when God really does not need mortal worship in the first place,” Raven 12345 said, and suddenly switched the topic. “But the Goddess of the Plane of Dreams was a bit special; her ability as a true God was incomplete. So it’s worthy of studying it in detail. Please take note that what I told you today is based on the rules of judgement of the Galacticus Lords and Xi Ling Celestials standard value systems.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment. He found that the relationships between the Goddess, the Second Born, the guardian, and the First Born in the Plane of Dreams were still a mess. He realised that even after talking with Raven 12345, he could not understand things in the Plane of Dreams based on simple, general rule. He only scratched his head. “That’s a real mess…”

Raven knew what he was thinking. She patted on Hao Ren shoulder and said, “Don’t think too much. The diversity of civilisations is the highest priority. The First Borns and brain-monsters have gone crazy. They are threats to the diversity of civilisations. So you should kill whatever should be killed. The guardians are still awake, leave alone those should be left alone. And the mortal race… is all about the prior generations; don’t leave it to the later generations to shoulder the responsibility.”

The starry sky faded. A sense of weight came back. In the blink of an eye, Hao Ren had returned to the withered garden, sitting in front of him was the smiling Goddess.

“I feel sorry for those guardians that have gone mad,” Hao Ren looked at the dried leaves on the table and lamented. “But what can I do?”

After debrief what had transpired in the Plane of Dreams, the last command of the Goddess of Creation that the guardian had mentioned cut across Hao Ren’s brain. “Speaking of that, the Goddess had also let the guardians activate the security protocol before she died. If not for this command, I’m afraid the extinction in the Plane of Dreams would be much worse than it is today. But I don’t quite get it… Hadn’t she hated them?”

Raven 12345 blinked slightly. “Probably there were hate and anger, but there were also the instincts to protect one’s creation.”

Hao Ren scratched his chin. “The instinct to protect? That Goddess usually did not seem to interfere with the mortal civilisation…”

“Non-interference doesn’t mean not to care,” Raven 12345 gently shook her head. “Do you know what kind of experience it is to create a species? This job involves a lot of energy. Whether or not you actively interfere in them, they will continue to dangle before your eyes. You have to watch them grow from scratch little by little. In the course of millions of years or even tens of millions of years, you watch the little algae in the water, watch the single cells became multi-celled, watch the primitive amphibians creeping up and down on the mudflats, and see more and more colours appearing in the bare stones and sand. Suddenly, the bizarre creatures occupy your whole field of vision. One of two of the smartest creatures are doing something that surprises you. You are pleasantly surprised to find that those molecules that you have once thrown into the sea have learned to write and clothe themselves. They began to observe the world just as you observe them. They make some stupid mistakes, but there are always individuals who try to remedy them. They are weak, very weak but always try to survive… until they understand the earth and the sky and even begin to understand the stars. They even begin to study how to create new life as you did. You realise that everything began from the few seeds in the sea… Do you know how wonderful this process is?”

Hao Ren looked at the eyes of Raven 12345. The shimmering glare in those eyes aroused an indescribable feeling in him.

The Goddess smiled and seemed to be immersed in the achievement of a certain creation. “I have not seen an evolutionary process that starts from scratch because I was born only after the new empire was promoted as God. But even the races I created out of the primitive people, they gave me pleasant surprises. They might suffer setbacks for one reason or another, but I’m sure if anyone try to exterminate them, I swear to my head that I will find them and I will kill them even if they hide in the void.”

Hao Ren exhaled after a long while. “It’s really like a mother.”

“You’ll only feel the wonderfulness of things when you experience it,” Raven 12345 raised her finger and waved it again in front of Hao Ren. “Sometimes I wonder; we have never even thought about this before we became celestials… ”

“But what if what you have created is a treacherous child?” Hao Ren suddenly asked.

He immediately felt his question was a bit inappropriate that he should not spoil the atmosphere. But the answer of the Goddess was unexpectedly straightforward and without hesitation. “I promise I will not kill them, but I will make sure they learned the lesson the hard way. Do you think a loving mother like me would spare them the necessary whip?”

Hao Ren: “…”

“The Galacticus Lords and Xi Ling Celestials are similar in that they treat their creations like own children. The only difference is we are even more willing to whip our children.” Raven 12345 rolled her sleeves up. The poetic images that she projected a while ago shattered like glass falling onto the ground. “Punishment is a necessary to instil discipline. So I suspect that the Goddess of the Plane of Dreams is not Xi Ling Celestials, not characteristically. Even though she had lost her memory, she should not have been bullied by her children like this. Most likely she is of the Galacticus Lords.”

Cold sweat was trickling down Hao Ren’s forehead. “Okay, okay, I know. Would you please not roll your sleeves up? You’re spoiling your hard found good image… Oh yeah! I have something for you!”

The Goddess was startled. “What? You’re not finished yet?”

“It’s about Vivian,” Hao Ren said, pasting a smile. “I should have reported earlier, but the emergency situation of the Plane of Dreams had prevented me to do so. A while ago, we got a magic book that recorded the method of summoning the King of Blood. Later Vivian discovered that she was the King of Blood. When we tried to summon…”

Hao Ren reached into his dimensional pocket for a tube of blood sample. “A monster came out. It was identical to Vivian, but turned into a pool of menstrual flow after the thing died.”

Raven 12345’s face suddenly turned solemn. But she still sounded cocky. “The way you describe it does sound like my style. Let me take a look… well… this is it.”

“What do you see?” Hao Ren anxiously asked.

Raven 12345 looked up. “This blood sample was the residue of that ‘monster’? Free of contamination?”

Hao Ren nodded. “Yep. Is there a problem?”

He noticed that Raven 12345 did not seem surprised at all. He could not help but wondered. But before he could ask, what Raven said subsequently baffled him even more.

Raven 12345 shook the sample in her hand. “This is the lifeblood.”

Hao Ren was taken aback. “Lifeblood? It can’t be. I have a lifeblood sample over there, instrument analysis—”

“You instrument couldn’t detect it,” Raven 12345 looked up at the MDT on Hao Ren’s shoulder. “Because the lifeblood sample is dead. It has completely changed. You can only confirm its true nature through its information characteristics.”

Hao Ren was stunned.