The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 796

Chapter 796: Another World

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

A light appeared at the bottom of the cave. And after a long while, they finally reached the bottom.

Hao Ren looked up; he could no longer see the entrance at the top. It was all dark. The cave was so deep that there was a dust cloud above in the middle section. “This cave is deep. Could Baptiste find a way down here alive?” Vivian nodded. “Wizard is very resourceful. Maybe he knows some flying spell and the monsters didn’t manage to tear him up.”

As the car continued to descend, Hao Ren noticed that the light did not come directly from the bottom, but from the dark walls on all sides. After dropping to a certain height, he could see huge cracks on the walls. And the cracks seemed to lead straight to the outside world.

They descended for hundreds of meters more and finally landed. “It is safe,” Turcan said after observing for a while. “Drive in any direction. The cracks should lead us to the outside.”

The bottom of the cave was like a shade under the shadow, but it was still dark overall despite lights shone through the triangular cracks in the distance. Hao Ren thought that the bottom of the cave was an open space, but now it seemed he was wrong. The cave was a passage to the bottom, and they still needed to travel through the tunnels at the bottom to reach the actual second level of Inferno.

He cranked up the engine again and drove towards the most prominent light source. Everyone was holding their breath as this weird place made them nervous. The ground was rugged, with lots of weird stones scattered around. Occasionally they could see some other objects.

There were pieces of something lying ahead, all dark red, and there were also signs of impact on the ground. Hao Ren knew it was the monsters that had broken in million pieces upon impact.

God knows how many more such creatures had fallen for the past ten thousand years. But the car must be now running on those fragments of the monsters. Those poor monsters that died and turned into dust at the bottom of the cave, far from where they once lived.

The car moved forwards, and the light in the distance became closer and closer. In the shadow, Hao Ren saw some thick, stone-like things hanging from the top, and the crack where the light came from appeared tilted inward. This strange environment stunned him. He was struggling to make sense of this space.

He was confused. It took him a while to put and two together. The bottom of the cave expanded outward gradually; the further he went, the wider it became. He sped up and drove the exit. Soon, a vast world appeared before them.

The change of landscape caught them by surprise. The scenery of the second level of Inferno had them rooted to the spot. A vast expanse of rolling hills and valleys covered with beautiful green grass stretching out into the horizon. There was no cave boundary contrary to what they had imagined.

Hao Ren opened the door and climbed out of the car. He could feel he was stepping on a soft grassland and the fragrance of the grass drifted into his nostrils.

He looked up at the ‘sky,’ instead of a thick, dark rock dome he saw large patches of white clouds. This underground world was just too vast, and its dome was even higher than the cumulus.

So water vapor and dust formed the clouds that blocked out the view of the dome above. The clouds glowed softly just like the outermost clouds above the surface. But the light here was a lot brighter. It lit up the underground world as if it were daylight.

Hao Ren gazed at the clouds, which were not as many as the one above the surface. He finally saw what through the gap between the two clouds: deep darkness at extremely high altitudes. With his vision, he could barely recognize the sharp gully lines, which was the earth’s crust. Or something like a crust.

The others had also gotten out of the car. Hessiana looked up, froze. After a long while, she took a deep breath. “Is this a cave?” she marveled.

“I have said it earlier. The second level is incredible big though it is located underground,” said Vivian. Her reaction was just as stunned as the others were though. “I didn’t expect it to be like this. I thought it was hell.”

“After all, the surface is already as bad as hell,” Lily frowned as she looked at the lush green world. “Is this Inferno? It doesn’t look like one.”

Nangong Wuyue began to feel harmonious with the water element here. The inexplicable feeling of danger and hostile atmosphere seemed to exist only on the surface. She form-shifted into an ordinary sea snake, face looking pleasant. “The water here is very peaceful, unlike on the surface.”

Hao Ren did not say a word because he had only one question in mind: How big is this place?

Thinking of this question, he could not help but look back at the ‘tunnel’ from which they had emerged earlier.

A towering mountain peak appeared in front of his eyes, as expected, and it was hard to see its overall shape at this distance.

He could only see huge, black mountain ridges dropping from the top, extending continuously into the distance, and then disappeared into the green earth. The upper part of the mountain gradually narrowed and became a giant wall that almost perpendicular to the ground and rose above the clouds.

The entire mountain was dark and rocky, but after careful observation, he found that the rock had something more than meets the eye.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind. He immediately called everyone to get into the car. “Hurry up. Let’s go farther out and take a better view!” As Hao Ren drove the car towards the distance, the ‘mountain’ was behind them. Lily, sitting in the last row, turned and looked out the window. She was wide-eyed. “Tree! It is a tree!”

Hao Ren stopped on the high grassy ground. They gazed up at the direction of the ‘mountain’ and finally saw the whole picture of the behemoth. As Lily said, it was a giant tree, a tree with developed roots swelled to the surface.

The trunk of the giant tree grew up to the bottom of the crust above through the clouds, as if it was a pillar of the world while the lower part of the trunk planted firmly into the earth below. The sloping mountain ridges and cone-shaped mountains that Hao Ren saw just now were none other than the roots of this giant tree.

And, the cave that they descended a while ago was the hollow tube inside the trunk.

The MDT suddenly said, “There are new images from other probes. Some probes have found other Inferno entrances. They are the same as here.” The MDT showed them the images, which were almost the same things: giant tree supporting the whole earth (or the sky), and the vast green land around the giant tree.

“The other high-speed probes have reached the other side of the planet, where they have also found similar entrances.” “The second layer of Inferno is not a cave or a series of caves, but another layer of the earth’s crust,” Hao Ren said slowly. “This is a strata planet. I’m not kidding. It is a real deal.”

People’s speculations about the Inferno were outrageously wrong. The otherworldlings once thought that there was a series of giant caves in the underground world, another horrible hell. But in reality, all the caves were interconnected. They were merely a single space—a space that was not dangerous, but a paradise.

This planet has a double crust, and Inferno was just its epidermis. Maybe there was also a third layer of earth’s crust. Who knows?

Chapter 797: Traces of Human

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The journey to Inferno had turned out nothing like they ever imagined.

An inconspicuous small-displacement car was driving silently across the lush wilderness. Turbulent air kicked up leaves at the rear of the vehicle. The world was so vast, and yet the car was so small that it looked like a bug running on the grasslands. If it were not for the occasionally visible rock formations behind the clouds, no one would have imagined that there was another layer of crust hanging in the sky.

The car ground to a halt in front of a black ‘mountain,’ which was another Heaven’s Pillar that supported the dome. It looked like a huge cliff going as high as a kilometer in the air and the upper part just disappeared into the clouds. Hao Ren got off the car. He took out some instruments from the dimensional pocket and assembled them on the spot.

The MDT ported itself to the instrument before it projected a hologram of the planet’s cross section. Meanwhile, a few tiny machines got out from the cylindrical container below the instrument and flew straight to the Heaven’s Pillar. The little machines quickly drilled into the tough skin of the trunk and sent back the data. The MDT began to show the scanned images of the Heaven’s Pillar in cold blue color.

“This third giant tree is dead too. No sign of life,” the MDT reported. “There is still wood fiber in the deeper layer, but the outer skin is petrified, which has turned into a mineral. The hardening of the secretion of the trunk must have evolved into the reinforced shell. This ‘fossil,’ which is as strong as the armor of spaceship, provides strength to the hollow trunk.”

“So they could support the world above,” Hao Ren looked up at the crust that hid behind the clouds. “Are the trunks evenly distributed?”

“Yes,” the MDT replied while showing the distribution map of Heaven’s Pillars between the two layers of crusts. The data that the probes sent back isn’t detailed enough. But it is good enough for a preliminary analysis. As you can see from the visual, the first layer of Inferno is completely suspended more than ten kilometers above the lower layer. There is no geological connection between the two. And, Heaven’s Pillars are the only things that hold the two layers of crust in position. These giant trees grow in the lower layer, one every one hundred kilometers—far more than the number of entrances on the surface.

“So not all giant trees are hollow. Most giant trees are solid, substantial,” explains the MDT. “And those hollow trunks are like chimneys; they become the conduits between the surface and the underground world. They are the so-called Infernal entrances.

Lily became curious. “What caused the trunk to turn hollow? Disease?”

“Nope. Most likely it is done intentionally,” the MDT replied. “The distribution of giant hollow trees is uniform. On average, one in a hundred Heaven’s Pillars is hollow. The entire atmosphere of the underground world depends on these ‘chimneys.’ I figure that the hollow, special trunks are like a breathing tube exchanging air with the surface world. They also act as a sensory organ. My scan reveals that there is a strong electric signal surge below the giant hollow tree. If I’m not mistaken, it should be—”

“The nerves of the First Born,” Hao Ren chimed in without waiting for the MDT to finish. “These trees are evolved from the First Born’s tentacles?”

Hao Ren was no longer a rookie who used to rely solely on instrumental analysis to make judgments. He could easily deduce from the environmental evidence that the First Born was the only one who could create such a miracle. Heaven’s Pillars that supported the upper crust were undoubtedly a part of the First Born. The only problem was that the tentacles had evolved so much so that they no longer looked like ones, and even its internal physiological structure had become very different.

The MDT did not answer directly. Instead, it showed Hao Ren the scanned images of Heaven’s Pillar in the ground. It was a complex world where roots grew like brain nerves in the earth; the deeper it grew, the stranger it became until the roots looked completely like tentacles in the deepest part of the planet. Unfortunately, the low-powered radar that Hao Ren carried could not carry out a deep-earth scan.

“The First Born’s tentacles have evolved into the giant trees. However, from a physiological point of view, these trees are a completely different life form.” The MDT sounded confused. “They are real wood. But these trees are wrapped in a layer of shell that is stronger than superalloy on the outside. It is almost like a body that grows out of titanium.”

“This is understandable. The First Born is the origin of life; on this premise, it is entirely possible for it to turn some of its limbs into different species. If it could do it with the lifeblood, I couldn’t see why it couldn’t do the same with its tentacles.” Hao Ren was not surprised at all. “We can confirm this with Zorm later. The key question now is to ascertain whether this First Born is dead or alive. It has nerve impulses, but the giant tree is dead.”

“We wouldn’t know. For living species like the First Born, we can’t define its life by conventional understanding of species. Its body and soul, each of its tissue and organ and even piece of debris may have an independent definition of life. Part of them might have withered, but the withered part is supporting the world. And, don’t forget, there are still signals coming from the deeper part.”

Lily had come out with a term. “They are turnips?”

Hao Ren glanced at Lily with an eccentric look as if saying there was no better description than this in describing the incongruousness this in the world!

“If…if I’m not mistaken, the upper layer is not a crust either.” Vivian gazed up for a long time before she said, “This planet can’t just grow a new layer out of thin air. The outer shell on top of the trunk could only be a…”

The MDT immediately switched the image, now showing the detailed scan results of the outermost crust where toxic hot springs and monsters filled the space. The scan revealed the hidden veins deep inside the crust though it looked like a sturdy, rocky dome at first sight.

“You are right. It is a canopy. The first crust of planet Inferno is a petrified canopy.”

The canopy was so dense that it completely covered the planet’s original surface. The unique petrification process of Heaven’s Pillar was not only reflected in the trunk, but also the canopy. Over time, the forest canopy became a rock formation of several kilometers thick, and the world above that rock layer became a hostile environment — the Inferno.

In the process of the transformations, Heaven’s Pillar died. It was not known whether it was planned or something when they saw the ‘black mountains,’ they were already dead plants—the dead bodies of the First Born’s tentacles. They were fossils that held the canopy crust that had also petrified in place.

Nangong Sanba scratched his jaw thoughtfully. “That is to say, the place where we are standing now is the real surface of planet Inferno?”

“Yep. At least it was the original land before these giant trees completely closed up the sky.” Hao Ren nodded, his eyes gazing upwards along the great black trunk. “I think this is some protection measure that ensures the survival of the original ecosystem. It works hand-in-hand with the outermost cloud top; this planet has survived until today without a sun.”

At this time, the MDT suddenly received an emergency message from a probe. “Hey! Put that tree to aside. The probe has come back with something!”

Vivian immediately ran over. “Is it Baptiste?”

“No—it is some traces of artifacts,” the MDT showed the image. It was a jumbo relic covered with plants and mud on the prairie. “It’s a city! An intelligent being-built city!”

Chapter 798: Stone City ##

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

It was a ruin!

The finding was just as shocking as when they found out the planet had two layers of crust and that the surface was a petrified canopy of a group of giant trees. Hao Ren zoomed in on the image to determine the authenticity and approximate size of the ruins. I was located almost on the other side of the planet. Driving would not be practical. So he let the MDT teleport them to the site.

The MDT shone in blue light, and they all disappeared. Almost immediately, they emerged at the other side of the planet where the ruins were.

Likewise, there was a magnificent prairie scenery here.

Hao Ren reached out his hand and grabbed the probe that was flying toward him. He tucked the little probe into his Dimensional Pocket before climbing up a higher ground. He gazed at the towering buildings not far away while enjoying the breath-taking scenery a little.

The vast grassland with its undulating landscape stretched almost to the end of the horizon. It was as beautiful as a painting. An ancient city of stone on the prairie had the architecture that resembled the Aztec style though most of the walls had collapsed. In the center of the city and on the high ground, there were large and small, flat-topped pyramids, and between the pyramids were wide boulevards paved with boulders that divided the city into several well-arranged zones. Each zone had stone houses lined up in rows. Other than the pyramids, most buildings were no more than three stories high, which further accentuated the imposing presence of the pyramids.

“Unbelievable…” Hao Ren muttered to himself, “There are actually ruins here… I thought when the First Born made Heaven’s Pillars, the earthquake destroyed everything.”

He looked into the distance. Approximately a dozen kilometers from the city ruins, there was another spectacular black giant pillar connecting the grassland to the sky above, and on the other side of the horizon, there was another pillar. Thanks to the excellent air quality in the underground world, one could always see at least two Heaven’s Pillars at any one time. The great pillars were so massive that they extended all the way up to the solid dome above. And, they were visible from any angle.

The nearest Heaven’s Pillar was just a dozen kilometers away from the city. The city was still standing. It must have been a miracle, Hao Ren thought. He had seen how massive the giant trees were; the aerial roots that were up to a kilometer high in the form of a mountain range, and the earthquake that happened when the tentacles rose up from the earth to form the giant trees must have been devastating. Even if the First Born had been cautious, the crack of a dozen kilometers wide in the ground could have destroyed the city. It seemed to defy the law of physics. So there was only one conclusion.

The city was only built after the heavens closed.

However, judging from the crazy Third Borns on the surface, the planet should have undergone a complete reset of its ecosystem. So who built the city on the original crust after heaven closed? Was it the mortal? Did they escape the great cleansing of the First Born? Or could the great purge not happen at all?

The questions were bothering Hao Ren. And, the answers seemed to lie in that city ruins.

They arrived at the ruins. The quaint stone city was desolate. If Heaven’s Pillars and the canopy dome were the ‘great power of nature’ made by the First Born, then this city was a ‘human miracle’ built by the mortals. Even if it was pale in comparison to the canopy dome, it was still mind-blowing. Even Lily had become serious now. She did not bother to collect the stones as a souvenir but rubbed her hand across a square pillar and said, “It looks hand-made; there are traces of ax works on the edges. A massive workforce would be needed to move a huge amount of stones to build the city.”

Stone buildings had been standing silently on both sides of the roads for thousands of years. Moss and vines had eroded the gaps in the structures, leaving behind mottled green marks in the cracks. Many buildings cracked; some had even collapsed. In the pile of stone, stubborn grasses and green vines grew out of the gap between the rocks and fluttered in the wind.

There were some traces of colors on some of the ancient stone walls. These were the paintings and writings of ancient times, but they had somewhat faded. The ancients who left behind this ruin were skillful. They produced pigments that could last so many years of weathering. These things had caught Hao Ren’s attention.

He bent down in front of a broken stone slab. This slate seemed to have come off from a high platform before him. The elevated platform looked like a ceremonial place that exuded a solemn atmosphere. There were mottled paint and some reliefs on the slate.

The reliefs seemed to be depicting some natural phenomenon. On the reliefs, a sphere was at the top and some undulating wave lines at the bottom. It was not sure if the undulating lines represented the sea or the grassland; this underground world did not have oceans, only a large number of lakes and rivers. Also, no one knew whether the ancient people had the concept of the ocean.

Hao Ren noticed something at the bottom part of the slate. He wiped the moss and weeds off the slate with his hand, revealing the cuneiform-like symbols.

“MDT. Translate them.”

The MDT came up and scanned, then went to aside. “I need more characters to form a complete sample library. There should be other writings nearby.”

Lily stood before a huge stone tablet. “Here! There are more here!”

The MDT went up and scanned the writings, and linked the character sample library with the reliefs, and returned to the slate. “It means: praise the sun, which once brought light and heat to the earth. We firmly believe it still burns in the sky of the hometown, and its light shines in our spirit.”

Then it found another slate next to it, which had many plant and animal reliefs, as well as curved symbols between the plants and animals. The slate also had the following words: “Praise to all living beings, the goddess’ outstanding creation. The souls that live among the livings, the dead who have never died, the livings who live in death. We are with all the living and the dead.”

“These are religious slabs,” Hao Ren got to his feet and went up to the stone monument that Lily had found. “What is this?”

“A spell, prayers that have no clear meaning,” the light of the MDT swept across the stone monument. “Calling for the power of the wind, calling for the power of the cloud, calling for the power of the earth, the water, the plants, and the stones. And, a large paragraph that sings praises of some natural phenomenon. It looks like something that a magical ritual would use. According to the style of prayer, it is a bit like Druidism or a natural totem belief.”

Hao Ren nodded. He knew little much about magic and was even more ignorant in totem. At this time, Nangong Sanba seemed to have found something. He took out a small bottle from under his cloak and said, “Wait a second. Let me test it.”

As he spoke, he poured some grey-white translucent viscous grease from the bottle, applied it to the surface of the stone, and then pressed his hand there to inject magic into it. A pale green shimmer appeared on the stone tablet with a soft humming sound. The light resonated with the stone benches and slate in the surroundings. The resonance continued even after Nangong Sanba took his hand off the slate until the magic oil suddenly burned into ashes.

Lily did not know what it was all about. “What are you doing?”

“Checking if there is a residue of magic.” Nangong Sanba wiped his hand. “Items that once carried magic power would leave behind its mark. It will react with the magic potion. These slate and stone monuments were not only for ritual use; they were magic-activated.”

“That is to say, the builder of this city was a magical civilization,” Hao Ren said. “No wonder they could build such a magnificent thing, they had the assistance of magic power.”

Suddenly, there was a scent, the smell of an outsider. They had smelled it. It was not far away. As they realized it, something was piercing through the air coming into their direction. Lily immediately grasped it with her hand; it was an arrow with a tip that glowed in green.

They looked into a direction and saw a tall and burly humanoid shadow swept across the top of a collapsed wall!

Chapter 799: The Remnant

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Someone was there!

This shocking fact stunned Hao Ren, but his reaction was not slow. He was just as fast as the shadow that flashed across the top of the wall. “Catch him!” he shouted.

A white figure flew past Hao Ren, followed by a swarm of bats that smelled of blood. Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily had scaled over the collapsed stonewall as a tall, agile figure was fleeing from the corner of the building. They were in a high-speed chase. They moved so fast that the surroundings faded past them like ghosts. But the shadow was quick; even Lily had a hard time catching up. It eluded Lily’s pouncing maneuver and changed directions as it weaved through the collapsed walls. The shadow was familiar with the environment, and it added a challenge for Hao Ren and the rest.

But they somehow managed to reduce the distance. Vivian turned into a swarm of bats in the air, the walls on the ground were not obstacles to her anymore. She started to fire icicles and lightning from the sky. Her aerial attack caught the mysterious man off guard. He used magic shadows to counter Vivian’s long-range strike, but this had significantly affected his speed.

At last, the shadow scaled over a wall and was out in the open. The man rolled on the ground and dodged the Lightning Strike move of Vivian. Bouncing up like a monkey, the man drew a short knife from his waist to perform a desperate counterattack. At this moment, a sudden loud bang came from the side. Debris and dust were flying everywhere as Lily smashed through a megalithic building and came before them—she had lost patience negotiating the corners, so she chose the most direct route.

“Don’t move!” Lily, covered in dust from head to toe, shouted as she raised a slate of at least one tonne heavy. “I can hit the bullseyes with this piece of brick. So you better don’t run.”

Now, Hao Ren could see the figure. It was a tall, muscular young man, dressed in a strange costume that looked like an animal skin, with green paint stripes across his face. His hair was draped over the back as the Red Indians did. He had a short bow and a sharp knife, but he seemed to have dropped his quiver while he fled.

Lily’s action had this weird man rooted to the spot. Apparently, in the man’s worldview, a creature that could plow through a three-story stone wall with bare-headed and was still able to hold up a tonne-heavy stone while jumping around did not exist in this world. The man did not seem to understand what Lily said though. He thought she was making a roar before throwing the stone at him. So he kept running.

Hao Ren took out his spear and blocked his escape route with a plasma flare.

“Grukkak! Talta Talu!” The man, who looked like a Red Indian, said something. But no one understood him. The man turned and ran in another direction.

Hessiana’s two sidekicks lunged out from the shadows. Turcan moved like a ghost before the mysterious man and blocked him with an aristocratic sword while Kassandra was up in the air holding a bloody red magic spear aiming straight at the enemy on the ground.

The man had no escape now.

“Calm down. Put down your weapon. We’re not a threat,” Hao Ren said as he inched slowly toward the native. At the same time, Lily waved her hand and slowly put down the giant brick. “I know we have a communication problem. But it will go away soon…”

Nangong Sanba teleported himself up beside Hao Ren and said, “Since you know he doesn’t understand you, why did you talk so much?”

Hao Ren gave him a sideways look. “Oh come on, it’s called SOP.”

By now, Nangong Wuyue had climbed out from the other side of the wall. She came out now because she knew the danger was over.

They narrowed the encirclement, and the indigenous man seemed to know these people were going to ‘catch him alive.’ He wielded his short knife and retreated nervously. Judging from his movement and the way he held the knife, he was a warrior. The man kept uttering some words in his mouth, but no one understood it. But the translation plug-in was working quickly.

Reading the mind, bridging the brain waves, reorganizing information–all these happened in a split second. Hao Ren uttered a few words, with trials and errors, the first language library was ready.

“Please lay down your weapon. We are not hostile. If you cooperate, I can guarantee your safety.”

Hao Ren spoke but was in the man’s language this time.

The man was startled. He shouted. “Demon! You stole my language!”

Hao Ren was startled too. And, he forced a smile. “The native of this land seems to be very imaginative,” he thought.

“We are not demons,” Nangong Wuyue said. She finally took up the courage though still hiding behind Hao Ren. “We are… well, an expedition team. We are passing by, and we don’t even know someone is living here. You see, we have put down our weapons.”

The man, unconvinced, looked at Lily cautiously. His face was like “you are kidding me.” With the advantage of size, Lily did not even need a weapon, he figured. Lily did not even look at him as she shook the dirt off her body.

They were now in a stalemate. It would be difficult to let the man ease himself. But it was no surprise. The Extra-ethnic Conflict Reconciliation Skills and Communication Methods in Special Situations manuals that he read came in handy now. Now the man started to calm down, and it was only a matter of time before they could talk. So he took it easy. At this time, a swarm of bats came from above and descended next to Hao Ren before it transformed back into Vivian.

“Wow, things seem to become weirder by the day,” Vivian said. “I couldn’t believe there are people in this world. Inferno, the mysterious realm, the world with only grass and flowers now has a human! I wonder those old coots back home would believe what I’m going to tell them.”

She then turned and looked curiously at the indigenous man who painted his face like a tribal warrior.

At the same time, the ‘tribal warrior’ also looked at Vivian’s face.

The man suddenly seemed to have gotten the shock of his life as the short knife in his hand was glowing in red. The tribal warrior instinctively knelt and greeted Vivian with great reverence. “Goddess, you have come! You have come to this world!”

Vivian was also getting the shock of her life too. She bounced back several feet and hid behind Hao Ren. “What’s wrong with this man?”

Now it perplexed Hao Ren. At this time, Hessiana came up from a distance—in fact, she had already arrived earlier, but she was standing guard from afar, in case there were more such indigenous people nearby.

The tribal warrior was stunned when he saw Hessiana. He was confused about this woman with Vivian.

His short knife also glowed in red albeit a little lesser when Hessiana came close.

Everyone exchanged a look as if saying “what was going on here?”

“Can we talk nicely now?” Lily had finally dusted the debris on her body. She was still a straight talker though. “Battie, he seems to have mistaken you as someone else.”

“He just mentioned ‘Goddess,’” Hao Ren said. He seemed to have figured out something. “Those slates mention about the Goddess too… I think we have hit the jackpot!”

There was only one Goddess as far as the faith of the people on the planet where the First Born existed concerned.

It was the Goddess of Creation.

Raven 12345’s words echoed in Hao Ren’s mind.

Vivian was not the Goddess of Creation, but she had everything to do with it.

He finally found the connection between Vivian and the Goddess of Creation on this planet!

Chapter 800: Holy Blade ##

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren was the only one who knew about the secret connection between Vivian and the goddess of creation. The others were just puzzled by the indigenous man’s reaction. Perhaps, the man was mistaken or something. Or maybe, someone whom he highly respected in this world looked like Vivian. It was the most natural explanation for them, but to Hao Ren, it was not as simple as that. So, he decided to stay away from the topic. “Could you please play along, Vivian?” he asked.

Vivian was dumbfounded. “Play along what?”

“Pretend that you’re what he thinks,” Hao Ren whispered into her ear. Then he came up to the man. “Get to your feet. I have questions for you.”

Vivian followed Hao Ren but still could not wrap her brain around it. Only after a long while, she began to mumble to herself, “I am the almighty, I am over ten thousand years old…”

The ‘tribal warrior’ was like a lost ball in high weeds; he looked at Vivian, and then Hessiana, and repeated that. At the same time, he kept his eye on the short knife in his hand. The short knife glowed brighter when Vivian and Hessiana came closer. Hao Ren pointed at the sharp blade. “What is that?” he asked.

The tribal warrior did not answer. He just bowed his head at Vivian, and his face looked fearful and reverend. “Goddess, what is your purpose of coming?”

Vivian froze for a long while. She did not know how to respond. Hao Ren nudged her arm and said, “Say something. He is asking you.”

“Err… err…” Vivian had tied herself up in knots as she tried to fudge. “I… I just come down here to take a look. I was merely passing by.”

Her baffling reply did not bother the tribal warrior. He was still behaving reverently. “This world will prosper as you wish, and the spirit of all beings will welcome you with joy.”

Sensing that the man was ignoring him, Hao Ren hemmed and said, “Why not you introduce yourself?”

Only then, the tribal warrior looked at Hao Ren puzzledly. As if the tribal warrior suddenly came to his senses, he said, “I am the great warrior of the Hanuk Tribe of West Wind, Gezer.”

“The Hanuk Tribe of West Wind?” Hao Ren’s brows pulled together. “Are there more people like you?”

Gezer did not seem to understand Hao Ren’s question and appeared a little hesitant. “Every tribe has less than ten great warriors. The Goddess has gifted us a limited number of holy blades. Not everyone is qualified.”

What Hao Ren meant was a question of the population, but Gezer had misunderstood it for something else. When the tribal warrior mentioned about the holy blade, Hao Ren could not help but look at the short knife. “You mean this? Can I see it?”

Gezer looked a little wary. He was still suspicious of the strangers that came with the Goddess. Noticing his hesitation, Vivian finally knew what she should say. “Let him take a look. We need to examine whether the holy blade is all right. After all, it’s been a long time.”

The short knife glowed even brighter when Vivian was talking. The glow seemed to be some signal; Gezer relented and handed the weapon to Hao Ren respectfully.

Hao Ren took over the short knife and examined it curiously. It was one foot long, had a non-gold, non-woody odd grip and the blade was curvy like a dancing flame and had complicated reliefs that looked like hieroglyphics and simple patterns. The translation plug-in had interpreted the trends; they were words of prayer that praised the wind and the water.

It was an exquisitely made short knife; the texture of the reliefs was almost like a high-precision, industrial product. The rough leather coat and hand-made bow that Gezer carried were a stark contrast. It was hard to imagine this tribe could have made such a precision weapon.

Perhaps it was as he said; the holy blade was not a human-made item but a gift from the Goddess.

“You have an impression of this?” Hao Ren turned away from Gezer and showed the short knife to Vivian.

Vivian was a little confused. “No, I don’t remember I have had this kind of thing. What’s more, I was so poor at that time that even if I had such an expensive knife, I would have sold it for food. This kind of fine weapon worth a lot of money even hundreds of years ago.”

Hao Ren ran his hand across the reliefs on the short knife that was still glowing in red. “But it’s responding to your presence.”

Vivian placed her hand on the short knife, and it glowed at maximum brightness. A strong vibe, a kind of vitality was felt on the sharp blade as the metal pealed as if it was in joy. It wondered Lily. “Did you say that it’s not yours?” she asked.

“The energy felt similar to mine, but the knife is not mine.” Vivian looked at Hao Ren. “You do know something, don’t you?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Hao Ren said as he turned around again and handed the knife back to Gezer. “It’s in good condition. Now, can you take us to your tribe?”

It was a common sense that no sane person would travel in the grassland alone, and Gezer looked like someone of importance to his tribe, the Hanuk Tribe of West Wind should be nearby. Perhaps it was in a particular location where the probes had not managed to reach.

Gezer agreed. But he looked at the ruins around him hesitantly. “I still haven’t completed my mission here…”

“Oh, in that case,” Hao Ren nodded. He had also noticed Gezer’s hesitation. He nudged Vivian who then nodded. “She has agreed.” Hao Ren said.

Gezer was relieved. He first went to retrieve his quiver and arrows that he had dropped, and then went up to the stone platform as they watched curiously. Reaching into his cloth bag, he took some spices out and burned it on the stone platform, as if it were sacred. The smoke from the burning spices drifted to the nearby slates while Gezer observed, his face serious.

Also, at the same time, he seemed to be a little self-conscious and embarrassed.

His embarrassment stemmed from the stare of Vivian.

Hao Ren believed that Gezer was performing some religious ritual. He might have come to this ruin alone tasked with an assignment, such as praying to the Goddess. And, Vivian, whom Gezer deemed a Goddess, was watching nearby and that made him nervous. After all, not every goddess was like Raven 12345, and not every pope was like Hao Ren who would get into a shouting match with the goddess.

The ritual took not very long. When Gezer finally got to his feet, Hao Ren walked up to him and said, “Let’s go. And tell me about your tribe.”

He then issued an instruction to the MDT in his mind. “Bring all probes down from the clouds and the surface, and focus on scanning this underground world. This space is a lot more interesting than we could imagine.”

Gezer did not even ask who Hao Ren and his entourage were. It seemed that as long as his Goddess trusted them, he would also believe them. Gezer had mentioned some things about this world, but Hao Ren was not sure if Gezer knew about the crust and the First Born, his scope of questions became limited. Anyway, he now knew about the tribe from where Gezer came.

Vast grassland and sparse forests covered the underground world. In Gezer’s understanding, it was a world where the sky was round, the earth was square, the magnificent mountain called the Pillar of Eternity—aka the Heaven’s Pillar—supported the world, the Goddess gave everything between heaven and the earth, and no one should question the Goddess. Gezer’s tribe lived on the grasslands, migrating as seasons changed the rivers and the lakes. They were semi-nomadic people. The underground weather had a pattern, but these people also followed a particular faith.

Other than the Hanuk Tribe of West Wind, there were also tribes living in the forests, mountains, and swamps. But these people barely contacted each other.

A couple of questions later, Hao Ren started to have a rough idea. These tribes had a small population, which always stayed at a bare minimum level. But it was not just the population; the tribes lived a primitive life. They did not have cities and infrastructure, even though they could have built that, and preferred the simple way of life.

At last, their conversation turned to the holy blade of Gezer.

Gezer believed that the holy blade was the object that the Goddess gave to mortals in ancient times. It had an invisible connection with the power of the Goddess.

“Only the chosen warriors are qualified to wield the holy blade,” Gezer said as he placed his hand on the knife and held his head up high in front of Vivian. “Those underserved shouldn’t touch the holy blade; their blood will boil and die if they do. When the power of the Goddess comes near the holy blade or when the holy blades are adjacent to each other, the power will increase. But I’ve never seen such intense glow on the holy blade like today. In the records of the tribe, the Goddess has been absent in the world for many years.”

When Hao Ren heard the ‘blood boiling’ theory, he could not help exchanging a look with Vivian; they did not doubt its nature.

The nature of the ‘discriminate power’ of the holy blade also explained how Gezer had identified Vivian. It was not by guessing, but by sensing the power in Vivian.

It seemed that things were getting more and more interesting.