The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 821

Chapter 821: The Truth About Vivian?

 

It seemed to Hao Ren that the translucent shadow had said something to him before it vanished. He was certain he had heard a few words, but he could not make of what that meant nor why she did it.

Everything had quieted down and Vivian had absorbed the light dots. Hao Ren shook his head, trying not to think about what he had just heard and seen. “Is she dead?” he asked.

“Not really,” Vivian shook her head and pointed at herself. “She has come home. Here.”

“So you got her memory?”

“Some and it’s better than what I expected,” Vivian said with a sigh of relief. “At least I now know what this so-called ‘evil spirit’ is all about.”

“Tell me later.” Hao Ren noticed that Vivian was exhausted judging from her expression. The magic circle had drained her. The space began to fall apart as the living tissue was wilting and cracking. It was as if watching plants withering in a sped-up video, the organ turned black, decomposed, drifted out into the low-gravity space before falling towards the chaotic arc into the center of the planet, all happened so fast. Hao Ren quickly held Vivian. “Let’s get out of here,” he said.

He tucked the MDT in his pocket and lunged out with Vivian to the outside. On the outside, he found that the tentacles that connected like a cable bridge to the organs began to break apart. The living tissues that once held the ‘prison’ in place also began to disintegrate. Debris were falling like meteorites from above. He could vaguely recognize the debris judging from their red color; they were body pieces of the demon-god Vivian.

Vivian was nervous. “Is this planet going to end just like this? Is this place the weakness of the First Born?”

Hearing that, Hao Ren quickly sent out the probes and checked the situation in other parts of the planet. He breathed a sigh of relief. “The damage is local and only to this space. This space was where heterogenization and the severe union and distortion between Vivian MK-II and the First Born happened.”

Vivian tweaked him on his arm. “That’s a bloody weird name!”

Over on the safe island, a massive water enchantment was shielding them from the chaos in the surroundings. Nangong Wuyue was looking into the distant battlefield anxiously. She saw the demon god disintegrating and knew that Hao Ren and Vivian had made it. Only when the two of them came back safely, she breathed a sigh of relief. As always, Lily was the one jumping up to Hao Ren. She went around and sniffed him for a while and then looked at him, whose clothes was tattered. “Dang! You look like shit!”

“Just some minor bruises and it’s already healed,” Hao Ren said as he looked at the others. “Are you guys okay?”

Hessiana came out from behind Turcan and Kassandra, feeling embarrassed. She tucked away her bat wings and bowed her head. “Ma’am Vivian, I’m sorry that I was of no help.”

“It’s okay. You’ve done well, much better than I did last time,” said Vivian, smiling. Hao Ren looked on, noticing Vivian’s changed attitude towards Hessiana; she was a lot gentle this time. “What about others?” Vivian asked.

Nangong Wuyue raised her tail and wagged a couple of times. “We’re fine, except Sanba. He is still disoriented. Probably the mind control thing is still ringing in his head.”

Nangong Sanba was lying on the ground with a figure-4 leg cross. Hao Ren gave him a sideways glance. “More like he is faking it. A good beating is all it takes to shake him up.”

Nangong Sanba quickly bounced up. Nangong Wuyue saw it and was furious. She rolled Sanba up in her tail and spun him at 120 round per minute.

Lily looked into the battlefield in the distant. It was crumbling. Organ fragments and broken tentacles were falling towards the red chaos, which was near to the planet’s core where more organs of the First Born and pieces of the planet’s crust remained. The First Born would soon consume the last pieces of fragments of the planet to convert it into nutrients. So the questions remained: was this planet-eating behemoth still safe, and had the fighting awakened this dangerous creature?

“There are a lot to do, such as keeping the planet intact.” Vivian nodded to others. “Gragon’s lullaby will last for a while. Let’s go back to the underground city and then think of a better plan.”

They returned to the underground city the same way they got in. While ascending the vertical passage, Hao Ren noticed that the tentacles on the walls looked somewhat different now. Some had turned into grayish white, the color of death, with many cracks on them. These tentacles were connected to the huge organ down below. When the huge organ necrotized, these tentacles broke apart and were discarded. They were not the only nerves connected to the underground city though. Many more tentacles were still alive, so that the ancient ‘lullaby’ could continue to suppress the First Born and everyone could breathe a sigh of relief.

As long as the baby did not wake up, things would be fine.

Back in the underground city, Bonia and Gezer were still with the ancient souls. The two had been waiting for them for a long time. Gragon, the ancient Sun Dynasty monarch came up to greet Vivian. “My Lord, it seems you have retrieved your thing.”

Bonia peered from behind Gragon. “There was an earthquake just now! The roar of the monster from the cave was so terrifying!” She was still in fear.

“It’s over,” Vivian said, patting Bonia on the head. She then looked up at Gragon. “Keep the lullaby running for a little longer as we have things to discuss. Gezer, take Bonia and return to the surface, then go to the tribal base and wait for us,” she ordered.

Gezer left the underground city with the little saintess. Meanwhile, Gragon had come to an old structure with Hao Ren and the others. The structure was the only real building in the entire city where real people could stay. It had doors and windows, and a large circular assembly hall where the ancient sages gathered and sacrificed themselves to power the ‘lullaby’. Their bones had turned into ash and the ceremonial vessels and scriptures that used for exalting the Goddess had broken. Gragon pointed to a chair at the end of the assembly hall and said to Vivian, “I was last sitting there, watching you walking towards the Throat of Toka.”

He died on the chair but his body had returned to the soil. What was left was only a few tattered fabric still hanging on the chair. That position had a perfect view of the Throat of Toka that was lit up by the electric arcs.

Vivian gave Gragon a subtle nod. As if Gragon had understood what she meant, he dismissed and sent away the other ancient souls. After the ancient souls left, Vivian spread out her hand and said to Hao Ren and the others, “First thing first; I’m the Goddess that they are talking about.”

“You are the Goddess of Creation?” Lily jumped to her feet in disbelief. “You are out of your mind.”

“Not a Goddess of Creation.” Vivian shook her head. “I’m talking about the one who closed the heaven, led the people, build Dorasil, and protected this planet. Their original belief was in the Goddess of Creation, but they mixed up ten thousand years ago; they mistook me as their Goddess of Creation. More accurately, they mistook part of meas their Goddess. In fact, when I arrived on this planet, I was just trying my best to preserve the ecosystem of the planet.”

Lily grabbed her hair. “Wait a second! You’re confusing me. Did you say that you are a goddess but not a goddess at the same time? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Ten thousand years ago, forty-eight hours before the fall of the Goddess of Creation, I passed through the Wall of Reality into this universe,” Vivian said while looking at Hao Ren; Hao Ren knew about this long time ago, but not what she was going to reveal soon. “However, something happened during the passing through. Earth was not the first place I arrived; the first destination was here, Inferno, where I split into two.”

Chapter 822: The Divisible Vivian

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Vivian rubbed her hand across her forehead, tired from absorbing two foreign memories in such a short time. Now, these memories began to fill the gaps in her memory bank. She began to understand what had happened here and to herself ten thousand years ago, but not all her questions had an answer.

“I’ve yet figured out the specific cause and effect, but the memory of the split began only from the moment she arrived on the planet ten thousand years ago.” By calling the ‘evil spirit’ a split, she must have figured out the nature of the ‘evil spirit’. “I saw she crossed a large field of chaos and of light and fell onto the planet. At that time, the planet had been flung from the Plane of Dreams into the crack in the Wall of Reality, where darkness was covering the planet, and the planet was losing its heat rapidly. She used her strength to preserve the ecosystem. The picture is a bit fuzzy, but I guess it would tally with the myths of the locals.”

Vivian sighed as if something was bothering her. “It’s kind of hard to describe it. I’m not even sure whether I should to talk about it in first-person or third-person perspective. The one who arrived first on the planet was neither the split nor me but a complete individual. Very quickly, we split into two. I was flung to the Earth through the first gateway of Inferno in history, and the other half of me stayed behind on this planet and became the Goddess worshipped by the locals. In the subsequent one hundred years, she induced the First Born to make the barrier that you are seeing here, and led people to build Dorasil and the underground city of the wraiths while all the while, I was on Earth hunting mammoths on the Great Plains during the end of the glacial period. However, I had totally forgotten the fact that I had split after I arrived on Earth.”

Hao Ren grabbed his hair trying to make sense of what Vivian was saying. “Do you know what caused you to split?”

Vivian shook her head. “I don’t know, but it could be due to the damage on the Wall of Reality. The only image I saw that might offer some clue was that ‘I’ stood on the upper surface of the planet Inferno, where there was a huge vortex portal. On the other side of the portal was icy river and plains, which should be the Earth. One half of me was going into the gate, the other half of me stayed back in Inferno. All the while, I was seeing things from a first-person perspective, which meant I was watching myself leaving this world, and I stayed back. After that, all it was all in a first-person perspective… Doggie, hang on there, don’t pass out!”

Lily laid her head on the table, half-dead. Her ears drooped and her eyes swirled. “Battie, you’d better keep the details to yourself, I couldn’t make sense of your first-person, third-person perspectives.”

Others also nodded repeatedly. “Us, too.”

Vivian scratched her hair in embarrassment. “Well, okay. As long as you know what I mean. Let me just call the one staying behind in Inferno the ‘split’ though we both were supposed to be two equal split bodies. Let’s just call it this way since I’m the only one survive.”

Hao Ren put two and two together and figured out the timeline. Vivian had split almost as soon as she arrived on Inferno, and she was sent to Earth after that. Ignoring the negligible time she spent in Inferno, her arrival on Earth was still roughly forty-eight hours before the Goddess fell, and Vivian and her ‘split’ lost contact completely after that. The one came to the Earth became the oldest otherworldling on the planet, and the other ‘half’ of Vivian in Inferno became the legendary Goddess of in the eyes of the locals.

However, what happened after that, why did the ‘Goddess’ in Inferno became a mad and grievous spirit devoid of rationality were still unresolved.

“She swapped out the will of the First Born with her own to keep the planet stable, but there was a problem; she became insane as a result.” Vivian’s brows pulled together as she recounted what happened to her split body. “The First Born on this planet wasn’t sane, it was one of the mad guardians. The First Born had created the twisted creatures we saw on the upper surface during the rebellion. To suppress it, the ‘other I’ had chosen to assimilate to the First Born, and then control the First Born to assimilate to the planet.

“I don’t know how she did it. All I knew was she removed the soul of the First Born and destroyed its brain. She built the underground city and connected herself to the main nervous node of the First Born to control this creature by sealing themselves together. The lullaby of the ancient souls and the lightning stone columns are the safety switches. Since then, this insurance system has been running, but—”

“But something went wrong with the most critical part of the system.” Nangong Sanba cut in, rubbing his forehead. “Did the remnant consciousness of the First Born corrupt the other ‘you’? Or was it because she was suffering mentally from the long-term confinement?”

“Possible.” Vivian nodded. “I couldn’t see how my split went insane in the remnant memory; it was chaotic. However, one thing is certain; when ‘the other I’ chose to swap out the First Born’s brain, she already foresaw she might be losing the control one day. The underground city, the lullaby ritual of the ancient souls, the sealing crystal, the chains and tentacles in the surroundings all combined becoming a cage. She built that so that when she went crazy, the cage would lock her in.”

“She actually had that premonition?” Hao Ren scratched his jaw as if in deep thought. “How long would the insurance system last if we haven’t come?”

Vivian thought for a moment and said, “Thousands of years, or just decades. Too many uncertainties. If something were to go wrong with Gragon and other ancient souls, the entire system could have been brought down. Let’s cross our finger and pray that it won’t happen. Anyway, we wouldn’t depend on luck even if this place could last another thousand years.”

A crucial question suddenly crossed Hao Ren’s mind. “Wait a second. Since you have ‘reunited’ with that split, who is controlling the planet now?”

“No one.” Vivian pressed her lips together. “The soul and the thinking organ of the First Born are gone. The ‘other me’ whose brain was controlling the First Born has also gone. Now the First Born is brainless, literally. It’s not dead, neither it is alive. That’s why I let Gragon maintain the ‘lullaby’ ritual. The lullaby would not only comfort the First Born, but also keep the nervous system working so that the tentacles would not have any convulsive movement; you know, if that thing sneezes, the planet will be torn apart. So this cannot go on forever. The ancient souls have been working so hard for the last ten thousand years; I can’t bear to let them go on like this forever.”

While saying, Vivian looked at Hao Ren. Hao Ren understood the signal; he had to find a solution. He took out the MDT. “Analyze this ‘lullaby’ and see what kind of system it is,” he ordered.

The MDT projected a holographic display showing many tower-like structures. “A series of large electrodes and permanent generators would be able to replace the hardware, but we also need a set of software based on how the ritual of the ancient souls works. I will need the original design drawing of the city and information about the ‘lullaby’ approach, with or without annotations.”

Vivian quickly said, “Gragon has it.”

“Great! One problem solved.” Hao Ren clapped his hands. “We will then build a large computer-controlled electric shocker in Dorasil and free the ancient souls from the ritual.”

Hao Ren looked at Vivian. “Shall we discuss about your splitting problem? Since first ‘evil spirit’ came from you, was the one that we summoned from the magic book also from you?” Hao Ren asked.

Vivian forced a smile. “I guess so.”

Lily shrunk her head into the neck. “Are you able to control your division? Would you split suddenly while cooking at home, and the split goes on rampage killing?”

“I think… probably, maybe, should be, perhaps… not?”

Lily’s face turned green instantly. “Couldn’t you be more certain?”

Chapter 823: Finishing the Job

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

As much as Lily wanted to know how Vivian split, Vivian could not control it. She could not pop another ‘herself’ out of thin air at will. Now, they had to finish what they started, beginning with the building of a substitute control system.

According to Vivian, the First Born on the planet was ‘dead’ ten thousand years ago after ‘the other Vivian’ aka Vivian’s split swapped out the soul and thinking organ of the First Born with her own, but there was a potential safety hazard. Ten thousand years had passed, the split had become insane and was defeated eventually. When Vivian re-absorbed the split, the First-Born subsystem on which the planet depended for survival lost its core program. The loss of this core program meant that the planet could not keep its thermal balance and natural cycles.

What they needed to do now was to establish a new control system, rebuild the central nervous system of the First Born and take over the ‘lullaby’ of the ancient souls.

Vivian summoned Gragon and let the MDT follow him to collect information about the ‘Lullaby approach.

There was a commotion when the other ancient souls learned that the Goddess wanted to replace them with something new. They elected Gragon to convey their concerns to Vivian. “My Lord, are you not satisfied with our work?”

Vivian stood in front of the assembly hall, gazing at the Throat of Toka at the end of the path and shaking her head gently. “No, I want you to take a break. You all have been working relentlessly for ten thousand years—five thousand if according to the calendar of this world. You people deserve a vacation.”

Gragon’s illusive shadow flickered, there was no emotion on his blurry face. He bowed slightly and said, “As you wish.”

Then the old soul turned and left, without raising any further questions. Hao Ren sighed. “They treat you as their Goddess. How about you? Does it feel real?”

“Somewhat.” Vivian pointed at her chest; her expression was a little weird. “It is as if having an extra life with these extra memories, which reminded me that I had once led the people here building the city ten thousand years ago. I felt it weird when Gezer first called me Goddess, but now I think I can accept the title already.”

Hao Ren became worried. “Wait a second. Have the foreign memories affected you? I’ve seen on TV when two souls merge, the person’s character would change completely.”

“That would be unlikely.” Vivian laughed. “It’s just fragments of memory, like watching the life of other people. I am still me. I won’t dare to take in the foreign memories if I am not confident.”

Hao Ren peered at her in suspicion. After a long while, he finally let out a sigh of relief. “I guess you’re right; you have been very cautious. By the way, something suddenly cross my mine; it’s about the crystal.”

Vivian frowned. “You mean Beatrice’s crystal? What’s wrong?”

“Who made that crystal? Was it you or the other Vivian?”

“The other Vivian made it if the memory in the crystal is anything to go by.” Vivian seemed to have thought of something. “Somehow, it fell into Beatrice’s hand.”

“That’s weird. You split ten thousand years ago, and that crystal was made on this planet, but it was Beatrice who got it. How?” Hao Ren’s face was serious. “Someone brought it to the Earth? Or could it be that Beatrice visited Inferno in the early years and found the crystal by accident? Or let’s stretch the imagination a little: she brought the crystal back to Earth? Since that thing is the memory bridge between you and your split, it must possess some unknown power.”

Vivian arced her mouth. “Well, the last theory sounds whimsical, but you are right, there are many secrets hidden in the crystal.”

As she spoke, she took out a blood-colored crystal, which Pavel had kept previously. Hao Ren asked curiously, “Are you going to eat it as well?”

“Wait a minute.” Hesitating, Vivian tucked the blood-colored crystal. “I’m still confused. I need to calm down.”

Hao Ren peered at Vivian again, until she felt it uncomfortable. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Nothing, just want to make sure you are okay,” Hao Ren said with a smile without revealing his thought. He had the feeling that Vivian was nothing short of amazing. First, the vampire maiden was not afraid of daylight, she had a taste for garlic, her spawned bat had transcended, and she could become a kilometer-tall Vivian Mk-II. When he thought that was pretty much all about her, she became divisible!

Hao Ren dared not imagine how many times Vivian had split in the past ten thousand years. If that were her talent, the picture would only get strangely fascinating; from mini Vivian to demon-god Vivian, it made him wonder if there would be a Kaku-San-Sei-Million Vivian split. When that happened, people would think that Korean plastic surgery craze had landed in Southern Suburb if they had not known the truth.

While thinking about that, Hao Ren could not help but mumble to himself, “What a complicated personality.”

“What did you say?”

Hao Ren said with a deadpan face, “Ahh, nothing.”

The MDT had collected enough data and came out with a comprehensive design. All that was left was to summon a construction team to build the new ‘electric shock regulator.’ The brick was pretty reliable when it came to serious business as always.

Hao Ren saw the design drawing; it did not deviate much from the previous concept: a group of electric-discharging needle towers connected by a bundle of cables, piping, and tentacles of the First Born. The connection part was borrowed from the mechanical design of the Dream Ark on the former planet Zorm, and the electric-discharging structures were a replica of the stone columns in the underground city.

The size of this complex was comparable to that of Dorasil. The project was neither very big nor very small, so Hao Ren thought that maybe he could attend to another problem first before the facility construction began.

He wanted to get this planet out of the crack in the Wall of Reality.

Letting this space debris on the Wall of Reality was a bad idea because every time it drifted it wreaked havoc to the fragile balance between the Plane of Dreams and the surface world. This planet needed sun, and its fragile ecosystem was not a long-term solution.

He was contemplating to move it back to either the Plane of Dreams or the real world, as both of these options were better than leaving it here as it was.

Before returning to the surface, Hao Ren called Raven 12345 to report the situation.

A familiar heavenly ring tone rang, and then Raven 12345’s passive, muffled voice sounded through the comm. “Hello… Who is it? What’s up?”

The voice sounded affable to Hao Ren. Before he got into the ‘wrong job’ as an inspector, he was answering the telephone in a similar ‘half-dead’ tone of voice too.

“It’s me, Hao Ren. I have a bit of a situation here. By the way, why do you sound like you’re going to die soon?”

“You know, Goddess is a very busy person, okay? It’s normal when I feel a fair bit of tiredness.” Raven 12345 heard that it was Hao Ren and became a more alert. “What situation?”

Hao Ren told her everything of what had happened, particularly about Vivian’s divisive phenomenon. Then, he asked very professionally, “As the planet could no longer remain stuck in the edge of the space and time, I would like to ask you for your opinion: how should I do it? I have never handled this kind of project before.”

Raven 12345 was silent before she replied with a relaxed tone of voice, “You always have surprises for me… Anyway, about the planet Inferno, I have a good suggestion.”

“The surface world?”

“You guess it right. In the surface world, there is a place called the Scarred Nebula.”

---

Chapter 824: The End of the Year of the Jade

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The Scarred Nebula? He had never heard of that place before, but what interested him more was why Raven 12345 would want to move the planet to the Surface World. “Move Inferno to the main universe? Isn’t it safer to move it back to the Plane of Dreams?”

“It’s been drifting across the Wall of Reality for too long,” Raven 12345 explained. “Getting stuck in between two dimensions has affected it greatly. Like the otherworldlings on Earth today, they can’t go back to the Plane of Dreams. Forcing it to return will only cause an excessive rejection phenomenon.”

Hao Ren was still worried. “So you’re saying it’ll be okay to move it to the Surface World?”

“There will be some impacts of course. As you said, Inferno belongs to neither the Surface world nor the Plane of Dreams now. No matter which direction it goes, there will be some compatibility issues, but it will be more stable in the Surface World than in the Plane of Dreams. After all, I’m here and I’m going to see it through personally. The Surface World is the best bet when considering all factors.”

Then, Raven 12345 added, “What’s more, the Scarred Nebula is an extraordinary place. I’ll explain further when you get there.”

Hao Ren scratched his head. “After so much talking, I still don’t get how I’m supposed to move the space debris out of the spatial rift. Should I tow it out with a spacecraft?”

“Do you think this is like hauling a cart in the supermarket?” Raven 12345 snapped. “I’ll handle most of the operations, and I’m going to give you beacon guidance authorization as well as a copy of the tips for handling mega-operations. Read it and memorize it; it’ll be useful in the future.”

Raven 12345 proceeded to hang up abruptly. A moment later, the MDT received a confidential document from Raven 12345. Hao Ren opened the document in anticipation and fainted after he read it.

There was only a line of text, “Believe me and you will have eternal life—do you think there are tips for such matters?”

Hao Ren was like, What the hell?!

It was as if Hao Ren was a model of piety and papacy; he did not know how he managed not to shoot his mouth off to curse the goddess. Once beaten, twice shy; he had wised up after being struck by lightning every time he swore.

It took a while before Raven 12345 sent the second message, which was the real deal. Hao Ren read it, but he could understand none of it as the information was meant for the spacecraft’s central computer. When Inferno was removed from the Wall of Reality, the data would come in handy.

“Bring the Petrachelys in.” Hao Ren patted the MDT. “Enter this information into the host. We’re going to move the planet into normal space before we start the construction work. It’ll be convenient this way.”

The MDT disappeared from Hao Ren’s sight, repeatedly groaning, “An able man is always a busy man.” Everyone returned to the surface soon after.

They had been in the underground world for a day and a night. It was early morning when they came back out to Dorasil. The light from the clouds shone on the prairie and coated the ancient boulder city in a dreamlike glow. Vivian leaned against a massive stone beside the pyramid, gazing at the dark rocky dome behind the clouds. It seemed like she was sorting out her memory or just thinking about the future of the planet. Lily stood nearby, wagging her tail and staring intently at her.

Vivian was bothered by the stare. “Why are you staring at me too? What’s happened to you guys lately?” she asked.

Lily nodded her head, looking somber. “I just want to see when you might split again.”

Vivian smacked Lily on the head. “Nonsense!”

All of a sudden, Nangong Wuyue seemingly thought of something. She shook her body and changed into two lumps of shimmering slime. She exclaimed in joy, “Hey, look! I can split! I’ve learned to split!”

Hao Ren was also in thought when Nangong Wuyue’s action almost made him jump out of his skin. “Wait a second! What are you doing, Wuyue?”

The two slimes changed shape to form two Nangong Wuyues, who both looked identical but one-half the size of the original. “I got inspiration from Vivian! Since water’s amorphous, I thought I could probably mimic what Vivian did.”

The two Nangong Wuyues were not only smaller, but their voices also sounded childish.

While Hao Ren was dumbstruck by what he saw, Nangong Sanba appeared to be interested in his sister’s magical ability. “Can you split further?” he asked.

The two Wuyues thought for a while and inhaled forcefully. Suddenly, the two of them exploded like water balloons. Everyone was in shock; Nangong Wuyue had changed into at least a hundred mermaids, all smaller than Lil Pea. They jumped around on the grassy land. “I did it!” Nangong Wuyue exclaimed.

Surprised by what she saw, Lily could not wait to join in on the fun. “Can you split further?”

The mini Wuyues jumped around the ground like freshly-caught fish being poured out from a trawl. “I’ll try…” the Wuyues said.

Hao Ren quickly stopped her. “That’s enough! If you split further, you’ll be small enough to permeate the ground.”

Hessiana and her sidekicks were still recovering from their mental and physical exhaustion. After their crazy adventure, they needed to reconstruct their worldviews badly. Halfway through the construction, Hessiana’s jaw dropped to the ground when she saw the hoo-ha. “…What is wrong with you people?”

Vivian forced a smile and sighed. “I don’t know you, but I’ve gotten used to it. Their brains are made up of some weird stuff. They usually do this at home, but it’s okay, no animals have been harmed.”

They all felt at ease after they witnessed the drama. After Doggie and the siren had played enough, Hao Ren brought them back to the village of the Wind tribe. Learning about the underground seismic changes from Gezer and Bonia, Gotarug led several tribal warriors to come and greet them. Vivian took the opportunity to ask Gotarug to gather all elders, soldiers, saintesses, priests, and other notable figures; she was going to make a significant announcement.

Gotarug had sensed it; something big was going to happen. He quickly summoned the important figures over to the big yurt. Soon, more than 20 bigwigs from the Wind tribe had gathered. They greeted Vivian respectfully and waited for Vivian to hand down her “decree”.

Vivian looked at the tribal members and suddenly flinched; she did not know how to break the news about what was going to take place soon. Their civilization had gotten so backward that the people did not have the concept of a planet. They did not even know what the sun, moon, and stars were, merely learning about them in the ancient books.

After much thought, she decided not to blind them with science but summarize things into one sentence.

“The Year of the Jade is coming to an end. Soon the world will reenter the Sun Era.”

There was a deafening silence.

The tribe members did not understand what she said. More specifically, they followed the sentence itself, but could not believe it.

“You mean the heavens will reopen?” Gotarug first thought. “You are going to release the sun?”

“Not release, but move the world near a new sun,” Vivian explained awkwardly. “As for opening the heavens, yes, that is the plan, and it will surely happen.”

While she spoke, she looked at Hao Ren as if expecting some response. When Hao Ren nodded, she knew she had gotten it right.

Gotarug stroked his beard slowly, his eyes flashing with wisdom. However, he still could not wrap his brain around it.

Hao Ren knew it would turn out that way. He smiled and clapped his hands. “You don’t have to know the actual processes. You don’t even need to understand what’s happening right now. I only have three instructions for you: One, send out messengers, repeat every word that Vivian… I mean the goddess has told you today to the other tribes, and I will arrange transportation for you. Two, inform the other tribes to cancel the incense ritual for newborns.”

Then he stopped. There was silence. Vivian quickly nudged Hao Ren by the arm. “What is the third instruction?”

Hao Ren said, “Huh? Did I say three instructions?”

Vivian buried her face in her hand and sighed big time. She then got to her feet and summed up the speech on his behalf. “Three, keep calm and wait for new instructions. That is all. Dismissed. Bring the chosen messengers to me afterwards.”

---

Chapter 825: Meeting Nolan Again

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren had experience in larger-scale relocation and rescue operations. Whether it was the relocation of the one billion Aerymian Elves or five hundred thousand population of Helcrown, the population sizes were many times more than Inferno’s indigenous people. But Inferno had a unique problem that posed a challenge to the migration operation; the civilization was very backward.

They did not have global communications, no high-speed transportation, and no census and system of address. They did not even have cities and other fixed settlements; tribes were scattered all over the prairie and mountains, and only having a loose union relationship among the different tribes existed. They only communicated with each other a few times a year through messengers. Information and traffic occlusion were the challenges. No matter what Hao Ren wanted to do with this planet, the first thing hurdle was communication. He needed to establish a communication network so that he could contact everyone on the planet so that the elders of other tribes could hear Vivian’s orders and carried out that order in their respective tribes.

Gezer had quickly gathered enough messengers before Hao Ren, who was now setting up equipment near the tribal village.

He took out a portal-building and communication equipment from the dimensional pocket. These were portable equipment for emergency use. Though limited in functionality, they were perfectly suitable for the situation at hand. Five portals were lined up on the ground, their silver casings appeared shiny under the skylight, with blue light which indicated standby mode in the gap between the metal panels. Vivian looked at him curiously. “You’re asking the messengers to use the portal?” she asked.

“You don’t expect me to send one by one by car, do you?” Hao Ren smiled. “The tribal villages are scattered all over the world; we need to contact them as soon as possible before the world changes.”

“Okay, but do you know their locations?”

“Remember the probes that I released earlier?” Hao Ren nodded. “They have completed the mapping of the planet, and sent back information of more than thirty villages of various sizes, that’s more than what Gotarug knows. Some tribes have been in isolation for very long and lost contact with other tribes, but they are still alive. The probes would be location beacons for the portals.”

Gezer’s voice came from the side. “The messengers are here.”

Hao Ren turned around and saw dozens of young and robust tribal members standing behind him. Their faces were painted to in the colors and patterns of special envoys of Wind tribe while colorful ribbon on their waists as proof of identity. They all looked motivated. Standing at the front was Bonia, the saintess of Fire tribe, who was going to return to her tribe to deliver the message.

Hao Ren nodded to Gezer. “Well, except for the little girl, they all are great guys; it’s just that their physical strength is not up to par. Are they the most eloquent?”

“They are the smartest young people in the tribe.” Gezer put up an innocent smile on his face. “I’m sure they will be able to bring the message of the Goddess to the destinations.”

“Not only to convey the message of the Goddess,” Hao Ren said as he shoved a silver, cigarette box-sized device in Bonia’s hand. “I want you to learn how to use this thing.”

Bonia fiddled with the little box cluelessly and put it in her mouth. Hao Ren grabbed the box from the little girl, warning, “Don’t do that. It’s a communication device. I want you to bring along this thing back to your village. Can you see the two buttons here? Press and we can talk to each other thousands of miles away.”

Bonia was wide-eyed. Hao Ren just told them briefly without going into the details, “Treat this as a miracle. Now I’m going to assign each of you a destination; these portals will send you directly to the destinations.”

There was one good thing about primitive society; the people were very obedient. The devout tribal messengers had no two minds when it came to the will of the Goddess. They just stepped into the portals, never questioned if the thing called gateway was safe at all.

After the messengers left, Hao Ren looked up at the sky, as he had sensed something.

A blue light swooped down from the sky, and then there was the voice of the MDT. “Hey, buddy! Your spaceship has arrived!”

The MDT descended on his shoulder. The blue-light from where the MDT came out oscillated and gradually enlarged to a few hundred meters tall with a buzzing sound, and then a silver spacecraft emerged from the space crack of a few hundred meters tall. In the eyes of this world, the Petrachelys was a monster.

Hao Ren came up quickly to alleviate Gotarug’s fear for the excitement was too much for him to handle.

“It’s a miracle!” Gezer and other tribal warriors stared with their jaws dropped to the ground. It was beyond their comprehension. Though some of them might have heard of the legends of the magic-driven, flying warships of the Sun Dynasty, the appearance of the spacecraft was beyond their imagination. The Petrachelys, which looked like a magnificent temple to them, emerged from the space crack. It gracefully adjusted its angle before descending slowly and hovering less than one meter above ground just right next to Hao Ren. The captain’s voice came, sounding happy. “Hey! Hao Ren! It’s been a long while!”

That was Nolan.

“Long time no see, Nolan!” Hao Ren smiled. “How are you doing?”

“Great! I think I have gotten used to my new body,” Nolan said with a pleasant tone of voice. “I’ve waxed the lower deck. Do you mind?”

“Err, not at all. Not at all.”

The MDT buzzed into Hao Ren’s ears. “Let me tell you; she is a tough lass. You wouldn’t believe what I saw. When I found her in Andromeda Galaxy, she was racing there.”

Hao Ren was startled and looked up at Nolan aka the Petrachelys. “Racing? With who?”

Nolan flashed the bow lights. “A neutron star. Those spacecraft didn’t dare to race with me.”

Hao Ren jumped to his feet and said, “Holy crap! It is an official ship! An official ship of the highest level! Have you ever seen anyone racing with the police before?”

He buried his face in his hands, screaming. “Oh gosh! Did she violate the rules?”

The MDT comforted him. “That’s okay. Nolan was driving ‘herself,’ it was not a violation of the rule, and the only problem is that you are famous now.”

“Shut up!”

While Hao Ren was talking to his spaceship, Hessiana and her two sidekicks stood still like fossils in awe. Only after a long while, Turcan said, “Master, don’t you think this thing looks like the one in our studio?”

Suddenly, Hessiana ran into Vivian’s arms. “Ma’am Vivian! Men like to fool around when they have money! Look, this man called Hao Ren has an evil motive; he is trying to impress you with this ship! Don’t fall into his trap!” she said.

Hessiana’s sudden action startled Vivian. When she finally came to her senses, she grabbed Hessiana by her head and yanked her out a dozen meters away. “What are you doing? Please behave yourself!”

Hao Ren was watching while Hessiana got a good slap from Vivian. He shrugged his shoulders and finally said, “That’s enough! Do you all want to come onboard my spaceship to have a look? I’m going up to the cloud top.”

Hessiana was the first to raise the hand. “I’ll go!”

Vivian woke Gezer, who was still in awe. He boarded the spacecraft with Hao Ren. Then, the silver spacecraft slowly lifted off and disappeared in a flash of light into the air. The tribal people on the ground exclaimed in awe and bowed to worship it.

“The Goddess has ascended to heaven! The Goddess has ascended to heaven!” some of them exclaimed.

Fortunately, Vivian did not hear it.