The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 836

Chapter 836: The Splits and the Memories

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren knew that Raven 12345 was a serious and responsible superior although she appeared cranky at times.

He was not bluffing; he had noticed the dedication of the neurotic Goddess more than once. As unmethodical as Raven 12345 was in trivial matters, she had always been thoughtful when it came to serious business.

After seeing dozens split bodies of Vivian, Hao Ren realized that Raven 12345 had been on the trail of Vivian. The goddess wanted to find out the reason of the leakage of the Wall of Reality and the mass-crossing of otherworldlings, and at the same time, trying not to affect Vivian’s normal life as much as possible. She let Hao Ren and Vivian see the splits now probably because since Vivian had absorbed the ‘original split,’ she thought that the time was ripe.

Though Raven 12345 did not mention it, Hao Ren and Vivian had guessed that perhaps the absorption of the ‘original split’ was the ‘right time’ Raven 12345 said. The changes related to the split bodies had begun to happen, and this was probably the opportunity to unravel the mysteries of narcolepsy and life of Vivian permanently. That was why the Goddess had arranged for them to come and understand the secrets of the splits.

Before leaving, Hao Ren had Vivian waiting outside the mansion while he needed to talk to Raven 12345 alone. “Is there a change in Vivian’s situation?”

“It’s not a bad thing.” Raven 12345 did not give him a direct answer, but it confirmed Hao Ren’s suspicion. “Your report on the Plane of Dreams is precious, especially the readings you collected in Inferno have confirmed some of the measurements I made before. I’m afraid Vivian is probably an emergency system that the Goddess of Creation created for her kingdom. She probably messed up something when she created the system and caused Vivian to divide pieces of negative forces. I have been studying the connection between these split pieces, and have found that they are not completely chaotic and incorrigible.”

“You mean those ‘evil spirits’ could regain rationality?” Hao Ren wondered.

“That would be very unlikely. Some memories, maybe yes, but these memories must be readable,” Raven 12345 explained. “Every evil spirit is not completely crazy at the beginning of splitting, just like the original split you found in Inferno, they had a short sane period and a crucial memory. Do you know what memories are they?”

Hao Ren thought for a moment and suddenly realized the circumstances under which Vivian produced the splits. “The memories before and after Vivian slept. Are they the memories that Vivian has lost?”

“I am still not so sure what the relationship between these splits and Vivian’s memory is—shared senses or third-party perspective—but one thing is certain, they were active when Vivian lost her memory. They fill the memory gaps of Vivian and these memory gaps may reveal some secrets.” Raven 12345 said slowly. “Know why I suddenly let you come here to see the splits today?”

“Is it because something has happened after our exploration in the planet Inferno?”

Raven 12345 nodded gently. “Yes, I have been studying how to extract the memory of those split bodies, but their spiritual world is too chaotic and fragmented, I have made little progress. However, after Vivian ate the original split, the other splits began to change; their spiritual world seemed to have some signs of integration.”

Hao Ren began to make sense of it. “So you let Vivian meet the splits here.”

“It’s to observe their relationship,” said Raven frankly as she nodded. “There are indeed some changes. The mental synchronization and stability of the split bodies have improved; the same is true to Vivian’s soul. That’s what I mean it’s not a bad thing.”

Hao Ren’s brows knit together. “Those splits are things that represent the negative forces. Even if they could mend Vivian’s soul, I don’t think it’s a good idea to have close contact with these dangerous things.”

“That’s why I gave her the amulet before that.” Raven 12345 arced the corner of her mouth slightly. “I didn’t mean to let her absorb the splits directly; it’s too gross and raw. Instead, I will use a safer way to study the pieces. Meanwhile, you guys keep an eye on any new splits you may find out there. If the incident in the planet Inferno is anything to go by, the splits have not just fallen on the Earth, but also in somewhere out of our sights. Vivian is destined to have some connection with these things, they would be attracted to each other and coming together.”

Hao Ren acknowledged with an ‘Okay’ and then peered at Raven 12345 with suspicion. He felt that the Goddess was entirely different from the past; she was so patient and able to explain things to him meticulously though she still sounded offbeat occasionally.

Raven 12345 arced her eyebrows. “Why are you staring at me?”

“Aren’t managing the whole universe too much like hard work?” Hao Ren scratched his hair. “Still got time for this, eh?”

Raven 12345 spread out her hand. “This is called the right working attitude!”

After Hao Ren left, she pursed her lips and whispered to herself, “Probably you still don’t know; the matter has already become a top priority in this universe.”

Vivian waited outside the door for ages. She went up to Hao Ren immediately when he came out. “What did the Goddess told you?”

“Nothing unusual, just saying be careful with what you eat.” Hao Ren waved his hand. “The evil spirits are not safe. I’m worried the negative forces would harm you if you absorb too many of them although those things were used to be part of you.”

“This is not hers but your suggestion, isn’t it?” Vivian could sense the difference, but she could not care less. “I feel there is no change after absorbing the power of the evil spirits. Maybe the negative forces dissipated when I absorbed them. Since you say they’re not safe, then I won’t do it again.”

Hao Ren nodded. Suddenly, he felt a slippery little thing squirming on his chest, before seeing Lil Pea poking out from inside his cloak. The baby fish waved her small arm and greeted Vivian spiritedly and then showing off her new pendant hanging on her neck.

The interruption from the little mermaid had lightened the atmosphere. Hao Ren and Vivian smiled at each other. “Let’s go home and let them know about Lil Pea’s situation.”

The MDT opened the portal, and the two of them arrived home in just a split second. The Nangong family of four was trimming vegetables in the living hall when Hao Ren arrived. Nangong Wuyue got to her feet, came up and asked, “You’re back! How is Lil Pea?”

Hao Ren put the little mermaid on the coffee table. The little guy jumped into her pot and held up her new pendant showing off.

“Raven said it’s a normal physiological phenomenon.” Hao Ren recounted the words of Raven 12345. “There is nothing to worry about, and she will not lay an egg again before she reaches adulthood.”

“That’s good. That’s good.” Nangong Wuyue nodded embarrassedly. “The subject feels a little strange though.”

Hao Ren nodded in agreement. Meanwhile, Nangong Wudi watched Lily Pea for a while before turning around to ask his wife, “Should we give Lil Pea some supplement? After she has given… gosh, I don’t know what to say.”

“Oh, come on. Hens lay eggs now and then, should we also give it supplement?” Not waiting for Ayesha to speak, Nangong Wuyue chimed in to offer her piece of advice to her father with her arm akimbo. “What could Lil Pea eat even if she were to take a supplement? At most you would eat newspaper.”

Y’zaks was still reading the paper. He flipped to the last page and said, “Give me a while, I’m about to finish.”

Lil Pea stretched out her hands and said to Y’zaks, “Give it to me! Give it to me! I want to taste the sports section!”

The little guy had made quite an improvement in her language and logical thinking ability. She knew about the sports section!

The days went by peacefully. Hessiana and her sidekicks had already stayed like ten days though they said they would only stay for a couple of days. If it were not for the patriarch in the Athens sanctuary threatened to kill himself if Hessiana delayed coming back again, she would have remained here for another five hundred years. She was after all having businesses to take care. Therefore, she had to bid farewell for Vivian reluctantly, and after getting the assurance that she could still come again, she left with her two sidekicks. On the same day Hessiana left, Hao Ren received a message from an AI in Inferno.

The necessary infrastructure had been completed, and it was about time to call in the miners from Fairy Mining Conglomerate.

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Chapter 837: Polish the Planet

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

After receiving the news from the AI, Hao Ren flew to Inferno to close out the construction phase and meet the representatives from the Fairy Mining Conglomerate. Only Vivian and Lily followed him this time. Vivian wanted to check on the First Born while Lily, you can bet on it, just wanted to have some fun.

The Scarred Nebula, as it had been for thousands of years, constantly flashed a light beam in the purple-red gaseous cloud. A new family member had appeared on the edge of the 7.7-lightyear wide space crack among the handful of star systems. The planet Inferno was like a beautiful snowball hanging on the side of the Scared Nebula, becoming the only scenery in this desolate region. The sunlight from the nearby star shone on the planet and produced a sea of golden glow on the cloud top.

The Petrachelys flew towards the golden glow and arrived at the cloud top of Inferno. The geo-positioning equipment that Hao Ren had set up on the cloud top became temporary atmospheric satellites monitoring the planet constantly. Hao Ren ordered Nolan to hover the spacecraft at a distance of a few dozen meters above the cloud top and established a connection with the atmospheric satellites. The MDT reported, “The readings are normal. It has been half a month, and it seems all parameters are stable.”

“After all, it was the Prime ‘Legged-Force’ of the true Goddess that put it in place; it should not be a problem.” Hao Ren nodded. “When will the representative of Fairy Mining Conglomerate arrive?”

Nolan’s holographic image appeared on the flight deck. “They are already here. Their spacecraft are on standby at the outer edge of the nebula.”

While saying, she could not help casting her eyes on the console, because a blonde girl in hologram was sitting as cool as a cucumber and turning a blind eye to everyone else’s stare. The noumenon was right in the slot beneath the buttock of the blonde girl. The brick had gotten the upper hand in the battle of the console. Brick’s success had got nothing to do with the girl’s heart but everything to do with its thick skin.

“Don’t think about it. It won’t budge.” Hao Ren looked at MDT in Pattianne form, shaking his head and sighing. “Did I not try with a crowbar just now? Let’s call Fairy Mining Conglomerate Union Mining now.”

Nolan groaned inwardly while sending a navigational signal to the Fairy ships that were waiting at the border of Scarred Nebula, permitting them to enter Inferno airspace. After a while, the profiteers and their mining fleet appeared on the monitor.

A space crack, pale blue, like a door, appeared in the lower orbit of the planet Inferno before a fleet of more than ten large mining ships and a command ship jumped out of the space crack. The Fairy spacecraft had a distinctive red paint, and the front armor had strange decals, a Queen bee-like coat of arms. The command ship was a slender triple-ship, symmetrically joined together by a standard axle, a tad smaller than the Petrachelys, but its unique position in the fleet and the sophisticated antenna system made it stood out that this was the command center of all the fleet.

However, Hao Ren was more interested in the Fairy mining ships because they were more prominent and more eye-catching. The mining ships were like giant boxes joined together, exposed mechanical parts were running between the joints. Zooming in, Hao Ren could see that the mechanical components were an extension of the mineral processing plant. On the upper and lower decks of the mining ships had huge openings for smaller collection vessels coming in and out. These mining ships were huge, and their axes were more than ten kilometers in length considering their unique uses. By civilian vessel standard in the Macroworld, they were giant. Even the Petrachelys was pale in comparison.

While Hao Ren focused his attention on those mining ships, Nolan had also connected to the data network and got the information about these mining ships. These large mining ships had a complete processing plant onboard where initial processing and conversion of minerals could be carried out. The ‘large boxes’ were a high-throughput dimensional door, through which the space-time system would send the processed minerals directly to the planet Fairy. Without this mechanism, it was impossible for the limited number of mining ships to complete the planet-scale mining operation.

The Fairy merchants were wealthy. To carry out activities in every universe, they had offices and bases everywhere. They bought a few planets in this universe as their commercial base, and the planet Mines was one of them. Fairy Mining Conglomerate built mineral processing plants on the planet and in the space around the planet and used it as an export base of ore to nearby markets in the universe. There were even rumors that the Mines had consumed one percent of the mass of the world, which was of course nonsense, but the Fairy merchants had welcomed this exaggeration to promote their business.

Later, this group of profiteers was investigated by the Material Control Department of the Space Administration for the ‘free transfer of cosmic mass without reasonable backfilling.

Hao Ren took a glance at the information. To ensure the smooth transformation of the planet Inferno, he must first understand and be sure of the technical capability of Fairy Mining Conglomerate. He was delighted with the powerful mining ships and convinced that if the profiteers could dig away a group of meteors, they would surely be able to polish the planet Inferno.

There was a request to connect their communication system. Hao Ren tidied his clothe and got back to his captain’s seat. A middle-aged man with a mustache, hair swept back, appeared on the holographic projection.

Nolan held an extra holographic projection for Hao Ren to access the information he needed. It was said that the representative of Fairy Mining Conglomerate, Vanske Creden, once led his team digging through the largest solid planet in the universe. He got an epithet ‘The digging man who dug through the sky.”

Hao Ren felt the epithet sounded a little wrong, he thought about it for a while but decided not to harp on it.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to undertake this remarkable excavation project.” Vanske Creden introduced himself. “We have studied your requirement of the work, and we are ready to start work at any time,” Vanske Creden said without nonsense.

Hao Ren nodded. “Do you know the first requirement of this project?”

“Safety first,” Vanske, like any qualified businessman, sounded and appeared trustworthy though it might not be the case in reality. “Each of our mining ships carries a gravity controller, with this gravity controller, the broken crust will be drawn into space directly without worrying about objects falling to the world below. Of course, we have also considered the situation of the crust might become fragile during the second-half phase of excavation. We will mobilize a sufficient number of gravity-generating ships to pull the entire surface crust of the planet into space directly.”

While saying, Vanske sent his project proposal to Hao Ren. The MDT confirmed the plan and ran a mathematical simulation, and it came out positive. “What he said is true. It is certainly the most cost-effective solution.”

“There is no problem with the plan and the incorporated contract has been signed according to the original draft I sent you earlier.” Hao Ren looked up. “Are these all of your mining ships? Is it enough?”

“Of course there are more to come,” Vanske explained. “We hope to start working as soon as possible to solve the urgent needs of our customers. Therefore, before the start of any large-scale project, a leading team always arrives first to attend to the needs of our customer. It is our long-standing practice that adheres to our business philosophy—’We would like our customers to experience the perfect service as soon as possible even if that means a higher cost for us.’

Hao Ren suddenly felt these profiteers seemed entirely trustworthy. The MDT reminded him, “Actually, they are afraid that you might use your authority as an inspector to give the project to someone else. They come here early to first plant their stakes all over the site so that you wouldn’t be able to reappoint another contractor.”

Hao Ren was speechless.

He hemmed and said, “Then waste no more time, you can start work now. Polish the planet.”

Chapter 838: Inferno is Reborn

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Fairy’s spacecraft started work right away. The first task was to tear down the thick white clouds in the sky. Huge industrial starships began to activate the gravitational field, and like planet-swallowing monsters, they descended on the clouds. Under the gravitational pull, the colloidal skin of the clouds bulged, then burst as white gases, and fibrous substances gushed out from the holes, enveloping the giant industrial ships.

There were more than a dozen erupting holes on the top of the clouds, like leaking balloons when looking from space. Before this, to protect the ecological environment of Inferno, this layer of clouds was pressurized. After the atmospheric pressure and planetary gravity normalized and came to an equilibrium, gas leakage would reduce.

The scene of the giant industrial ships descending into the atmosphere during a cloud storm was thrilling and spectacular, but as the spaceships tore open the cloud, Lily felt a sense of regret. “It’s a pity! How beautiful the clouds are, like marshmallows.”

“These clouds are blocking the sun, and the planet will not be able to carry out normal energy exchange with the stars.” Hao Ren patted Lily on her head. “The old era is over; this protective film must go. Nolan, let the Fairy people do their work. We’ll go down under.”

Nolan replied with an “okay” and then maneuvered the Petrachelys and descended through a gap in the cloud towards the planet’s surface while the external monitor streamed back the visual of the scene outside. There was massive turbulence in the air and constant lightning in the clouds caused by the industrial ship’s gravitational field. It was like flying in a world of lightning and thunder. Deep inside the clouds, shadows that were as huge as mountains were descending slowly; they were Fairy mining ships entering the atmosphere.

These giant ships would not land but hover in the upper atmosphere. Smaller mining ships and material transport planes would do the excavation more efficiently. Hao Ren received greetings from the nearby mining ships as his spacecraft passed through the upper atmosphere. A message from Vanske reads, “Under the contract, kindly sign this document.”

Hao Ren opened the file attached to the message and found that it was a set of documents encrypted by an encryption algorithm approved by the Xi Ling Empire and recognized in the macroworld and other celestials. These documents were intended to certify the ore collected by the mining fleet at a specific coordinate of the Scarred Nebula as possessing scientific and cultural values, originated from the wreckage of an ancient super creature in the otherworld with a long history, and could not be reproduced.

Hao Ren, as an inspector of the Space Administration, was to certify the certificate and the effect would be multiversal.

Hao Ren read the file carefully and confirmed with the MDT that signing on these documents would not violate the Imperial Law and there were no obvious, long-term loopholes and hidden risks. He then signed by affixing his inspector’s encrypted ID key to the end of the file.

Now, the fossils on the surface of the planet Inferno became one of the precious minerals of this universe.

The Petrachelys had descended through the clouds, the desolate, hot, twisted, and hellish land filled with poisonous substances and violent monsters appeared on the monitor screen. Besides, there were hundreds of bright light beams, which were material-breaking rays that the Fairy mining ships shot down from high altitude into the ground below.

The earth melted like butter as the light beams hit the ground. Tens of thousands of tons of ore vaporized but more were lifted into the sky under by the anti-gravity field. The Petrachelys was the only object going against the gravity force as it descended it weaved through a freshly opened crack in the ground into the world below.

The Fairy miners delivered the goods. Although the upper crust of Inferno was disintegrating, Hao Ren had not seen single debris falling from above, except sunlight began to shine down to the world.

Nolan flew the Petrachelys towards Dorasil. From some distance away from the city, Hao Ren had already seen the new control facility, and it looked more spectacular than he had imagined.

The former city of Dorasil had mostly disappeared, and the new control facility was built on the original site of the ancient city. Hundreds of silver-gray needle towers as tall as a thousand meters stood erect with bright lightning and sparks jumping between the needle towers. Small maintenance robots were flying like a flight of insects around the needle towers. The group of needle towers occupied a bigger area than the original city did, but the remaining city ruins could still be seen between these needle towers, creating a rare sight of old and new architecture in one place.

Hao Ren had thought of keeping the Dorasil untouched because of its historical value, and it had a special meaning and cultural significance for the lost Sun Dynasty. However, after studying the structure of the First Born carefully, he could only build the new control facilities on the original site of Dorasil. The key nerves of the First Born were directly below Dorasil and completely solidified there. Forced relocation or extension of these nervous systems and building of the control center in other locations would not guarantee that it would achieve the desired result. At last, solid alloy towers had replaced Dorasil, and the ancient stone city became a modern city of mysterious technology.

Hao Ren retained the cultural heritage of the city as much as possible. For the past two months, he had asked Gezer and his people to relocate the lithographs, reliefs, totem columns, and the like in the city of Dorasil. When the new facility was built, the city was an empty place with nothing significant left. At least, he had done something to preserve the history of the Sun Dynasty.

Lily poked her head around looking at the lightning-discharging alloy-needle towers, which were based on the facilities beneath Dorasil, just that they were more sophisticated, more stable, and more reliable. Lily was in awe. “It’s beautiful!”

Vivian thought of the ancient souls. “Is Gragon still in the city?”

“They are still there.” Hao Ren nodded. “We will see them when we get down there.”

The Petrachelys descended further and landed at a newly completed mooring operated by AI at the foot of the alloy-tower complex quietly.

AI was running the entire facility. The AI-run metal city had become a technological wonder on this planet.

Hao Ren led Vivian and Lily alighting from the spaceship. He then turned around, pressed the MDT in his hand, the Petrachelys emitted a double ‘beep.’ Almost immediately, Nolan’s figure appeared below the spacecraft and said, “I have wanted to tell you a long time ago! When can you change the sound of the car alarm?”

Hao Ren scratched his hair. “I have been using this sound effect, and it sounds okay.”

Nolan rolled her eyes. “Crap, you’re not the one being locked.”

Hao Ren was speechless.

Almost as soon as the three of them stepped out the spacecraft onto the mooring platform, they saw someone waiting for themselves from not far away. Hao Ren squinted, it was Gezer and Bonia while the translucent figure behind them was Gragon.

After the new control facility went online, the ancient souls could finally free themselves from the ‘lullaby’ ceremony.

“My lord!” Gezer immediately bowed as soon as he saw Vivian while Bonia followed suit. “As per your will, this God-given city of wonders appeared out of thin air a dozen days ago.”

The indigenous people of this world had no idea what the self-multiplying module-building robots could do nor did they know anything about material conversion technology. It seemed to them that the way the alloy-needle towers were built out of nothing.

Vivian held up Gezer and Bonia, who were still wearing clothes made of coarse fabric, and it contrasted weirdly with the modern city around them. Hao Ren took out a snack he brought from Earth from his dimensional pocket and handed it to Bonia. “It’s delicious. Oh, yes, let me teach you how to open the packaging,” he said.

Vivian came up to Gragon. “Are the other ancient souls still here?”

“We all are waiting for your next instruction.” Gragon respectfully bowed his head.

“Gathered all their main leaders.”

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Chapter 839: The Long-Awaited Sunshine

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The new steel city stood on the endless prairie as hundreds of needle towers that discharged lightning formed a strange landscape. The city was mainly a huge machine, and each needle tower was connected to a sophisticated control core and a line leading to the First Born through the foundation, keeping the planet from collapsing.

Hao Ren named the city ‘Requiem’, which was in line with its role, and to commemorate the sacrifice of the ancient souls in suppressing the First Born for the past 10,000 years.

The Requiem was now the largest and only city on the planet, but other than the ancient souls involved in the construction, the other indigenous people had not come to stay here. Gezer and his people built a temporary settlement on the fringe of Requiem, and all his tribal people have moved to this place. In their belief of following the Goddess, they believed that it was necessary to guard the city of the miracle. Meanwhile, the other tribes were also moving to this place. Some members of the Fire tribe had arrived and were now right next to Wind tribal settlement.

Vivian summoned the representatives of the ancient souls in this tribal settlement and asked about what happened here in the half month after she left. Though Inferno had been contacting them with the communication devices, something was better asked in person.

In a unique yurt, Vivian and Hao Ren were debriefing Gragon. The elder replied, “The lullaby ceremony has been transferred to the needle towers. Now the machines have taken over the role of the ancient souls. Everything is going on smoothly. As you can see, the Throat of Toka is very stable.”

“How about the control of the machines on the First Born?” Hao Ren turned to ask the MDT that was floating next to him.

The MDT turned on the holographic projection. “Let the city AI tell you directly.”

A human face devoid of expression, of unknown gender, appeared. Similar to the collective consciousness of the drone cluster, this was the iconic feature of the low-level Xi Ling AI. Born just a few days ago, this AI greeted Hao Ren and then proceeded to report the situation of Requiem. “All needle towers are online, the system runs just as planned and has complete control over the First Born. The ‘Lullaby’ ritual initially performed by the ancient souls has been compiled into software, run directly by the system, operating at 80% efficiency—up to 100% when further data is collected.”

Hao Ren nodded and then asked the AI, “How well you could control the First Born?”

The city AI sent a bunch of dazzling charts. “Control of all tentacles, control of all organs, control of all auxiliary glands and control of natural plants associated with maintaining the ecosystem. The system has taken over and rebooted the tentacles related to atmospheric and temperature control seventy-two hours ago. At this point, the control is at 87%. Considering that the remaining 13% is a structure without a nervous system, it could be considered that control is perfect.”

Hao Ren scratched his jaw with a satisfied smile on his face. “Well, that means we finally have created an artificial brain for the First Born. Could the technology be applied to other First Born?”

The city AI replied with a flat voice. “Theoretically, it is possible, but the operation is complicated. The system met strong resistance from the underground biological tissue during the first few days after the transfer of control. It turns out that even though the First Born has lost its brain and soul, its instinct is still powerful. On this basis, it is tough to control a First Born with a brain and a soul.”

Hao Ren collected his thoughts, thinking to himself that at least things had got progress. He pointed at the sky from inside the yurt. “The Fairy miners have begun cutting the crust, and in the process, the divine shield of the Goddess—I mean the local Goddess— would shut down automatically as the planet would receive the natural sunlight. You have to be ready for that.”

The planet Inferno had been without sunlight for the past 10,000 years. It had formed a sophisticated and efficient self-circulation system that included not only the surface crust but also the cloud above, and the underground ecosystem. Now that the sun was about to shine on the planet and the powerful natural energy would fill the dead planet, but the planet must quickly adapt to the new energy. Otherwise, the power of the sun will promptly destroy the existing ecosystem. It was the reason why Hao Ren had waited for the completion of the Requiem before allowing the Fairy miners to start work. He could use the power of the First Born to switch the ecological model of the planet, to transit to the initial stage smoothly after the opening the planet’s crust.

The AI acknowledged it and stated that there was already a viable solution to be injected into the various organs of the First Born. With the collapse of the surface crust, the foundation of the Heaven’s Pillar trees would be reactivated. New microorganisms for regulating air pressure and light filtration would be released into the atmosphere. There was still a long and delicate process of fine-tuning. By continually changing the composition of the atmosphere and creating functional giant flora, the AI intended to bring the planet back on track within six hundred to one thousand years—Earth time.

After talking about the First Born, Vivian turned to Gragon and the ancient souls. “Now, let’s talk about you. What plans do you have in mind future?”

Gragon bowed his head slightly. “Your will is our plan.”

Not accustomed to their pious attitude, Vivian took a step back subtly. “You have completed the mission, and you all have done a good job. I don’t know what is in store for you, after all, I only have a fragmented memory of the past. If you have any wishes and demands, I will satisfy you to the best of my ability. You deserve all this.”

Gragon looked up and ‘talked’ with another soul, the other souls began to discuss among themselves too. They ‘talked’ silently as they were using telepathy to communicate with each other as if they were just a bunch of flickering shadows. Soon, they all came to a decision. A soul, who was a captain of the Knights of the Sun Dynasty by the name of Pan Dong, came forward and said, “Our Lord, we hope to continue to stay in the world and educate our children to free ourselves of ignorance.”

The reply was in Hao Ren’s expectation. “It takes a long time,” Hao Ren said.

Pan Dong smiled. “We are not afraid of time.”

It was the decision of the ancient souls. After completing the long mission of loyalty to the Goddess, they now had to do something for their people. The technology of this world had been lost for 10,000 years—5,000 years according to the local calendar, the magical civilization that was once interstellar had gone backward to become a primitive tribal civilization. However, the knowledge itself had not disappeared, it was still in their memories. Gragon and his courtiers would re-establish themselves as leaders of the people of the Sun, and impart the knowledge and skills of the ancient times to the young and ignorant children.

It would take a long time to rebuild civilization. It was not enough to instill knowledge alone but also needed the continuous evolution of ideas from generation to generation.

As Pan Dong put it, they were not afraid of time.

Hao Ren and his team left the large yurt. Standing at the door waiting for them was Gezer and Bonia. The little saintess had dozed off again with a giant snot bubble on her face. Gezer woke Bonia who wiped the snot bubble of her face before staggering up to Vivian. Gragon placed his hand on her head affectionately. “Do you like the story of the ancient times?”

Bonia immediately nodded.

“Very good, let us the old guys lead you there again.” Gragon nodded with a smile. “The people of the Sun will rise again in this land.”

Bonia nodded her head again, but she did not have a clue what Gragon was saying. She was too young to grasp the idea of the revival of their race. Maybe after a few decades, she would stand on the high wall of in the first city of the New Sun Dynasty and understood what future held for her.

“This is your city,” Vivian said. She had an understanding with Hao Ren. Pointing to the high tower of the Requiem not far away and said to Gragon. “You all can get the energy from the tower. It is your temple of the spirits, and you will continue to guard the world as heroic spirits.”

On the canopy of Heaven’s Pillar in the distance, a thick and heavy rocky dome was cut away and lifted into space by the anti-gravity field. Sunlight was shining through the clouds onto the ground.

It was the first day of the new solar calendar.

---

Chapter 840: Hao Ren’s Epithet

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren did not intend to stay on the planet for too long; the wise ancient souls could take over the subsequent reconstruction work. The Petrachelys lifted off from the mooring platform, circled Requiem’s jungle of needle towers for a while, and left. Hao Ren turned to the lens of the external monitor, taking a final look at the world that was about to regain a new life.

Like a crown of thorns nailed on the earth, Requiem was flashing with lightning in the center where needle towers were connected to the huge tentacles. Some sporadic white yurts were scattered around the high-tech city. The tribal people called it the City of Miracles and gathered around it ready to begin a journey of the revival of their civilization. It was foreseeable that the indigenous people of the world would come from all over the world and gathered in this place where the people of the Sun Dynasty would listen to the teachings of the ancient souls to free themselves of ignorance to return to modern civilization.

Requiem would stand here and keep watching until the end of the day.

He was happy that he finally did not have to play the role of a mourner as the civilization was set on the road to recovery. Although the process was less dramatic, it was better than leaving with just a tombstone.

When the Petrachelys passed through the surface crust, Hao Ren saw the excavation work was in full swing. Hundreds of light beams shot down from above and cut the crust out piece by piece. All the dirt on the land, including the hostile and mad twisted monsters, were burned into ashes by the powerful rays or would soon become a cloud of smoke in the mineral processing furnace. Huge crust fragments were broken into rock streams in midair, like the tentacles reaching into space. The Petrachelys rose along with a rock stream. The sun shone through the broken clouds, creating a breathtaking scenery of awe and hope.

Hao Ren sent a probe to take a snapshot from a distance and post the image on the inspector’s forum. He added a caption to the image: Scarred Nebula, the planet Inferno is reborn, tentatively named the new Sun Dynasty, the civilization has survived the harshest winter, as witnessed by the Imperial inspector, Hao Ren; co-witnessed by the mining division of Fairy Void Consortium.

As always, he posted the news and forgot about it, thinking that probably no one would bother to reply to the post of a rookie inspector. It was not until after finishing a few regular reports. He asked the MDT to check the thread and was astonished by the overwhelming replies and comments from the inspectors around the universe. Some of the comments were like:

“You didn’t blow anything up this time?”

Some replies were irrelevant; some were asking if his auspicious aura had expired; some were asking if it was an angle problem that the rising rocks were a result of an explosion of the crust, and some even asked if he had prayed before going to the mission. At last, he saw a comment from an acquaintance—Galazur, the dragon queen just a couple of minutes ago. “One like for you. Finally, you didn’t use explosives,” the dragon queen commented.

“Did I provoke anyone?” Hao Ren scratched his hair. “How did I get such attention? I’m just a rookie.”

“Do you think nobody is giving you attention?” The MDT snorted. “You already have your epithet, and you’re famous among the mortals. Not many inspectors like you could make a name for themselves even if they have served for thousands of years. You’re talented,” the MDT said.

Hao Ren was shocked. “When did I get an epithet?”

“The bomb-happy,” the MDT replied with a sly voice. The tone of voice sounded odd from the mouth of a girl whom the MDT appeared in now. “There are more, like the deadly stare, which sounds coarse. The more philosophical ones are ‘The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception,’ ‘professional grave digger’ and so on. Of course, they are not malevolent. You’re not going to notice these things if you don’t surf the data network.”

Hao Ren had cold sweat trickling down his forehead. He recalled his works for the past two years, where most of the time he was tasked to recover dead bodies, or recently, dead planets. It would be too naive of him if he did not know what it meant to be ‘bomb-happy” by now.

Lily poked Hao Ren with her finger. “Mr. Landlord, I think this sounds awesome.”

Hao Ren flicked the maiden’s ear with his fingers. “What could the feeling of awesomeness do? If thing continues like this, sooner or later, I’d become the most unwelcomed person in the universe. I didn’t expect people as serious as Galazur could be so sarcastic.”

“You can’t do anything about it,” Lily said, moving her head from side to side dodging Hao Ren’s hand. “You’re taking charge of the Plane of Dreams, where you know it is the biggest ruins, like a cemetery, there are wrecks of civilization everywhere.”

Hao Ren pulled his hand back and rubbed his arms. “Let’s not make a joke out of such a serious matter.”

At this time, Vivian, who had been silent all this while, spoke suddenly. “Now I start to wonder why the Goddess chose to send you a rookie taking charge of the Plane of Dreams.”

“Probably because I have strong execution capability.”

There was a silent. Then Lily poked Hao Ren with her fingers again. “Do you believe in what you said?”

“Yeah, I’ve never thought about this question.” Hao Ren scratched his hair. The question began to bother him. “I was too busy, especially after each mind-boggling event, to think. I went from one mission to the next but never think of why me. MDT, do you think the Plane of Dreams is meant for the rookie inspector?”

The MDT was startled for a moment, and then it said with an unsure tone of voice, “There is no clear rule dictating inspector should take charge of any particular mission according to seniority, but it is usually a step-by-step process. The Plane of Dreams is a massive historical site with a complicated situation, handing it over to a rookie inspector does sound unusual, but it’s not without precedent. There had been a similar case in the Macroworld.”

“Even though there are precedents, I am still a rare example, is it?” Hao Ren scratched his jaw, questioning his role in the mission. “I don’t know others, but Galazur is more experienced and knowledgeable than I am, and she is the ruler of a civilization, she is better suited for the job of recovering dead bodies than I am. But why me?”

He added, “It landed me a freaking ‘bomb-happy’ epithet.”

In reality, all he cared was his new epithet.

Lily sat in her chair, wriggling. It was habitual especially when she was in thought, usually when her mind went blank. “Why don’t you ask your Goddess since she is the one assigning the mission?”

“Do you think she will tell me? She would have told me if she wanted to. If she did not want to tell you, she wouldn’t say a thing even if you pester her for a lifetime.” Hao Ren shook his head, totally knew Raven 12345’s characters inside out.

“Then, what’s your problem?” Lily asked. Since only the Goddess knows why and you also know she’s not going to tell you, why are you still troubled by it?”

Suddenly, Hao Ren could see things in a new light. It turned out that the female scholar had bottled-up wisdom, she would stun and open your mind with her wise words at the crucial moment.

While he was still impressed, Lily took a small brush out of her pocket suddenly. She turned around and put her tail on Hao Ren’s leg and shoved the brush into his hand. “Since you are not troubled any more, come and brush my hair. It’s itchy when shedding hair!”

Hao Ren was dumbstruck and was speechless.

Deep inside, she was still a husky after all.