The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 871

Chapter 871: The Great Lil Pea

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

After Vivian heard what Lil Pea had done to the lifeblood, she felt that the little kid had a bigger problem then her. As she already knew that she was not an ordinary vampire, so she was not too shocked when she knew that she got some connection with the Goddess of Creation. However, Lil Pea seemed to be a plain ordinary little mermaid from the start, the only problems she had were the food she ate and her size, which were totally different from a normal mermaid. Therefore, Vivian got a little nervous when such an unremarkable little creature suddenly had a connection with the lifeblood.

Hao Ren then told them what had happened in the lifeblood pool in Tannagost. After listening to Hao Ren, not only Vivian, even Nangong Wuyue and Sanba were stunned as well. They all circled around Lil Pea as if they were appreciating a rare animal. “Is she also created by the goddess?””Come on, she’s from another universe.””Or maybe the Goddess of Creation is actually a fish? That’s why the lifeblood was startled when it saw Lil Pea?””Then why wasn’t Wuyue affected when she turned into a fish?””Wuyue didn’t jump into the pool. Why don’t you try it next time, Wuyue?””No way.”

Lil Pea was not afraid of being surrounded by them. On the contrary, the little one was very happy. She tried to draw herself up and said, “I’m amazing! Dad, hold me tight, I’m slipping down!”

“Sit down and stop moving then.” Hao Ren held her tight and was ready to meet Raven 12345. “I’m going now. Don’t have to wait for me for dinner.”

“Wait, I go with you,” Vivian said while taking off the apron, “I want to ask her about my background.”

Lily jumped up when she saw Vivian was leaving and yelled, “Hey, wait! Who’s going to prepare dinner? I’m waiting for your stewed ribs!”

Vivian smiled, gently putting her hand on Lily’s head and asked, “You miss my stewed ribs?”

Lily paused for a second. When she was about to nod, Vivian slapped her head and pinned her against the sofa and said, “Then use your brain before you speak!”

After saying it, Vivian immediately dragged Hao Ren’s arm and ran to the teleportation portal. “Hurry up!”

Lily raised her head and found that and Vivian and Hao Ren had gone. She was confused, shook her head and asked, “Is she crazy?”

And now, Hao Ren and Vivian could not hear Lily’s voice. They had crossed the portal opened by the data terminal and came to a lake surrounded by flowers and shrouded in aurora, clouds, and stars.

Hao Ren froze the moment he stepped out. He looked at the strange scene in front of him in bewilderment, poking the data terminal and asked, “Did you open the wrong door?”

“It should be right…” The data terminal sounded a little uncertain. “I can’t make such a mistake.”

What they saw was the totally strange scenery, not the magnificent house of Raven 12345. They were now standing by a mysterious lake under the night sky. The sky was shrouded in the beautiful aurora, like a veil fluttering softly in the sky with the stars twinkling between the auroras. The quiet water stretched out before them, reflecting the night sky. By the lake, exotic and luminous flowers spread all over the earth. Hao Ren turned and saw some peculiar stone pillars standing hundreds of meters away as if the buildings in Greek mythology were standing quietly under the tranquil night sky, surrounded by an atmosphere of sanctity and serenity.

Comparing to Raven 12345’s old grand mansion, this place had a proper ambiance of a celestial realm. At least that’s what Hao Ren thought. But he was curious: why did the data terminal throw them in such a place?

When Hao Ren and Vivian were confused, suddenly they heard some noises coming from the lake behind them. They turned and saw the starlight in the sky fell into the lake. A light blue creature slowly emerged from the reflection in the water. Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the glowing creature: it was Raven 12345’s arcane servant. He finally saw a familiar face.

“Big Bluey!” Hao Ren greeted the arcane servant and it immediately appeared in front of them. It pointed to the place looking like the pillars of Greece and a pleasant sound ringing in Hao Ren’s mind, “My lord is waiting for you.”

Hao Ren and Vivian came to the building and saw Raven 12345 was sitting on a collapsed pillar waiting for them. “Yo, Hao Ren, good to see you again!”

“What happened? Why did your place become like this?”

Hao Ren looked around as he spoke. The stunning feeling of the mysterious lake has faded, leaving only the primitive and desolate atmosphere. Without waiting for Raven 12345, he guessed, “so after blowing up the mansion a couple of times, now you finally blow up the entire celestial realm?”

Raven 12345 threw a small bolt of lightning on Hao Ren’s face and said, “What? I just did an experiment…”

Hao Ren wiped his face, did not know what she meant and asked again, “You mean, you really blew up the celestial realm?”

“Do you really think I can only blow things up?” Ravel 12345 yelled and glared at Hao Ren, “These are the fragments of memories I extracted from the depths of consciousness of the splits of Vivian. I’m just covering this place with those memories.”

“The memories of the splits?!” Hao Ren was surprised. He did not expect the goddess to do anything serious. “So you’ve found the way to extract those memories?”

Vivian also looked around with an astonished look on her face, and then her eyes fixed at Raven 12345. Sadly, Raven 12345 shook her head and said, “Not yet. It’s not easy. These are the results that I can get so far. I extracted some of the fixed landscapes and reproduced them. These scenes may be able to restore where those splits have been and may reveal who they have met. But beyond that… It doesn’t have much value at the moment.”

Raven 12345 said while controlling the place. A star in the sky suddenly became unusually bright, and then the starlight fell on a stone pillar in the distance. A woman in a long white dress walked out of the starlight. The woman had beautiful blond hair, and her face shone like the morning star. She glanced at them, and then quickly dissipated into the air.

The whole scene was like a clip in the video. There was no beginning and no end, which left them puzzled.

“That was Aurora, right,” Vivian asked. She vaguely recognized the woman’s face. “I remember she belonged to the Zeus family.”

“It seems that your splits have seen her, or you have seen Aurora shortly after the splits were formed, so the splits inherited these short-term memories,” Raven 12345 explained, “In short, as you can see, I began to extract some fragments of memories from those splits, but they are very unstable, and they don’t really make sense, so the extracted memories don’t help much. Anyway, why are you here?”

“Yup.” Hao Ren held Lil Pea carefully in his hands and said, “The first thing is about Lil Pea. There seems to be some kind of connection between her and the lifeblood. Two days ago, I took her…”

He told the Goddess what happened in the lifeblood pool in Tannagost in details. Raven 12345 listened earnestly but she did not seem to have any doubts or surprises. After Hao Ren finished the story, Raven 12345 took Lil Pea from Hao Ren and let it float in the air. The little mermaid was dangling in the air, playing happily.

“It’s not surprising,” Raven 12345 said and smiled, “I just didn’t expect it to show in this way.”

Of course, she knew something.

“So Lil Pea…” Hao Ren did not conceal his doubts and eagerness.

“You know where she came from, right?” Raven 12345 asked while gently poking the little mermaid, and the little one flipping happily in the air, “She is the last life of a certain world, the last spark of sentient beings in the universe. Do you know what this means?”

Hao Ren shook his head.

“It means that she represents the sentient beings in the universe.” Raven 12345 explained while gently holding Lil Pea in her arms. “She represents all the living things of her world. She has the entire information of life that remains after the universe that she comes from has perished. Therefore, the lifeblood must revere her as it reveres the Goddess of Creation. Because in a sense, there is no difference between the Goddess of Creation who is the beginning of life and Lil Pea who is the end of life.”

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Chapter 872: Vivian’s Mission

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren did not immediately understand what Raven 12345 meant. He gazed at the little mermaid, and then concluded, “So it means she’s powerful? But why?”

“Symbolism. Although this is a vague concept for ordinary people, in some high-level concepts, the ‘symbolism’ of one thing often has great significance,” Raven 12345 explained patiently while playing with little mermaid. “For a living universe, the ‘life system’ is one of the important messages of this universe, so it will also be included in the ‘symbolic’ system. A single living individual is subordinate to the sum of life. So, a single individual is less than the life as a whole, just like a grain of sand is just one of the cornerstones of the entire desert. But something very rare happened to Lil Pea: the universe of her home was destroyed. She’s the only one left in the life system of that world…”

“She’s the cornerstone of all sentient beings,” Vivian said while thinking, “she alone represents all living things in the universe, while the lifeblood is just part of another life system, so…”

Raven 12345 laughed and further explained, “So from the rank, the lifeblood has to respect her. Although they come from different universes and belong to different life systems, it seems that the lifeblood can still recognize the unique nature of Lil Pea. Plus what I just said: The Goddess of Creation represents the beginning of all sentient beings, and Lil Pea represents the end of all sentient beings, which is also a very important symbolism.”

Lil Pea was listening to their conversation. She knew that they were talking about her, but the little one did not care about it at all. On the one hand, she did not really understand it, and on the other hand, she was far too young to think about such complicated things. So the little mermaid just continued waving her arms chasing Raven 12345’s fingers, looking bright and happy.

She was completely unaware of the destruction of her homeland, and she did not know what ‘perish’ meant. And even if she knew about it in the future, it would be hard for her to feel anything about it. After all, she was brought back home by Hao Ren when she was an egg. Compared to her hometown and the people she never met, she might be closer to the pot in the house.

After listening to Raven 12345, Hao Ren found it inconceivable. “Really?!” he asked while touching his chin.

“This is the realm of surrealism,” Raven 12345 smiled and said, “but it is the ‘fundamental reality’ that many universes follow. Sometimes young mortals think of the world as a perfectly rational, describable, and accurate model. But in fact, the universe operates in an incredible way in the deepest part of it. Just as the atoms will stagnate while being observed, and the universe smaller than the Planck scale is not continuous. Humans have come into contact with the quantum realm, so as you dig down, you will find that the world was built in a strange way, but ended up as a seemingly rational and sturdy fortress. But the more a creature had evolved, the harder it is to reach the deepest parts of the world. On the contrary, the pure lifeblood, which is the beginning of life, can feel the special nature of Lil Pea by instinct.”

Hao Ren was a little confused and found it hard to believe but could still understand what Raven 12345 just said. “It sounds like philosophy. But the fundamental laws of the universe are so messy, are you sure that no one cut corners while creating the universe?”

Raven 12345 glared at him and yelled, “Nonsense! Do you know how many test reports there are when every universe leaves the factory? You won’t understand even if I tell you.”

Hao Ren found that this was a field that he could not understand, so he coughed softly to change the subject, “Ahem, anyway, I understand the special nature of Lil Pea, but what’s the use of it? Now we just found out that the lifeblood is afraid of her, but the little kid doesn’t seem to grow up…”

“Of course she doesn’t. It’s not something super powerful. She won’t have any change and only the lifeblood can feel her special nature. So she’s still an ordinary little mermaid, and she’s still eating chopsticks.”

Hao Ren thought that Lil Pea would immediately become stronger after the secret was unveiled, so he was disappointed when he found out that nothing special had happened to the little mermaid. She just had a title that sounded really cool but it had nothing to do with her power. He took the little mermaid back and carried her in his arms, and then, a thought flashed through his mind. “Wait, do you already know these special things about Lil Pea?”

“Yup,” Raven 12345 answered without hesitation.

“The special nature of Lil Pea will only affect the lifeblood but not ordinary creatures or maybe the Goddess of Creation and Lil Pea can sense each other… Have you planned it?” Hao Ren asked.

“No.” Raven 12345 shook her head. “But now it looks like Lil Pea is going to be a key part, so maybe there’s something in it. It’s destiny.”

Hao Ren observed her expression earnestly but he could not read anything from her face. Hao Ren would not be able to read her mind, whether she intended to conceal it or not. Therefore, he gave up and pushed Vivian forward and said, “The second thing is about her.”

“Oh?” Raven 12345 raised her eyebrow.

“I went to a place called the Solenne Gateway…” Hao Ren told raven 12345 what happened there and also showed her the CCTV footage. “Now we have confirmed the origins of Vivian and how she was born, but the details are a little different from what I guess at first. It now seems that Vivian had been designed to be self-conscious from the start and had a strong ability to learn, and she could even open the teleportation portal that teleported her from the Plane of Dreams to the Surface World. This shows that the Goddess of Creation not only knew of the existence of the Wall of Reality but also had a very good understanding of its nature. At the same time, she also knew the existence of the Surface World.”

“So the Goddess knew the existence of the Wall of Reality from the beginning…” Raven 12345 said, narrowing its eyes slightly, “but you said that the guardians of the Goddess did not know about the wall.”

“The guardians don’t know everything about the Goddess of Creation,” Hao Ren explained. And at the same time, it reminded him of the Creation’s Engine, but they were now discussing Vivian’s issues, so he decided to talk about it later.

Vivian looked at Raven 12345, then suddenly stepped forward and said, “Now both Hao Ren and I think that the Goddess of Creation had a mission for me. Since she gave a database the ability to think, there must be something that she wanted me to do… But I forgot the most important part.”

“Mission… Was it to revive the Star of Creation? Or to revive the entire cosmic ecosystem? Or to solve the problems of the rebels?” Raven 12345 said while looking at Vivian’s eyes, “I think the most suspicious thing is that you appeared on the rebels’ spaceship. If the Goddess just wanted you to walk through the Wall of Reality, she could open a door anywhere. She must have the power to do it. But why is it that your first task was to ‘visit’ those treacherous children?”

Hao Ren noticed that Raven 12345 used the word ‘visit’ and asked, “You mean Vivian’s mission could be to negotiate with those treacherous children?”

“She appeared on the ship after all. But of course, it could be a mistake. The Goddess of Creation might have missed the target. But in such a big universe, how likely would she accidentally throw it right into the center of the control room of a spaceship?”

Hao Ren was speechless. He suddenly came up with a bold idea and said, “What if Vivian is a weapon? Maybe the Goddess threw her on the rebels’ spaceship to steal something from them or even control the spaceship?”

“According to the CCTV footage, I don’t think Vivian had this kind of ability at that time.” Raven 12345 shook her head and said. “Although those treacherous children were afraid of her, judging from the performance before and after their evacuation, it was not impossible for them to deal with her. They just need to pay a price.”

Hao Ren stopped talking and quietly pondering the meaning behind these things.

He had overlooked this point: Why was the first stop of Vivian after being created was the spaceship of treacherous children?

If this point was really the key, then was Vivian’s mission, or one of the missions, really related to those treacherous children?

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Chapter 873: The Analysis of the Gilded Disc

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

No matter how many times Hao Ren speculated, he could not be sure what decision the Goddess of Creation had made in the last three days before the fall. For a Goddess who once created the universe, loved to delve into the truth of the world, and devoted almost all her energies to exploration and learning, she could only do one thing at the time when she was cornered by the children she had created, it must be something extremely important. And she chose to create a powerful and highly intelligent lifeblood and put it on the spaceship of treacherous children. Was she trying to take revenge on the treacherous children? Was she trying to destroy their fleet? Or was she still dreaming of having a good talk with the treacherous children at the last minute, so she sent an envoy there?

No matter which one, the possibility was low, because when Vivian was sent to the battleship, the interstellar barrier had been breached, and the treacherous children might even have started bombing the Star of Creation, whatever Vivian wanted to do, it was too late to save the situation. And more importantly, Vivian just stayed there for a few minutes before leaving for the Surface World, which did not look like she wanted to do anything on the battleship of the treacherous children.

Vivian was silent. Her mind was full of the ideas that others were hard to guess. She suddenly gazed up into Raven’s eyes and asked, “If I absorb the evils directly, can I retrieve my memory?”

“Didn’t I tell you earlier? This is very dangerous.” Raven 12345 shook her head immediately. “You have to fight dozens of chaotic thoughts with your own mental will. And the things they remember are very likely to pollute your soul.”

Not just Raven 12345, even Hao Ren would not allow Vivian to take the risk. And he thought the situation was not serious enough to have to put her at risk. Now they just suspect that the Goddess left an order for Vivian. They did not have any evidence, and there were no immediate issues that need to be resolved with the help of Vivian’s memory. So he put his hand on Vivian’s shoulder and said, “Don’t rush to get your memory back. That’s not necessarily a good way. Let’s find clues in other ways. Maybe we can find the last words of the Goddess of Creation in some other way.

“Oh,” Vivian responded, but she still felt uneasy, which made Hao Ren wondered, because Vivian was usually a very calm person, she had never been feeling so uneasy about anything. But for some reason, she would become restless whenever someone mentioned the word ‘memories’, and she even repeatedly suggesting the risky idea. Today, she even wanted to absorb all the evil spirits, which was not something she would usually do.

“What’s wrong?” Vivian asked when she noticed that Hao Ren was gazing at her.

“Err… Nothing.” Now that Vivian was no longer mentioning the memory, he did not want to remind her of it. He took the last thing he wanted to show Raven 12345 from his Dimensional Pocket: a beautiful and mysterious Gilded Disc. “Boss, I brought this back from the Solenne Gateway. We heard that the Goddess of Creation had been busy creating something called the ‘Creation’s Engine’ before the accident. This is a part of it, you see…”

This was the Gilded Disc that Hao Ren took from Lemendusa. At first, Lemendusa insisted that he must look after the disc with extra care so it would not fall into the wrong hand. However, after seeing a series of efforts Hao Ren had done to revive the Goddess of Creation in Tannagost, he started to trust Hao Ren and allowed Hao Ren to bring the disc back.

Raven 12345 showed great interest after listening to the report of the Creation’s Engine. She looked at Hao Ren with a little surprised and praised, “Very good. You’re able to get so many clues every time you’re on a mission! Looks like I pick the right people.”

“So my annual bonus…” Hao Ren asked happily.

“No problem,” Raven 12345 snapped her fingers and said, “let me see if I can get you some good stuff. But now let’s figure out what this disc is for. The guardian didn’t explain this to you?”

Hao Ren shook his head. “No, the guardians are not very clear about the role of the Creation’s Engine. The Goddess seemed to be hiding something from them intentionally.”

“Hiding something from them?” Raven slightly frowned without saying a word. She ordered the arcane servant to catch the Gilded Disc, and then she waved at the air. The next moment, some mysterious rays of light and lines emerged from the air.

Those rays and lines were moving rapidly in the air, gradually condensed into a solid, and then turned into a huge complex platform. The platform was a few meters in diameter, made of crystals, slightly sunken in the center, and rune walls floating around like a light barrier. Lines of words were written on the platform. Hao Ren glanced at it and found that those were not runes, but words that he could understand, and the content surprised him:

Give me back my machete you idiot! Raven 12345 I’m gonna kill you! Don’t come back if you dare! Do you think you’re safe here? I’ll carve those ugly words all over your house! Raven 12345 stole my machete 1400 years ago but never returned it to me! Intolerable injustice!

“…” Hao Ren and Vivian did not know how to react.

Hao Ren pointed to the handwriting awkwardly and asked, “Can you explain what that is?”

Raven 12345 was stunned for a moment and then said, “How come… Oh, nothing!”

Hao Ren really wanted to get to the bottom of the question, but Raven 12345 had now changed the subject. She threw the Gilded Disc directly onto the crystal platform and then immediately analyzed it carefully. She looked so serious that she was ready to explode at any time.

The Gilded Disc floated silently on the crystal platform. The runes around the crystal platform were revolving around the disc as it was rotating. Hao Ren saw the lights flickering around the disc and he seemed to have dimly seen something between the lights and shadows.

As he looked attentively, he saw the scenes of the Solenne Gateway, and a lot of guardian giants marched through. In some even shorter scenes, he saw an unfamiliar starry sky and huge factory-like facilities. Hao Ren was fascinated by those pictures. He focused even more on them, looking for things that interested him. And soon, he saw a scene of war. He saw the Galaxy of the Solenne Gateway was destroyed in the war. The devastating golden fleet was sweeping across the Goddess’s territory. The scenes kept jumping and zooming in and out, and the last thing he saw was a spaceship, loaded with soldiers in gold and red armor, leaving the ruined Solenne.

When he looked at the face of one of the soldiers, the scene changed again.

The crystal platform was like an ‘extracting’ machine that kept extracting those pictures from the Gilded Disc and the disc was like a 360-degree projector, radiating rays of light. Countless fragments of the picture appeared along with the flickering lights but Raven 12345 did not pay attention to them. She was busy in a bunch of runes, seemed to be searching for a deeper secret in the Gilded Disc.

When all the lights and the operating sound of the crystal platform gradually subsided, Vivian asked curiously, “what’s that?”

“Those were the things that happened around this disc. It seems to have a strong ability to collect information,” Raven 12345 explained. “What you see is the footage of what happened after it left the factory all the way to the moment the Solenne Gateway was breached by the treacherous children. But it is not a specialized recording device after all, so these fragments are messy and don’t have much reference value.”

Hao Ren immediately poked the data terminal and asked, “Have you recorded it?”

“Yes, but I feel there’s nothing valuable in it.” The data terminal felt the same way. “I will analyze it. You can have a look when you are free, but don’t get your hopes up.”

“Okay, just put it aside.” Hao Ren then turned to Raven 12345 and asked, “Have you figured out the function of the Creation’s Engine?”

“I can’t tell the function of the whole engine from just one small part. But based on a little clue on the disc, I guess the Creation’s Engine has something to do with the Wall of Reality.”

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Chapter 874: The Endless Fog

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

“It has something to do with the Wall of Reality?” Hao Ren was surprised after listening to Raven 12345’s speculation.

Raven 12345 nodded gently and said, “This disc is part of a computing device. It is not used to calculate the regular data, but to calculate the connection between the two worlds. Its operating mode is ideal for interfering with the Wall of Reality.

“So the role of the Creation’s Engine is to open the Wall of Reality?” asked Vivian.

“I can’t be sure. It could also be used to fill the hole in the Wall of Reality or to enhance the stability of the wall. I’m more convinced of both possibilities. After all, the collapse of the Wall of Reality would have a huge impact on both universes, even triggering the end of the world. The risk is the same for everyone. And, more importantly… Since Vivian could walk through the Wall of Reality, it means that the Goddess of Creation had mastered the way to open the door. So, she didn’t have to build another device that would take thousands of years to complete, unless she planned to tear down the entire wall.”

“The Goddess of Creation once told her guardians that the Creation’s Engine would bring a ‘new balance’ to the universe,” Hao Ren touched his chin while recalling what Lemendusa had told him. “I don’t think breaking the Wall of Reality has anything to do with the balance.”

“That’s pretty much what it means. One with a right mind will not want to break the wall unless he intends to destroy the world from the start. According to the behavior of the Goddess of Creation, she would not do such a thing,” Raven 12345 said while giving the Gilded Disc back to Hao Ren, “I have recorded all of the information, you can take it back. This thing has a connection with the Goddess of Creation. Maybe it’ll be useful if you keep it in the Plane of Dreams.”

Hao Ren took the Gilded Disc back. After all the questions had been asked, he was ready to leave with Vivian. But at this moment, Raven 12345 suddenly stopped him. “Wait, Vivian, you go first. You stay. I have something to tell you.”

Hao Ren looked at Vivian, and then pointed to himself and asked, “Just me?”

“This is your job, of course I’ll only explain it to you,” Raven 12345 glared at Hao Ren and said, “you don’t know what to do without her?”

Hao Ren smiled awkwardly. He let data terminal to open the teleportation portal for Vivian and Lil Pea, and then turned to Raven and asked, “Okay, what’s up?”

Raven did not answer him. She just snapped her fingers, and the next second, the scenery around changed completely. The mysterious lake under the night sky had disappeared and the aurora and the starry sky were also rapidly gone. A cloudy light gray fog gathered from all directions, turning the whole world into a boundless land. And there was a round table made of white jade standing in the center of the fog, like a lone island in the sea of chaos.

Hao Ren was looking at the strange scene that suddenly appeared before him, a little confused. “You told me to stay just to see this?”

“Of course not,” Raven answered with a strange smile, looking amiable but also elusive. She looked at the endless fog, slowly said, “This is a sea of dreams.”

“Dreams? Whose?”

Raven 12345 did not answer him. Instead, she suddenly asked him a seemingly irrelevant question, “what would you do if I asked you to find someone in this chaos?”

Hao Ren felt that Raven 12345 suddenly sounded a little bit mysterious. Both the way she spoke and the questions she asked were very different from her usual self. But he knew that Raven 12345 had a deep meaning behind every act, so he did not speculate on the reason behind it, but pondering the question. He looked at the endless thick fog, wondering what he should answer in such a situation. However, Raven 12345 did not give him much time to figure it out. “Just answer directly. There is no standard answer.”

“In a situation like this? Without any clues?” Hao Ren tried to get more hints.

Raven 12345 just nodded quietly.

“Then I can only follow my feeling. Everywhere in this thick gray fog looks the same, and I don’t even know the direction of the person I am looking for. I can only go with my gut feeling. Maybe follow your heart and you will find it.”

He also said something that sounded a bit naive, but he did not really believe in it. Maybe he would believe something like ‘follow your heart and you can find the direction of life’ when he was younger, but now he was already a 20-something man, and he knew that he had become a more realistic person, whether he wanted to or not.

Even though he was doing a lot of supernatural and surreal things every day…

“Follow your heart?” said Raven 12345. Hao Ren could not read from Raven 12345’s expression that whether she was satisfied with the answer or not. Or, maybe the answer to this question did not really matter. All that matters was that Hao Ren answered it. “This is not what a rational adult should believe… But it’s still one of the answers,” said Raven 12345.

“I think that’s the only answer. According to the situation you said, tossing coins is the same as following the feeling. Why do you suddenly ask me this? Do you really want me to find someone?”

However, Raven 12345 suddenly laughed and patted Hao Ren on the shoulder, intentionally avoiding the question and said, “Aha, don’t think so much. I’m just testing your perceptual thinking. OK, that’s it. You can go back now and have dinner with them—anyway, I don’t provide dinner here.”

Hao Ren was confused. He still had a lot of questions to ask, but looking at Raven 12345, he knew that she wanted him to leave and would not answer his questions. So he just swallowed the questions and left the place.

After Hao Ren was gone, Raven 12345 was still standing there, gazing into space. A few seconds later, she took out a tiny crystal prism.

This prophetic prism was emitting faint white lights. After Hao Ren left, the white light on its surface was fading. Raven 12345 rubbed the surface of the prism, muttering to herself, “Follow your heart… This is the answer he gave. Is this thing broken?”

Another voice suddenly appeared in the air. “I’ve told you, the accuracy of the predictions of the crystal is very high, but you just don’t believe it.”

A woman who looked exactly the same as Raven 12345 was slowly emerging in the air. Although they were dressed and looked alike, the expression on the woman’s face was dignified and steady, which was totally different from Raven 12345.

“Yo, 23333, it’s been a long time,” Raven 12345 greeted her colleague while waving the crystal prism in her hand, “You’re right, this thing works. I thought you gave me a fake one to fool me.”

Raven 23333 was offended, but she decided not to start a fight with this crazy Goddess. She looked around and said, “Take it all down. Let me see what your mansion has become.”

Raven 12345 laughed awkwardly, rubbing her hands to remove the camouflage in this space. The surrounding landscape changed dramatically again, revealing the real ‘celestial realm’.

But it was a mess. The gorgeous mansion was ruined as if it had been bombed and demolished. The fountain in front of the mansion had been cut into two. The square next to the fountain was crisscrossed with deep sword cuts. The gardens on either side were mostly empty, with only a few lone stumps teetering on the edge of a series of large pits. On the wall of the mansion, they could see a line of huge, shimmering words. Every stroke of the words was deeply cut with a sword which read: Bastard! Give me my machete back!

Every stroke of the words was vigorous and forceful. These words were not carved on the wall but were carved directly into space.

Raven 12345 looked at her miserable house, quite proud of it. “Luckily I’m smart, didn’t let them see it, otherwise Hao Ren will say something nasty again!”

Raven 23333 looked at her with a strange expression and said, “How many times have you let her tear down your mansion? And this time it’s covered with cuts and marks. Can you return the machete to her?”

“No way! I’ll lose if I return it!”

“But now you get beat up every time you see her. Are you happy?”

“Yes!”

Raven 23333, “…”

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Chapter 875: Walk the Cat

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren had no idea that Raven 12345 got busy repairing her mansion after he left. While spending his time at home, he pondered about the inexplicable questions that the goddess had asked him, thinking about what she meant for the next few days. He did not believe that those irrational and emotional words that Raven 12345 uttered were because she thought it was fun, or she was feeling bored. She would not do meaningless things although she was neurotic sometimes.

He had been thinking about the meaning of the boundless chaos and the ‘person’ he was looking for in the chaos. He had dreamed of trekking in a thick fog for two nights consecutively. He guessed there must be some hidden meaning to all this, which was probably related to the Goddess of Creation.

The thought had been bothering him, day after day. On the third day, the question finally went to the back of his mind.

The weather was getting colder every day, and the winter in the north was early this year. Lily finally completed her hair shedding, no more hair everywhere in the living room and no clean up every day. Vivian had planned to make a scarf out of the dog hair, but it seemed that there was not enough dog hair this time around. She had to give up the idea.

Hao Ren took a large aquarium to the table by the window, filled the aquarium with warm water and installed an electric heater. Lil Pea was waiting impatiently at a side. As soon as Hao Ren finished prepping the tank, she jumped into the water and made a splash. Swimming comfortably in the warm water, the little guy occasionally flipped upside down, exposing her belly and spouting water from her mouth to entertain herself. After the little guy warmed up, Hao Ren opened the window so that fresh air could come in and ventilate air in the house. Hao Ren quivered a bit as a gust of cold wind rushed in, waking him.

Seeing the window was opened, Lil Pea swam to the edge of the aquarium and looked out the window. Shivering from the cold air, the little guy slid back into the warm water. Now, the little mermaid already acknowledged that she was a tropical breed. To prevent accidental hibernation, she even asked for warm water herself unlike back then where she would run out into the snow outside and risked getting frozen into a popsicle.

Lily was sitting on the sofa in the corner of the living room, typing on her notebook. Her ears could not help quivering as cold air was coming in through the opened window. “What are you doing, Mr. Landlord? It’s cold!”

“Oh come on! You’re a sled dog!” Hao Ren said without even looking. “The house needs some fresh air, it has been without ventilation for three days and almost become a separate ecosystem different from the outside.”

At this time, Rollie slid out of her room. Wearing a black woolen hat and sneaking out to the doorway along the wall like a thief, she thought that no one would notice her. She leaned against the wall and tried to turn the knob on the door with her tail. Before she could open the door, she heard Hao Ren snapped, “Don’t slip out.”

Rollie was stunned and standing still in position, her tail puffed. She then bared her teeth at Hao Ren. “Meow—” she protested.

“I say don’t slip out and I mean it.” Hao Ren closed the window and turned to grab Rollie by her collar and dragged her back in. “You didn’t put your hat on while out yesterday. It was fortunate that no one found out that your ears were real. You plan to go out again today?”

Rollie grabbed her tail and tucked it inside her clothes instinctively and then looked up at Hao Ren playing dumb. Hao Ren glared back at her. At last, she lost her patience. Taking out her tail again, she muttered, “I’d lose my balance if keeping the tail inside the clothes.”

“You’ve not practiced enough to walk upright. Don’t blame it on the tail!” Hao Ren still glared at her. “I don’t have a tail but still walk steadily,” he said.

Rollie looked seriously at Hao Ren. “I don’t discriminate against a disabled cat.”

Hao Ren did not know what to say anymore.

In all fairness, the dumb cat had been more obedient since transcending into human form. She had made quite an improvement intelligence-wise and language-wise. The once unruly cat was capable of learning through words. Hao Ren and the other family members had been working very hard trying to train Rollie to become a good sensible monster, and they had already achieved excellent results. At least when the cat maiden was hungry, she would go to the living room and wait for the meal instead of running to Hao Ren’s room and scratching the door. When the cat maiden knew it was not right to gnaw slippers when she was bored. Even in rare cases, she could take care of others. Other than that, she was still a troublemaker.

Hao Ren had lost count of how many times the silly cat had tried to sneak out and how many times she made it out successfully. Though he had taught the cat maiden how to use the portal in the basement to go to places like Aerym, the cat demon had a different worldview, and in her opinion, Aerymian city and Helcrown were not as excited as 13th Avenue of the old town in Southern Suburb. After the cat maiden made countless attempts trying to sneak out of the house, Hao Ren knew he could not lock this guy up. He had to make a concession and gave the silly cat some roaming space on the condition that she must put on her hat, tuck her tail, not salvage leftover food in the trash bin, and not beg for food at food stalls. The good news was that the cat understood the instructions, but the bad news was that she did not seem to follow the instructions.

Of course, Rollie had shown some willingness to abide by the rules. For example, she had remembered to put on her hat, but not tucking away her tail. To expect a cat to follow every instruction to the letter was an impossible mission. Perhaps the cat thought that listening to the command of Hao Ren once in a while was already a significant concession and that Hao Ren should be grateful to her and not making too many demands.

Hao Ren looked at Rollie’s nonchalant face and felt an ache in his head. He dragged the cat maiden back in and vented his frustration. “This fella has become more and more recalcitrant,” he said.

Lily looked up. “Have you not learned yet?” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“If you have the time to reason with a cat, why not bring her out for a stroll?” Lily threw her hands in the air. “See? She is crawling to the door again. It is not that you don’t already know cat’s temper. She is going out today no matter what. Just take her out with you.”

As soon as Lily’s voice trailed off, Hao Ren sensed a burning gaze coming in his direction. He looked down; Rollie was squatting on the ground and looking up at him with a pair of eyes that said ‘walk me.’ He thought for a while and then grabbed the cat maiden up. “All right, you are the boss, let’s go out. First, tuck away your tail, put on your Acuvue, and your ears—get a bigger hat, the weather is cold today.”

The cat maiden went back into her room excitedly and got dressed up, only coming back out like a wind in a short moment. She grabbed Hao Ren by his arm and hurried him out. “Walk me, walk me.”

Staggering towards the door, Hao Ren looked back at Lily over the shoulder and said, “Why don’t you go out for a walk too? Isn’t that what you like to do?”

Lily was holding her laptop sinking herself in the sofa, typing away while grabbing something from a snack bag next to her and stuffing it into her mouth occasionally. Hearing Hao Ren’s words, she said without lifting her head, “I’m writing something. Serious stuff.”

Well, Hao Ren had almost forgotten that the husky maiden was the most successful person in the family. He nodded at the literary maiden while being dragged away by the cat maiden.

Lily bowed her head staring at the screen while glancing at the snack pack with her peripheral vision, sucking while writing her review. “Brand X, crisp and fresh, but low in protein and fat content. Not recommended for young husky,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, Hao Ren and Rollie had come on the street. Looking at the silly cat jumping around him, he let out a sigh, wondering what was wrong with the sled dog who had become inactive at home while the cat was energetic and wanting him to walk her. It reinforced his belief that none of the creatures in his house was normal.

A man and a cat—two people in the eyes of the passers-by—were mooching around in the old section of Southern Suburb, which was slightly deserted. Old habit dies hard as Rollie still tended to poke her head into the garbage bins on the sidewalks checking what was inside. Hao Ren had to keep an eye on her. In case she got down on all fours, he would have to grab her up immediately. Such manner of strolling had almost become a norm every time the two went out together.

Hao Ren focused his attention on the restless cat demon and did not notice another thing.

When he and Rollie left and were about a few hundred meters from the house, his shadow behind him became darker and longer, and slowly appeared to be inconsistent with his movements.