The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren was standing in the ruins of the old palace. The collapsed pillars around him and the cracked walls gradually overlapped with the scenes he remembered. At first, he just confirmed that the palace looked the same as the one he had seen in the visions of the Gilded Disc, and thus identified it as the building on the Star of Creation. But as his memory became clearer, he found that it was not that simple.

He looked down where he stood, then up at the two decorative posts nearest him. A shudder ran through him as he realized that he was standing exactly at the same spot as he was in the visions!

Hao Ren turned and saw a completely collapsed wall behind him. Outside the wall was an endless dark space. He remembered that the wall had fallen slowly before his eyes when he entered the visions of the godslaying war.

“Hao Ren?” Vivian noticed the change in Hao Ren’s eyes and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I was standing at this spot when I entered the visions, right in this palace, and…” As Hao Ren looked up into the distance, his heart pounded with excitement, and he ran forward immediately. “That’s where the goddess was assassinated!”

The scarred pillars, the cracked reliefs, and the gate of the great palace, all these things were moving fast behind Hao Ren like phantoms. Hao Ren rushed in the same direction as he did in his memory. At this moment, it felt like he had gone back to those visions of the godslaying. Those brave guardian giants emerged in the empty ruined palace again, as well as the flames and debris, which kept falling from the dome. The angry shouts of the guardians and the treacherous children were coming from all sides as if they were real, but when he focused, they were just visions.

The real scene in front of him and the visions in his memory were intersecting. Hao Ren shook his head vigorously to get rid of the sights from his eyes. He felt the heat in his right hand and looked down to see that the red mark from touching the goddess’ blood had reappeared, more vivid than ever.

“Bro, your mental stability’s declining,” the MDT said, waking Hao Ren from his weird trance. “Do you want to turn on active mental inhibition?”

“I’m okay,” said Hao Ren as he took a deep breath. As the visions receded, the red mark on his hand faded. “It should be the resonance from the goddess’s blood. It’s similar to what I experienced last time. This place…”

He looked up and found that he had run all the way through the long corridor and the side hal. He was now looking at the main hall at the end of the building. The grand, old hall was as dilapidated as everywhere else; the exquisite murals as well as reliefs had been completely destroyed, and the high dome of the hall was covered with cracks. Only a few soldiers were clearing the battlefield in the empty palace. Hearing movement from the doorway, the soldiers looked up curiously.

Hao Ren waved at the soldiers and glanced at end of the palace. He clearly remembered standing in the same place in the visions and seeing that evil act at the end of the palace.

There was nothing but a big, empty hole at there. The entire wall was gone, and the ground was torn and twisted. The Gilded Disc had originally been placed there, but that part of the structure had been blasted into another space, leaving only darkness outside the large hole.

Hao Ren said to Vivian, pointing at the hole at the end of the palace, “The goddess of creation stood there with a Gilded Disc behind her. The godslayer stood before her, right on the warped floor tile, and thrust at her with a sword.”

Vivian stood there, staring into space. This quiet place was now in ruins, and it was hard to think of how lurid things had ever been over there. She went up to the hole at the end of the hall and instinctively chose a place to stand. Then, she turned to Hao Ren and said, “It’s here! This is the spot where the goddess was killed?”

Vivian was standing exactly in the spot where the goddess of creation was killed. Hao Ren even had hallucinations the moment she turned around. Again, he saw the great hall collapsing slowly in the flames of war and the goddess of creation standing at the end of the palace, turning to glance at him. The goddess of creation’s blurred appearance gradually became clear, and it was Vivian’s face.

The empty and deserted hall was suddenly engulfed in flames. Loud noises of shouting and yelling rang out of thin air. Hao Ren saw a tall, misty figure appearing in front of Vivian. The figure was clad in ornate golden red armor, and he carried a long black sword inlaid with fragments of stars. He raised his long sword and stabbed Vivian in the chest with it, but Vivian did not look like she was aware of the things happening around her. She just gazed in Hao Ren’s direction, smiling and waving her hands. Her voice sounded like it was coming from another world. “…where the goddess was killed?”

“Look out!” Hao Ren seemed to know that it was just a vision, but his body had already reacted subconsciously. He shouted and dashed forward. In a flash, he had run across the hall and swooped down on Vivian. “Ahh!” Vivian could only scream before she turned into small bats, scattering in all directions.

The visions suddenly disappeared. Hao Ren felt a swarm of small bats rampaging around his head, and he was also struck by a small lightning storm that Vivian released. Moments later, Vivian turned back into her human form. She glared at Hao Ren and asked, “What the hell were you doing? You gave me a fright!”

The lightning strike brought Hao Ren back to reality, and he quickly explained, “I saw the visions again…”

Vivian was a little angry at first, but she got nervous as soon as Hao Ren explained, “The visions again? When the goddess was stabbed?”

“Yup, and you were the goddess this time,” Hao Ren said, telling told Vivian exactly what he had seen. “You were standing exactly where the goddess stood. And then the two of you overlapped.”

Vivian frowned quietly and grabbed Hao Ren’s hand. The eerie “burn mark” on his hand glowed red before it faded away. Apparently, the hallucination earlier had something to do with the resonance of the goddess’ blood.

The MDT emerged from Hao Ren’s pocket and said, “I tried to interfere, but then I found out that your mental stability hadn’t broken the threshold, so I left it alone—I thought maybe you’d find something else.”

“I didn’t find any clues, but I do have a doubt.” Hao Ren rubbed his burning palm and pointed at the ground with his toes. “This is the scene of the goddess of creation’s murder, absolutely true.”

“This place has probably been blasted into the Umbral Realm’together with the Star of Creation. But looking at the situation in Coldpath, it looks like the entire palace complex’s been blasted into this universe.”

Hao Ren shook his head gently. “It’s just a matter of probability. Since the Gilded Disc can be blasted into this space, so can the palace. The point is: are these the only palaces here?”

Vivian immediately turned to White Flame and asked, “Is there anything else here?”

“Anything else? What do you mean?”

“Anything kept in these palaces, like weapons, books, equipment, and any fragments,” Vivian said quickly, “especially things in this hall. Were all the palaces empty when you first found this space?”

“Oh, you mean those things. We did find a lot of things in these ruins. But, except for objects used during the Mythological War and those that were badly damaged as well as cleaned up, the rest are kept in the Netherrealm Clock Tower. The Thirteen Sages guard the objects themselves.”

The Netherrealm Clock Tower was not only the fortress of The Thirteen Sages but also a huge museum.

Hao Ren broke out in a cold sweat after he listened to White Flame. He had previously thought if normal combat did not work, he would summon the Petrachelys and try to blast the Netherrealm Clock Tower to see if he could break its “invincible shield”. Now, he was glad that he had not been stupid enough to put the idea into practice. Otherwise, how many clues would he have destroyed?