The Record of Unusual Creatures

Raven 12345 did not give a clear answer to Hao Ren’s questions. The Godslayer was no longer in its original form of the world fragment. It had been processed, and some of its essences had been distorted. After the deicidal incident, the power of the true God had washed the sword inside out. In other words, though it was still the same as the original Godslayer in appearance, its interior had been turned upside down.

Raven 12345 carefully inspected the remnant of information on the sword before she extracted something from it. She finally determined that the sword was actually made of a fragment from the Plane of Dreams. But it was somewhat different from the present Plane of Dreams.

“Different?” Hao Ren felt that the topic had come to a realm that he could no longer understand. He tried to imagine that the universe was in the shape of cake; cutting off a small piece from it and pinching it a couple of times, and, voila, it became the Godslayer. But this simple and crude metaphor obviously did not help. “What do you mean? Since this is a fragment of the Plane of Dreams, why is it different from the Plane of Dreams?”

“The fragment of this sword should come from the Plane of Dreams of an earlier time, an absolutely ancient period, way before the time when the Xi Ling Celestials achieved divinity,” Raven 12345 said, looking at the Godslayer with a somber face. “The Plane of Dreams is not static. There has been a huge turmoil. This turmoil has shifted the constants of the entire universe. Though it did not cause the world to collapse, it changed the foundation of the world. This sword carries an ancient aura, which is of the part of the Plane of Dreams before the change,” she said.

Being older than the time when the Xi Ling Celestials becoming gods was not a surprise.

Hao Ren knew that the Xi Ling Celestials was a young divinity. This mighty empire as promoted as God only 10,000 years ago, almost coinciding with the time when the goddess of creation died. Of course, there was no relationship between these two events, it was just that they happened in roughly the same era. Since the Godslayer was the weapon that killed the goddess of creation, it must have been made 10,000 years ago, which meant before the Xi Ling Celestials attained divinity.

But judging from the tone of voice of Raven 12345, probably the existence of the Godslayer was dated back even further than he had imagined; not hundreds of thousands of years but at a much more ancient time!

It was a period of history that Raven 12345 had never mentioned but was of critical importance.

“What is the great turmoil?” Hao Ren asked. “I guess it’s not about the death of the goddess 10,000 years ago. The time seems to be no match.”

“You’re right, it was a different event. It took me some time to find out when I was back in the divine realm. Though the death of the goddess is a major event, it has not changed the structure of the Plane of Dreams and the real world. The ‘great turmoil’ happened much earlier than that, almost 50 million years ago.”

Hao Ren was startled. He had a hard time putting 50 million years into perspective. He was surprised by Raven 12345’s finding, and even more surprised by the time of the incident.

“What happened 50 million years ago?” Hao Ren asked with his eyes wide opened.

Raven 12345 replied with a calm expression, “The Plane of Dreams collided with this universe, and the two worlds almost merged.”

It took Hao Ren a while to digest this new revelation.

With his eyes still wide open, he asked, “Did you mean that the Plane of Dreams and the surface world were not one? They were not connected originally?”

“Yup, the Plane of Dreams was originally an independent world. Like the surface world, it was not an appendage of this universe,” Raven 12345 said as she spread out her hand. “In fact, you can know this judging from its attributes; it has its own laws, space-time structure and the world’s barrier. Other than the Wall of Reality that connects to the surface world, it has all the conditions to exist as a complete world.”

Hao Ren asked quizzically, “You must have known it for a long time that the Plane of Dreams is originally an independent world, don’t you?”

“I discovered its uniqueness after long observation and guessed the cause of the formation of the Plane of Dreams. But I didn’t find the exact record of the collision until I met an old friend while I was back in the divine realm,” Raven said, nodding. “I couldn’t come to a conclusion without clear evidence. But this time I have it.”

What happened at the level of the universe was thrilling. If not for experiencing the aftermath of this collision in person, Hao Ren would not have believed that such bizarre things were happening in the world.

The collision of two worlds 50 million years ago was the cause of today’s situation. The Plane of Dreams was initially an ordinary world, but after the crash, it was stuck at the boundary of the universe where Hao Ren was located. The barrier of both worlds merged in the violent crash. Part of it mutated to form the Wall of Reality, and the Plane of Dreams changed from an independent world to a component of a world complex. But the cause of the collision was unknown.

“The cause is unknown because, at that time, Xi Ling Celestials were still busy at war; we had not attained divinity, and the observations of various worlds were not as detailed as they are now,” Raven 12345 said, shrugging her shoulders. “The gods of the galaxy were far away from here. But they had a sentry tower that just happened to observe the situation over this side back then. The sentinel had recorded the collision event of the universes. Whatever the cause, the Plane of Dreams had changed after the collision, and part of its laws was distorted to suit its connection with the surface world. In the tens of millions of years after that, the two worlds have remained stable,” she said.

“Stable?” Hao Ren was a little surprised.

“Yes, The Plane of Dreams has been ‘hanging’ in a stable manner in this universe for 50 million years,” Raven 12345 said. She spread her hands wide open to illustrate how long the time had been. “There never had any problems, because the collision did not damage the foundation of the two universes. The surface world only suffered minor damage while the Plane of Dreams was more serious. To the creatures in the two universes, except those that had died in the collision, they would not be able to perceive what happened at that level. So it was all calm in the 50 million years until 10,000 years ago.”

Raven 12345’s eyes landed on the Godslayer. Thinking about the material of the sword, Hao Ren felt that things were becoming complicated.

“A weapon made of world fragment killed the highest god in the Plane of Dreams and things worsened ever since. The Plane of Dreams had had a mass extinction event, the Wall of Reality was weakening, and 50 million years of balance between the two universes was broken as the Plane of Dreams was merging into the surface world.”

While saying, the goddess gently flicked the black sword with her finger. But it did not produce any sound. There were only ripples on the blade.

“The material of this sword is worthy of study,” Raven 12345 said as she looked at Hao Ren. “It was ripped off the Plane of Dreams before the big collision. This fragment solidified and retained the original state of the Plane of Dreams. This weapon possesses powerful energy because it is the world itself, the will of the great universe, and the process of birth and destruction. Though its invincible power is confined to only its world and outside the Plane of Dreams it is just a cutting tool, it is still powerful for some uneducated goddess from the suburb. It is threatening.”

“Just threatening?” Hao Ren had sensed something was more than meets the eye.

“Yes, it’s just threatening. This weapon can seriously hurt a god like the goddess of creation, but the thing is: a weapon is just a weapon, its power depends on the wielder,” Raven 12345 said. “If the wielder could not even come close to the true God, then it is just a sharp big knife. So a certain doubtful point that you discovered earlier was crucial.”

Hao Ren knew what the goddess was referring to. “The goddess of creation did not resist,” he said.

Raven 12345’s mouth arced. “This sword could inflict real harm to any true god. So the goddess died. But I do not believe that a true God is unable to even dodge the attack of a slowpoke mortal.”