The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren returned with a new mission. As soon as he got home, Lily enthusiastically came up to him and asked all sorts of questions. The happy-go-lucky husky was not interested in what Hao Ren was doing but more in the fun of asking and irritating him. Nonetheless, Hao Ren still patiently explained the new mission while the carefree husky listened with her eyes out on stalks.

“Wow! You’re going to build a Creation Engine?” Lily jumped onto the sofa, her tail wagging in the air. “And you have the blueprint!”

“It’s just a part of the blueprint, and it’s not the whole engine. I’m only building the core, and for the rest of the engine, I’ll have to find out about them in the Umbral Realm before I can assemble them,” Hao Ren explained patiently. “I’m going to see Muru and the rest in the Plane of Dreams for this and also tell them about Mimir.”

“Ahh! There’s still Mimir,” Lily said, smacking her forehead as something crossed her mind suddenly. “You’ve reminded me of Yggdrasil. Have you found it?”

It only crossed his mind now. He immediately took out the MDT. “About Yggdrasil, how’s the progress?”

The MDT called up a star chart, which was densely marked with a grid and ever-changing color bands. “I am seeking help from the other inspectors in the galaxy and the data network of each civilization sphere. Now, they’re still tracking the resonating signal. We’ve found something though: the Suharr Satellite Base and several nearby civilization spheres have captured some faint signals. Galazur has also sent a message saying that they ‘may’ have tracked Yggdrasil, but the target was moving quickly and being very elusive. The radar stations in the galaxy could only capture a series of continually hopping feeds.”

There was an eye-catching trajectory marked on the star chart. This trajectory covered the range of thousands of stars; it was hard to imagine that Yggdrasil could warp-jump so far in the universe dragging nine otherworldly dimensions behind it. But there was good news: as more and more radar stations joined the search, Yggdrasil began to show up on radar screens.

“We can’t talk to Yggdrasil if it doesn’t stop. But it has slowed down recently. So this is going to be a game of patience.” The MDT shook its body. “We can already roughly determine its pattern of movement. Now we have narrowed down the search range as thousands of radar stations and mage tower are joining the search effort. Within two months, if not two weeks, Yggdrasil will come to a stop somewhere right under the nose of the surveillance outpost.”

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief. Looks like he was about to catch the World Tree.

As things were on track, he headed straight to Plane of Dreams with Vivian and Lily, who was too restless staying at home.

Near the planet Tannagost.

Crapple Research Station, CARS, was shining like an eternal lighthouse in space. The Capulum Vitae in the lower section of the space station was continually keeping an eye on the light-gold planet below. The eye, a bright-blue spot with a red dot in its center was clearly visible when looking from the pale-gold world. Zormians who were reborn on this planet now called CARS the Heavenly Ark, by which they evacuated from the home planet of fire and resettled in the planet. They regarded the Capulum Vitae on the ark as their elder brother, because they knew that their long-time guardian had been reborn and living an eternal life in the Capulum Vitae. Even though the First Born had lost its bodily form and could no longer be in contact with humans like in the past, the Zormians still knew that the guardian of life was with them.

This was a spiritual pillar, similar to religious beliefs, but more pragmatic, supporting the Zormians through the toughest time of the reconstruction.

The ecological adjustment process of Tannagost had almost been completed. The lifeblood containers where Zorm, the First Born lay had become thousands of life springs on the planet. The new ecosystem was booming, and flora and fauna restored from the gene repository had sprung up like mushrooms after the rain and spread across the planet in just a few months. Though Zorm was a young First Born, its ability to control the ecosystem was terrific. The new ecosystem was perfectly integrated with the native ecosystem of Tannagost, and thus a vibrant planet was reborn.

Hao Ren and his entourage found the three guardian giants next to a spring of life near the north pole. The guardians were performing a routine check on the new ecosystem ion the cold regions today. Seeing the arrival of Hao Ren, Muru and the other two guardians stopped what they were doing. They were told beforehand the coming of Hao Ren and what he would bring them.

Lemendusa had flattened an enormous stone platform next to the spring of life, where the guardians put their observation instruments and made a rest area. This platform might become a sacred ruin or tourist attraction in the future, but for now, Hao Ren regarded it as a meeting place.

He first took out the Godslayer. “This is the sword that killed the Goddess of Creation. It’s just a tool. The real murderer is still at large, so keep calm.”

Surprisingly, Lemendusa and the other giants did not overreact despite their confusion and anger. “I didn’t expect to see it in this circumstance,” Muru said.

Meanwhile, Lemendusa let out a soft sigh, which was as strong as a gust of wind. “This sword looks so unassuming,” he said.

Hao Ren looked at the three giants in surprise. “I thought you would be mad seeing this stuff.”

“There is no one more rational than we do in this universe,” Heve said as she looked down at Hao Ren. “And we are not so irrational to put the blame on a weapon. Venting on a tool while being inept against the enemy is something only a coward would do.”

At this time, the Godslayer awakened by Hao Ren found itself in front of strangers in a new environment again. He greeted them with enthusiasm, “Oh, hello, my name is—”

Without waiting for him to finish, Hao Ren interrupted, “Stop bragging about your long list of epithets.”

The Godslayer quickly bit his lip. “My name is Householder Stabber.”

Hao Ren was once again speechless.

The freaking idiot had just said something it should not have said.

Muru’s eyes sharpened up. “This sword has a soul?”

Hao Ren quickly explained, “I just wanted to tell you this: this sword does have the ability to think, but its circumstances are a bit special. When the deicidal war broke out, it was still in hibernation.”

Hao Ren explained it to the three guardians to prevent any misunderstanding. After all, an unconscious tool was innocent. Secondly, he hoped that the knowledge of the three guardians could be of help.

The peculiar Echo Wall was terrific. This was the culprit that caused the treacherous child and the demon hunters to go mad. It was also the mind of the Godslayer. This unusual phenomenon could be the clue to finding the real culprit behind the conspiracy: transforming a part of the universe into a weapon and infusing it with the power of the Echo Wall. It was impossible to not leave a trace behind with such a loud action. Except for the Goddess of Creation, Muru and the other guardians were the oldest beings in this universe. Perhaps they could figure out something from the origin of the Godslayer.

“Echo?” Lemendusa frowned and exchanged a look with Heve. “As far as we can remember, there hasn’t been any life form that thinks in this way, and no one has ever created this form of artificial intelligence. There is also no such information in the database on the life of the universe.”

Muru’s brows knit together and remained silent for a long while. He suddenly broke his silence. “I have never heard of this ‘echo’ too, but it reminds me of something else. Do you still remember the ancient race called the Denizens of the Stars?