The Record of Unusual Creatures

When the dark fog rose, neither Hao Ren nor Lily could get away in time.

It was an unthinkable situation. Hao Ren’s body and mind had been tempered and strengthened far beyond the realm of human beings, so he was very confident of his current reaction speed. As for Lily, she had her animal instincts and excellent physical ability, so she was the strongest benchmark for agility and reaction speed in Hao Ren’s team. However, even if they were unusually quick to react, they were engulfed in the dark fog before they could resist.

When Hao Ren was enveloped in the dark fog, he felt that the time around him was momentarily distorted. It gave him the illusion that all his actions were extremely slow. He watched helplessly as the darkness swallowed him, unable to move a finger. He felt as if his spirit was detached from the real world and he was shocked by the unprecedented situation.

Lily was slowly turning her head towards him. The husky’s every move was slow and ridiculous. She opened her mouth to talk to Hao Ren and looked completely confused.

The next moment, a spinning giddiness interrupted Hao Ren’s thoughts.

The both of them disappeared into the billowing dark fog. Inside the ancient and mysterious building, everything was instantly restored to its original state. The reliefs and the cracked walls were all restored. The darkness at the bottom of the building vanished, as though it had never existed in the first place.

Starlight shone in from below the temple and onto the mottled old murals. The stars were silent as if they were covering up all the secrets there.

The people on the Petrachelys immediately saw what was happening in the temple through various monitoring devices. There was a tremendous amount of energy interference in the temple at that moment, but Nolan was able to filter out the noise and transmit the images. “Ahhhhhhh!” everyone immediately exclaimed when Hao Ren and Lily suddenly “vanished” and the rift disappeared.

“I’m repositioning the beacon.” The MDT instantly projected a bunch of complex data charts. “Beacon positioning failed… Encountered unknown attribute interference. Verifying inspector’s status… Normal.”

“It looks like they’re still alive.” Y’zaks breathed a sigh of relief. “But can we reach them?”

“I’m trying,” the MDT said as it mobilized the channel resources for the Petrachelys and the UAV outpost. “It’s like they went through a distorted point in space. But it’s so weird… This form of space barrier isn’t even recorded in my database… Now only the beacon’s life-sensing function is normal. It’s the most advanced of the information link, and it hasn’t been disturbed.”

Nangong Sanba frowned. “Can you find a way to open that spatial rift again?”

Nolan nodded. “I’ll try.”

The Petrachelys released a probe, and it followed the route taken by Hao Ren and Lily to the bottom of the temple, which was now empty. The eerie murals were back to normal, and the dark fog was gone. There was only one big hole at the bottom of the temple, and it led straight into space.

A probe stayed where Hao Ren and Lily had disappeared. It recorded the spatial data of their last moments and uploaded the data into another space probe. However, the data were useless now.

“The spatial anomaly has disappeared.” Nolan’s voice was full of confusion. “I’ve never seen anything like this. MDT, are you still unable to reach the captain and Lily?”

“All valid channels have been disrupted, and the interference level’s quite high.” The MDT rarely sounded solemn. “I’m afraid…”

“Afraid of what?” Vivian was very worried.

“They fell into some kind of relic left by the goddess of creation. Maybe it’s a boundary, maybe it’s something else,” the MDT said slowly. “Only the seal left by a true god can be of this level. Divinity is one of the few things that can interfere with me in this universe.”

Vivian clutched the console in front of her and asked, “So what are we going to do?”

“The life-monitoring channel is still not blocked, which means there are still loopholes in the barrier. Additionally, the spiritual connection between Hao Ren and I is special; it won’t be cut off so easily. Just that it’s encountered some external divine interference all of a sudden, so the channel needs some time to adapt.” The Data Terminal relaxed. “Let’s calm down and go back to our respective positions. I’ve automated solutions in my database to deal with all kinds of unexpected situations.”

Once everyone quieted down, Vivian said, “Anyway, the priority now is to get back in touch with Hao Ren and… He may need help. MDT, can you mobilize the nearby UAV fleet? Maybe they can help.”

The MDT “looked” at Vivian in surprise. The blue light on its surface flickered slightly. “That’s a good suggestion. I’ll start planning now.”

Hao Ren was still floating in the darkness when the Petrachelys began to make a series of response plans. He felt as if he was moving in an infinite void. Although he could not tell the direction and distance, he knew his body was mobile. In the darkness, he could vaguely see strange scenes flickering from afar. He seemed to see ancient mountains, land, rivers, and islands floating in nothingness. There was a mysterious optical connection between these things, and it was hard to tell whether they were real or illusory.

Hao Ren looked around but he could not see Lily’s glittering golden eyes. Soon after they fell into the darkness, he was separated from the husky. Perhaps the space turbulence had sent them to different places.

He hoped that Lily was all right.

While these thoughts ran through his mind, there was a sudden change in the darkness ahead.

A glimmer of light appeared at the end of the blackness. The dim light expanded rapidly and turned into a hole in the blink of an eye. Just as Hao Ren adjusted his posture, he fell onto a stone floor

*Bang!*

The crash broke the silence in the ancient temple, and a cloud of dust rose up in the middle of the hall following the crash. Someone was coughing violently in the dust. Hao Ren got up from the ground and his eyes wandered restlessly around the temple.

He found himself in a large round hall. The hall was quite dark, but not completely dark. A dim light came from somewhere, allowing him to see his surroundings in the faint light.

A circle of stone pillars was distributed around the edge of the hall, but the pillars were not there to support the building. They were just there for some simple decorative purpose. Between the pillars stood a statue, but most of it had collapsed.

Hao Ren rubbed his shoulder. He realized that the hall looked very familiar, and he looked up…

That moment, it dawned on him that there was no ceiling above him, and he saw straight into the darkness. There were also some broken stone chairs and metal objects floating in the air.

Apart from that, the rift above looked neat and smooth like it had been cut with a knife or ax.

This was no doubt the missing lower part of the space temple.

Hao Ren calmed himself down and attempted to contact the Petrachelys. However, there was no response. Then, he turned on his spiritual connection and called the MDT. This time, there was a weak response, but still, there was no signal.

His communication with the outside world had been cut off. If his guess was right, he was now isolated from the outside world. The darkness he just crossed may have been the result of some sort of space-time distortion.

Hao Ren shook his head. The situation seemed surprisingly bad, but it did not cause him panic. He was a different man now, and he knew what to do first in that situation.

He would keep the communication link unblocked, keep calling the MDT, the Petrachelys, and the UAV fleet as well as check his current status at the same time.

He was not injured, he was mentally stable, and he was not affected by any negative state.

He opened his Dimensional Pocket. It was not too bad. He could still use his Dimensional Pocket as usual. Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief after he saw the mountains of arms, ammunition, and autonomous robots in his pocket.

Everything he needed was still there, so he did not have to worry about unexpected situations.