The Record of Unusual Creatures

After heightening their vigilance, Hao Ren dragged Lily and flew towards the lower level of the temple. The thick, cloudy darkness gradually occupied their sight.

A dark fog moved slowly below like a boiling pot of thick soup, except there was no strange smell coming from it. Hao Ren grabbed a probe that was flying by, and read the parameters recorded by it. He determined that they had reached the lowest level of the building, where it was cut off.

They would probably head straight out into space once they passed through the dark fog.

“Mr. Landlord… what is this?” Lily found it a little eerie there. “Why am I a little scared?”

Hao Ren wanted to take the MDT out of his pocket and scan the thing in front of him. Then he remembered that it was stuck on the console aboard the Petrachelys. Even though the spacecraft’s mastermind was now Nolan, and the MDT could not gain access to the console through force, the MDT still stuck itself firmly into the slot every time it set sail as if doing so gave it great psychological comfort.

Hao Ren shook his head and threw the probe he had just caught into the darkness. Although the computing power of the device was not as good as that of the MDT’s, it was good enough as a detector. It could also upload data to the analysis host in the Petrachelys for analysis. With the support of the Petrachelys, it was not that bad.

Soon, the results of the analysis were sent to them. The analysis host deduced that it was a “space phenomenon that could not be accurately described”.

“A space phenomenon that cannot be accurately described?” This was the first time Hao Ren had heard such an ambiguous conclusion from the analysis host of his spacecraft. He immediately asked Nolan for details, “What’s going on?”

“The space-time order in that dark fog is clearly separate from the outside. It should be a spatial rift or an unstable spatial warp. However, this space-time structure is not in any known database and is not a natural phenomenon. I don’t have the parameters on the other side of the rift, so it can’t be fully described,” Nolan responded.

Hao Ren frowned. He did not like uncertainty, but too bad, such uncertain scenarios always appeared in the Plane of Dreams. Lily did not delve into it too much. The husky girl’s worldview was simply divided into two parts: she would bully her opponents if they were weaker than her, and she would give in if they were stronger. No matter what the thing in front of them was, those two options were all they had…

“There’s nothing but a lonely floating temple in the vacuum area 10,000 light-years away. And there’s a spatial rift in the temple. Tch, this is not good.” Hao Ren was not interested in jumping into the fog to observe its characteristics, so he continued to let the probe collect data around the dark fog while he took Lily to study the intricate reliefs on the walls.

The reliefs were the work of the mortal race. Like most religious murals, they depicted ancient heroes, warriors, and a large number of indescribable ghosts and demons. Not only were there battle scenes with demons, but there were also scenes of a sacred and peaceful paradise. The contents were clear about good and evil. It was easy to see which side represented the power of the builder of the temple. Based on the shapes and sizes of the warriors, it was not difficult to note that they were extremely similar to the human race, and among them, there were some humanoid species that were slightly different from the humans on Earth.

Hao Ren carefully observed the exquisite and ancient reliefs, trying to find the image of the goddess as well as parts that described the relationship between man and the goddess. He was pretty sure that the temple was dedicated to the goddess of creation. And from the way the religious murals depicted the goddess, he could still analyze certain things about their ideology, level of civilization and so on.

Lily was walking behind Hao Ren quietly. After some serious deliberation, she finally decided to chip a brick out of the stone wall.

But Hao Ren discovered Lily’s intention just as she raised her Flamejoy, and he pushed her paws away. “Stop that! Do you know that this is an important relic? What if you break a clue?”

Lily stuck her tongue out, but soon, stared at the mural behind Hao Ren. “L-Landlord! That thing’s moving!”

At first, Hao Ren thought that the husky girl was just joking. However, he quickly realized that she was serious. He turned his head at once and saw that the reliefs on the walls were moving slowly under the flickering light of Flamejoy!

Like a paused movie that was played again, the figures in the reliefs moved in the fire. The warriors waved their swords, the monsters raised their heads, and the plants carved on the stones slowly swayed. Everything came back to life!

Lily thought for a moment. If it were a group of little monsters, she would have been able to fight them because she had brute force. But when it came to the realm of mystery, there was nothing she could do because she knew nothing about the world of magic. The husky decided to hide behind Hao Ren. “Mr. Landlord, there’s something wrong with this place! Awoo! We need to summon Battie and Y’zaks!”

“Why are you such a chicken?” Hao ren glared at Lily and went up to observe the moving reliefs carefully.

The average person may have found it scary, but he was so experienced that he did not get emotional over such a thing.

The changes in the reliefs were actually very slight at first. In the beginning, they only moved at a very small rate. The whole thing was almost mistaken for an illusion amid Flamejoy’s flickering light. But gradually, the movement of the reliefs became more and more obvious. Hao Ren noticed that the one that changed the most was a large relief. It was guarded by other small reliefs, perhaps depicting an important chapter in a religious story.

A group of brave knights, led by a leader in a white cloak, was charging bravely. There was a plain of burning flames in front of them. There were also mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The remains of men and demons were scattered throughout the earth, and the charging knights seemed to be the last soldiers on the battlefield.

Broken flags fluttered in the wind, and their armors were stained with blood, while the sky was completely covered with clouds. Not a single gleam of light was in sight. The knights were aiming at a huge, indescribable mass of chaos and distortion at the end of the plain.

It looked like a bulky piece of meat with all sorts of limbs growing randomly from it. New limbs constantly stretched out of the flesh and blood, while old limbs were swallowed up again. The disgusting creature was rolling around at the end of the earth. It was more horrifying than any fairy-tale demon or ghost.

The last remaining knights were charging at the indescribable and terrifying creature.

*Boom!*

The clouds on the relief burst open and a flash of lightning broke through the clouds. However, Hao Ren could actually hear the thunder at that moment!

Lightning lit up the earth and instantly dispelled the haze on the battlefield. Under the flashing light, the brave knights were shrouded in a holy glow as they rushed towards that formidable enemy, which could not be fought with ordinary forces. Behind the clouds, a huge, crystal-clear mountain emerged. Although it was just a relief carved on a rock, the mountain had an incredible crystalline texture!

Hao Ren was completely drawn to it. He stretched his hand out, trying to see if he could touch the light and the crystal mountain.

He slowly put his right palm onto the reliefs. A red “scar” still remained in the palm of his hand. It was the “scar” that he obtained when he touched the goddess’ blood. The blood had soaked into his skin, and it did not fade away at all.

The scar touched the relief, and as all stories go, something changed abruptly.

The reliefs crumbled in a flash. The cracks spread like cobwebs. All the reliefs were unable to withstand some kind of powerful force, and in the blink of an eye, they began to peel off the stone walls. Simultaneously, the dark fog at the bottom of the building suddenly started to surge and boil!

Lily’s instinct told her that something was wrong, and she pulled Hao Ren’s arm at once. Hao Ren saw the boiling and rising dark fog at the same time too. He turned and ran away. Yet, as all stories go…

The dark fog engulfed them.