The Record of Unusual Creatures

Lockmarton’s threat to the world had finally been removed.

But for Hao Ren, his work had just begun.

The experience in Collow was the most special one. The mysteries, clues, and relics he found were more than any previous adventure, and their importance was significantly higher than what he discovered in the past. With Lockmarton’s demise, Hao Ren had to start working on follow-up actions. The reconstruction of Collow was just a small part of it.

“Because of the tremendous damage caused by the Tide of Chaos this time and the collapse of the strength of the kingdoms of Order, everyone in Collow should no longer act in isolation but work together in the reconstruction efforts. As the Sanctum has the most complete collection of classic cultural works and technical materials, the Sanctum shall lead in the construction effort. Specifically, Calaxus I will be the person in charge.

“The storm of Chaos over the mainland of Kanaan has dissipated. The Sanctum will set up a joint expedition team with other kingdoms to explore Kanaan. The ancient continent is the common heritage left behind by the ancestors of all intelligent races. No one kingdom should unilaterally take control of the continent.

“Since Lockmarton is dead, the ancient seal of Collow will be removed, and the various sanctions by the goddess of creation will also be lifted at once. When that happens, there will be significant changes in the sky. Astral casters and observers need not panic. We will distribute the changed star chart and astrological table to you.

“As the goddess of creation is temporarily away, Goddess Raven 12345 will provide protection to Collow. Calaxus has mentioned it earlier, but Hao Ren has a few points to add. Unlike humans, there is no conflict of faith among the true goddesses. So the believers in this world do not need to worry about being forced to change their religion, blamed for their faith, and taking action to defend their faith. The goddess of creation is still the supreme god of Collow, and that will not change.

“We will build a series of monitoring stations and control towers on the continents in Collow. These facilities function as…”

To avoid confusion and panic after the coming down of the divine barrier, and also for the smooth operation of many follow-up works, things had to be set straight from the beginning. That was Hao Ren’s concern. However, as for how the rulers of the earthly kingdoms would interpret these guidelines and tell the world about them, he had passed the responsibility to Calaxus. Hao Ren believed that he would be able to handle the job well given his tenacity and capability.

In a crystal chamber in Mount Asurmen, everyone was waiting for Lady Gloom to complete the system diagnosis. Hao Ren glanced at the crystal curtain wall, where data are continuous updated, and sighed softly. “This spaceship has completed its historic mission.”

“All the creations in Collow have accomplished their missions in history.” The Lord of the Lords, Loken, and the Lord of the Mountains, Gordon were at the scene. Loken nodded when hearing what Hao Ren said. “Our purpose of existence is to guard Lockmarton. Before this, I never thought about who could kill the monster. Today, our mission is over. It will be the era of the mortals from now on.”

Hao Ren nodded and looked at the Lord of the Mountains. “Gordon, are the injuries of you all okay?”

He was referring to the 10 wardens who, along with the Lord of the Mountains, fought against Lockmarton and suffered a backlash when they harnessed the power of Raven 12345.

“It’s no big deal,” Gordon replied in a rumble. “The divine power of foreign goddess didn’t attack us. Most of the internal injuries we suffered were caused by power overloading. After detaching from the divine power, the injury will heal slowly.”

Hao Ren nodded and said no more.

He was revisiting the earlier plan in his mind.

Since he got his hands on the Tablet of Commandments, Hao Ren had learned some truths about Lockmarton. Nonetheless, he could not fully decode the message on the tablet. Perhaps Lockmarton was the most memorable thing for the goddess of creation, and the fact was so apparent that there was no need for further decoding. He knew Lockmarton had a core with divine protection, including some of the divine powers that the goddess of creation gave him. With this core, Lockmarton was almost invincible, especially in the Plane of Dreams.

For the goddess of creation had said, “Nothing in the world could kill my child.”

Over time, the power of this divine commandment had been distorted. Also because of Lockmarton’s will, it was strengthened and expanded. Lockmarton had since become an invincible existence in the Plane of Dreams. You could weaken, attack, and take him apart, but as long as he was in the Plane of Dreams, and using weapons created in the Plane of Dreams, you would never kill Lockmarton.

It was a tar baby for the mortals and even demigods in the Planes of Dreams. But Hao Ren found a loophole. He tricked Lockmarton into another universe and killed him with the power of another god.

So from the beginning, Hao Ren had set a series of traps for Lockmarton.

The Battle of Spiral Hill was the first trap, which was also the most difficult one. Hao Ren had to use the limited strengths of the Sanctum Expeditionary Force, and his men let Lockmarton produce a sense of crisis. While the damage of a conventional attack was limited, the only thing that could frighten Lockmarton and induce him to flee was the goddess of creation.

Lockmarton had betrayed the goddess and was very likely the one that caused the death of the goddess. But Hao Ren was sure that as soon as the power of the goddess appeared, Lockmarton would panic because this fear was in his bones.

So Hao Ren handed over Raven 12345’s divine items to the 10 wardens. The wardens activated the holy objects with the power of the goddess of creation in him to create the illusion that the goddess of creation was waking up.

It transpired that the plan was a success. Lockmarton was forced to flee into the outer universe, where the second trap was.

As early as the Sanctum Expeditionary Force departed from Fidelinopolis, Hao Ren had sent the MDT to set up this trap. He authorized the MDT to access his Dimensional Pocket just to let it take the “crystal key.” The MDT took the key, returned to the outer universe, and opened the Gate of the Universe, which connected the Plane of Dreams and the Surface World. Before that, they had partially cracked the divine barrier enveloping Collow. So it was a piece of cake for a thing as tiny as the MDT to traverse between both universes, even if it was the nightmare world.

Hao Ren was confident that Lockmarton would flee to the Gate of the Universe instead of deep space of the Plane of Dreams when being fired at in space.

It was because the remnant of the goddess of creation’s words had filled the Plane of Dreams.

Even if a true god were dead, the influence of his words and deeds would not quickly go away. The same was true of the goddess of creation. The remnants of her divine power in the Plane of Dreams were little, but they existed. The fact that the priests in Holletta could continue to perform various divine spells through prayer was a good testament. In a universe full of the goddess’ power, the sudden appearance of a door without any signs of the divine power made it obvious where Lockmarton would run to. As the Gate of the Universe was a passage crossing the Wall of Reality, Raven 12345 had set it up in a way that the gate would not carry any divine energy.

Another arrangement that Hao Ren had sent the MDT to carry out while he was on the city wall was to write a message in the inspector’s forum.

“Hao Ren, the Bomb Maniac, is going to blow up the demigod from the other world! Live telecast in the Scarred Nebula!”

As soon as the message was posted, all demigods in the universe had arrived. Even Raven 12345 replied to the thread with a “666”.

Then, Lockmarton was beaten black and blue by dozens of demigods amid the laughter. GG!

The most challenging part of this plan was the first step, and the riskiest was the last step. Hao Ren had to finish Lockmarton off in the Scarred Nebula and never let him get away from the gravity field of the Gate of the Universe.

Since Lockmarton was a demigod from the Plane of Dreams, he possessed a horrible amount of information. If such a massive body of data went through the Wall of Reality, it would likely cause the wall to collapse, which was not something that could be easily forgiven.

The Gate of the Universe was similar to the space crack Hao Ren had found in Siberia. The Gate of the Universe was an enlarged and artificially-controlled version of the space crack in Siberia. Matters from the Plane of Dreams must not cross into the surface world and vice versa. But using these space cracks would be able to minimize the impact on the Wall of Reality, In the vicinity of this type of cracks, space and time could accommodate the information of both universes at the same time. Raven 12345 called this phenomenon Superposition State. Given the size of the Gate of the Universe, the gravity field was far stronger than that of the spatial rift in Siberia. Under its influence, the entire Scarred Nebula was in a state of superposition, which Hao Ren had learned from the goddess a long time ago.

When this happened, being in the Scarred Nebula meant one was in the Plane of Dreams and the surface world at the same time.

So, it was safe to let Lockmarton pass through the Gate of the Universe and stay in the Scarred Nebula, but not outside of and away from it. As the volume of information Lockmarton contained was too massive, even if there was the ‘safety gate’ as a buffer zone, Lockmarton must not be allowed to enter the surface world.

There were risks, but Hao Ren was not worried. If all the demigods in the surface world could not capture Lockmarton, then Hao Ren and all his other colleagues would deserve whatever punishments that Raven 12345 would lash out on them.