The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

Hao Ren never thought he would ever use such a bizarre way to communicate with an intelligent being. He was inside his own spiritual world and using a purely psychic method to make contact with another spiritual being. By a certain definition, that spiritual being was an intruder in his spiritual realm. But the more surprising thing was, that intelligent being did not know it was an intruder, or even know how it got there in the first place.

The transfer of information was very effective within the spiritual world, but as effective as it was Hao Ren could not glean much useful information from the Godslayer. After a short talk, the Godslayer’s intelligence could be summed up as “knows things but says nothing”. Its frankness even caused Hao Ren to doubt whether it was really the true self of that accursed weapon. However, after some time, Hao Ren now had a rough understanding of the Godslayer, and he regretted the fact that the being was an ignorant one.

“So you were already in this state of flux the moment you were created? You can think, but you don’t process your thoughts?” Hao Ren asked. He found some part of the Godslayer’s answers to be rather odd. A sword, no matter how intelligent it was, would probably have a different world view to a human.

“I can receive information, I remember them, I observe everything, but I do not process them.” The Godslayer stuttered a lot when it started to converse with Hao Ren in the beginning. The lack of vocabulary probably caused it difficulties in describing its situation, but now that it had absorbed enough information, its presentation became clearer. “I can sense my existence and the things all around me, but I have never… thought like today.”

“Looks like an artificial intelligence being suddenly imbued with true intelligence,” Hao Ren muttered to himself.

Based on the Godslayer’s description, it had been in a state of stasis since its birth. It had basic intelligence and thought processes, but its intelligence was almost dormant. It was like a programme on standby, operating, but not exactly processing anything. It had never thought about who it was and never thought about the meaning of its existence. In fact, it had not registered any curiosity towards the things of the world. It had no curiosity, no sense of exploration, and it did not question an answer. This meant that for a period of time, it was not a true intelligent being.

But today, it started to think.

“So you only started to think today?” Hao Ren looked at the massive mountain “shard” upon the sea in amazement. He could scarcely believe that there was something this massive, yet innocently ignorant within the spiritual world. “Why is that? What suddenly activated your intelligence?”

“I’ve had intelligence from the beginning, but I’ve only started using it today,” the Godslayer corrected Hao Ren earnestly. “But I don’t know why… I’m… I’m…. curious about this feeling. Ah, curiosity, such a curious sensation.”

“Do you know that you’ve killed a god before?” Hao Ren asked. “Ugh… you may not know what a ‘god’ is—”

“I know. I’ve absorbed some of the knowledge from your spiritual font, which you have willingly given to me,” the Godslayer interrupted him. “I know of the event that you speak of. It seems like I’m a weapon, and I’ve been used before, to great effect.”

This was the Godslayer’s opinion of the deicide.

Hao Ren followed up with a few more questions on the matter, but he received few answers. The Godslayer did not know who created it. It was already a weapon in the hands of the treacherous children when it gained sentience. Since it was a weapon, probably none of the treacherous children spoke to it like Hao Ren did, and even its previous user saw it as a mere weapon, a powerful weapon. The Godslayer was used like a lifeless tool, breaking through the divine defensive line, obliterating the goddess of creation’s powers, and killing the goddess in the end. But aside from the memories of the battlefield, its knowledge about the treacherous children was about as good as Hao Ren’s.

“I was placed in a very intricate container. I couldn’t sense what was outside it. Every time the container was opened, I found myself on a battlefield before I was swiftly and repeatedly slashed into many different bodies. After that, I would be stored into the container again,” the Godslayer described its “life” back then in such a fashion. “I may not know too many things and I’m… feeling ‘sorry’… Is that how this word is used?”

Hao Ren shook his head. “No need to apologize. You’re not at fault.”

After recomposing himself, Hao Ren asked the most pertinent question he had on his mind. “What’s the murmuring all about?”

Now he was pretty sure that the treacherous children were similar to the crazed demon hunters, and were controlled by a voice deep within their psyche. The demon hunters were affected by the Godslayer’s “murmurs” while the treacherous children were probably affected by something even greater. Technically speaking, they were most likely the same thing. What were these “murmurs” all about? Hao Ren once thought that it was the Godslayer’s will at work, but he realized that the Godslayer itself was such a simple intelligent being at heart. That meant the “murmurs” could not have been its handiwork.

The Godslayer pondered for a moment as it tried to find the words to answer. “It’s an echo,” it finally spoke.

“An echo?” Hao Ren was perplexed.

“A spiritual echo. Something generated passively. It’s an emotion generated by the dark side of their hearts,” the Godslayer used some rather arcane words to explain it. “The ‘murmurs’ were not created by me, and they were not created by anything else. They heard what was within their hearts.”

Hao Ren was initially dumbfounded, but he quickly caught on to the latter’s meaning.

“So, you mean to say… that the true attribute of the Godslayer is that it’s an echo wall?” Hao Ren was almost speaking to himself at this point. “What the demon hunters heard was merely their inner thoughts, but these thoughts were magnified and twisted? Therefore, the treacherous children had also heard the same thing?”

“I don’t know,” the Godslayer answered honestly. “But based on the knowledge that you have shared with me, I think that may be the case. No one ordered them to do anything. It was they who created the voice that ordered them about.”

Hao Ren’s chest tightened that very moment. “So, all the buzzing I’ve heard all this while… They were all echoes?”

The Godslayer’s answer reaffirmed his guess, “I have never spoken to you before. It is only now that I’ve ‘said anything’ to you. Hence, everything you’ve heard before is the echo of your inner voice.”

“But, what I’ve heard has been a complete flux with all sorts of noise and not a single complete sentence.” Something indescribable started to well up in Hao Ren’s chest. “Was that my soul?”

The Godslayer only had one answer, “I don’t know.”

“Alright, I’ll be discussing that question with the rest. Seeing how you are now, you probably don’t know how intertwined you are with the goddess of creation… However, can you tell me how it was when the goddess fell?” Hao Ren suppressed whatever unease he had in his heart.

That sentence came out weird. He was asking a murder weapon to describe the murder scene using its own point of view. That was just mind-blowing!

“I… don’t know how I can describe this. I don’t really understand the concept of death,” the Godslayer sounded troubled. “I was just a tool being used in a situation I was made for. That goddess you speak of did die by my blade, but I don’t know why she needed to die, and I don’t know why my user needed to do so. Based on what you’ve said, my user was controlled by the murmurs of his own inner voice? But those murmurs were not made by me, and I don’t even know what all of you heard. I’m… like what you say; an echo wall.”

“Just try to recall something else.” Hao Ren tried to lead the Godslayer. “Don’t dwell too deep into it. Just describe the scene then. Like how did the goddess react, her expression before her fall, did she say anything or did your user do anything before landing the killing blow… F*ck, why is this sounding more and more perverse by the minute?”

The Godslayer did not know what “perverse” was, but it answered as truthfully as it could. “The situation back then? That was so long ago… Let me recall… That ‘goddess of creation’ was at peace when she died. That’s something worth mentioning. I’ve bathed in the blood of many, but I’ve never met such a situation before. The goddess of creation seemed to know what would happen. I felt that she was even anticipating it. Before my user struck the killing blow, she said something.”

Hao Ren immediately asked, “What did she say?”

“‘It still came to this in the end,’ she said.”

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