The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

Ever since the observer had created a stable gateway between the Core and Tannagost, Salaman and his guardians had been frequenting both places. It was not only due to the warriors in the army wishing to see the legendary “revived land”, but it was also by invitation of the observer.

The guardian army was tasked to defend Star Cluster X and had not paid attention to the happenings outside of that sector. But now that the biggest threat to the Core had been dealt with, and they were simply waiting for the “Lord of the Throne” to arrive, plus Hao Ren and his droid swarm had taken over most of the defensive works within the sector, it was pretty clear that the mission did not need to go on. Or at least, the entire guardian army did not need to stay put. Thus, many personnel under Salaman’s command were freed from duty.

Besides, the other locations within the Plane of Dreams required their strength.

The maintenance of Tannagost’s ecosystem, the engineering works at the Gate of Solenne, and the various exploration as well as investigation tasks within the Plane of Dreams itself, plus the excavation and study of the goddess’ religion and relics; there were all sorts of messes to be cleaned up. There was order to be restored and there were ruins to be rebuilt. While Hao Ren’s droid swarm could take on most of the hard work, they were simply emotionless machines and lacked the understanding of the “local situation”, so there was a shortage of manpower all over the universe.

Thinking about it, when the Gate of Solenne’s star forge started producing parts of the Creation’s Engine, Lemendusa was alone there supervising it. It was such a sorry solitary scene…

Thus, the appearance of Lemendusa and his army solved that pressing problem.

Tannagost had become the most important transportation hub due to the presence of CARS, and Hao Ren had built many warp and acceleration devices in all parts of the universe. He had also set up a huge number of starports and warehouse facilities. All guardian giants coming from the Core would transit there before they were sent to where they were needed, and the ones overseeing this were Salaman, Muru and the CARS mainframe. Salaman knew his men, while the CARS mainframe understood the manpower needs of each location. Muru, on the other hand, was the intermediary. This was a very rudimentary “triumvirate”, but things seemed to be working out well so far.

When Hao Ren and the rest returned to CARS, what they saw was a scene of orderly industry.

Standing on the CARS observation deck, one could see clearly the busy transportation network on the starports. The mountain-sized black starships moved slowly by the starport as the guiding and anchorage beams formed tidy and clear pathways in space while the argent droid carriers and swarms were buzzing about between the berths like swarm of bees; farther away, there were massive accelerator catapults or stargates, and these massive facilities were capable of sending an entire fleet deep into space with just a flash.

The accelerator catapults were used to send ships into unexplored or complex, hard-to-pinpoint star systems, while the stargates were connected to another starbase, or to other developed outposts. Hao Ren’s next target was to set up a stargate between Tannagost and the Core, further enhancing the connectivity of these two locales. It would also improve the signal transmission between CARS and Star Cluster X. With this, Zorm could then better control that “remote body” on the Executor’s planet without the need for additional antenna arrays.

“Before you lot came over, this place had never been as lively,” Hao Ren said in realization. Next to him was Salaman’s holographic projection. “While we have set up so many starports and warehouses, the ones using them were the droids. You know, these droids have a hive mind and the individual units do not have any external communication settings. So even millions of droids going in and out of the port would not create any ‘noise’, and this place looked like a haunted port at times.”

Salaman indulged in some nostalgia too. “There were a few space cities around the Star of Creation back then, and they were much much livelier than here.”

“One day, this universe will recover and prosper again.” Hao Ren smiled. “We are taking that first step forward.”

“I really hope that ‘seed’ is as strong as you say it is,” Salaman said, his expression serious. “With that, we can boldly step into the Umbral Realm to search for Mother.”

“Of course, it will surprise you.” Hao Ren was full of confidence.

Nolan’s voice rang from the speaker, “Boss, the navigation course is plotted, we can take off any time.”

When they returned to the Core, the scars of the earlier battle was still visible.

This could not be helped because only about half a month had passed since that monumental battle, and countless pieces of wreckage from the thousand-year-long war had accumulated there. Floating in space was not only broken starships and bodies but also difficult-to-clean active energies and unstable dimensional rifts. The droids were already cleaning these dangerous space junk up at peak efficiency already, and more time would be needed for these pieces of space junk to be totally cleaned up.

The wreckage above the Core was the first batch to be cleaned, and the space around this sector was much cleaner now. The guardians and the droid swarm were rebuilding defensive structures in low orbit, but the situation on high orbit was not that encouraging: A massive dark red energy cloud lingered, and when starlight passed through the clouds, all sorts of bizarre distorted images would be produced. That was the reaction of the dimensional rift and the gravitational flux, and those would take a good while to actually be cleaned up.

Standing before the crystal mountain before the Throne of Destiny, Hao Ren looked at the sky, and while it was night now, the thick roiling energy cloud had blotted out the starlight, so nothing was visible. Hao Ren knew what was going on in high orbit and clicked his tongue. “Tsk, actually, if we go along with my plan, it’ll all be fine. Just set a whole bunch of dimensional bombs there, and boom, no more contamination. As for the rift, it’ll heal by itself. Besides, there’s no danger with the rift as long as you go around it, unlike the troublesome contamination…”

Salaman’s expression was deadpan. “While this is a creative plan, I believe the guardians, with our powers from Mother, are more than capable to face those tainted powers. Of course, if you have plenty of explosives that need to be disposed of, there’s no problem.

“Ahem, let’s focus on the Throne.” Hao Ren coughed dryly.

Once again, they came before the place where Vivian had gone through the “test”, and once again, there was the group of sprites living on the crystal wall, and once again, Hao Ren was overwhelmed by their enthusiasm.

“Wah! The queen! The queen is back!”

“Is the queen looking to turn it on?”

“We have already restarted the system…”

“But it still shows a blue screen when it restarts…”

“But we have a plan to fix the blue screen!”

“The sprites will change the error message page to red…”

“Say… does the queen want to play a round of puzzle bobble?”

“I have picked up a spiritual recalibrator around here yesterday, not sure whose it is…”

Vivian was swarmed by the energetic sprites the moment she showed up, and their wave of chatter even surprised Salaman. While they were usually a chatty bunch, they were even more excited now that they had seen their queen.

Vivian took a good effort to get the noisy bunch to pipe down, and Salaman quickly ran through what they planned to do to the sprites.

And the bunch of tiny ones instantly burst into a furor again. “We are connecting the Throne to that?”

“The queen isn’t sitting on the Throne?”

“That World Tree thing… is it the queen’s replacement?”

“Doesn’t that mean the sprites no longer have a queen?!”

Hao Ren knew that he sprites would be worried about that, and he quickly added, “Even once the World Tree goes online, Vivian will still be your queen. But she doesn’t need to control it directly. She can leave the work to the system. Both of you will not be affected.”

Not too far away, Nangong Wuyue poked Sanba’s arm. “Doesn’t that sound like an attempt to obfuscate the matter?”

The sprites were already chattering away discussing it, and a few seconds later, they started nodding, “Oh, okay…”

“…That actually worked!” Wuyue exclaimed.

“Well, the sprites don’t really understand the proper concept of a ‘queen’, and their search for one was mainly for fun.” Nangong Sanba seemed to have seen through things, “As for the Weaves of Destiny, it is an automated network that uses the sprite’s processing abilities as auxiliary support.”

Lily nodded as well. “I actually saw through that long ago. The sprites and the queen, the Weaves and Throne of Destiny, they are two separate systems that are placed within the same vector. Now, Mr. Landlord is simply separating the vector and letting the World Tree do the hard work, while Battie is just lending her name. Pfft, that’s totally freeloading. So much for saving the world.”

As she finished, everyone looked at her as if she was an alien being: No one had thought the doggie would see through things so clearly…

On the other hand, after completing his briefing with the sprites, Hao Ren had obtained permission to enter the throne hall.

The sprites went back to the crystal wall one by one, and the entire wall became ethereal. A few seconds later, the material wall disappeared and what was left was a majestic gate as well as a winding crystal tunnel behind it.

Hao Ren took the lead as others followed closely behind. After going through the winding passageway, the hall in Hao Ren’s dreams appeared before him.

Just like what he saw within the dream, the hall was so austere that it looked spartan. Primordial rocks and crystal formed the basis of the hall and a few drooping crystals were the only decorations of the hall. Aside from that, the only thing that could everyone’s attention was the massive crystal in the center of the hall, and the throne before it.

This was the throne symbolizing the authority of all creations in the universe.

“Its… just like that?” Lily commented in surprise. “I thought it would be a little bit more ornate.”

“Mother did not leave any decorations when she built the place, or rather, she did not have the time to make any,” Salaman explained. “Everything was done in a hurry.”

Hao Ren came before the connection port of the Throne of Destiny–the chair itself. “So, based on the guidebook, I just need to place the Seed of the World Tree here?”

Hao Ren already had the droids establish a connection with the Weaves of Destiny earlier, so he was not unfamiliar with the software, but this was the first time he came into ‘close contact’ with the hardware.

As he looked at the plain-looking throne, he even doubted if the thing could establish a connection with the World Tree in his hands.

Nangong Wuyue and Nangong Sanba started chattering in a corner, “Brother, how do you think the World Tree should be planted?”

“How do I know… Should I be digging a hole or something?”

“Maybe not, but it sure looks like it needs watering…”

The MDT floated to Hao Ren’s side and banged against the latter’s shoulder. “Who cares, just put it on the throne to test it out? This is what Madam Raven 12345 has gotten us. If it doesn’t work, it’s on her.”

Hao Ren then steeled himself and pulled the Seed of the World Tree out of his Dimensional Pocket and placed it solemnly on the throne.