The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

The ark’s gears hummed as strong mechanical arms pushed the 10,000-year-old ancient metal plates to both sides. The city within the ark, located close to the hull, slowly emerged into the outside world while the magnificent transformation continued to unfold. As the ship’s hull gradually split into a dozen curved plates and slid off to the sides, the ancient city within began to reassemble as well. Artificial gravity kept things in place as the city’s angle and altitude were adjusted to land horizontally on the ocean’s surface. The two ends of the ark had already come into contact with seawater by now. There were now two opposite ends of the city, consisting of two massive islands that were connected to the city itself. One of these islands housed the Furnace of the Ancestors— the fusion reactor. Meanwhile, the other island had a series of giant metal towers—also collectively known as the Giant’s Nose. This was the city’s atmosphere control center.

Everyone watched the ark’s transformation anxiously. All the large-scale mechanical motions required a great deal of power, and the people on the ark had to be kept safe through thousands of safety features. If anything were to go wrong, countless lives would be put in danger. Hao Ren could now make out the people moving about in the city. Having been isolated from the outside world for thousands of years, these people were not equipped to fully grasp the changing world around them. Even with Lorenz’s guidance and the presence of the goddesses of fire and ice, they could not possibly calmly accept that the ground was splitting beneath their feet, that their world was turning upside down, and that the universe as they knew it was being altered completely. As the shocking environmental changes occured, the people panicked. Some knelt in prayer; some hid inside their homes, trembling, waiting for the end; some closed their eyes like they were welcoming Judgment Day. Through the chaos, Hao Ren noticed that there were dark clouds above and frequent bolts of lightning.

He took a moment to realize that the clouds and lightning were all Vivian’s design—she was probably using these “miracles” to distract the people. As long as they gave the impression that the gods were initiating the transformation, the people on the ark would feel safer. For a seasoned vampire who had experienced the Mythological Era, Vivian knew how their minds worked.

Eva “watched” the events in quiet shock. Hao Ren did not know how her senses worked, but he could tell that she was observing the transformation of the ark in a conventional sense at least. When the giant metal egg slowly opened up into a city, Eva felt troubled. However, once Hao Ren explained the situation of the ark people, she began to think about it.

Despite her fragmented memories, Eva still remembered concepts like “spaceships” and “arks”. She also knew what it was like for a civilization to meet their end. When she saw the ancient and heavily weathered city emerging from the metal egg, she began to understand what Hao Ren was saying. Nonetheless, she made no comments and simply disappeared in a splash of seawater.

Katreina was surprised to see Eva go missing. “How is she?”

Hao Ren could not understand as well. “I don’t know… I told her that the people on the ark lack basic necessities and asked her to consider accepting them.”

Katreina immediately looked worried. “Did she get angry?”

Eva, the spirit of all sirens, held a very special and important place in the queen’s heart. The latter took to heart everything that concerned Eva.

“I don’t think so… She doesn’t seem like the petty type.” Hao Ren could not figure out Eva’s reaction, but he believed that Eva would not have been so upset because of these alien newcomers. “She’s very far away now. I can’t sense her from here.”

“Perhaps it’s just for the meantime. She’ll probably be back very soon,” Nangong Wuyue offered. However, as Eva was the Spirit of the Ocean, no one could control her movements and predict her thoughts. It was impossible for them to find her. Just as Nangong Wuyue finished, a long, sharp hum came from the arks.

The spaceships had already transformed into something completely different. After the ship’s hull opened up, the city within became a rectangular floating island on the sea. There were major structural changes to the city as well. The ground was reassembled with connecting bridges and metal boards, which were previously hidden underneath. They emerged from between the cracks to become a part of the city. The transformation helped strengthen the structure of the “island”. Hao Ren looked from afar, noting the chaos in the city. There were some fire and smoke rising from certain areas. In the thousands of years that had passed, the ark people had done some modifications to the ship’s structure. While most of the new structures were built on top of existing ones, there were also entire new buildings in some places. If these buildings were located where reassembly was necessary, their destruction was to be expected.

Moreover, there were newly added circuitry, pipings, and mechanical facilities that were damaged by the transformation.

Nevertheless, Lorenz expected all of this—he had even arranged for the people to avoid places where reassembly would happen. The city within the ark was designed with the transformation process in mind. All the major roads and city components were positioned strategically. Even after thousands of years, it was still possible to make out where the boundaries of these transformation parts were. Lorenz used a very long time to spread the information of the boundaries to the people. Before the transformation began, he had also asked Vivian to use “divine intervention” to remove people who were unwilling to move away from the boundaries (most of these people were nomads living in the outskirts). Hence, while there were extensive damages on the buildings, casualties were reduced to a minimum.

As expected, Lorenz pinged Hao Ren a few moments later. ” The ark’s transformation is complete. Thank you for your help.”

“How’s the situation in the city?” Hao Ren set aside the issue concerning Eva and focused on Lorenz’s status.

“All according to plan.” Lorenz nodded. From the comm device, he seemed to be near the Furnace of the Ancestors. “All the buildings at the transformation boundaries were destroyed, but they are mostly simple tents or houses. Some machines fell into the gaps between the moving parts but we have 200 years to clean that up. The biggest problem is the castle in the Kingdom of Highspire. Some parts of the castle were located right at the edge of a transformation part. There were some major structural collapses, but we managed to disperse the people and avoid casualties.”

The old man smiled all of a sudden. “At least, we know what the next step is—fixing the buildings.”

Hao Ren smiled as well, but then he turned serious. “What about the confusion among the people?”

“It’s as expected.” Lorenz shook his head. “No one’s crying about the end of the world. The nobles and soldiers did not disappoint this time. They are trying to calm the people down at the moment. The goddesses of fire and ice are a very important part in the rebuilding process. I hope to start a new religion that’s beyond the Four Kingdoms, a community of worshippers for the goddesses. It will replace the current jumble of religions and spiritual organizations.”

“Sounds good.” Hao Ren found it interesting. “I can’t speak for Vivian, but Lily will definitely be the first to agree. She just can’t wait to be part of the action—”

Before Hao Ren could finish, the sound of a gigantic wave from afar cut him off!

It sounded like rolling thunder, or like an approaching tsunami. Hao Ren turned back to look and saw something shocking in the horizon—a wave as big as a mountain range was heading his way. It started out as a silver lining, but quickly reached close enough to fill his vision. It was like a huge wall that reached from the sky to the sea, and it was heading towards the fleet of arks with no signs of stopping!

Lorenz saw the wave from a vantage point on the ark. He gasped in surprise. “What is that?! Is it a natural phenomenon of this planet?!”

Having lived on the ark for his entire life, he did not know what it was.

“It’s a wave… but it doesn’t look natural!” Hao Ren quickly estimated from the speed of the wave that it would cause a problem for the arks. Another thought came to him—could this be Eva’s doing?

The sudden appearance of the massive wave took everyone by surprise. Hao Ren realized that this could be Eva throwing a tantrum. He immediately jumped into the sea to reestablish a connection with her, but Eva’s mental focus was not with him. He tried to no avail, and in those few baffling seconds, the wave had already reached the edge of the fleet!

However, it quickly shrank in size, becoming so small so quickly that it seemed to have suddenly become a surge of harmless waves. Behind them were things that were carried together with the waves. The people on the ark stared at them and exchanged looks of bewilderment.

It was a wide spread of green seaweed, intermingled with all kinds of weird marine plants. They were all tangled with each other in a mess and brought to the Royal Throne courtesy of the waves.

The small waves around the seaweed converged rapidly into the shape of a woman. The figure grew and grew until it reached a few hundred meters tall in an effort to speak to the city’s people. Eva pushed the seaweed mix towards the city and spoke through clear, loud splashes of water. *Splash, splash.*

Hao Ren could finally hear Eva talking. She was repeating something in excitement, “Food, food, food!”

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