The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-330

Chapter 330: The Kerbal Nebula

Hao Ren’s words stunned everyone in the hall, and even the usually more open-minded Lily did not think that the meeting would end up in Hao Ren finding the Orb of the Holy Synod as well. Becky was even more perplexed that she blurted out the question. “What orb?”

“Have you become addled from the time you’ve spent on Earth?” Hao Ren laughed out loud. “I’m of course referring to the Orb of the Holy Synod from The Plane of Dreams. You’ve been dreaming of finding it to afford a mansion in the inner city. I already found it. It’s in the Kerbalian home planet. Even the four asectics are alive.”

Only then did Becky managed to process everything, and after a surprised yelp, she darted like a whirlwind towards Hao Ren. “The Oooooooorb of the Holy Synod?! What about it?!”

Hao Ren told everyone what had happened in the meeting and the reason why the Orb may have landed in the Kerbalian’s planet. But, all present were not concerned with the actual location of the Orb; they were more interested in what it looked like. Becky smacked her forehead as glee appeared on her face. “Heh… that does it. If I bring the Orb back I’ll probably be knighted. If I’m lucky, they’ll make me a noble… and give me a mansion Hehe… Hehehe….”

Hao Ren looked on as Becky descended into pits of avarice and decided to pop her bubble. “Well… you having titles and a mansion means nothing you know. You’ll probably only spend 10 days there a year.”

It took a while for Becky to break out of her stupor and her initial glee turned into hatred as she grabbed him by the arm. “I really, really, really, really, really, really want to kill you…”

Cold sweat started to form on Hao Ren’s forehead as he quickly calmed Becky down. At least Becky had not drawn her sword yet. But come to think of it, the mercenary lass was rather unlucky; she had no other hobbies other than her greed for wealth and fame. Even her search for the Orb of the Holy Synod was driven by that. Now that the Orb had been found, she did not even have time to go home and enjoy her fame…. To be frank, at worst, she would get a knighthood or a title of nobility… a posthumous one.

“My point is, let’s get the Orb back,” Hao Ren said after Becky calmed down, in an attempt to divert her attention, “and those four high monks”

The ascetics from The Plane of Dreams were not the typical monks Hao Ren had pictured. They were church knights who swore the oath of righteousness and poverty. They were very much akin to a battle cleric. However, Hao Ren had allowed his imagination to run wild and called them “high monks”. Becky was too caught up in her despair of the posthumous nobility title to correct Hao Ren.

After confirming Becky’s participation in the trip to the Kerbalian planet, Hao Ren asked if others were keen to join. Bereft of anything to do, the whole house joined in on the trip in a hurrah. Of course, Y’zaks, being the mature one simply nodded. But, the great demon with a mind so vast and knowledge so wide was actually interested in aliens. He ruffled his shiny bald head as he laughed. “I think I may have a common topic of conversation with them. If only the fools back home invested half their energy in exploration like the ‘little green men’, they would have conquered the stars.”

So, this trip to the Kabala Commonwealth was a risk-free, official holi… assignment. Bringing the whole lot along was not a problem, thus Hao Ren agreed to it. He even took the chance during lunch to explain the Kerbalian culture to the rest, especially the part on “may your death be far from whence you came from’. Even the well-travelled Vivian was aghast by such a cultural difference. Y’zaks was the only one laughing. “Cultural differences can be such a thing. Over at my old place, many would call themselves XXX of True Evil and those first three words carried a very proud meaning as it would bring fear to humans. I wasn’t interested in that shtick of course.”

So at 8 in the morning, Hao Ren and the group prepared to depart for Kuiper Station. Lily, the werehusky was all dressed up for a road trip. To be fair, it was a holiday for her. Vivian had changed into her best dress too (the one Hao Ren bought for her; she treated it like treasure). Seeing how excited Lily was, Vivian could not help but snort. “Did you become this excited after your tail recovered?”

Lily wagged her tail as she sneered back. “Of course! Grow one if you can!”

Vivian then deployed her wings. “Well, fly if you can then.”

Hao Ren was speechless.

These two never changed. Things only managed to be calm for a few days. They just had to pick a fight on the oddest of topics. Well… maybe this was a sign that they were getting along?

As they were heading to an alien planet, and given that the Kuiper Station was not Earth’s domain, none of them bothered to hide their identities. Lily wagged her tail excitedly and Vivian’s eyes were crimson red. Even Becky dressed up in her mercenary gear in anticipation to meet the ascetics. Only Wuyue and Y’zaks maintained their human form. Those two were just too large in their original form and they could not fit into the teleportation gate. Wuyue had both a serpentine form and a mermaid form, but her ability to flop around on the ground was worse than Lil Pea’s…

Speaking of Lil Pea, Hao Ren could not help but look at the little mermaid, who was clinging onto his sleeve. The little one was comfortably resting on his arm. She looked up at her “father” and let out a happy gurgle as she tapped her tail to greet him. It was also done to state her determination in not being left behind.

Well, it was not somewhere dangerous, so Hao Ren had decided to bring her along.

The only missing person was Hesperides. The evening goddess realised that the group of oddballs were on a mission to do something special as well as confidential, and she had good sense to bid her farewells. She was fully recovered after all. Plus, with the current state of Athens, the city would need the guiding hands of the Ancients. Vivian did not insist on her staying either.

But, Hao Ren knew that as he got further embroiled in the neverending war between the demon hunters and the unusual creatures, the chances of him meeting with Hesperides, Hessiana and his other unusual friends would be common place.

After sending Hesperides off, the group happily set off for Kuiper Station. As the teleportation device at home had limited space, they had to go in two batches. Even Lulu was surprised when she saw the big entourage that Hao Ren brought with him… Guess the guide had never seen such a rowdy group before…

Kabala led a small group of Kerbalians in the station and as they were there for the missing spacecraft, they would be staying at the space station until the matter was settled. Due to the Kerbalian’s special administrative structure and their free-spirited nature, Kabala’s ‘President of the Kerbal Commonwealth’ title was not something that bound him to a desk. His absence would not affect the Commonwealth’s administration so to speak. However, the most important and prestigious post in the Commonwealth was ‘Minister of Space Exploration’, and Kabala had relinquished that position many years ago at his wife’s insistence.

The Kabala Commonwealth was a highly autonomous confederation of stars and the actual landing point of the Orb of the Holy Synod was not in the main planet of the Commonwealth, but rather a colony planet. Thus, all Hao Ren needed to do was look for the planet’s governor. After exchanging greetings with Kabala, Hao Ren was introduced to the governor of the planet, and the Kerbalian who told Hao Ren about the Orb. He was named Tamula.

Hao Ren figured that the Kerbalian names probably bore no meaning as they looked almost alike. Aside from their big heads and green skin, they lacked any features that were distinguishable from one another like humans. Hao Ren had to use other ways to remember some of the Kerbalian’s names. Kabala’s skin for instance had a shade of yellow, and that was the only distinguishable feature the Kerbalian had from the rest.

He was not sure if the little green men could tell humans apart too. Well.. that was a question for another time.

At the very least, the group that Hao Ren brought with him was such a colourful bunch; you could tell who they were just by their silhouette!

To save time, Hao Ren had declined Tamula’s offer to board on his spacecraft. He instead led Tamula and the rest of the crew on to the Petrachelys. The imperial frigate’s speed would leave most common spacecrafts in the dust, especially after removing the limiters on its main engine and entering a full speed warp jump. The rate of travel could not be described using “speed” any more. It became an all new mathematical process.

Creating a whole new spatial calculus and having the ability to reach any part of the universe in the blink of an eye… The matter of the Orb of the Holy Synod was something Hao Ren took seriously, thus the ship went full speed ahead.

It did not take long for the Petrachelys to reach their destination, a star system two million light years away from the Milky Way.

The Kerbal Civilisation Sphere, the only galactic power in the system.

On the bridge, Tamula eagerly introduced the star system to everyone onboard. “I’m proud to present to you our homeland, the Kerbal Stars. Our explorers have died all across this system, and this is our glorious home….

All present really felt that the cultural difference was something to behold…