The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-334

Chapter 334: Is That How It’s Used?

Sure enough, Big Beardy and the other three ascetics were all nervous the moment Hao Ren mentioned the Orb. It seemed to be an extremely sensitive topic.

“Relax, I’m not interested in your treasure. Have you forgotten that this orb is a treasure only in your world? No one here knows the importance of it,” Hao Ren explained and hurriedly waved his hand. At the same time, he thought of a good reason to give. “Okay, all of you were probably sent to this planet because of the impact of the Orb as well, so I need to use it to analyse the teleportation process. This is a necessary step to send you back.”

Big Beardy looked at Hao Ren suspiciously. The Orb of the Holy Synod was the most precious treasure for the four of them. When the little green men wanted to see it, they almost broke out in a violent conflict. But, Hao Ren was more favorable to them and they agreed with what Hao Ren just said: The Orb was a treasure in The Plane of Dreams, and since they were now in another world, the Orb had no value to the people in this world. Hence, Big Beardy pondered about it for a long time, nodded reluctantly and said, “I can let you see it, but you can’t touch it. I will allow you to touch it only after you show us that you do have the ability to open the dimensional door. This is a sacred item, you must understand.”

Big Beardy’s stance was very firm. After Hao Ren agreed, Big Beardy carefully opened a thick pocket hanging on him: he carried the Orb with him.

The cloth bag was opened, and a shimmering, golden orb was taken out.

It was a metal ball the size of a football. Its material was unclear, but it kept glowing. It had complex and delicate lines on its surface. The lines were straight, bumpy, as well as olderly and they were scattered all across its surface. At first glance, it seemed to be some kind of hieroglyphics, but a careful observation revealed that all the lines were connected together throughout the sphere. Hao Ren looked at the Orb curiously, wondering how they could communicate with their goddess with it. But after observing it for a while, he did not see the connection between this thing and God. Nonetheless, he found the Orb sort of familiar.

He had not seen the Orb before, but the jagged lines of the Orb… vaguely reminded him of something.

“These patterns…” Hao Ren muttered to himself, “Why do they look familiar… And, the size of this orb…”

Vivian frowned and looked at it for a long time. Her poor memory, which had not been working for the past 10,000 years surprisingly worked this time. She suddenly exclaimed, “Ah, that’s right! Isn’t there a hole in the Sacred Relic of Origins about the same size as this? I remember the same pattern in that round hole!”

After Vivian reminded him, Hao Ren immediately realised why it felt so familiar. Puzzled and surprised, he said, “Right! There is a hole in the Sacred Relic of Origins… What a coincidence!”

At this moment, the MDT suddenly said, “Scan completed, 100% contour similarity. To prevent damage to its function, internal structure cannot be determined as of yet.”

Hao Ren and the rest of his team were shocked. The younger female ascetic looked at the MDT on Hao Ren’s shoulder curiously and asked, “Your pauldron speaks?”

After being called a brick, coaster and merry-go-round, the MDT got another new identity. This immediately made it fly into a rage and yell, “Ignorant! Open your eyes and look at me! Have you ever seen a pauldron this small?! I am an empire-made Mobile Data Brick… No, I mean Mobile Data Terminal!”

Big Beardy ignored the talking “alchemy device”. He just protected the Orb in his hand and looked at Hao Ren carefully as he asked, “What did you say? You have seen something related to the Orb of the Holy Synod?”

A lot of things flashed through Hao Ren’s mind in that moment: since he could be flung out of The Plane of Dreams, something similar may have happened in the past, and perhaps the treasure of another goddess was displaced to another world. Big Beardy was a sharp thinker, and as the eldest of the four, he thought about things very quickly and carefully.

Hao Ren reacted quickly and nodded He decided to tell them a half-truth, “We did find something in the desert that could be related to the Orb in your arms. However, it’s not an orb, but a device. There’s a missing part on that device, which could possibly be the Orb of the Holy Synod. But, I have to put these two things together to confirm that.”

Big Beardy looked at Hao Ren’s expression and did not find that he was lying. In spite of that, he still kept the Orb back into his pocket. He gritted his teeth and said, “You have to let me see the equipment you’ve just mentioned. If it is a sacred thing that the goddess left behind in the Otherworld, I can study it with you—it seems like you are a scholar, so you should have the necessary tools. But, the Orb cannot leave my sight under any circumstance. And if that equipment is a sacred object belonging to the goddess, I’m going to take it away.”

Big Beardy was being a little unreasonable, but Hao Ren nodded and thought that he finally saw the tough side of an ascetic. He promised Big Beardy and at the same time, he told the Mobile Data Terminal telepathically, “Make a copy of the Sacred Relic of Origins…”

The structure of the Sacred Relic of Origins was not something complicated to the Mobile Data Terminal. The materials that made up the Sacred Relic were also very common and the relic could be composed in a ship-borne factory. The last time the MDT experimented, it copied several sets of the Sacred Relic’s “inner components”. Now, it was not a problem to replicate the complete set and the MDT happily promised, “It’ll be complete in an hour.”

They finally walked out of the ecodome. Everyone seemed preoccupied with some kind of trouble, except Lily, who was humming and looking carefree. Hao Ren was speculating on the connection between the Orb and the Sacred Relic of Origins as well as their true function; Becky was feeling homesick; Nangong Wuyue and Y’zaks were feeling worried about Hao Ren; the four ascetics were immersed in their thoughts of the Otherworld as well as the Sacred Relic, which made their hearts and minds restless; Vivian was thinking about what to cook for dinner and Lil Pea was thinking about what to eat.

Everybody was thinking about something, except the husky.

Tamula, along with a group of little green men were waiting outside. They did not dare to go nearer just now. When the little green men saw them, they immediately gathered around Hao Ren. He could only see a bunch of identical green heads swaying in front of him—like a bunch of mung bean cakes having a meeting. Hao Ren did not know where to look until Tamula called him. He nodded to Tamula and said, “It’s done and we’re leaving.”

Tamula pulled at Hao Ren’s hand in a warm manner and asked, “Not staying for dinner? I heard that it’s a popular thing on Earth…”

Although Hao Ren was very interested in alien food, he still pretended to reject the offer politely. “No, we have to go back to work—”

Tamula immediately nodded and said, “Okay, go ahead. I have to deal with something here. I will get back to Kuiper Station tomorrow.”

That left the last part of the sentence, “but it would be disrespectful to decline your warm hospitality” to choke to death in Hao Ren’s throat. And he wondered why this little green man was so honest!

They bid farewell to the little green men and went to the spaceship’s landing ground. It was the first time in a few months that the four ascetics had left the steel facility with complete freedom. Big Beardy looked back at the little green men, who were still waving goodbye at the door and said, “Actually, these green creatures are friendly.”

Another young male ascetic nodded and said, “But, they look too much like monsters.”

The young female ascetic also said, “We thought we were in hell at first and that the goddess was testing us with these monsters.”

Finally, the older female ascetic concluded, “Fortunately, the wisdom of the goddess gave us the power to give up the military confrontation at a critical moment. Otherwise, it would have inevitably deepened the misunderstanding.”

Hao Ren then asked Big Beardy curiously, “How did you eliminate the misunderstandings with the little green men then?”

Big beardy answered solemnly, “I realised that I can’t beat those machines.”

“…”

“Master, you’re too honest,” Nangong Wuyue could not help saying.

Big Beardy nodded indifferently and said, “I just admit the truth. We have a mission: we have to live to protect the Orb. In order to live, of course, we can’t do anything. Just surrender.”

It was just a few simple words from Big beardy, but Hao Ren suddenly felt a kind of inexplicable fanaticism. He suddenly seemed to understand the view of the world that these ascetics had.

They returned to the Petrachelys and it soon took off, leaving the planet. Before speeding off into hyperspace, Hao Ren turned the external monitor in the direction of the planet. The four ascetics saw that they were gradually moving away from the planet and looked at the huge spacecraft they were boarding in disbelief. Additionally, Big Beardy also recalled a few things from a legend he knew, and said, “Before the end of the world, people in our world also had the ability to fly to the stars. It’s said that there were cities on the moon… But, I feel that this ship is more powerful.”

Hao Ren believed that Big Beardy was praising him. He nodded contentedly and started the spacecraft’s automatic navigation.

The image from the external monitor became distorted and the spacecraft went into hyperspace.