The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-500

Chapter 500: Back to Dragonspine Ridge

The site of Dragonspine Ridge, the remnants of the Blood Lake, or the Great Basin of Beinz—no matter what it was called, these names indicated the tremendous changes after that earth-shattering catastrophe. Now more than two months later, the witnesses who caused these changes had returned. They were expecting to be shocked by the great changes there.

As the halo of teleportation faded, Hao Ren and the others appeared on the mountains of Dragonspine Ridge. The MDT had recorded the coordinates from when they last left the Plane of Dreams, so they were sent directly back to the same spot. Nangong Sanba felt a little dizzy after the teleportation, but soon after, he looked at the surrounding mountains curiously. “Oh, this is a good place. You explored this place the last time?”

Surprised, Hao Ren glanced at the half-baked demon hunter. “Yeah, you recovered pretty quickly, eh! Didn’t you feel a bit dizzy from the long-distance teleportation?”

Nangong Sanba smiled proudly. “I’ve been trained since young.”

Hao Ren thought Nangong Sanba meant that he had been practicing the teleportation skills of a demon hunter from an early age. But Nangong Sanba glanced at Nangong Wuyue and said, “My sister liked to swing me around with her tail when I was a child, like a fan spinning at the highest speed…”

Nangong Wuyue’s face darkened like the underside of a wok. “Brother, you must miss the ‘Big Windmill’?”

At this time, Lily suddenly shouted not too far away, “Wow! Look at that, Landlord!”

Hao Ren quickly ran over to check it out and his jaw dropped to the ground.

There was a massive pit in front of him. The entire land that used to be surrounded by Dragonspine Ridge had become a bottomless crater. The region where Beinz Blood Lake and the Gnarled Grove used to be had disappeared. They could not recognize any traces of the previous landscape from the crater. On the steep cliffs surrounding the crater, there were cracks in the rocks, which were still spewing with hot air. There were large black crystals hanging from the mountain on the west side of Dragonspine Ridge. They formed out of a kind of glass substance, which had melted, then solidified. And in the lower part of the huge crater, in the smoky haze, there was a large, overgrown piece of light-blue crystal, which seemed like a newly-formed crystal jungle.

The entire Beinz region had become a super giant basin. The former sacred lake and the Gnarled Grove had all disappeared. It was now covered with sprawling crystal jungles as well as volcanic glass, and dotted with steam vents and geothermal springs. There had been a geological change.

“The First Born’s activity had hollowed out the rock formations in the Beinz area. The Petrachelys’ cannon had blow the land into a crater,” the MDT so analysed how the landscape formed. “The crystal jungle below must be the by-product of psionic shelling. Psionic energy hit directly at the source that could fundamentally change the structure of matter and even laws within a certain range. Those crystals don’t naturally occur in the universe. They are normal rocks that have been metamorphosed.

“Is it psionic crystal?” Hao Ren asked, worriedly. “If it is, then it’s highly radiative.”

“Relax, unless it’s a specialized radiative weapon, ordinary psionic artillery has no radiative residues, and radiation in the vicinity of the point of bombardment will fall to a safe level within a fraction of a second after the bombardment,” replied the MDT as it observed the crystal jungle below. “After all, it is a hassle to clean up the battlefield. The apostle of Xi Ling disciples don’t do thing sloppily.”

“It seems something is moving underneath,” Lily had sharp vision. She had spotted some shadows and a few man-made objects. “There are houses too?”

“Someone must be mining the crystal,” the MDT had already discovered the movements below earlier, but it thought it was no big deal. “There was not much radiation. Let them be. The locals might have found some uses for the crystals. Though this sort of thing isn’t that common, it does happen. Psionic energy could react with conventional materials, and change them into a variety of bizarre products. Depending on the laws of each world and the specific properties of the materials, occasionally it would produce some weird and strange things. So every time the Emperial army finished a war, there will be a bunch of insterstellar porivateers sending in their mining ships to mine in the battlefield, sometimes fight will break out just to secure some pits. Fortunately, since the establishment of the provisions for the past two years, the situation has become better.”

Hao Ren listened in surprise, thinking that it must be the fight between the immortals. Nangong Sanba was clueless as a dimb bulb. He was tagging along but had not a clue what Hao Ren and his company was doing. He wanted to find someone and ask, but before he could do so Nangong Wuyue had pulled him away and said, “Brother, wait until we go home and ask. Now you just tag along.”

“This place has completely changed… it’s not even known if the knights of the Kingdom are still around,” said Hao Ren, who had only realised after the terrifying events in the Beinz region that day, Holletta might have undergone tremendous changes, the Church’s and Kingdom’s Knights might have experienced great changes. “Where do we even find Marshal Opra?”

Just when Becky wanted to give a suggestion, suddenly footsteps were heard from a direction. “Wait a second, someone is coming.”

The MDT suddenly hid into Hao Ren’s pocket while Lil Pea jumped inside Hao Ren’s collar. As it turned out, the figure emerged from the mountain road was not a stranger, but an acquintance, the elderly werewolf who had sought alongside them for some time. It was Marhsal Opra’s general, Elson Ebben.

The elderly werewolf apparently was not passing by by coincidence. He had spotted Hao Ren and his men from afar. He smiled and said to them, “You guys had really come back, a bunch of strange fellows from the alien country.”

“I didn’t know we have another nickname,” Hao Ren was in good mood as he met his acquaintance in surprise. He greeted the elderly werewolf back with a smile. “Are you wait for us here?”

Apparently, Elson was waiting for them. But he was still surprised when he saw Hao Ren and the others. He looked curiously at them who had reappeared just as sudden as they disappeared that day. He was very curious at them who had performed a lot of incredible things, but he managed to hold back his questions as he replied Hao Ren’s question “Opra has instructed it. She has expected your reappearance in this place. And to prevent the unnecessary troubles, we have specifically cleared out the vicinity of the main peak of Dragonspine Ridge where the Knights of the Kingdom are stationed. We are expecting you.”

Nangong Wuyue suddenly chimed in. “Isn’t it a waste of manpower for a general to wait here?”

“The Beinz Basin is now the focus of the continent. Both the kingdom and the western tribe are drooling for this place. So it’s necessary to have a general stationed here,” Elson shrugged. “I’m conveniently waiting for you guys here. As you know, werewolf has very good senses, we can spot things in the first instant anything appeared in the mountain.”

Lily immediately nodded happily as she heard this, and was proud of her werewolf bloodline. Speaking of the girl, her identity switched seamlessly between husky and werewolf. When she needed to be fashionable, she would say she was a werewolf. When she was hungry, she would identify herself as a husky. She has been doing it so perfectly, and conveniently.

“I’m not sure if our ‘identities’ are okay here,” Hao Ren asked with a smile. “Let me just be honest with you, we’re here for a mission and we have to go around a lot. But we don’t want to get into trouble.”

Elson nodded. “Everyone has seen what you all have done in Dragonspine Ridge… Well, Opra and I had witnessed it for a while. With the guarantees of the four masters, I know you wouldn’t have any problems. Before leaving, Opra had instructed that if you come back, I will arrange for you to go to the king’s capital to see her. She has an arrangement. But then again… Why didn’t the four masters join you?”

“They are kind of busy catching wild rabbits,” Hao Ren shrugged. “We’re here just to show our face, as we had just helped transcend a race in another place.”

Elson could make of what he said, “What?”

“Ahem, thst’s just jargons of my profession, forget about it what it means,” Hao Ren quickly explained it away as he felt Vivian pinched his back. “Well, if there’s no problem…then first take us to the hotel, we shall chat as we walk.”