Chapter 604: The Spiritual World
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In deep space, starlight was the only companion to the boundless darkness. A bright silver arc suddenly swept across the darkness as the Petrachelys jumped in and out of the sparial rift as part of its star chart calibration sequence.
The Petrachelys followed a general direction while it headed towards Io, using warp jumps and regular flight alternately. Soon after the voyage neared its end. The spacecraft's navigation system had recalibrated the star lens two days ago and entered the star chart from Nasaton into its navigation program. After some comparisons, the ship's host found a star region where the siren's home planet was probably located. The spacecraft was now heading in that direction.
Since the siren's star chart was not accurate, and the drift of celestial bodies over 10,000 years had seriously affected the reliability of teleportation, the spacecraft would not be able to reach the coordinates directly. For safety reasons and in order to collect as much information as possible of the universe, the Navigation Assistant recommended that the spacecraft performed a series of warp jumps and subluminal flight alternately. Although it would probably take a slightly longer time, the delay caused no harm.
The spacecraft was now flying in a monotonous and boring region of the universe. It was cold, and empty with some extremely thin but radioactive clouds. Apart from the far-away starlight and a bright, star-forming nebula, there was nothing else. Hao Ren sat in his captain's seat, staring at some documents in boredom, while enduring Lily's occasional crazy howls.
He was not the rookie who first came into contact with the sea of stars a year ago; the scenery of starlight no longer attracted his interest. Of course, the sight of the universe was still as spectacular as ever, but he had something more important to do.
He was studying the data extracted from the computer in Nasaton.
"Io... the planet of water. Ocean covers one hundred-percent of your home planet, where huge ice floes and storm clouds formed in an annually cycle. The ecosystems started out in the deep sea. Only until your ancestors built an outpost on the first ice floe that you all knew the concept of 'atmosphere'," Hao Ren said while holding the MDT and looking at the siren queen. "Such is the fun of exploration—the universe is so big place that you will always find some strange places out there."
The siren queen looked at the star chart on the navigation computer screen, feeling very incredible. "I can't believe it. I'm here at this moment. I lived with my people in the deep sea for ten thousand years. We thought that living in the deep sea is the nature of the sirens, but our ancestors had studied the secrets of the stars. Do you often do this kind of travel?"
"Almost. We are experts," Lily said, leaning on the seat back and wagging her tail. "Have you ever heard of space dog? Let me tell ya…"
Hao Ren knew that the husky was going to spew nonsense. He tucked the MDT back into his pocket and headed to the door. "I'm going to the lab."
Nangong Wuyue had curled up in a ball with Shaqira and Sorma resting on the flight deck. She suddenly opened his eyes and pulled herself out. "Wait, I'm going with you. It's boring here."
Hao Ren looked stupefyingly at the snake-maiden who crawled and rollied up before him. He then glanced at Shaqira and Sorma, who were curling into new ball. "It's really hard to understand the culture of the sirens…"
"It's the symbol of friendship!" Nangong Wuyue shook the tip of her tail in the air like a rattlesnake. "I just learned from them!"
After Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue left the flight deck, Shaqira and Sorma looked at each other and said, "She still needs to familiarize with this way of resting.""Yeah, she's too loose and will fall out after asleep.""No, I mean she had just tied me up with her." "Oh, that was me. I was having a nightmare."
Nangong Sanba was holding a magazine pretending to be reading. He suddenly put the book on his face and said, "The world is just too amazing..."
Hao Ren brought Wuyue leaving the flight deck and went to the laboratory through the central isle. Various equipment and platforms used in the First Born research used to occupy the laboratory, but now the research project had been transferred to the CARS, the laboratory became empty now. There were only two remaining projects running here: one was the Vengeful-Spirit Scanner' that had yet completed the decoding process, and the other was a large restraint instrument, which was brand new, in the center of the laboratory.
"Looks like it's still trying to study the memory code of the vengeful spirit," said Hao Ren as he and Wuyue walked past a set of scanner. He saw the instrument flashing with a regular glimmer. The glow in the groove in the center of the instrument had not changed compared with last time. "I hope this gadget could quickly come out with result."
Wuyue glimpsed at the vengeful spirit. She felt a sense of uneasiness. She quickly turned to look at the center of the lab. "Are you sure it won't suddenly get out of control?"
In the center of the laboratory was a large transparent container. It was a crystallized vertical pipe that reached nearly ten meters in diameter and emitted a faint blue light. There were various sensors and recording devices around the container. There was a weird creature, a lump of swollen meat that almost looked like a brain, was suspended inside the container.
It was the brain monster that Hao Ren had captured in Nasaton.
"The protective crystal ulluminates this thing for twenty-four hours a day. It can't escape," said Hao Ren as he pointed to the bottom of the container, which was inlaid with a colourful diamond-shaped crystal. The crystal shone light on the giant brain, causing it to twitch from time to time. "It'd be fine as long as it doesn't collapse inside."
Wuyue curiously pressed her face on the container looking at the brain inside. "I heard this thing would eat anything."
"We've successfully tested it with several organic compounds," Hao Ren said, nodding. There was a robotic arm handing meat to the brain, which grabbed it with its tentacles before absorbing it in the blink of an eye. "It uses tentacles to eat. The tip of the tentacle secretes a super corrosive, digestive fluid, and open a series of fine 'teeth' to catch its prey. Hasse used to ask where its mouth was: it's the tentacles. I now feed this guy according to the recipe given by the sirens. It needs to eat four to five times a day; plants and meat could be used. However, according to Katreina's memory... it likes raw meat more. But don't mention this in front of her," he said.
Wuyue stuck out her tongue. "... then I'm not going to ask about its excretion process," she said.
"Before we get to the station, I will try to communicate with it again," Hao Ren said as he started a device next to the container.
There was an invisible traction field in the container that bound the brain monster, which was slowly pushed to the edge of the container and one of its tentacles was fixed to a silver-white cylinder. A similar cylinder had also risen up in front of Hao Ren and the hologram above the cylinder showed the words 'Connection Ready.'
He did not want to get into direct physical contact with the tentacles to read the thoughts of the brain every time, so he had ordered the design of this device. This device replaced direct physical contact with the subject. It not only sustained a perfect mental connection function, but also enhanced the connection and record the data during the connection. In other words, Hao Ren could now not only see the memory of the brain monster but also visually record it. Although the recorded data was always severely distorted, it was an important function nonetheless.
In this way, he could rewind the video to find the footages that appeared in his subconscious mind but were ignored by the conscious mind.
Hao Ren placed his hand on the top of the silver-white cylinder, and a wave of strange thoughts immediately came into his mind.
The chaotic red, the cloudy sky, the slanting falling starlight, and all kinds of grotesque sights came into his field of vision as if they were all real. Hao Ren realized that he was on a certain doomed foreign planet. However, this was not what he wanted.
A mushroom cloud rose beside him, and countless horrifying shadows came from all directions as if to rip him apart. he stayed in the illusion for only a few seconds and began to be baptized by the horrifying images. There was a bust of rumbling and incomprehensible screams in his mind. The screams and the surrounding scenes seemed to join forces to bring the world's most horrifying thoughts into the minds of the invaders, using fear—the inborn weakness of mortals—to drive the invaders out of its spiritual world. Hao Ren stood in the illusion of a star-studded alien scene. He watched the strange things tearing his body in pieces, over and over again. He looked up at the starry sky that was constantly falling, and called out aloud from the depths of his heart.
"You know it's useless! Come out and talk to me face to face!"
There was only an empty echo that came from all directions in the chaos of the mind. the brain monster refused to answer any further prying questions.
Yes, this complete brain monster had the ability to build a mental barrier. Even if Hao Ren could directly peer into its memory, it was difficult to maneuver.