In the beautiful dusk of the underground world, Hao Ren and Vivian were chilling out in the open. They were talking about the secrets involving Vivian, and the fallen goddess of creation, who left behind countless mysteries as well as troubles for this world. He did not tell Vivian about herself earlier because he did not want to cause unnecessary worry. But since the inevitable moment had come, he decided to reveal it all.
But one thing was beyond doubt; Vivian was not merely a Blood Clan as she assumed, there was a shadow behind her. The remnant of the power of the Goddess of Creation was caught with this shadow. But there had been no tangible evidence so far.
This mysterious planet of Inferno could be the key to uncover the secrets.
Vivian was optimistic so far. She sometimes even laughed at herself. "It doesn't matter Blood Clan or not. There are many strange races in the world. And, they all have their place in the universe."
Hao Ren smiled and said, "You sound positive."
Vivian spread out her hand. "Don't forget there is still a husky who once thought that she was a werewolf. But Lily did not lose her heart when the truth was out. She had opened up a new chapter in her life. So I could do better than her."
Hao Ren was speechless and quickly swayed the conversation away. "Speaking of which, Gezel's tribe people are the first to associate you with the Goddess of Creation. Don't you think there is something more than meets the eye?"
Vivian arced her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"The belief in the Goddess of Creation exists in more than one planet." Hao Ren stared into Vivian's eyes with a serious look on his face. "Holletta also believes in the Goddess, but they think the Goddess is a messy dark-red mist. The belief in the Goddess also existed on the rogue planet, but the Goddess recorded in the database appeared like a kind of chaotic spiritual symbol. The planet Zorm also believes in the Goddess, they knew who their creator was, even before disaster struck the planet, but they had no established image of Goddess in their minds. So think about what all these mean."
Vivian frowned as she suddenly recalled Gezer's reaction when he first 'recognized' her. "The people here seem to recognize me by my appearance!"
"Yes, they first recognized you by your appearance though they also used stuff like the holy blade." Hao Ren nodded. "When you were in Holletta, no devout priest of Disciples of Glory had ever mistaken you as the Goddess. Even Muru, the guardian giants did not. Only here, the locals. They bowed when they saw your face. Don't you feel strange?"
Vivian stomped on Hao Ren's foot and said, "Damn you. What do you mean 'they bowed when they saw my face'?"
Then only she thought about the question. "Well, I feel relieved when I think of Muru; he didn't mistake me as his mother. So there's no worry that I am a vessel of the resurrection of the Goddess of Creation. As for the locals here, there is only one explanation. Their ancestors must have seen the 'Goddess' personally. And, the Goddess was impersonating me."
As soon as Vivian's voice trailed off, they both fell into silence involuntarily. At last, Hao Ren said, "That's telling."
Vivian let out a long sigh. "Which part of the discussion since half an hour ago was not telling?"
At this time, Lily's loud voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting their conversation. "What are you guys doing here?" Lily asked.
Hao Ren turned his head around and saw Lily standing behind him, appearing spirited. She was holding a large bag of spicy strips in her hand, and there was a stain of oil on the corners of her mouth. Hao Ren could not help but tell her, "This stuff isn't healthy. Please cut down."
Lily looked down at the pack of spicy strips in her hand and then looked away. "No, it is a necessity."
Hao Ren was lost for words.
It was the first time in his life that someone said spicy strips were a necessity.
"All right, call it whatever you like," Hao Ren waved his hand as if saying "you're freaking spoilt child." "So what's up here?" he asked.
"Oh yeah." Lily smacked on her forehead. "I almost forgot what I came for. Gezer is looking for you two. It seems like he has got something to report."
"Report?" Hao Ren and Vivian exchanged a clueless look, wondering what the tribal warrior had up his sleeve. Vivian pulled her face, feeling a little annoyed. "To tell the truth, I don't want to meet him. Pretending as a goddess myself is hard enough, let alone someone's else goddess. What should I say if he asks about Genesis?"
Hao Ren had never thought about this. He could only imagine what Raven 12345 would do if she were in a similar situation. "Why don't you f**king Baidu it yourself? He said in his mind. This reply did not suit Vivian's style. He could only shake his head. "You can tell him that you created the heaven and the earth with the swing of your giant ax. Anyway, they don't seem to know who Pangu is. But I guess Gezer is not asking about Genesis. Judging from the level of enlightenment of this indigenous people, they haven't come to the point where they would be concerned with how the universe comes into being."
Vivian nodded with a forced smile. It seemed that she did not have much choice but to get along with the locals so that their future exploration could go on smoothly.
Lily immediately beckoned Gezer to come to them, held her pack of spicy sticks, stepped to aside and watched.
As expected, when Gezer saw Vivian, he bowed on the ground. Unlike the first time, Gezer was fully prepared for the customary greeting this time. Vivian could only accept Gezer's salute reluctantly while she worked hard to tune her mindset back to when she was enshrined in the temple thousands of years ago on Earth. She nodded solemnly and said, "Relieve yourself. I heard you have something to report to me?"
"Yes." Gezer stood up reverently. "I heard that you are tracking down some foreigner..."
It turned out that Hessiana, Nangong Sanba, and others had mentioned Baptiste with several tribal warriors while they were hanging out in the settlement. Perhaps they had never expected the tribal people could have information about a missing wizard in this vast space. But Gezer heard it and came to Vivian. It seemed he knew something.
"Your people met the wizard?" Hao Ren looked at Gezer in surprise.
"I don't know what wizard you're talking about." Gezer shook his head. "Our warriors had never seen any stranger while they were out hunting. But, I do remember there was also a foreigner who had been here, but that was like a few hundred years ago."
"A few hundred years ago?" Hao Ren seemed to have thought of something. "Tell me!"
"The old folks would occasionally talk about her," Gezer said, nodding his head. "It is said that it was a woman who fell from the Pillar of Eternity. She claimed to be a witch, a woman who knew magic. She could fly. She created a piece of paper that using symbols and words to produce power, and used magic and ointment to treat diseases. Four hundred years ago, she fell out of the Pillar of Eternity where Fire tribe was guarding. She was injured badly. The Virgin of Fire used the power of the totem to cure her. The woman said that she came from another world. So I figure maybe she is the foreigner you are looking for."
"Four hundred years ago in this world should correspond to about eight hundred years ago on Earth," Hao Ren said quickly to Vivian. "The wizard who called Baptiste was active since about that same time?"
"It should be a little later. But by not much." Vivian nodded. "So we can say that these two incidents are connected."
"What happened to the witch? Is she still alive?" Hao Ren looked at him anxiously, awaiting his reply.
"She died a long time ago," replied Gezer truthfully. "According to the old folks, the Virgin of Fire had extended the life of the witch for seventeen years, but she had inhaled too much vapor and toxins above the Pillar of Eternity when she fell from above. So she did not make it that long."
Vivian became very curious. "Where was she buried? Did she leave anything behind?"