Chapter 1520: The Dilemma and the Way Out
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The exploration of the Crimson Moon had yielded completely unexpected results.
Hao Ren was initially only interested in the Crimson Moon. He just wanted to know what the Crimson Moon was and how it would be structured if it had entities. However, he did not realize that he had not only explored the mystery of the Crimson Moon but also been drawn into an illusion, giving him huge amounts of information. What’s more, he also accidentally activated Vivian’s memory and learned the surprising secret that the Goddess of Creation had been split into two.
Although there was no clear evidence to prove it, Hao Ren had good reason to believe that Vivian’s sudden recovery of memory was related to the test of the Crimson Moon.
Now he could not determine how deeply the Goddess of Creation was influenced by the Mad Lord, how many of the ‘final acts’ before the Goddess’s fall were her own will and how many were aimed at releasing the Mad Lord. To be safe, he could only temporarily stop the construction of the Creation’s Engine because he was worried that the function of the Creation’s Engine would be to release the Mad Lord…
He wanted to reexamine the blueprint for the Creation’s Engine, and if possible, it’s better to have Raven 12345 reanalyze it to make sure it was safe.
There was a mountain of data to be collated and earth-shaking news needed to be reported. Hao Ren felt that he was going to be really busy.
Vivian had recovered after a rest, and the ritual hall on the top of the tower quickly resumed its normal operation. The large-scale experiment, which was relatively successful, came to an end. Hao Ren found Hilda and thanked the elves of Aerym for their strong support.
“This is what we should do,” said the Queen, relieved to see Vivian recover. Facing Hao Ren’s thanks, she just smiled and shook her head. “And if anything, Aerym has benefited a lot from this experiment. We are the ones who should really thank you.”
Hao Ren raised an eyebrow and asked, “Really?”
Hilda smiled and explained, “The process of summoning the Crimson Moon is too complicated. Although we have collected a lot of data, none of the royal mages can understand the principle. It is the analysis of moonlight and the process of observing Vivian’s use of energy that gives us great inspiration. I believe that we only need a period of research to make significant progress in energy extraction.”
Allowing the elves of Aerym to involve in the summoning ritual was not only because Hao Ren needed a group of mage assistants, but also because the elves could benefit from the ritual. The Crimson Moon itself was an extraordinary creation that was difficult to understand by mortal races, but Vivian’s rather superficial skills in the process of gathering magic could still be studied. Those who had been civilized on Earth might not be able to do so, the elves of Aerym, however, had been trapped in their homeworld for nearly 10,000 years. Although they had not been able to leave the galaxy, they had been forced by this dilemma to accumulate thousands of years of basic technology, and even pointed out many advanced technologies beyond their civilized level. They had the accumulation of technology far beyond the same level of civilization, just needed an opportunity.
Now the resourceful new Aerym had given them this environment, and the Crimson Moon had given them inspiration in the field of new technology.
At first, Hilda and her royal mages hesitated, but Hao Ren offered to invite their technical experts to attend to dispel their doubts. After all, this was a process that both sides could benefit from, and the Crimson Moon was not the science and technology from the Xi Ling Celestials, so it was not against the rules to let the lower civilization study it.
After that, the elves invited Hao Ren and his friends to stay on the planet for a few more days, but Hao Ren politely declined the hospitality. Dealing with the great news of the Goddess of Creation, he really did not have time to waste.
Hao Ren immediately got busy when he got home.
First, all the new information collected in this ‘experiment’ was sorted out and uploaded to Raven 12345. At the end of the report, it was noted that he hoped that the superiors would provide technical support (the kind that would not explode) to re-examine the blueprint of the Creation’s Engine. Later, he found out all the information about the Goddess of Creation in the past two years, comparing and searching one by one, in order to find the contradictions among them and to speculate on the influence of the power of the Mad Lord on the Goddess of Creation. If possible, he hoped that he could find the ‘dividing line’ between the Goddess of Creation and the Mad Lord.
The ‘dividing line’ was a series of quantifiable and retrospective behavioral characteristics. These special characteristics could help Hao Ren to analyze which personality of the Goddess of Creation acted at that moment. Hao Ren wanted to find these characteristics from various clues and organize them into a comparative list.
But it seemed a little difficult.
Hao Ren sat on the sofa while the data terminal floating in front of him and projecting a large amount of sorted data, which had been collected in the past two years, all about the Goddess of Creation. Hao Ren’s eyes swept through these materials line by line, and his expression was particularly serious.
Lil Pea lay on his lap, quietly playing with a miniature Rubik’s Cube (which Nangong Wuyue made for her). The little fellow did not understand anything about the Goddess of Creation, but she knew that dad was doing a very important job, so she was very well behaved and did not make trouble.
And beside Hao Ren, there were two assistants: Nangong Sanba and Lily. They were also helping to analyze the data and give some useful suggestions.
Nangong Sanba could not help much in the battle, but this guy had far more information analysis and collation ability than others.
As for Lily… As long as she took out those yellowing graduation certificates, no one in the family dared to say that they were smarter than her…
After studying the data for a while, Nangong Sanba said, “It should be impossible to separate the acts of the two personalities of the Goddess of Creation from these things, at least from the things we have at hand, her acts did not show clear divergent purposes.”
Lily shook her head, too. “Although the Goddess of Creation eventually split into two, these two individuals are not completely separated. They influence each other, so each action of the Goddess of Creation has two personality factors interfering at the same time. The difference should be that the proportion of the two interfering factors is different. Sometimes the Goddess of Creation gained the upper hand, sometimes the Mad Lord did, but it’s unrealistic to separate the two completely.”
Hao Ren touched his chin and said, “Taking the Creation’s Engine as an example, that thing may indeed be used by the Goddess of Creation to save the world, but there may be parts in it that are the work of the Mad Lord. On the contrary, there may be a glimmer of the kindness of the Goddess of Creation in the actions of the Mad Lord…”
Lily and Nangong Sanba nodded and said, “That’s almost what it means.”
“That’s a lot of trouble. Our plan has always been to revive the Goddess of Creation and kill the Mad Lord, but now the two are inextricably entangled, which makes it difficult to do. Let say, if one day I found the grave of the Goddess of Creation and I started digging the grave, but halfway of digging I found the bone of the Mad Lord, should I keep on digging?”
Nangong Sanba looked at Hao Ren for a while, nodded slowly and said, “Landlord, you really have a unique mind…”
“Actually, that’s what I’m most worried about right now…” said Vivian. “The memory I inherited from my bloodline goes on until the god-slayers attacked the temple, and I don’t know what happened after that. The Goddess of Creation split into two. One of them was assassinated and fell. But what about the other one? No one knows what happened to of Goddess No.2. Logically, she was supposed to be somewhere in the godslaying battlefield, and most probably she would be dragged into the darkness with the explosion… If we ever find the Goddess of Creation, the one we save will be the Goddess or the Mad Lord?”
It made the atmosphere even more solemn. Hao Ren had a feeling that countless previous efforts were going to die because he chose the wrong flag at the beginning.
He then figured out one more thing:
Why did Vivian’s soul rot like a ‘congenital disease’ and, because of this, she had frequently fallen asleep, gone crazy, and released Malevolence?
Now even this has an explanation — even the birth of Vivian was influenced by the Mad Lord.
Vivian herself was an irrefutable proof that the Goddess of Creation was eroded by the Mad Lord.
Fortunately, even if they did not know the causes and consequences before, the crisis was finally lifted.
Just as Hao Ren was thinking about these questions in his head, Raven 12345 suddenly sent him a message in his mind.
“Hao Ren, I’ve received your report. You’re really a genius…”
“Don’t make fun of me, dear Goddess. I’m facing a big problem now. We’re discussing a serious issue: What if I do find the grave of the Goddess of Creation, but the one buried in it is the goddess controlled by the Mad Lord?”
Raven 12345 was speechless, but after a moment of silence, she gave her advice.
“Remember the Bible I gave you? The Bible of the Dark Valkyrie. It has a constant connection with the Goddess of Creation. Its boarding power is far stronger than the Mad Lord’s erosion on the Goddess of Creation. If you really meet the worst situation you’re talking about, release the power of the Bible.”