Chapter 1758: Raven 12345’s Help
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Two days later, over at Raven 12345’s “Upside-down Heaven”.
Hao Ren and Vivian did not head home after leaving the Plane of Dreams and went directly there, and alongside them, was Rheia in her material projection form.
Surprisingly, Raven 12345 had welcomed them rather normally. The heaven was not blown apart, the divine garden was not in flames, and the goddess was waiting in the garden in a gazebo, and frankly speaking, it was so normal that it felt like this lunatic of a goddess had swapped her soul with someone else…
All sorts of unique plants of unknown origins formed a wall of hedge around the gazebo as the arcane servant served freshly brewed tea to the guests alongside delicious teatime snacks. Hao Ren took a look into the teacup, and the glow of starlight flashed through the surface of the tea.
On the opposite side of the round table sat Raven 12345 with a calm face. She raised her teacup and smiled as she looked at Hao Ren. “What’s that expression for?”
Hao Ren was staring at his boss who was sitting opposite him. “F*ck me… Did you just swap your soul with someone else? You’re so not you today! Afraid of an unannounced inspection from above?”
“Can you actually say something nice for once?” Raven 12345 glanced at Hao Ren. “I too sometimes, have to present the manner and bearing of befitting of the highest administrator of this universe, as I already know why you are here for. And if I’m not wrong… the war in the Plane of Dreams is not too far away right?”
Hao Ren was indeed surprised. “How did you know?”
“With the Plane of Dreams so intertwined with the surface world, I could still slightly sense the changes over ‘there’ even if I don’t enter there.” Raven 12345 smiled. “And I have been paying attention to the balance and changes of both worlds, and I saw a systemic fluctuations in the stability of the Plane of Dreams, and quite a number of corrupted information were seeping through the Wall of Reality, why wouldn’t I be able to guess that the Mad Lord was about to break free?”
Seeing how the goddess had purposely waxed lyrical, Hao Ren now knew why the goddess was acting all divine today. The detection of the changes in the Plane of Dreams was a rare opportunity for her to do something serious for once, and following that he knew was going to need to give his own report, so that presentation was just to make her look good.
However, Hao Ren did not break her facade, and just went along with a nod. “You’re right. If nothing goes wrong, the final battle will take place in about a month’s time. But I have another thing to tell you today… We’ve finally found out the identity of the godslayer back then.”
Raven 12345 had a surprised look on her face, and she quickly picked up her teacup to hide her surprise. “Oh? I remember that it was a poor sod who was totally annihilated by the Divine Wrath right? You still have something to report on that?”
Hao Ren took a deep breath, and as he was certain that Raven 12345 had taken a gulp of tea he pointed to himself. “That was me in my past life.”
“Pfft!!!”
Hah, pretend more!
Raven 12345 tea was spat out at least three meters away, and her carefully cultivated image was ruined in an instant. She threw the teacup aside and stood right up, glaring at Hao Ren. “You did that on purpose didn’t you!”
“And what do you mean by that? What do you mean ‘me in my past life?”
Vivian was even more surprised than Raven 12345, as she gawked at Hao Ren and Rheia, and only recovered after a good while. “Ah… so that was all that misdirection was all about back at the Creation’s Engine?
Hao Ren sighed as he explained rather conflictedly, “Where should I even start… I actually did not regain any memories of my past life, it was probably destroyed by the Divine Wrath that time, what I saw was a complete image from the Gilded Disc…”
He then narrated what happened at the manufactorium of the Creation’s Engine, and that was the first time he had told this truth to anyone upon leaving that place. And even after he had completed, Raven 12345 and Vivian were still in a daze.
Finally, Raven 12345 spoke, “…You sure you’re not here due to pre-combat stress to start pulling my leg?”
“Blergh, if I needed to pull someone’s leg, I might as well look for Lily.” Hao Ren facepalmed. “It’s all true, and I have the goddess of creation as a witness.”
“Yes, I can vouch for that.” Rheia raised her hand. “I joined too and had a first-person view to boot. I got stabbed again as well.”
Vivian cast a weird glance at Hao Ren. “So… you had killed Rheia in the past, and save her in this… No, wait… hold the phone, I’m confused.”
Rheia, as the ‘victim’, actually spoke up herself, “Vivian, you don’t have to think too deep into this. There were many hidden things back then, and if we are not wrong, Hao Ren’s stabbing was intended.”
The totally confused Vivian still managed to answer subconsciously, “We already know that, that you were the one instigating the Godslaying War…”
Rheia became serious as she reiterated, “What I mean is, Hao Ren’s ‘stabbing’, was intended.”
“Eh?” Only then did Vivian actually recover. “You mean…”
“Hao Ren… I mean, his past self was possibly the only godslayer who had joined the Godslaying War knowing the entire truth.” Rheia nodded. “We’ve found a clue and can confirm that in his past life, he had some sort of understanding with me back then. We can be sure that the Divine Wrath killing him was a ruse, and its real use was similar to that of Yggdrasil’s ‘Rune of the World Traveller’, whereby it sends someone from the Plane of Dreams to the surface world—”
Raven 12345 immediately interrupted her, “You don’t need to say anymore. I understand. You drew Hao Ren’s spirit out after he killed you, and threw his spirit to where Yggdrasil’s present location was, that means Earth right? So both of you had planned this from the beginning.”
Hao Ren nodded. “Yes, but we just were not able to fully confirm this fact, and its all conjecture.”
Vivian gave Hao Ren another odd look. “So what were you two planning back then?”
The one who answered was Rheia. “One thing we’re sure of is that my plans back then were all towards the same objective. I had made sure every arrangement would be concerted with one another, or tagged on, like Yggdrasil and its refugees from the Plane of Dreams, the Weaves of Destiny and the Throne of Destiny included, the Creation’s Engine included, and you included. The core of all of these plans, or the top most ‘node’, is you.”
Vivian blinked. She, of course, understood what the latter meant. Her identity as the “guide” and the “highest node in the Weaves of Destiny” aside, she had no idea what Rheia was up to. “And?”
“And? Then everything fell into place. The godslayer and I would stage a play, then the godslayer’s spirit would be sent to Earth. This is surely part of the plan, and this plan definitely has something to do with you. Just like how all lines would converge on a signal dote, you are that dot in all of my plans.”
As she said that, Rheia gently smacked her forehead. “But… I totally don’t remember what sort of promise I had with the godslayer, and why did I send him over to Earth. This memory is not separated, rather it is totally annihilated. That means…”
“That means this matter needs to be hidden from the goddess of annihilation.” Vivian was a smart one, and almost immediately caught on the key issue there. “Since both, you and the goddess of creation shared your memories, you totally wiped that memory clean at the very last minute of the deicide!”
“So we can go with the suggestion that this matter had a higher ‘priority’ over whatever arrangements you had made,” Raven 12345 said slowly. “Even if the Creation’s Engine was something for you to erase yourself, you had not hidden it from the goddess of annihilation… Ah, that Creation’s Engine is probably a ruse itself, meant for the goddess of annihilation to see?”
“It is not a ruse.” Rheia shook her head. “At least not in its entirety.”
“Interesting… very interesting. You guys sure played it big. Cheating someone is easy, but cheating yourself as well, that takes a lot of effort,” Raven 12345 said as she stroked her chin, an expression of intrigue etched on her face as her gaze moved between Hao Ren and Rheia, before finally falling on Vivian. “So… you guys finding me today is probably due to me knowing more about the divine arts than all three of you combined, so you want me to help look into what use was that ‘godslaying’ play was all about?”
Hao Ren and Rheia nodded at the same time.
“Then I do have an idea.” Raven 12345 smiled. “But I need both Hao Ren you and Vivian’s cooperation.”
“I have no objections.” Hao Ren nodded as he looked at Vivian. “But you…”
“If you have none, so do I,” Vivian replied. “After all, the goddess won’t do us harm.”
“Then that’s settled.” A mysterious smile appeared on Raven 12345’s face.”I need to inspect your souls for a bit. If I’m not wrong, there’s probably something hidden in your souls, something.. hidden even from me.”
Raven 12345’s ‘inspection’ was not the lengthy process with all sorts of weird rituals that Hao Ren had imagined, and in truth, as Raven 12345’s voice trailed off, both he and Vivian felt a sudden giddiness, and that quickly faded a few seconds later, with Raven 12345 looking at them slightly oddly.
“Is the inspection… over?” Hao Ren said, rather amazed.
“Ah, it’s nothing complicated.” Raven 12345 frowned, and she too seemed to be surprised. “Weird… I had never noticed this before, but why did it appear now…”
“What appeared?” Hao Ren tensed up. “Will souls actually grow? Was it me or Vivian?”
“It’s you. I had detected a new series of information in your soul… and if I’m not wrong when you had made contact with the truth recorded in the Gilded Disc, a seal was broken, and this series of information can form a bond with Vivian’s soul.”
Hao Ren asked eagerly, “What does that information do?”
“Take that Godslayer blade out.” Raven 12345 took a deep breath. “I’ll teach you how to use it. This is something you should have originally mastered.”