The Record of Unusual Creatures

The relentless barrage lasted for about thirty minutes, or maybe much longer. As the blinding light disrupted everyone’s senses, the powerful energies distorted the space-time continuum around the epicenter of the explosion. Hao Ren only found it to be a long process, and this time around, there were no more doppelgangers. The goddess of annihilation was out of unpleasant surprises.

It seemed like she was either so badly suppressed by the blast that she could not budge or she had been totally annihilated.

To be honest, he did not think that such an attack could kill off a being who was considered a real god, even if said entity had been greatly weakened in addition to a bonus internal injury courtesy of Lil Pea. The best idea Hao Ren could think of was to severely injure the evil goddess to buy time for the rest to retreat, then come up with a plan to use the World Tree’s powers against her.

However, after the bombardment went on for a while, he started to have an unlikely hope. Perhaps he had hit the jackpot and could actually kill the goddess of annihilation right there and then? That would get him at least three-years-worth of a bonus!

Just as he was entertaining those nonsensical thoughts, the bombardment ceased.

It was not due to the starship’s weapon systems overheating or their ammunition depleting. Rather, it was because the dimension’s endurance had been pushed to the limit. The Umbral Realm was originally located in a very weak location by the edge of the world barrier and the void, the battle here had greatly weakened the order of the area, and if the bombardment were to continue, the entire zone of order may be pierced through, and trigger a catastrophe called the ‘Void Reflux’.

That will cause everything within the Umbral Realm, including Hao Ren and his team who had yet to retreat, and L’Haronne to be dissolved into basic information units, and could even damage the already fragile world barrier of the Plane of Dreams and drag a good part of the universe into the void storm, and send Raven 12345’s bonus for the latter part of her life down the gutter…

Everyone focused on nervously at the scene within the universe as the energy wave created by the barrage quickly faded away. And as the scorching dimension finally cooled down and once again visible, Hao Ren found it empty.

The pale evil goddess was nowhere to be seen.

A swarm of bats fluttered over to Hao Ren’s side as quickly reformed as Vivian. Her face was pale, and her eyes tired, but she still came to give Hao Ren a helping hand at the first opportunity. “Are you alright? Sorry, I couldn’t help you earlier. Got tangled up with that doppelganger…”

“I’m okay, all things considered. Got a few broken bones, and my heart stopped for a bit. They’ve regenerated, but it still hurts like hell.” Hao Ren hissed through his teeth as the pain, which he had suppressed by sheer will earlier, started to rear its head. That left him feeling like part of his body was no longer his own. “Ouch… some that b*stard’s attacks pierced through my shield… probably divine energies…”

Vivian frowned, clearly pained at Hao Ren’s condition. “Told you to spend more time studying the divine arts. Raven 12345 is a pretty decent person, plus it’s not like you need to pay anything to believe in her…”

“Bloody hell, it’s because it’s free that I cannot take it seriously.” Hao Ren clicked his tongue as he slipped in vulgarities. “‘Getting strong without whaling’ is actually a line printed on the latest edition of the scripture. Forget about reaffirming my faith, me not laughing outright is already testing the limits of my will…”

Badmouthing his goddess was the best stress reliever, and after that rant, he actually felt much better. Heaving a deep breath, he looked on at the flickering dimension ridden with lightning arcs. “say… did we actually took her out?”

A heavy footstep rang out from behind, as Y’zaks in his flame demon form walked over. His rock-like body had many wounds oozing lava and flame, but otherwise, he looked pretty stoked. Probably it was a while since he had to go all out with an equal foe, and today’s battle allowed him to move those old bones. Upon hearing what Hao Ren said, he thundered, “Probably done for, I cannot sense her presence anymore. And at that sort of bombardment… who can possibly survive that?”

“She also ate a similar barrage at the start and walked out unscathed before slapping us in the face with a wave of doppelgangers.” Hao Ren was dismissive. “Don’t look down on a real god’s vitality. That firepower earlier would merely be a scratch wound for a real god in his prime…”

“Your concern is well-founded.” Before Hao Ren could finish, the goddess of creation’s voice came from the side. “She’s escaped.”

Compared to the regal serenity she had when she woke up, the goddess was in a very sorry state now, and much weakened too.

Hao Ren was slightly stunned before his expression turned grim. While he thought that killing off the goddess of annihilation in this encounter was not probable, he did hope for it. But now that he got a clear answer from the goddess of creation, it did not feel good at all.

“Are you sure?” Hao Ren smiled bitterly at the goddess before shrugging without letting her answer. “All right, you’re definitely sure. She’s a part of you anyway…”

The goddess of creation was not bothered by Hao Ren’s reaction. She continued, “She did not run off herself. She was dragged away.”

Hao Ren’s eyes widened, as he and Vivian concurrently went, “Dragged away? By whom?”

“…It’s difficult to explain, and I might be wrong.” The goddess of creation pondered for a bit before she cautiously said, “You can take it as she was spirited away by the Mad Lord. But given that the Mad Lord does not have an objective consciousness, she was actually pulled away by the ‘natural phenomenon’ of the Dark Abyss.”

Hao Ren had only heaved a sigh of relief not too long ago, and this news almost gave him an aneurysm. “Huh?! You mean to say that the Mad Lord managed to drag her off under that barrage, right before our eyes?!”

By then, everyone had come over one by one, including Lily who had found a spot to transform back to her original form and had a change of clothes (the werehusky was asking for a water ball from Wuyue to quench her thirst). As they heard that bombshell, everyone went silent, waiting for the goddess of creation to continue.

She knew that the shock of this truth would be enormous, and she tried again to ascertain the remaining presence in the environment, using a sensory method unique to her to ascertain the evil goddess’ position at the very last moment. After a while, she nodded. “It is indeed. I guess that evil goddess herself is an extension of the Mad Lord, almost like a double. Hence the reason why that happened. The Mad Lord does not have an objective consciousness but it has its own way of operation. If part of its powers is trapped outside and is under threat, it will recall this power back. And that evil goddess seems to match the part.”

“Bloody hell, I thought taking out one of them while the two were apart.” Hao Ren slapped his forehead. “But does the Mad Lord have the ability to just whisk someone away from here? It’s the Umbral Realm! And it is whisking someone away across the world barrier…”

The MDT then floated over. “The Umbral Realm is not fully outside the world barrier, strictly speaking, it is a special dimension that is fused with the world barrier. While it is separate from the Plane of Dreams, but the separation has some limitation. The World Tree is able to extract us out of here as long as it has our beacon, and the connection between the Mad Lord and the goddess of annihilation is a natural beacon. Hence, the Mad Lord is certainly capable of pulling that off, even subconsciously.”

“A part of itself was close to being destroyed, so it had recalled this double back to the main body huh…” Lily was feeling much better after quenching her throat as she started muttering. “Seems like a being with a very basic reactive nervous system. It curls up after being poked…”

Nangong Wuyue, who was by her side immediately stuck her tail up, dissatisfied at the comment. “I just gave you a water orb, I don’t think that jab was warranted…”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Wasn’t talking about you.”

Hao Ren sighed as he shrugged. “Regardless, that battle earlier was pretty much a wasted effort. Sigh, well, looking on the bright side, we have survived a fight with a god-tier opponent, that’s a preliminary victory, I suppose.”

The goddess of creation glanced at Hao Ren as she smiled faintly. “Actually, you can be much more positive. While that evil goddess has been taken away by the Mad Lord, it is not all bad news.”

Hao Ren was dumbfounded. “Oh? How so?”

“First, while that evil goddess had escaped alive, she did not escape unscathed. I can sense that she was critically injured by the last attack, and for a being who had not fully recovered from her slumber, this was no mere injury, it is probably a permanent one. Simply put, she may not be able to recover to her prime for good; secondly, she has been dragged into the cage of the Dark Abyss, not another place. The Mad Lord’s ‘rescue’ has, in fact, simply locked her up. I’m still confident in the seal I placed back then, and that evil goddess won’t be escaping any time soon. We have time to do what we need to do; and finally… I think we actually gave the Mad Lord a very pleasant ‘surprise’…”

As she said, the silver-haired goddess turned towards Lil Pea who was bouncing on top of Wuyue’s tail.

The little one looked up in confusion, gazing at the goddess of creation. After confirming that this was not the “white baddie” who had attacked her earlier, she raised her arm and introduced herself softly and politely. “I’m Lil Pea! Hao Ren is my daddy!”

“You mean that the ‘surprise’ has something to do with Lil Pea?” Wuyue looked confused.

The goddess of creation pressed her chin while she looked on with interest. “First, I would like to know, why was that little one able to ward off the Apocalypse?”

“If I’m not wrong, the Apocalypse is technically a causality-type attack?” Hao Ren asked. “So, it cuts off the target’s causality to totally ‘wipe out’ the target?”

“Correct, but to be exact, it cuts off the target’s connection with the entire universe,” the goddess of creation explained. “Men are born to the universe and have countless connections to everything in the universe. Your body came from the universe, and your actions will leave corresponding effects and trails in the universe. Even if you are a speck of sand, you have a desert that you belong to. Apocalypse targets this in the attack. It severs this connection and causes the victim to lose the basis of existence in the causality.”

“Then that makes things easier to explain.” Hao Ren smiled, as he had expected. “Lil Pea’s uniqueness is not something you’d be able to think of. Her universe was long destroyed? The apocalypse? She had already been through that, and that was a real, proper apocalypse, not some half-baked world-ending spell. So her basis of existence was no longer tied to a certain universe, rather it is to the Xiling Celestials who had saved her from the apocalypse. So aside from my boss, and the bosses of my boss, no one has the ability to meddle with this causality, so…”

Hao Ren stopped for a moment in realization. “F*ck me, so what’s why that straight flush asked me to take Lil Pea along… This was basically a bloody reactive armor meant to blow up in the face of the goddess of annihilation.

“I don’t know what you mean by reactive armor, or a straight flush, but I could clearly tell that after that Apocalypse attack, that goddess of annihilation you were referring to suffered a very critical recoil damage,” The silver-haired goddess smiled, and Hao Ren was not sure if he was seeing things, but he could feel that a very nasty schadenfreude was hidden within the smile. “And this divine energy flux caused by the recoil must be released, and she did not have the opportunity to let out these out-of-control energies…”

Hao Ren finally understood as a similar expression of schadenfreude appeared on his face.

Lil Pea’s immunity to the Apocalypse had caused a recoil that turned the goddess of annihilation into a living bomb, and the living bomb had been summoned back to the Mad Lord’s lair…

Like all bombs… it was bound to blow up someday.