Ten minutes earlier, the fortress of the Bethanos Family was bombarded into oblivion by Hessiana using a massive stockpile of weaponry she accumulated since World World II. The shadelings that stubbornly resisted had mostly been finished off too. The shadelings' defeat proved that the strength of the Hessiana Family, who had been staying relatively low-profile for the last 100 hundred years had actually surpassed that of the shadelings. When the pyschopathic vampires showed up with their high-tech weaponry, the half-demon luddites were crushed to the ground like bugs.
However, their leader had escaped.
By the time they arrived in the basement of the fortress, the altar and magic formation had all been destroyed. The keystone had been smashed into pieces. Bethanos found another warp point, which he had blown up after escaping through it into the ruins.
But this did not hold Hao Ren and his team back; the entry method which the MDT had recorded earlier worked like a charm in the Fortress of Shadows. They summoned up another portal to the ruins. Hessiana ordered her men to stay back and guard the portal before they entered the other dimension, which they had nearly died in.
However, when they stepped through the portal, what laid before them was just a desert.
Lily squatted on a sand dune not far away, ecstatic. Hao Ren stared at the strange scene, dumbfounded. Under the gloomy, ember sky, endless yellow sand dunes stretched to the end of the horizon. He looked into the distance; aside from some sporadic withered plants and weathered rocks of various odd shapes, it was basically a desolute place without any landmarks or ruins—of course, Bethanos was nowhere to be seen too.
"Shouldn't it be a sea of cloud?" Becky gazed around nervously with sword in her hand. The strange changes in the environment had triggered her sixth sense as a mercenary—she had not forgotten that she was almost toasted to death in the very same place. In fact, she was still wary of the energy storm, which could have been still brewing. She did not want to set her foot there again but, she went in anyway.
"It seems like a different entrance to the ruins leads to a different scene." Hessiana scratched her chin, trying to figure it out. "The keystone is only valid at a certain spatial warp point. I found a warp point at the entrance of the Parthenon but it appears that there are now more than one. Of course, it's possible that it has nothing to do with the coordinates; Bethanos must have changed the settings in the ruins. He knows the ruins more than I do."
For safety, Nangong Wuyue shapeshifted into a sesnake before she entered the ruins. She was flabbergasted at what she saw. She curled up like a mosquito coil, lying listlessly.
It must have been a very horrible experience for a marine creature to come to the desert.
"Do you want to go back out?" Hao Ren took out a pail, which was originally meant for Lil Pea from his dimensional pocket. He sprinkled water on Nangong Wuyue's tail and said, "This place is not for you..."
"I'm fine. I can get used to it." The water did wonders and Nangong Wuyue regained her vitality. Then she focused her mind, drawing out moisture from the air and sand to form a thin layer of damp air around everyone. "At least, it's better than nothing."
"MDT, scan." Hao Ren thrusted the MDT—the only one not affected by the harsh environment—up into the air.
The MDT rose up to a high altitude. It used its long-range radar, which was more powerful than person's normal perception to scan the area. Then it descended and projected a large holograhic arrow, pointing towards a specific direction. "Go in that direction. There's a moutain range there. There seems to be something fun just across the hill."
Hao Ren thought for a while and decided to take the shortcut. "You fly. But before that, teleport us over there."
"Lazy bugger!" The MDT ceremoniously sputtered a protest. Nonetheless, it never disregarded its responsibility when it came to business; the MDT faded into a beam of blue light and disappeared into the horizon before everyone was teleported to a rocky mountaintop. The MDT landed on Hao Ren's shoulder. "I've brought you to the mountaintop. Now, do you see what's down at the bottom?"
They were just recovered from their dizziness after the teleportation, and they began to scan their surroundings. Hao Ren first saw a boundless stretch of yellow sand on one side where they had come from. On the other side, a vast expanse of barren plains. There were also wastelands covered in gravel, and a large basin. Looking farther ahead, there was another equally desolute mountain range.
Two mountain ranges, plains and a basin in between; it seemed nothing was out of the ordinary. Yet, Hao Ren felt an inexplicable sense of strange sight in his mind's eye.
He searched his memory as he looked at the terrain: he did not know how far the moutain range under his feet stretched. The curved belt of the mountain range near the desert in the far end was amazing; its peaks and gaps looked just like a giant spine.
"Whoa!" Suddenly Lily came out of her daze. "It looks like Dragonspine Ridge!"
"That basin below must be the Beinz Blood Lake." Vivian nodded. "The plains must be the Gnarled Grove. What's going on?"
The MDT hovered mid air, presenting the precise topograhy of the desert via holographic projection, then rendering vegetation and blood-red water over it. The finished image was almost shockingly familiar—it was Beinz Blood Lake.
Hao Ren's jaw dropped to the ground.
"We're obviously still in the other dimension, not in The Plane of Dreams." The MDT turned off the projection. "Presumably, these recoded images are just scenes of The Plane of Dreams in the past—before the Beinz Blood Lake formed, the steppe was just a desert, and the Beinz Blood Lake was just a basin. It seems that the legend of The Plane of Dreams has many variations. The one we're seeing right now must be the scene before the goddess banished the world—a desolute place."
Becky was in awe. "What do you guys think, if I turn this scene into a painting and sell it to the historians and the Church—"
"More likely than not, you'll be tied to a pyre and burned for two hours as they sprinkle cumin on you." Nangong Wuyue gave the mercenary a sideways look. "Even if you're not burned alive, you'll be treated as a psyhopath."
Becky stuck her tongue out silently. Hessiana was standing behind Vivian and her curiosity was overflowing. She could not help but ask, "What are you guys rattling about? This isn't the first time you're talking about The Plane of Dreams!" Then, she pointed at the MDT. "And what is this talking and hologram making brick all about? When did the human shaman come up with such a gadget?"
Cold sweat instantly dripped down from Hao Ren's forehead. He had unknowingly treated Hessiana as his own member after just spending half a day with her. Only then did he realize that Hessiana was a pure-bred vampire, who knew nothing.
He hurriedly asked the MDT if it had some sort of gadget where people could lose their memory with a click of a button. But Vivian had a better idea; she glared at Hessiana and said, "It's a secret. Don't ask."
Hessiana nodded solemnly as if she just signed a military order before going into the battlefield.
How great would it have been if she was this obedient all the time.
Lily was jumping with agility from one rock to another, exploring her surroundings. Suddenly, she stopped right on top of a rock and pointed at something. "Hey, see that? It's the temple. The temple's gone up to the mountainside!"
They finally found the Cloud Temple, which was presumably the heart of the ruins. However, this time, it was not floating in the sky. It was inlaid at the side of Dragonspine Ridge as if it was fused together with the mountain. Also, it was not in a collapsed state: it was almost shredded into pieces during the energy storm but now, it was still intact from the looks of it.
"Bethanos must be in there!" Hessiana shouted excitedly before she spread her wings out and flew towards the mountainside. Nangong Wuyue followed closely behind but, instead of flying, she was rolling down the slope, screaming. "Help... I can't stop!"
Y'zaks was shocked at the sight. "Why does she like to curl herself up like a ball?"
Nangong Wuyue answered as she rolled down towards the side of the mountain, "To prevent...moisture loss—"
Hao Ren was speechless.
Once again, it had to be a very horrible experience for a marine creature to come to the desert.