The four ascetics did not speak after the spacecraft entered the hyperspace state. Other than Big Beardy, the other three simply sat on the floor, closed their eyes and began to meditate. Hao Ren wanted to talk to them about The Plane of Dreams and the Disciples of Glory, but they were not keen on chatting: they answered all the questions just now only because they desperately needed to know their situation. Now that they already understood their situation, the ascetics were back to a blank state.
However, Lily's actions were never affected by the atmosphere. She did not care if they wanted to talk to her and started to talk to the three ascetics sitting on the floor. "Hey, don't sit on the floor, there are chairs..."
The three ascetics sitting on the floor just shook their heads and did not say a word, but Big Beardy replied simply, "We do not need unnecessary enjoyment, meditating the teachings of the Goddess is already the highest pleasure."
Hao Ren scratched his head and looked at Big Beardy, and suddenly remembered something quite important. "Oh, yes! I forgot to ask your names!"
However, Hao Ren did not expect that Big Beardy only shook his head gently and said, "The monks have no names, we do not need a name, also do not need to be remembered by the name."
Hao Ren was shocked. "No Name? You all don't have a name? How do you usually call each other? And how do you usually do things without a name?"
Hao Ren felt like he had heard something unimaginable. He could not imagine how a group of people with no name could live or work. How did they assign tasks? How did they communicate with each other? How did they know who they mean when they talk about other ascetics? How did they report if someone met an accident out there? But Big Beardy looked really serious. Obviously, he was not joking.
"We don't need a name." Big Beardy spread his hand and then tilted his head to the other three ascetics sitting next to him. Although no one was talking, and they did not open their eyes, but one of them slightly nodded and said, "The ascetics have their own interaction and identification methods. The Pope may also be able to contact each of the ascetics by a secret method. Other than that, we don't need to be responsible to anyone, nor do we need any more complex social interactions."
Hao Ren was amazed to learn that these ascetics had built something like the spiritual network! They did have names, but only those within their 'network' knew how to recognise them. He wondered how the network was established, was it simply by means of this boring meditation?
But Big Beardy had stopped answering him anymore questions. This ascetic also lowered his head, entering the meditative state like the other three. "Notify us after arriving at the destination."
The four ascetics sat on the floor as if they were in an endurance competition. They were as lifeless as statues and even turned the entire bridge into a dreary place. Lily could not stand the boring atmosphere. She soon started walking restlessly around the four ascetics, and then ran around them, and sniffed at them and muttered, "So bored so bored… they make the air so stuffy! How come I didn't feel this way when we're on the planet of little green men…"
"Of course, they didn't meditate that time. Come back here, don't disturb them. They are meditating." Vivian was sitting in her seat comfortably, lecturing Lily while knitting. A number of silvery-white thick thread balls were in the small basket on her lap. Lily ran to the basket when she saw those thick thread, grabbed a thread ball and compared it to the fur on her tail and said, "Wow, this is my fur… and you turn them into threads in such a short time? How did you do it?"
"The power of magic," Vivian answered while knitting fast. When she saw Lily was rubbing the ball of thread against her tail, she poked Lily's arm with the end of the needle and said, "Don't bother, they won't grow back. But if you don't mind becoming a hairy monster again, I can get you some hair tonic, maybe I could knit a sweater for landlord… And get me a pair of gloves."
The furs on Lily's tail all stood up the moment she heard this. She quickly threw away the thread ball and ran back to her chair, curled up and dozing off.
Actually, The Sacred Relic of Origins was already on the Petrachelys, and Hao Ren could have started experimenting with the Orb of the Holy Synod after leaving the planet of little green men. However, he wanted to keep a sample for researching purpose, so he gave the Mobile Data Terminal one hour to replicate The Sacred Relic of Origins and hide it from the ascetics. After the spacecraft stopped at Kuiper Station, Hao Ren woke the ascetics up, and pretended to communicate with the port handling department, and then told them seriously, "Well, the equipment has been placed in the spacecraft's laboratory, let's go to see whether the orb belongs to it."
The four statues... Well, the four ascetics immediately stood up without a second of delay and said, "Let's go."
They rushed to the scientific research cabin, and half of them were there to watch the fun. The original version of The Sacred Relic of Origins had been put away, and its replica was now placed on the research device in the center of the laboratory, looking exactly the same as authentic one. In fact, they looked exactly the same. The shipborne plant would never make a mistake in replicating such a 'simple device', and the replication accuracy was Gangplank level.
So the replica in the middle of the room could also be called the genuine 'The Sacred Relic of Origins'.
The ascetics ignored the dazzling, advanced machines in the scientific research cabin. All their attention was placed on The Sacred Relic of Origins. This 'ancient' device had a huge difference from any creation in The Plane of Dreams, but the four ascetics saw a hint of familiarity from their homeland from the lines on the device. The MDT directed the manipulator to open the cover board of the upper part of the sacred relic, and the round hole of the football-size appeared in front of them.
"This…" Big Beardy's heart pounded when he saw the lines in the round hole. He had been guarding the orb for so many years, thus he
thus he knew every detail of the orb like the palm of his own hand. Even with just one quick glimpse, he was absolutely sure that the hole on the device was made for the orb!
Now the four ascetics had seen The Sacred Relic of Origins and they finally believed what Hao Ren told them. Big Beardy took out the Orb of the Holy Synod with great care, but he still looked at Hao Ren cautiously and said, "Let me put it in… and you have to make sure that there's absolutely no accident in the process, and there must be absolutely no damage to the orb!"
Hao Ren quickly affirmed the safety of the process over and over again. He almost wanted to vow in the name of Raven 12345, but he might as well don't do it. Then, he lowered the platform in the center of the room slowly. Big Beardy gritted his teeth then stepped forward, held the Orb of the Holy Synod in his hands in a respectful manner and placed it in the hole of The Sacred Relic of Origins.
"Click." The cover was closed tightly.
The energy was immediately injected into the sacred relic, and the replica immediately emitted a muffled hum. A moment later, a monotonous, stiff voice came from the sacred relic, "System self-test passed, reloading important plug-ins. Confirming database... The database has minor damage, repairing... Repair completed. Partial redundant function is restricted, the main function of the equipment is ready."
Hao Ren was pleasantly surprised. Though it was expected, he still got very excited and said, "Hurry up! Let's see what this device makes!"
The Mobile Data Terminal was also very happy. It floated in the air and directed a few self-regulated machines to move some strange containers here and explained, "That's easy. Just add in some raw materials then press the start button, then read the database while the machine is running."
Hao Ren urged the Mobile Data Terminal to start and stood behind The Sacred Relic of Origins to observe it curiously. Even Lil Pea also jumped onto the device while nobody was watching: The little kid The little kid had no idea what is was, but watching her dad was so excited, she thought this huge device must be very powerful.
Probably it was her long-lost aunt.
A small part of the outer case of The Sacred Relic of Origins was quickly removed, several 'inlet pipes' was also opened. Various materials synthesised from the shipborne plant were injected into it in turn. The MDT, while directing the injection of raw materials, was reading the core of the sacred relic, which was the database of the Orb of the Holy Synod, to confirm that the ingredients are not faulty. The orb was indeed a storage and processing device. Unfortunately, it just started running a moment ago. A lot of data could only be read later. Now the MDT could only confirm the raw material list.
"Water... Normal. Group A protein... Normal. Acidification complex... Normal. Mineral Group 01... Normal. Mineral group 02... Normal..." The Mobile Data Terminal read it out while comparing with the list, and everybody was looking forward to something in its slow voice.
According to the description of the sacred relic, this was a very quick synthesiser. It only took a little while to create what you want. Hao Ren had started figuring out at which step he should stop it: he did not want to create a man with senses but was uncontrollable, and that was going to be a hassle.
But nobody realised that Lil Pea was still lying in a little corner at the back of The Sacred Relic of Origins: This corner was the location of the main inlet pipe, and the little mermaid was hidden by the cover of the inlet pipe.
Lil Pea lowered her head and looked at the inlet pipe, and then put her head in to smell it, she then immediately slapped her tail happily: She thought this should be very delicious.
And then she jumped in happily.