Whenever night fell, the silver moons hung high in the sky. Standing on the earth in Holletta, watching the night sky was a very different experience from watching it on Earth. The two moons—one big, one small—sprinkled their glow upon the earth. The most striking feature of the primary moon was always its irregular red spot.
It was the former site of the legendary moon city. During ancient times, the Magic Empire used incredible technology to send humans into space. The mortals at that time were even capable of building cities and factories on the moon. In those years, the moon was as bustling as the earth, with vast fields, magic towers, and large transit stations or landing platforms for ships to transport passengers to and fro, day and night.
However, when the catastrophic natural disaster struck, the moon and the earth suffered the same fate. Holletta's ancient manuscripts recorded the terrible scenes witnessed by stargazers on the surface of the earth: a dozen small red spots suddenly appeared on the moon. These red spots then expanded rapidly at a speed that was visible to the naked eye. The silhouette of the city on the moon's surface seemed to be engulfed by the red spots as quickly as the melting of cheese in a hot oven. The whole moon became blood-red, and it slowly faded after a few days. The last remaining redness was the Great Red Spot. People firmly believed that the Great Red Spot was the same thing as the Beinz Blood Lake.
But, whether the red spot on the lunar surface was another blood lake or not remained to be seen.
After bidding farewell to Becky, Hao Ren did not choose to directly teleport back to Alamanda Station. Instead, he released the Petrachelys into the remote wilderness before setting off to the planet's giant satellite—the primary moon.
The space there was dark and vast, and the stars in the Plane of Dreams were just as colorful as the ones in the real world. Among the bright stars, no one knew how many more small worlds, which harbored life had been discovered. As his perspective broadened, Hao Ren was only beginning to consider many things that he had never taken the initiative to think about as he sailed in space. He looked at the twinkling stars and realized that finding all the planets with the Seed of Origin was almost impossible. He had to find some kind of shortcut or pattern, which could perhaps allow him to restore the drifting route originally taken by the Seed of Origin tens of millions of years ago. He could even extrapolate the whereabouts of the goddess of creation.
"It's totally silent." Stuck to the control panel of the spacecraft, the MDT lamented, "Just dead silence."
Vivian looked up, perplexed. "What do you mean by 'totally silent'?"
"This universe." The MDT switched on the transmission monitor. "Look at these channels, only our own signal is present. All types and frequencies of local communication channels are silent; electromagnetic waves, gravitational waves, quantum communications, subspace interference... nothing. Just silence. All channels are silent. You don't feel it, but I feel like I'm floating in a desert. The whole universe is pitch quiet. There are only a few oases that are still lingering like Holletta, which don't even possess the ability to make their voices heard outside their own star system."
"The quieter it gets, the more disturbing it becomes. This means, those civilizations that have the ability to go interstellar may be extinct, or else the universe wouldn't be as silent as this." Hao Ren shook his head. From his Dimensional Pocket, he took out a foot-long, silver-white metal canister, which contained a sample of the tissues taken from the Divine Sarcophagus. "Lily, send this to the lab. The server is ready."
Lily ran out with the jar. Vivian looked up at Hao Ren and said, "You're going to clone the Seed of Origin, aren't you?"
"Uh... you guessed it?" Hao Ren scratched his head. "I thought I managed to hide it from Orben pretty well."
"Come on. Only bumpkins would believe those statements you made in cohorts with the MDT. You won't be able to fool me. It's not like I don't know what an electromagnetic wave is. As long as you can reproduce the same frequency, carbon-based or silicon-based, who cares?" Vivian said. "The purpose for your collection of samples is to study the Seed of Origin."
"I was afraid that if I had made my intentions clear, Cardinal Orben would not be so willing to cooperate with us, let alone let us have the samples," said Hao Ren, smiling wryly. "The Seed of Origin equals to the goddess. We didn't know what their bottom line was, so it was better to beat around the bush."
"But, do you really think it's that easy to clone the Seed of Origin?" Vivian's brows were pulled together. "I don't think it's a living creature in the conventional sense... Although it seems to have flesh and blood, God knows what we'll get. Be careful. If things get out of hand, it could become a biohazard."
Hao Ren nodded. "I know. The success rate of cloning is probably less than 10 %... but it's better than nothing. At least we can find out what the Seed of Origin is made up of."
"Have you gotten any ideas on how to handle the remaining two First Borns?" Nangong Wuyue had not interrupted them the entire time, but she chimed in all of a sudden. "It's said that the Giant Tree of Life is easier to deal with. The critical one is in the Volcano of Dusk. It's too unstable."
"There are a few preliminary plans, but I have to wait until I go back and consult with the experts." Hao Ren deliberately kept things suspenseful. Meanwhile, the MDT suddenly chimed in as well, "Let's not talk now. Here we are at the ruins of the moon."
The spacecraft had neared the primary moon's orbit and was rapidly descending. They zoomed past the moon at a height of two or three kilometers above its surface, and saw the ancient but almost unrecognizable face of the ruins.
The lunar surface was lifeless, gray and white. It was mostly flat and covered with fine debris, while the ruins of the Lunar Kingdom could be seen scattered everywhere. Traces of man-made objects could also be seen amidst the ruins. Some of them were gray debris like buildings or towers, which lay on the ground. But all of these things had been severely corroded. The degree of corrosion even made them appear "melted". The buildings had collapsed and all of their edges or corners were rounded, giving the impression that they had melted like plastic.
The MDT launched the image recovery system in the spacecraft, trying to restore the original appearance of the ruins. Soon, a holographic projection of a magnificent city covered the real lunar surface. The MDT used a few color patches to color-code different areas of the model. "This should be an exterior wall. It's completely crushed, and only the base is left. This location was probably a facility like an energy well. This piece is the take-off and landing pad for spacecrafts."
"The technology of the Ancient Magic Empire appears to be more advanced than we expected. Their lunar station wasn't just a small station, but a mature space colony. The planet must have undergone a profound ecological transformation." Nangong Wuyue stared at the lunar city simulated on the holographic projection, imagining the planet's lush greenery under a man-made dome. "Perhaps on top of our heads, there was once a layer of an ecological shield... Brother, can you please stop digging at the chair?"
Nangong Sanba was studying the spacecraft's seat. He looked up and eyeballed Hao Ren. "Did you really yank out a spaceship from thin air?"
Hao Ren rolled his eyes. "Haven't you realized by now?"
"Actually, no. Not yet," said Nangong Sanba, looking at Hao Ren in a dumbfounded manner. "Spaceships, alien technology, otherworldly magic; something isn't right here. Is the nature of your work considered science fiction or magical?"
"I think I'm a clergyman." Hao Ren nodded with a solemn face. "And if you continue to smash my spaceship, I'll throw you out—it's -200 °C outside. It's a vacuum."
Nangong Sanba immediately sat upright, revealing his usual big-tailed wolf appearance. "Of course, as a demon hunter, my ability to adapt is still very strong. What are we doing here by the way? Exploring an extrterrestrial civilization?"
"Do you still remember the tentacles you saw in the caverns?" Hao Ren pointed at an image on the holographic projection. "That thing can destroy a whole ecosystem, and we're here... to find out how that thing launched a star war."
The holographic projection showed the scene in front of the spaceship. At the end of the horizon, there was a red piece, which was the Great Red Spot on the moon.
It was a frozen blood lake.
"Look at those things by the lake." Lily's fluffy hair slowly stoodon end above her ears. "They look like tentacles..."