Chapter 1682 - Losing Something Important (1/2)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren and Rheia arrived at the upper level of the Basilica of Yggdrasil. It was located deep within the canopy and its vast area was akin to a circular plaza. Ten kilometers of thick branches and layers of massive leaves turned the area into an enclosed zone, but it was not dark and dreary in there, rather the light from Yggdrasil itself lit the entire cavity up. It was like day. Around the circular plaza, a few hundred wavy white pillars grew out of the tree trunk, holding up and parting the thick branches. They converged at the top to form a dome structure.
Glowing strands draped down from the elegant pillars, and at the end of every strand were tiny light orbs flying around. They were sprites who lived within Yggdrasil, responsible for maintaining the massive and complex automated system. They also ensured that every change in the universe was monitored.
In order to maximize the efficiency of Yggdrasil’s system, Hao Ren had linked the CARS’ data chain to it. As such, the circular plaza was like an extension of CARS, and Asurmen could project his consciousness over and use Yggdrasil’s processing capability to greatly increase his ability to listen. It was through the use of this system that he detected the unusual activity within the Dark Abyss when it first occurred.
A star-cloud image of Asurmen appeared at the center of the plaza as his soothing voice rang in Hao Ren’s ears. “I have noticed a total of three waves of energy fluctuations; each no more than three seconds apart. The first and second waves are much weaker, but the third one is so powerful that I don’t need the help of the gain antennas to detect it. The Mad Lord has been wounded by the explosion for sure, and that will give the prison wardens some breathing room.”
“The first and second fluctuations are probably the goddess of annihilation trying to suppress her divine powers from going out of control, but how can she suppress them… It really is a miracle that she has managed to hold it in until now.” As the resident master of explosions, Hao Ren gave his professional assessment, “And the explosion… Even if she survives, she’d be half dead.”
Rheia had a different line of thought, however. “We have sent them extremely good news. The guardians there will now know they are not forgotten, and someone outside is trying to fight against the Mad Lord.”
Hao Ren nodded as he looked at Asurmen again. “Anything else?”
“There’s even better news.” While Asurmen mentioned “good news”, his tone was impassive as ever. “The data transmission relay, which the droid swarm had near the Dark Abyss, has been activated successfully. Its effects are beyond my expectation, and I have started to receive clearer cosmic murmurs. Also, for a short time, I heard a conversation between the sentries. While I have yet to establish contact, we can be sure that the sentry system in the cage is still working, and the ancient defense line has not fallen.”
Hao Ren breathed a huge sigh of relief, and their progress had him pumped up. The relay was indeed useful! Now that there was a way to bridge the information cut-off between the Dark Abyss and the world outside without compromising the seal, if they could make contact with the sentries in there… the situation would vastly improve!
“Very well, your job is very important, keep it up,” Hao Ren said in a glad tone. “I’ll get the droid swarms to quickly set up more relays and supporting infrastructures. Perhaps we can make contact with your brethren very soon.”
After the briefing of what was going on within the Dark Abyss, Hao Ren disconnected the call with Asurmen, and the projection slowly faded away. He then turned to the goddess of creation. “How’s the construction of the stable gateway to the Umbral Realm going?”
“It is almost done, but it needs some tweaking. It still needs a heck load of energy for teleportation, and there is the problem with the navigation markers going out of place,” Rheia said as she gently touched one of the crystal prisms beside her. “Based on your suggestion, I have opened the gateway here…”
As she spoke, a light hum rang across the entire plaza.
Following that, the hundreds of curving white stone pillars entered a charging state and expanded across like delicate vines as a hundred-meter-wide circle opened above the semi-hemispheric dome. A glittering screen then covered the hole with energy pulsing within it.
It was clearly a teleportation gate, one connecting directly to the Umbral Realm.
The Umbral Realm was the most special part of the Plane of Dreams. In fact, it did not belong to the Plane of Dreams proper, rather, it was an independent, almost parasitic “world” that was “glued” onto the World Barrier of the Plane of Dreams. This meant that there was an issue connecting the two places with a localized hyperspace gateway. However, it was no longer a problem after they obtained that mysterious “marker”. Using Yggdrasil’s powerful computation abilities and energies, they could open a stable gateway into the Umbral Realm even without Nolan’s help, and the one before Hao Ren’s eyes today, was a result of that.
It was something that Hao Ren had asked Rheia to help with, and he had not interfered ever since. He never thought that in just a mere two days, Rheia would already construct a gateway that was good enough to use, but then again, it was normal. The marker into the Umbral Realm was computed by Rheia herself. Now with her academic capabilities inherited from her mother, and after going through Yggdrasil’s guidebook for two days, she had pretty much grasped what she needed as well. The next thing to do was simply to tie the marker and Yggdrasil together. For the intelligent goddess of creation… that was nothing difficult.
“Once the gateway is fully stable, we can commence our investigation of L’Haronne.” Hao Ren went through his plans, “I’ve gone back to talk to my boss, and both of us think that the Umbral Realm has many mysteries behind it, and L’Haronne is probably the center of it all. We even think that the Mad Lord isn’t only unique to the Plane of Dreams, and the Umbral Realm may very well be his first victim…”
There was little need to hide this information so Hao Ren told the goddess of creation everything, and the latter’s eye began to widen by the second. After she heard Hao Ren’s hypothesis on the “type of being” the Mad Lord was, she finally could not help but ask, “You mean, the Mad Lord moves from one universe to another the same way a virus spreads?!”
“Whether he spreads or not is still uncertain, but the Umbral Realm proves that he has the ability to search for new prey after he destroys a world.” Hao Ren nodded. “And frankly, that pushes the danger level up a few notches.”