Chapter 1 The Crystal Core Research Station

The Crystal Core Research Station was a space station constantly undergoing minor adjustments and reorganizations—though its majestic exterior hardly changed. Inside, the various compartments filled with crystals were a collection of facilities that seemed to possess life. Under the instruction of the space station's host, the Crystal Spire, these internal crystalline structures gradually generated special rooms according to Hao Ren's needs. First, a living area for Mu Lu, then research facilities and super-large source blood incubators for Drowm, and finally, because Hao Ren often brought his family to stay at the space station, living compartments for humans (or humanoid creatures with similar needs), such as living rooms and dining rooms, were created.

In the beginning, when Hao Ren and the others stayed at the space station for extended periods, they could only make do with the standard crystal lattice rooms for the night, but later, with the help of the data terminal, Hao Ren figured out how to reset the structure of the core area. The dining room he built was the most satisfying part for his family, especially for Lily.

The dining room in the Crystal Core Research Station was as crystal clear as the rest of the station, unadorned but still beautiful. In this rectangular, large crystal lattice, two rows of thin, long pillars connected the roof and the ground. Between the pillars were arranged huge, irregular crystals, forming fixed portals to various parts of the space station. Because the facility was so vast, every large crystal lattice had such a portal. The long table in the center of the dining room was also made of crystal. When the master dined here, the space station's server system would synthesize food indistinguishable from natural products and fill the table. Arcane creatures formed from pure light and energy would shuttle around the table, like fairy attendants in a fairy tale.

Only at this time did Hao Ren feel that the atmosphere around him could be slightly associated with "clergy."

That is, if Roll could get down from the table, and if Lily didn't squat on the stool to eat.

Today's meal was still very rich. Although Vivian didn't cook it herself, the things made by the food synthesizer were no different from the masterpieces of famous chefs. On the table were everyone's favorite foods: ramen, ban mian, zhajiang mian, d卤mian, beef noodles, Korean noodles, dandan noodles, and even instant noodles—the food synthesizer even meticulously created a plastic fork that looked very shoddy to ensure that the instant noodles were exactly the same as those on Earth. Lily rolled up the noodles with her chopsticks and gnawed on them like a chicken leg, her face almost bubbling with happiness, while Nangong Wuyue poked at the zhajiang mian in front of her with chopsticks in a bit of confusion, "Landlord, I've wanted to ask several times, why does the space station only have noodles?"

"The food synthesis device was set up by Raven 12345, go find her if you have a problem," Hao Ren slurped the noodle soup, "Slurp—there are hundreds of kinds of noodles, eat slowly, anyway, I haven't gotten tired of them yet."

This should be the most regrettable part of the advanced Crystal Core Research Station: if you don't want to cook yourself, you can only accept the food made by the automatic machine. You have hundreds of set meals to choose from, but they're all noodles.

Hao Ren challenged this system countless times. The most successful time, he finally got the food synthesizer to add a batch of new menus, but he later found that he still couldn't escape Raven 12345's noodle-maniacal clutches: the restaurant just had more than a hundred more kinds of instant noodles.

After the last attempt and successfully getting the synthesizer to add the "plastic fork" option, Hao Ren gave up tossing the catering system. Anyway, no awesome reporter from any race would run to this place to interview the Pope of the Raven Cult about what he had for dinner.

"Meow doesn't like noodles," Roll was chased off the table by Hao Ren again. She sat awkwardly on the chair, clumsily holding the chopsticks and poking around in the bowl while harassing Hao Ren's arm with her tail, "Get me some dried fish, and I'll let you touch my ears. This meow is so cute and adorable."

"Who taught her these messy things?" Hao Ren asked, correcting Roll's way of holding chopsticks.

"For a cat who can read newspapers and watch TV by herself, do you think she needs someone to teach her to learn something messy?" Vivian twitched the corner of her mouth, "The other day, she read a joke online about cats ruling the world and actually believed it. In the middle of the night, she packed a small package and prepared to go out to find an organization, saying she was going back to her home planet, and even stuffed a farewell letter under your pillow—fortunately, I discovered it early and dragged her back for an education."

Hao Ren was stunned, "She did this? How come I didn't know?"

"Cats are nocturnal animals, and you were sleeping like a pig when she had the most energy," Vivian said, pointing to herself, "Fortunately, I'm nocturnal too."

Hao Ren paused, suddenly remembering that something like that seemed to have happened the other day. He woke up and found a small piece of paper on the pillow with a crooked line on it: "Big cat, I'm going to help my clan rule the world. I'll make you a fish-tasting guard when I come back. Lick you." Half of the line was written in pinyin.

But later, he found that the silly cat was still staying at home obediently, so he didn't take it seriously and thought that the cat was just having a nerve to practice writing. But he didn't expect that this silly thing would actually run out to find the direction of its cat life after reading two jokes online...

Hao Ren half-coaxed and half-forced Roll to feed a few mouthfuls of seafood noodles, and then she didn't want to stay any longer. She took Dou Dou and ran out of the restaurant to digest. After these two biggest treasures left, everyone's after-dinner topics could finally be a little more serious and formal. Izhaks asked, "Regarding the resonance experiment of the two golden discs, apart from knowing that they can sense each other, have you analyzed what information is conveyed in these senses?"

"There are indeed rules to follow in the sensing signals, which are very similar to exchanging information, but they are very incomplete and cannot be deciphered," Hao Ren shook his head, "There are many discs, and probably enough discs need to be placed together to resonate before a regular signal that can be deciphered can be generated."

"Speaking of which, I always feel a little strange when I look at those discs," Vivian suddenly said, "At first, I didn't feel anything, but when the two discs were put together, I couldn't help but want to look at them."

Hao Ren immediately became alert, "So you were distracted when I called you just now?"

"I should be," Vivian said, "It's a hard feeling to describe, I just looked at them a few more times, maybe it's all my illusion. But those discs were made by the Goddess of Creation after all, and so am I—this makes me a little nervous about them."

After knowing the process of her birth and the connection between her and the Goddess of Creation, Vivian was able to face this problem calmly, and when others discussed the Goddess of Creation, they would also consider Vivian's connection with Him as a prerequisite.

Hao Ren thought for a while, "Have you been in contact with those two discs? Direct contact?"

"No."

"Apart from being a little 'attracted' to them, are there any other abnormal reactions?"

"There isn't that either."

"Hmm," Hao Ren hummed, "In any case, this inexplicable phenomenon should be taken seriously. I suggest you keep a distance from the discs, do not directly contact them, and it is best to approach the laboratory again with someone accompanying you."

Vivian nodded to show that she understood, and Hao Ren brought up some details he saw in the God-Slaying Illusion, "Speaking of which, when I was pulled into that illusion by the divine blood before, I saw a lot of things that I couldn't understand. Especially when the Goddess of Creation fell, she said 'forgive' to me. I still haven't figured out what she meant by these two words."

"Forgive?" Nangong Sanba looked over with interest, "Does it mean forgive the rebellious son?"

"Who knows?" Hao Ren spread his hands, "I only heard these two words clearly, but there should be other sentences before and after. What if she said 'never forgive'? The meaning would be completely different. And there are many doubts about the situation of the goddess falling. I saw her being assassinated by a strange black longsword. She was injured, bled, and died like an ordinary person. Her death itself was very, very 'peaceful', without causing a bit of energy fluctuation. It was the subsequent divine punishment and the Big Bang of the Founding Star that destroyed everything."

Izhaks stroked his chin and frowned, "Sounds like a mortal."

"The death of a powerful creature with the power of a god cannot be so 'quiet'," Nangong Wudi, who had been eating quietly, also joined the discussion at this time, "His energy will be released, will ignite or destroy the surrounding things, and cause explosions or high-heat phenomena. Even an ordinary demon hunter may have holy flames ignite in his blood when he dies. The situation you said... makes me feel like the Goddess of Creation seemed to have lost her power at that time."

"The problem is probably with that sword?" Vivian guessed, "But how did those rebellious sons make such a weapon?"

Hao Ren shook his head regretfully, "That God-Slaying longsword must have a problem, but it has fallen into the dark realm along with the Founding Star."

At this moment, everyone's conversation was suddenly interrupted by an emergency message.

The data terminal suddenly floated up from the table, and a holographic projection of an emergency communication appeared above it: "Partner, the drone swarm has discovered something."