Chapter 1 A Long and Dead Night in Sulun

The nights on Sulun were long and dead. This planet had an unusually slow rotation speed, which meant that its days and nights lasted sixty hours. After a dizzying discussion and negotiation, Hao Ren came alone to the square in front of the temple. He sat down beside the huge trident weapons and looked at the turbid and gloomy night sky, lost in thought. He was accompanied only by the lonely sound of the wind and some occasional fires from the distant ruins. On this completely destroyed planet, he realized more deeply how shocking the destruction of a war could be.

He had seen Aioi after the ecological circle was reshaped, the wandering planet after the demise of life, and Tana Guss after the end of the world, but the ecological extinction operations carried out by the eldest son could not be compared with the current situation on this planet. The rebels precisely, thoroughly, and ruthlessly destroyed this place. All the land was scorched, all the water was evaporated or severely polluted, the crust was torn apart, and the planet itself was almost split in two. Standing among such ruins, anyone could only feel boundless desolation and loneliness. Hao Ren turned to look at the magnificent black temple and the huge buildings around it. From those tall silhouettes, he could still see the former splendor of this place—before Sulun was destroyed, what a mysterious and great holy place stood under the starry sky of this land? But now everything was gone, accompanied by the starlight were only flames and ruins, and the billowing smoke that spread from afar.

But Hao Ren still felt very lucky. He found this place before the last clue disappeared. Whatever caused the space-time distortion around Sulun, he should be grateful for this phenomenon. He even had a feeling that some supernatural power had consciously frozen this planet, so that it stagnated like amber for ten thousand years, until he came here to open this Pandora's Box.

Hao Ren cast his eyes into the distance and saw a huge black obelisk standing alone in the starlight. The green crystal on the obelisk sparkled in the night sky. Then the obelisk collapsed in his sight, falling into a sea of ​​fire and smoke, and the vibration and the roar of the building collapsing were transmitted after a while. As the tower collapsed, Hao Ren heard a soft click behind him. He turned his head and saw Lily tiptoeing over.

"What are you doing? Like a thief."

Lily stuck out her tongue, leaned over and bumped Hao Ren's arm with her head (she would occasionally use strange ways to say hello when her head twitched): "Xi Fu's injury has stabilized, and the medical equipment you left behind is quite useful."

"I don't know if they can adapt to life in Tana Guss," Hao Ren's thoughts had drifted many light years away, "I just notified Zhuo Mu about what happened here. It is looking forward to new friends, but Lie Mendusa and Xi Fu have just come down from the battlefield of god-slaying. They haven't adjusted their mentality for ten thousand years like Mu Lu, and I'm afraid it will take a while to adapt."

"Anyway, it will always get better," Lily's ears twitched slightly, which showed that she was in a good mood at the moment, "I was also quite awkward when Shenbao first stopped publishing, but I got used to it after eating two good meals!"

Hao Ren rolled his eyes and thought that none of the Husky's examples could be used as a reference. Her mentality was too difficult to imitate.

"Speaking of which, I suddenly remembered something. I've been curious for a long time," Hao Ren looked at Lily's dull look and suddenly came up with a question, "Why can't you speak human language after you turn into a giant Husky? It's just turning into a beast, and your intelligence hasn't decreased, why don't you even have the ability to speak?"

Lily looked at Hao Ren with the eyes of a fool: "Does this need to be asked? Think about it, I don't have cheeks after I transform, my mouth is leaking air, my chin is half a meter long, and I don't even know what my vocal cords have become—this physiological structure is right here, how can you let me speak? I also want to say it, but as soon as I open my mouth, it goes 'Awoo...'”

Hao Ren thought it made sense, but he still didn't understand a bit: "That's not right, aren't the black wolves in Horleta also beasts? How do they speak?"

Lily was stunned when she heard this, and touched her chin thoughtfully: "That's right, how did they speak human language with wolf mouths... or I can usually practice more? Maybe this is just a matter of proficiency."

When Hao Ren saw that there was real motivation in Lily's eyes, he waved his hands again and again: "Forget it, it's good for you to 'awoo'—your transformation is too loud, there's no need to transform all day long just to learn to speak."

Just when Hao Ren and Lily were seriously discussing "how difficult is it for a Husky to learn to speak human language," a blue light suddenly fell from the sky, and the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace came out from behind the thick clouds and quickly came to the two of them. It was surrounded by a dozen detection drones and swarm-like probe devices, apparently just completing a large scan of the entire planet. Hao Ren stayed in the open space not only to watch the stars, but also to wait for Nolan.

He connected to the communication, and Nolan's holographic image appeared in the semi-air not far away: "The detection of the entire planet has been completed."

Hao Ren asked urgently: "Are there any traces of other rebellious sons or guardians?"

"Unfortunately," Nolan shook her head, "I only found a large number of completely destroyed wrecks. I have never seen such a tragic battle—it is difficult to find even a complete corpse. Almost all battlefields have traces of destruction by high-power explosions, and many cities even have only huge craters left. The result of the main machine analysis is self-destruction. No matter which side is at a disadvantage, they will not hesitate to choose self-destruction... I really can't find anything to recycle."

Hao Ren remembered the rebel commander who blew himself into pieces in front of him and Xi Fu's plan to detonate the entire temple and die together. He was not surprised by Nolan's report, but he felt a little regretful.

Lily sighed: "Judging from the fighting will alone, both sides in the war are warriors, but what is the meaning of fighting like this... especially those rebels, it's just too inexplicable, isn't this a waste of their courage?"

Nolan did not comment on these emotions, because she had experienced countless wars, and senseless killings and disputes were commonplace for her. She just shook her head: "There's nothing here anymore. I'm having the drones search the nearby space to see if there are any wrecks that can be salvaged, but... wait, there's a discovery!"

Hao Ren and Lily said in unison: "What did you find?"

"It seems to be an out-of-control spacecraft, wandering between Sulun and the sun," Nolan said, but her eyes did not fall on Hao Ren, because she was watching the vast universe through a detector in space, "Intact."

Hao Ren did not hesitate, immediately went back to find Izhaks, who was playing with obsidian from his body, and the three guardian giants including Mu Lu, and then returned to the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace together.

Due to the huge size of the giants, the three of Mu Lu were still staying in the hangar without exception, but fortunately, the interior of the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace was well managed. Even the hangar was quite clean and comfortable, and there was just enough space to install special equipment for Xi Fu and Lie Mendusa to treat their injuries.

The three guardian giants were not dissatisfied with this "drilling into the trunk" arrangement. After Lie Mendusa curiously looked at Hao Ren's advanced spaceship, he urged him to quickly see where the out-of-control warship came from.

Hao Ren came to the bridge, greeted Dou Dou and Elizabeth who were staying here, and then opened Nolan's holographic interface: "Does that spaceship react to our detectors?"

"No, I sent a few tentative beacons over, but I didn't get any response no matter how strong the communication test was," Nolan said as she drove the spaceship to the discovered location, "There are no signs of life inside, it seems everyone has evacuated."

The Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace sailed briskly in the universe, and soon left the war-torn Sulun behind. Before long, a golden warship with a stylish shape appeared on the screen of the external monitor.

In the shining light of the sun, this golden warship was cruising in the universe like an ark of the gods. Even though he had never seen a spaceship similar to it, Hao Ren could tell at a glance that this should be something built by the rebellious sons.

Because the shape of this thing is just too flashy...