Chapter 1 The Blood Lake

The blood lake was still calm, with only slight ripples on its ruby-like surface. Beneath this tranquility, however, a large mass of water was rapidly transforming. Nangong Wuyue, in her transformed state as a monstrous sea serpent, swayed her long tail as she led the group forward. Behind her were a vast throng of Little Green Men, as well as Hao Ren and the others.

"Looks like nothing's changed underwater," Hao Ren said, observing the lakebed as he moved forward. The scenery was no different from when he'd last left, nearly two months prior. It seemed the search for the Sacred Relic Orb hadn't extended to the lakebed yet. "Wuyue, is the barrier you left still there?"

Nangong Wuyue's long tail wriggled in front of Hao Ren. She slowed down slightly. "The barrier's still there. Doesn't seem like anyone's touched it."

At that moment, a cheerful little cry came from behind. Dou Dou rapidly wagged her tail and spun as she caught up to Hao Ren. The little one happily swam around in the vast waters, weaving through the entire group, a fish as carefree as a loach on drugs (look at that metaphor!). She vaguely remembered being here before, and the return made the little mermaid exceptionally happy. Nangong Wuyue watched the little one with a smile. "Mermaids really should be in the water… Has she grown again recently? Is her pot getting a little small?"

Hao Ren grimaced. "We got her a big fish tank, but she doesn't want to use it."

Thanks to the experimental accident a few days ago, Dou Dou had become the apple of the family's eye. She might suddenly unleash a new ability and get caught up in danger, so Hao Ren dared not let the little one out of his sight for a moment. He had no choice but to bring her along to the Dream Plane. Fortunately, they now had convenient portable spaces, so when they came to human towns, Dou Dou could be kept in the large fish tank in the portable space, which wasn't too much trouble.

But the little one's exceptionally cheerful personality was impossible to deal with, especially in the water—if she really swam hard, few could keep up with her. Only Nangong Wuyue could control the little one in the water.

The group rapidly approached the center of the blood lake. The black beach, risen from the lakebed and covered in rubble, appeared before them. Guided by the magical imprint Nangong Wuyue had left last time, Hao Ren and the others found the sunken ship without much effort. The massive black shadow, resting quietly on the lakebed, slowly emerged from the surrounding red backdrop. Kabala and the Little Green Men immediately sped forward. Someone called out, "That's it! That's the ship!"

After approaching the wreckage, Hao Ren looked around and started throwing things out of his portable space. "Let's get to work!"

A large number of bizarre engineering machines quickly filled the lakebed. The construction workers Kabala had brought immediately climbed into the machines and started busying about. Hao Ren watched as the equipment, like deep-sea monsters, twisted their nimble mechanical arms and swarmed the sunken ship, then began digging in full swing: The first step was to separate the ship from the lakebed, and the second was to attach the "beacon markers" needed to detach from the Dream Plane to several key points on the ship. This process had been rehearsed several times over the past two days. The Little Green Men were operating at high speed, and it seemed it wouldn't be long before they could dig the ship out.

To dig a ship out of the lakebed in such a complex environment should be an unbelievable project for the natives of the Dream Plane, but the technological strength of the Campbells was obviously more than capable of handling such work. The excavation equipment had huge and flexible multi-jointed mechanical arms, and were powerfully driven, able to maneuver swiftly even under the immense water pressure of the lakebed. The operation of the excavation equipment generated large areas of local turbulence, even causing the surrounding water to surge. Nangong Wuyue had expected this. She immediately opened her arms and merged herself with the surrounding lake water within a few kilometers, calming the turbulent currents and trying not to let any of the commotion on the lakebed leak to the surface.

Lily dog-paddled around the construction site, looking every bit like a site supervisor. She was using her unique tail-propeller propulsion method. Vivian couldn't help but say something to the husky, who couldn't be quiet for a second. "Can't you take a break? If you can't help, don't make trouble, okay?"

"I'm not making trouble!" Lily wagged her tail and rushed over, then wrinkled her nose awkwardly. "I just think there's a… weird smell around here. I don't know where it's coming from."

"Weird smell?" Vivian frowned. "Isn't it just the stuff leaking from the ship's fuel tanks? Wasn't it there last time?"

Lily stretched her neck and looked around, trying to find the source of the weird smell. "No, not just that smell… It's like something else is mixed in the lake water."

Hao Ren saw Lily's serious face and immediately tensed up. The husky was unreliable in other ways, but her nose never failed. He immediately looked at Nangong Wuyue. "Can Lily's nose work in the water? How sensitive is it?"

"With my water control barrier assisting, it's almost no different from on land," Nangong Wuyue shook her head. "But I don't sense any harmful substances in the water."

"Just be careful, anyway," Izhaks said steadily. "We know too little about this lake. It's called the Sacred Lake… there must be something special about it. Keep an eye on your daughter. That kid likes to cause trouble. As long as she doesn't run around, we'll be half as worried."

Hao Ren felt awkward and quickly grabbed the little mermaid, who was darting around him, to prevent her from running amok. It was quite difficult: the little one was slippery in the water, and even if you caught her, you couldn't hold her steady. After finally getting Dou Dou under control, Hao Ren began to wonder if he should prepare a fishing net next time he took his daughter into the water…

Dou Dou tilted her head and looked curiously at Hao Ren, twisting her body, trying to break free, but to no avail this time. Hao Ren had cleverly grabbed the upper half of the little one's body, and she wouldn't slip away this time.

At the same time, the Little Green Men were making rapid progress. They not only brought simple and crude excavators, but also auxiliary equipment such as resonance detachment devices. The rock layer around the crashed ship had now been hollowed out, and the massive hull was swaying in the lake, looking terrifying—but the Little Green Men's excavators were powerful, and the latter were using a large number of cables to pull the wreckage to prevent it from rolling off the rock layer.

After most of the hull was detached from the lakebed, another group of Campbell engineers, riding in small elliptical machines, stuck to it. They began to install a kind of silver-glowing metal device on various parts of the hull. The metal device had a strong Xiling Empire style, and its silver-white surface was covered in blue light, making it look beautiful and strange in the red lake water. These were the key to transporting the entire ship out of the Dream Plane.

The Little Green Men didn't need to drag the entire ship ashore. They only needed to attach enough of these beacons to the hull. These devices were specially made for this operation. They were delivered to the Kuiper Station along with the three-meter-high silver-white square boxes, and were auxiliary equipment for those square boxes. Their function was to transfer large items out of the Dream Plane. Taking things out of the Dream Plane was much easier than sending them in, which was why Hao Ren let the Bearded Man and the others wait safely on the shore: the whole construction process wouldn't take long.

"Be careful, be careful… be careful not to let the cables loosen… pull it up a little more…" The Little Green Men's engineering captain was directing the final step of the operation. Kabala saw that the work was almost done and swam towards Hao Ren. "We're almost ready to start the transfer."

Hao Ren nodded. "We won't be going out with you. The staff at the Kuiper Station will meet you. This ship will be transferred directly to the space station's large overhaul port. You can find Lulu to get the ship."

"Anyway, thank you very much for your great assistance this time," Kabala shook his large head. "Speaking of which, can't we really do some investigation here… just circling in near-Earth orbit…"

Hao Ren rolled his eyes. "Just go!"

The outer shell of the crashed ship was now covered with beacons, which began to flash in unison. The flashing lasted for more than ten seconds, and the figures of the ship and the Little Green Men finally began to gradually dim.

Finally, accompanied by a distorted light curtain, the alien ship, which had been lying on the bottom of the blood lake for several months, completely disappeared from Hao Ren's eyes, leaving only a large underwater cavity in its place.

The lake water instantly poured into the cavity, and the shocking water pressure slammed heavily on the rocky beach on the lakebed. At this moment, the entire blood lake seemed to sound a muffled thunder, and a strange sound with a cavity echo, like a loud bell, echoed in the water and the nearby woodland.

The Bearded Man and the others, who were waiting on the shore, opened their eyes at the same time and looked at each other with some confusion.