Chapter 129 Holy Lake

According to the transmission rules of the Dream Plane, when the same person enters the Dream Plane again, they will inevitably appear at the location where they last left. And Hao Ren, as the "guide" of the entire transmission process, will also bring the entire team to the vicinity of this location. Considering that the Dream Plane's land is also a rotating planet, this "position memory" should not be based on absolute spatial coordinates, but relative coordinates corresponding to the planet. However, these complex things cannot be studied for the time being. After summarizing this transmission rule, Hao Ren used it in the simplest and most direct way: every time he leaves the Dream Plane, he chooses a sparsely populated and spacious and safe place.

The feeling of chaos, like waking up from a dream, quickly faded away. The first thing Hao Ren did when he opened his eyes was to quickly observe the surrounding situation. After confirming that there was no change here compared to when he left, and that there were no witnesses nearby, he breathed a sigh of relief. The blood lake was still in that lifeless state, and the twisted woodland in the distance was still shrouded in a gloomy and eerie atmosphere. The Dream Plane was now in the twilight hours, and the dim sky made everything around look depressing. Lily shrank her neck: "I really don't like the atmosphere here."

Hao Ren smiled and didn't say anything, just poked the data terminal: "Okay, there's no one around, let Kabala and the others come out."

Only then did the data terminal remotely activate the other dormant pods in the surface world, and a large number of little green men immediately appeared in the surrounding air: because he was worried that when entering the Dream Plane, they would happen to run into witnesses nearby, Hao Ren divided the transmission into two waves, and Kabala and the others were the second batch to enter. After all, a group of humans suddenly appearing can still be explained as clumsy space mages, but a group of little green men suddenly appearing can only be regarded as monsters—this world doesn't yet have the concept of fifth kind encounters...

After the little green men woke up, they immediately began to observe the surrounding environment in amazement. Most of their attention was focused on the blood lake in the distance, which was as magnificent and eerie as a ruby. Kabala and Talam were still excitedly yelling: "Oh oh! A new world! And a world that can never be reached by spaceship!" "A day to remember, I want to leave something behind..." "Bring my folding flags!"

Then they saw many little green men taking out shiny little metal rods from their pockets. After the metal rods were unfolded, they turned out to be various flags of the Principality of Stars. Before Hao Ren could speak, these excited aliens began to run around, planting flags all over the stony beach, making Hao Ren jump up and down in the back and shout: "Come back! Come back! Put that thing away! This place has an owner..."

When Lily saw that Hao Ren was anxious, her loyal dog attribute immediately flared up and she took the initiative to help. She howled and ran around the group of little green men who were already a little too excited, driving them all back: "Don't run around, woof! Those who run around will be kicked out of the instance directly, ah!"

Nangong Wuyue marveled: "Can a husky be a sheepdog too?"

At this time, the four ascetics had been standing quietly beside Hao Ren for a while. They first cautiously observed the environment, then lowered their heads and communicated with an unknown will in the dark. Finally, they seemed to have finally confirmed that they had returned to the Dream Plane. The bearded man came to Hao Ren's side and gave a sincere religious salute: "It is indeed our homeland, friend. Everything you said is true, and you have indeed sent us back."

Only then did Hao Ren froze: "Ah? So you haven't believed me all along?"

The bearded man nodded straightforwardly: "Only believed half."

He admitted it so readily that Hao Ren was stunned, but after thinking about it, it was normal. These ascetics were not children, so they wouldn't be fooled by a few empty words—even after they saw the experiments with the Origin Relic and the Holy Cathedral Orb with their own eyes, they still harbored a skeptical attitude towards Hao Ren. This was the vigilance that someone bearing a heavy burden should have towards strangers. No wonder the bearded man and the others always kept a close watch over the Holy Cathedral Orb, never letting outsiders touch it at all. Even during the Origin Relic experiment, they only allowed people to watch from afar. Hao Ren was helpless about this, but he could only nod to show that he understood.

"We want to send the orb back to where it should be," the bearded man pointed to the cloth bag around his waist. "Also, please honor your agreement and hand over that 'Origin Relic' to us. I know this request is tough, but it is the goddess's property, and the goddess's people should have the right to inherit it."

It seemed that the bearded man himself knew that his request could easily make people unhappy, but Hao Ren didn't feel anything at all: the Origin Relic had already been copied, and his spaceship was still lying with several sets. So he nodded very readily: "It's okay, it's okay, didn't I promise you at the time? But I have to wait a while—I'll solve the problem of these little green men first. You also wait a moment, let's go to Leyton Town together later."

The bearded man nodded understandingly, and Hao Ren walked towards the large group of little green men. He could recognize Kabala's slightly faded head from the group of clear green heads at a glance: "Your spaceship is at the bottom of the lake over there. We will have the siren send it underwater later. We have to get the spaceship out without damaging the structure of the lake bottom. You have already seen the situation of the shipwreck location, can those engineering machines handle it?"

Kabala immediately shook his head proudly: "Don't worry, Campbell Technology is flexible, versatile, and reliable..."

At this time, the bearded man came over: "You are going to enter the Holy Lake, right?"

Hao Ren knew that the ascetics were extremely concerned about this operation, and he nodded to the bearded man: "That's right. But we will respect your beliefs and will not damage the structure of the blood lake itself during construction—and you don't want your holy land to always have an unknown iron lump stuck in it, right? We will help you clear it away."

This was what Hao Ren had said to the bearded man when he mentioned that he wanted to transport the spaceship from the bottom of the blood lake. He knew that the holy land had a special meaning for such believers. It was useless to talk to them about favors or legal principles on this issue. The most useful thing was to explain it from the perspective of their beliefs. If the believers of the Radiant Church knew that there was a "foreign object" sunk in the Holy Lake, they would definitely try their best to salvage it. As long as this matter was explained clearly, everything would be easy to handle.

The bearded man pondered for a moment, then looked up at the direction of the blood lake: "I know, you have already said this. But I want to remind you: keep the noise down, don't alarm the other guards, they won't listen to your explanation."

After saying this, the bearded man lowered his head and retreated to his three companions. The four ascetics did not intend to go into the water together: they had some taboos in this regard.

Hao Ren thoughtfully glanced at the four mumbling guys not far away. He always felt that the four people's attitude was a bit wrong. At this time, this sense of incongruity was particularly serious: as fanatical believers of the goddess, the four of them seemed a bit... too easy to talk to in this operation, which seemed a bit "blasphemous" no matter how you looked at it?

Anyway, Hao Ren put himself in their shoes and thought about it. He didn't think a normal believer would allow a group of heretics to run around in their holy land with excavators in such a calm manner...

"Feels wrong, right?" Vivian came to Hao Ren's side at some point. She knew what the latter was thinking. "As ascetics, they are too easy to talk to."

"Just be careful," Hao Ren shook his head. "They must have other ideas, but we just need to focus on our own tasks. Terminal, remember to pay attention to the movements at the bottom of the lake at any time. If there is an accident, cut off the dream connection immediately."

"Terminal understands."

Nangong Wuyue had already transformed into a siren form at this moment. She slithered into the lake water, and the group of somewhat hesitant and nervous little green men followed. Soon the beach became quiet, leaving only the bearded man and the four of them.

Since a more powerful conversion device was used this time when entering the Dream Plane, there was no longer a "team member distance limit". Even if the bearded man and the four of them were far away from Hao Ren, the "guide", they didn't have to worry about being ejected from the Dream Plane.

They waited quietly on the shore, their expressions wooden, looking neither happy nor sad, like sculptures.

No one knew what they were thinking.

After a long silence, one of the young monks asked: "Is it okay to just let those heretics enter the bottom of the Holy Lake...?"

"You know, the real holy land is not in the blood lake," the bearded man closed his eyes, as if looking at something in the dark. "They are heretics, but the goddess's power has accepted them, so we should have no objection. And maybe... the key to opening the 'Sacred Cave' is really on these outsiders."

"...Wait and see."