Chapter 142 Knowledge Is Power

The various races of the world were noisily searching for the source of Izhaks' power and wisdom, and this so-called source of power was now right in front of Hao Ren – yes, knowledge is power...just look at the freaking alien technology they were using in the Demon King's castle!

The machinery roared in the massive power room, and technicians in alchemist uniforms were busily adjusting the mana furnace, which was still in the verification stage. Hao Ren and the others entered the equipment area from the circular corridor, and they hadn't been able to shut their mouths the whole way. Lily looked around in amazement, then looked down, searching everywhere. Seeing this, Hao Ren immediately gave the husky a chop to the head: "This is a restricted area! If you dare to collect little stones here, you'll get thrown out!"

Lily covered her head aggrievedly: "I was just curious what these runes on the ground are for..."

Izhaks stared blankly at the red glowing orb suspended in the center of the concentric alloy rings. He had presided over the construction of these facilities back in the day, but this core device had never been put in place because he couldn't find ore that was stable enough and could provide massive magical energy output for a long time – even if he purified ordinary glimmerstone countless times, it wouldn't meet the requirements. So, the Demon King's castle's levitation function had always been theoretical. But now it was clear that the core of the power furnace had been solved, and he found it incredible: "What the hell is this energy core?"

"We don't know either," Elizabeth said, fiddling with her two little horns. "It was collected from another dimension. We found three in total. One broke during testing, one is installed in the equipment, and the other is kept as a spare."

At this moment, a tall figure walked over from the side and bowed to Izhaks: "Your Majesty, are you here to inspect the power furnace?"

Hao Ren curiously glanced at the person. This tall creature had dark blue skin and strange, green glowing eyes, as well as a long, dragon-like tail. A thin layer of keratin covered his arms. This was one of the seven major races of the human world, the "Ling," said to possess superb alchemy skills and crystal technology. In the Demon King's castle, the Ling and the Black Dwarves were the main technical personnel.

"Mm," Izhaks nodded. "Let me see the spare energy core."

The energy core placed in the energy extractor was wrapped in a layer of red light. This light had unique properties that seemed to completely block external prying, so it was impossible to see the details underneath the light. Therefore, when Izhaks learned that there was a spare core, he asked to see it.

Although the Ling technician was curious as to why his boss suddenly wanted to see the spare core, he nodded: "Yes, please follow me."

Hao Ren was also quite interested in that "energy core." He always felt that a faint, familiar aura was coming from under that dark red light, so he quickly followed: "Let me take a look too!"

The spare energy core was stored in a secure warehouse not far from the power room to ensure that it could be replaced immediately in case the core currently in use had problems. The secure warehouse was cast in mithril, and the average thickness of the outer wall was more than one meter, which showed how much the technicians valued the contents of the warehouse. The Ling technician opened the warehouse door, revealing a square room with sides of ten meters. The soft glow emanating from the four walls made the room very bright, and the spare energy core lay quietly on a central recessed bracket.

It was a red sphere with a radius of more than three meters.

"What the hell is this?" Hao Ren felt a strange sensation the moment he saw the sphere, and his heart skipped a beat. He went forward to curiously examine the surface of the sphere. The surface was not smooth. Closer inspection revealed some irregular pits and folds, as rough as the skin of some kind of echinoderm. Even closer observation revealed a certain pattern in the pits and folds, as if they faintly contained some kind of texture. Hao Ren curiously reached out and touched the sphere, applying a little force, and felt a bit of elasticity.

The little girl Elizabeth was immediately startled: "Hey! You just touch it like that!"

"Can't I touch it?" Hao Ren was also taken aback.

Elizabeth scratched her cheek: "Oh, it's nothing. I was just trying to scare you."

Izhaks casually grabbed his daughter and pulled her aside, then stepped forward and sensed the aura coming from the sphere: "It contains a very strong power… a primitive energy, incredible… this thing gives me a…"

"A biological aura, right?" Hao Ren frowned, and a certain guess in his heart became more and more clear. Lily next to him had already started sniffing. The husky girl's face was tense, and her tail wagged restlessly: "Landlord… I smell something familiar about this thing!"

Hao Ren put his ear to the sphere and listened, then suddenly took out the data terminal: "Scan its structure!"

The data terminal immediately stuck to the sphere: "Let me show you the power of high technology… hey—"

Hao Ren's mouth twitched: "It's just a CT scan, do you have to put so much effort into it?"

A blue light traveled around the sphere, and the data terminal projected a detailed structural diagram, showing the organization inside the sphere.

The structure inside the sphere was unexpectedly simple. Only some delicately structured elastic skeletons supported the entire sphere like a sponge, and in the gaps between those sponges, thin structures like blood vessels or nerve bundles could be seen. The sphere seemed to be filled with some kind of viscous, dark red liquid, and the texture of that liquid felt very familiar.

"I think we're in trouble…" Lily gasped, associating the sphere with something just like Hao Ren. "This thing looks familiar!"

"Damn it… this unit swears on all of its processing cores!" The data terminal instantly detached from the surface of the sphere and flew behind Hao Ren with a whoosh. "This thing is the same kind of creature as a 'First Born'!!"

Everyone present, except for the clueless Elizabeth and Lanina, was shocked. Lily's tail instantly exploded into a sword-filled cloud, and she jumped up two meters high, howling as she rushed out: "Awoo—people are gonna die… bang!"

"Calm down! Calm down!" Hao Ren shouted to calm everyone down, and incidentally pried Lily off the warehouse wall. "Don't panic, don't panic, this thing isn't moving!"

Vivian's face also changed drastically. She instantly summoned a large group of bats to protect everyone. After hearing Hao Ren's words, she noticed that the sphere was indeed lifeless, with a subtle difference from the aura of the "First Born" from that day. She carefully directed a few bats to approach the sphere, while telling the others to be careful: "Slowly back away, slowly back away, don't wake up the 'First Born' like that day."

Elizabeth looked at the group of people inexplicably: "What are you…"

Izhaks held the little girl's head and pulled her behind him to protect her: "Don't move… this thing is dangerous! Daddy encountered one once in another world!"

Elizabeth looked at her father in astonishment. Seeing that even he was showing such a wary look, she also became nervous: "Dan… dangerous?! Then there's one in the power furnace! We can't shut it down right away!"

"Don't worry, don't worry, let's figure out the situation first," Hao Ren immediately turned to Elizabeth and Izhaks, telling the father and daughter to calm down, then turned to Vivian. "What's the situation?"

Vivian had already let a few small bats land on the sphere, and she was using her special sensitivity to blood to check the situation inside the sphere. That day, she had let one of her small bats eat a blood sample from the First Born, and now that blood sample was the key sample for her to judge the situation.

"It doesn't seem to have any life signs," Vivian frowned. "The blood is dead."

"Are you sure?" Hao Ren asked worriedly. "The First Born was in deep sleep back then, and it looked like it wasn't moving either."

"But the First Born had vigorous vitality back then," Vivian waved her hand to recall her bats. "I can feel that this sphere and the state of the First Born are completely different. It should have been dead for a long time, and the blood is no longer flowing – it just still contains some kind of primitive energy."

Hao Ren was slightly relieved, and he stepped forward to touch the red sphere, cautiously, as if he was afraid that it would suddenly come to life and devour everything: "Dead?"

Lily also woke up dazedly at this time. She looked up at the human-shaped dent in the warehouse wall: "That body shape looks familiar."

Hao Ren felt that this silly husky was at least good at easing the atmosphere.

"You said you found this thing in another dimension?!" Izhaks suddenly turned to his daughter, his expression unusually serious. "Quick, take us to see…"

Before he could finish speaking, a piercing alarm sounded around them. Not long after, a Ling technician rushed in: "Your Majesty! The legions of Serradon and Banuklak are outside the city! Also, we've detected that the Allied Forces of the Holy See are approaching!"