Chapter 1 The Silent Flight

The giant tortoise-like rock platform flew silently over the still red sea, like a specter descending from the dark cosmos, carefully surveying the bizarre red world below with its countless eyes.

"The probe has transmitted a signal, confirming that the Red Moon is covered by a complete liquid surface, with only sporadic islands and reefs protruding from the 'sea,' accounting for less than three percent of the entire planetary surface area," Nolan's voice came from all around, tinged with confusion. "And the scenery in other places is similar to this. The sea is 'still,' with no signs of movement."

"After all, it's something summoned by Vivian. It's normal for it to have these strange aspects," Hao Ren said, nodding as he checked the signals sent back by various sensors. "Release a contact probe to see if this sea is an illusion."

Although various radars had previously sent back signals indicating that the surface of the Red Moon possessed a physical form, in the face of such supernatural phenomena that did not operate according to common sense, a single means of detection was far from enough. Hao Ren decided to gradually increase the depth of detection.

A gap opened in the ejection hatch below the giant tortoise-like rock platform, and a silver-white cylindrical object was released from the ship. The cylinder circled twice above the still red sea before plunging headfirst into the blood-like water.

The probe made silent contact with the Red Moon's sea and disappeared from Hao Ren's sight in an instant. No waves were stirred on the sea surface—the contact between the two was like two shadows passing through each other, without causing the slightest interference.

Hao Ren frowned slightly. "It really is an illusion?"

"No… the probe has transmitted a signal. It's not an illusion. It passed through a real water surface and is now continuing to move in the water," Nolan replied immediately. "…Detected the existence of water pressure, water temperature, and resistance. The water composition is similar to the Source Blood, and the concentration increases the deeper it goes. This sea is real."

Hao Ren was a little surprised. "Really exists? But when the probe entered the water just now, it was like passing through a shadow, without even a splash."

Nolan's voice also sounded somewhat puzzled. "Unexplainable. The Red Moon's sea exhibits an absolutely still state, the whole is like a frozen image. The probe cannot affect the form of the latter in the process of contacting this sea, but at the same time, the probe can also detect the existence of a liquid environment… The ship is releasing more probes, and more data will be summarized later."

The giant tortoise-like rock platform began to release more probes into the Red Moon's seawater. These probes, like the scattered light powder from a fluorescent giant moth, flickered with faint light and silently disappeared into the sea—just like their "predecessors," these probes did not cause the slightest ripple or splash in the process of falling into the seawater.

"What do you think this is like?" Hao Ren gently tapped the control panel in front of him with his fingers. The object he was questioning was the data terminal floating beside him.

"The Red Moon? Or this sea?"

"The Red Moon."

"This unit is reminded of the Primordial Star—this unit guesses that partner, you are thinking of the same thing."

"That's right, the Primordial Star," Hao Ren nodded. "I've associated these two things together more than once before, and now even more so. The red liquid surface, the ocean area covering more than ninety-seven percent of the surface, and the detection of components similar to the Source Blood… There aren't many planets with such significant characteristics. I always thought the surface of the Red Moon was solid, or simply some kind of illusion, but now it seems that its surface is a sea—even though this sea is still."

"But the size seems to be quite different," Nolan's voice rang out, and her holographic image also appeared beside Hao Ren. "According to the information provided by Muru, the Primordial Star is a planet larger than Earth, while the Red Moon… it's obviously a dwarf planet."

"The Red Moon is certainly not the real Primordial Star. At least Muru and Lementusa never said that the ocean on the Primordial Star was still," Hao Ren shrugged. "I tend to think that this 'dwarf planet' is some kind of projection of the Primordial Star. Perhaps Vivian stores information about her 'hometown' in her mind—considering she was born from the blood of the Creator Goddess, this is very likely—and the essence of her summoning the Red Moon is actually projecting this hometown stored in her subconscious."

At this moment, Nolan suddenly interrupted him, "Hao Ren, my probes have discovered something."

Hao Ren raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"On the back of the planet, on a small island protruding from the sea, we've discovered 'artificial' traces."

"Damn! Hurry over and take a look!"

The giant tortoise-like rock platform immediately turned and accelerated, dragging a blue light into space, and arrived at the coordinates of the signal sent back by the probe in the next moment. On the transmitted picture, Hao Ren did see an island.

Ninety-seven percent of the Red Moon is covered by the ocean, but the remaining less than three percent of the area still has land protruding from the water. They are mostly scattered reefs or miniature islands, and given that this dwarf planet is very likely a "miniature version" of the Primordial Star, the size of these miniature islands is even more mini.

The miniature island in front of him was already considered one of the larger ones, with a width of about two or three hundred meters and a height of tens of meters above the water surface. In the center of the island, there was an obviously overly regular circular pit, and around the pit, there seemed to be many neatly shaped artificial traces. Hao Ren also noticed a detail: within a considerable range around this island, the sea surface was unbelievably calm, as smooth and flat as a mirror, without even a ripple.

It seemed that no matter how huge the waves stirred up in the Red Moon's sea, this island did not have to worry about being swallowed by the waves.

"Obvious traces of artificial modification," looking at the regular circular pit on the island and the carefully arranged stone structures around the pit, Hao Ren believed that Nolan's judgment was correct. However, why would there be such a trace on this Red Moon? With this thought in mind, he stood up and straightened his clothes. "I'm going down to see for myself."

"There's a certain amount of danger in this," Nolan reminded him. "This is only the first summoning experiment, and it's not certain how long the stable state of the Red Moon can last. We should test the duration limit of the summoning ritual before…"

"I can't sleep if I leave such an obvious thing alone, and I finally have a test, I don't plan to just take a couple of looks from the sky and leave," Hao Ren waved his hand. "Besides, I trust Vivian."

"You're the captain, you have the final say," Nolan said. Seeing that Hao Ren had made up his mind, and that the Red Moon was indeed in a fairly stable state, she didn't insist any further. "The ship will continue to monitor the Red Moon's activity. If any increase in energy reaction is detected, you will be forcibly teleported back—this is a necessary safety measure."

"Of course, no problem with that," Hao Ren nodded. "Have those probes that have already entered the sea continue to expand their scanning range. I hope they can also bring back some results while I go down to check the situation."

"Understood."

A moment later, Hao Ren and the data terminal, one man and one machine, had arrived on the surface of the island—although he was standing on solid ground, Hao Ren felt like he was floating. Even though he had truly come into contact with the surface of this planet, the Red Moon itself still had not a single bit of gravitational effect on him.

The pit was about forty meters in diameter and about ten meters deep at its deepest point. The material of the island itself was hard black rock, but the pit was covered with a layer of white sand. Around the pit, Hao Ren also saw a series of small pits, some of which were open, and some of which were covered with stone slabs or something else. The large and small pits formed a complex man-made nest.

The data terminal flew around Hao Ren's head. "Partner, what do you think this place is for?"

"Heaven knows… But if the Red Moon is really a projection of the Primordial Star, then these artificial traces are very likely the work of the Creator Goddess. I just don't know what she was doing digging so many pits on her own planet."

"Every creator likes to dig pits."

"What? Is that so?"

"Hey, this unit was just spouting nonsense, why are you taking it seriously?"

The two "people" chatted idly while looking around. Suddenly, a stone slab protruding from the ground not far away attracted Hao Ren's attention.

The stone slab stood next to a small pit, and it had shiny patterns on it.

"What is this?" The data terminal flew to the stone slab and shone scanning beams on the shiny patterns. "It looks a bit like text, but the structure is so strange. Even using information extraction methods, I can't translate it?"

Hao Ren looked at the symbols thoughtfully. He felt that these symbols were somewhat similar in "style" to the "divine script" he had seen in the goddess palace in Corvus, but they seemed more… naive, or chaotic. It seemed that the writer himself could not accurately grasp the meaning of these words, and was just painting according to his feelings. Hearing the data terminal say that conventional analysis could not crack the secret of these symbols, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and put his hand on the stone slab shimmering with faint light.

The patterns on the stone slab instantly seemed to "come alive," twisting and moving around in front of his eyes. Then these moving lines spelled out neat words:

"Lochmarton's sleeping place."

Hao Ren blinked, a little dazed.

"Partner, your talent is back online?" The data terminal immediately noticed Hao Ren's strangeness and came over to inquire.

Hao Ren instantly came back to his senses and immediately ordered: "There should be other symbols here! If I'm right, each 'pit' should have a corresponding mark! Hurry up and find them!"

"Tsk, good performance means a life of hard work…" The data terminal muttered and began to search everywhere in the nest for micro-light patterns similar to those on the stone slab.

Sure enough, more text was soon discovered and subsequently parsed by Hao Ren.

"Lochmarton's playing place."

"Lochmarton's eating place."

"The stone Lochmarton picked up from the bottom of the sea."

"Lochmarton…"

This was the evidence sufficient to prove the connection between the Primordial Star and the Red Moon, but he never expected it to be presented to Hao Ren in such an unexpected way.