Chapter 1 The Return of the Creator Goddess

The Creator Goddess had returned.

Although the process had been fraught with twists and turns, and both the development in the middle and the final result were different from what Hao Ren had initially expected, this most important goal was finally achieved smoothly: to find the Dark Abyss, retrieve the sleeping Creator Goddess, and then awaken her.

As for the escaped Destroyer Goddess, Hao Ren could only say that man proposes, God disposes. He had done everything possible to steer the outcome in the best possible direction, and the current situation was actually much better than the worst-case scenario he had anticipated. The Destroyer Goddess had suffered permanent, severe damage and would be sealed in the Dark Abyss cage for some time to come. The Lord of Madness had also been tricked by accident. All in all, this wave of operations had been quite fruitful.

Once the energy storms in the universe subsided slightly, the Azeroth immediately arrived above the floating continent. With a flash of teleportation beams, Salaman and a large number of Guardian Giants were directly teleported to the Creator Goddess. These majestic giants, more than ten meters tall, were as helpless as a group of children when they saw their creator. Most of them even forgot how to speak. Only Salaman barely maintained his composure. He knelt on one knee before the Creator Goddess, but his voice choked as soon as he opened his mouth: "Mother, we finally..."

"You've really worked hard," the silver-haired, crimson-eyed goddess stood quietly in front of Salaman. She looked up at these majestic creatures she had created and said with emotion, "Alas, why did I make you so tall in the first place?"

Salaman: "You said you messed up the scale back then..."

Hao Ren, who was taking out a small bench and holding up popcorn, waiting to watch a tearjerker, almost collapsed on the spot. His eyes widened: "You finally meet and you're discussing this kind of problem?!"

"Mother is always like this," Salaman smiled. Beside the Creator Goddess, he felt that familiar but long-lost sense of security, which softened his usual serious expression. "She is rigorous, but also humorous. An optimistic attitude is her greatest characteristic..."

"There's no need to say such flattering words," the Creator Goddess interrupted Salaman. She looked at the Guardian Giants around her and the starships waiting in space, and suddenly sighed softly, "Many are missing, aren't they..."

"Mother, the legions stationed in Amentier..."

"There's no need to say it, I already know," the Creator Goddess shook her head gently and glanced at Hao Ren beside her. "They told me everything. The corruption of the Amentier Legion is my responsibility. It was my poor planning back then that led to all this. Don't rush to shake your head. I'm very clear-headed now. After getting rid of that Corruptor, I'm clearer than ever before. Looking back now, there were too many problems in the plan I left behind back then... I only hope that these problems are not beyond redemption."

Hao Ren narrowed his eyes: It seemed that after expelling the Destroyer Goddess, the Creator Goddess had also gotten rid of some kind of influence. This was also a remarkable gain.

Salaman and his giant compatriots had countless things to say after seeing their mother, but now was clearly not a good time for reminiscence. The Creator Goddess reassured her "children" a few words, and then first asked the question she was most concerned about: "Has Laerhrien been affected by the previous battle?"

Salaman was stunned for a moment: "Laerhrien?"

"It's that planet," Nangong Wuyue, who was listening to the excitement on the side, immediately raised her tail and pointed in a certain direction in the universe, "There's life on it."

"There's life?!" Salaman's mouth opened wide enough to fit a Xiali when he heard this fact, but he quickly suppressed his curiosity and began to communicate with the information collection department on the ship. After a moment, he shook his head, "Although the scale of the previous battle was large, it did not affect that planet."

"That's good," the Creator Goddess immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and then shook her head a little self-deprecatingly, "If it is destroyed again... I really don't know how I should face it."

Lily blurted out: "Then go back and have another dream, anyway, anything can happen in a dream... Wuwuwu..."

Hao Ren covered the husky spirit's mouth and forcibly pressed her back, then turned to look at the Creator Goddess: "What, do you want to go over and take a look now?"

The Creator Goddess thought for a moment, and finally shook her head: "Although I really want to do that, the situation in the Dream Plane is more important. I have been out of touch with the outside world for too long. The information I learned from you in a hurry before was also very limited. Now that everything has finally settled down for the time being, I think it's better to talk about serious matters."

This decision was reasonable and quite rational, and Hao Ren naturally agreed with it. Anyway, Laerhrien was floating there and wouldn't run away, but the Lord of Madness in the Dream Plane could run away at any time. It was clear at a glance which of the two things was more important.

After ten thousand years of separation, the Creator Goddess finally stepped onto the bridge of the Azeroth again. This battle-hardened starship served as a temporary divine palace, but there was no room in the palace to hold any celebrations for the goddess's return. An emergency meeting was quickly organized, and all those who could speak on the matter of the Lord of Madness participated in the meeting – including Salaman and his several important deputies, the Creator Goddess herself, and Hao Ren and his action team.

In addition, several Ancient Giants (Loken and others), Guardian Giants, and Starborn Asu-man who were waiting in the Crystal Core Research Station also participated in the meeting through remote projection.

Of course, in order to hold this meeting, the Azeroth had to first leave the Dark Abyss and return to the docking port located in the Nexus – although Hao Ren had already opened the route to the Dark Abyss with the Beacon Device, the latter was still separated from the main material universe by a special layer of laws and order barriers. This "wall" transformed from the World Barrier would block signal transmission between the two time-spaces. Although this problem could be solved, it would take time. At this stage, in order to hold a "network meeting," it was still necessary for the two groups of people to be in the same universe.

The King of Kings Loken was very confused when he first connected. He was busy cooperating with the laboratory host of the Crystal Core Research Station to do some research on divine power attributes. As a result, he suddenly received the highest level of summons, and then he saw that the highest-powered antenna on the Crystal Core Research Station suddenly started and pointed to the distant depths of the universe. Then he saw that even Asu-man, the "Lord of Madness full-time observer" who usually just parked in the space station and stared blankly or sent signals to the center of the universe, had been pulled into the meeting group. So, this Ancient Giant was immediately shocked, thinking that the Lord of Madness sealed in the Dark Abyss cage had finally escaped, the life-and-death crisis of the universe had arrived, and the "inspector" was summoning everyone to prepare for the final battle...

So, he dragged his warden colleagues and sat fully armed in the communication hall.

However, after the communication image was connected, he saw the Creator Goddess sitting in front of him with a smile on her face. Hao Ren was sitting next to the goddess, with his hand on his chin, and said to himself with a serious face: "Ancient Guardians, your biological mother is back –"

As you can imagine, Hao Ren's opening remarks caused a great deal of chaos. In fact, Sif almost fainted at the time...

Fortunately, the discipline and resilience ingrained in the bones of the Guardian Giants (including the Ancient Giants) allowed them to persevere and listen to the course of action of Hao Ren and his party in the Dark Abyss in a relatively calm manner.

"Children, I know you have a lot to say to me – in fact, so do I, but now, we have to put our attention on the things in front of us," the Creator Goddess sat with Hao Ren and others on the upper platform of the Azeroth's bridge, and around the platform, in addition to Salaman and his several senior deputies, were Loken and Muru, who were attending in the form of holographic projection, "I have learned the general situation from this envoy of another god, and now I want to say that my evil clone has been pulled into the Dark Abyss cage. Her union with the Lord of Madness will inevitably bring many changes. Now I can't contact the guards in the Dark Abyss – Asu-man, I heard that you are in charge of this matter now, what is the situation there?"

Asu-man's holographic image was a flashing cloud of light and light spots. The cloud of energy flickered slightly, and an ethereal voice came from it: "Goddess, the seal you left behind still exists, but its condition is not optimistic. The power of the Lord of Madness has significantly changed the rules of that area. Information exchange between the dark area and the outside world is now completely interrupted. The communication key you left behind with the guards back then has become invalid. According to my guess, this should be the result of the distortion of the mathematical rate."

"It is also possible that the guards activated the disaster emergency mechanism in case of containment failure, or that the sentinels have lost control of some key outposts... but the seal itself is still running, so the possibility of the sentinels being collectively killed is unlikely," the goddess pressed her forehead. The weakness caused by the long sleep would take a long time to recover, but she now had to perk up, "Although information exchange is completely interrupted, you should be able to detect something... through the special spiritual sense between the Starborn."

"Yes, I can detect vague interstellar whispers. The sentinel system should be intact, and the main control layer has not yet been lost, but I don't know how long it can last," Asu-man replied, "If the return of the 'Destroyer Goddess' leads to further strengthening of the Lord of Madness's power, then the sentinels' situation will be precarious..."

"No, strengthening is impossible, at least not in the short term," Hao Ren interjected, "In fact, if everything goes well, you will soon observe an energy burst in that cage. This energy burst will weaken the Lord of Madness... but it's not certain how much it can weaken."

Asu-man was a little puzzled: "Energy burst? Why?"

"Because the Destroyer Goddess slammed our reaction armor with her face," Hao Ren waved his hand, "This problem is more complicated to explain, you just need to know the result."

Asu-man: "...?"

Fortunately, the Creator Goddess suddenly spoke to divert everyone's attention: "Although some things will develop in a direction that is beneficial to us, I must remind everyone of one thing. The union of that evil god and the Lord of Madness will also bring us a huge crisis..."

Everyone's attention immediately focused on her, and the goddess did not whet everyone's appetite too much.

She said in a very slow tone: "The Lord of Madness, who has always been blind and chaotic and acts on instinct... will soon have a clever brain."