Chapter 148 Wasted Revival Coin

Upon Hao Ren's reminder, everyone, including Lily and Vivian, seemed to suddenly remember something and raised their hands to look at the back of their hands. Before departing, everyone had undergone a marking ceremony in the World Tree Hall, and they should have had a revival mark from the World Tree on the back of their hands. However, now, all the marks had disappeared.

Everyone exclaimed almost in unison, "It's gone?!" "What the—?!" "Huh?" "Meow meow meow?" "What the heck!"

Okay, it wasn't exactly uniform…

The World Tree mark's greatest function was to bind each person's life information and provide a precious chance for revival in the event of a fatal threat. Its disappearance only meant one thing: that revival opportunity had been used up.

But no one remembered dying once!

"What's going on?" Lily instantly felt her fur standing on end, even feeling like she'd lost a dog's life. "How did my revival coin just disappear like that! I don't remember dying in Lahrien…"

"Of course, no one died. According to the plan set before departure, if all of us consumed our revival marks, the World Tree would immediately initiate a forced disengagement, dragging us all back to the prime material universe. This process couldn't be stopped even by the dark domain," Hao Ren waved his hand. "The revival mark disappeared because we were assimilated when we entered the Lahrien dream. No one has any memory of that moment, but it definitely happened, probably in the very beginning. I think being assimilated by the dream probably meant 'erasure' in the real world. This process was enough to activate the not-so-precise judgment mechanism in the mark, so the mark was consumed. But in fact, we are all still alive, so the World Tree's forced disengagement program was not activated."

Lily blinked, her tail drooping. "Ah… such a waste of a revival coin…"

"No, it had its use," Hao Ren smiled slightly. "It offset the Lahrien dream's assimilation effect on us, so we can carry out activities in a completely sober state. Without this mark, we would probably have really started accepting missions and making a living in that White Maple Leaf City, and then endlessly loop for hundreds or thousands of years, until this goddess wakes up on her own initiative…"

The Creation Goddess spread her hands. "When I'm asleep, I'm just Leah. Even I am deeply trapped in the dream, so it's not my fault."

Hao Ren: "…"

Why did he suddenly feel like this goddess's style had fluctuated a bit?

The others, after hearing Hao Ren's words, broke out in a cold sweat. Nangong Sanba looked at the back of his hand. "What the heck… hearing it like this suddenly feels so dangerous. If we didn't have this thing, don't even mention seeing through the truth of the dream, we would even forget who we are… Eh, wait a minute, that's not right. According to you, this mark should have disappeared from the beginning. How come none of us noticed?"

"Of course, you didn't notice. Didn't you realize? You only suddenly remembered the existence of this revival mark after I reminded you just now," Hao Ren said unhurriedly. "If I'm not mistaken, this mark accepted the Lahrien dream's assimilation on our behalf at that time. Therefore, it became part of that dream, and at the same time, it completely disappeared from everyone's memories. If it weren't like this, it would have been impossible for us to completely isolate ourselves from Lahrien's influence."

Speaking of this, Hao Ren suddenly remembered something, so he quickly opened his portable space and released Dou Dou. The little mermaid should have been playing in her aquarium before, and when she was suddenly released, she was still holding a delicate little conch in her hand, with a happy expression on her face. Then this happy expression turned into a dazed one, but soon turned back into a happy one again. She teleported onto Hao Ren's shoulder, bouncing around while waving the conch in her hand. "Daddy! I dug a sandbox in that big fish tank! I put a lot of shells in it!"

"Okay, okay—let me see the back of your hand," Hao Ren said, dealing with the little one's antics while grabbing the fish baby's arm. "Sure enough… even staying in the portable space, Dou Dou's revival mark has been consumed. And she was only outside for a short period of time when we first arrived in Lahrien, before entering White Maple Leaf City. After that, the portable space where she stayed is a place that can isolate cause and effect and time and space, and theoretically won't be interfered by the dream. So, just as I guessed, the mark was consumed at the beginning. After that, we obtained a 'sober buff'. Even if we come into contact with Leah, the source of the dream, we will not be affected by her at all…"

At this time, Nolan, who had been floating in the sky without participating in the topic, suddenly said, "Boss, then why wasn't I assimilated by the dream? I don't have any revival mark at all."

The ship girl's words immediately stumped Hao Ren. He opened his mouth, but couldn't explain why. At this time, the Creation Goddess, who had been left out in the cold, took the initiative to answer Nolan's doubts: "Because your existence is beyond my understanding."

Nolan: "Eh?"

"Dreams have limits. Even if I leave a lot of room for changes, I can't describe something I don't understand. You… part of you is completely beyond my knowledge, and therefore beyond the Lahrien worldview. If I were controlling that dream in a sober state, I might be able to find a way to make a reasonable explanation for your existence, but Lahrien is operating automatically, which led to it being unable to assimilate you at all…"

Hao Ren listened to the goddess's explanation in a daze. At first, he didn't understand what about Nolan, a civilian-grade spaceship, could exceed the Creation Goddess's understanding—after all, this goddess, even if she hadn't received a formal education, was a self-taught genius. At least she could figure out everything in the universe. But soon he thought of something with the most technological content on Nolan, or rather, the Turtle Rock Platform—

It was the void engine.

The Creation Goddess silently researched technology on her own, and her greatest achievement at the end was only successfully throwing Vivian and the Yggdrashil Ark to the neighboring surface world. Therefore, she had not mastered the real cross-world navigation technology. However, Nolan… she had a void engine that could travel in the void and freely shuttle between worlds!

Apart from this engine, whether it was the other conventional equipment of the Turtle Rock Platform, or the personal equipment and member life forms of Hao Ren and his party, were all things that the Creation Goddess could easily analyze and reproduce. Therefore, they could completely sink into the Lahrien dream, but because of the existence of this engine, Nolan's assimilation process was "stuck"…

The questions about the Lahrien dream were answered one by one, and Hao Ren felt a sense of sudden enlightenment. But at this time, the Creation Goddess suddenly stretched. "Although I would like to continue chatting with you, it seems that we have been delayed on this ruin for too long. If you don't mind, how about we leave this place first and then continue these topics? I still have many things to do…"

Hao Ren knew that the "many things" the goddess was talking about probably still included her plan to exterminate her own people, but it would probably not be easy to persuade her to give up this plan immediately and accept his new plan at this time. So he decided to wait until they got out before slowly communicating the issue of saving the world with this goddess who was not highly educated but had a lot of reckless energy.

However, before leaving the dark domain, there was still something he cared about. "I have one last question, about the Lahrien dream itself—was it really created by you out of thin air? Or does it have… some origin?"

As he expected, the Creation Goddess's expression changed slightly after hearing this question. Then she raised her head, her gaze passing over the palace ruins floating in the darkness, and cast towards the depths of the vast chaos: There, a torn planet was quietly suspended in space, and a faint mist emitting a faint light enveloped the surface of the planet, which was split in two.

Just as one could see the shattered Heavenly Kingdom by looking up at the sky on the land of Lahrien, one could also see Lahrien by looking up at the sky in the "shattered Heavenly Kingdom." Reality and dream had a wonderful intersection here.

Due to the obstruction of the chaotic mist, even with the eyesight of a demigod, it was impossible to see the details on the surface of the planet clearly, but from some vague outlines, one could still vaguely identify some things on the surface of the planet.

For example, a long and narrow plain surrounded by two mountain ranges…

"You saw it, right…" After a long time, the goddess retracted her gaze and sighed softly. "That's right, that is Lahrien… a place that once really existed."

"Was it sucked in during the explosion of the Divine Kingdom?" Hao Ren asked curiously. "And then you used it as the prototype for that dream?"

The goddess's voice was a little low. "No, it was originally here… outside the boundary of the world."

Hao Ren's eyes widened instantly when he heard these words, and he almost jumped up. "Wait! You said that Lahrien… it was originally here? In this place that is almost detached from the ordered universe, and is about to fall into the void?!"

In this instant, a huge amount of information flooded into Hao Ren's mind, and countless conjectures and conclusions sprang up one after another, almost making him feel that his brain was boiling. And the most direct and incredible of these conjectures and conclusions occupied most of his brain capacity:

In addition to the dream plane and the surface world, there was once a third universe?!

"You're very surprised, right? I was also very surprised at the beginning," the Creation Goddess said lightly. "When the Founding Star exploded, I thought I would be thrown out of the world along with the shattered Divine Kingdom, and be completely annihilated in the place you call the 'void'. But I didn't expect to fall into here—a narrow and dark little universe. There was even a planet called Lahrien, on which lived a group of mortals who were not fighting with the world. At that time, I was close to extinction, and only a remnant of my will still lingered in the wreckage of the Founding Star. I tried my best to bind the energy impact that was spreading outward from the Divine Kingdom ruins, and dragged it on for about two hundred years… but I failed after all. The shock wave that erupted from the Divine Kingdom ruins tore apart everything in this little universe, including Lahrien."

From that day on, the already severely injured Creation Goddess truly fell into a deep sleep, and Lahrien became a dream of hers.