Chapter 17 Unexpected Changes

Hao Ren turned his head when he heard the commotion from the small plaza, just in time to see the staff members waiting by the signal tower walking towards the blood pool in the center of the plaza. The red liquid in the blood pool was surging rhythmically, the central part slightly bulging as if something was about to come out. Lily, with half a spicy stick in her mouth, craned her neck and leaned on the windowsill: "What's that for?"

"That's the process of returning to the real world," Ulanov explained. "Everyone is born from the blood pool."

Hao Ren was immediately very interested, but before he could say anything, he felt something cool and slippery move against his chest, and then Doudou arched out. The little mermaid jumped onto the windowsill, happily flapping her tail; she had also been attracted by the commotion outside. Ulanov was stunned when he saw this mysterious creature: "What's this?"

Hao Ren held Doudou to prevent the little one from falling off the windowsill and explained, "Uh... my daughter, a mermaid. You don't have them over there."

Ulanov's gaze towards Hao Ren suddenly became a little strange: "So you guys walk on your tails when you're first born?"

Hao Ren: "..."

He didn't know how many times he had explained similar questions because of his fish daughter. At this moment, he had no motivation to speak at all, but he couldn't let the misunderstanding continue, so he could only wave his hand weakly: "It's complicated. She's not my biological daughter. The process of adopting this girl was quite special."

Doudou didn't know that she had become the topic of discussion among the adults. She was just excitedly waving at the lively scene in the plaza, full of curiosity like any normal child. At the same time, she also noticed the wooden window frame next to her. The wood, unique to this planet, with its faint golden luster, made the little one's appetite soar. She opened her mouth and wanted to take a bite, but thankfully Hao Ren stopped her with quick eyes and hands: all the plants on Tanagrus contain a certain amount of gold, and even with the fish baby's good digestive system, it didn’t seem like she could digest gold…

And just then, the situation in the plaza took an unexpected turn.

After the staff were ready, the surging Source Blood in the blood pool suddenly calmed down.

As if some kind of transmission process had been interrupted, the Source Blood, which had already risen more than half a person's height, instantly lost its shape and returned to a calm surface, and the faint red light floating on the liquid also dimmed. The surrounding staff members looked at each other, not knowing what had happened, and then two of them ran nervously towards the house across the plaza, seemingly to report the situation.

"What's going on?" Izhaks asked curiously when he saw this scene.

Ulanov was also confused. He had just woken up and had only obtained limited common sense from the Social Adaptation Department: "I don't know... it seems like there's a problem with the revival process. Let's go take a look."

Hao Ren and his group hurried to the blood pool. Izhaks grabbed a staff member and asked about the situation. The latter almost slipped into the pool when he saw the great demon's aura—thankfully, Lily grabbed him. Hao Ren squatted by the blood pool to check the state of the Source Blood, and found that the latter's condition was similar to deactivation, like the suppressed state in the containers at the crystal core research station. The staff member, who had almost had a heart attack from being grabbed by Izhaks, took a breath and began to explain the situation: "The transmission process was suddenly interrupted. Nothing was condensed from the Source Blood."

Hao Ren was about to check if the signal tower next to him had recorded anything when the data terminal suddenly floated in front of him: "Mullu is calling."

Hao Ren looked up towards the outside of the town and saw Mullu standing on a distant hill waving at him, while signaling to answer the call. He had the data terminal connect the call, and then heard Mullu say anxiously: "Is there a malfunction with the signal tower over there? Zorm just told me that it lost control of a small blood pool, it seems the signal was interrupted."

"I'm checking," Hao Ren said as he walked to the signal tower. After opening the cover of its base, he found the crystal panel that could manually control the equipment. The crystal panel was floating with intricate symbols and text, but its state was normal. "The signal tower seems to be fine."

Then he activated the self-check program of the crystal core research station and the monitoring program of the Tanagrus planetary information center (the latter was an information exchange center set up at the South Pole), but found that the information chain from the Cradle of Life to the surface blood pool was completely normal.

In theory, the will of the eldest son, Zorm, could be transmitted to the blood pool in front of him without hindrance, but the latter refused to respond.

Not only did it refuse to respond… there seemed to be other phenomena as well.

Lily looked curiously at the pool of "water." She poked Hao Ren's sleeve: "Landlord, do you think this thing is avoiding you?"

"Avoiding me?" Hao Ren was stunned. Only then did he notice that the liquid surface in the blood pool wasn't completely calm. There were subtle differences in height on its surface. Overall, all the Source Blood was gathering towards the other side of the pool, causing this side of the liquid surface to be about ten centimeters lower than the other. For the entire pool, this difference wasn't significant. If it weren't for Lily's sharp eyes, most people wouldn't have noticed it.

Hao Ren initially thought it was a coincidence, but when he tried walking halfway around the pool, he was surprised to find that the liquid surface was actually changing as he moved. The Source Blood under his feet was always at the lowest point: these liquids really seemed to be avoiding him.

"This has never happened before," Hao Ren frowned, not knowing what was going on. He tested it back and forth several times, but didn't find out what was causing this phenomenon. He bent down and put his fingers directly into the Source Blood, feeling warm and moist, with no abnormalities. "Why don't you come over and taste it to see if it's expired, Lily?"

Lily immediately bared her teeth: "Why me?"

Hao Ren glared at her: "Nonsense, don't you usually like to put everything in your mouth to taste it first?"

He only dared to joke with Lily about the Source Blood here, because it was all catalyzed by Zorm, belonging to the mild and harmless variety. Even if it lost control, it wouldn't cause a blood tide like the Source Blood on other planets: there was no hatred for other creatures in this blood.

While Hao Ren was talking to Lily, Doudou was sticking her head out of Hao Ren's collar, looking at the pool in front of her. The little one felt that the colorful surface of the water was very interesting. Although it seemed a bit different from the water basin at home, but...

The water surface itself was enough to trigger the little mermaid's natural instinct: she wanted to swim in it.

So she did.

With a plop, Hao Ren only saw Doudou's tail flash in the Source Blood, stirring up a small splash.

Then the entire Source Blood pool instantly became noisy, as if boiling!

Large patches of red liquid rolled and rolled away from Doudou's point of entry in all directions. The liquid surface quickly dropped at a speed visible to the naked eye. Accompanied by the sound of rushing water, the Source Blood pool bottomed out in a few seconds.

Just like the Red Sea parted by Moses, the Source Blood receded to both sides of the pool, revealing a large area of dry pool bottom in the middle. Doudou closed her eyes on the pool bottom and tried to swim with her tail, but after "swimming" for a while, she felt that the touch wasn't right, so she opened her eyes. The little one looked around in confusion, and without hesitation, plunged towards the nearest liquid.

So the Source Blood continued to retreat.

"They're not avoiding me," Hao Ren said dumbfounded, "They're avoiding Doudou!"

"Anyway, let's get the little one out first." Lily was also stunned for a moment, and then prepared to jump down and catch the fish, but Hao Ren stopped her and took out a long-handled fishing net from his portable space: "I have special tools here."

Lily stared at Hao Ren's "special tools": "How do you have everything prepared?"

"Nonsense, I have all kinds of people at home," Hao Ren muttered as he stretched the net towards Doudou. "I bought this from a fishing tackle store, and I can't believe this thing will be classified as childcare supplies..."

Doudou obediently jumped into the net, and was "fished" out by her dad. After the little one left the pool, the Source Blood reunited as expected.

Then Hao Ren put the little one back into his portable space, and everything was as expected: the blood pool regained its vitality.

"She seems to be able to suppress the activity of Source Blood?" Elizabeth scratched her horns. "She's so amazing!"

"It's not just suppressing the activity of Source Blood," Hao Ren's expression was even more serious. "Obviously, the Source Blood is afraid of her… or reveres her!"