Chapter 190

This magnificent, enormous temple had an interior space to match its size, including long corridors and halls that stretched as far as the eye could see. If Hao Ren wasn't riding on Lily's back in her giant dog form, he estimated he'd have to jog to keep up with the two guardian giants—that wouldn't be very dignified for a fresh force who had just turned the tide.

The group walked for a long time in the dilapidated temple, bypassing some hidden passages and doors, finally arriving at its deepest point. Lementusa forcefully pushed open a door that looked particularly heavy and sturdy, pointing to the hall behind the door: "It should still be safe here. Come in."

Hao Ren and Lily followed Muru into the hall, discovering a huge hexagonal room. The room was brightly lit, with simple but solemn and imposing sculptures everywhere. Around the hall was a circle of long, light-red draperies hanging from the extremely high ceiling. Each drapery was accompanied by a beam of light shining down from above, as if these beams were guarding a black stone platform in the center of the room. Beside the black stone platform sat a female giant in a long robe. This giant should be Sif, the one Lementusa mentioned. She looked seriously injured, with a pool of dried blood beside her and a pale complexion. As the door opened, the guardian woke up groggily and immediately placed her hand on a green crystal beside the stone platform until Lementusa's voice came, easing her tension: "Sif, it's me."

Hao Ren and Izhaks, who entered the hall afterward, made her eyes widen again.

"These are friends," Lementusa, knowing that Sif had the same misunderstanding he had at first, quickly explained before she could ask, "The enemies outside have been taken care of. It's temporarily safe here. I need to tell you something…"

"Where did these people come from?" Sif frowned, her hand never leaving the green crystal.

Fortunately, with the joint explanation of Muru and Lementusa, the origins of Hao Ren and the others were quickly clarified. Then, Lementusa began to tell his companion what he knew—including the matter of the spatial-temporal turbulence.

Sif's reaction was no different from Lementusa's. As she slowly accepted this reality, Hao Ren led Lily to a corner of the hall. He summoned the self-propelled machines from his dimensional pocket, telling the husky girl to open her mouth: "Open your mouth, let me brush your teeth."

Lily obediently howled, baring her sharp teeth. Hao Ren immediately saw that her teeth were still full of the scraps she had bitten off earlier—including the wreckage of boots, belts, cloaks, and shoulder pads, all gleaming on her teeth. Lily uncomfortably licked her teeth with her tongue, the hard scraps making her feel uneasy.

Upon receiving the order, several self-propelled machines flew up, chattering, and began cleaning between Lily's teeth. The metal fragments were stuck very tightly, so the robots had to use cutting beams and crowbars to remove the debris. Sparks flew everywhere, and the sound of sawing echoed, making the husky girl's mouth as lively as a construction site. Hao Ren chuckled with his arms crossed: "The commotion she makes brushing her teeth is like a renovation."

Lily couldn't refute in her current state and could only roll her eyes, continuously making gurgling protests in her throat. Izhaks patted Hao Ren's shoulder with his fingertip: "Don't provoke her. If she bites you now, it won't be as simple as leaving a tooth mark."

While Lily was getting her teeth cleaned, the three giants finished discussing the situation outside the temple. Hao Ren noticed their movement and ran over: "How is it? All done?"

"Not much to say," Muru nodded. "Where is your ship right now?"

Hao Ren pointed directly above: "It's hovering and waiting above the temple. Because I don't know when more enemies will emerge, I told Nolan to hover in place and be on alert. Also, I sent out probes and low-altitude satellites. I don't know if there are any other survivors on this planet…"

Hao Ren was suddenly interrupted by Sif halfway through his words: "There aren't any. We should be the last guardians on this planet… cough, cough."

The female giant spoke slowly, whether due to her injuries or her natural disposition. Her voice had a gentle softness that differed from Muru and the others. Hao Ren looked at Lementusa in surprise after hearing her words: "Are you sure?"

"After the rebel army broke through the interstellar barrier of the Surun Gate, almost all the guardians went to the Founding Star to provide support," Lementusa explained. "The last message I heard was their announcement when they left. After that, only the last battalion was still guarding this temple. Sif and I, and Turan in the front plaza, are the last warriors of the temple guard."

Muru had said that the guardians had defended this star system to the last moment in the Battle of the Surun Gate, but what he knew only went that far. Now it seemed that after the rebel army completely broke through a certain barrier here, the guardians had abandoned this meaningless position and went to the Founding Star to build a second line of defense. What Hao Ren and his group saw on this planet was the last scene of the war ten thousand years ago: the entire planet had been completely lost, and even the last temple guard had been almost completely wiped out. Lementusa and Sif were actually the last survivors here.

An accident of fate? An inevitability of history? Two seemingly mismatched words suddenly popped into Hao Ren's mind, but he knew that his arrival was perfectly timed.

"Arriving at the last moment, catching the last battle, seeing the last survivors," even Izhaks couldn't help but mutter, "This is truly fate…"

"This planet's time has stagnated for ten thousand years just so we could catch this late show. Is there anything more 'arranged' than this?" The corners of Hao Ren's mouth couldn't help but curl up, and then he looked curiously at Lementusa. "You stayed behind to guard this temple. Is there something here?"

When he was fighting the rebellious son just now, he heard the rebel commander mention letting Lementusa hand over something. Now, hearing that Lementusa's guard was staying here after the entire planet was evacuated, he naturally knew there must be something unusual. He was afraid that this temple had something extraordinary about it, so he asked directly.

A trace of hesitation flashed across Lementusa's face. Seeing this, Muru put his hand on the shoulder of his compatriot: "What you are guarding is already the history of ten thousand years ago. If you want to hand them over to someone, now is the best choice."

"There is a sacred object placed here," Lementusa finally nodded, pointing to the huge stone platform that Sif was leaning against. "Those rebels came for it too."

The rebellious sons didn't originally need to be entangled on this planet for too long. Hao Ren already knew that they possessed powerful weapons that could destroy the entire planet. Therefore, after breaking through Surun's planetary shield, those rebels could have immediately used gravity weapons to completely tear this place apart, but they sent a large number of troops to sweep the planet's surface. The reason for this was indeed in the temple guarded by Lementusa!

Muru's face immediately became serious: "What sacred object?"

"A component of the Genesis Engine."

Looking at the faces of the three guardian giants, which became very solemn at the same time, Hao Ren only felt that a multitude of question marks were constantly popping out of his head: "What are you talking about? What does the Genesis Engine do?"

"That is a mysterious thing that our Mother focused on building in the last few millennia," Sif said slowly. "In fact, even we don't know what it's for. We only know that it's probably related to a plan to 'change the entire universe.' Mother attached great importance to that mysterious creation. She spent a lot of effort designing it herself, and built its various components on hundreds of planets around the Founding Star, and then brought the components to the Founding Star to assemble them herself. The Surun Gate was also one of the construction factories of the Genesis Engine. Before the outbreak of the war, Lementusa and I spent most of our time watching those components being slowly forged from the stellar furnace. After the outbreak of the war, one component that didn't have time to be transported was placed in this temple."

Hao Ren scratched his head: "This sounds like a mysterious and confusing thing… Then take it out and let me identify it?"

Lementusa and Sif looked at each other. After some deep thought, they nodded gently.