Chapter 730 Rebirth and a Visitor from Afar

Katerina and Elsa jumped into the water, swimming around the newly reborn Ieva. With great surprise and curiosity, they observed this ocean spirit who had returned, while Ieva also curiously observed them. She constantly surged in the seawater, chasing Katerina's leaping tail with splashes of water, or reaching out to try and shake hands with Elsa, behaving just like a toddler learning to crawl. Nangong Wuyue noticed this: "She looks... strange."

"She's completely regenerated, but only retained a portion of her memories," Hao Ren was still finding Ieva's resurrection hard to believe, and he didn't understand the underlying principles at all. He could only explain the current situation based on the fragmented information he had perceived during his mental connection with her just now. "It's hard to say if she's still the original 'planetary consciousness.' It's probably equivalent to reincarnation. But in any case, she's Ieva, just needing to grow up."

Ieva happily swam around in the sea with Katerina and Elsa for a while, eventually returning to Hao Ren's side. She patted the latter's arm with her cool hands, making a series of unrecognizable sounds: "Glug... glug..."

"She remembers me, but only a little," Hao Ren couldn't understand what Ieva was saying, but he could directly read her thoughts after physical contact. He didn't know the underlying principle, but this inexplicable "telepathic communication" ability of his seemed particularly effective with this siren spirit. "She says she thanks me for the gift I brought last time—the moss fragments. She found a way to propagate those moss fragments and change their form."

"She's reshaping the planet's ecology?" Nangong Wuyue was astonished. "I thought only the First Born could do something like that..."

"She's not as powerful as Zhumu, but in a marine environment, she can do many similar things," Hao Ren said with a smile. "Her power is still very weak now, not comparable to the original planetary consciousness. She basically operates in this sea area. The other side of the planet is still very far away for her."

At this moment, Katerina swam back, and Ieva immediately stepped forward, gently bumping the siren queen's tail with her pure water-formed body, and continuously making various glugging sounds. Katerina looked at Hao Ren in embarrassment: "What is she saying?"

Hao Ren reached into the water, understanding Ieva's thoughts: "She says she often travels between the sea surface and the seabed. There are still siren city ruins on the seabed. Many cities are completely destroyed, but some still remain. She's asking when you'll move back."

Katerina's face immediately darkened upon hearing this. Hao Ren maintained his mental connection with Ieva, explaining the sirens' temporary inability to return home to her. The current Ieva didn't seem to understand these complex things very well, but she seemed to sense some hope from Hao Ren's thoughts—or rather, positive emotions, which made her happy again, and she quickly circled around Hao Ren.

"What is she saying now?" Katerina asked curiously.

"She's talking about those 'stones' that landed on the sea surface in the distance," Hao Ren looked in the direction of the Ark fleet's landing. "She's very curious about those things."

The three sirens exchanged glances.

Ieva's sudden appearance was an unexpected situation, because this "planetary consciousness" and "siren spirit" had previously dissipated. Even though Hao Ren had speculated that she might reappear, he didn't expect her to recover so quickly. Now, the Ark civilization had suddenly landed on the Ioe Sea, which had attracted Ieva's great attention. What did she think of the sudden appearance of a group of aliens on this planet?

Could this young version of Ieva understand the plight of the Ark civilization and the various agreements signed between the sirens and the Ark?

With various considerations in mind, Hao Ren began to try and explain the origins of those "stones" to Ieva. Just as he had begun communicating with Ieva, Nolan suddenly sent a communication: "Captain—the Ark's dome is about to open."

Ieva surged around Hao Ren, splashing water all around her. Although she had no clear facial features, she expressed a great deal of curiosity through her body language. Hao Ren hesitated and looked at her for a while, finally deciding to bring her along to watch the scene of the Ark opening its dome.

The group set off for the landing site of the Ark fleet, and Ieva's way of following was eye-opening: she didn't follow behind everyone, but instead disappeared back into the sea as soon as Hao Ren started moving. Hao Ren initially thought she had left, but soon discovered her appearing on the sea surface not far away: in this sea area, Ieva was truly omnipresent. She didn't need conventional means of movement at all. On the sea, she could appear anywhere at will.

The Petrified Turtle Rock Platform had already descended from the air and was floating on the sea some distance from the Throne Ark, remotely monitoring the situation of the Ark giant ship. When Hao Ren returned, he saw Nangong Sanba and Nangong Wudi, father and son, standing on the upper platform of the spaceship waiting for him, while "Gun" was squatting on the edge of the platform, concentrating on watching the sea in front of him, seemingly focused on trying to catch a fish.

Seeing Ieva brought back by Hao Ren, Nangong Sanba was dumbfounded: "She actually resurrected?!"

"Consider it a rebirth," Hao Ren briefly explained Ieva's situation, then looked up at the Ark giant ship floating on the sea like a mountain. "We'll talk about Ieva later. Nolan, what's the situation with Laurence?"

"Everything is proceeding according to plan. According to him, the dome can be opened at any time."

Hao Ren hmm'd, turned to look at Ieva who was curiously rolling in the water, and slowly nodded: "Open the dome."

Accompanied by a low, mechanical rumble that seemed to come from the depths of the earth, the outer shell of the Throne Ark, sealed for ten thousand years, finally opened.

Countless heavy alloy plates on the dark, steel shell of the Ark giant ship slowly lifted up, and then retracted into the deformation compartments of the armor one by one. A cloud of smoke spewed out from the top of the spaceship's outer shell, which was the gas ejected when the pressurized compartments in the outer layer of the spaceship were opened. In the continuous mechanical rumble, this unbelievably huge steel monster slowly began to deform, like some kind of curled leaf that was gradually unfolding. The ellipsoidal main body of the Ark split open from the middle, gradually stretching to both sides, while the spherical tops originally located at both ends of the Ark popped out like the lids of a container, slowly tilting towards the sea surface. Gradually, the Ark city's stratum structure, which had been hidden, was also exposed: layers of steel plates, old and ancient supports, equipment compartments sparking with electricity, and piping systems constantly leaking gas. These things that had been hidden underground for thousands of years were exposed for the first time, and the degree of aging inside was shocking. However, these internal structures were not exposed for too long: as the deformation process continued, the sealing systems of all equipment compartments were activated, and a series of huge alloy gates isolated the original outer compartments of the Ark one by one, forming huge gas airlocks to prevent seawater from pouring into the mechanical compartments.

As the spaceship's outer shell opened, the Ark city was finally gradually exposed to the sky.

"Ark gravity system normal, continuously correcting gravity guidance..." Nolan reported while concentrating on monitoring the spaceship's deformation process, "Attitude stable and normal... Overall inclination angle of the hull three point three five, returning to inclination... Switching gravity guidance..."

The scene of this mountain-like giant ship slowly opening on the sea was shocking, especially watching all this from such a close distance. Even Hao Ren, who had seen many grand scenes, couldn't help but admire this giant ship as a near-miraculous engineering creation—at least for a mortal race. As this awe-inspiring opening process unfolded, Ieva was also drawn to its full attention.

She had forgotten about rolling in the water at some point, and was now focusing all her attention on the steel "giant egg" that was opening on the sea. When she saw a city revealed inside the steel giant egg, she suddenly became excited and made a series of loud water sounds: she knew what a city was, because there were countless siren cities on the seabed, but she had never seen this kind of city in the "air world." Ieva expressed great shock at this!

Hao Ren grabbed Ieva's hand. As the Ark giant ship gradually opened, he also told this newly resurrected ocean soul, planetary consciousness, and siren spirit what he wanted to say, little by little.

"They came from another planet," Hao Ren said to Ieva in his heart, "They lost their home, just like the sirens did back then. They escaped from their planet and still have no home to return to. They hope to rest here. They need water, they need food, they need air, because their spaceship can hardly continue to manufacture these things..."