Chapter 146 Into the Storm

Hao Ren blinked, taking a few seconds to realize he had left the illusionary world and returned to reality.

This illusionary world was different from his previous experiences. It was broader, stranger, and longer. It was even divided into "two layers"—Hao Ren was sure that the layer of black mist was the border of the illusionary world, but after touching the black mist, he entered the deeper part of the illusion, a phenomenon never before seen.

It seemed that these illusions related to the Goddess of Creation still held many unsolved mysteries, worthy of further exploration.

What was that planet full of crystals and lightning? What was the purpose of that circular domed hall where huge crystal clusters were stored? And that crystal throne, and the figure suspected to be the Goddess of Creation… What did this scene mean? What was it conveying to him?

Hao Ren frowned and shook his head. One question after another popped up in his mind, making him a little dazed for a while, until the data terminal slammed into his forehead with a "bang," jolting him awake: "Ah, damn it… you really dare to hit me?"

"Nonsense, how many times has this humble device hit your head usually? Aren't you used to it yet?" the data terminal shouted without the slightest guilt, flashing a bright light in front of Hao Ren's eyes. "He's back, he's back! Are you awake? If you're not awake, this humble device will hit you again?"

"Get lost, get lost, you're addicted to hitting me… I've never seen a PDA with such poor user experience," Hao Ren waved his hand, pushing away the data terminal flying around in front of him, muttering as he pushed, "I just got caught in an illusion, like when I touched the golden disc before. I saw a strange planet, and someone who looked like the Goddess of Creation… How long have I been unconscious?"

"Almost half an hour!" the data terminal suddenly raised its voice. "The time is suspiciously long! Otherwise, why would this humble device hit your head? This humble device thought your SAN value had dropped to zero and you were 'bounced' out! You need to check it when you get back."

"SAN value is nothing. I argue with Raven 12345 every other day and my SAN value doesn't drop. Is there anything in this world more indescribable than a crazy goddess… Tsk, I didn't expect so much time to have passed in the outside world. Call Nolan down, let's get the two of us back. By the way, were there any abnormal changes in the Red Moon in the past half hour?"

"There have been quite a few abnormal changes. First of all, these crystals suddenly lit up. Secondly, a huge holographic projection was suddenly projected from the moon's surface into space, optimistically, the entire Aerym can see it—the special convergence of moonlight temporarily failed when the holographic projection appeared. Also…"

Before the data terminal could finish speaking, a violent tremor suddenly swept through the entire dwarf planet.

Hao Ren saw the scenery in front of him suddenly blur, all the crystals and the seabed under his feet became illusory in the shaking, and then all this disappeared. He saw the normal universe of stars reappearing in front of him—the stars in his field of vision appeared for a moment, and then were filled with red seawater and a crystal seabed, and the pressure of the seawater came from his body. However, after a while, all this disappeared again, and the universe of stars appeared in his field of vision again…

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment before realizing that the Red Moon was collapsing. It was "flickering" like a giant holographic projection fading away!

"What's going on?" The first thing he thought of was Vivian, who was maintaining the summoning ceremony, so he immediately contacted Aerym. "Vivian? How are you?"

However, it was Nangong Wuyue's voice that answered him, the siren girl's tone full of panic: "Landlord! Something happened! The summoning ceremony was interrupted!"

Hao Ren looked at the rapidly disappearing Red Moon, the dark universe and the bright stars filling his vision: "I know, the Red Moon is disappearing—what happened? Where's Vivian? How is she?"

As he spoke, he signaled the data terminal to prepare the program to teleport to the spaceship: he was going back to New Aerym immediately.

Nangong Wuyue's voice seemed about to cry: "Vivian… I don't know, she's surrounded by a storm, we can't see what's inside!"

"A storm?" Hao Ren didn't understand for a moment. "What storm? What about Lily? Shouldn't she be executing an emergency termination when the ritual goes out of control?"

Wuyue said anxiously: "Lily rushed up when the ritual circle broke just now, and hasn't landed yet…"

Hao Ren: "What do you mean hasn't landed yet… Okay, okay, don't worry, I'll be back right away! Find a safe place and hide with everyone, maybe we'll need your healing abilities later!"

After saying that, he and the data terminal disappeared in a white teleportation beam at the same time, and the last afterimage of the Red Moon also collapsed silently after they left. This supernatural dwarf planet disappeared, and darkness returned to space.

Hao Ren returned to the Royal Magic Tower in the City of Stars in a few short minutes.

The summoning ceremony hall was a mess, and he finally knew what Wuyue meant by "a storm."

In order to prepare for the summoning ceremony, the active dome on the top floor of the Royal Magic Tower had been opened, and the entire ceremony hall was directly exposed to the night sky. At this moment, a blood-red tornado was entrenched in the hall. The upper part of the tornado far exceeded the height of the original dome, so that the Royal Magic Tower seemed to have grown a shaking funnel-shaped "hat" out of thin air, and the root of its lower part was exactly where Vivian was standing before. It was surrounded by a powerful energy field and storm, and nothing could be seen inside.

The tornado roared mournfully, steadily and violently tearing apart everything within range. The original precise magic circle in the ceremony hall had been torn into pieces by this powerful energy. Precious magic crystals and magic-conducting metals rose with the whirlwind, and were ground into powder in the process. The walls and ground of the hall were covered with criss-crossing deep cracks.

The personnel in the hall had been evacuated to near the entrance. Hilda stood there, leading the magisters to open a powerful energy barrier. Several people, including the Nangong siblings, were hiding behind the barrier, and seemed unharmed—Nangong Wuyue even stretched out her tail and shook it to greet Hao Ren when she saw him.

"What's the situation here?" Hao Ren ran behind the barrier with a rigid shield, and asked loudly.

"There are no casualties here, but we don't know what's going on inside the storm," Nangong Sanba also shouted loudly. "Hilda just ordered the energy supply to the ceremony hall to be cut off, but the storm shows no signs of weakening—this thing is now completely maintained by Vivian's own magic!"

"How could this happen? How could such a storm suddenly appear in a good summoning ceremony…" Hao Ren clenched his fist and looked in the direction of the tornado. "The fact that the storm is still there means that Vivian is okay for the time being, but she must have lost control of everything… Where's Lily?"

Nangong Wuyue pointed tremblingly at the middle of the tornado with her tail: "She's there, the white one."

Hao Ren took a closer look, and sure enough, he saw a white figure in the waist of the tornado, and it was spinning rapidly with the rotation of the storm. It was Lily, who was holding a giant alloy x10 sword and shouting.

"Lily!" Seeing the husky spirit rolling around in the tornado, Hao Ren was startled and quickly ran out and shouted up.

Lily deserved to be the toughest person in the family in hand-to-hand combat. Although it looked like she was being swept around by the tornado, she was not injured at all and was still very energetic. After hearing Hao Ren's voice, she immediately shouted loudly: "Landlord—I can't land for a while—look, I'm waving to you—"

Because she was being swept around by the storm, her voice sounded sometimes near and sometimes far, and was occasionally drowned out by the howling of the wind.

"Are you hurt!"

"I'm-okay! I'm just-a little dizzy! I feel-like your whole person-is a double image-ah!"

After confirming that the husky spirit was alive and kicking, Hao Ren then asked: "How is Vivian?"

"She's-dazing in there!" the husky girl shouted. "Looks like-she's okay! I have a-plan…"

"What plan?"

"I'll go-in the same-direction as the-storm and rotate-synchronously! Then I can-catch that bat!"

Lily shouted loudly, and then Hao Ren saw her twist her body in the air, and then began to swim in the tornado with her hands and feet in a dog-paddling posture, while also swinging her tail like a propeller to accelerate.

Hao Ren: "…"

A moment later, Lily was thrown around in the tornado a dozen times.

"Landlord—my plan-failed! I feel-dizzier than-before!!"

He knew that this husky spirit was unreliable at all!

Hao Ren gritted his teeth, turned the output of the rigid shield to the maximum, and took out a set of attitude adjustment devices from his portable space and tied them around his waist, and stepped towards the storm.

His eyes were full of blood-colored storm.

Even with the help of the attitude adjustment device, Hao Ren was almost knocked over when he came into contact with the storm. He could feel the powerful and terrifying wind pressure acting on his rigid shield, causing the entire shield to burst out with a brighter light than before. Strange creaking sounds continued to come from all around, giving a terrible illusion that the shield was about to break. The torn fragments of the magic circle and the stone fragments constantly peeling off from the floor hit him, bursting out with continuous sparks, as if he was walking through a hail of bullets.

In such harsh conditions, he tried his best to walk forward. Visual observation was useless, because there was no visibility at all here. He could only release his mental power and sense the unusually powerful energy reaction not far away.

There was no doubt that it was Vivian's direction.

Although it was difficult, walking through the bottom of the tornado was the closest route. As long as he could withstand the most violent storm, he could approach Vivian as quickly as possible.

Hao Ren felt like he had walked for a century, but in reality the process only took a few minutes. He suddenly felt the pressure on his body lighten, and then the scene in front of him suddenly opened up.

He had arrived in the center of the tornado, in the silent, windless eye of the storm.

Vivian was floating quietly half a meter above the center of the eye of the storm, looking up as if in a daze at the stars.

"Vivian!" Hao Ren shouted loudly, "How are you?"

Vivian slowly turned her head, and she saw Hao Ren, a shallow smile overflowing in her clear eyes.

"Hao Ren, I remember—the Goddess of Creation is the leader of the Godslayers."