Chapter 1 The Upper Level of the World Tree

Hao Ren and Lily arrived together at the upper level of the World Tree Temple—a vast area like a circular plaza located deep within the canopy. Branches tens of kilometers thick and layers upon layers of enormous leaves turned this place into an enclosed space, yet there was no darkness to be seen. The World Tree itself radiated a halo that illuminated this huge cavity, making it as bright as day. Around the circular plaza, hundreds of curved white stone pillars grew out of the giant tree trunk, supporting and isolating the lush branches outside, eventually converging above into an arch-like structure.

Strands of glowing silk hung down from those elegant stone beams, each strand ending in a small ball of light that danced in the air. These were the World Tree's own "sprites," responsible for maintaining this vast and complex automated system to ensure every change in the universe was under surveillance.

To fully utilize the efficiency of the World Tree system, Hao Ren had connected the data link of the Crystal Nucleus Research Station to this place. Therefore, this circular plaza was equivalent to an extension of the Crystal Nucleus Research Station. Asu Man could directly project his consciousness here and greatly improve his own detection efficiency by utilizing the World Tree's processing power. It was thanks to this highly efficient system that he had detected the anomaly deep within the Dark Abyss at the first moment.

Asu Man's nebula-like image appeared in the center of the plaza, his melodious voice directly in Hao Ren's ear: "I observed a total of three energy fluctuations, separated by less than three seconds each. The first and second fluctuations were relatively weak, while the third was quite strong, even reaching the point where it could be directly observed without the aid of a gain antenna. The Lord of Mad Whispers will undoubtedly be injured by this energy burst, giving the jailers stationed there a chance to breathe."

"The first and second fluctuations should have been the Goddess of Annihilation trying to suppress her own divine power from going berserk, but how could she possibly hold it back—it's a miracle she lasted this long before exploding," Hao Ren, as a demolition expert, commented rather professionally. "With this explosion, she'll lose at least half her life even if she doesn't die."

What Lily was thinking about was something else: "We sent a good signal—the guards there can now know they haven't been forgotten, and someone is trying to deal with the Lord of Mad Whispers on the outside."

Hao Ren nodded, looking at Asu Man again: "Are there any other changes besides that?"

"There's even better news," Asu Man said, delivering good news but with the same emotionless tone as always, "The information relay stations set up by the drone swarm near the Dark Abyss have been successfully activated. Its effect is beyond expectations. I'm starting to receive clearer interstellar whispers, and I even briefly heard the Sentinel of Starry Civilization conversing—although contact couldn't be successfully established, it can be confirmed that the sentinel system within the cage still exists. The ancient defense line hasn't been lost."

Hao Ren couldn't help but take a deep breath. This progress made him feel a bit invigorated—the relay station was indeed useful! The information isolation between the Dark Abyss and the outside world had the possibility of being broken without damaging the seal, and if contact could be successfully established with the sentinels inside... the improvement to the situation wouldn't be small at all!

"Very good, your work is crucial and you must not relax," he said with relief. "I'll have the drones speed up the construction of more relay stations and auxiliary facilities. Perhaps we'll soon be able to successfully establish contact with your compatriots."

After learning about the information regarding the Dark Abyss cage, Hao Ren ended the connection with Asu Man. The holographic projection in mid-air gradually dimmed, and then he looked at the Goddess of Creation beside him: "How's the construction of the stable passage to the Dark Domain going?"

"It's almost finished, but it still needs adjustments. The current transmission consumes a lot of energy and has problems with coordinate misalignment," Lily said, reaching out to gently touch the surface of a crystal embedded in a stone pillar beside her. "Following your suggestion, I opened the passage here—"

As her voice fell, a slight hum echoed through the circular plaza.

Immediately afterward, the hundreds of curved, closed white stone beams above the plaza entered a state of charging one after another, and spread out like soft vines around them. A circular opening hundreds of meters wide slowly opened in the semi-spherical dome above, and a layer of shimmering light membrane covered this opening, energy surging within.

That was a teleportation gate—a teleportation gate that could directly lead to the Dark Domain.

The Dark Domain was the most special part of the Dream Realm. In fact, it didn't belong to the Dream Realm at all, but was an independent world "attached" to the Dream Realm's world barrier, like a parasitic universe. This led to the problem that teleportation gates usually only used for intra-world transmission couldn't be directly connected between the two. But this was no longer a problem after obtaining that magical "waypoint." By borrowing the World Tree's vast computing power and surging energy, even without Nolan's assistance, a stable passage to the Dark Domain could be opened. And what was in front of them was the final result.

Hao Ren had only entrusted this matter to Lily and then didn't interfere anymore. He didn't expect that only two days had passed, and Lily had already built the teleportation gate to a barely usable state. But thinking about it, it was normal: the waypoint to the Dark Domain itself was calculated by Lily, and coupled with her learning ability inherited from her mother, she studied the World Tree's manual for two days and learned everything she needed to know. Next, she just needed to bind the waypoint to the World Tree. For this Goddess of Creation who could teach herself... it really wasn't difficult.

"After the teleportation gate is completely stable, begin the investigation of that planet Lahrraine," Hao Ren said about his plan. "I discussed it with our boss, and we both believe that the entire Dark Domain is full of mysteries, and Lahrraine may be the center of those mysteries. We even suspect that the Lord of Mad Whispers isn't unique to the Dream Realm at all, and the so-called Dark Domain may be the real first victim..."

There was no need to keep this information secret, so Hao Ren told the Goddess of Creation everything in detail. The more she listened, the wider her eyes became. After hearing the speculation about the Lord of Mad Whispers' "ecological mode," she finally couldn't help but say: "You're saying that the Lord of Mad Whispers will parasitize universe after universe, spreading like a virus?!"

"Whether it spreads or not can't be determined yet, but the Dark Domain at least proves that it has the ability to find new victims after destroying a world," Hao Ren nodded. "To be honest, the danger has increased a lot all of a sudden."

"Eek—I feel goosebumps all over," Lily said, rubbing her arms as if a god could get goosebumps too (or maybe they really do?), "Something so dangerous... then we need to get rid of it quickly, and it has to be completely eradicated..."

At this moment, Hao Ren suddenly remembered something else: "Oh right, I have something else to ask you—about the Creation Engine."

"The Creation Engine? What's wrong with it again?" Lily frowned. "Are you having problems with your research on it?"

"It's the golden disks inside the engine," Hao Ren waved his hand. "We know that those golden disks inside the engine are the key to its operation, but to be honest, I've only found a small part of them. There are still nine disks missing. Although we've rejected the plan to use the engine to destroy everyone, those disks are still indispensable as the core of divine power calculation—so I wanted to ask you where the remaining disks are hidden?"

Hearing this, Lily actually showed a surprised expression: "You said the remaining disks? Weren't those disks inside the engine core that I gave you before? The engine core that was extracted from the Gate of Sulun last time..."

"You said the disks were in there?" Hao Ren seemed even more surprised than Lily. "Are you sure?"

"Of course, I'm sure. The core area of the Creation Engine was the fastest to progress back then. I installed the completed divine power conversion skeleton and the disks. In fact, I was planning to install the remaining few disks as well—if that war back then could have been delayed by a few months, I would have assembled it all. But plans can't keep up with changes... But in short, I personally watched those nine golden disks being installed in the core..." Lily said, noticing the change in Hao Ren's expression, her speed gradually slowed down. "Wait, could it be..."

"It's that 'could it be'," Hao Ren felt his molars aching faintly. "The disks are gone—the slots in the engine core are empty."

Lily's eyes widened, her small body tensing up: "I'm sure I didn't remember wrong. I did install them back then!"

Hao Ren smiled wryly: "Then there's only one explanation—someone stole them again..."

"Someone..." Lily blinked. "Who could have done this? After the explosion of the Divine Kingdom, the engine was swept into the Dark Domain along with the Gate of Sulun, and before that, the disks had always been there... Damn it!"

She seemed to have thought of something, and her face suddenly turned gloomy.

Hao Ren also thought of the same thing, he gritted his teeth: "It seems like we thought of the same thing—if there's anyone else besides you who might know the secrets of the Creation Engine, it's only that Goddess of Annihilation who was detonated by us..."

Lily grabbed a strand of silver hair in front of her chest somewhat irritably: "But how could she! She clearly fell into a deep sleep with me. Even if the Gate of Sulun was right next to us at the time, how could she have been able to do anything in her sleep..."

Hao Ren looked at this goddess and couldn't help but remind her: "You were also asleep at the time, but didn't you still reshape Lahrraine in your dream?"

Lily fell silent.

Hao Ren sighed: "Sleeping gods can also do many things. That Goddess of Annihilation... although she's a corrupted being, she also has the authority of a true god. It looks like we have another troublesome matter on our hands this time."

The most likely person to have taken away those nine golden disks was undoubtedly the Goddess of Annihilation. She went to so much trouble to take those disks away, surely not to take them back to tease a dog. So what would she use them for?

"Nine disks... already account for three-quarters of the entire core system's share. Even if there are three less, those nine disks can complete most of the calculation tasks by using the redundancy complementation mechanism," Lily's tone was particularly serious. "The most complex and time-consuming part of the entire Creation Engine is those disks. The rest of the parts can actually be guaranteed to start the engine barely even if they are shoddily made..."

"What do you think she plans to do with those things?"

Lily took a deep breath and pointed at herself.