Chapter 1 A Colossal Object

A behemoth nearly the size of an aircraft carrier exploded high in the sky, unleashing endless light and heat. Tens of thousands of debris fragments swept towards the earth like a torrential storm. These fragments, carrying immense kinetic energy, were akin to a saturation bombardment. In a matter of seconds, the entire forest was filled with deafening roars and a carpet of chain explosions. In such a storm, everyone was blinded and deafened, as helpless as a small boat in a tsunami.

But the divine barrier left by Leah proved the learning results of the Goddess of Creation in the face of such impact. Although the outside world was collapsing, the barrier itself remained unshaken—although those within were greatly frightened, fear was at least not fatal for veteran soldiers.

When everything finally calmed down, the entire Scorched Earth was unrecognizable. Except for the small area covered by the divine barrier, the surrounding ground had sunk more than two meters as a whole. The wreckage of the Gorgon Lord was scattered in those huge impact craters, still carrying astonishing heat and twisted beyond recognition, demonstrating the terrifying power of the self-detonation.

Perhaps this self-detonation was even one of the Gorgon Demon's own offensive tactics.

Lili was so frightened by the explosion that her ears and tail popped out. Taking advantage of the fact that Charlie and his party hadn't noticed, she quickly retracted them, then turned her head to search for Hao Ren's figure: "The landlord's explosions are always so spectacular… Speaking of which, where's the landlord? He wouldn't have been blown away, would he…?"

Vivian glared at the dog girl: "Don't be silly. With his job and persona, he could die in any way imaginable, but definitely not from being blown up."

As if to verify this conclusion, she had barely finished speaking when Hao Ren's voice came from behind: "Exactly, Vivian knows me best…"

Vivian quickly turned around, checking Hao Ren up and down with concern as he stepped out of the teleportation beam: "Are you okay? Speaking of which, why did it suddenly explode—was that part of your initial plan?"

"What plan? If I really wanted to take that thing down, would I bother going in there for so long? I'd just call Nolan out and settle it with one shot," Hao Ren coughed, spitting out a mouthful of black smoke—although he wasn't caught in the explosion, he inhaled a lot of exhaust fumes that came through the portal, "It was a complete accident. That thing had a huge temper. I just touched it, and it self-detonated… But it's okay, there are two Gorgon Lords in total, Leah will leave one…"

As Hao Ren spoke, he looked up at the giant insect-like Gorgon Lord in the sky on the other side of the forest. However, before he could finish speaking, he saw a series of bright flashes of electricity on the surface of the giant insect Lord, followed by bursts of crimson flames erupting from within the alloy monster.

"…intact…" Hao Ren instinctively blurted out the last two words, then jumped three feet high, "Why did this one explode too?!"

The Gorgon Lord's self-detonation was like detonating a battleship at close range, and the entire Scorched Earth was ravaged again. When the smoke from the explosion finally cleared, Leah was standing sheepishly in front of Hao Ren.

"I don't know what happened," the little Goddess of Creation seemed a little embarrassed, "I just patted it a few times, and then it just shattered…"

So she didn't cause the Gorgon Lord to self-detonate, but simply didn't control her strength?

Hao Ren sighed: "Hey… never mind, go back and do all the big questions after the third lesson of Self-Control…"

Leah immediately looked like she had lost all hope in life, but then quickly added, as if remembering something: "But I brought out something! I don't know what it's for, but I think it should be important!"

Hao Ren was stunned: Something that Leah intuitively felt was important?

"What is it? Let me see quickly!"

"It's this… It was in a place that looked like a main control room. I didn't know how to disassemble it, so I just roughly cut it and the surrounding frame off together," Leah said as she opened a different dimension and placed a large piece of metal wreckage that had obviously been violently dismantled in front of Hao Ren, "Do you think it's still usable?"

It was a metal structure about half a meter high, with a roughly complete, hemispherical silver-white main body, and a large number of cables and brackets extending along the main body. Although it had been treated roughly, the overall structure seemed to be intact.

It was at this time that Charlie and Ivenna finally calmed down from their shocked state. They stared at each other for a while before looking at the large twisted metal block that Leah had thrown out in disbelief: "This is… something taken from inside the Gorgon Lord's body?"

"That's right, they're also made of metal inside," Hao Ren said with an excited expression as he squatted down next to the wreckage. The thing that Leah had brought out was a pleasant surprise, because the Data Terminal had almost instantly scanned that this device had structures similar to a memory and a reader inside: This was exactly the storage device that Hao Ren had failed to find from the "Manta Ray" earlier, "Let me see… It looks intact on the outside, maybe it's still usable! Terminal—"

"Understood, understood, this humble servant is destined to be a workhorse…" The Data Terminal muttered as it flew to the metal wreckage and established a temporary data link with the latter, "There's nothing I can do, who told me to have such high performance… Hey, this thing is a bit interesting, let this humble servant study it carefully…"

Watching the Data Terminal begin analyzing the wreckage in the scorched earth, Ivenna couldn't help but look nervously at the dark forest in the distance: "Are we… starting work in this battlefield? Shouldn't we find a hidden place first…"

"It doesn't matter. After the death of the Gorgon Lord, all the Fission Beasts are paralyzed. Plus, the previous battle drove away all possible monsters in the vicinity, so this place is much safer than other places," Kaim's voice came from the side as he looked curiously at the storage wreckage on the ground and the Data Terminal hovering over it, "This is… what?"

"Are you talking about this brick or the lump of iron under the brick?" Hao Ren raised his eyebrows, "This brick is my personal equipment, but don't call it a brick, it has a big temper; and this lump of iron was taken out of the Gorgon Lord's body."

"An… organ from inside the Gorgon Lord's body?" Kaim said with an incredulous look, "I have never… seen such a thing."

Hao Ren felt unbelievable: "You've been dealing with Gorgon Demons for so many years, haven't you ever gotten similar wreckage samples?"

"Those wandering outside are usually mid-to-lower level Gorgon Demons. Lord-level guys hardly leave their nests. Every time a Lord-level Gorgon attacks, it's a tragic battle," Kaim frowned, "And even if we can take it down, it will completely shatter in a self-detonation. The remaining parts will be burned to the point where they can't be analyzed at all, so in the long war, we can only capture very few Lord samples. Today, two Gorgon Lords have fallen here, it's simply a fantastic event."

"In my opinion, these so-called Gorgon Demons are actually out-of-control ancient weapons, and our World Tree Temple is particularly good at dealing with this kind of 'relic'," Hao Ren shook his head, "But these are difficult to explain to you… Terminal, have you analyzed anything?"

"Damn it, you just called me a brick—can a brick help you do so much!" The Data Terminal flew into the air with resentment, and projected large swathes of garbled code and completely indistinguishable image fragments, "Most of the data is damaged, which is to be expected. The database is scrapped, the controller is dead, and the program is chaotic, which is why these 'Gorgons' act so irrationally. But after removing most of the garbled code, this humble servant has found the only useful piece of information."

Hao Ren's eyes lit up: "What information?"

"Judging from the log time, it should be the last external communication record received by these Gorgons before they lost control." As the Data Terminal spoke, it presented the information:

"…have been annihilated. The enemy forces are approaching the Telk Interstellar Fortress. This fortress will self-destruct after xxx… After that, you are the last soldiers.

"…Glory to Emperor Tiamat, long live our race."

Only two incomplete, almost like a last will, which made Hao Ren frown: "That's all the information?"

"That's all the information, it's already better than nothing," Vivian said from the side, "At least we know that the so-called Gorgon Demons are indeed out-of-control weapons left over from an ancient legion, and we know that they once had an 'Emperor Tiamat'."

Hao Ren twitched his lips, and turned to look at Charlie and his sister, who had been listening to gibberish the whole time, without much hope: "I bet you guys definitely don't know what this Emperor Tiamat means, right…"

However, to Hao Ren's surprise, Ivenna actually showed a hesitant expression: "Um, actually… I have heard this name before…"

Hao Ren didn't expect to hear any valuable information from the other party, but he was shocked at this time: "…What?! You've heard of it?"

"It's in the Royal Library of Isu, there's an ancient Elven prophecy book passed down from generation to generation by the Isu Royal Family, called *The Book of Origins*. It says that the world has been destroyed twelve times and reborn twelve times, and the culprit who caused the world to be destroyed twelve times is the ancient of the ancients, the source of origins, the great tyrant. The tyrant's name is Tiamat. He has a body like a mountain, and his veins flow with molten copper and lead. He has been filled with rage since birth, and self-destructs because of rage. In his final rage, he issued twelve of the most vicious curses on this world, and each curse caused the world to be destroyed once…"

"Twelve times?!" After listening to Ivenna's story, Hao Ren's eyes widened, "The book really said that?!"

"Yes… yes," Ivenna was startled, and her tone weakened involuntarily, "*The Book of Origins* says so, but although it's stored in the Royal Library of Isu, it's listed as 'Tales', it's derived from the primitive religious beliefs of the ancient Elven Empire, and it's a wild and unconstrained claim that's not recognized by scholars."

"Is that so…" Hao Ren certainly wouldn't believe Ivenna's last few words, but from those few words, he could also judge that even if there were still quasi-historical records like *The Book of Origins* in this world, they were probably already mixed with myths and legends in the long course of time, twisted into completely unsortable anecdotes, so he temporarily lost interest in continuing to ask.