Chapter 1 Hao Ren's Decision

Hao Ren didn't know what kind of new weapons the Creation Goddess would ultimately forge, and he wasn't particularly interested in it—the two cosmic rift longswords were already sufficient for him at the moment. Pursuing even more powerful armaments would easily detach from his own strength, which would instead diminish his combat power. Besides… he was, after all, a registered Inspector. If he really encountered problems that combat power couldn't solve, couldn't he apply for firepower support? It wasn't like every universe was as troublesome as the Dream Plane…

After leaving the Dream Plane, he teleported directly to Raven 12345's divine mansion.

As soon as Hao Ren entered the goddess's office, he smelled a pungent aroma. This aroma was rich but not dispersed, as if it were specifically designed to cater to the deepest instincts of the human soul. In the midst of the fragrance, past times floated to mind, along with a trace of bitterness. Hao Ren took a deep breath, and even without opening his eyes, he could tell from the smell that it was pickled cabbage…

"I'm saying, can't you eat something with a little more class?" He looked at the goddess behind the desk, laughing and crying. The latter was slurping loudly from a bowl of instant noodles. "There are at least tens of billions of intelligent creatures in this universe who directly worship you. Among the things they usually offer you, I refuse to believe there isn't a single edible thing—can't you, a dignified goddess, just skip forcing yourself to be down-to-earth with a bowl of instant noodles?"

Raven 12345 wiped her mouth and looked at Hao Ren with contempt: "Does this old lady need to force herself to be down-to-earth? I just like this, so what! I'm telling you, real big shots are too lazy to pretend. Living however you want is true strength—your enlightenment is still not enough. If you were a qualified Pope, you should be able to comprehend three thousand great Daos from this bowl of noodles…"

Hao Ren curled his lips and dragged a chair to Raven 12345's desk as if he were at home: "Just say you can't cook, and you've got so many excuses."

"…Did you come all this way just to make fun of me?" Raven 12345 casually conjured a small lightning bolt and zapped Hao Ren. "Get down to business!"

"Hey, you actually shocked me!" Hao Ren was jolted by the little lightning, almost half of his body went numb. He shook his hand vigorously and said, "I'm here to tell you something—the mass projection generator has been handed over to Leah. As you instructed, I've arranged for her to meet you."

"Oh, oh, that's great!" Raven 12345 immediately showed a delighted expression. "When is she 'coming'?"

Hao Ren looked down at his watch: "The connection should be made in three minutes."

The smile on Raven 12345's face instantly froze. Two seconds later, she jumped up: "Three minutes?! Couldn't you have gone any faster?!"

After shouting that sentence, she quickly began to tidy up the things on her desk. The instant noodles with half a bowl of soup were thrown directly into some other dimension, followed by the packaging bags, sausages, and mini hotpots that were scattered everywhere. While she tidied up quickly, she didn't stop talking: "I'm going, I'm going, I'm going… You should have told me earlier! How can I not prepare for such an important meeting?"

Hao Ren had long guessed that this would happen, but he deliberately kept a straight face and said seriously, "Didn't you personally tell me to arrange it as soon as possible, as fast as possible—and it's just a meeting between you and that Creation Goddess. There's no need to be so formal, right…"

"You know nothing!" Raven 12345 glared at him. "This old lady, a certified universe administrator, is meeting a wild goddess from another dimension for the first time. Shouldn't I spruce myself up to show off the glory of the system? Moreover, this is the first time a Creation Goddess has come into contact with the Xi Ling God System. Do you know how significant this first impression is? This goddess's brain may have some problems, but she has brought glory to the Empire!"

Hao Ren was immediately dumbfounded by the grand principles thrown out by Raven 12345. He never expected that this neurotic goddess with mental issues actually had this level of ideological awareness. It seemed that he had really underestimated this guy. Under specific conditions, she was actually quite thoughtful…

Soon, this thoughtful goddess tidied up her desk. Then, with a wave of her hand, plates of peanuts, red dates, and almonds appeared out of thin air. Immediately after, she took out a new cup of noodles: "At the very least, I have to make her some new ones…"

Hao Ren directly stuffed the instant noodles into his personal space: "I shouldn't have had any confidence in you!"

Raven 12345 was stunned for a moment. Just as she was about to flare up, the metal ring on Hao Ren's hand suddenly flashed with silver light…

"She's here," Hao Ren glanced at the goddess victoriously. "Now is when you should really care about your image."

Raven 12345 glared at Hao Ren and waved her hand: "I can't be bothered to argue with you—connect it, connect it."

As soon as she finished speaking, Hao Ren connected to the projection signal sent by the Creation Goddess.

The connection for the mass projection was instantly established between the two rings. Through a series of complex transcoding and filtering, the divinity belonging to the Creation Goddess was shielded by the mass projection system, and its signal radius was reduced to a level sufficient to pass through the Wall of Reality without causing turbulence. A ball of faint light in the air flickered violently. After a few seconds, the faint light gradually stabilized and finally turned into Leah's image.

The Creation Goddess first looked down at her body, as if she was not yet accustomed to the "perceptual split" state under the mass projection. Then, she curiously looked around. She first saw Hao Ren, greeted him happily, and then saw Raven 12345 sitting behind the large desk.

"Welcome to my universe," Raven 12345 smiled appropriately, showing no sign of the flustered appearance she had when arguing with Hao Ren. She stood up and warmly welcomed the God from next door, "Come, come, come, sit down, sit down. Make yourself at home—have some tea, have some tea, I just brewed it…"

Hao Ren covered his face and sighed obviously—this was probably the highest level of hospitality that this goddess could achieve. Maybe he should suggest to her next time that as long as she meets guests, she should put on that set of "holy smile emoticons"?

Leah couldn't help but be stunned for a moment. She probably didn't expect that the goddess of the surface world would be such a… warm and hospitable person. The scenes she had imagined before and the diplomatic rhetoric she had prepared specifically seemed to have no chance to be used. Fortunately, her own style didn't seem to be very normal either, so after a brief half-second of astonishment, she completely recovered and responded warmly, "Thank you, thank you. I don't know the rules here since it's my first time, so please forgive me if anything is lacking. Oh, I forgot to bring a meeting gift… It seems like mass projection can't bring anything, right?"

"Just coming is enough, why bring a meeting gift? We're neighbors, no need to be so particular."

"Ah, haha, the way you put it, I'm still a little nervous—my mess seems to have caused you a lot of trouble, right?"

"It's nothing, don't take it to heart… Come, come, come, have some melon seeds, have some melon seeds."

Hao Ren was just thinking about whether to exert his subjective initiative and bring the atmosphere of the meeting back on track, but before he could take action, he saw the two goddesses chatting familiarly, with an extremely harmonious atmosphere. Neither of them missed a beat. He couldn't help but stare blankly.

It felt like… these two Gods had inexplicably reached a consensus?

On the spot, he had the urge to forcibly persuade Leah to go back—although this Creation Goddess also had a slight tremor in her style, she was mostly the mature, stable, and wise type, at least not like Raven 12345, who was a diagnosed lunatic. It was okay for her to come here to listen to some life experiences, but inexplicably reaching a consensus with a lunatic was a ghost! And the goddess next to her—can you please be careful? Don't corrupt the children!!

However, many things could only be madly complained about in his mind. Hao Ren could only watch helplessly as the two Gods chatted more and more happily, and soon there was basically no room for him to interject.

Fortunately, after the initial excessive enthusiasm, Raven 12345's speech quickly returned to normal: "We live so close, but it's really not easy to meet this time—I've been paying attention to the affairs of that universe and know a lot about you."

Leah smiled: "But I knew nothing about your existence—until recently."

Raven 12345 spread her hands: "That's normal, because I was just born when you fell asleep, and I only came to this universe a mere few thousand years ago."

"…Ah?" Leah was a little surprised this time, "Wait a minute… Could it be that you're younger than me?"

"Xi Ling is a young God system, most of us were only born in the last ten thousand years," Raven 12345 said with a smile, "So from the time of birth, I am indeed younger than you—but each of us is injected with knowledge and experience accumulated by our predecessors for trillions of years from the moment we are born, so in terms of divine life experience, I am still your senior."

Hao Ren, who was listening on the side, suddenly realized something: So Raven 12345 was the child here? The Creation Goddess, who looked like a big loli sitting opposite her, was actually the senior?

Sure enough, the seniority of these long-lived species was simply a mess, whoever bothered with it was a fool.

As for the "senior in divine life experience" that Raven 12345 mentioned, he directly ignored it…

"This time, in addition to wanting to learn about the three God systems and divine arts, it's also because I've encountered a rather troublesome… problem." After the pleasantries, Leah stated one of the important purposes of her visit.

"Trouble?" Raven 12345 raised an eyebrow, "What trouble?"

The one who answered her was Hao Ren, who was sitting next to her: "The nine golden discs inside the Creation Engine are gone, they should have been taken away by the Goddess of Annihilation—if I'm not mistaken, she should be using those nine discs to deal with Leah."

Raven 12345's expression finally became serious.

Hao Ren and Leah told Raven 12345 everything they had just discovered, and also mentioned their guesses about the Goddess of Annihilation's subsequent actions—using the power of the Lord of Madness to extract "matter" from nightmares, so as to complete a shrunken version of the Creation Engine at a faster speed. Even if this engine could not reach the complete destructive power of the original, it would still be an extremely serious threat to Leah.

After patiently listening to these things, Raven 12345 fell into a long period of thought.

Hao Ren and Leah did not disturb her.

Until three minutes later, the goddess, who always came up with amazing plans, finally raised her head and looked at the Creation Goddess with a smile that was not quite a smile.

"Leah—are you interested in registering a household with our Xi Ling God system?"