Hao Ren did not expect to actually extract so much information from the giant. In the beginning, the giant’s attitude made him think that it was acting like a mule—it was obstinate. However, without realising, perhaps he had unwittingly struck a chord with the giant; it decided to divulge everything. Maybe Hao Ren and his companions all just happened to ask questions that the giant was willing to answer. Had he dived rashly into questions about the goddess’ power and whereabouts of the inheritance, Hao Ren believed that he would have hit a wall.
It was precisely because his questions were all about finding out the truth, that the giant became cooperative and trusted him.
“Thank you for your patience, really,” Hao Ren pondered for a moment and could not think of any further questions at the moment, so he sincerely thanked the giant. “I initially thought that you wouldn’t cooperate.”
“I still don’t trust you,” said the giant indifferently. But after a while of interaction, the giant no longer showed obvious hostility. “But this does not prevent me from telling you the truths. You should know what happened; every life in this world should know. Forget will not wash away sins of the past.”
Everyone could see that this giant was actually in a dilemma. It was rational, not as blind as other mutated guardians were, and knew that taking revenge on the offspring of the treacherous children was meaningless; but when it saw that the blood of the traitors still flowing in the mortals, it could not help itself with the guilt in its heart. It could let go the meaningless hatred in its mind, but it could not forget the death of its mother in its heart. It had been living in this contradiction for thousands of years, and it was no surprise for what he had done.
Hao Ren was glad that he had stopped the giant in time before it wiped out Holletta’s civilisation. Otherwise, he and his team would probably not the only one regretting.
“Well, wait a minute. Do you know the problem of the Wall of Reality?” asked Hao Ren as the matter suddenly came to mind. “Do you know about the mass crossing?”
“The Wall of Reality?” the giant frowned. It felt that these people seemed to know a lot more than it knew. “What is that?”
“It is a barrier that separates this universe from another ‘twin universe’.” replied Hao Ren. He saw the giant’s expression and immediately knew that his guess was not quite accurate. “We have come from the other side of the Wall of Reality. In theory, there is no interaction between the two universes, but ten thousand years ago, there was a mass crossing of ‘otherworldlings’ through this barrier…”
Hao Ren briefly explained the Wall of Reality to the giant. But the giant’s brows still knit together; it was confused. “I don’t know this kind of thing. If this phenomenon really exists in the universe, mother would have certainly told us. She knew most of the truths in this world.”
Vivian scratched her chin and said, “Well, let’s not talk about the Wall of Reality, let’s talk about the otherworldlings. From a time point of view, the crossing of otherworldlings, lunacy of the First Borns, fall of the Goddess, massive failure of the Wall of Reality were all happened in the same period and seemed to be interrelated. Do you think this was be the impact of the Goddess’ fall that destroyed the structure of time and space? Some kind of powerful energy … or shock waves and the like.”
The giant could not give an answer, because all the guardians had fallen into great confusion when the Goddess fell, and the Star of Creation in the deep universe was also in great turmoil. At that time, it was impossible to observe the abstract and difficult-to-perceive phenomenon of the Wall of Reality. And there was a more important reason: the giant was not willing to recall that particular moment. Hao Ren knew this. That was why he had stopped Vivian from pursuing the question.
Hao Ren could not think of any more questions now. So he decided to leave; there were many things he needed to deal with in Holletta. But before he left, he looked at the giant in conundrum. “What should I do with you?”
The giant looked at the crystal container around him. He knew it was a cage, but he was calm. “As you wish, I don’t care about anything else.”
“At first, I was trying to lock you up as a prisoner,” said Hao Ren, spreading out his hand predicamentally. “After all, you were too dangerous. But now I feel like you are not so uncontrollable… locking you up seems to be a bit inhumane.”
“Are you letting me go?” the giant asked indifferently.
Hao Ren was silent for a moment and shook his head slightly. Then he fiddled with the holographic panel near him. The crystal wall encaging the giant disappeared silently in the air. At the same time, light barrier popped up at all the passageways around the crystal hall,” I can’t let you go because I can’t control you. But you can move around freely in this hall and rooms next to the hall. Though your space of activity is limited, at least it is better than living in a cage. The arcane colloids and autonomous robots will take care of your needs. If you feel bored, you can also request for something like movies and other entertainment… I can only provide you these things for now, but after things have shown some progress, I will come back again. I hope we can finally find an amiable solution.”
After learning such much truth, he was no longer hostile to this giant.
The giant seemed indifferent to Hao Ren’s arrangements. In fact, its face had been expressionless all this while. Apart from showing some excitement about its ‘mother’, its feelings were almost as good as a zombie. “That’s good enough,” replied the giant.
Hao Ren led the others out of the hall. Before closing the door behind him, he glanced over his shoulder at the centre of the hall. The giant had already sat down in the same spot. Although the encaging barrier had disappeared, he seemed to be not going anywhere.
The huge figure was sitting so motionlessly that there was almost an illusion that it would sit still forever.
Crapple Research Station had a new prisoner, or was it really a prisoner?
“Let’s observe the giant for a while,” Hao Ren sighed. “I have a hunch that it will not be held for too long.”
“Of course, it’s not crazy anymore. It’s just a bit dangerous,” said Lily, pursing her mouth. “How much you think what it said is true, Mr. Landlord?”
Hao Ren replied, “I think they are all true.”
Lily blinked. “You trust him so much?”
“I was using twenty polygraphs,” Hao Ren waved. “Of course it doesn’t matter. More importantly, my gut feeling tells me that what the super big guy said is credible. After all, all the timelines add up, and all information that we have on hand also add up—this second point is the key: you can tell a perfect lie, but you can’t tell a lie that perfectly match the evidence.”
“Is that your intuition?” asked Lily, sizing up Hao Ren. “Can that thing be trusted?”
Not waiting for Hao Ren to answer, Vivian quickly chimed in. “I think you better believe it. Have you forgot he is a freaking harbinger?”
Hao Ren had wanted to argue that his intuition was not of a harbinger but of God’s spokesperson. However, the argument seemed not very convincing. So he decided to shut up.
After they got back on-board the spacecraft, Lily told her small partners who had been staying on board about all that had taken place in CARS. They needed time to digest such a large volume of information though. Hao Ren knocked on his own forehead. “I only realise I still have so many questions yet to ask after coming back here.”
As Lily had finished sharing her excitement, she turned and asked, “What have you forgot? I think that’s pretty all about it.”
“There are still many more, such as could we still be able to contact the other guardians, what to do if we have contacted the other guardians, how many races were keeping ‘silence’ when the goddess was assassinated, and how many races survived, and the most important thing is… who is visitors from the stars?” Hao Ren shook his head regretfully. “And I have even forgot to ask its name. Maybe I should have a to-do list next time.”
Lily tapped her lip with her finger. “Hmmm, that’s a lot of questions. But I think you should wait until next time. Now we should hurry over to Holletta; the pope is dead, the sacred mountain is blown, and the Cult of Origination is exposed. We don’t know what’s the situation right now.”
Lily was right; Holletta was a real mess now. But all those messes would soon look like a flea on a camel.
Because Hao Ren was bringing them a far more explosive news— the truth about the fall of the Goddess ten thousand years ago.