Chapter 816: The Unspeakable Heart of the First Born
Vivian saw the ancient memory of the world in the blood crystal, but it was fragmented, and it contained some “foreign emotions” that stirred her feelings. She decided not to tell Hao Ren, because she did not want to mislead him.
She knew someone looked almost identical to her and having the same kind of power as she did. The “Vivian” who had been active on this planet was the one made the blood crystal that Beatrice carried. But it was still a mystery as to how the crystal fell onto Earth and how Beatrice got her hand on it.
The souls that had been guarding the underground city for ten thousand years were the last people of the Sun Dynasty. Among them were not only Gragon and his entire royal family but also the god of creation, elemental god, the divine officials, and knights of the three temples of nature deities as well as the chosen ones of various kingdoms and tribes. They were selected for their spiritual strength. They built this underground city together with the goddess ten thousand years ago, transcended into spiritual bodies, and maintained a massive ritual with the sole purpose of keeping the First Born asleep deep underground so that it followed a strict program to modify and protect the world.
These souls and the city together formed a giant ‘control shackle’ that hit into the ganglion of the First Born. It was the origin of the myth of the seventy-seven nails in the back of Toka. It was a pity that the lost legend would never see the light of day.
Gragon treated Vivian as a goddess, so did other souls. Vivian started to doubt herself as to who she was. She remembered what Hao Ren had told her and quickly got a grip on herself to remain calm. She pointed to the Throat of Toka and said, “Going in from here, follow the nerves to the connective tissue at the end; that’s the ‘throne.’ If I’m not mistaken, I could open that place.”
Hao Ren knew Vivian wanted to meet the ‘other her.’ He remembered the evil-spirit Vivian whom they had fought before. The things in the hollow must be similar. He quickly checked his weapons and shield. “Would we wake up the First Born if a fight broke out?” Hao Ren asked.
“Nay, as long as the ‘lullaby’ program is running,” said Vivian as she looked at Gragon, smiling and nodding. “I don’t know what will happen down there, but I think we will cross the bridge when we get there.”
Lily looked at Vivian worriedly. “You think?”
“It’s called sixth sense.” Vivian nodded with confidence. “My intuition has always been pretty accurate.”
“I’ll trust your sixth sense,” Hao Ren nodded with a smile. He took out his ‘flying car’ and ready to go into that pit. Gezer and Bonia wanted to follow, but Hao Ren stopped them. “You two have to stay behind,” he told them.
Gezer retorted. “But—”
“This time I won’t let you,” Vivian told the two sternly. “It is not only dangerous, but there is also… err, it is a matter of divinity that I have to deal with. It’s not something you should get involved.”
It worked better than dissuasion. Since it concerned the business of the Goddess, Gezer and Bonia relented. Vivian smiled and patted on Bonia’s head before she pushed Bonia and Gezer to Gragon. “Keep the ancient souls’ company. I bet they haven’t talked to people for a long time. Gragon, I’m counting on you to keep the ‘lullaby’ playing.”
The last king of the Sun Dynasty bowed and said, “I wish you all the best.”
They climbed into the flying car, which then descended slowly into the hollow of darkness. Gezer stood at the edge of the hollow and watched as the magical vehicle disappearing into the bottomless pit. Meanwhile, Bonia was at the side of Gragon, staring curiously at the soul. “You are people of the Sun Dynasty? Were there cars that fly in the sky during your time?”
“Oh, yes. We had trains that ran on tracks and lightning-driven golems. It was a long time ago,” Gragon said slowly, with a smile on his blurry face. He placed his hand on Bonia’s head though he could not touch her. “Tell us about the world on the surface. Do people still fear the spirit of nature? Do they still remember the sun?”
Meanwhile, Hao Ren and his team were still descending. They started to see a faint red light ahead.
The car camera had enhanced its exposure rate so that the passengers could monitor the surroundings better in the dark. The cave was massive, but they could see no rocks. The walls of the cave were made up of entangled roots. It was as if they were passing through the esophagus of a giant beast. It was not a new experience for Hao Ren; his two-year working experience had trained him to have the nerves of steel. He was still impressed by the sheer size of this First Born though. Snugging in a slot on the console, the MDT reported the situation outside mechanically. “Now, we are passing through the crust that is ten-kilometer thick. The tentacles of the First Born are supporting the crust from beneath.”
The red lights ahead appeared brighter now than before. After passing through the crust, they would come into the body of the First Born where various organs lived. These organs were emitting enough light so that Hao Ren and his team could see the surroundings without visual aid. The cave was wider at the bottom and had more tentacles intertwined like crotches of a tree on the walls.
The flying car finally reached the bottom and emerged from a trumpet-shaped opening into an unspeakably vast space.
It was still red everywhere. The underground cavity was so huge that it looked like an open space where the flying car appeared just like a little bug wandering in the air. There were more tentacles in the red, foggy environment. Some of them were a few meters thick, but the big ones had a diameter of several kilometers. The neurotic tentacles of the First Born were usually slender while thick tentacles were primarily responsible for hunting food and performed other jobs.
The place looked like a jungle of tentacles, an elusive nightmare, and a weird atmosphere that could have never existed in reality.
Ordinary people would go insane instantly by glancing at this distorted world. Hao Ren and his team were feeling the influence too. Lily could not help but shrink deeper into her seat. “Is this a fully grown First Born? It’s so much bigger than Zorm!” she said.
“Zorm just covered a planet, but this one…it hollowed it out!” Hao Ren was wide-mouthed. “It’s hard to tell if this is the mature form of the First Born. After all, I don’t know how to define ‘maturity’ now. Only God knows if this thing has an ultimate ‘mature’ stage. It seems it could grow and change indefinitely.”
Hessiana shrank herself in the last row. Her mind could not take what she was seeing. She was struck dumb, and her voice was shivering. “Ma… Ma’am Vivian. What the hell is this?”
“This is what we usually deal with,” Vivian replied in an indifferent voice. “Well, Hao Ren deals with it most of the time, I assist him.”
“So what things are you guys going normally?” Hessiana almost collapsed. “You can still smile in this situation?”
Hao Ren scratched his head. “I almost peed in my pant the first time I saw this thing; now I have gotten used to it. I still have a few of this thing in the lab.”
Hessiana bit her lip. She vowed not to work with this man again because apparently, this man had a massive cursed aura!
“Don’t get distracted,” said Nangong Sanba. “We should find the main ganglion.”
Hao Ren agreed with him and ignored the bizarre sight around him. He had quickly identified the nerve—the tentacle that served as a guide that could lead him straight to the central ganglion, and stepped on the accelerator and moved along it.
The surroundings flew past them as they sped ahead. It was as if they were passing through a twisting, changing nightmare, and at the end of the dream, there was a vast, beating, dark red organ that looked like a temple of the devil awaited them.
The dark red organ suddenly heightened its activity when it sensed the presence of Vivian.