The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren was not sure whether they were the bane of The Plane of Dreams. The people there had been living there safely for tens of thousands of years, but after Hao Ren and his team visited the place, troubling things kept happening there. And now, this sacred cavern may even be scrapped.     

While the cavern itself may not be ruined, the magic door that could identify the Chosen Ones was ruined. People could easily see with a glance that the magic circle on top of the cavern had not been opened correctly… It had been blown up.     

Vivian and Lily looked up at the hole above the cavern. Lily was a well-read prolific writer. At this moment, her head was full of plots of stories: the ancient cavern left by an immortal, the one who ascended to heaven and became immortal left behind an inhibition and a millennial prophecy, waiting for thousands of years for the right person to open the cavern and take over the legacy. There was nothing wrong for the immortal to think so, but suddenly, there came a bunch of aliens with a big bomb, who blew up the cave…     

"You see, it's better to not mix two things that are incompatible with each other." Lily, as a senior writer, patted Hao Ren on the shoulder. Acting like an elder, she said, "How many fairy tales would be destroyed if aliens fell in the Middle Ages…"     

She sounded serious, but it would have been better if she stopped wagging her tail when she said it.     

"How can you say that I made them fall?! It was probably caused by the little green men. The magic circle was shattered when the ship crashed. But the stone above of the cavern has been strong enough to hold out for so long. The destructive power of our construction is not that strong compared to when the ship crashed."     

They gathered and whispered in a circle, afraid that others would hear their conversation. But in the end, Vivian still looked at Big Beardy and the other three ascetics as she said, "I think... We can't keep it for too long. They're not fools. A few more glances and they'll find out that the seal was destroyed by brute force."     

"Never mind that. We'll talk about it later. Only their words count anyway."     

By this time, Big Beardy and the other three had already noticed the shattered magic circle and rocks atop the cavern. The four respectable devotees did not think much of it. They put their hands on their chest and whispered the name of the goddess. The young nun also muttered to the others, "So, that's how the cave was opened. Only the Chosen Ones can probably blow up the right spot…"     

Hao Ren and others really had a hard time understanding the way the devout believers thought. But that aside, he should have known that they were a bunch of ascetics who based everything off the Bible even when they saw aliens falling from the sky. Whatever the goddess said could not go wrong. Even if there was a problem in the world, it had nothing to do with the goddess. You would be the one who comprehended the Bible wrongly!     

At this time, Gelton, the oldest person in the team had also stopped panting. The old man investigated their surroundings and his sight rested next to the pool. There were some broken slates and fragments of unknown material, apparently not something that should have been in the cave. The old man immediately exulted and said, "This should be part of the church!"     

Hao Ren looked up at the big hole at the top of the cavern. The hole was huge, but it was obviously not huge enough to engulf the whole island. So the rumor that the island in the middle of the lake and the church were swallowed up by the whirlpool was in fact, a superficial exaggeration. This was more likely the case: when the whirlpool produced waves and the rock stratum at the bottom of the lake collapsed, it caused the island's foundation to collapse as well. Eventually, the whole island and the church sank into the water. The structure of the church was obviously more fragile than the natural island, so it fell off the island when it was torn by the whirlpool, and then got sucked into the cave beneath the lake.     

He allowed the MDT to scan the area with a radar and found that his reasoning was basically correct.     

Now the massive amount of lake water was still pouring down from the hole on the top of the cave. The size of the waterspout was unusually large. If any ordinary people had witnessed the scene, it would have probably made them shudder. In fact, Becky's guts were twisting in her stomach at that moment. She was the only "normal" person on the scene.     

As the water kept pouring down, there were other things flowing down along with, including broken boulders; sand; lake creatures; and some flickering, man-made objects. Only a handful of these things had been washed to the edge of the pool. Most of them probably sank to the bottom.     

It was unlikely that the Divine Sarcophagus would rise to the surface of the water.     

"Maybe, only the church fell into the cave." Hao Ren walked up to Gelton and Ophra, acting like a scholar and saying something that everyone already knew. "I reckoned that all the man-made facilities on the island weren't able to withstand the big whirlpool, so the Divine Sarcophagus should have fallen in. We should be looking at the bottom."     

 "We have to find a way to fix the hole," Ophra said, looking at the hideous hole on the top of the cavern. "What if it continues to expand... The consequences will be disastrous. I'm afraid the entire cavern will collapse and we won't survive then."     

"How do we fix it?" Hao Ren looked at that hole in a perplexed manner and said, "Throw some stones from above to plug the hole? That may make the hole bigger."     

Ophra looked at Hao Ren with a weird expression and said, "…The way you think is unlike any common wizard. Shouldn't you be thinking about using some sort of magic to plug the hole? "     

Hao Ren immediately became extremely embarrassed and explained,"...I study space magic most of the time. I'm not familiar with other kinds of magic. And honestly, the hole is so big, do you think an ordinary wizard can fix it?"     

"If there's plenty of time and manpower, it's not difficult to plug it in a few days. Or, let Prince Hoffman do it. He should have the ability to fix it." Ophra shook her head and continued, "But, it's too late now. And, that second point is particularly unrealistic."     

"The cavern probably won't collapse in a short time," the Big Beardy suddenly said, but he did not explain the real reason why. "The goddess will protect us."     

"As long as we find the Divine Sarcophagus before the cave collapses," Gelton said, holding the golden bishop's cane and walking to the pool. "With my power, as long as we find the Divine Sarcophagus, I will be able to send the Divine Sarcophagus back to the ground in time even if the cave collapses."     

Then, he walked to the pool. The water retreated to both sides and a path appeared in front of him. This silent phenomenon was different from conventional water magic. It was likely "divine magic". Ophra also followed him and said, "Let me help you, I'm good at searching."     

At this time, Big Beardy coughed. Hao Ren immediately got it and said, "We're not good in swimming, so we'll just go to the cave nearby to check things out. We'll try our best to find any emergency access so that we have an escape route, just in case this cave collapses."     

Big Beardy agreed and said, "We'll go with these mercenaries. We're on sacred grounds, maybe we'll find something related to the sacred heritage."     

Big Beardy was actually quite good at making up a lie.     

 "That's great. We really should find an escape route first," Ophra said without suspecting a thing, but she signalled to the old werewolf and said, "Elson, you go with them. You guys can help each other. After you guys find the tunnel, don't go in too deep. Just come back and join us."     

In the end, Gelton and Ophra were left in the cavern to search for the Divine Sarcophagus, while the rest of them went to explore the nearby caves.     

Hao Ren knew that Big Beardy was ready to lead his team to the heart of the sacred cave, but he did not want to allow the old werewolf to come along. According to the oracle from 3,000 years ago, only the Pope, the chosen ascetics, and the Chosen Ones could go to the core of the cave. Others were not allowed to know this, let alone explore the cave. Hao Ren wondered how Big Beardy was going to get rid of the old werewolf.     

This underground world was unusually large. There were seven or eight caves around the large cavern. No one knew where those caves led to. Hao Ren and his teammates then pretended to have a discussion. Finally, Big Beardy glanced at the old werewolf as well as Gelton and Ophra in the distance. Then, before the fork, he solemnly said, "Let me pray to the goddess to see which way to go."     

As he spoke, he bowed his head and whispered a few spells. Shortly after, he pulled out a small stick and threw it. "Well, this way."     

"…"     

He knew that the direction Big Beardy pointed out with the stick was certainly correct, but could the uncle have made up a more believable way?!