It was a long dead night in Solenne. The planet had an unusually slow speed of rotation which led to 60 hours of day and night. After ending the long and difficult discussion and deliberation, Hao Ren came to the square in front of the temple alone. He sat down beside those huge trident weapons, gazing into the murky and gloomy night sky. All around him were the lonely winds and some sparks that flew up from the ruins in the distance. On this completely destroyed planet, he was acutely aware of the shocking devastation that a war could bring.
He had seen the planet going through the rebuilding of the biosphere, he had seen the wandering planet after all life was gone, and he had also seen Tannagost going through the end of the world, however, the ecological extermination operations carried out by the Firstborn could not be compared with the present state of the planet. The rebels destroyed this place precisely, thoroughly and mercilessly. All the land was burnt, and all water was evaporated or severely polluted. The earth"s crust was torn apart and the planet itself was almost split into two. Standing in between such ruins, the only thing that anyone could experience was the boundless desolation and loneliness. Hao Ren turned to look at the magnificent black temple and the huge buildings around the temple. Looking at those tall silhouettes, he could still imagine the glorious past of this place. It must be a mysterious sacred place standing here beneath the stars before Solenne was destroyed. But now everything was gone. Only flames and ruins, and the thick smoke billowing in the distance accompanied the starlight.
But Hao Ren still felt lucky. He found the place before the last clue was dissipated. No matter what caused the nebula around Solenne to skew, he should be thankful for the phenomenon. He even had a feeling that some supernatural force was consciously freezing the planet, making it stagnant like an amber for 10000 years until he came here to open the magic box.
Hao Ren gazed into the distance and saw a huge black obelisk standing alone under the stars. The green crystals on the obelisk were sparkling in the night sky, and then the obelisk collapsed, falling into flames and smoke. It took some time before he heard the collapse of the building. At this time, Hao Ren heard a light cracking noise coming from behind. He turned to look, found that Lily was walking up to him on tiptoes.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
Lily b.u.mped her head on Hao Ren"s arm (sometimes she greeted Hao Ren in strange ways) and said, "Heve"s injury has stabilized. The medical equipment you left behind works."
"I don"t know if they can adapt to the life in Tannagost. I just inform Zorm what happened here and it"s looking forward to the new friends. But Lemendusa and Heve have just come back from the war. They probably need some time to adapt."
"Anyway, it"ll get better," Lily said while her ears were trembling, which meant that she was in a good mood, "I know how it feels, but I"ll get better after having some good meals!"
Hao Ren rolled his eyes and thought that the husky"s situation could not be used as a reference. Her mentality is simply too difficult to copy.
"I suddenly think of something. I have been curious about it for a long time." A question popped up in Hao Ren"s mind. "Why can"t you speak after you transform into a giant husky? You"re just turning into an animal, how come you lose the ability to speak?"
"It"s obvious. You see, after I transform into a husky, the physiological structure has changed, how do I speak like a human? I want to speak too, but when I open my mouth, all I can say is awwwooooooo…"
Hao Ren paused for a few seconds and found it seemed to make sense, but still a little confused. "No, how about those black wolves in Holletta? Why can they communicate with me?"
"Oh, you"re right. How do they do it?" Lily wondered while touching her chin, "or maybe I should try to practice more? Maybe it"s a matter of proficiency."
"Erm, it"s ok, you don"t have to. It"s too much trouble."
While Hao Ren and Lily were seriously discussing "how difficult it was for a husky to learn to speak human language", a blue light suddenly dropped from the sky. Petrachelys emerged from behind the thick clouds and quickly came to them. It was surrounded by dozens of UAVs and probes. Apparently, it had just completed a major scan of the entire planet. Hao Ren was standing there, not just watching the stars, he was waiting for Nolan too.
As soon as the communication was connected, Nolan"s holographic images appeared in the air not far ahead. "I have completed the exploration of the entire planet," she said.
"Are there any traces of other rebels or guardians?" asked Hao Ren hurriedly.
"I"m sorry," Nolan shook her head and said, "I only found a lot of wreckage that was completely destroyed. I"ve never seen such a brutal battle, not even a complete body can be found. Almost all the battlefields have been damaged by the powerful explosion. Many cities are even left with only huge deep pits. According to the result of the a.n.a.lysis, it"s caused by self-explosion. No matter who gets into a disadvantage, they would not hesitate to choose self-explosion... I can"t find anything I can bring back."
It reminded Hao Ren of the rebel commander who had blown up in front of him and Heve"s plan to detonate the bomb in the temple, so he was not surprised.
"Judging from the tenacity in the battle, both of the parties are brave and strong warriors, but what is the point of fighting? Especially the rebels. Why are they doing this, isn"t it a waste of their courage?"
Nolan was noncommittal about Lily"s feeling because she had been through countless wars. Pointless killing and battle were common to her. She just shook her head and said, "There"s nothing here. The UAVs are looking around to see if there"s any wreckage, but... Wait a minute, there"s something!"
"What did you find?" Hao Ren and Lily asked in unison.
"It looks like a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, wandering between Solenne and the sun, and is intact," said Nolan. She was not looking at Hao Ren because she was watching the vast universe through a probe in s.p.a.ce.
Without hesitation, Hao Ren immediately went back to find Y"zaks, who was playing with Obsidian, and the three guardians, including Muru, and returned to Petrachelys together.
Because of the huge size of the three giants, they still had to stay in the garage. Fortunately, even if it was a garage, it was clean, tidy and comfortable, and there was ample room for special equipment to treat the injuries of Heve and Lemendusa.
The three guardians were not dissatisfied with the arrangement of the "diamond garage". After looking at Hao Ren"s advanced s.p.a.cecraft up and down curiously, Lemendusa urged Hao Ren to check where the battles.h.i.+p came from.
Hao Ren came to the bridge, said h.e.l.lo to Lil Pea and Y"lisabet, and then opened Nolan"s holographic interface and asked, "Is that s.p.a.cecraft responding to our detectors?"
"No, I"ve released several exploratory beacons, but there"s no response no matter how intensive the communication test was," Nolan said as she piloted the s.p.a.cecraft to the spot, "there is no trace of life inside it. It seems that everyone is evacuated."
Petrachelys sailed through the universe briskly, and soon a golden battles.h.i.+p appeared on the screen of the external monitor.
The golden battles.h.i.+p was wandering in the universe like the Ark of the G.o.ds, and even though Hao Ren had never seen a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p like this, he knew that it should be something been built by the rebel.
Because it was too ostentatious…