Chapter 1588: Samples from the Battlefield

After losing propulsion power, the space continent could only drift in a direction at a constant speed in space. The chances for the small celestial object to hit anything in its path would be negligible even after millions of years. But for some longer-term considerations, Hao Ren had still ordered the engineering drones to stop the floating from drifting. Tens of thousands of drones were now busy at work on the base of space continent to install various conventional propulsion units and warp drives. It was a mega project, but not technically challenging. There was a sufficient number of drones at disposal. If all went well, the celestial debris would stop after three thousand years of wandering in space.

While the engineering drones were busy installing propulsion units on the space continent, the logistics drones had finished cleaning up the battlefield around the continent. For one, they had completed the task of collecting samples, which Hao Ren had instructed, and then it was also to prevent these wreckages from being captured by the gravity of the space continent and threatening their safety.

But Hao Ren did not send the wreckage samples to the surface. Instead, he instructed the drones to build a synchronous-orbit ‘scrapyard’ nearby the continent to store his massive collection of samples. The reason was that those festered monsters carried nasty contaminants. The power of the Mad Lord had accumulated in the body of these creatures for god-knows-how-long. They had become dangerous contaminants, and the wreckage analysis must not be carried out on the surface.

The scrapyard was a scattered space complex that relied on the gravity field rather than physical structure to fix things in place. At the center of the scrapyard was a large, comprehensive space anchoring device. This installation could physically locate and lock any space objects within a few thousand kilometers of its surrounding area to prevent them from flying around. In the spherical space around the anchor tower, thousands of small spires, arranged at a regular interval, pointed to the center and were connected by laser beams. The laser beams also acted to divide the spherical space into a lattice. Each of the cubicles was a storage space, where debris samples collected from the battlefield were stored.

For the sake of safety and preventing the contaminated samples from leaking, Hao Ren had installed two tons of space implosion warheads in each spire.

“Please submit your passcode… Passcode verification is successful. You have the highest access rights to all areas.”

When the security system allowed access, the light film blocking in front of the spacecraft turned from red to green. Nolan carefully moved forward into the ‘mortuary’ that consisted of many cubicles.

“Samples inspection is less than 10% completed. And only preliminary analysis has been carried out.” The MDT floated beside Hao Ren’s head, showing the corpse of a hideous monster on the hologram. “Many of the samples carry a low level of divinity—of course, it is a corrupted divinity.”

Hao Ren muttered to himself, “The first- or second-gen creations of the goddess of creation.”

“Yes, these monsters were probably the descendants that the goddess of creation created before the contamination,” the MDT said. “She has not only created the guardian giants and the First Borns but also other things. These things here do not belong to any system nor institution like the guardians, but their number is staggering. We can say that they are her sons.”

“Do you think it is appropriate to use the word ‘son’ in such a report?”

“It sounds more vivid,” the MDT said matter-of-factly.

Hao Re’s mouth twitched, but he quietly agreed with the MDT.

“These ‘sons’ have a miserable ending.” Vivian looked at the holographic images of the festered monster and sighed. “Now thinking of it, I have almost ended up like these monsters. It is dangerous to have a goddess as a mother.”

“Not bad when your boss is a goddess,” Hao Ren said.

The Petrachelys stopped inside a cubicle, where an anatomical analysis was ongoing. The body of a giant, swollen with neoplasm all over the skin, lay quietly in the binding force field. Several autonomous robots flew around, cutting the dead skin and muscles and gouging out the even uglier, more disgusting decaying organs.

Earlier during the battle, Hao Ren had already noticed this distinctive giant. Now, having a close-up look at it, he knew he was right. “The guardian giant, biological type, a fellow of Muru, it seems.”

“According to the sprites, the war that is still ongoing in the heart has broken out because some guardians have suddenly become mad,” said the MDT. “Three planetary fortresses—Naqdal, Aqgudal, and Amantir— were responsible for guarding the heart. Amantir was the most powerful with the bravest and best-fighting troops of guardians. But this force suddenly lost their minds, and without warning, they bombarded the critical part of Naqdal with the doomsday weapons. At that time, there were also some guards in Naqdal on a rampage. The fortress broke apart instantly. The biggest chunk of the broken planet is the one we have found. From that day onward, the sprites began to wander in space.”

Who could have thought that after the fall of the goddess of creation, there was a great war breaking out in this distant and mysterious Star Cluster X?

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“The Mad Lord has projected his influence in the goddess of creation. Every action the goddess took had half the probability of destroying the world.” Hao Ren quietly looked at the giant whose face had deformed beyond recognition. “This is undoubtedly one of them.”

Vivian frowned. “Apparently, it was a fatal blow. In such a critical aspect, the most powerful guards had fallen into the hands of the Mad Lord. Look at the degree of festering and their number, it would be a miracle if the heart has not fallen.”

“According to the clues I saw in the illusion, the divine power of the goddess of creation was protecting the heart. Otherwise, it would have been crushed instantly,” said Hao Ren. “Now, maybe we can explain what happened to the spacecraft of the Denizens of the Stars. There was a sudden attack on the heart. The attack did not come from the outside but inside. The guards on the outside had no time to react. So, those spacecraft of the Denizens of the Stars sent all their energy and consciousness to the battlefield.”

“The outbreaks from the inside also bypassed the divine blockade. I guess those savage guardians were immune to the divine blockade. Otherwise, they could not have possibly come out and chase after the sprites.”

Nolan changed its direction. She flew around the station where an anatomical work was ongoing, and passed through the energy barrier of the cubicle and headed toward the center of the scrapyard.

The closer to the center of the scrapyard, the more dangerous the sample.

After leaving behind the festered monsters, which were more massive than the guardian giants, a hideous spaceship with metal and biological tissue lay ahead.

It was black and huge and must have been once a mighty and magnificent spaceship. But now the power of the Mad Lord had completely distorted this ancient war machine. Evil energy riddled its armor plate. Just like rotten flesh, it wrinkled and swelled with tentacle-like stuff protruding out from every gap and hole. It all looked extremely disgusting.

But these things were now lifeless. The main gun of the drones had blown the spacecraft into four pieces of various sizes. The once wriggling black tentacles had turned ashen as if rotten tree branches. The squirming black substance on the armor of the spacecraft had solidified, and an autonomous robot was stripping it for analysis.

“The spaceship is severely distorted, and foreign substance covers 80% of its surface, but after studying its frame, we could know that this is the spacecraft of the guardian giants,” said the MDT. “By analyzing the substance sample, we could safely confirm that these spaceships did not transform overnight but over a long period of infestation, which if continued, you would not be able to recognize it as a spacecraft.”

It was disgusting to watch the autonomous robots gouging the foreign substances from inside the wreckage. Some of those things were still squirming even though they had died. Hao Ren was growing nausea. But he could not help but keep imagining the horrible things that happened to the spaceships.

The first persons who got influenced and lost their minds were the pilots, who were the guardian giants. The crew lost their senses, mutated and gradually became part of the spacecraft—a hybrid creature. The tentacles on the outside and biological tissue in various compartments were apparently the bodies of the giants. The scene was a complete manifestation of the chaotic nature of the Mad Lord.

If not seeing it with your own eyes, you could not imagine how these things came about.

The holographic image of Nolan suddenly popped up next to Hao Ren. “I feel like throwing up.”

“Err, as a ship, the scene might have been too gross for you,” Hao Ren said with a strange look. “But I survived watching the dissection of the guardian giant.”

Nolan’s face looked terrible. “But when I think about what happened inside the ship, I….”

“Hang on there! Nolan!”

“I cannot hold back anymore…”

The Petrachelys shook, and then the venting vents and the emergency hatch opened suddenly, followed by a large amount of waste coolant and crystallized degraded energy in the circulation system rushing out.

The ship girl shook her head. “Ahh! I feel much better now.”

“I am lost for words.” Hao Ren mumbled.