The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren also remembered the series of visions that happened by reading the scroll in the forest, so he took them out carefully. Although they seemed less dangerous than the "cosmic fragment", they were just as strange. He put the scroll in front of Raven 12345 and told her what had happened in the forest. "…In the end, it caused a brief change in the sky, which, if I'm not mistaken, was the distortion of the real world that you felt before."     

Raven 12345 looked at the scrolls with interest. She tapped her finger on one of them and said, "Just some common materials. They're just plain magic parchments soaked in the potion. They were made by the Olympians, no doubt. And they're not the kind of 'extraordinary material' like the god-slaying sword and cosmic fragment."     

"But they're strong enough to distort reality..." said Hao Ren.     

He had no idea how powerful the Olympians were. But judging from the way Hesperides fought, and some information from the demon hunters, they could see that the ancient family was a relic of some magical civilization. Their technical knowledge remained at a planetary level, and their understanding of the forces of nature was still very simple and crude. With such a civilization, it was hard to believe that they had the technology to shake the rules of reality.     

However, before Hao Ren could finish, he suddenly realized where the power of the scrolls came from—the writings on them.     

"Got it?" Raven 12345 looked at Hao Ren with a smile. "Do you know more about these out-of-control superpowers now?"     

Hao Ren took a deep breath and asked, "The ancient kings and the Mad Lord recorded in these scrolls are the chaos of the absolute beginning we discussed earlier? And the one who came to this world refers to the goddess of creation, right?"     

Vivian was a little surprised. She had been intensely curious about those mysterious sentences when she heard Hao Ren recite the words on the scroll, but then something happened, keeping her from pondering further. And now, things seemed to be getting interesting.     

As a blood creature created by the goddess of creation herself, she was now instinctively interested in all secrets related to the goddess of creation.     

"Very likely," Raven 12345 confirmed Hao Ren's guess. "The scrolls themselves are not special. What's special is their contents. These records have touched on some of the deepest secrets of the universe, and supernatural forces have decoded the messages contained in these words, so reading them is sufficient to release the power."     

Hao Ren was stunned. "They're just some words… Can they be that powerful?"     

"Yes." Raven 12345 blinked. "For certain special beings, power can reside in everything, but this is not the patent of a true god. The only difference between true and false gods is an information disturbance called 'symbolic power', which enables us to better control the rules of the world. However, under this circumstance, false gods can also show similar powers within the rules of the universe. The Mad Lord is so close to a god that its name and deeds have considerable power. These scrolls… I don't know how the Olympians obtained their knowledge on these taboo subjects, but they've recorded them and brought the power of the Mad Lord into the universe."     

Raven 12345 smiled a little as she said, "But unfortunately for this creature, I have a seat in the universe. It can do anything it likes, but it will only make it easier for us to understand its nature and weaknesses."     

Vivian looked at the scrolls in a strange manner and said, "Wouldn't it be terrible if such dangerous forces could be brought out so easily? If someone else copies these scrolls in large quantities or talk about them all over the place… I can't imagine."     

"There's no need to worry because such 'power leakages' cannot be duplicated. It's not the scrolls or the words on them that carry the power, but the 'truth' behind them," Raven shook her head and explained. "It's hard to explain. In simple words, only when the person who really knows the truth, the person who knows the cause and effect as well as record his knowledge with his own hands—the Mad Lord—will have a chance to spread his power outside. For a person who knows nothing, it won't do any harm even if the person copies the scrolls a thousand times."     

Hao Ren touched his chin thoughtfully and said, "Oh, I see. In other words, only the person who knew the Mad Lord in the first place could have made this scroll, and the second person who learned this knowledge from the scrolls could not copy it?"     

Raven 12345 nodded slightly and explained, "This is why there are many heretical churches that preach distorted doctrines all day long because they want to make the 'gods' they worship known to more people. Only when more and more people understand the distorted and taboo knowledge can the power of evil gods have a chance to spread. There is a general rule in this regard: the more you know about an evil god, the more you will become the carrier of its power. When you know about it to a certain extent, you are qualified to be the next 'missionary'. You can obtain forbidden power by writing the name of the evil god and recording the deeds of the evil god. But in turn, you will gradually wither and eventually be consumed by the forbidden power."     

Hao Ren then muttered, "Is it possible that the Olympians secretly turned to the Mad Lord? Well, it doesn't seem right. According to the records on the scrolls, they clearly see the Mad Lord as a risk factor."     

"If I'm right, the Olympians were believers of the goddess of creation, or at least in opposition to the Mad Lord," said Raven 12345. "They didn't want to spread the power of the Mad Lord, they wanted to record the truth. According to the first paragraph of this scroll, they see the Mad Lord as a disaster and the god that follows as the savior of order. It is quite dangerous for mortal people to study the world of gods. Although they were very careful and even used a variety of complex text encryption to prevent the power of the Mad Lord from leaking out, their contact with the forbidden knowledge was essentially a kind of 'learning'. The more they fought against it, the more they became its carrier… I think that even without the Twilight of the Gods caused by the demon hunters, these Olympians would have eventually been devoured by the nightmares in their memories."     

Hao Ren frowned and looked at the scroll floating in front of him. "So a variety of words and grammar were used not to prevent anyone from deciphering the scrolls, but to prevent the power of the Mad Lord from leaking out of the scrolls… But where on earth did they learn these secrets? Even the guardians of the goddess of creation didn't know about the Mad Lord, how did the Olympians know?"     

"I don't know," Raven 12345 said and shrugged. "To be honest, I've always thought something was wrong with the guardians of the goddess of creation. They were supposed to be the closest ones to the goddess, but now it seems that the goddess of creation kept a lot of things from her children. She did not tell these guardians anything before they were born."     

Not only was Raven 12345 puzzled, Hao Ren and Vivian had also suspected it a long time ago. In any case, the guardians should have been the most trustworthy ones to the goddess of creation. The goddess should not have been afraid of her children and should have placed great trust in her guardians based on the information they had. If so, why did she not tell them the truth?     

Was it solely because of the reason that Raven 12345 had speculated: that the goddess of creation did not dare to let the name of the Mad Lord come out of her own mouth, so as to prevent the ancient evil from taking the opportunity to escape?     

"There may be answers to these questions in the scrolls," Raven 12345 said. She snapped her fingers, and the four scrolls were then enveloped in a ray of light before they descended slowly to the low table in front of Hao Ren. "Take them back and study them. Don't forget the cosmic fragment too. I'm leaving them both to you."     

Although it was not the first time she had given Hao Ren all the work, he was still curious. "You're giving them all to me? Wouldn't you like to keep them for further investigation?"     

Raven smiled and said something that had an underlying meaning. "All I have to do is watch you."     

It looked like there was something running through Hao Ren's mind, but in the end, he did not say anything.     

After the objects were handed over to Hao Ren, he mentioned another thing, "Actually… I came into contact with a very strange vision after Hagrids' death."     

"A very strange vision?"     

"Well, it looked like a cosmic starry sky," Hao Ren said, nodding his head slightly and describing the hazy and twisted starry sky he saw to her, "…and, for no apparent reason, I was being pushed out of it again. It seemed to be a static place. I didn't see any clues."     

"From the look on your face, I'm guessing that you have some ideas about this place," Raven 12345 said. She looked into Hao Ren's eyes and asked, "What do you think?"     

Hao Ren did not answer. He raised his hand and showed her the cosmic fragment in his hand.     

The cosmic fragment lay quietly in the palm of his hand, and the brilliant stars twinkled against the dark background.     

"You suspect that you saw the inside of this thing?" Raven 12345 asked.     

"Not only have I seen it, but I suspect I've been there once."