The Petrachelys moved silently over the still Crimson Moon Sea, like a ghost coming from dark space, looking carefully at the strange red world below with its countless eyes.
“Probes have sent back signals confirming that the Crimson Moon covers a complete liquid surface, with only scattered islands and reefs protruding from the sea, which accounts for less than three percent of the planet’s surface area,” Nolan’s voice came from all around, with a hint of confusion. “And the scene elsewhere is similar, the sea is ‘still’ and there is no sign of movement.”
“After all, it’s what Vivian summoned, and it’s normal to have this weirdness,” Hao Ren said, nodding and checking the signals sent back by the probes. “Release the detector and see if this layer of the sea is a phantom.”
Although all kinds of radars had sent back solid signals on the surface of the Crimson Moon before, in the face of this kind of supernatural things that did not operate according to common sense, a single detection method was far from enough. Hao Ren decided to increase the depth of the detection step by step.
The ejection hatch below Petrachelys opened a fissure and a silvery cylindrical object was released from the spacecraft. The cylindrical body circled twice on the surface of the still Crimson Moon Sea, then plunged into the blood-like water at one end.
The detector touched the Crimson Moon Sea silently and disappeared in Hao Ren’s vision. There was no wave on the sea. The contact between the two was like two shadows passing through each other without causing any interference.
Hao Ren frowned slightly. “So it’s a phantom?”
“No… The detector returned a signal. It’s not a phantom. It passed through a real layer of water and is now moving in the water,” Nolan answered immediately. “The presence of water pressure, temperature and resistance were detected. The composition of the water body was similar to that of the lifeblood, and the concentration increased as the detector dived in deeper. This sea is real.”
Hao Ren was a little surprised. “A real sea? But just now, when the detector entered the water, it seemed that it had passed through a layer of shadow, without splashing the waves.”
Nolan also sounded doubtful. “There is no explanation. The Crimson Moon Sea is absolutely static, as a whole, like a fixed-frame image. The detector cannot affect the shape of the sea in the process of contacting the sea surface, but it can detect the presence of the liquid environment. I’m releasing more detectors, and more data will be collected later.”
Petrachelys began to release more detectors into the Crimson Moon Sea. These detectors glimmered like powder sprayed from the fluorescent giant moth and sank silently into the sea. Like the one before, these detectors did not cause any ripples or spray when entering the sea.
“What do you think it looks like?” Hao Ren tapped his finger lightly on the console panel in front of him, asking the data terminal floating around him.
“The crimson moon? Or the sea?”
“The crimson moon.”
“I think of the Star of Creation – I guess you think of the same thing, too.”
“Yes, the Star of Creation.” Hao Ren nodded. “I have associated these two things more than once before, and now more so. Red liquid surface, covering more than 97% of the sea area, but also detected the composition of similar lifeblood… There are not many planets with this distinctive feature. I used to think that the surface of the Crimson Moon was solid, or maybe the whole thing was some kind of illusion, but now it looks like a sea on its surface – even though the sea is still”
“But the size seems quite big.” Nolan’s voice sounded, and her hologram appeared beside Hao Ren. “According to Muru’s information, the Star of Creation is a planet larger than Earth, and the Crimson Moon… It’s obviously a dwarf planet.”
“The Crimson Moon is certainly not the real Star of Creation. Muru and Lemendusa did not mention that the sea on the Star of Creation was static.” Hao Ren shrugged. “I tend to think that this dwarf planet is a projection of the Star of Creation. Perhaps Vivian has the information of her homeland in her mind, which is quite possible considering that she was born from the blood of the Goddess of Creation, and the nature of her call to the Crimson Moon is actually to project the homeland stored in her subconscious mind.”
Nolan suddenly interrupted him, “Hao Ren, my detector found something.”
Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. “What is it?”
“On the back of the planet, a man-made trace was found on an island protruding from the sea.”
“Let’s go and have a look!”
Petrachelys immediately turned and accelerated, leaving a blue light behind and disappeared in space, and then arrived at the coordinate of the probe’s return signal in the next instant. In the picture transmitted back, Hao Ren did see an island.
97% of the Crimson Moon was covered by the sea, but less than three percent of the remaining areas still had land protruding from the water. Most of them were scattered reefs or tiny islands. Plus, the dwarf planet was likely to be a ‘miniature’ version of the Star of Creation, making these tiny islands even smaller.
The micro-island before their eyes was a relatively large one. Its width was about two or three hundred meters, and the land protruding from the water was tens of meters high. In the center of the island, there was a circular pit which was obviously too clear and neat. There seemed to be a lot of neat artificial traces around the pit. And Hao Ren also noticed a detail: in a considerable area around the island, the sea was so calm that it was as smooth as a mirror and not even a ripple could be seen.
It seemed that no matter how huge the waves were in the Crimson Moon Sea, the island on this side did not have to worry about being swallowed up by the waves.
“Obvious traces of artificial transformation.” Hao Ren thought Nolan’s judgment was correct when he looked at the regular circular crater on the island and the elaborate stone structure around the crater. But why was there such a trace on the Crimson Moon? With this in mind, he stood up and arranged his clothes. “I’m going down to see it for myself.”
“It’s dangerous,” Nolan warned aloud. “It’s just the first summoning experiment. It’s not clear how stable the Crimson Moon will be. We should test the limit of the summoning ceremony before…”
“With such eye-catching stuff, I can’t sleep well. I’m not going to look at it in the sky and leave.” Hao Ren waved his hand. “Besides, I believe Vivian.”
“You are the captain, you have the final say.” Nolan saw Hao Ren has made up his mind, plus the Crimson Moon was indeed in a fairly stable state, so she did not insist. “I will continue to monitor the activities of the Crimson Moon. Once I find that the energy response is elevated I will force you back – this is a necessary safety measure.”
“Of course, that’s all right.” Hao Ren nodded. “You let those detectors that have already gone into the sea continue to expand their scanning range, and I hope they will come back with some results when I go down to check the situation.”
“Okay.”
A moment later, Hao Ren and the data terminal had arrived at the surface of the island. Hao Ren felt that he was floating. Although he had really touched the surface of the planet, the Crimson Moon itself still had no gravitational pull on him.
The pit was about forty meters in diameter and about ten meters in the deepest part. The island itself was made of hard black rock, but the pit was covered with a layer of fine white sand. Around the pit, Hao Ren also saw a series of small pits, some open, some covered with slate or something else. Large and small pits formed a complex artificial nest.
The data terminal was flying around Hao Ren’s head and asked, “What do you say this place is for, bro?”
“God knows… But if the Crimson Moon is really the projection of the Star of Creation, the artificial traces here are probably the writings of the Goddess of Creation. I just don’t know what she’s doing digging so many holes in her planet.”
“Every creator likes to dig holes.”
“Huh? Is that so?”
“Eh, I’m just talking nonsense. Why do you take it seriously?”
They looked around as they chatted. Suddenly, a slab protruding from the ground not far away attracted Hao Ren’s attention.
The slab stood next to a small pit with shining lines.
“What is this?” The data terminal flew to the slab and scanned the shiny lines. “It looks like a text, but it’s so weird that it can’t be translated by information extraction.”
Hao Ren looked at the symbols thoughtfully. He felt that the symbols were somewhat similar to the ‘inscriptions’ he saw in the Goddess Palace of Coldpath, but they looked even more… immature, or chaotic. It seemed that the writer himself could not accurately grasp the meaning of these words, and just drew them by feeling. Hearing the data terminal say that conventional parsing could not crack the secrets of these symbols, he suddenly had an idea and put his hand on the shimmering slab.
The lines on the slab seemed to come alive for an instant, twisting and moving around before his eyes, and then the moving lines were arranged into neat words:
“The place where Lockmarton sleeps.”
Hao Ren blinked, a little stunned.
“There should be other symbols here! If that’s right, every pit should have a corresponding mark! Go and find out now!”
Data terminal began to look around the nest for glittering patterns similar to those on the slab.
And yes, more words were found soon, and Hao Ren decoded them accordingly.
“The place where Lockmarton plays.”
“The place where Lockmarton eats.”
“The stones that Lockmarton picked up from the bottom of the sea.”
“Lockmarton…”
This was enough to prove the connection between the Star of Creation and the Crimson Moon, but Hao Ren did not expect it to appear before him in such an unexpected way.
The Petrachelys moved silently over the still Crimson Moon Sea, like a ghost coming from dark space, looking carefully at the strange red world below with its countless eyes.
“Probes have sent back signals confirming that the Crimson Moon covers a complete liquid surface, with only scattered islands and reefs protruding from the sea, which accounts for less than three percent of the planet’s surface area,” Nolan’s voice came from all around, with a hint of confusion. “And the scene elsewhere is similar, the sea is ‘still’ and there is no sign of movement.”
“After all, it’s what Vivian summoned, and it’s normal to have this weirdness,” Hao Ren said, nodding and checking the signals sent back by the probes. “Release the detector and see if this layer of the sea is a phantom.”
Although all kinds of radars had sent back solid signals on the surface of the Crimson Moon before, in the face of this kind of supernatural things that did not operate according to common sense, a single detection method was far from enough. Hao Ren decided to increase the depth of the detection step by step.
The ejection hatch below Petrachelys opened a fissure and a silvery cylindrical object was released from the spacecraft. The cylindrical body circled twice on the surface of the still Crimson Moon Sea, then plunged into the blood-like water at one end.
The detector touched the Crimson Moon Sea silently and disappeared in Hao Ren’s vision. There was no wave on the sea. The contact between the two was like two shadows passing through each other without causing any interference.
Hao Ren frowned slightly. “So it’s a phantom?”
“No… The detector returned a signal. It’s not a phantom. It passed through a real layer of water and is now moving in the water,” Nolan answered immediately. “The presence of water pressure, temperature and resistance were detected. The composition of the water body was similar to that of the lifeblood, and the concentration increased as the detector dived in deeper. This sea is real.”
Hao Ren was a little surprised. “A real sea? But just now, when the detector entered the water, it seemed that it had passed through a layer of shadow, without splashing the waves.”
Nolan also sounded doubtful. “There is no explanation. The Crimson Moon Sea is absolutely static, as a whole, like a fixed-frame image. The detector cannot affect the shape of the sea in the process of contacting the sea surface, but it can detect the presence of the liquid environment. I’m releasing more detectors, and more data will be collected later.”
Petrachelys began to release more detectors into the Crimson Moon Sea. These detectors glimmered like powder sprayed from the fluorescent giant moth and sank silently into the sea. Like the one before, these detectors did not cause any ripples or spray when entering the sea.
“What do you think it looks like?” Hao Ren tapped his finger lightly on the console panel in front of him, asking the data terminal floating around him.
“The crimson moon? Or the sea?”
“The crimson moon.”
“I think of the Star of Creation – I guess you think of the same thing, too.”
“Yes, the Star of Creation.” Hao Ren nodded. “I have associated these two things more than once before, and now more so. Red liquid surface, covering more than 97% of the sea area, but also detected the composition of similar lifeblood… There are not many planets with this distinctive feature. I used to think that the surface of the Crimson Moon was solid, or maybe the whole thing was some kind of illusion, but now it looks like a sea on its surface – even though the sea is still”
“But the size seems quite big.” Nolan’s voice sounded, and her hologram appeared beside Hao Ren. “According to Muru’s information, the Star of Creation is a planet larger than Earth, and the Crimson Moon… It’s obviously a dwarf planet.”
“The Crimson Moon is certainly not the real Star of Creation. Muru and Lemendusa did not mention that the sea on the Star of Creation was static.” Hao Ren shrugged. “I tend to think that this dwarf planet is a projection of the Star of Creation. Perhaps Vivian has the information of her homeland in her mind, which is quite possible considering that she was born from the blood of the Goddess of Creation, and the nature of her call to the Crimson Moon is actually to project the homeland stored in her subconscious mind.”
Nolan suddenly interrupted him, “Hao Ren, my detector found something.”
Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. “What is it?”
“On the back of the planet, a man-made trace was found on an island protruding from the sea.”
“Let’s go and have a look!”
Petrachelys immediately turned and accelerated, leaving a blue light behind and disappeared in space, and then arrived at the coordinate of the probe’s return signal in the next instant. In the picture transmitted back, Hao Ren did see an island.
97% of the Crimson Moon was covered by the sea, but less than three percent of the remaining areas still had land protruding from the water. Most of them were scattered reefs or tiny islands. Plus, the dwarf planet was likely to be a ‘miniature’ version of the Star of Creation, making these tiny islands even smaller.
The micro-island before their eyes was a relatively large one. Its width was about two or three hundred meters, and the land protruding from the water was tens of meters high. In the center of the island, there was a circular pit which was obviously too clear and neat. There seemed to be a lot of neat artificial traces around the pit. And Hao Ren also noticed a detail: in a considerable area around the island, the sea was so calm that it was as smooth as a mirror and not even a ripple could be seen.
It seemed that no matter how huge the waves were in the Crimson Moon Sea, the island on this side did not have to worry about being swallowed up by the waves.
“Obvious traces of artificial transformation.” Hao Ren thought Nolan’s judgment was correct when he looked at the regular circular crater on the island and the elaborate stone structure around the crater. But why was there such a trace on the Crimson Moon? With this in mind, he stood up and arranged his clothes. “I’m going down to see it for myself.”
“It’s dangerous,” Nolan warned aloud. “It’s just the first summoning experiment. It’s not clear how stable the Crimson Moon will be. We should test the limit of the summoning ceremony before…”
“With such eye-catching stuff, I can’t sleep well. I’m not going to look at it in the sky and leave.” Hao Ren waved his hand. “Besides, I believe Vivian.”
“You are the captain, you have the final say.” Nolan saw Hao Ren has made up his mind, plus the Crimson Moon was indeed in a fairly stable state, so she did not insist. “I will continue to monitor the activities of the Crimson Moon. Once I find that the energy response is elevated I will force you back – this is a necessary safety measure.”
“Of course, that’s all right.” Hao Ren nodded. “You let those detectors that have already gone into the sea continue to expand their scanning range, and I hope they will come back with some results when I go down to check the situation.”
“Okay.”
A moment later, Hao Ren and the data terminal had arrived at the surface of the island. Hao Ren felt that he was floating. Although he had really touched the surface of the planet, the Crimson Moon itself still had no gravitational pull on him.
The pit was about forty meters in diameter and about ten meters in the deepest part. The island itself was made of hard black rock, but the pit was covered with a layer of fine white sand. Around the pit, Hao Ren also saw a series of small pits, some open, some covered with slate or something else. Large and small pits formed a complex artificial nest.
The data terminal was flying around Hao Ren’s head and asked, “What do you say this place is for, bro?”
“God knows… But if the Crimson Moon is really the projection of the Star of Creation, the artificial traces here are probably the writings of the Goddess of Creation. I just don’t know what she’s doing digging so many holes in her planet.”
“Every creator likes to dig holes.”
“Huh? Is that so?”
“Eh, I’m just talking nonsense. Why do you take it seriously?”
They looked around as they chatted. Suddenly, a slab protruding from the ground not far away attracted Hao Ren’s attention.
The slab stood next to a small pit with shining lines.
“What is this?” The data terminal flew to the slab and scanned the shiny lines. “It looks like a text, but it’s so weird that it can’t be translated by information extraction.”
Hao Ren looked at the symbols thoughtfully. He felt that the symbols were somewhat similar to the ‘inscriptions’ he saw in the Goddess Palace of Coldpath, but they looked even more… immature, or chaotic. It seemed that the writer himself could not accurately grasp the meaning of these words, and just drew them by feeling. Hearing the data terminal say that conventional parsing could not crack the secrets of these symbols, he suddenly had an idea and put his hand on the shimmering slab.
The lines on the slab seemed to come alive for an instant, twisting and moving around before his eyes, and then the moving lines were arranged into neat words:
“The place where Lockmarton sleeps.”
Hao Ren blinked, a little stunned.
“There should be other symbols here! If that’s right, every pit should have a corresponding mark! Go and find out now!”
Data terminal began to look around the nest for glittering patterns similar to those on the slab.
And yes, more words were found soon, and Hao Ren decoded them accordingly.
“The place where Lockmarton plays.”
“The place where Lockmarton eats.”
“The stones that Lockmarton picked up from the bottom of the sea.”
“Lockmarton…”
This was enough to prove the connection between the Star of Creation and the Crimson Moon, but Hao Ren did not expect it to appear before him in such an unexpected way.
