Chapter 481: Door to the Other Side
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The storm raged and the evil spirits howled. Amid the loud noise, the voice of a small mermaid would have seemed like a whisper. However, when Lil Pea sang, the soft melody penetrated the noisy snowstorm as if it possessed an infinite amount of magical power.
Lil Pea was just singing at a normal volume, like she always did at home. There were no lyrics as always. The melody was just there in her memory, but the messy tone was extraordinarily beautiful. It even caused the surrounding blizzard to fall apart in an instant.
*Swoop—*
A peculiar whistling sound came from the air, and Hao Ren could see the spirits that had been hovering around were beginning to disappear quickly. The blizzard stopped and the clouds in the sky slowly subsided. In addition, the numb sensation on his skin also disappeared. As Lil Pea's voice continued to spread, Hao Ren saw a thin, dim layer of fog floating in the dark, snow-capped plains. The fog appeared less than a few seconds before it began to move violently as if being disturbed. The MDT screamed in surprise, "There's turbulence in the surrounding energy field."
Hao Ren did not dare interrupt the singing of Lil Pea, who was in his arms. So, he lowered his head and quietly asked, "What's the matter?!"
"There's a strange power in Lil Pea's voice. It's neutralizing the 'field' around us." The MDT was flashing. It was recording the vengeful spirit's reaction at that moment. "...This is the first time the surrounding 'field' has truly been weakened. All of our previous attacks were no match to the current neutralization process. The structure of the energy field is on the verge of disintegration. I feel like it should be captured before it completely dissipates..."
"Capture?! Capture the vengeful spirit?" Vivian was dumbfounded. "How?"
Lil Pea's singing continued, and the surrounding fog evolved from the initial chaos to a series of violently distorted, absurd, and bizarre illusions: images of the Andrea Family's ancestors, the Bolshevik flag, Nicholas II, carriages, cities, and towns flashed by quickly. These illusions were all events the vengeful spirit recorded during its years in the material world. Then, Nangong Wuyue suddenly screamed, "Mom..."
However, the illusion disappeared within a second.
The vengeful spirit was rapidly disintegrating. Although no one could see it, its body was a "field" that spanned a few hundred meters to several kilometers. The surrounding scene was enough to prove its presence. The MDT's became more urgent as it said, "Coil... Or a metal cage... No, it should be something that can create a magnetic environment! Think about what you can use! We have to capture this sample, this thing is a very valuable research subject. A life form so interesting is by no means a result of natural evolution... Quick, look into your Dimensional Pocket. Did you just take 20 tons of munitions from the Aerymian elves?!"
At this moment, Hao Ren began to search through his Dimensional Pocket for anything that may come in handy. He knew that he only needed something that was capable of generating a strong magnetic field as the MDT would do the rest like commissioning, activating, and retrofitting. But the problem was, he could not even find a high-powered electromagnet. Who would have foreseen the need for this kind of stuff? An inspector was not a blue-and-white robotic cat; he could not foresee the future! And the MDT was right, Hao Ren had only taken 20 tons of munitions from the Aerymian elves.
Tons of stuff were tipped out of the Dimensional Pocket—cartons of graviton grenades, a dozen particle rifles, pounds of plasma grenades, Lil Pea's fish tank of course, and Lily's Spicy Strips. However, Hao Ren could not find anything useful. Just as their precious sample was about to disappear amid the Little Apple¹ melody Lil Pea was singing, the MDT suddenly shouted in joy, "That's the one!"
Hao Ren looked at the small box, feeling flabbergasted. "Are you f*cking kidding me?"
"Who would want to f*cking kid you?" said the MDT as it turned into a ray of blue light and slipped into the box. "This box used to store golden apples! It was personally handed to you by the goddess! Even the label was handmade by Papagod! Can you imagine how magical this thing is? When you have such a sacred thing with God's name plastered on it and blessed with God's grace, you just need to seal it with duct tape. No demon of any kind will be able to escape!"
Hao Ren looked at the box that had been used to store golden apples. After a long while, Hao Ren asked, "Who is Papagod?"
"The big boss of the Xi Ling Celestials, the head of the gods. Hence, he's called Papagod."
Lily was wide-eyed. "Isn't it supposed to be Father God?"
"Father God belongs to our neighbor," the MDT's was heard coming from the golden apple box. "There are three major celestials: the boss of the Xylon Starfield Celestials is known as the God King, the boss of Galactus is known as the Lord Patriarch, while the boss of Xi Ling Celestials is called Papagod. We can't help it because all the good names have been taken up by the neighbrs. Well, all of you please shut up now, because I'm thinking of ways to capture part of the vengeful spirit into the box. Raise the box higher if you want to help."
Hao Ren could not help but break out in cold sweat as he lifted the apple box up. At this moment, he felt that he had reached the most foolish pinnacle of his life: beneath the 300-year old castle, in a sacred battle with an ancient evil spirit, he was holding an apple box in the middle of the battlefield, ready to seal the spirit in. Meanwhile, the little mermaid was still hanging on to his chest happily, singing Little Apple. It was unbelievably hilarious. He felt that no amount of photoshop could have made the scene look more "normal".
This had to be the most bizarre battle since the appearance of unusual creatures on Earth.
Lil Pea was still babbling and singing. She was not aware that her singing could suppress the vengeful spirit. She just happened to love singing as a mermaid. She would sing especially when it came to things she could not understand, and express in words. It was a kind of behavior humans could not comprehend. However, this behavior was now cornering the undefined spiritual creature into desperation.
Dense fog within a kilometer had begun to dissipate, and the wind had subsided. Snow fluttered and dropped slowly until everything stopped all together. The wailing of the vengeful spirit became a deep, strange noise before it also stopped completely. Everything seemed to be over.
A widely chaotic energy field dissipated as the vengeful spirit disintegrated. Eventually, it was trapped in the container by the MDT.
Hao Ren put the apple box down and looked inside, only to see the MDT lying quietly there. Other than that, it was empty.
"Where's the vengeful spirit?" asked Hao Ren.
"It's here, oscillating at more than 3,000 times per second in the box," said the Data Terminal as it slowly came out. "I've injected a special code into its short wavelength. Now, it can no longer leave the container."
"I can't see anything." Becky also looked inside the box curiously. "You're kidding, right?"
"Try putting your hand inside."
Becky reached into the box naively and bright sparks came off her fingertips. "Whoa!"
"The vengeful spirit is inside... Strictly speaking, it's a remnant of the vengeful spirit. Most of its information has been broken up. The rest is only debris. But if it's released, it'll quickly regain its strength from the surrounding environment," said the MDT as it projected a blue light film on the box. The blue light film was an optical filter with special frequency. "Take a look again."
Through the film, Hao Ren saw a chaotic mist in the box. It was as blurry as ripples in the water.
"That's the vengeful spirit? What kind of life is it? Is it a wraith, or some kind of energy creature?"
"It's not a wraith, more towards the latter, a high-frequency energy creature." The MDT arched over to close the apple box. "While on the outside, it appears as a 'field' filled with electromagnetic and optical effects. When it's restrained, it looks a little like a complex wave, even more intangible than the wraith. And, it's unlike any other energy creatures, it lacks structure. It's an electromagnetic wave that can supplement itself and carry information. Other than that, I don't see any remaining living characteristics after the natural process of evolution."
Lily grabbed her hair and said, "I don't understand it one bit."
Becky stuck her tongue out. "I never got it from the beginning."
"Anyway, since we've captured the vengeful spirit, we're done here," Hao Ren said while looking up and around. His eyes fell on White Flame, whose expression was a little shocked. Obviously, Hao Ren and his gang had very different fighting styles and strange props, so it was an eye-opener for her. But Hao Ren was too careless to explain; there were too many strange races in the dark world, and secrets that were unknown even to the Ancient Ones. It was said that the Olympians had created a magically-powered robot as well, so it was best to let White Flame work it out in her own imagination.
"Why didn't the space collapse on itself?" Vivian looked at the snow-covered snowfields around her. She noticed a lavender haze at the border of the snowfield. Aside from this, there was no other movement. "Hasn't the vengeful spirit been contained?"
"The spatial structure here has been changed so thoroughly that it has formed a stable structure in the crack of the real world," the MDT explained. "I estimate that this place will remain for at least 100 years more after the vengeful spirit is gone. If we were to place a space stabilizer here, it'll remain here indefinitely."
Lily then instinctively asked, "Why would we want to set up a space stabilizer?"
Hao Ren turned to look at the ancient crack in space and said, "Haven't we been looking for a 'door'? A stable door... This is it."