As Han Sen glanced around, he thought the buildings in this place looked exactly like a crystallizer control room. Li Keer commented on it, saying, “The style of architecture must mean this place belonged to the crystallizers.”
Exquisite nodded and said, “This should indeed be a crystallizer structure. The genes of the crystallizers didn’t evolve much, but their technological prowess was exceptional. They ended up challenging the Real Demons, which were rank thirteen, but if they had gone for a lower rank high race somewhere in the top one hundred, they would have become a high race through their technological power.”
Li Keer was interested, and so she said, “I have heard the crystallizers almost beat the Real Demons, and they only lost because of the Extreme King’s interference. Is that true?”
Exquisite shook her head. “I don’t know about that, but according to the records of our race, after the lamp was turned off, another race joined the fight. That race wasn’t the Extreme King, though.”
“What race was it, then?” Han Sen couldn’t help ask.
Exquisite didn’t mind answering, and so she casually said, “I don’t know. It was an army composed of people from all sorts of different races. They never explained where they were from.”
“Poor crystallizers. Despite their shortcomings, they strove so hard to overcome the challenges of the universe. They did so by crafting technology because it was what they had at their disposal. Reaching the heights that they did through technology alone couldn’t have been an easy accomplishment.” Li Keer sighed with dismay.
While they were talking, they followed the two Crocodile Gods into the crystallizer fortress. The stuff there had been badly damaged. There were broken buildings and machines strewn about, but they didn’t see any remains of the fortress’s former inhabitants.
The whole fortress was composed of buildings and machines. The big Crocodile God continued to lead them through the ruined fortress, though it gave them no indication of where they were going.
“It’s pretty obvious by now that this place once belonged to the crystallizers, but only Kings can enter the core area. How would they have been able to get here from the outside universe? Even if they somehow managed that feat, how would they get through the sea of lava to the core of this planet?” Li Keer asked, looking around.
“Crystallizers could do things that other races can’t. It’s hard to say anything about the crystallizers, because their technology opened a wide range of possibilities. Their technology could have brought them here safely, even though such a trip would have been impossible for others. But what were they thinking, by building a fortress here?” Exquisite looked around and thought aloud.
Han Sen was also examining the fortress as they walked. This place was similar to the crystallizer control room he had once been inside. Crystallizer technology was everywhere, but he didn’t know how to make use of their gear.
“It’s a shame that Stay Up Late isn’t here. If he was, he might be able to say a thing or two about this place,” Han Sen thought.
Suddenly, Han Sen was given a shock. Deep within the fortress, they came upon a large area that looked like a warehouse. Inside that place, there were many crystal canisters. They were lined up like a row of pillars that were one hundred meters tall.
Most of the cylinders in the front seemed to be shattered. There were only two or three that were still whole, and inside them, there were Chain Demon Crocodiles.
They were not Crocodile Gods. They looked like the big ones on the planet’s surface that were dark red. Those Chain Demon Crocodiles with bat wings were soaking inside the crystal test tubes that were full of fluids.
They looked like dead bodies submerged in tanks of formaldehyde in a laboratory.
Exquisite and Li Keer noticed those tubes and stared at them. They approached them and saw that there were many more crystal canisters. There were a few dozen rows of them. Each row had fifteen canisters.
Most of the canisters were broken. There were less than ten that were in an okay condition, and each of those had a Chain Demon Crocodile occupant.
“Weird. The crystallizers came all the way here to capture the Chain Demon Crocodiles?” Li Keer was confused.
“This isn’t right,” Exquisite suddenly said.
“What isn’t right?” Li Keer looked at Exquisite as she asked.
“Based on how these canisters are lined up and the location of each Chain Demon Crocodile, the other canisters should have held Chain Demon Crocodiles, too. But they aren’t here, and their dead bodies aren’t here, either,” Exquisite said.
“Maybe they ran away?” Li Keer said.
Exquisite shook her head. “That isn’t important. Each canister has a King class Chain Demon Crocodile inside it. If each canister contained one of these, think about how many Chain Demon Crocodiles there were in total. I’m afraid the whole population of Chain Demon Crocodiles doesn’t equal the number that could be stored here.”
Li Keer hadn’t considered that.
“Maybe the other canisters weren’t intended to hold demon crocodiles. But regardless of what they held, there should still be bodies lying around outside the broken containers,” Li Keer said.
Exquisite didn’t object to her line of thinking this time. The good canisters were randomly positioned amongst the broken canisters. There didn’t appear to be any order. Perhaps it wasn’t an accident that there were King class demon crocodiles inside the canisters. Maybe there had been demon crocodiles inside the broken ones before.
But if they were all King demon crocodiles, that didn’t seem to make sense with what they knew of the current crocodile population. It really was hard to believe.
The three of them followed the Crocodile Gods around the area. They eventually saw a semi-circular crystallizer building ahead of them. It was made of transparent crystal, but their view inside was still obscured. They couldn’t see what was on the interior of the building.
The Crocodile God walked into the building, which was around the size of a stadium. Han Sen and the others had no choice but to follow them inside.
After they entered, the three of them were shocked. They could see that this place had a swimming pool. There was also a man-made beach, which made it look like an ocean.
Scattered across the place were many benches. The big Crocodile God climbed atop a sunbathing chair with its belly facing outwards. It relaxed as it enjoyed the seashore like a gangster boss. All it needed was a shirt and a pair of shorts.
The small Crocodile God ran across the sand and then it ran back. Its mouth now held a rope, and it was hauling a box toward them.
Han Sen watched the small Crocodile God drag the box in front of them. Then, it rumbled at them.
Li Keer knew what the little Crocodile God meant. She opened the box and saw many tools inside. She suddenly had a bad feeling about this.
Although the three of them had never seen crystallizer tools before, they were certain that was what filled the box. They did not know what the tools did, though. But judging from their shape, it was possible to imagine them as tools for construction work.
As the small Crocodile God rumbled and Li Keer explained, Han Sen quickly realized the bad feelings were coming true. The crocodiles intended to use the three of them as workers.
The Crocodile God wanted to use them as slaves, so they could repair and clean up the space fortress.
After understanding what the small Crocodile God meant, Exquisite and Li Keer looked terrible. They had never done anything like this for the Very High. Now, two crocodiles were treating them as maids. It made them feel so ill that they wanted to pass out.
