Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1411: History Altered by Religion?

(Heading to Guangzhou tomorrow, I’m not sure if I can continue updating over the next few days... well, if my moral compass doesn’t betray me, perhaps there will still be updates. So how about throwing some monthly tickets and subscriptions my way for the sake of my integrity?)

We’re only a few dozen kilometers away from Pine Forest Village, having left that peaceful and tranquil village in the woods just half a day ago. Yet in that brief period and space, one can truly experience how fragile the line between peace and war can be, thinner than paper.

The Northern Fortress has turned into a place that’s brimming with soldiers. With the fortress as the center, military camps of various sizes and garrisons stretch for over a hundred miles along the Long Bridge Mountain Range. There are regular armies from the Imperial Inland, second line corps from various lords and church organizations, and the rest are scattered free mercenaries and willing warriors. This can be seen as a grand event, or it can be called madness. The fearless spirit and nationwide resistance of the Surface People facing the Dark Moon invasion is admirable, even though to us, the Dark Moon war itself seems inexplicable. But those who hold their ground on both sides of the Long Bridge Mountain Range, always ready to fight, are worthy of the name of warriors.

Compared to the atmosphere here, which even the air seems to carry a hint of killing intent, Pine Forest Village’s atmosphere seems too peaceful and timid. However, there’s nothing to criticize about this: after all, not every race can engage in national militarization like the Xyrin. Ordinary folks also have their own ways of living. The villagers of Pine Forest Village focusing on their daily meals is perfectly reasonable. Moreover, they will soon appear on the second line of defense as a militia, which shows their bravery by any measure.

Tonight we will be staying outside the Northern Fortress, but saying "outside the fortress" doesn’t mean we’ll be experiencing the feeling of a deserted wilderness. Free mercenaries from all over have already set up connected camps stretching for a hundred miles across the plains. Even if you gallop on a horse below the Long Bridge Mountain, you won’t quickly find a place that’s truly "uninhabited."

While setting up camp, we encountered a little hiccup: at first, I wanted to inquire if the free mercenaries had a nominal planning officer. As it turns out, let alone a dedicated planner, even the officers within the fortress aren’t sure how the mercenary camp is "planned" internally. These small scattered groups casually spread out in the "lawless zone" designated by the Knight Order, grouping or acting solo as they wish. It feels more like a group of farmers just off the train, waiting for odd jobs at various intersections. In such a group, nobody needs to worry about "arranging the camp."

However, the work nature of these "farmers" is particularly high-end: they are here to save the world, at least that’s what they think.

So we simply found a quieter spot within the mercenary zone as our "territory." Setting up the tents didn’t take much effort; Bingdisi, being a divine tycoon, used the Creation Power to conjure up three large tents, looking not much different from the surrounding tents on the outside, but containing plenty of barriers and protective spells within. Even if we discussed the doomsday scenario inside, there would be no worry of being overheard.

Setting up the tents took only a short while, and Bingdisi alongside Visca eagerly volunteered to whip up dinner (yes, just the two of them). Seeing as there wasn’t anything for me to do at the moment, I started strolling aimlessly around this large camp. Since Lin Xue wanted some peace, we set up our camp far away from others. By comparing the scale of this mercenary camp, we were at least beyond the tenth circle... it would take me a while wandering around before I could greet our nearest "neighbors."

Fortunately, everyone I met along the way was friendly, probably due to being on the same desperate battlefront. Even the typically competitive mercenaries have here become a harmonious family. Although most people here do not know each other, and everyone could come from anywhere across the country, it felt like being in a bustling village square where everyone knew one another. This atmosphere might be noisy, but for a first-timer like me... it was actually quite interesting. Mercenaries are almost all chatterboxes, walking around here for thirty minutes could provide enough material to write epic tales at the starting point for a lifetime...

While wandering through these lively camps reminiscent of quadrangle courtyards, I of course didn’t forget to gather some information. Assuming the identity of a newly arrived "rookie mercenary," I quickly grasped the plan of these seemingly unorganized individuals to join the battle against the Dark Moon. It’s as expected: mercenaries aren’t meant for the frontline battles.

They still continue their usual trade here: offering their combat skills for a price.

The Knight Order of the Northern Fortress has prepared specific reception windows for the mercenaries. They will issue tasks from the fortress, which may be tricky or dangerous, but they all offer generous rewards and the potential for great renown. The manpower of the Knight Order and other regular troops is precious, and they don’t have many "special warfare soldiers" to carry out piecemeal reconnaissance and exploration tasks, so these chores are outsourced to the mercenaries. Daily there are individuals responsible for announcing task lists, commuting between the fortress and the mercenary camps - these people are usually mercenaries themselves, and running around like this is also part of their routine tasks. The various mercenary teams, big or small, upon receiving these briefings, evaluate their own abilities and luck to decide whether to set out themselves or let others take the risk.

All mercenaries operate this way, with everyone setting up camp following the same process: upon hearing about the imperial conscription, they personally trek here, finding the registration officer at the fortress to report their name or team, then receive a small identification tag, thus becoming a part of protecting this world: truly a chaotic but carefree group of individuals.

The Knight Order, Second Line Corps, Mercenary Group, the temporarily assembled dispatch center, and the semi-autonomous task coordination and various dual-line military actions - these elements together make up a unique microcosmic society. The base of the Long Bridge Mountain is not just a defense line anymore, it’s becoming a peculiar city without walls. Among various camps, you can even find markets and itinerant merchants!

While it all appears quite disorganized, after a round of walking, I vaguely sensed a fundamental order within this chaos. Whoever is managing the Northern Fortress, they must be a real talent: being able to control both a vegetable market and a military camp, to me, that person is already akin to a deity.

I didn’t venture too far, just wandered around this mercenary camp and a neighboring independent legion camp. The latter claims to be a feudal legion under "Duke Hector" within the Empire. Since that’s part of an official military encampment, I didn’t enter; there wasn’t much to see anyway.

"Hey, the boss is back?"

Just as I returned to our own family tent, I heard Bingdisi’s bold voice calling from the front. Following the sound, I saw the female hooligan enthusiastically waving her hand towards this side, while Lin Xue elbowed Bingdisi hard: "It’s our family’s boss - you with your tri-level massive fireball shouldn’t stir up trouble."

Laughing, I walked over and sat between Lin Xue and Qianqian, the latter eagerly approached and gave me a peck on the cheek, then turned back to continue poking the firewood in the campfire with a stick. This kid is always interested in stuff like outdoor camping and campfire dinners, and I understand why: accustomed to life in high-tech Shadow City, coming out to experience this kind of primitive life once in a while actually isn’t a bad idea.

"So, what’s for dinner?" I glanced at Bingdisi, then at Visca who was sitting on Qianqian’s other side. These two had enthusiastically announced they would prepare dinner, and although I had many doubts about their "cooking skills," it should at least be better than Sandora’s, so I let them go about their mischief. Now it was late, and I was curious to see what they had whipped up.

"Don’t worry, it’s quite a feast," Bingdisi said as she pulled out a floating tray from behind her, laden with steaming bowls and a rich fragrance emanating, "Scallion oil rib, seafood with dried vegetables, tender beef in old broth, seaweed with dried shrimp, and chicken stewed with mushrooms - just soaked for a bit too long..."

Moments later, I was slurping on Master Kong’s Chicken Mushroom instant noodles that had nearly turned into mush, and earnestly advised Visca, "In the future, try to avoid messing with things you’re not familiar with, got it? Especially with ideas from Bingdisi - don’t mix in with them. Let’s stick to eating the readymade dry food we brought from home tomorrow."

Visca and Pandora, each cradling a bowl bigger than their heads, shared a single bowl of noodles. The former nodded vigorously, almost pushing Pandora’s head into the bowl...

"Occasionally doing this isn’t so bad," Miss Lin seemed quite pleased, picking out a small piece of noodle to feed Dingdang draped over the edge of her bowl, while her gaze wandered around. Then her tone suddenly changed, "Every day in Shadow City, we’re faced with ’national affairs’, legions, worlds, races, the rise and fall of life within the Universe unit, slowly I feel like I’m becoming like those Imperial Soldiers, only knowing one way to act – sweeping everything before us, sweeping, and sweeping again... When in doubt, just sweep... Wood, do you think if not for this opportunity now, would we not eventually forget that all those places we swept through were also filled with living people who could cry and laugh? Look at these surroundings..."

Although Lin Xue seemed to speak casually, I suddenly froze.

Despite wandering around the Macro World every day in the Imperial District and mingling with everyone, how long had it been since we had one of these authentic contacts with a new world untouched by the Empire like now? Not arriving with an invincible demeanor, nor with the mindset of a Savior, without troops, without any plan of conquest – just arriving among the locals like travelers and living with them for a while – how long had it been since we had contact in this manner?

When we went to Vanilla’s homeland, we held the thought of testing the belief in the Crow God. When we ventured to the world of the Melowa Rebel Army, it was with the purpose of suppressing the rebellion. Even when we engaged with the natives of those worlds, we always observed and planned with a detached perspective... Although I know there’s nothing wrong with my mindset, the facts still somewhat indicate an issue.

It’s only this time that the situation is somewhat different.

I glanced at the tent behind me and at the noisy mercenary camp in the distance. Joseph had entrusted me with a metal badge that was still in my pocket, and the Foolish Big Guy was waiting for us to find him tomorrow – we were engaging with the locals and living together in a long-lost "inefficient" manner. So far, we hadn’t summoned any superpowers to tear through the truths of this world (in this aspect, thanks to the deterrent power of the Fallen Apostle). From a Xyrin Apostle’s standard, this might seem like a waste of time, but I believe it’s also meaningful.

Although Bingdisi had mentioned that our family has a trait to maintain our disposition (even calling it thoughtlessness if you like), if we can use other methods besides this thoughtless talent to constantly remind ourselves to pay attention to those easily overlooked people and things, it must be good too.

My gaze fell on Bingdisi, who’s become the "leader" of our group unknowingly. She planned the actions for these two days, including the decision to come to the Northern Fortress, which was her idea. It’s hard to say if these decisions truly contain some form of deep foresight. But noticing the gaze resting upon her, Bingdisi just gave me a sidelong glance, "Hurry and eat, we’ve got forbidden books to study, and Louse Spirit already copied part of them."

Whatever, thinking too much isn’t my style.

We quickly finished this "sumptuous" dinner and then gathered in the central tent. Bingdisi pulled out three thick and coverless books from her Personal Space and tossed them on the low table, "These are the three most representative forbidden books – one is a history book of some extinct race, one is folk tales and poetry from back then, and another is an ancient continental encyclopedia."

Qianqian immediately lunged forward anxiously, grabbing a book and flipping through it excitedly, "Hey, why’s it still warm? Does your Personal Space have a temperature too?"

"Didn’t I say it was just cloned recently," Bingdisi glanced at Qianqian, "The temperature comes from Divine Technique. Oh right, the second half of these books is temporarily blank, as the function of Louse Spirit is weak, resulting in data loss during cloning. I’m having them retransmit now."

I picked up a so-called "forbidden book" and began to flip through it. The second half was indeed all blank pages, but large sections of text and illustrations were quickly appearing on those blank sheets. Occasionally, a section would undergo a cloning error, causing the text to erase itself and reprint right before my eyes, and amazingly, each page of the book reproduced by Divine Technique bore a faint watermark that didn’t affect reading, with a large line of text: Unofficial reading is a last resort. If possible, please support the official versions.

Me: "... Bingdisi, you sure have personified this Divine Technique."

The female hooligan proudly flicked her hair (this time really making Visca stumble), "Hmph, even cigarette packs say smoking is harmful to your health. I am a dignified Goddess, and I must at least pretend to have professional ethics – also, applying such lines helps the patent approval at the Pantheon go smoothly. Those antiques all seem to have broken brains; anyone can create anything without issue, but when it comes to guarding against me, they’re like thieves."

My forehead sweated: This Goddess bragging about her prowess in technology and scholarly pursuits has unraveled countless bizarre "Divine Techniques". These Divine Techniques, when large, could destroy heaven and earth, but when small, were like trivial "uncut pencil sharpening" skills. I don’t know how her brain functioned, but it’s undeniable she was a genius in some sense. Being a genius doesn’t mean you have to develop the theory of relativity to change the world; sometimes explaining why static electricity appears in winter while summer sees none signifies genius too. I was once stimulated by small inventors on TV, and for a while, I was passionate about researching why summer sees no static electricity from removing sweaters, thinking that if successful, I could secure five minutes on regional TV. Later, when the project seemed promising, Big Sister unceremoniously terminated it, informing me the reason there’s no static electricity from removing sweaters in summer was precisely because no one wore sweaters in summer...

Casually flipping through the book in my hands, it seemed to be the folklore Bingdisi mentioned – folk tales before the first Dark Moon War. The book appeared as thick as the Bible of the Goddess Sect, while the other two books in Qianqian’s and Lin Xue’s hands were similarly voluminous. Reading word by word was unrealistic, so I could only skim through.

Researching the Bible of the Goddess Sect earlier made us realize this sect severed the history before the first Dark Moon War, turning all pre-war knowledge into mythical tales under the guise of the "Heavenly Age", forbidding any academic agency outside the Church from formalizing that historical period. This was clearly unusual.

Under normal circumstances, ancient history might become myth for two reasons: either humanity was genuinely too primitive at the time, living with stone flakes to cut meat and smearing grass juice on their faces pretending to commune with Heavenly God. Such ancient times would naturally become akin to legends due to a lack of written record; the other reason would be a catastrophic war, but its scale must reach the levels where global population shrinks to a tenth or less, completely obliterating remnants of various civilizations. Indeed, every Wisdom Race’s civilization process often faces warfare setbacks, yet its growth and "pseudo-death" capability can be surprising too. Qianqian’s father can piece together remnants of ancient civilizations extinct for millennia just from fragments of tiles, so traces left by Wise Beings are indeed hard to erase completely.

Thus, considering the history before the first Dark Moon War only as "ancient myth" doesn’t sit right. Despite five large-scale wars, Surface People still knew how to use the Transmission Station, proving its civilization theoretically wasn’t entirely severed by warfare, so where was the real history before the first war?

It lay within these books we held.

The Holy Scripture of the Goddess Sect depicted the history before the first war as an era of absolute peace among races, a grand era of universal harmony named the "Heavenly Age". Considering most wise species developed amid wars and turmoil, and the mixed-race civilizations were inherently prone to catastrophic conflicts, if indeed a world of mixed races managed to let all races live peacefully, even relatively peacefully to the stage of forming nations, it would indeed be a miracle worthy of calling a "Heavenly Age-like world".

But within mere minutes of flipping through the book, I found at least four or five folk tales set against backgrounds of racial discrimination and inter-country chaos...

Qianqian was leafing through a history book, which was even more astonishing: It depicted, from the perspective of a spectating race, the process of a small race known as "Forest Spirit" being obliterated by Demon Beasts! (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)