Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1415: Overwhelming Information

Soya, this suddenly appearing ancient Dragon Clan truly surprised us like never before. Originally, we came here out of curiosity to see the commotion, wanting to see what connection an ancient giant dragon had with the Pope of the Surface People. Yet, it turned out they were discussing matters related to the Dark Moon, and from the tone... they seemed quite familiar with the Dark Moon Lord? Even this wrinkled Old Pope before us is a figure from thousands of years ago?

"Tsk tsk, this development... the entire matter is getting more and more interesting," Bingdisi crossed her arms, commenting on the two in front of her while in invisibility status, "That Little Dragon has a long lifespan, and she’s still just a little girl. But that old man is truly a mortal. I’m dead sure this time - if everything goes normally, he can live maybe another dozen to twenty years. Rebirth, it seems like this human used some secret technique to survive this long."

I opened my mouth but didn’t say anything: I’m already in a haze. This seemingly ordinary world harbors a history far deeper and complex than imagined. We initially thought that the lost Divine Artifact merely gave rise to a religion here, but in the blink of an eye, it entangled so many affairs. It now appears that even if we continue searching along the "Goddess" clues of the Goddess Church, we might not understand what happened in those years. The reason is simple - the Divine Artifact isn’t only linked to the Goddess Church! The Dragon Girl before us, the Dark Moon Lord on the Moon, and that so-called Blood Princess, plus the Pope of the Goddess Church, these four must have done something remarkable surrounding the Divine Artifact during ancient times. I suddenly recalled something the Dragon Girl said earlier: the power of Divine Artifact is weaker than Demon Power, which is not something a mortal can compensate with effort - might she be referring to the Divine Artifact we’re currently seeking?

At this moment, the Old Pope and Dragon Girl’s argument remained unresolved. After listening for a while, I had a rough understanding of their debate: Dragon Girl, Pope, Dark Moon Lord, and one Blood Princess, these four had signed some ancient agreement a long time ago (probably around the first Dark Moon War, since the Dark Moon Lord was "exiled" to the Moon after the first war). This agreement likely caused the current Earth and Moon situation. Now, the Dragon Girl is unsatisfied with certain points agreed upon in the agreement, so she wants to go to the Moon to discuss anew with the Dark Moon Lord and Blood Princess, but the Pope feels this is meaningless and impractical, hence his persuasion. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Though advanced in age, the Pope probably cannot match the lung capacity of a Dragon Clan that can live an eternity. After debating fiercely for a while, he suddenly began coughing. To my surprise, the Dragon Girl, who gave a feeling of coldness, seemed quite concerned about the Old Pope’s health: "Is your body about to give out again?"

Though her tone remains icy, the care within the words is self-evident.

After the Pope recovered from the coughing, he waved his hand and slowly walked towards the nearest wooden chair, sitting down heavily: "No problem, I can live another dozen years - as long as you don’t keep angering me."

"You know I’ve thought it through," Dragon Girl stood before the Pope, her purple-red eyes reflecting the other’s aged appearance, "The initial plan has been tested for thousands of years, proving utterly unreliable. We must adopt a different scheme while we still have the chance to salvage. The Dark Moon Lord... is an excellent Barbarian, but he’s too bull-headed. We can’t let him continue being willful. So I just have to persuade the Blood Princess, that shouldn’t be too difficult. I know what she wants."

The Old Pope gripped the heavy Tin Staff, his still bright eyes fixed on the Dragon Girl: "Soya, do you plan to resolve matters before the Barbarian awakens? Do you know what it’ll be like when he’s awake?"

"At worst, a fight, we’ve fought before," the Dragon Girl was unconcerned, "Besides, I won’t destroy the Divine Artifact, nor do I have the ability to destroy it, so the Barbarian still has other ways to continue his trials, just that he can’t rely on the power of the Dark Moon War anymore."

"Divine Artifact, Divine Artifact... I wonder if something that brings such disaster can still be called a Divine Artifact," the Old Pope remained silent for a long time, suddenly letting out a long sigh, "Sigh... then what is your so-called ’different scheme’ really? If you essentially have no plan, just acting on a momentary passion like before, then I’ll mobilize the Knight Order to keep you here!"

"Demon Power is sealed within the Divine Artifact and was brought into this world," Dragon Girl slowly said, "The Blood Princess said the Divine Artifact could perform some kind of ’operation,’ didn’t she? It should not only be an energy source, but... a tool, perhaps a tool specialized in capturing Demon Power. Since it’s a tool, there should be a method of use. If we know how to use it, we might reseal the Demon Power back. Rather than exhaust our strength repeatedly delaying Doomsday, why not try to end it completely."

The Old Pope looked at the Dragon Girl for a moment, shaking his head slowly: "You want to, like those people back then, use mortal wisdom to deduce the operating patterns of the Divine Artifact, this won’t succeed. When the Barbarian wizard first activated the thing, it released the shadow of a demon; how can you be sure when you activate it the second time it’ll reabsorb the demon? Should it release more and more dangerous enemies, our remaining half of the world could be engulfed."

"No, I guarantee," the Dragon Girl solemnly promised, "If it loses control again, I’ll sacrifice all Dragon Clan essence to seal the rift; that’s enough. We almost succeeded that time, didn’t we?"

"All Dragon Clan!" The Old Pope almost slipped off his chair, "Soya, are you out of your mind?!"

The white-haired Dragon Girl standing before him was silent for a moment, then gently sighed: "Does it matter? I’m the only true dragon, the rest are merely beasts controlled by my spiritual power, a pathetic way to maintain the facade of the eternal Dragon Clan, and I’m tired. Edwin, I know you have a way to bypass that blockade and activate the Twin Star Station early, your expertise in ancient civilization’s rune technology surpasses even the Blood Princess, so let me be indulgent this time."

The Old Pope, or rather Edwin, lowered his head, his grip on the Tin Staff confronting the white-haired woman now losing any words to refute her. After a long pause, he weakly waved his hand: "You must know, if you can’t get the Blood Princess to hand over the Holy Relic Box, the Dark Moon War will start as scheduled, and when the Surface People and Dark Moon Demons battle, you must retreat. Also, I disagree with that nonsense about sacrificing your soul; if the Divine Artifact shows any signs of losing control, you must stop immediately. We can cooperate with the Blood Princess again to shut it down, but if you are sacrificed too, then it’s hopeless. If you agree to these two points, I’ll tell you how to proceed."

"Alright, I promise I won’t go to die," the Dragon Girl showed her only smile since her first appearance, "it’s enough to avert a crisis once. Plus, I don’t need to wait for the Dark Moon invasion; I’ll return as soon as the Demon Cave opens."

The Old Pope Edwin suddenly stood up and briskly walked in our direction. I was startled, thinking I was discovered, but Lin Xue pulled my arm sharply, dragging me aside, the old man brushed past me—he reached the corner, opened a small door embedded in the stone wall, and took out a shining silver delicate metal column.

This metal column is a little over a foot long and as thick as an egg, with complex patterns on its surface. Its material and craftsmanship are distinct from anything else I’ve seen in this world, not only more exquisite but also bearing a certain... unusual style. It’s different from the Surface People’s things.

"This is a piece of the Twin Star Station’s controller. I was worried something would go wrong during my reincarnation, so I stored it here," the Old Pope handed the metal column to the Dragon Girl, "Don’t show that look—yes, it’s a replica, I made it, the material is a small piece of the skeleton that fell when we blew up the Star Instrument. I found it was the same material as those Control Sticks, so I imprinter the controller’s rune on it. I don’t know what those runes mean, but it should work. You know how to operate the controller, use it to replace the locked Control Stick, no need for four people’s soul imprints, you alone can open the Long Bridge."

The Dragon Girl carefully put away the silver scroll-like metal column, unable to suppress her curiosity: "Edwin, why did you secretly make this thing?"

A gleam flashed in the Old Pope’s eyes, surprisingly showing a mischievous expression like a young boy on his wrinkled face: "You forgot, I was the least honest among us four back in the day. After parting ways with the Barbarians, I even naively spent a few days, hoping that one day with my cleverness, I could save the world and give that Barbarian a scare on the moon... youth is truly great, always feeling invincible."

The Dragon Girl’s mouth seemed to curl slightly, but she ultimately said nothing, merely walked towards the door with a cold expression. The Old Pope’s lips trembled several times, and finally couldn’t hold back as the Dragon Girl was about to leave: "Soya, I heard you’ve been living among humans as a mercenary all these years, rarely returning to Dragon Mountain, is this good?"

"Better than saving the world." That proud figure finally disappeared behind the door, leaving these words to disperse in the air.

The Old Pope leaned on his Tin Staff, subconsciously taking a few steps forward, but in the end slowly sat down on the cold stone floor, startlingly, the already elderly man cried like a child.

"Let’s go," Bingdisi suddenly tugged my sleeve, pulling me from a tangled web of thoughts, "We have much work to do."

We left the stone fortress as easily as we entered, but this time, no one felt relaxed. We quickly returned to the Lower Zone of the Northern Fortress, noticed Qianqian still rubbing her eyes, instinctively hugged her waist: "Girl, what’s wrong?"

Qianqian rubbed her eyes and mumbled, "Even though I have no idea what they’re up to, it just feels so sad. That old man doesn’t seem like a bad person..."

"You don’t have to say it. Our assumptions about the Goddess Sect and the beliefs around the Goddess are probably all wrong. Even if they’re not all wrong, hardly anything is accurate. Their purpose isn’t to strengthen control at all; it’s just to prevent people from knowing what really happened during the Dark Moon War," Bingdisi muttered with a tone as if she was angry with someone, watching the bustling town around her. "I’m just not cut out for intelligence tasks. Is it really necessary for this world to be so complicated..."

Finally, Bingdisi turned her gaze to Lin Xue and couldn’t hold back, "You’ve seen quite a lot, haven’t you?"

"Here, I don’t dare to use too much power, afraid of attracting unneeded ’individuals’ over," Lin Xue said calmly. "But I have indeed seen a lot. Don’t ask; what needs to be known will be known, what needs to happen will happen. I’ll tell you what to do directly when necessary. Until then, just watch quietly."

Bingdisi rolled her eyes to the sky and let out a loud whistle.

Lin Xue glanced sideways at that female hooligan, and finally set her gaze on me, "Wood, let me ask you a question. If you had to steal a world right under a Fallen Apostle’s nose, what would you do?"

I didn’t react at first, instinctively uttering an "uh," and two seconds later, cold sweat started to pour out as I stared at the missus like I’d seen a ghost, "What did you say?! You’ve got to be kidding..."

Lin Xue sighed, "Just consider it a precaution."

When I tried to press for details, the missus wouldn’t say another word.

Is this really a precaution? Don’t you think the dose is a bit too high!

But sure enough, Bingdisi and Qianqian seemed completely unbothered, showing no signs of worry. While I was anxiously analyzing what went wrong to lead to the situation in Lin Xue’s prediction, Bingdisi stretched lazily with a half-hearted demeanor, "Let’s head back to rest. For now, let’s focus on that little Dragon Girl. When she moves, we’ll move too."

Without much interest in wandering around the fortress, we returned to the camp. The place felt much quieter compared to the morning. Most mercenaries weren’t there to idle; assignments from the Knight Order regarding patrols and defense assistance were endless, so mercenaries always had tasks. When we returned to the camp, only a few scattered mercenaries were around, mostly those who hadn’t secured tasks or were recovering in the rear.

Upon returning to our base, I once again spotted that dusty gray tent, indistinguishable from the surrounding ones. Unsurprisingly, we also saw the person in front of the tent—the tall woman with short white hair, the last true dragon in this world, Soya.

The news about the Dragon King coming to the Northern Fortress had long spread, and the Iron Knight Trio was aware of it. But who could’ve guessed that this place housed the Dragon King, mingling with the burly mercenaries, registered as a mercenary herself.

The Dragon King had obviously just returned from the fortress, now standing in front of her tent, staring off into the distance at the snow-covered peaks of the Long Bridge Mountain Range, her face cold and expressionless. When she withdrew all her power, she appeared just like any normal human, no wonder we didn’t notice she was a dragon in human form—nobody cared about such a passing stranger in the morning. Who’d have thought she had such an impressive identity?

The large group of us passing by naturally caught her attention. Surprisingly, she even turned her head slightly to nod at us. Despite her cool demeanor being uncomfortable, it was a gesture of goodwill. It seemed that greeting her in the morning had worked; at least this aloof sister remembered us as her "neighbors."

Perhaps she really wasn’t good at talking.

Unaware that her "neighbors" had been invisibly observing her for a long time, we remained strangers in her eyes. So, we couldn’t say too much. Only Qianqian casually greeted her, "Hi, have you eaten?"

The Dragon Girl was startled, "...No..."

To our amazement, Qianqian cheerfully pulled out an assortment of snacks from her pocket and pranced over to Soya, "Then take this, it’s something we brought from home, since we’re neighbors..."

Dragon Girl Soya’s response couldn’t keep up with Qianqian’s rapid thinking. In a bewildered state, she was led back to her tent by Qianqian, leaving us outside in various states of confusion. Once they disappeared behind the tent flap, Bingdisi, still wide-eyed, nudged my arm, "...Chen, is there any pattern to her behavior?"

I spread my hands, "There’s no pattern to it. You know her thought process is like Brownian motion."

Clearly, Qianqian had no intention of leaving the tent anytime soon, and contrary to appearances, Soya wasn’t as unapproachable as she seemed. At least she couldn’t resist Qianqian’s social bombardment. The rest of us could only smile wryly and return to the central tent.

After settling in, everyone fell silent until Bingdisi was the first to speak up, "Alright, let’s set aside old speculations for now. It seems the Divine Artifact is on the moon. But I have to mention one thing—the moon shows no response of Star Domain Divinity."

As I scratched my head, I had been sorting through the tangled clues throughout the journey. The conversation between the Dragon Girl and the Pope held so much information, with numerous interpretations before the ultimate reveal, making true resolutions elusive. It’s clear our assumptions about the Goddess Church significantly deviated from reality. We calculated everything except the "non-conspiracy" route...

"If need be," Bingdisi mused, rolling her eyes, "let’s just capture the Pope and that Dragon Girl. Since we’re sure they know the artifact’s whereabouts, we might as well extract the truth through force—waterboarding and all."

"That’s the best idea you came up with after all this time?" I looked sideways at the female hooligan. I had to admit her "solution" was straightforward and might work, but personally, I wasn’t inclined towards violent resolutions. After all, we had no grudges with the Old Pope or Dragon Girl, and more importantly—four people are connected to the artifact: the Dark Moon Lord and a "Blood Princess." It’s hard to say how these four mortals managed to hide a Star Domain Artifact to the point that even Bingdisi couldn’t detect it. Therefore, to uncover the artifact, we must clarify their roles. Anything done before that is just over-complicating things.

However, I’ve also made a resolution: let’s wait till we’re on the moon. If there’s no progress even after meeting the Dark Moon Lord and Blood Princess, then we’ll capture all four of them...(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote with recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)