Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1467: The Arrow Is Nocked

Xingchen already knew about our arrival. As soon as we stepped out of the Teleportation Gate, I saw him leading a group of familiar faces waiting on the square of the Brilliant Divine Court. Nowadays, the frequent exchanges between the Empire and the Divine Realm make visiting as easy as going upstairs or downstairs. Since both Xingchen and I have easygoing, hassle-averse personalities, there was naturally no need for any ceremonial commotion like a guard of honor. Besides the Divine Soldiers standing on guard in the square, the welcoming personnel included several Supreme Main Gods and some senior advisors, similar to those around the Father God. Uncle Kuwayin was prominently among them.

I went up to greet a group of old friends and, before the Dragon God could open his mouth, decisively turned my head to grab and shake Father God’s hand vigorously: "Long time no see, long time no see—have the experts I sent before been put to good use?"

Father God chuckled heartily: "Thanks to them, they’ve been of great use. The Divine Realm indeed didn’t have many with experience in combat against Fallen Apostles."

At this moment, a palm-sized Dou Ding popped out from Father God’s collar, waving enthusiastically in our direction: "Hey, you’re here?"

I had just cracked a smile, ready to greet the Supreme Life Goddess, when I heard a tiny voice in front of my chest: "Hello, Sister Goddess! Dingdang’s back to play!"

—Turns out they were greeting each other. Father God and I both carried a three-inch Ding on us, and when the latter suddenly popped out to say hello, it had quite the unexpected effect.

I chuckled awkwardly, while Bingdisi had already gone over to greet her dad. After chatting a few words of family trivia, Uncle Kuwayin eagerly approached us: "Where’s my granddaughter?"

Bingdisi jumped up in anger behind Kuwayin: "Dad, can you get a grip!? How many times have I told you that little girl wasn’t born by me! Your daughter isn’t even married yet, okay! And even if she does get married, it’s not like she can give birth to a doll, okay! Do you have a wind-up granddaughter!?"

It’s rare to see Bingdisi so flustered, proving that her own family is indeed the only ones who can leave this female hooligan completely helpless. Kuwayin wasn’t fazed by Bingdisi’s shouting, continuing to chuckle: "I know, it’s just for some peace of mind. Besides, I quite like that little lass, would you take her as a goddaughter?"

Bingdisi rolled her eyes: "She lacks for nothing, especially not a mom."

Uncle Kuwayin’s enthusiastic gaze made the little doll terribly uncomfortable. She managed to endure on my shoulder for merely a few seconds before she slid down, using me as a base to dodge the "weird old man" (even though he doesn’t really look old). I never thought this little guy could be so agile, scampering around my upper body like a little monkey. Before I got dizzy from her antics, I grabbed the nimble little thing, then looked at Uncle Kuwayin still with a face ready to dote on his "grandchild," and chuckled helplessly: "Uncle, you’ve scared Little Light—her only psychological pressure when coming to the Divine Realm is you."

Ice Dad was stunned, seeing a circle of people around him looking at him with helpless eyes, even Father God had a somewhat amused expression. Having no choice, Ice Dad mumbled and shuffled aside: "Having a daughter is really troublesome... oh well, we’ll make a less troublesome one with the child’s mom eventually..."

Everyone: "..."

Bingdisi covered her face and ran off to the side, looking like she wanted to pretend she didn’t know that unruly uncle. I reached into my Personal Space to fetch a small gift for Father God: let’s not delve into what exactly the gift was; Father God only enjoys these kinds of things. Then the group headed towards the Father God Temple to attend to official matters. Once seated in the guest room, we got straight to the point. Father God placed a scroll-like object emitting a faint glow on the table. As the scroll unfolded, it projected a Holographic Image mid-air.

These images were none other than the remnants of Fallen Apostle Battleships destroyed by the Divine Race in a previous invasion battle. They had been roughly categorized and scanned in detail for appearances. The images from the scroll changed continuously, and Father God explained the current situation beside me: "These spaceships are just a small portion; there’s no need to discuss specific levels, you’re more familiar than I am. According to the analysis from your experts, this invasion’s scale should be that of a full legion, maybe more. They act swiftly with clear targets, attacking and fleeing swiftly. Our garrison could only secure the Divine Country, and they bombarded most of the surrounding Star System before escaping in the chaos with the Heart of the World."

While I already knew most of this, I hadn’t thought the Fallen Apostles’ invasion would reach a legion level. For such a formidable troop to accomplish a blitzkrieg raid and then withdraw safely with Divine Race soldiers closing in, it seems like another formidable enemy may be leading them: it’s just unexpected who it could be, even Harlan seemed clueless about it.

At this moment, the doors of the guest room were pushed open, and two people in Imperial Army Commander uniforms walked in. I knew them both, one was Vincent Caro, the other Carter Carlow. They were among the thirty military experts who followed us to assist with the investigation in the Divine Realm a few days ago. If you’re talking about experts in combat against Fallen Apostles, few can match these two brothers. After all, they spent thousands of years serving in the Fallen Apostle’s ranks.

"Alright, the military experts are here now," I gestured to the Carlo Brothers, "No need for so many formalities, let’s get straight to the point. Have you found anything during your time here?"

The brothers reported their findings beside me. Carter Carlow opened the data terminal and presented another set of Holographic Images: "Your Majesty, these are the insignias we discovered on those spaceships."

I took a look, having naturally failed to recognize them, but found it rather intriguing: "With these insignias, you still can’t identify which faction they’re from?"

Vincent Caro’s expression was quite serious: "Here’s the problem: these insignias don’t belong to any known legion."

"Not belonging to any legion?" I sensed some deeper meaning in Vincent’s words, "Are you suggesting... that invading army wasn’t part of the Fallen Apostle’s ranks?"

"The ships show signs of being Abyss-infected, clearly from the Polluted Zone, but the insignias on the ships are very unusual. We’ve spent years in the Fallen Apostle’s ranks and know every legion’s insignia there, but this marking is completely unfamiliar... We can’t recall a legion of Fallen Apostles bearing such an insignia."

I watched the Holographic Image, where an unknown insignia rotated slowly on display. This mark was blood-red, the most commonly used color by Fallen Apostles. It resembled two crossed fists with a continuous line of cross patterns surrounding it. It wasn’t anything special in appearance, yet the Carlo Brothers, who were former Fallen Apostles, attested they hadn’t seen this legion insignia in their "old camp," which piques curiosity.

"Could it be that you’ve been away too long and a new faction has emerged among the Fallen Apostles?" I looked at Carter Carlow, "Aren’t they always scheming against each other internally? Plus, there are even instances of factions annexing one another."

"Even if factions merge, it wouldn’t logically lead to changing insignias," Carter Carlow shook his head. "There’s indeed internal competition among Fallen Apostles, and occasionally weaker factions combine to form a new legion, but typically, no matter how power dynamics shift, they retain their insignias, as these hold deep significance for military men. Of course, it’s possible a new faction has emerged within the Fallen Apostles, with a lower-level Apostle suddenly rising and forming their own legion, but that possibility is slim. Advancing is no easy task. We’ve been away from ’there’ for not long, and there doesn’t seem to be any potential warlords capable of rising in these past years."

"Were there really no signs before this invasion?" I turned to Father God.

"This is the garrison officer responsible for that world at the time," Father God gestured to a stranger Divine Race across from me, a spirited, blond lady donned in grand female armor. The design was different, but the details resembled Yelsen’s grand attire as if they belonged to the same military branch. "War God Jierlilia Glare’s left wing, you can ask her for specific details."

"Oh, Jierlilia Glare..." I nodded, just about to speak when I suddenly paused, "Glare’s left wing? Do you know someone named Yelsen? Yelsen Glare’s left wing, part of the Dingdang team."

The blonde Goddess of War opposite me had a serious expression, looking like a no-nonsense type, but when she heard Yelsen’s name, she showed a slight smile and replied meticulously with a slight bow: "Yes, Emperor of Xyrin, Yelsen is my great-granduncle."

Me: "...Sister, no joking around."

The Goddess of War’s expression didn’t change at all, as serious as if she was announcing national affairs: "I’m not joking, Yelsen truly is my great-granduncle, according to our generational ranking." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

I blinked and turned to look at Bingdisi: "Don’t you Divine Race folks follow lineage strictly only with direct relatives and don’t bother with ranking otherwise?"

"Most don’t care for it, but it’s not a crime if someone seriously wants to rank generations, right?" Bingdisi, lounging on the table whispering with a little doll, waved her hand nonchalantly, "I know someone who’s a late-stage obsessive-compulsive, and who spent hundreds of years ranking everyone they know, along with their family tree. When the woods are big, all kinds of Dingdang are there; nothing you can do about it."

I: "..." Okay, let’s not discuss this matter anymore.

Jierlilia continued with a stern face, waiting across the table as if our discussion has nothing to do with her, and when she saw Bingdisi and I finished talking, she nodded and continued her report: "The world I’m stationed in is in a relatively peaceful area on the border, judging by information deviation, it’s far from the Abyss Empire’s Polluted Zone, and there are no other major Abyss contamination sources nearby, so only necessary troops are usually maintained. Before the invasion, we also conducted a routine patrol, confirming that within a jump range, there was no anomaly."

"What was the Heart of the World that was stolen?" I asked right after.

"The carrier was a mountain range located on a star near the Divine Country. After the war, we found that the star holding the Heart of the World was torn into fragments, and the fragment containing the carrier was the only one missing, hence judging the enemy’s initial target was the Heart of the World."

"Heart of the World" is actually a point of information entanglement containing mappings of all universal information. It lacks a physical entity, thus it’s usually temporarily attached to some entity within the world range. In this phase, it could be a person, a rock, or even a swift light across the universe, so I’ve got nothing to be surprised about hearing it was a mountain range; just curious: "Don’t you normally store the Heart of the World, or manually transfer it to the World Management System? How come that one was floating outside the Divine Country?"

Jierlilia replied unemotionally: "The World Management System was undergoing routine upgrades during those days, unsupported by the firmware, so I temporarily bound the Heart of the World elsewhere. Thankfully, this allowed me to hold on until reinforcements arrived: the Invading Army initially assaulted the Divine Country, later finding the Heart of the World’s reactions elsewhere, thereby diverting some forces halfway, which delayed them somewhat."

I couldn’t help but look at Father God: "So, why does this World Management System of yours always seem to have some issue regardless of the model? I thought only Dingdang used a quirky version."

Father God looked up at the ceiling: "Actually... back then this wasn’t really a problem; the Heart of the World was useless once it left this universe; no one ever fought over it before Fallen Apostles showed up!"

Next, I learned more details from the Callo brothers and Jierlilia, confirming the scale of this Fallen Apostle invasion and the entire battle process, but the key issue: whose army this was, remained completely unknown. Now, the Divine Realm has organized armies preparing to launch an attack on the Abyss Empire mainland. The scale of this army is yet unclear, but one thing is certain: despite each Divine Race member appearing generous and tolerant, Father God having a good-natured demeanor, if you really anger them, these Nine Heavens Gods definitely aren’t to be trifled with!

My visit to the Divine Realm this time was not only to inquire about the Fallen Apostle’s surprise attack but also for two other matters: the deep diving progress on the Divine Race’s side and the decryption status of the Ancient Artifact sent earlier. After the Callo brothers and Jierlilia left, I brought up the Discontinuous Belt topic, with Father God showing great concern: "We’ve also observed that Discontinuous Belt. However, as you know, the deep diving projects here in the Divine Realm have just begun, so what we know might be somewhat less than yours. We’ve established many deep dive ports, testing several simultaneously confirmed one thing: each Discontinuous Belt observed beneath Abyss Gates is the same entity. Detailed calculations also verified that the ’distance’ of this Discontinuous Belt relative to each Abyss Gate is the same, proving it indeed originates from the very bottom of the Abyss and is uniformly spreading towards all Order Worlds."

"The Fallen Apostles are doing deep diving too," I exchanged intelligence with the other party, "and their progress seems even faster than ours. Previously, they’ve already developed ships capable of traversing beneath Abyss Gates; now, who knows where this technology stands. You better be cautious; if they suddenly emerge from Abyss Gates for a surprise attack, it’s truly hard to defend against: those bastards excel at scaring people."

Father God chuckled while rubbing his nose: "Don’t worry, we’ve been prepared; arrangements have been made near all Abyss Gates."

"That’s good, just don’t let your guard down," I laughed, then suddenly thought of something, "Besides, should we consider a joint attack? When you’re attacking the Abyss Zone, we can apply pressure on the Fallen Apostles from another front. Most of their territories are laid out according to the Old Empire map, and additionally, I have an Abyss Independent Group on my side, reliable intelligence sources, we know which line of theirs is the weakest. A joint attack should yield substantial results."

"The Divine Race has this intention," said Sovare, sitting next to Father God, the so-called chief steward of the Divine Realm... Father God’s first assistant, Main God. This unsmiling old handsome man only speaks when necessary, looking like he’s in charge of this attack operation, "Actually, if you don’t come, we’d send an envoy to discuss the joint attack in a couple of days, Lord’s intention is for the Divine Race to attack first, hoping you can temporarily hold your forces, make the Fallen Apostles think there’s no joint action this time. Once most of their attention is drawn to the Divine Race’s battlefront, you’d then act. Since there’ll be a major operation, it’s best to cripple the opponent once, leaving no stone unturned to maximize the results. Of course, if possible, take this opportunity to completely eliminate this threat, the days of expedition are near, having such a large hidden danger from the Abyss Zone on the doorstep is truly unsettling."

I looked at this expressionless old handsome man, thinking that an angry rabbit also bites; Fallen Apostles have indeed stirred the hornet’s nest.

However, Sovare’s plan to eliminate all Fallen Apostles in one fell swoop seems unlikely to me. After all, a centipede doesn’t die even when it collapses, and those who die stupidly do better than Dingdang—this metaphor doesn’t quite fit mainly for rhyming. In sum, Fallen Apostles are nonetheless colossal entities, possessing world-traversing capabilities, being foes you’d scatter but rarely eradicate completely. Even if the Divine Race and the New Empire collaborate for a grand operation, they might only manage to severely damage it. Moreover, with the Divine Race’s expedition imminent, some soldiers even departed early, and those remaining should refrain from getting caught in the "Abyss Zone War" basically bottomless pit. Their capacity to mobilize military force remains limited.

But Sovare is right about one thing: maximizing battle results.

After all, chances for the Divine Race and New Empire to jointly attack the Abyss Zone might just be this one; next time, either the Fallen Apostles have robust defenses, or the Divine Race has begun their expedition, neither timing being suitable.

At this moment, Lilina, who had been silent for half a day, suddenly started mumbling: "Why didn’t anyone think of joint attacking years back?"

Once Lilina said that, everyone immediately joined in baffled confusion. I pondered for a while before realizing, patting this girl’s head: "Nonsense! Several years ago, the New Empire’s entire assets barely amounted to a patrol team!"

The Empire’s rapid growth over these years almost made me forget about our initially strained national power, and truth be told, I currently feel a bit too early for attacking the Abyss Zone. If it weren’t for Fallen Apostles impulsively executing an all-out assault on the Divine Race, pushing the situation to boiling point, I’d actually prefer waiting a couple more years.

Now there’s no choice—once the arrow is on the bowstring it must be released. Let’s verify whether the capital accumulated by the New Empire over the years is sufficient for conducting a magnificent campaign! (To be continued. If you enjoyed this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations, monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)