Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1502: Sandora’s "Condition

"There’s one more person who knows no less than Ocam," Sandora looked into my eyes, "Abyss Xyrin herself!"

I thought for a moment, then earnestly asked her, "Are you suggesting we go have a heart-to-heart with Abyss Xyrin and see if we can touch her heart?"

Sandora rolled her eyes at me for two rounds before snorting, "Now’s not the time for jokes; I’m serious. Based on recent encounters with Abyss Xyrin, I’ve discovered she’s not incapable of dialogue. Ah Jun, you should remember Abyss Xyrin’s characteristics: she doesn’t have personal preferences and doesn’t possess a concept of enemy and ally towards any faction. Her actions are entirely determined by logical needs and calculated conclusions. This means, in her eyes, the barrier between the New Empire and her isn’t one of factional opposition but merely ’whether there’s a need for communication currently’. This kind of barrier is much easier to resolve than factional opposition, isn’t it? At least the odds of dialogue are not zero. Abyss Xyrin should retain all her memories; based on her life form, she should know everything that happened during the Old Empire. Look, she even knows about the Void Cataclysm – the things stored in her memory bank are likely beyond anyone’s imagination."

"Indeed," I agreed, nodding my head, "The problems we’ve been struggling with all this time might have a whole set of answers with Abyss Xyrin. But how do you propose we approach her and get her to share these matters with us? She’s not exactly easy to talk to, and most importantly, the New Empire is still her enemy, even if there’s a temporary truce. She has no reason to communicate with the New Empire."

"This will have to be studied slowly in the future," Sandora sighed, then glanced around at the old antique equipment here, "First, let’s ship this spaceship back and dismantle it for inspection from top to bottom. This is the second Abyss Xyrin-crafted item we’ve found, apart from the previous Ark. Checking both specimens surely will reveal some of Abyss Xyrin’s secrets."

For now, it seems we can only take it one step at a time, mainly because the initiative is not in our hands.

Transporting this ship back to Shadow City is quite a task. Although directly pocketing it with Personal Space for easy transport is convenient, this would create a massive cavity with a diameter of kilometers underground, and with the vacuum’s negative pressure, it might instantly transform the area from a mountainous region to a basin. Therefore, safely moving this ship requires summoning a few experts: I suddenly regret sending that female hooligan back since her Holy Light seems perfect for safeguarding an area’s safety...

We called Boundless Love’s Outer World special envoys, explained the situation here, and then left the spaceship. As soon as we exited the spaceship’s airlock, we spotted Ding Ling and Lin Feng waiting on the deck. It seems they hadn’t noticed our exit yet, because when I approached, they were still squatting on the armor strip researching. Truly human elite individuals, they never forget to contribute to the scientific endeavor amidst their busy schedule. Lin Feng said something that moved me greatly at the time; he was fiddling with a ridge line on the armor strip, "Do you think Brother Chen will notice if we remove a piece?"

Ding Ling immediately rebuked Lin Feng for this imperial ideology undermining behavior, "We don’t have tools. This ship is so solid... Should I go borrow something from Lin Xue? But I fear that girl might get suspicious; she’d expose us with just a ’glance’."

I listened from the side, feeling touched as if by something: truly, growing up alongside Lin Xue, could there be any good people within a hundred meters of that troublemaker Missy?

"If you two aren’t afraid of waking the ship’s guard system, go ahead and dismantle it," I reached out and patted their shoulders, "Just as a heads-up, the spaceship’s central mainframe is awake, and thirty meters behind you is the guard drone nest..."

Lin Feng and Ding Ling immediately had a shivery moment, then mysteriously maintained calm expressions as they stood up, with Lin Feng greeting me as if nothing happened, "Brother Chen, finished with work?"

"Judging by your thick skin, you and your sister are undoubtedly blood relatives," I playfully punched his chest, "We must go back first. Boundless Love people will handle the aftermath and recover the spaceship. By the way, gather everyone who’s seen this spaceship; we need to erase not just a short span of time at noon. We must blur the things they discovered here."

For those involved, psychological suggestions are used to permanently blur their short-term memories; this is Boundless Love’s most common aftermath handling method, safe, harmless, swift, and efficient – you could think of it as an upgraded version of the black-clothed people’s pen, but it’s evidently much simpler for Sandora to operate.

We finally left the ancient underground and returned to the surface rock beach when it was already nearing dusk outside. Ding Ling had made all arrangements in advance; everyone who’d seen the spaceship was waiting outside. They still didn’t know why their superior inexplicably gathered them all together, so many had curious expressions on their faces. I took this chance to observe Ding Ling’s "employees" and found members ranging from ninety-nine years old to those just learning to walk, a true variety show, including two backpack-wearing high school students - and there really are school uniform-wearing world saviors?

"These two are newly discovered seeds," Ding Ling noticed my gaze and explained beside me, "One has a special memory ability, and the other can visually observe electromagnetic waves and the like. They’re undergoing focused training. Their training has already started quite late; Lin Xue, Lin Feng, and I started taking assignments since middle school."

I recalled my life before high school and realized the most daring thing I did was race against Little Fatty and the orchard guard dog when stealing fruit in the orchard, and I beat Little Fatty – but neither of us outran the dog...

Reflecting on my dull student years, I could only let out a long sigh.

"Is everyone here?" Sandora glanced at the small group before her, then turned to Lin Feng to confirm. The latter was about to nod when he suddenly recalled something, sprinted towards the two high school students, grabbed their hands, and inquired with concern, "Are you guys about to take the college entrance exam?"

The two high school students nodded inexplicably, "Uh, yes. What’s up?"

"Are you prepared for revision?"

The two high school students nodded again, "Yeah, still okay."

Only then did Lin Feng return satisfied and nodded to Sandora, "Yup, everyone’s here."

I: "...What the heck, this mischievous brat..."

Just as I was halfway through speaking, Sandora had already acted without hesitation. She snapped her fingers lightly and the small group before us showed signs of confusion, all within a brief moment. As everyone returned to normal, Lin Feng stepped up with a smile to inspect the effect, grabbing the two high school students’ hands again, "You are about to take the college entrance exam, right..."

I was stunned and then turned to Ding Ling with wide eyes, "How come he hasn’t been beaten to death yet?"

"Don’t mind him; he’s got a psychological shadow and is repaying society," Ding Ling shrugged indifferently, "When he took the college entrance exam back then, it happened to coincide with a major event; he was delayed quite a bit, just missed by a point..."

I instantly felt especially sympathetic, "Missed by a point to be accepted into Beijing University, or missed a point to get into Tsinghua?"

"Missed a point to just pass one subject," Ding Ling waved her hand, "He and his sister are extremes. Little Xue has always been a top student, while he’s only ever gotten full marks in PE or duty points."

That guy isn’t retaliating against society for a fart! This academic slacker is at the point of innate developmental issues and irreparable postnatal conditions!

"Actually, there’s not much impact," Ding Ling glanced at the two high school members, her tone faintly tinged with a sense of reminiscence, "Once you’re in this organization, you’re essentially cut off from normal life. They’ll have specially arranged schools, jobs, and identities – what looks like normal life is actually meticulously crafted to cover up. If it’s core members, they might even treat the organization as home, living isolated lives. It has to be this way, or else, if you’re like an ordinary person attending school, what would you do if you suddenly hear about aliens in Siberia? Raise your hand and report to the teacher saying you have to go save the world?"

I understand the example Ding Ling used and further appreciate how "special individuals" like them live, but I still find it unsettling when she uses aliens as an example... Earthlings around me have already become rare species!

"Speaking of which, your life is even more bizarre than ours, why am I even talking about this," Ding Ling suddenly thought of something and couldn’t help but laugh self-deprecatingly, "constantly seeing Lin Xue shouting ’important event, important event’ and rushing to you, coming back every day looking all serious like she’s just saved the world. Your daily life must be way more thrilling than ours, right?"

I thought for a while: "Technically, she’s bluffing—it’s not like we’re fighting a war every day. Most of the time, she just comes over to my house for free meals and snatches the TV from the naughty kids at home."

Ding Ling: "..."

I summoned my trusty steed, Seventy Billion, and waved to Ding Ling, who was still speechless: "Would you like me to give you a ride home too? This place is Sichuan..."

"You just reminded me!" Ding Ling suddenly realized, looking at the sky, she immediately appeared anxious, "Let’s hurry, I nearly forgot about the speed of your car—I was even prepared to spend the night out here. It looks like I might actually make it home to watch TV today. Oh, right, I also need to take XO home, my silly dog is still staying at your place."

When I heard that, I instantly remembered the slightly neurotic fox girl at home, and broke into a cold sweat: "Let’s hurry up, or the fox might have already enlightened your dog!"

Without further ado, Seventy Billion’s speed was unquestionable; within the small range of Earth, it was almost as fast as teleporting. We rushed home at nearly light-speed; when the car parked in the yard, it felt like it all happened in the blink of an eye. Leading a group, I opened the door and got out of the car, seeing everything as usual at home. Little Crow was leading a bunch of Split Lifeforms crawling on the lawn, looking for grass seeds. Little Baobao was playing with water next to the fountain, judging by her clothes, she must have just finished swimming—so Anwina was hurrying over with a towel not far away. Qianqian was the first to dash out from the house; her first action was to leap towards me like a parabola and cling to me like an octopus, her face beaming with excitement: "Ah Jun, Ah Jun! Did you bring me a gift?"

I pulled this lively girl, who was not much more sedate than a naughty kid, off me: "I wasn’t out for leisure, where would I get a gift? We went to dig graves, okay."

"Oh right," Qianqian then remembered the purpose of our trip, immediately becoming happy again, "So what did you dig up?"

"Well, the amount of information was quite large," I affectionately pinched Qianqian’s nose, "Where’s Ding Ling’s dog?"

"Inside, learning life lessons from the fox." Qianqian cheerfully replied.

Ding Ling and I quickly ran into the living room and immediately saw the two canine creatures: the fox and XO were sitting cross-legged on the carpet in the living room, glaring at each other seemingly in a test of endurance. However, that unfortunate dog’s ears were already drooping, its fur appeared to have lost its shine, clearly showing a dispirited state and worldview collapse look. The Fox Fairy Lord, on the other hand, looked completely interested, her ears standing erect with spirit, and that huge tail wagging rhythmically behind her back: I knew this was a sign that she was in good spirits.

"Very well, now you understand the meaning of ’stillness’," The Fox Fairy Lord approvingly patted XO’s head, "Next, I’ll teach you a foreign language, don’t ask what it has to do with your cultivation, just learn it as I do. Watch my mouth shape: Meow—"

I walked over and grabbed the fox girl’s ear: "Don’t you have any dignity left as the Fox Fairy?"

The Fox Fairy Lord demonstrated reaction speed befitting her thousand-year cultivation at this moment: she twisted her head and bit my arm, refusing to let go. Ding Ling hurriedly ran toward her pet dog; XO appeared a bit disoriented, even not reacting for a while upon seeing its owner, finally howling only when held in Ding Ling’s arms, a sound so heart-wrenching it could bring tears to anyone’s eyes. In my heart, three words kept scrolling: What a disaster...

After Ding Ling and Lin Feng left with a dog nearly afflicted with schizophrenia, I looked down at the fox-eared girl still clinging to my arm: "How long do you plan on hanging there?"

The Fox Fairy Lord continued to bite my arm hard, rolling her eyes upward, if it wasn’t for her biting my arm, I might have been charmed by her. Seeing she had no intention of letting go anytime soon, I could only fumble out some beef jerky from my Personal Space. This trick always worked: the silly fox immediately transformed into a streak of yellow light, disappearing along with the beef jerky right before my eyes.

"I think...we better find something for her to do," Anwina floated out from somewhere, holding Little Baobao with water droplets on her hair, "The fox is purely bored; she wasn’t this neurotic before. Wasn’t she quite steady initially?"

"Anyone who lives like that for three years, doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and basking in the sun, would become like this," I nodded deeply, agreeing, "But doesn’t she usually have things to do? Let her help you with the kiddies, Xiao Xue said the fox would be our number one nanny in the future, even more professional than Jier Jiamishi."

Anwina shrugged: "She causes more trouble than the kids."

As soon as the ghost maid finished speaking, the fox girl thundered down from upstairs, stuffing a golden fluffy roll into my hand: "By the way, Family Head, here’s a new scarf, don’t use it to wipe your shoes."

Leaving that sentence, the fox again turned into a streak of yellow light, disappearing from sight. I looked down at the fox fur scarf in my hand, feeling a bit dazed, only reacting after a moment to remember it’s her tail shedding season: the Fox Fairy Lord has a habit of carefully collecting shed fur each time, either weaving scarves or gloves (depending on the change in weather), but these things always end up with me. From this point, it seems that though heartless, she really knows who is close—usually, I’m the one who takes care of her the most at home.

"Never mind, let her continue being carefree," I put the scarf away with a cheerful smile on my face, "Being able to live cheerfully like this isn’t easy either."

"A scarf won you over?" Sandora’s voice suddenly came, I turned to see her with a faint smile standing beside me, "Come with me, I have something to show you."

Curiously, I followed Sandora to the second-floor balcony, wondering what incredible thing could warrant the Queen to act so mysteriously. Upon reaching the balcony, Sandora revealed her claws without saying a word—rather, she revealed her Abyss Form.

The dark and restless Abyssal Intense Flames burned on half of her body, and every slight tremor of her enormous claws would leave tiny spatial fissures in the air, as if the space was breaking apart. Sandora raised her mutated arm, lightly tracing in the air, her voice carrying a resonance-like tremor: "Speaking of which, apart from being useful in a fight, this claw is really inconvenient; even scratching an itch feels too long, trying to clench a fist doesn’t work due to disproportion."

Me: "You didn’t call me over to have me trim your nails, did you? Let me say upfront, my ability does work on the Abyss, but your claws don’t necessarily need a trim... "

Sandora shot me a glance: "Do I look like someone so dull? I’ve found something—don’t know if you’ve noticed, your latent ’deactivation’ effect on the Abyss has never worked on me."

My somewhat distracted mind suddenly pulled back into focus: "What do you mean?"

"Now in the Empire, there have been lots of Abyss Infected people purified by you," Sandora looked into my eyes, "besides the Abyss Independent Group, our family also has Visca and Bingdisi, everyone purified by you undergoes significant changes, the most noticeable one being a strong reduction in their Abyss reaction, I’ve analyzed all the cases recently, finding whether active or passive, once they go through reverse transformation, the Abyss reaction reduces significantly—except for me."

Sandora spoke slowly and deliberately: "It’s been five years, and the intensity of the Abyss within me is exactly the same as when you and I first met!" (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast recommendation votes, monthly votes. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)