I proposed to see what the deity worshipped by the natives of Azure Star looks like — or it would be even better to visit their church. Hearing the "alien visitor" make such a request, all the experts, scholars, leaders, and reception personnel present seed very pleased — well, it was pretty much expected. Since this world has reached such a high level of technological developnt and still maintains religious supremacy, and even "scientists" (or perhaps here they should be called magicologists?) conduct space ship research under the guidance of deities, I have reason to believe that these natives will be delighted to introduce their deity to "alien visitors."
Would they even consider proselytizing and Sandora? I pondered this intriguing speculation and exchanged a knowing smile with Sandora, as if Her Majesty the Queen had co to the sa conclusion.
"We are very happy that your side is so interested in our deity, and we are also pleased to let more races know the greatness of the deity," an elderly man sitting slightly behind spoke animatedly, unable to contain himself, "When you arrived, we had already held a blessing, but the deity has not yet responded. I believe the deity is also pleased to know their children have taken this crucial step on the journey of civilization evolution... Oh, you wish to see our deity, of course, but it might take a while. I have already notified the temple, but a lengthy ceremony is not yet finished; we hope our guests can wait a bit."
"This is one of the most esteed War God Priests on our planet, Lei," soone imdiately introduced the animated elderly man to and Sandora, "He is dedicated to spreading the teachings of the deity and is also a great supporter of various space exploration projects..."
"Oh, oh, hello." I nodded to the High Priest called "Lei" in greeting. After a round of exchanges just now, I have gained a slight understanding of this world’s societal structure. As it appears on the surface, Azure Star is an enlightened civilization developed through magic, or mysticism technology, with magical power being applied in every aspect. On this planet, mages and arcane scholars are probably equivalent to engineers and scientists on Earth, enjoying high honor. anwhile, the entire world has a single religion with no na; people directly refer to it as the "Church," worshipping the War God. This deity has supre authority, and people of all ages across the world firmly believe in the existence of the War God, affirming that the War God protected the whole world, granting them today’s peaceful life. Surprisingly, the religion not only does not hinder technological developnt but quite the contrary: on Azure Star, the Church is the loyal maintainer and promoter of various technologies. They claim the deity bestowed orders allowing mortals to freely use their creativity and encouraging them to pursue worldly truths. Most cutting-edge technologies in this world are actually pushed by the Church, with manpower, money, and effort. Even the sowhat oddly romantic alien enthusiast, Elder Qiao, is himself a second-level priest — alright, I hadn’t noticed that last part before.
Azure Star once experienced an "Age of Ignorance" full of endless conflicts and wars, but when one force received the War God’s revelation and turned the whole world in a year, the planet is now under the leadership of a unified governnt. Those leading all of humanity on Azure Star form a group called the "Council," which consists of four parts: council mbers elected by civilians; representatives from science, agriculture, industry, and comrce; senior clergy from the Church; and rotations of traditional parties. These four parts have completely equal voting rights, and the Council’s Supre Speaker is also the highest Church leader: the War God Pope. This is a relatively common and relatively stable governntal structure; many worlds have a similar "theoretical republic" governnt. Though having the Supre Speaker of the Council be the Pope may seem like the most unfair part, it has the full support of the global populace: because they firmly believe that the Pope, who directly communicates with the War God, absolutely does not lie or show favoritism, and no matter the decision, when the Pope makes a determination as Speaker, they will not intentionally lean towards the Church’s council mbers.
"Yes, the Pope is the only person among humans who cannot lie or be biased," said the middle-aged man responsible for explaining the local customs to us, his face showing an expression of reverence. "When announcing Council decisions, he must hold the War God Scepter; if he violates the deities’ commandnts, he’ll be struck by divine punishnt on the spot. And this is precisely the ’last line of defense’ ensuring Azure Star’s political stability."
The counterpart did not ntion whether there was really an unfortunate Pope struck by lightning in public, but judging by the firm expressions on everyone’s faces at the scene, it seems that the so-called divine punishnt is indeed real. At this mont, Sandora and I couldn’t help but exchange glances, seeing the sa thing in each other’s eyes:
Could the deity worshipped by this world... be the True God of the Star Domain?
"We’ve already spent quite so ti here now; perhaps it’s ti we visited your city?" After initially building a basic level of trust and seeing that the other party no longer seed to be guarding against us like at the beginning, I finally couldn’t help but speak out. This place is a remote landing site, and according to our scan, it’s over a hundred kiloters away from the nearest city. Clearly, such arrangents were made because the authorities wanted to temporarily isolate the "aliens" in a relatively safe area to gain buffer ti to study whether the alien visitors were safe. Sandora and I completely understand these actions, but if the delay is too long, it can get sowhat weariso — I’m already considering that if the other side drags on too long, Sandora and I might as well teleport away, change into local attire, and explore on our own...
After all, there’s not much left to play out in the alien landing scene; there’s no slicing research in the second half, nor are there spies battling little green n — besides, Sandora and I are still hoping to buy a bunch of little trinkets locally to take ho and share with the girls back ho.
"Uh..." A council representative opened their mouth and hesitated slightly, and just then, two staff mbers walked in through the door (they probably had been communicating with so higher-level leaders, reporting the progress of our situation here in real-ti). After seeing these two people, the council representative nodded reassuringly, "Of course, the following reception activities are already prepared; we can depart now..."
"Don’t host an event," I said, frowning. "I told you, we ca down just to wander around and take a look. You’re making it too complicated. Be careful, or in the future, you’ll really have no way to integrate into interstellar civilization. Rule number six of alien civilization interaction: The more formalities, the more trouble. Before both parties fully understand each other’s cultural forms, any formalities and rules that are unrelated to direct communication can cause major misunderstandings."
The group of experts and scholars were montarily stunned, then they all quickly took out their notebooks to jot it down. Elder Qiao even looked up seriously and asked, "Then could you tell us what the first five rules are? This knowledge is crucial for our young civilization!"
: "..."
Damn it, I just made up the sixth rule on the spot. Where am I supposed to find the first five rules for you?
Sandora, holding back laughter, poked my waist hard from behind, yet her face still wore a cold and imposing expression towards the sowhat flustered political figures—that is, those apart from the experts and scholars—nodding her chin slightly: "We hope you’ll prepare a low-key guide. We’re not interested in local military, technology, politics, or any other sensitive factors. You can provide assistance according to the standards of receiving a tourist group. If you understand, then proceed accordingly. As for the so-called welco events and receptions, and eting with your politicians... well, we don’t have ti for now, but if they want to accompany us shopping, I don’t mind."
The people present were even more bewildered, but in the end, the respected War God Priest was relatively decisive. He patted the shoulder of soone beside him: "Do as she says, in the current situation, we’re like children who know nothing."
The anticipated reception team and escorting troops were replaced with an inconspicuous floating car, which seed to be a common mode of transportation in this world. Under Sandora’s direct demand and firm attitude, only a few people accompanied us, including the excited like a child Elder Qiao—who was still studying whether I had dandruff. The rest of the big shots had to stay in the wilderness due to the sudden change in plans, waving goodbye to us amidst exhaust fus and waiting for the next flight in twenty minutes...
"I guess there will definitely be tons of people trailing us along the way, all thinking they haven’t been discovered by us," the inside of the floating car was very spacious, but Sandora and I still squeezed into one seat, and she leaned comfortably against my shoulder, face bearing an intrigued expression, communicating with through spiritual connection her little mischievous delight, "What do you think would happen if we suddenly disappeared via space transmission right now?"
I glanced at her: "Perhaps we should consider a group of alien conspiracy theorists and staunch human protectionists charging this floating car, shouting to take back the planet from aliens. The two groups fight fiercely, eventually leading to a major misunderstanding between the Fifth Fleet and the Azure Star, resulting in a grand battle, leaving a legend on a scorched world about the coming of the Great Demon King..."
At this point, I felt that Sandora and I might both be possessed by Qianqian.
Just then, I noticed the scenery outside had changed. After passing through a road entrance resembling a toll booth but without any people visible, the buildings outside the floating car beca denser, taller, more beautiful, and neater, indicating we had entered the city area. A city built by a highly advanced (by Earthling standards) magic civilization. However, possibly because of seeing so many bizarre and unique Otherworlds, the distinctive buildings and city style here didn’t impress much. If anything, the city’s most notable feature was that most buildings were nearly cylindrical—Azure Star’s native inhabitants seed quite fond of "circles" and their related geotries. Their personal flying devices were discs, large spaceships were ellipsoids, and buildings were cylinders or hemispheres. It was a planet filled with smooth parabolas, and the symtry of the buildings was designed in circular arrays. Along the exceptionally wide main streets—compared to Earth—there were no streetlights, or public lighting equipnt anywhere, for that matter. It’s unknown how they solve the problem of urban nightti illumination. Another puzzling aspect is that the city clearly appears large in scale, yet we didn’t see many pedestrians along the way, leaving the streets quite deserted—leading to suspect that the authorities might have already evacuated all the citizens.
Thinking of that, I looked up at the sky: a large part of the roof of this oval-shaped floating car was transparent.
A clear, cloudless do, revealing the gray-white shadows covering almost the entire sky, shadowy and uncountable, with so moving swiftly. That was the Fifth Fleet in orbit. Due to its position, the Fifth Fleet blocked part of the sunlight, but because the fleet had been deployed, this aggregation that was more than ten tis larger than Azure Star hadn’t plunged this side of the planet into complete darkness, leaving only vast shadows in the sky. These ships appeared to be a part closest to the planet, with another part of the fleet having already moved beyond the range of being observed by the naked eye from the surface.
"Not long ago, the entire daylight hemisphere of the planet was plunged into a twilight-like scene, causing great panic, and then we learned that a fleet had appeared in outer space," Elder Qiao noticed my gaze and followed it to the sky, "So people think invaders have co, but I despise those people’s imagination — invading a planet as small as a pebble with a fleet of this scale? It’s as ridiculous as sending an army of a hundred thousand to attack a bachelor breaking fast on a fasting day. I did the calculation, and lting the entire Azure Star into liquid wouldn’t be enough to bathe that fleet, so I figured you guys weren’t an invading army and led my people to check the situation. Hey, just as I thought, you guys are pretty easygoing. I didn’t expect you to readily agree to move the spaceship out of the Constant Star System — I initially thought the negotiations would be tough."
So, before setting off, did you also bring the extraterrestrial communication manual you’ve been researching?
"There are a lot of people gathered in front!" Sandora suddenly said softly, pointing outside the car window, interrupting my wandering thoughts. Only then did I notice that after passing through an unusually deserted block, we finally encountered the bustling side of the city — overly bustling!
Groups of ordinary citizens gathered on the wide streets and the roadside squares, each wearing bizarre clothing and holding huge and conspicuous placards. It took a while to open the window of the floating car, and imdiately a wave of sound almost choked out; the noise outside was tumultuous like a storm. There were many high platforms by the roadside — perhaps temporarily built — and most had one or a group of seemingly persuasive characters standing atop them. The nearest platform to us had an old man in a mage robe, with white hair and a beard, standing there; this old mage, more Gandalf-like than Gandalf, was waving his magic wand high and wrapped in lightning as he loudly proclaid, "In the na of magic! Aliens exist!"
Then the mages below, seemingly rushed out from Dalaran, echoed with raised arms, "Citizens have the right to know the truth! Communication with the aliens must be fully disclosed!"
On another distant platform stood a group of sowhat younger mages, also using arcane lightning to capture the public’s attention, holding in their hands peculiar little green models, each louder than the last, "Communication with the aliens must be cautious! And it’s a matter for all humanity! We call for transparency in this process!"
The citizens below had even more diverse slogans:
"We should report to the War God imdiately! We need divine guidance to act now!"
"This is the test from God, to verify if human civilization can leave the cradle of the star planet! We must independently solve everything to satisfy God!"
"I was abducted by aliens ten years ago, and many who shared the sa fate have gathered around ! For years, we haven’t been taken seriously; now we demand a way to publicly share our experiences, and welco more peers with the sa destiny to join us, our contact is..."
"The Astrology dium Organization calls here! All those with special abilities who can communicate directly with aliens via radio waves should unite; we should be the key bridge for communication with aliens — trust us, we understand their language!! @#￥%......%#￥@#%#￥%...￥!"
I quickly nudged Elder Qiao: "Didn’t that sound just like your research on that alien language?"
Elder Qiao flushed with embarrassnt: "I’ve been actively promoting my research, and it seems there’s finally a civilian version..."
I looked up at the sky speechless; this eccentric old man really causes a lot of trouble...
The scene outside truly disturbed my inner peace, leaving with a rant stuck in my throat. You know, seeing such a citizen gathering in an Arican sci-fi movie would probably be fine, but now outside stood an elderly Gandalf in a mage robe shouting, "Aliens exist," and once again, I deeply realized the powerful trend where mysticism and technology are converging to a unified path. Inevitably, I recalled the Blood Elf biker gang revving through the streets on heavy motorcycles in Shadow City, and the Tauren Machine Gunners and the Dark City Death tal Band...
Thinking of Shadow City, I finally couldn’t help but cover my head: What kind of world have I created...
Elder Qiao and the War God Priest nad "Lei" awkwardly apologized to Sandora and , feeling it quite embarrassing for aliens to witness the Azure Star’s citizens behaving so inappropriately. It seed Elder Lei was prepared to order an evacuation of the citizens here, but Sandora and I quickly expressed our indifference and understanding of this matter — in many cases, this is a normal phenonon, there’s no need to make a fuss, and Sandora and I wouldn’t have any complaints.
After hearing my explanation, Elder Qiao sank into deep thought: "It seems the place called Hollywood indeed frequently contacts aliens, but after so many encounters, do they still put the president in a bunker every ti now?"
: "Haha... Haha haha..."
At this mont, our floating car turned a corner, and a large, broad, quiet clearing suddenly appeared in front of us.
Despite being only a few dozen ters from the bustling citizen eting, lively as a battle, there was strangely not a single idler daring to make loud noises here. The entire area was shrouded in a peaceful and harmonious atmosphere, with sounds seemingly filtered out, leaving only a standard environntal noise of forty decibels — the two areas were worlds apart, as if an invisible wall separated them.
Because at the center of this clearing stood a statue; to the locals, it’s a sacred statue that they would rather die than offend: their supre War God Statue stood right here.
I leaned out the window, gazing at the ten-ter-high, lifelike stone statue, thinking for a long ti, and only one sentence could describe the turmoil in my heart at that mont:
You damn123!
(Turns out quite a few people guessed it right... When talking about the War God, everyone imdiately thought of who it is.) (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
Reviews
All reviews (0)