(Another month has passed. At the start of the month, asking for votes, subscriptions, clicks, recomndations, favorites, and rewards shouldn’t be a problem, right? I didn’t dare to ask yesterday because I was afraid you wouldn’t believe ... Alright, I admit, I forgot to check the calendar yesterday.)
We’ve already explained the situation of our big group, now Eva and Lei are the only two on Azure Star who know these secrets. Just by looking at the expressions of the two, it’s clear these inside stories aren’t so easy to accept. Therefore, 123 let the grandfather and granddaughter pair go off to sort out their thoughts for a bit, and anwhile, wait and see when that poor Pope can arrive—a mont ago Eva made another call, and it turns out the Pope is still stuck in traffic on the four ring road like a grandson.
"Why does this temple look like a battlefield just finished?" Our group gathered to chat idly, and Yelsen’s attention naturally first focused on his temple. He imdiately noticed the ssy state inside, the Bible still airing on the pulpit, and the not-so-small hole over the temple’s door. He asked in bewildernt.
I casually nudged Dingdang, who was sprawled out asleep on my shoulder. The little thing was startled awake: "With this treasure leading the charge, you still expect your temple to be fine? Let tell you, the first thing she did after coming out was gulping down the Holy Water from the pulpit, then she wreaked havoc in the temple. The hole at the door is still alright, just wait till you see the War God statue on the steps, it’s been decapitated."
Yelsen’s expression froze there, and he forced a chuckle: "Hehe... that’s just the Captain’s style..."
"Speaking of which, why did so many of you co here?" I casually ruffled Pandora’s hair. The first thing this girl did was hang onto my arm, then she put on an indifferent face, clearly showing a "Who dares compete, you’ll all get cannon blasts" attitude. From start to finish, her biggest move was reaching into my pocket to grab a fistful of lollipops. "Pandora, save so for your sister."
"Well, after hearing that this is a world managed by Yelsen, everyone got curious and ca," my sister said with a gentle smile. "Then all the adults at ho ca out, not trusting to leave a few little ones behind, so they brought along Little Bubbles and Little Crow too, and eventually even a few more little ones ca, and thus you see everyone here."
"And also! After knowing Ah Jun is safe, we definitely had to co by to confirm!" Qianqian jumped in quickly, seemingly worried soone else might steal her spotlight.
I laughed as I patted Qianqian’s head. She always directly expresses her emotions so unabashedly, a talent others can’t imitate—just look at Miss Lin standing nearby. Her eyes are blinking like shutters, yet she stubbornly maintains an indifferent stance, but her whole deanor screams "Talk to , you idiot." I can’t help but recall when I spiritually connected with Lin Xue once, and she ntioned lying in a coffin for half an hour. I suspect she’s still simring with anger from last ti.
"Miss Xue, so how is it? After arriving in this world, can you see things more clearly?" Knowing Lin Xue can’t handle sweet talk in front of others, I opted for a topic everyone is concerned about, "Why can’t Sandora and I leave here?"
Lin Xue gave a sideways glance, then focused and sensed her surroundings: "It is indeed clearer than predicting across worlds. I can confirm that an induction-like source object is at play, located in this universe, sothing that shouldn’t be here. It is also related to you, hence causing the Fifth Fleet to end up lost here. However, I can’t discern its nature... it doesn’t seem to be substance nor... energy. I see a dim cloud mist with light swirling inside, with the backdrop seemingly being the cosmos."
Lin Xue’s prophecies often present such ambiguous scenarios, which we’ve grown accustod to, knowing to temporarily disregard the uncertain parts and focus on solvable issues. Upon hearing Lin Xue’s words, Sandora was the first to frown: "Are you saying the Fifth Fleet’s navigation mishap isn’t due to system failure, but Ah Jun being influenced by an external object caused the misroute?"
"It seems that way," Lin Xue nodded, "We all know Empire-made things rarely malfunction, and even if they do, it wouldn’t be so outrageous—and moreover, the system didn’t log any error reports. You’ve checked the navigation system, and aside from the coordinates being emptied, there was no error record. Taville speculated that the navigation instrunts functioned normally until the Fifth Fleet strayed into this universe. The abnormality was the environnt isolating the Fifth Fleet and surrounding void... Wooden’s Void Domain enveloped the entire fleet. Essentially, during the jump, the Fifth Fleet was encased within a unique ’Little Void’, whereby any anomaly in Wooden’s Void Domain would transport the Fleet elsewhere unknown. Furthermore, as information from outside the Void Domain is unobservable, your navigation system couldn’t detect the misaligned coordinates, as the observed coordinates were completely warped and modified by Wooden’s Void Domain."
"Brain in a Vat..." a creepy young girl’s voice echoed from behind us. Following the sound, I looked over—didn’t see anyone at first, but then Lilyina squeezed through the long legs between Lin and Bingdisi.
"Brain in a Vat?" my sister smirked, "You an the Fifth Fleet becoming like a brain in such a state during the jump? Indeed, all true void exchanges with the outside rely entirely on Ah Jun’s Void Domain ’translating’ them. Hence, the Fleet’s navigation instrunts have no clue, leaving Ah Jun to decide where the Fleet will jump. Everyone aboard remains totally unaware of the real situation outside..."
"But that isn’t the core issue; a Fleet turning into a ’Brain in a Vat’ within the Void Domain is unavoidable. We need to know why Ah Jun unconsciously brought the fleet to this world?"
Sandora crossed her arms, her gaze eventually landing on with a hint of concern.
"Ah Jun, you don’t find anything strange now, do you?"
"Strange?" I looked down at my body, "Nothing strange, I feel great—uh, really great."
However, ntioning this made recall having extraordinary experiences when rging with the Void, which Sandora also knew. Could chatting with Hila have affected the Fleet’s alignnt? Even so, if it really was due to chatting with Hila causing an unwitting drift in course, wouldn’t it make more sense to jump into the Huron Territory rather than the Star Domain Divine Race’s lands... Can’t figure it out, really can’t figure it out.
After pondering, I’ve mostly concluded this event is likely unrelated to the Fleet’s stray, as Lin Xue’s prophecy distinctly stated the Fleet’s navigation mishap was due to sothing existing in this universe affecting my discernnt, causing the Fleet to go off course—thereby ruling out chatting with Hila as the cause. It would be advantageous if the Demi Immortal’s foresight were clearer, allowing us to locate that thing directly. Yet, not all demands can be t, and given previous ignorance, at least Lin Xue pointed us to a fairly clear path, enough to appreciate.
Though Yelsen usually appears nonchalant, he now showed a hint of responsibility befitting his role as a world Managent God. He rubbed his nose thoughtfully, saying: "Alright, I’ll send Divine Servants to scan the Universe, see if there’s anything not included in the design template, that would likely be the ’Alien Object’ Lin Xue saw."
"Not easy to explain...and it might even alarm the Father God, given it involves Void Creatures," Bingdisi, with her bold hooligan nature, even displayed rare distress. "Even if we do find such an ’Induction Beacon’, we must explain why it appears within the Divine Race’s territory: Logically, things linked to Chen should appear in Empire territory with the Void Creatures’ information disturbance force always trying to bind related things closer rather than... in this far-off barren area."
"Hey hey hey, barren, alright, but I won’t admit this place is remote," Yelsen imdiately defended his ’children’, saying defensively, "Don’t you think this world is vibrant?"
I thought of that romantic alien enthusiast Old Man Qiao, thinking Yelsen wasn’t wrong, this world indeed is full of vitality...
Right then, a noise rose from outside the temple, Eva answered a call and inford everyone: "The Pope has arrived!"
Lei blinked: "Wasn’t he just stuck on the four ring road? Isn’t any traffic jam there always a two-hour ordeal at least?"
As soon as Lei finished speaking, a voice like a resonant bell ca from behind the temple door: "I jumped off the carriage and ran all the way here!"
Eva hurried to open the door, and then saw a small, elderly man with white hair and beard, dressed in a white robe with gold trimming, slip inside and wave his hand back - possibly dismissing accompanying attendants. The first thing this small, elderly man did was to kneel facing Yelsen in the direction of the temple entrance, then stand up and quickly move closer.
Many eyes fell on this small, elderly man: he is the Pope of the War God Church, the highest ruler on the Azure Star, but it is the first ti that Sandora and I have seen him. I originally thought the Azure Star’s council president and pope should be a vibrant middle-aged man, but just now realized the pope is actually a two hundred-year-old man, well beyond a human’s normal lifespan. Just like you see, he’s slightly small, with white hair and beard, his face old to the point of being unrecognizable, yet his body still stands straight without any hunching, and the gaze from those deep-set eye sockets remains youthful and powerful. This elderly man seems to completely ignore everyone around him after entering the temple, only greeting Yelsen: "God, your servant is late."
"You’re already two hundred years old," Yelsen, the guy who’s never been composed, unexpectedly smiled differently than usual this ti: I’m very familiar with this smile, it has appeared when Lin faced Half-Dragon People on the Mother Continent, when Bingdisi spoke about her followers’ stories on ordinary days, and even when Dingdang watched her newly created little animals running on the prairie, "Last ti I ca here, you were still a child. Over the years, each ti I speak with you, you grow a bit older, and now you’ve turned out this way."
"But still strong enough to run all the way to the temple from outside the four ring road." Monina laughed and said.
It was at this point that the Pope seed to focus on others around, greeting several gods he recognized, but his eyes ultimately fell on us strangers. Noticing this, Yelsen gently tapped the old man on the shoulder: "Mu, co with ; I have things to tell you. Also, I might stay in this world for so ti, and there are so arrangents for you."
So the Pope’s na is "Mu."
The naming convention in this world is quite interesting; I’ve just figured it out. They don’t have the concept of surnas; everyone uses short nas as codes, obeying rules, with single-word nas for males and double-word nas for females. Thus, Lei, Nu, Qiao, Mu, etc., are single-word nas, while Eva’s na is two words. Therefore, male duplication on the Azure Star is extrely common—after all, with only one-word nas, there’s not much combination possible, especially since many words can’t be used as nas: you must know, so terms would make you hesitate to introduce yourself.
Every world has its features; the frequent duplication of male nas on the Azure Star has its solutions—everyone is used to it, anyway...
In this world, students are never called by na in class, people are always addressed with workplace or kinship titles in public places, and news broadcasts always include portraits when ntioning nas... all right, this is just digression.
After a while, Yelsen had already briefed Mu on our situation; the old man energetically followed his War God coming up to us, with no hesitation, he perford a full-body worship, "With gods above..."
I didn’t expect this, but my reaction wasn’t slow; I quickly stepped forward to help him up before he finished speaking: "No need, no need, you should only worship your own god; I’m really not used to it... We count as part of the Foreign God system, no need for ceremony."
The old man didn’t drag things out either, nodded briskly, and then turned to Yelsen: "Lord, surely the gods have duties in this world? Previously, we mistook the two gods for aliens—a huge offense—and I’m afraid it delayed important matters..."
"No worries, you don’t need to worry about these; I have arrangents," Yelsen waved his hand, "And they, well, you needn’t be nervous; they certainly approached you willingly because they found it interesting."
"Ah, I see, the actions of gods are unfathomable, with their own purpose," Mu nodded knowingly, "So what should I do now? Believers are waiting outside to et you; should we disperse them first?"
Yelsen thought for a mont, suddenly showed Monina a miserable expression: "Seems unavoidable... Don’t disperse the believers; it’s not appropriate. I’ll go out on a round with Monina. As for you..."
While saying this, Yelsen looked at others. Our whole group didn’t plan on joining the excitent initially, so we collectively backed up, but the remaining three in the Divine Clan Tiaozi Five and Dingdang also took several steps back neatly, leaving Yelsen and Monina isolated among them.
"Hey, teammates can’t let down each other like this, right?" Yelsen said with a bitter face, "Are you guys faithful to your own divine statue over there?"
Bingdisi shrugged indifferently: "That’s your problem; my divine statue isn’t here."
Lin turned away to avoid direct eye contact with Yelsen: "You already said it, you and Monina can appear alone; I won’t join in the fun."
Kenser thought for a mont, giving a la excuse: "Recently, my back aches, my back aches."
Yelsen: "... You guys are ruthless. Sis, let’s go out and let people see us!"
Then I watched as the siblings tidied their outfits, applied a whole set of buffs, making themselves shine brilliantly like stage laser lights: it seed they were ready for a parade.
The rest of us gathered to discuss for a while, deciding to follow and watch the excitent.
Of course, disguise was necessary, as according to prior discussions, to avoid impacting too many ordinary people’s lives and more importantly save trouble, only Yelsen and Monina would be publicly revealed to common believers (the ssage of divine descent had been sent out, and soone had to appear), so Lin, Kenser, and Dingdang naturally shouldn’t openly go out—perhaps Dingdang could because people’s impression of the Life Goddess in this world is a mosquito; even if Dingdang flew out, others probably wouldn’t recognize her—and Sandora and I also needed to act low-key, as extraterrestrial visitors, our portraits might’ve already been broadcast repeatedly on this world’s news network.
Therefore, our large group borrowed a dozen sets of church robes from Lei, applied another layer of illusions to our faces, transford ourselves into sothing straight out of Assassin’s Creed, full of curious and mischief-filled thoughts, followed outside the chapel; several small ones followed behind, each wearing ultra-small divine robes, clothes once worn by Eva, segnted into age groups nicely fitting the little girls at ho. I guess these few lolis are probably the most eye-catching among us, a bunch who clearly don’t resemble church priests (should they be called nuns?), noisy, trailing at the back of the god-sending convoy, shouting and playing, making more noise than the Divine City itself...(To be continued. If you like this work, welco to visit Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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