The Xiao Xue accompanying now isn’t a real existence. Her current state should be rely an information composite—self-consistent, complete, and precisely articulated information assembled according to certain principles, forming a "Xiao Xue" that appears indistinguishable from reality, yet she doesn’t actually exist in this ti and space. The information needed to construct her is not owned by the phantom herself; rather, it is borrowed from the current space-ti, much like buying a car with a loan. When the deadline cos, everything must be repaid, and the repaynt deadline for this phantom Xiao Xue is the mont the Void catastrophe occurs. Repaynt here ans her phantom body decomposing back into the original borrowed information elents.
However, the decomposition of the phantom body will leave remnants. These remnants are the self-generated information belonging to her, naly her entire mory. These mories are not borrowed but are indeed the wealth belonging to this phantom body—one could even say that they are the only real possession of Xiao Xue in the current ti and space.
After the Void catastrophe occurs, all mories and personalities carried by the phantom body will not disappear. Instead, they will progress with the tiline and gradually rge with her original body. According to the calculations of two naughty kids (Xiao Xue and Xiao Qian), this rging will accompany Xiao Xue throughout her childhood and will be completely finished by the ti she turns seventeen. The seventeen-year-old Xiao Xue will beco an ultimate•real•super•naughty kid, possessing a unique form of mory: inverted mory. And the specific mont when these mories crystalize is the instant when she projects her phantom self over here.
However, this is just the speculation of the naughty kids; even Xiao Xue and Xiao Qian, executing this reckless plan, have no idea of the specific future scenario. Xiao Xue used a famous saying as the footnote of her plan: It’s theoretically like this.
"I say, you two really have guts from heaven," After struggling to cram these inherently tangled concepts into my brain and going over them several tis, I couldn’t help but jab Xiao Xue’s forehead, "You’re not worried you’ll ss yourself up by fiddling with the tiline? And if these abnormal mories start appearing from age three, won’t there be so problem? A three-year-old kid’s ntal fortitude might be unable to handle it..."
Xiao Xue shot a resentful glare: "At age four, I already listened to Sister Lilina tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood and over forty flower thieves. Which do you think has a bigger impact on one’s worldview?"
I turned my head and saw Lilina quietly sneaking off the chair next to , clearly intending to make her escape. Without hesitation, I grabbed her by the back of her collar, lifting her into the air and shaking her wildly: "To a four-year-old girl, there’s any number of stories to tell! Why not tell her about Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei forming alliances in Peach Garden and escorting Tang Seng to the Vatican for scriptures!"
"Boss... Boss, stop..." Lilina spun like a washing machine in mid-air, struggling to get a word in, "It’s breaking... gonna break... ah! My clothes are breaking!"
Then ca the ripping sound, and Lilina nearly slipped naked out of her clothes, with a scream of "I’ll never get married!" The fake Lolita Archbishop turned into a streak of green light and shot into the room. I stared dumbfounded at the half piece of clothing in my hand, thinking about this twist—how could the priest robe tear because of that re thirty-plus pounds of weight?!
This girl’s escape tactics are getting more clever! Next ti, she might even dare to streak!
Xiao Xue seed oblivious to what just happened and continued my earlier conversation: "It was Mother Qianqian who told the story about Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei forming alliances in Peach Garden and escorting Tang Seng to the Vatican for scriptures. She said Tang Seng even had a mount, nad Red Rabbit, which he snatched from Lu Bu when passing Hulaoguan on the way for scriptures..."
I: "..." Based on my understanding of Qianqian, the fact she didn’t say they snatched it from Emperor Yang of Sui already shows her historical knowledge has improved... Xiao Xue’s childhood is going to be quite tumultuous?
"No matter what, knowing you can safely return after the Void catastrophe eases my mind a lot." I ruffled Xiao Xue’s hair, feeling quite gratified despite being unclear about many details, this overarching thought still made happy. Xiao Xue mischievously looked over and said, "Dad, didn’t you mistakenly perceive my phantom and my original self as two separate individuals?"
I froze, suddenly noticing the possibility that my subconscious mind might have involuntarily thought that.
"Before all the information is fully integrated, there really is an illusion of separation. After all, once this phantom state dissipates, there’s a blank period until my true self reaches seventeen. But eventually, the phantom becos the true self, unifying the personality, and ultimately the mories too. The only difference, perhaps, is the order of those mories... Hmm, Dad is really soone who overthinks."
I’ve noticed that when talking to Xiao Xue, I often find myself at a loss for words: this girl is not only wildly imaginative but also knows her dad too well. I even think she understands better than I do myself. So, I couldn’t be bothered to argue with her, and simply lay down on the grass, stargazing with my daughter.
Speaking of these quiet nights lying in the yard looking at stars, how long has it been since I last experienced it?
"By the way, Dad, when you were at ho occasionally, you used to like taking stargazing. You’d tell stories about flying spaceships and roaming among the stars, telling the stars were basically all constant stars. Then the two of us would guess which stars had planets around them, and which stars had already perished..."
"Oh, and then what?"
"Then you’d take on a spaceship, and we’d fly off to see who guessed right. But you often cheated. It was only later I found out all the celestial bodies in the Shadow Space were artificial and could move around, and I never guessed right even once!"
: "..." So my future daily life is this high-energy?!
At noon the next day, the operation to lure... ahem, trap the lowa people officially began. The research center repaired that Cube Hibernation Chamber, and to ensure its cross-void signal could be received by the lowa, those scientists also equipped it with a stronger amplification module—of course, the high power output was strictly limited to prevent arousing enemy suspicion. The hibernation chamber was placed in the Colonial Giant Ship that initially brought it over, and it was dispatched to the Void "White Zone" beyond the Imperial Frontier, alongside several old escort ships from the Fifth Fleet.
Everything was simulated to the most realistic degree possible. Cocogina even recreated the two giant holes in the front of the Colonial Giant Ship. These giant holes that penetrated the entire outer protective layer were created by the main cannon of the lowa while escaping the Refuge. Cocogina recreated them to foster the illusion that the Colonial Giant Ship and its escort ships had been fleeing separately from the main fleet ever since. This way, any traces of the Empire or any third party that might trigger the lowa’s vigilance were erased.
These ships disguised as a lost fleet were likely one-way trips, at least for those escort ships. According to the intelligence gathered earlier, the lowa, true to their aggressive roots cultivated by the Old Empire, employed swift, accurate, and brutal tactics. Discovering this bait fleet, they would likely learn from their last escape, using heavy artillery to blow up all escort ships directly before starting a strong attack on the colonial giant ship to prevent the latter from jumping. Therefore, Cocogina was ready to abandon these ships and hadn’t left any personnel on board—the ships were piloted by temporarily installed automated systems, since we didn’t need them to fight. Simple autopilot functions should suffice.
Alongside this decoy fleet’s departure was the most elite Space Raider unit, personally led by the Asida-Asidora sisters. This small unit was hidden within the Colonial Giant Ship, staying with that Cube Hibernation Chamber. The lowa could hardly imagine that among the panic-driven, battered-looking Colonial Giant Ship was concealed a group of the world’s most indefensible raiders. Asida and Asidora’s task was straightforward: before the lowa’s ho base realized their presence, they must "fling" the enemy fleet into the Empire’s territory. For ordinary Space Raiders, this would be an impossible task because such fast and large-scale spatial switching demands very high skills, and the void environnt would pose enormous interference to this operation. Only Asida sisters, the Space Twins, dared to take on this mission. In fact, the whole operation to "fling" the lowa’s fleet will be completed by those poor sisters, while the other Space Raiders accompanying them mainly enhanced concealnt and protection.
We didn’t know when the lowa people would take the bait, or even if they would take the bait at all. Actually, this entire trap plan was built on "plausible premises," though actual evidence proved the lowa weren’t hiding in so other unrelated place, there wasn’t direct evidence that they were in the Void White Zone beyond the frontier either. As Sandora put it, our plan was like fishing based on luck, unsure whether we’ll catch a fish or Isana. But since it didn’t cost much, with those Fifth Fleet ships being basically decommissioned scrap, and Asida and Asidora, that pair of lily flowers... I won’t say much more; other than when executing a mission, they’re just mascots. Their existence value in Shadow City is not even above the City Managent Team. Instead of watching these poor sisters count rice to cook in their small shop every day, it’s better to find them sothing to do, at least let them have a few good als, or else when they hiccup, it’s all preservatives they taste.
And I rembered the promise I made last night to so little doll, to take her out to have fun today. The destination was the Heavenly Realm City. So, after the Asida sisters set off, and after finishing my work, I took the family, leading a jubilant group of naughty kids to this new world docked in the Shadow Space.
Of course, calling it an outing, probably only the joyous little ones at ho really saw it as a trip (perhaps including the carefree Qianqian?). I’ve already contracted workaholic syndro myself; anything within 200 ters related to work utterly throws off. I thought about it, and the entire Heavenly Realm City seemingly had nowhere that could capture my focus: the place is currently busy rebuilding!
Our teleportation point is set on the Angel Wall, the most magnificent structure in the entire Heavenly Realm City, and currently the fastest to be repaired. In fact, the repair work here is almost complete. Except for so key equipnt still being adjusted, the Angel Wall has fully resud its bustling state of yesteryear. As soon as she got out of the teleportation gate, Cynthia ran a big circle along the extrely wide high wall and then shouted in excitent as she jumped over, "Uncle, Uncle! So you also build such floating temples in the sky?"
I thought for a mont and figured that this child must be reminded of her own ho: the Heavenly Realm City does indeed resemble the Divine Realm in so ways, especially since over ninety percent of the buildings here are temple-like or sowhat carry a mystic air, plus the entire architecture floats in the clouds. This scene is quite close to the Brilliant Divine Court.
"Why did she have to co along too?" The little doll was not sitting on my shoulder this ti but was riding on my neck as if on a big horse, completely occupying the high ground. She swayed gently while whispering, "She’s not even... the child."
I jiggled my shoulders: "The more, the rrier."
The little doll gave a hard kick: "Aren’t things lively enough every day? That idiot with grass on her head snatched my snacks again at noon and you didn’t even do anything!"
Following "the green idiot," "the pretending-to-be-young idiot," "the mysterious idiot," Lilina finally got a new title from this little doll: the idiot with grass on her head. The latter was right beside her, and upon hearing this, proudly stood the amusing sprout on her head straight up: "You’re just jealous! You don’t even have this function! Have you seen a Dai Mao that can photosynthesize? Have you?"
Sister couldn’t help but slap Lilina’s head, flattening the grass: "Alright, it’s nothing to be proud of. How many tis have you grown sothing strange on you before? Like those jasmine flowers in your hair last ti..."
Lilina glanced at resentfully: "In the end, didn’t you guys use them to brew tea?"
I felt this topic was getting more dangerous and bizarre, so quickly halted the conversation.
I surveyed the surroundings and saw several white figures flying toward us quickly in the distance. They were Orelia and others, sensing our entry into this space and coming to greet us. I didn’t notify her when we ca, intending to give her a surprise. Further away, I saw many things I hadn’t seen on my last visit here.
On those platforms floating in the clouds and the aerial corridors, Elental Guards and Magic Statue Soldiers were already stationed and on duty; huge Gundam Giant Statues were patrolling along the broad sky roads; a translucent, pale purple magic energy creature, resembling a long-tailed bird, was flying through the clouds, seemingly serving as so kind of guard unit. At various node points of the Angel Wall, stationed soldiers were newly minted Mystic Xyrin Apostles—I couldn’t distinguish whether they were Magic Energy Vanguards or Arcane Law Enforcent Officers, those two units seed indistinguishable to , I hadn’t even morized their uniforms yet.
This place had beco quite lively compared to the last ti I left.
"Your Majesty!" Orelia’s voice brought back from my reverie. I turned to see her with Audemus and several unnad advanced officers behind her, apparently inspecting Heavenly Realm City before we arrived.
Orelia and the others were understandably surprised by our sudden visit, but before she could say anything, Cynthia suddenly jumped out: "Wow, are you Uncle’s relative? Why don’t you have a face either?"
... This child still rembered my Void Form appearance, now considering any faceless person to be my relative. I must say, this little creature is definitely up to mischief! According to Father God, Cynthia’s mind is actually no less mature than an adult’s, so she is absolutely making mischief here!
Orelia was astonished by this little girl who had suddenly popped up, her obscure light mist glowing brighter and brighter. I quickly pressed Cynthia’s head to introduce her: "Xingchen’s daughter... um, Father God’s child, coming to stay with us for a couple of days."
"A Princess of the Divine Realm?" Orelia, who hadn’t t Cynthia before, said a bit unexpectedly, but besides that, she wasn’t too surprised. Probably during the Old Empire Era, she’d seen many high-ranking mbers of the Divine Race too, and this one just had a bit of a special status. For a Xyrin Apostle, there’s no need to be overly concerned about things that do not concern the specific interests of the Empire.
"Uncle, I want to go over there, is that alright?" Cynthia’s eyes glead as she discovered all sorts of things around her that fascinated her, promptly pointing at a distant tower radiating a gentle radiant glow. The little doll on my neck imdiately chid in: "Yes, yes! Unseen stuff, it wasn’t there last ti we ca!"
"Today’s all about taking the kids out to have fun." I said to Orelia with a smile. She promptly nodded in understanding, waved off the accompanying officers, spread her wings, and floated beside : "Then I’ll serve as the guide. That side is the newly built energy node, surrounding structures have already started operating, energy demands have returned to normal levels we’re re-establishing the old Power Boost Network."
"Looks like your construction progress is pretty swift." I glanced around, finding everything quite fresh and unrecognizable, there was a mass of things I’d never seen before, including the buildings and soldiers. It’s said that Heavenly Realm City is being built at a speed that changes every seven days, and now I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I reckon if not for Orelia leading the way, I would have been lost within 200 ters of exiting the teleportation gate.
"Not enough, the reconstruction of the infrastructure is going smoothly, but large facilities, like the Star Shaping Pool, still require ti to fully comnce. Currently, our production rate of various space vehicles and large weapons factories is less than one third of..."
"Don’t talk about these things!!!" Orelia’s words were abruptly interrupted by a little doll without patience, "Wasn’t it agreed today was for rest?!"
I placed a hand on top of my head to shield myself from the barrage of tiny fists, gave Orelia a helpless smile: "Forget it, just put it in the report when we get back."
"Ah!" Little Baobao was muddling along with us, and suddenly let out a cheer with unknown significance, then pulled out sothing that made Orelia’s whole body stiff:
A piece of string.
"A kite!" Little Baobao exclaid with a clearly aningful word. I slapped my forehead: this little fellow finally figured it out!
(Well, the Leaving World Garden Forum is currently soliciting Empire fan works. Although I don’t know when the forum will return to normal... I am ntioning this in advance to prevent from forgetting... To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welco to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian), your support is my greatest motivation.)
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