It’s impossible to see all of the Imperial Capital in just one day. In fact, on the first day, we didn’t even have ti to visit Avalon and had to head back from the World Tree Temple because it was getting late. Anu Lili probably forgot she had other business here; she was just regretful that she couldn’t see the allegedly more magical space at the end of the temple’s path. But I promised her that I would take her to visit Avalon the next day, which put her mind at ease.
Originally, Anu Lili thought she’d be arranged to stay overnight in Shadow City, but Big Sister obviously thought that wasn’t proper hospitality. She, following the common practice of ordinary people hosting friends, warmly invited Anu Lili to her ho. The latter was flattered and full of anticipation. Just think about it, visiting the ho of the Imperial Leader—doesn’t that sound high-end, luxurious, and classy? Moreover, it’s said that more gods live there... Anu Lili didn’t say it aloud, but she was visibly nervous for quite a while, and before we led her into the teleportation gate, the down-to-earth girl spent five minutes tidying her hair.
Then she arrived at the legendary "Emperor’s Palace," and the first scene she saw was Little Baobao lying on the floor drawing scribbles with watercolor pens; not far away, a 90-centiters-tall little doll was tumbling around with a little girl with grass growing on her head; a girl who looked seventeen or eighteen, but acted like a crazy naughty kid, was chasing a nine-tailed maiden around the room; on the chandelier in the living room, a girl was perched, cawing like she believed herself to be a bird; in front of the TV stood a golden-haired dead handso man, watching a docuntary about Greek sculptures, and he struck a few poses to mimic those handso Greek sculptures on TV, then asked the girl knitting next to him a technical question: "Monina, I feel it’s still not quite like what’s on TV—should I take my pants off?"
Then ca the familiar scene of Monina angrily hitting her brother.
This was the scene Anu Lili saw when she arrived at our house. I can proudly say that the shock she felt at that mont was far greater than the shock from the next two days in Heavenly Realm City and Avalon...
We spent three days with Anu Lili in the Capital World.
The first day, obviously, we took her around Shadow City, so she could get to know this magical Empire and its even more magical "True Multi-Ethnic Harmony" system. Firstly, it satisfied her curiosity, and secondly, we had our own plan: through this opportunity, let Anu Lili convey Shadow City’s state of affairs to her people. The psychological shadow left by lowa’s previous rule must be dispelled swiftly; otherwise, those who have just gained their freedom, knowing they are now under the rule of another super civilization, will definitely feel uneasy over ti. This step was completed quite well; Anu Lili developed an impression of Shadow City that was completely different from her previous speculations (which I estimate were the sa as most slave races). She now quite likes this magical and prosperous Capital of All Realms, which feels like a big family. I think she might even consider living in this city if given the chance.
The remaining two days were purely spent leading her around aimlessly. We took her to see the fairyland of Avalon, the truly "Divine Realm-like" Heavenly Realm City, and also the Mother Continent to see the first fully-ford sect of the Xyrin Divine System: the Crow God Sect, to understand the true concept of gods and religion different from fake gods. In the Crow God’s Holy Capital, she even received a holy amulet given to her by Vanilla as a keepsake. This amulet is actually just a black feather, which had fallen during Little Crow’s last molting. Back then, Lilina had swept up two big bags and sent them to the Crow God Sect, which now uses these Divine Feathers as rewards for devout followers or gifts for the most honored guests. The longer feathers have been straightforwardly turned into city treasure tools... I actually think this process is wasteful. If Anu Lili wanted an amulet, I could have just plucked one from Little Crow on the spot, although the latter would certainly have cried.
Anu Lili spent these three days largely in a daze, without ti to let her overloaded brain rest a bit, being enthusiastically dragged around everywhere by our big family. Of course, everyone visiting the Imperial Capital for the first ti experiences sothing similar, it’s just that Anu Lili was escorted by the most unprofessional guides, making her seem even busier. She was amazed by Avalon’s fairyland scenery, surprised that the outwardly steel-styled technological Empire had such a fairytale-like other side; she was even more amazed by the magnificent landscape of Heavenly Realm City, and discovered she actually had a latent fear of heights...
We know Heavenly Realm City contains many military facilities, but there are civilian areas open to the public as well. Many sky platforms and cloud corridors might have belonged to so military facility back then, but due to structural damage, they have now beco pure tourist attractions in Heavenly Realm City. At Big Sister’s suggestion, we gathered these unrepairable but too precious to discard facilities around the Sky Do Avenue, planning to open them to Shadow City citizens as a vacation area soday. We took Anu Lili to the highest platform of the Sky Garden here, overlooking the magnificent sea of clouds, peering into the faintly visible Giant Dragon Mountain Range at the horizon, watching the spectacular Sky Do Avenue stretch endlessly towards the heavenly horizon, and telling her the history of these aerial castles and palaces, along with their magical functions.
Then the young girl vomited, and I carried her down from the platform...
"I think that if the civilian areas of Heavenly Realm City are to be opened to Shadow City citizens in the future, it would be best to note in the tour guide that this place is enough to terrify anyone with acrophobia to death," said Miss Lin, unchecked, as we all looked at the weak-kneed Anu Lili.
Anu Lili ant that it was worth it to see such a magnificent place, even if it made her feel queasy for a day... However, when Char passed by the Sky Garden and enthusiastically invited us to ride on his back for a spin, Anu Lili decisively chose to surrender.
By the way, since we had already brought her ho, we naturally took Anu Lili to the Outer World. After making preparations, we let her see what Earth looked like. Anu Lili found it particularly unbelievable that the Imperial Capital existed in a parallel space with such an ordinary-looking world. Hearing about the establishnt process of the Imperial Capital amazed her even more: the girl surely couldn’t imagine that just five years ago, the Imperial Leader before her had been troubled by catering issues for three hundred people.
Aunt Zhao from the small supermarket down the street was surprised that there was yet another distant relative from Latin Arica in our family... because when I introduced Anu Lili to the neighbors, I said she ca from the other side of Earth and had Indian blood in her veins, as there was no other way to explain her exotic appearance. Of course, anyone with so knowledge wouldn’t believe that Indians looked like this, but you can’t expect the people on our street to know what Latin Aricans look like... Moreover, the residents around here have long been accustod to our bizarre family, usually, no matter how strange the companions I bring along are, it doesn’t trigger any public scrutiny. This is not only due to the habit becoming second nature but also thanks to Sandora’s spiritual interference: without Sandora, I guess our family would have already beco the talk of the local dia due to family mber issues. When I take this bunch out, just from their skin and hair colors, you can sense a whiff of world people’s unity...
Alright, let’s not get into that. It’s about ti to take care of serious business—speaking of which, it’s truly a miracle I rembered there was serious business to attend to.
I brought Anu Lili over not just to play tour guide and introduce her to the customs and people of the Imperial Capital—although from a strategic perspective (mainly saying this because it sounds more sophisticated), showing her around the capital is indeed important. However, my initial goal was to have her take those spiritual beings back ho.
Over a few days, Gaia has completed the examinations of those newly born spiritual beings. Their health is excellent, and their ntal states have stabilized. Taking Anu Lili around for three days was actually to provide a buffer for this matter. Now everything is ready; it’s ti for these now uniquely different compatriots to et.
Anu Lili seems to possess a surprisingly keen sixth sense. After breakfast, she appeared slightly restless—perhaps her ancestors are watching over this girl who is about to leave her mark in history. Anu Lili finally ca to on her own.
At that mont, I was busy tidying up Little Crow’s hair. This little girl spent half an hour running wild with her little crows outside, then one mischievous little fellow conveniently turned their "mother’s" hair into a bird’s nest.
Anu Lili has grown accustod to this rather mundane life of the Xyrin Emperor and to this house that doesn’t seem to match the Pantheon at all. Her gaze didn’t linger on the Crow God who was busy pulling at her hair but turned to : "Um... Chen... I’ve been here for three days... is it..."
"Oh, oh, three days," I thought to myself that I would go looking for her later, but she ca over on her own. So, I patted Little Crow on the head and told her to find her sister to solve her problem, then looked up at Anu Lili, "Do you rember what I said when you ca? Actually, I called you here to give you so ’things.’
"If it’s about material support, there’s no need to go to such trouble," Anu Lili still thought I ant so kind of material aid, which was understandable, "we can support ourselves now, and if we really lacked sothing urgent, we wouldn’t be so stubborn as to not ask."
"If it were just those kinds of things, do you think I would have called you to the Capital World just to play for three days?" I chuckled, casually opening a Teleportation Gate to Gaia, "Co on, they just completed their tests today and are in the best state to hit the road. They also happen to want to et you—follow ."
Anu Lili was baffled, but still followed.
The feeling of weightlessness and imbalance brought by the Teleportation Gate vanished instantly. In the next mont, we were already standing on the vast, silent land of Mother Star Gaia. Unconsciously, Anu Lili held onto my arm, still trying to recover from the teleportation dizziness. Monts later, she bewilderedly raised her head, looking at the unfamiliar scenery and the magnificent alien mountain ranges around us, "...Where are we?"
"Look up," I smiled and reminded her.
Anu Lili lifted her head and saw an upside-down land, which reminded her of the scene she saw in Shadow City. However, this was clearly not Shadow City. A simple logical deduction would reveal where this place was.
"This is the continent you saw three days ago, the planet floating above Shadow City, Mother Star Gaia—of course, strictly speaking, it should be said that Shadow City is floating above Gaia," I patted Anu Lili’s shoulder, bringing her back to her senses, "Let introduce you to soone, Gaia!"
"Gaia at your service, Your Majesty." A voice suddenly ca from beside Anu Lili, and then a faint blue holographic female figure appeared out of thin air, startling Anu Lili. She nimbly jumped back, then curiously looked at this unfamiliar woman, thinking it was a holographic projection, "Is this a projection? So advanced, I can’t see where the projection device is."
"Ahem, this is Gaia. What you see...is basically her true form," I explained sowhat awkwardly. Saying this in front of Gaia, who had lost her physical body and could only exist as a holographic form, was a bit heart-wrenching. Of course, the person in question didn’t seem to mind at all. Gaia even smiled and explained, "No, I don’t have a body. My true form is stored in seven hundred thirty-five places..."
Anu Lili instantly looked at this holographic lady in horror, her eyes wide open...
"Ahem!!" I felt that if I didn’t speak up, these two might fall into a deadlock due to a racial gap alone, "Gaia, explain your self-cloud-storage plan later. This is Anu Lili. How are the preparations with the Spiritual Beings going?"
"Final adjustnts and core encapsulation are complete, ready to et with you." Gaia gestured to a triangular building not far behind her.
I led the confused Anu Lili, following Gaia into that place. Inside was a crystal facility similar to a Mother Nest, all structures made of crystalline light blue crystals. However, it was much simpler than a normal Mother Nest structure; from the entrance, there was only one corridor, and at the end of this corridor was the hall where the Spiritual Beings resided.
"They are aware of everything, right?" I casually asked while opening the hall.
Gaia nodded, "Yes, Your Majesty, including what happened after the lowa people were destroyed."
"Chen, what exactly do you want to see—"
"Anu Lili, you should still rember those compatriots who were captured and made into a human brain array mainfras." I glanced at her, and she imdiately nodded, with an expression of unwilling mories on her face.
"et them. Although they now look vastly different from your impression of your compatriots, I believe the soul remains the sa: that’s all we can do."
The door opened, revealing a hall made of irregular crystals. At the center of the hall, a mountain-like cluster of crystals connected to the ceiling. In front of the crystal cluster stood three semi-translucent humanoid beings.
We couldn’t bring out so many newly-born Spiritual Beings for Anu Lili to et, so there were three chosen representatives here. It’s said that their main consciousness was among the earliest fallen generals during the resistance against the lowa invasion. Though they are now revived in a consciousness union form, their life form is no longer pure. I can still feel that unique military aura from these three humanoid beings.
They are very tall, around two ters in size. As Spiritual Beings, they don’t need to walk on the ground, so all three hovered about ten centiters above the surface. They had a semi-translucent light blue tint all over, though human-shaped, they had no defined facial features or limbs: the whole body seed like a mass of dense light mist. Within these three beings, there were faint electrical sparks dancing around, which were the core’s auxiliary stabilization devices releasing energy. Because they didn’t possess a real Spiritual Being’s talent, they could only rely on these devices to maintain their body’s stability, akin to an alternative "physical body." And of course, these devices were certainly more robust and reliable than a normal physical body. I noticed that the eye positions of these Spiritual Beings emanated blue and white light, which was the only substitute on their featureless faces: this seed to be a characteristic of the Cocogina race. Perhaps the Council had indeed referred to the racial traits of Cocogina when reviving these Spiritual Beings, considering the synthesis thod of the Nade People may not be directly applicable to other races. I was quite relieved that the Reunion Body had so many races to choose from, allowing the Council to effortlessly find various alternative thods for reviving these Spiritual Beings.
Spiritual Beings do not need clothing or accessories, yet they still wore sothing akin to "armor." These armors didn’t seem ant to enhance defense; they rely covered partial joints and limbs. However, upon seeing these "armors" connected to the electricity between their core, I understood their purpose: they were clearly to maintain the stability of the Spiritual Beings.
The Council did invest considerable effort in this task.
"Salutations to the Emperor of the Empire," one of the Spiritual Beings bowed respectfully, emitting a hollow and echoing voice, before turning his attention to Anu Lili, "This is my compatriot... Now, in this form, I can feel a connection deep within the soul. Little girl, it’s a pleasure to finally see you gain freedom."
"This is..." Anu Lili seed sowhat confused. She might intuitively sense so connection with these ghostly samurai-like beings but lacked the imagination to conceive the concept of Spiritual Beings. I patted her shoulder, "I am now an outsider, so I won’t explain much. You talk to them, and they will tell you everything." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welco to co to Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
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