(At the end of the month, last two days for votes! This ti I’m not late, right? If you have votes, throw them over!)
The ancestors were carefully confined in a cage by their children who had already beco gods, serving as a spiritual idol to be revered by others. They could neither interfere with the affairs of the Empire nor were they allowed to contact the "lower civilizations". This resurrection... is it really good for them?
I suddenly felt that bringing the ancestors out today was a mistake, a huge mistake. Their position, that unique position, destined them to be unable to view everything in Shadow City from a perspective of peace like other ordinary races.
The Clan gave Anses a great shock. Perhaps in the base, he didn’t feel it so strongly because there he could only interact with the Xyrin Apostle. But outside, he saw people referred to as "Clan", "Vassal", and "Servant", those living in Shadow City, serving the "gods" as servants of the Empire, re mortals like him.
The Xyrin Apostle does not bully "lower civilizations", and of course, there are no discriminatory policies against "inferior beings" in the Empire. However, at the sa ti, the Xyrin Empire is absolutely a society with clear hierarchies. The Apostles treat all mortal species equally, not out of moral "fairness" or other "virtues", but for two reasons only: the highly rational Apostles have no ti for "racial discrimination," a aningless concept, nor do they have the leisure to classify a group of equally weak mortals into different levels.
Would you rank the fighting capability of every ant in your yard?
Of course, the Xyrin Apostle does not view other races as ants subjectively. They are happy to coexist peacefully with any intelligent beings that can be allies, but the ultimate fact remains that within the Empire, on a macro scale, there are only two classes: gods and mortals.
It’s not just the Xyrin Empire that is like this; the Star Domain Divine Race is the sa, and so is the Huron Divine Race. In fact, no matter which corner of the void you are in, as long as multiple intelligent races live together and an overwhelmingly powerful high civilization exists among them, such a situation will form. It is unrelated to morality and justice; it is a fact that erges once it appears. Traversing the whole void, the only difference in this class status is whether the civilization at the top is friendly enough. The Xyrin rulers of the Old Empire Era were viewed as tyrants by countless races, whereas the current New Empire is more amiable, that’s all. The Imperial Family knows this, and they are happy to accept the peaceful and stable situation now. They are mortals, of flesh and blood, and standing on the Clan’s hierarchy is just a fait accompli, much as Pandora being one ter and two is classified in the children’s ticket category just as naturally, while others have to buy adult tickets. This is a fait accompli, even if Pandora blows up every ticket booth in the world, she is still one ter and two...
The Clan is happy to accept this classification. After all, the Empire does not oppress them, nor does anyone discriminate against them. They take on the jobs they can handle and receive everything they should. If they wish, they can even beco friends with their "gods" (although a bit rigid, the Xyrin Apostles should count as pretty friendly gods, right?). They even have the chance to hang out with the Xyrin Emperor and have a big al together, then let the Emperor pay the bill because the Emperor is wealthier—they can all do this, but they are still mortals, and on the other side are still gods.
But for an ancestor like Anses, it’s different.
He is a mortal, confined by gods in a cage as a spiritual symbol to be revered daily. He can see mortals like him living ordinary lives outside the high walls. He knows he should be like them, together with them, but the children they once created have forbidden all this.
Because they are ancestors.
"We are completely different from you now," Anses looked into my eyes, "You know what I an, and I also know your considerations. You want to treat your creators well, but this kindness is unbearable. I am a soldier and once a leader, I cannot tolerate idle days, nor can I tolerate being displayed like a rare animal in a cage. Moreover... to be honest, the Xyrin people are extinct. Our civilization is now in your hands, we are just a few ghosts from a race that died out who knows how many years ago. You’ve summoned such ghosts back to the mortal world, putting us in a very awkward position."
"I know, I know..." I nodded, but didn’t know what to say. I’ve already thought a lot and can understand it all: the dilemma faced by the ancestors, their awkward position, the soft imprisonnt-style "worship" due to the concern of the Xyrin Apostles, and the loneliness faced by soone resurrected alone after the entire race’s extinction: okay, maybe not completely alone, but there are only a few ancestors returning to the mortal world, what’s the difference from being alone? What they pursue is not just their individual survival, but their civilization, yet the civilization they knew is now completely gone.
To them, the Empire is sothing entirely unfamiliar.
If Earth is destroyed, and you are resurrected by aliens, then live on a strange planet where even the sun is a pale green, and you are kept in a laboratory every day, with your sole value of existence being to occasionally answer questions like "What was Earth like back then" posed by aliens, and you see many other creatures outside the laboratory sharing similar fates, kept as pets by aliens... then even if the environnt in the laboratory is good, what’s the point? To the ancestors, the Xyrin Apostle with its now super-evolved state is probably stranger than aliens.
And their identity as "ancestors" pushes this contradiction to an irreconcilable extent.
"Actually, I used to have a mortal life, just a few years ago..." I rambled on, knowing well that what I was saying was unconvincing. The ancestors care not just about the issue between "mortals" and "gods", but they are "mortals" who created "gods", which is the critical point of the issue. Besides, there are a whole lot of other things worth contemplating, each far more complex than when the Empire was thrown onto years ago. In the end, I could only wave my hand, "Alright, let’s not talk about my stuff. As for Sandora... I’ll try to persuade her, she’s just a bit overly tense now, a reminder could clear her head, she would surely listen to her husband’s advice. Just wait a few days, I can assure you, you aren’t just scenic objects to be gazed at, you have a critical role, a significant mission..."
"Like what?" Anses interrupted .
I racked my brains, needing to co up with an idea for the ancestor to feel like they have sothing to do, which is no easy feat because in reality, they face an arrangent not very friendly to mortals: After understanding the situation of the hotown world, the ancestors will be granted immortal bodies, like other Imperial Family mbers who have undergone promotion, but they won’t be allowed to be with those Servant Army mbers, they will be "protected" in the deepest part of the Royal District, day after day, year after year, eternally as a group of living spirit icons, respectfully "visited" by countless Xyrin Apostles until the end of ti... this is Sandora’s arrangent.
An arrangent that seems "no problem" from the perspective of the Xyrin Apostle.
I also only recently heard about this, of course, realizing the arrangent is horrible, just haven’t had the chance to oppose Sandora’s decision due to a plethora of miscellaneous things keeping too occupied lately. Now it seems Anses has vaguely sensed the terrifying paranoia and coldness of the Xyrin Apostle, he roughly knows how he is going to be placed, thus generating severe anxiety, so I have to cancel Sandora’s plan ahead, she would understand anyway.
"Oh, right, I wouldn’t have rembered if I hadn’t ntioned it," pressure indeed brings drive, after racking my brains, I actually recalled sothing I almost forgot myself, "We are searching for the coordinates of the hotown world, you know about this, right? But all equipnt that recorded the hotown coordinates is dead, we found no clues from the Ark Debris, nor any residual traces from the world barrier of that Universe back then, so the last hope is you..."
"Us?" Anses pointed to his head, "We are different from the Xyrin Apostle, a mortal’s brain can’t record Void Coordinates, that abstract concept, a re footnote is enough to burn out a mortal’s brain."
"No, you don’t need to rember the coordinates, just your rough descriptions of the worlds temporarily docked for those old crew mbers back then," my thoughts finally straighten out, this was exactly what Taville ntioned in his report the day before yesterday, and probably will be put into practice in the coming days, "I know, during your escape, the Xyrin Apostle hadn’t taken shape, but back then the Star Domain Divine Race was dominant in the Void, their Expeditionary Army reached unimaginable places — possibly including the hotown world. You should still rember the universes passed during the exile, right? Slowly recall what they were like, even the vaguest descriptions work, then we can let the Divine Race search their databases and conduct a net-style investigation, we can always find traces of our hotown."
"Oh, just like writing a moir," Anses finally showed a relieved smile, "I’m not confident about anything else, but I’m confident in my mory. See, this is much better, at least we know we have a task..."
Suddenly, I associated this with restless retired elders: people who have worked hard all their lives cannot sit idle, retirees cannot stand leisurely days and must find sothing to do, seems this old captain is just like that.
His crew mbers are probably similar: ancestors from the exile era could hardly be ones to indulge in luxury, we and Sandora initially considered things carelessly.
"In a few days I just happen to need to go to the Divine Realm, hopefully, you can summarize so rough information before this, hmm, ti might be tight, summarize as much as possible the first ti, the search for the hotown world is a long-term plan, I reckon we might need to regularly exchange intelligence with the Divine Realm in the future, enough to keep you busy for a while. Moreover, if the hotown gets located, you all will have to be the fleet’s guides — that place is quite unfamiliar to us."
Anses suddenly stood up, his military salute as vigorous as that of a young man, "Understood, guiding the fleet, accepting the mission!"
I was montarily stunned, then realized what I should do: no shirking, no courtesies, now I must act like a superior officer, "I’ll entrust this important task to you, Captain Anses."
Finally, the two of us exchanged a smile. I felt like I had finally made the right decision, and the old man in front of seed to be revitalized. At this mont, I suddenly rembered sothing and started rummaging through my personal space, "Wait a mont, I just rembered we found this in the Ark debris. Do you know whose relic this is?"
Saying that, I pulled out a small crystal pendant.
This was the pendant we found in the central control room of the Ark debris. It was speculated that the woman in the pendant was a relative of one of the Ark Commanders. I had been keeping it all this ti, but since it was such an inconspicuous trinket, I almost forgot about it over ti. Talking with Anses for half the day suddenly reminded of it.
"This is..." Anses’s expression froze instantly, then he slowly reached out, but after barely touching the pendant, he recoiled as if shocked, seemingly unable to believe the object in front of him was real. I stuffed the pendant into his hand, "Looks like this is yours."
"Ah... Yes, it’s mine," Anses held the womanly accessory that didn’t quite match his burly figure, "It’s my Anheena, my Anheena... I thought it was destroyed. I never imagined I would see it again... Thank you, thank you..."
"May I ask, Anheena is..." Although I had already guessed, I couldn’t help but ask.
"My wife," Anses said softly, while gently wiping the corner of his eye, "We have been separated for a long ti."
When counting the ancestors’ remains, we did not find anyone matching the woman in the pendant, so this woman nad Anheena must have passed away long ago. Judging by Anses’s reaction, perhaps it was before the Ark crashed.
"The Ark Fleet wandered while splitting up, to increase the preservation chances of civilization, we scattered small settlent teams like spores along the way in slightly stable zones, sending them to find worlds that might be suitable for survival. Anheena was an ecological expert in one of those teams."
"These settlent teams are heading off with no return, aren’t they?" I couldn’t help but speak up. The ancestors’ Ark Fleet was quite primitive back then, as they had not yet mastered precise navigation technology, and the entire fleet never stopped. They were like a fleet sailing through a pitch-black ocean at night, with each ship receiving only one command: ’advance.’ Once the settlent teams separated from the Order Field, they were swept into infinite darkness, never to return.
"That’s how it was. Everyone in the settlent teams knew it was a one-way ticket," Anses smiled bitterly and nodded, "But soone always has to do it, to preserve civilization, every possible sche must be attempted. If the whole Ark Fleet is destroyed, at least these settlent teams sent out early carry a minuscule hope, and precisely because of these teams, the people on the Ark Fleet can press forward with peace of mind: mortals are such strange creatures, even if there’s just a tiny bit of hope, no matter how remote, we can be fearless."
Anses lowered his head and fondly stroked the crystal pendant, "Anheena was my hope... I always believed that she found a stable world with her team, believed she would peacefully live out her life. Even if the chance was one in ten thousand, I believed it, and precisely because of this ’belief,’ my crew and I went on till the end."
"As long as you haven’t seen the hope shatter with your own eyes, you’ll cling to the one-in-ten-thousand chance till the end," Bingdisi’s voice suddenly erged in my mind, breaking her long silence, "Mortals... such weak yet resilient creatures, God’s mind can never rest easy."
"Why make a family separate," I scratched my chin in discontent, "The settlent teams should be ford based on families. It feels improper that so stayed on the mother ship while their family mbers were sent on these teams."
"Because I am the captain," Anses calmly shook his head, "and Anheena was one of the few qualified ecological experts at the ti. Rember what I said about mortals’ weaknesses — to maintain order in the fleet, the captain must make sacrifices. At that ti, the first Emperor’s two sons were sent aboard settlent ships; we saw such sacrifices as a matter of course. Besides, if you think about it... for those who stayed in the Ark Fleet, perhaps it was a solace, at least I could comfort myself by saying Anheena safely found a new ho. It was a popular self-comforting thod aboard the Ark back then; we even held fake celebratory events to celebrate the safe arrival of settlent team XX at New Paradise — rely to give those who remained a bit of hope."
"Captain!" Lou’s voice suddenly interrupted from the side, halting my and Anses’s conversation. I saw several other ancestors coming over, while the Little Ones who had been playing with them were happily landing all over . So familiar with the ’terrain’ quickly found pockets full of candy and began burrowing in to find food — such a simple and straightforward life.
"Rally, prepare to return." Anses straightened up and said to his n.
Lou blinked, "Not going to continue the tour? There are many places we haven’t seen yet."
"There’s a mission," Anses stated simply.
I noticed that none of the others were even slightly disappointed about their tour being cut short; instead, they beca excited upon hearing the word ’mission’ from Anses.
It’s about ti.
After sending the ancestors back to the military zone, I breathed a sigh of relief, and Bingdisi finally erged to show her presence, "How about that, almost ssed up — I reminded you once back when you were resurrecting the ancestors."
"You knew the ancestors would have psychological problems early on?"
"My long life hasn’t been spent idly; I’ve seen worlds change and species evolve more than you have hairs on your head!"
I knew this female hooligan couldn’t resist boasting after half a day of silence, and I didn’t bother engaging her, just looked up at the clear sky.
Ti to write a letter to Xingchen, set a date to go to the Divine Realm — before this female hooligan drives into a nervous breakdown. (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for recomndation or monthly tickets at qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian for reading.)
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