By the ti we returned to the Imperial District, it was already the afternoon of the next day—3:30 PM Imperial Capital ti.
The delay wasn’t due to anything else, but because we had to drag that Refuge world within the Empire’s borders. Even though the Abyss Zone had been rendered harmless by the Abyss Xyrin, and the surrounding pollution had beco inert, the Abyssal environnt still wasn’t suitable for the survival of ordinary races. No matter how inert it beca, it was still harmful, and those Old Empire Remnants were safer living in the Imperial District. To be honest, if it were just about resettling the refugees, there would be no need to drag the whole universe over, as all the remnants now reside on one planet, and their numbers are not large. However, after conducting a broader scan, we discovered many abandoned relics across the universe. Considering their potential use in reconstruction, and possibly even being disassembled by Taville for fun, Sandora opted decisively to write the character ’migrate’ into the cosmic background radiation.
Thus, the entire world was relocated.
The world has now settled in the Imperial District and comnced a series of basic constructions.
A multitude of engineering ships are busy in outer space, in a vast area less than one astronomical unit away from the "Sanctuary Planet." The engineering corps is here to build a permanent World Gate to connect this universe with other regions of the Empire and integrate it into the world network. Every new territory is treated in this manner; constructing the World Gate is the first step. The second step is to establish a Sovereignty Hub in the depths of the universe. If this universe is designated as a military or industrial world, many Imperial Bases also need to be constructed—though the latter is unnecessary here. The civilians on the Sanctuary Planet are unaware that so close to their planet, a gate to a New World is opening, nor do they know the number of starships shuttling around their star system, preparing for their future lives. Even though they know nothing, they are experiencing the most transformative mont in millennia: the Lost God Sect has announced to the world that the dark years of civilizational freeze are over.
Countless priests—unaware of the historical truth—received from the Holy City Cathedral a carefully worded propaganda docunt. This docunt was finalized many years ago and was just revised yesterday. It described, in accordance with religious doctrine, the Gods of Technology and Magic’s forgiveness of humanity and the reopening of the Heavenly God’s Forge, and roughly announced the schedule for the opening of global relics over the next few years and the plan to rebuild various civilian academic organizations. The priests also announced even more surprising news to the public: due to a special grace from the Gods, technology revival organizations worldwide were given "amnesty within a religious context," nullifying their heresy charges. The extre mbers and radicals among them would face prosecution under the Human Law Code, but ordinary scholars who were once considered heretics would be free. This announcent was almost as impactful as the news of the end of the "technological winter," and it could potentially diminish the prestige of the Lost God Sect, but all of this was anticipated by the elders: the Church would continue to weaken, slowly losing influence, ultimately becoming a purely philosophical organization or a spiritual symbol with no divine authority, possibly vanishing completely in millennia. This is the result they desired. The world is about to welco a new order, one that no longer needs chains.
Of course, in the short term, the Church must still govern this world and maintain its prestige to fully control the revival process of the entire civilization. The explosive revival following the end of the technological winter is easy to spiral out of control, and the wise old elves know that there must be soone to steer through the impending storm, a mission only the Lost God Sect can undertake—this was their initial understanding when establishing the Church years ago.
There are still many things to follow:
The Maskers will reappear in public with new identities, and the revivalists who have been under house arrest until now (many of whom have been confined for practically their entire lives) received the news of the "pollution recession." Previously driven to madness by this desperate truth, they now no longer need to be detained as the clouds clear. Most of them will have the opportunity to return to normal society, while a few have been transferred to neurological wards—caught between great joy and sorrow, so have fallen deeper into madness.
Various schools and civilian scientific research organizations are silently being established. While these groups appear to be spontaneously composed of civilians, they all bear the mark of the Lost God Sect in the background, subtly altering people’s mindsets through various channels. Within one or two generations, they can cultivate a new progressive force. The younger generation was once the greatest instability and even disaster factor in this world, but now the Lost God Sect will personally nurture an even more active and creative youth than before. The vessel of civilization has set sail once more; it requires young and robust sailors.
So Elf Monks are planning matters concerning public opinion, a relatively slow and ti-consuming task: they need to find a way to disclose the truth bit by bit, change the whole society’s atmosphere and public opinion orientation, and ultimately rekindle the common people’s interest in the starry sky above—a task that needs to be coordinated with the previous plan.
In short, everything is proceeding according to plan, everything seems to be developing smoothly, and this world no longer faces the dangerous prospect of doomsday at the slightest mistake—now they have support: even if any issues arise in the revival process, the Empire and other Clans will assist. Nurous aid personnel from the Galaxy Civilization Community, New Eden Federation, and the Exile United Fleet are already in place. They are experienced, fully equipped, with extensive theoretical and practical case reserves, and are part of a team specialized in solving such issues. They’ve been operating within the Empire for quite so ti, gaining a stellar reputation. Qianqian nad them "Rebirth Company." Yes, they are a group of ultimate rchants providing reconstruction services to other civilizations, offering services unimaginable, like rebuilding after a race faces potential extinction, reformation after civilizational collapse, public reassurance following world-class calamities, and various technology consultations, as well as colonization star rentals.
Currently, mbers of these Rebirth Companies have constructed workstations on the far side of the Sanctuary Planet’s satellite, with so representatives negotiating with the Lost God Sect. As the latter already has thorough reconstruction plans, it seems negotiations might only be successful in terms of technological consultations and equipnt support. But they don’t seem to mind much: after all, most of their operational funds co from their respective civilization’s governnt, making them a sort of semi-public service organization—doesn’t this remind you of an animal protection society?
I truly hadn’t imagined that races experienced in post-disaster reconstruction would develop such a miraculous new industry, and they have rapidly expanded into interworld companies that even Sandora finds unprecedented—seems like the new Empire’s relaxed and gentle environnt for the Clans, along with policies enhancing cohesion, has produced unexpected benefits, unlike the Old Empire.
Thinking about it, there really are many incredible businesses in today’s Imperial District, like Void-level rcenary organizations, "Colonization rchants" for wholesale and retail of artificial planets, companies like "Express Transport" facilitating major migrations of races or even planets, and the "Yiwu Small Commodity Wholesale Market" spanning the entire Macro World (yes, that’s its na, bestowed by Qianqian, who’s going to object?), while the Empire not only provides the technical foundation for these industries (as not everyone can build World Gates) but is also the largest world manufacturer...though we never charge, what we collect is "loyalty."
Lastly, it’s worth ntioning: I recently discovered that the Feiyali Void Consortium has its hands in nearly every industry ntioned above. Except for not being able to create worlds like the Empire, they are on the verge of becoming omnipotent rchants. That Queen of Vendors is indeed incredible! For Dingdang’s sake, their civilization level has just broken through the World Barrier; how did these geniuses evolve?
It’s unimaginable what these peculiar organizations within the Empire would beco once the Xyrin Apostles complete their Divine transformation: there’s always a sign next to the World Tree Temple saying "No vendors within one hundred ters of Heaven," yet the Xyrin Divine System has already established diplomatic ties with a group of Void Peddlers. We’ve truly embarked on a path entirely different from the Star Domain...
The day after we returned, at the Shadow City military district, Command Center.
I withdrew my gaze from the holographic projection before , feeling quite pleased to see the Refuge world beginning its reconstruction. Recalling the bewildered expression on Celine’s face when we formally said goodbye a couple of days ago, and the little girl Alu excitedly jumping around saying she wanted to help the Heavenly God fuel the Forge... it only made feel happier. Celine seed interested in living in Shadow City but wanted to wait until Alu ca of age to discuss it further. I respected her choice, but perhaps I could invite them to Shadow City for a few days, allowing the mother and daughter who’ve endured so much hardship a chance to enjoy so peace ahead of ti.
I exhaled and gathered my thoughts from the sowhat distant trivialities, lifting my gaze to the woman seated opposite : Black hair, black dress, with a stable deanor, and a massive black box beside her, none other than Abyss Xyrin.
"You truly don’t intend to et with those Elves?" I regarded the forr arch-enemy before , now... an ally might be an apt description, "They’ve waited for you for seventy thousand years, the eldest generation of the Three Elf Clans still rembers you."
"They’ve already completed the task well, and the agreent between us has ended without any follow-up matters, so this kind of eting is aningless," Abyss Xyrin’s tone was calm and unwavering, "It’s best to do fewer aningless things, wasting energy."
I smiled, "That’s indeed standard Xyrin-style thinking, Sandora was just like you five years ago."
"I believe she’s still the sa now, it’s the nature of the Xyrin Apostle, unchangeable," Abyss Xyrin shook his head, "Moreover, eting those Elves... what good would it do? They rember , but I don’t rember them, I don’t think there’s much to say to a group of strangers."
"You’ve truly cleared your mory entirely, we turned the entire Abyss Zone database upside down and didn’t find any record of the protection of that world," I helplessly curled my lips, swiftly browsing through reports on the data terminal, "Now trouble has erged—nobody knows what you put into the Heavenly God’s Forge back then. Speaking of which, you should have at least inford the Forge, knowing full well you would erase your mory after closing the Refuge’s door, how did you not preserve the truth about those things in the storage sowhere else? Future generations would have a hard ti figuring it out."
After closing the Refuge, Abyss Xyrin took a preventive asure to avoid himself or other contaminated Apostles from turning back to destroy the protective layer he had just established, that was to delete all data of the Refuge world from the network. And it appears this deletion was thorough: when discovering there was a clean world deep in the Abyss Zone, Abyss Xyrin was even more amazed than we were. And then ca the problem—she can’t even recall what she handed over to the Heavenly God’s Forge.
Abyss Xyrin rubbed her forehead, seemingly needing to use her "brain" to think: "I don’t think I would make such a low-level mistake—in fact, I would rather believe that I indeed told the secret of the storage to the main unit of the Heavenly God’s Forge back then, but either the latter forgot, or didn’t listen at all."
I pondered, unable to resist sweating on my forehead: "You know, that’s really possible, those lunatics made by Visca..."
I and Abyss Xyrin reached an unprecedented consensus: when ntioning that abnormal AI, we both sighed simultaneously.
"In any case, it can only be left to Taville and her research team, hopefully, they can soon figure out what that thing really is," I looked into Abyss Xyrin’s eyes, "But I would like to hear your personal thoughts—about that strange thing that looks like a pile of ice cream balls."
"Your adjectives are really abundant," Abyss Xyrin sat on the sofa, unconsciously stroking the black box beside her as she spoke, "Personal speculation... I’m not adept at this form of thinking, but I do have so ideas, I agree with what you said—that device doesn’t seem like an Empire creation, it’s likely not manufactured by back then, rather obtained from elsewhere. If I had to say... I suspect it relates to the ’other side’ for three reasons: firstly, when the Empire was on the verge of collapse, I used all my strength to preserve sothing extrely important, excluding Empire’s property, it seems only creations from the other side held such value; secondly, the technology level of that thing is clearly quite high, didn’t you say it has the power to convert the Abyss and even purify those Star Ring Fragnts? Such things remain top-tier technology of Divine Race and the Empire even now, so I suspect it originates from the other side; lastly, the third point... I tried to place myself in the virtual environnt back to the situation back then to see what choice I’d make in such a desperate mont, then I found what I worried most about was letting ’later generations’ know of the ’other side’s existence and understand the bridge-building matter. This matter is as important to as the Empire.
Abyss Xyrin sighed in the end: "Back in that situation, I wasn’t sure how many Empire’s Fire Seeds could survive, so the artifacts I protected weren’t only left for the survivors, whether they be Divine Race or another powerful Mortal Civilization, as long as soone can realize the Void calamity and build the bridge, then it’s fine—perhaps the relic in the Heavenly God’s Forge was ant to inform others about the ’other side’s existence."
After hearing Abyss Xyrin’s candid words, I silently paused for a mont before changing the subject, "Co to think of it, this incident unexpectedly solved another problem—the Tree Elves finally understand what their Mother Tree’s ’return mory’ is all about."
"Tree Elves?" Abyss Xyrin lifted her eyelids, "I’m not much interested in them, but it’s fine if you want to talk about it."
"Actually, the Green Star never returned, the Mother Tree’s sailing mory is an illusion, although strange to say, that plant indeed produces hallucinations," I began to laugh, "Weren’t the Tree Elves escaping in two batches back then? The first batch was on the Green Star, the second was the ones trapped in the Refuge Universe. The Mother Tree learned during its escape from the Imperial District that the second batch of fleeing troops failed to successfully break away, although the exact chanism thereafter remains unclear, but that plant grew depressed, and due to its severe depression, it hallucinated, starting to imagine it returned to the Imperial District, massacred, and rescued other Elves... just that."
Even for a character like Abyss Xyrin, she was astonished: "...a tree, it got depressed?! And even imagines? Are you sure this investigation’s result is accurate?"
"Anyway, it’s written like this in the report given to by the Tree Elves," I held up the data terminal in my hand, "Are the Green Star Tree Elves and the Sanctuary Tree Elves not reunited? Each side had a bunch of old n and won, gathered for a warm, friendly eting yesterday afternoon, after one-third of them were sent off for heart attack rescue, the remaining two-thirds decided to ask the Mother Tree for blessings and tell it the good news of ’the reunion of wanderers’, then... well, it’s written in the report, an old Elf heard the murmur from the Mother Tree and translated it, finally uncovering the mystery of ’return mory’, all the Elves briefly discussed and unanimously passed a resolution to strengthen the psychological health monitoring of the Mother Tree in the future."
Abyss Xyrin listened in a daze, her expression a bit odd: "This... even a plant has such complex emotions, the world of Mortal Races is truly inexplicable."
"Interact more with the ’Mortal’ world you ntioned, there’s still plenty to surprise you," I finally processed the reports in hand, stretched lazily, and stood up, "By the way, why did you appear in my office so early?"
I’ve held back this question for several hours now, finally unable to suppress it anymore, if it’s soone else here it’s another story, even if Little Baobao popped by to cause so mischief it’s expected, but for Abyss Xyrin to linger in my office early in the morning, what’s the deal? She doesn’t seem like soone idle, and moreover... how to say, she is the current Commander of the Abyss Zone (and has beco the sole Commander again), such a figure chatting idly in an office with , it’s rather unsettling.
Abyss Xyrin glanced at , opened her mouth and frightened half to death:
"Ca to see if there’s any aftermath left from your self-destruction, after all, you’re my logical father." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welco to co to Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations, monthly tickets, your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users please read at m.qidian.)
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