Chapter 635: Chapter 635: The Inquiry Arrives
The Heroic Spirits first had to return to the Life Temple in Avalon to report for duty, as this location is the projection of the World Tree in that space. According to the Divine Canon’s section on “Certain Provisions on the Daily Conduct of Public Officials,” a Guardian of the Gods returning from battle should bathe and fast within their served temple for three days, in order to cleanse themselves of the worldly impurities they had accumulated and to listen to divine teachings to restore their restless spirits to purity… Of course, everyone knows that the so-called gods are currently fast asleep in their master’s pocket—yes, that thing is just a frustrating interlude. The Heroic Spirits did go to report, but if those folks didn’t have a barbecue party in front of the temple, I’d have to thank Altoria for keeping things under control.
Only soone like Altoria, the knight with all those frazzled hairs, or a few others intellectual equals to her might truly adhere to the divine scriptures and canons.
Aside from these canons, the Life God Sect actually has quite many rules, and they all sound so solemn, such as the various ceremonial rites, the attire the Goddess Priest and Church Knights should wear, the food that believers should consu on fixed days of the month, and the appropriate placent of Goddess Statues in hos, and so on and so forth. If you listen to just the catalog, this divine sect seems to really be organized, but if you actually see the Goddess Statue holding a lollipop and grinning dopily, you might end up crying.
It’s said that when Lilina was compiling the “Bible” of the Life Goddess Sect, she just copied and pasted directly from Baidu Fantasy forums, which shows how much of it was truly worth adhering to.
While Fina was enraptured by the beauty of Fairy Lake, Lilina and I were also busy. The Heroic Spirits had to go through the motions to report at the temple while we acted as guides, acquainting Fina with her sanatorium. Since she was in Avalon, she had to fully experience the unique life in this Immortal Realm—naturally, the first thing was riding Unicorns. Due to various reasons, Lilina was very familiar with the Unicorns that ran businesses in the Fairy Forest, and with a whistle, she could summon a whole herd of snow-white creatures that looked like stallions. Now, we were busy haggling with these beasts.
I know what common legends say: these beautiful and elegant holy creatures, only allowing virgins to ride them, and being loyal and kind—but in Avalon, dare to say that and you’re awaiting to be treated as an exotic animal. Who in this place among the Heroic Spirits and Ravens doesn’t know of the dark and monopolistic practices of the Unicorn rental industry? Exorbitant and greedy?
These penny-pinching fellows have now raised the price to two and a half per kiloter.
However, Lilina, as a half-local boss of the sanctuary and one of the witnesses to the birth of the Unicorn race, naturally had different powers. She found us a group of Unicorns for just one and a quarter each…
Even divine beasts are beasts, they don’t need to pay for utilities, insurance, or rely on fixed als, so they don’t need money; trading with the Unicorns uses cookies, and other small snacks are okay, too—as long as the unicorns like them, they can be considered hard currency. The latter is in this sense more honorable than most mortals and sowhat reflects the beautiful nature of holy beings being a bit simple-minded. However, when Lilina pulled out a pile of Wangzi stead buns, even I couldn’t bear to watch—considering we’re only traveling from here to Altoria’s Jade Outpost, which costs about ten, using ten Wangzi buns to trick a bunch of animals, isn’t that a bit too unscrupulous?
Ten minutes later, I finally understood Lilina’s painstaking efforts, as due to Fairy Forest’s main roads being congested, the Unicorn team decided to take a longer route, presumably costing more, and requiring the passengers to pay for maintenance. However, I couldn’t help but feel that the logs blocking the road were actually put there by the Unicorns themselves; not to ntion, they seed to have forgotten to cover up their hoof prints…
Next ti I ride Unicorns, if I don’t prepare a bag of popcorn for these rascals, I would be betraying my own consur indignation!
“Friend, this place is truly beautiful.”
The sound of light hooves broke my train of thought; Fina had driven her Unicorn to a spot level with and uttered a sentence that temporarily lightened my mood from being swindled in renting.
“Ah, I’m glad you like it; Avalon was personally designed by Dingdang. Although it’s often unreliable, I’m genuinely surprised by this design.”
No sooner had I finished speaking than sothing stirred in the pocket of my chest, and a small head erged: “Exactly, Dingdang is amazing! Although I failed my creator’s exam, I’ve been continuously reviewing, and now I’m ranked within the top hundred in the elentary group!”
…But weren’t you supposed to join the middle school group two or three thousand years ago?
“Don’t mind the details! Those who care about details are fools!”
I got roasted by my own pet.
“Friend, I really don’t understand you Xyrin Apostles. You appear as relentless war machines in front of others, your warships only bring to mind the cold and the sll of blood, but the deeper I dig, the more I feel… you’re a very kind Race, just not fond of interacting with others and burdened with such heavy responsibilities that you dare not relax a bit. It’s really strange; what kind of Race are you, really?”
“Don’t say ‘you guys’,” Sandora’s voice ca from the other side, “now we should say ‘us.’ You’re one of us now.”
“Strictly speaking, your first impression of the Xyrin Apostles was not wrong. We have been a war race since long ago, though fighting to eradicate the Abyss. It’s undeniable that the Xyrin Apostles usually resort to violence and tyranny in most situations to solve problems. As for the change we are seeing now, it’s actually thanks to Ah Jun. I believe that as ti passes, you will co to understand this yourself.”
Sandora said this, and I felt a bit embarrassed. anwhile, the Lili riding with in the carriage began to fidget restlessly, trying to reach out to pinch my nose; just wait until we arrive at our station, and she’ll have her share of trouble—Pandora and Visca were almost grilling her with their stares.
Despite the mount’s exasperating deanor, strolling through the woods on a unicorn in such an enchanting land was truly delightful, especially the life energy in the air here that quickly rejuvenated one’s vitality. After campaigning outside for so long, going ho and diving straight into bed was one way to rest, but roaming around Fairy Lake on a unicorn was definitely a more upscale way to relax.
Of course, this wasn’t just a stroll. According to Sandora, we were conducting a routine inspection after returning from a campaign, which was a leader’s responsibility—though I was very curious who among the group surrounding , aside from Sandora herself, could possess this awareness.
Avalon had been established for more than half a year now. Since I had no prior experience in planning a “Divine Country,” I had delegated all tasks related to the daily managent of Avalon to Artemis and Lilina. It turned out that this capable and quirky duo from the temple had completed their tasks quite successfully. The Jade Outpost, established at the border of the Fairy Forest, was a growing silhouette of this idealized nation. Unlike the Xyrin Empire’s technology-oriented rigid lines, the architecture in Avalon generally possessed a “mystical” and “elegant” aura, initially rging the architectural styles of the Blood Elves from Silver Moon City and the Forest Elves from Vedis Forest, and then integrating the majestic lines of the World Tree Temple. It’s hard to describe these art-like buildings with words because they lack fixed structures and forms; these creations truly followed the doctrines of the Life Goddess Sect, possessing a style that blends seamlessly with nature, seamlessly fitting into the forest without feeling out of place…
I would never admit that it was because we had accidentally gotten lost 500 ters from the Jade Outpost and resorted to discussing this…
“It’s all because you are so stingy! It’s just a bit over a kiloter, and yet you insisted on getting off early.”
We finally found the Jade Outpost, hidden amid the verdant woods, resembling a mysterious, ancient divine abode. After wandering around for the better part of the day, I imdiately knocked on Lilina’s head, “Being so miserly over a few small stead buns!”
“Hmph, as if I’d let those beasts off cheap!” Lilina tilted her head, “Three months ago, they even tried to collude to raise prices on the pretext that the average weight of Avalon Heroic Spirits had increased!”
I’ve got an idea for you. From now on, whenever we ride unicorns in Avalon, let’s carry popcorn…
“Oh, Archbishop! And everyone, you’ve returned?”
A cheerful voice interrupted my and Lilina’s regular bickering. It turned out to be Ling Yin, dressed in light hunting attire, leading a few Heroic Spirit Sentries from the woods. They seed to have just finished their routine patrol deep in the Fairy Forest. It wasn’t so much about security issues; mainly, many wild furballs always liked to pee upstream in the river then get thrashed by other spiritual and divine beasts, resulting in Ling Yin having to dicate those troubleso little creatures every few days.
“Where’s Artemis today? Didn’t she co over?”
“Ah, Captain… Senior Artemis didn’t co here today. A newly evolved little fairy recently appeared near the newly established Qingyin Town. Local scholars reported that the little fairies make noise at night. The senior is going over there to check if these little lives pose any threat and to teach them so basic knowledge.”
Hearing Ling Yin’s report, I instantly felt a strong RPG vibe. Is life in Avalon usually this full of fairy-tale elents?
“It seems that the ‘harmless’ life forms Dingdang released are keeping you quite busy,” I touched the little head peeking out from my chest pocket with a finger. The latter, completely unaware that it was the culprit of our earlier conversation, continued to curiously turn its little head around, “By the way, this is Fina, our new mber, a very special Xyrin Apostle. Sandora has already uploaded the details to the public database. You’ll understand once you take a look.”
After leaving Fina in the hands of the Avalon sentries, we, a group of Imperial High-Level officials, thus completed our return inspection, checking all major places in Shadow Base and Avalon Divine Country, and incidentally eting with the person in charge for the shift. I’m not sure what symbolic aning this practice held, but seeing everything at ho operating smoothly, everyone performing their duties, living, and working peacefully, my heart finally returned to a completely relaxed state—perhaps this is the true aning of a return inspection.
A few days ago, this place was probably bustling.
“Hey, Dingdang is going to the temple!”
When I returned to the Outer World, Dingdang crawled out of my pocket, his face covered in chocolate, eliciting a continuous sigh from Anwina, who was in charge of doing my laundry.
“Dingdang will have the Pantheon send a Special Envoy over soon!”
“Yeah, we need to hurry up with that,” I nodded, skillfully ignoring the awkwardness of almost forgetting this important matter. Then I turned to Sivis who was on standby, “I’ll leave the rest to you, including the structuring of Ola and the regular duties of the Leader Bees. They’ve been on standby in the Literature Hall without supplies for too long and need a thorough check-up soon. The facilities on board the Imperial Admiral are sowhat limited, after all.”
“Yes, Your Majesty, thank you for your concern for the warriors.”
After assigning this last errand, everyone left Shadow City.
It was the sa old scene: the ordinary large house, the neat living room, the familiar furniture and appliances, even the cabinet in the kitchen marked with Sandora’s bite marks felt welcoming. Though it couldn’t compare to the technologically outrageous cabin on the warship, it was only here that it really felt like ho.
Though I wasn’t very tired, the ti shift between the two worlds ant it was still early for dinner, so I decided to take a short nap first, letting Qianqian and the others, brimming with energy, do as they pleased.
When I woke up, the sky was already filled with the glow of the evening sunset.
“Two hours? That’s really exaggerated.”
I had intended only to lie down for a bit but ended up sleeping from the afternoon right through to the evening, nearly two hours in total.
The door to my room was pushed open just as I woke, but lying on the bed, I couldn’t see anyone entering, just heard so soft footsteps. Who else could it be?
“rcury Lamp, you finally decided to co in on the ground.”
Sure enough, the lively voice of a certain little doll imdiately followed, “Because every ti I hit the door fra it makes you laugh like an idiot for ages… Hey! Why didn’t you guess it was Pandora coming in?”
“Stop joking, even if it was Pandora, from this angle, I would still see a bit of hair.”
This topic was really quite delicate. In any case, the 92.3cm tall Chairman went silent on the spot, and two seconds later, a black Gothic loli suddenly leapt out of thin air and landed on my stomach, “Hey! Dumb human, help comb my hair!”
It was then I noticed that rcury Lamp unusually wasn’t wearing her rose hairband, but had her dazzling silver hair loose, and a scent of shampoo faintly emanated from her, “Just had a bath?”
“Hmm!” the little doll pushed the comb into my hand while nodding happily, “I washed before that dumb Priest could!”
Their little wars again, I never understood—what irreconcilable class differences could possibly exist between a doll and a Priestess?
“By the way, Little Light, I’ve actually had a question for a while,” I suddenly rembered a question that had been bothering for a long ti, today seeing that rcury Lamp had just bathed, I decided to just ask, “When you bathe, doesn’t water get into the spherical joints?”
The mont before, she was ekly bowing her head to let comb her hair, adorable like a little daughter, but upon hearing this, rcury Lamp stiffened imdiately, then skillfully grabbed a big hand from behind her head and stuffed it into her mouth, chomping down.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow—teeth! Be careful with your own teeth, you idiot!”
All in all, this is our daily life.
Including Miss Lin coming over to freeload als, also part of the routine.
Just one second before dinner started, the doorbell rang accurately as ever. I wondered if I should even comnt on Miss Lin’s lack of decorum in her freeloading skills—it’s like she tid it perfectly to co right at dinner. If she had co a minute earlier, she might have ended up helping to set the table.
And to my utter dismay, I found that at the extra long, wide, and enlarged dining table at ho, Anwina had actually prepared an extra set of tableware—Miss Lin’s tily freeloading had beco the norm here!
“Hey, Wood, you’re alive and back? I’m here to freeload a al!”
With such blatantly incorrigible remarks, our Demi Immortal classmate strode into the dining room as if at her own ho, then slowly scanned across our entire family.
From the Pandora Sisters sitting proudly on high stools cushioned by a stack of books, to the largest bishop making holes in the rice in front of him with chopsticks and stuffing it with beans, to Qianqian, who was busy with the beans, and finally settling on a certain Imperial Leader.
At that mont, I realized that Lin Xue wasn’t here just to freeload a al.
“Hey, Wood, was it thrilling when the Death Star Fortress ran berserk?”
I instantly deflated: sure enough, Lin Xue was here to point fingers.
The controllers of the Death Star Fortress had malfunctioned, the cause of which had steadily been uncovered by tireless Xyrin Technicians—it was confird to be inadequate power output from the core at ninety-five percent conversion of Ghost Energy to normal energy, leading to premature implosion due to impure energy. However, the fundantal cause lay in the technology decoded from the Red Moon Cube.
There was a fatal flaw in that technology, but it wasn’t discovered by Taville until disaster brew.
Notably, right when the Red Moon Cube was recovered, this very Miss Lin at the scene sternly warned never to delve into the cube’s deeper data, especially the recorded black tech—clearly, we all underestimated Lin Xue’s warning.
Now she’s here holding everyone to account.
“How about we eat first?”
Seeing Lin Xue’s palpably worried and irate face, knowing full well I was entirely in the wrong, I could only try to divert her attention—at least let enjoy my al in peace, right?
Lin Xue imdiately nodded, “Nonsense, I’m here to freeload a al today, I’ll settle with you after we eat!”
A freeloader, taking free handouts to a staggering extent, indeed could be considered a monuntal feat.
(Well, it’s a new month, how about voting enthusiastically for a great start?) (.)
Reviews
All reviews (0)