Xyrin Empire

In the current Shadow City, as long as you look up at the sky, you will find that there is a magnificent and mysterious crescent-shaped land high above the clouds. This land hangs high above the Shadow City, which has expanded beyond the point where the word city is an adequate description, extending in all directions to the limits of your visual range. The slight curvature in the middle subtly hints that this land is actually part of a sphere, but its vastness and grandeur make it impossible to see it in its entirety.

The sky-land is covered with alternating hues of silver-white and emerald green. The silver-white represents alloy-built cities, and emerald green stands for lush and thick forests.

It's as though another world is mirrored in the sky.

This miraculous sight in the sky has become the most talked-about topic among the residents of Shadow City in recent days. Its scale, mystery, and beauty have garnered more attention than the Air Fortress of the Military Integration Department. Many are speculating about the origins of that mirrored world, while others, informed or privy to insider info, are busy spreading various versions of the truth. However, the truth is singular and exceptionally simple: it is the Capital Star of the New Empire, Mother Star Gaia.

Alright, I know this Mother Star's original name wasn't Gaia, but given that this planet has become a temporary body for a certain phantom sister, I've decided to name it Gaia.

The universe reconstruction work in the original Kepulu Star Zone has already concluded, and even the subsequent adjustments are complete. Naturally, Gaia and the Mother Star she controls no longer have tasks in that star system. After discussing with Sandora, I decided to transfer this planet to the Shadow Space. This happened several days ago when we were still busy with warfare in the Mobra Universe; I signed the Capital Star transfer Command during a spare moment. When we triumphed and returned, Gaia Star had already languidly hung above Shadow City for two and a half days.

Though the Command was signed during a tense bout of fighting, the idea wasn't exactly rash.

After a long period of construction, the Shadow Space has become the safest place in the New Empire's territory. All our top command centers are concentrated in this artificial universe, with the Command Center and Time-Space Administration also located here. Conversely, the Mother Star that was supposed to serve as the Empire's governing center has been preoccupied with infrastructure and relocation in the Sky Zone of an affiliated civilization, which seems awkward. Transferring the Mother Star should've been scheduled already; completing this only now felt somewhat delayed.

Undoubtedly, the impact of hanging another world in the sky is significant, especially for those with oppressive phobia. Looking at a continent's mass hanging upside down in the sky is certainly discomforting. When Gaia was just transferred, the psychological treatment industry in Shadow City flourished for two days as a result. The income growth of psychotherapists almost paralleled the growth of ideas in Qianqian's head. Finally, Gaia had to activate her Mother Star's own mirror system, visually attenuating the projection of the Mother Star continent over Shadow City to resolve this psychological fear. Thus, nowadays, the continent in the sky appears more as a slightly ephemeral scene rather than an impending Mount Tai overhead. Moreover, discussing the Mother Star hanging in the sky isn't entirely accurate. Considering the enormous size difference between the Mother Star and Shadow City, the description should actually be reversed: currently, Shadow City is hanging upside down in the high sky of the Mother Star's Northern Hemisphere. Although it's merely a matter of phrasing, Gaia seems particularly concerned about it, insisting that Shadow City should be considered the artificial satellite of the Mother Star, not the other way around. I can only explain that Gaia has been fused with the planet for so long she has almost started thinking of herself as the planet—rather similar to Anwina feeling especially close to crows as of late…

After Sandora mentioned the Revenge Army's souls being unable to merge with any type of body, I happened to glance at the sky. This is also why my mortal-level intelligence could turn faster than Sandora's; I immediately thought of someone whose symptoms mirrored those ancient souls, namely Gaia.

Similarly, conceptually lost the body, unable to use any kind of Angel Envoy shell, can only be stored as data in large array machines, and most importantly, Gaia had personally mentioned that her current state was due to a disastrous experiment.

Even though she never explicitly talked about that experimental disaster, upon deriving, I can almost ascertain she refers to what Sandora just mentioned, the experiment disaster that PL-15 brought up, inspiring the Revenge Army. Those Revenge Army souls replicate the method that rewrote Gaia's kind of soul, thereby completely obliterating the Xyrin spirit network in their Sky Zone back then.

There is a benefit Gaia received after transferring the Mother Star to Shadow Space, which is that we can visit her at any time. Of course, what we see is just a faint blue virtual image, but compared to a holographic image, the feeling of chatting with Gaia on the Mother Star is different.

The military passage at Dimension Hub Square has a Teleportation Gate directly leading to the Mother Star Control Hub, and Sandora and I went to the destination quickly through this gate.

"The first time I came here, I sleepwalked over."

Looking around at the familiar yet novel steel metropolis and the lush jungle in the distance, I smiled and said to Sandora.

This magnificent city is the Mother Star Control Hub. Although it appears to have the flavor of a prosperous futuristic city, it's actually an autonomous "building complex" unmanned and not meant for habitation. It's called the Mother Star Control Hub, as one of its functions is to act as the dispatch center for the entire planet. Most of the dazzling alloy buildings around us are various computation and processing facilities, and what look like a three-dimensional transportation network of elevated roads and bridges are actually protective troughs for various connecting cables. Gaia's "information" flows continuously through these buildings and cables, so to speak, this control hub is Gaia "itself."

Due to her extraordinary computational power or rather, comprehensive performance, this unique Mother Star is equipped with a fully autonomous control hub, which I only recently discovered. I initially thought all Emperor's Mother Star control hubs were unmanned cities, but after chatting with Sandora, I learned mine is an exception: Sandora's Mother Star Hub is much livelier than here, whereas Gaia's hub only has a small contingent of regular troops, and the rest are autonomous machines directly controlled by her.

This control hub is so massive, distinctly different from the Empire's compact and agile processing equipment (like the Xyrin Host), because during the Old Empire Era, it not only had to manage a single planet but countless worlds simultaneously. A city-sized computing facility wasn't considered large, but now, eighty percent of the hub's functionality is dormant. Looking around, you'll notice that although all the silver-white buildings are shimmering with blue energy lines, only a few buildings have lights flashing in a regular pattern, and a small portion of these are the Mother Star's own regulatory devices—you can imagine how idle Gaia usually is.

As soon as Sandora and I arrived at the control hub, we immediately caught Gaia's attention. A small group of octopus-like autonomous machines, chattering in their internal common language, guided us to a nearby small square where Gaia was waiting for us, surrounded by a circle of crawling autonomous machines—it seems this is her usual scene of life on Jupiter when bored.

We had already stated our purpose during teleportation, so Gaia didn't ask much after seeing us, just nodded knowingly.

"About my current situation," the pale blue semi-transparent image in front of us gently stroked a nearby autonomous machine swimming around, which seemed to feel it and made a contented gurgling sound, then flipped over as its octopus-like multifunction mechanical arms unfolded into a projection array, subsequently activating a holographic image over a meter in size, "This is a structural diagram of the Mother Star, and neither of you Your Majesties should find it unfamiliar."

Sandora and I nodded.

"This location is the control center, the largest 'city' on the Mother Star, which is essentially a servomechanism array. My interface with the outside world is on this array, and it's also where ninety percent of my information is stored," Gaia said unhurriedly, controlling many autonomous machines around us in the same way as the first one, their undersides rotated up as they encircled us, projecting numerous holographic images.

I widened my eyes, astonished at these never-before-seen images: they looked like a documentary!

A dozen or so video screens played around us, not showing the numbers and graphs I'd grown accustomed to seeing on Xyrin Equipment, but instead many segments resembling live recordings, with far fewer complex and obscure technical symbols, making it easier for me to comprehend. There's the bustling dispatch center in operation, large groups of busy Imperial technicians crisscrossing, reactors emitting dazzling sparks, and streams of spaceships flowing endlessly, but none of these stunned me. What truly made one glance difficult to calm were the familiar faces appearing over long durations in several frames.

Pandora, standing stolidly on the command platform; Alaya, wearing a gentle smile but clearly zoning out; and Gaia, standing serenely within a crystal prism, surrounded by layers of halos—not in the current pale blue virtual form, but as a real girl with beautiful pale purple long hair, similarly pale purple bright eyes, and dressed in a white long dress.

In addition to them, there were some other familiar-looking faces that flashed by, but after Pandora and the other two's faces appeared on the screen, my attention didn't stray to others. Sandora, watching the holographic images circling around for a long time, finally said, "These are recordings left from the Old Empire, aren't they?"

Gaia nodded: "Yes, this is the image data left from a research project back then, and it was after that research project failed that I lost my body."

Sandora and I, although we had some guesses, were still wide-eyed at this point.

Gaia narrated what happened back then in great detail. It was the first time I heard the complete story from her: "Gaia, full name Distributed Array Xyrin Host Mother Machine – Gaia Type, I was once the last mother machine of the Old Empire's distributed array Xyrin host. As recorded on the image, I used to be just like Bubbles…"

As soon as she started, it was a bombshell.

But Gaia didn't give me much time to digest this information, clearly because what she was about to say next were all bombshells. If I were to digest them one by one, I'd probably be doing it until next month, so she continued without pause: "There are many different models of Xyrin Hosts, like Bubbles, which should be specifically called 'Hive Co-Processing Xyrin Host,' but these probably aren't things you care about." Gaia subtly pointed out my lack of understanding.

"The Gaia-type Xyrin Host is the last model of distributed array hosts, and I was the prototype of it, also the only Xyrin Host finally put into use. The reason is complicated, so in the end, Gaia transformed from a series code name to my exclusive name. And that experiment was part of a research project on soul modification conducted at the time."

"At that time, the Empire was at the end of a great expansion era. The Xyrin Apostles gradually reduced their conquests of New Worlds, turning to focus on researching technologies to further enhance their civilization. Further research on their own souls was one of many research projects at the time. As one of the most powerful Xyrin Hosts back then, I served as the central computation node in the Sky Zone. Also, I was the first experimental subject to undergo modification because of the Xyrin Host's special life form. Our souls can endure various modifications and have strong self-repair abilities. Additionally, as a Xyrin Host, I could document firsthand data better than other subjects…"

"Then… the experiment failed?"

I asked cautiously.

Gaia nodded silently. An autonomous machine lying on its back floated over with a holographic projection on its belly, displaying some very chaotic images. It seemed to have been massively disrupted during the filming; broken crystal prisms and host slots flashing alarm lights were on the screen, a girl gradually disintegrating into points of light, and Pandora, who was about to execute the researchers in sequence, was stopped by the visibly dazed Anwina.

"Do you usually watch these things?" I looked at Gaia and the autonomous machine playing the disaster scene with a strange expression, feeling a bit tense and distressed. What a nice girl, yet subjected to inhumane trials resulting in mental scars. Normally living alone in this vast empty city watching her own death tape—could anyone do such a thing?

"I usually don't watch this; it's what His Majesty wants to see. I usually watch Central Ten; those jokes are quite interesting," Gaia replied seriously, leaving me speechless.

With Gaia's illustrated explanations, Sandora and I understood what the experiment was about back then. Excluding the parts I couldn't understand… well, not much was left anyway. I only knew one thing: They wanted to modify the Xyrin Apostles' soul to make it more undying, but the modification eventually failed. The mutant soul didn't strengthen; instead, some kind of 'concept' was inexplicably erased, making it unable to fit into any kind of body. For example, it's like trying to optimize your XP girl, but during optimization, it went awry, and her machine code jumped directly from binary to base-32. However, every computer system in the world is binary, so your XP girl became a wandering spirit, reduced to just a memory in your mind…

That's exactly what happened to Gaia. Her soul was altered beyond comprehension, like a binary system programmed with base-32, making it impossible for any entity considered a body to accommodate this soul.

The only consolation was that although her body couldn't be compatible with her soul, the technology of the Xyrin Empire didn't let her perish. The scientists, who were nearly executed by Pandora, found something akin to a translator, storing Gaia's soul as data on this Mother Star. Most of her data is stored in the control hub, and some incomprehensible, conceptual stuff merges with the entire planet, which is the current Gaia.

So our most pressing concern is: Is this process reversible?

No one forgot our original purpose for finding Gaia. We weren't here to watch XLTV's recording work; we intended to arrange for Sandora's subordinates from back in the day to borrow a body and return to life.

However, this idea had already been doused with cold water when Gaia recounted her experience. As she gradually explained the reason for soul incompatibility, the cold water gradually turned into ice water. It's fair to say that when Sandora and I asked with the last bit of optimism if this process was reversible, we were nearly as chilly as swimming the winter in Heilong River: chilled from head to toe.

Sure enough, as I already guessed, Gaia shook her head without hesitation: "Of course, it's irreversible, otherwise I wouldn't still be like this now."

I glanced at Gaia's faint blue semi-transparent virtual image, thinking about how her incompatible base makes even mass projection difficult, realizing that: If this process were reversible, would this girl need to stay here being a movie all day?

"Then it's hopeless."

I slumped my shoulders and shrugged helplessly at Sandora, who hung her head in silence for a long time before suddenly saying quietly, "If that's the case, they probably really can't accept it."

For a Xyrin Apostle, the most unacceptable situation was this: becoming a piece of information that can do nothing, consuming enormous energy supplies daily to maintain their existence, even needing a large group of Leader Bees to do nothing but maintain them every day, truly living a life of a freeloading parasite.

Gaia, after losing her body, could still fulfill her duties because she was originally a Xyrin Host. What she had to do was unrelated to battle, as long as she had a sufficiently powerful auxiliary servo array, she could continue her previous work. And Sandora's veterans? They were warriors; over tens of millions of years, all they knew was war. You could give them a server the size of a star, but they wouldn't understand things only a Xyrin Host knows. The race of Xyrin Apostles and humans are different; their 'birth' determines too many things. A newly manufactured Apostle's future racial role is already determined. A soldier trained to the extreme wouldn't understand scientific research, and a researcher going to the front lines daily for a thousand years couldn't beat an officer. Pandora grew only a centimeter in tens of millions of years, Scorpion Sister refuses to heat her blades even if it kills her, and Sicaro is the only oddity, learning to read palms and selling pirated discs besides fighting…

With this thought, Sandora and I could only sigh together.

However — and here's that lovely word, but — Gaia suddenly spoke up, seemingly offering us a glimmer of hope.

"Your Majesty, actually… Great Governor PL-15 has communicated with me once about the future of the hundred thousand Revenge Army veterans, and he has an idea…"

(Any guesses what's happening with the Revenge Army?) (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote for it and give monthly votes on Qidian.com (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)