Xyrin Empire

"Let's start the blessing ceremony then." Lilina clapped her hands cheerfully, instantly drawing everyone's attention. She walked around the two cradles over and over, piquing our curiosity, before finally stopping to scratch her head and murmuring, "So, how exactly does one perform a blessing ceremony?"

"Dingdang doesn't know either…"

The Little Douding Goddess sitting atop her head shook her head as well, bewildered.

"Huh? I remember Lady Goddess seemed to have given me some pamphlets about religious rituals…"

"Those were bought by Dingdang during the big bookstore sale. At the time, didn't know what they'd be useful for, but since they were cheap, I bought them first and then gave them to you — but Lilina, haven't you written a lot of pamphlets too? All about religious ceremonies and such…"

Lilina scratched her hair, almost dislodging her goddess: "Oh dear, who keeps track of that? Why else would I keep putting out new versions of the Bible if not because I forgot the old ones?"

Dingdang exclaimed in surprise, "Wow! What's Dingdang's doctrine exactly!"

"Uh, this really is a problem."

"…Why not ask a heroic spirit? They should know Dingdang's doctrine, right?"

"Yeah, tell them like this: Excuse me, who am I again?"

"Dingdang thinks this could work."

Lilina: "Lame…"

By this point, everyone was speechless. When Lilina enthusiastically ran over to make a fool of herself, I suspected she'd mess things up, but I never imagined that with Dingdang's cooperation, they'd take things to such an extent. Gods and priests as unreliable as these two must be rare in the world. They are actually discussing their doctrine on the spot—not scary enough, but even scarier is that they reached no conclusion after the discussion!

Dingdang sat upright with her small arms on top of Lilina's head, contemplating seriously what the first line of her doctrine might be, but I doubt she actually has a doctrine. Despite Lilina writing countless versions of the Bible for her, Dingdang herself doesn't even know what those Bibles look like. And now, it seems, Lilina probably doesn't know what those Bibles look like either. After babbling for several minutes, the two unreliable mascots were still at a loss. Finally, Lilina took decisive action, clapped her hands, and dashed over to the cradles: "How about I give each of them a luck-changing bead? I've personally blessed them."

Upon hearing this, a few of us couldn't bear to watch and quickly evacuated the scene; we couldn't stay there any longer. As time continued to pass, who knew to what extent these two might mess things up!

Following the newborn's baptism ceremony, the Demon Town held a rather sizable celebration. Many demons brought out their handmade oddities from home. Those produced in large quantities were sold, while the smaller quantities were given away to friends and relatives. Everywhere you looked, there were non-human creatures dressed in colorful and cheerful attire. Occasionally, a few humans would even dress themselves up eccentrically. I led a group of young and old ladies through the lively and festive Demon Town, suddenly realizing this might be the reason why these demons volunteered to help organize the baptism ceremony: they simply found another excuse to have a grand old time.

After chatting with a few demons, this speculation was basically confirmed.

Of course, I also took the opportunity to ask why the Atlantians have such a good relationship with these demons. I am really interested in this question because the Atlantians are actually a group that is particularly difficult to get along with other races. This is even more serious than those citizens of the Pan-Galactic Civilization Community who are generally recognized to have low emotional intelligence. This sounds surprising, but it's reasonable. The Atlantians are almost a race artificially bred by the Old Empire. They therefore consider themselves divine-made creatures, viewing the Xyrin Apostles as Creator Gods, which causes them to subliminally pride themselves on their divine-made status. This isn't an annoying superiority, but it becomes a minor obstacle in communication with ordinary races: they tend to correct the words and deeds of other races as Divine Servants, especially when others don't show enough respect to the Xyrin Apostles. They share a clear common belief that you can not believe in my god, but if you say a bad word about my god, I will fight you to the end. Such personalities naturally have some trouble communicating with the outside world. The second reason is the Atlantians' rigid and strict religious life, which also keeps other races at a respectful distance. They have strict religious hierarchies, and every member has two identities from birth: believer and warrior. Based on these two identities, they follow the unquestionable "Olympus Ladder" class system. They have strict religious rules, surrounding their faith in the Xyrin Civilization, and every member must strictly observe these ancient religious laws passed down. They also have unyielding stubbornness; any Atlantean sees maintaining their religious habits as the greatest meaning of their life. Apart from the "Great God's" will, they reject any outsider from meddling in their lifestyle and way of speaking, let alone making any changes. Ares called the Xyrin Apostles the "Great God," called the highly radiation-laden and ghost energy-charged water Holy Water, and referred to those terrifying biochemical modifications as "Divine Grace." These thoughts and statements may seem incomprehensible to ordinary races, but the Atlantians would happily maintain these beliefs for another 700,000 years.

Of course, another significant reason for the communication difficulty between Atlantians and other races, I think, should be their height… To be honest, I feel a huge pressure when speaking to a humanoid creature almost two or three times my size. Whenever I talk with Ares, I can experience the world from Pandora's perspective, and it's even worse when talking to Zeus, like viewing from Dingdang's angle… That's why when Skytopians visit Shadow City, they have to prepare small bodies; otherwise, they wouldn't even afford the tickets.

As I thought about it, I realized I was getting off track again.

"Why are the demons so familiar with the Atlantians?" Lin Xue strolled with me on the festival-like streets of Demon Town, pondering aloud. "Indeed, no matter how you see it, they don't seem to have a common language. The demons are unrestrained and libertarian, while the Atlantians are religious fanatics up and down, living like ascetic monks steeped in strict religious rules. But they hit it off—actually, they fought it out."

"Fought it out? Did they really have a conflict?" I was taken aback and quickly asked.

For the past month or so, we've been busy fighting outside, even Sivis was dragged to the front line by us, leaving Lin Xue to look after Shadow City. So she knew more about what happened there than I did, and her words surprise me.

"A conflict would never happen here; you know this place can't even have conflicts," Lin Xue rolled her eyes at me. "Don't be so alarmed. It's just that the booze-headed girl with an ice cream cone on her head set up a stage again. She originally just wanted to test her strength with some Atlantian strongmen. As the stage got bigger and bigger, it turned into a grand martial arts tournament that lasted nearly half a month. Many demons enjoy sparring, but they are too strong and can't find suitable opponents easily. The Atlantians happen to be born for combat. After Ares led half the warriors to the battle with you, the soldiers left idle behind were also bored, and the two groups ended up collaborating—you know why the demons were scared away when we first arrived? Because they had set up a stage without permission and got fined several times by the City Management Team…"

The more I listened, the more surprised I was, thinking this is a case of building friendships from fights, yet I was puzzled: "City Management Team? Isn't half of it controlled by Ling Meng? She…"

"She's just taking advantage of her own people, Ling Meng's principles, you know," Lin Xue spread her hands. "To get more fines, she waited till the very last moment before the final to take people over; who doesn't want to watch the finals? They even paid double fines…"

Me: "…How come no one gave that girl a beating with all her antics?"

"It's all just play, the demons never care about these things. Their view is to have fun and enjoy life. Do you believe that even if the final suddenly turned into Chiruno smashing rocks on her chest, they'd still be happy? Demons have different values, and Ling Meng knows her limits—she never collects protection fees from the goblins."

Listening to Lin Xue telling me all these fun things that happened in Shadow City over the past month, I deeply regretted missing out on so many interesting events. I thought to myself, if Qianqian found out, what would she do? She'd probably regret it too and immediately propose holding another martial arts tournament—it's not something she wouldn't do. After sighing, I felt a bit puzzled about Lin Xue: "Girl Lin, you seem quite familiar with these demons? Do you spend a lot of time here?"

"Where else would I go?" Lin Xue muttered, "In Shadow City, I can check the frontline battle reports anytime; at home, I can only listen to the radio."

Upon hearing this, I was inexplicably moved,

It seems that for over a month, Lin Xue spent her time in Shadow City and Avalon, just like she always hung out with us when I was home. When I'm not home, she waits here for news from the frontlines. Despite her prophetic ability that lets her know about another world's situation anytime, it's clear that this girl isn't here in Shadow City for information but for a sense of security, right?

Just as I was admiring Lin Xue for having such a delicate side, like a girl anxiously waiting for her lover's return from war, she added another sentence: "Of course, the main reason is I bet Apollo over 200 bucks. I've been waiting here for the finals."

You see, talking to Lin Xue requires a strong heart, right?

We continued walking and before we knew it, we had left the downtown area. Qianqian and her friends were quickly attracted by the fair-like atmosphere and had wandered off somewhere unknown, while Dingdang was also nowhere to be seen. We left her and Lilina at the baptism platform and escaped ourselves. The Pandora Sisters were taken by Big Sister to buy clothes. These two little ones were quite down today, having seen creatures that were as big as them upon birth, so Big Sister felt the need to compensate these poor Shorties… As it turns out, only Lin Xue stayed with me for a leisure stroll.

Oh, and there's another one—a restless little creature sitting on my shoulder.

"Girl, is there anything you want? I'll buy it for you."

I shrugged my shoulder, addressing the little doll busy pulling out my white hairs (first dye them white, then pull them out).

"No," Mercury Lamp tossed her head, flinging her long silver hair across my face, "Boring!"

Then could you stop saying that while glaring at the stall selling dolls and pulling my hair so fiercely?

In the end, I bought Mercury Lamp a doll almost as big as herself. I have no idea why there were people selling dolls in a demon town, but regardless, the little doll was pleased with the gift. She held the blonde chubby doll as high as possible, examining it under the sunlight, completely forgetting how she usually fusses when lifted high. Watching the doll holding another doll on my shoulder was indeed amusing: two kindred spirits have started bonding.

"I think this doll is uglier than Zhenhong," Mercury Lamp commented seriously to me, "but she should be smarter than Zhenhong."

Do you still hold such a grudge against Zhenhong? Your sister would cry if she heard this!

Mercury Lamp eagerly started planning her new doll's life, despite being a doll herself, she had unrealistic expectations for this lifeless doll. For example, she intended for it to learn linear algebra and organic synthesis theory soon—two terms she had read from the textbooks I brought home but had never opened. Despite not understanding what they meant, it didn't stop her from listing them as mandatory subjects for the doll.

"Those names sound impressive, probably similar to learning to write. I'll practice writing Sandora's name while she learns linear algebra."

The little doll said as she pinched her doll's nose.

Should I be thankful that this doll can't think? Otherwise, it might have given up on life by now.

Much like aimless wandering on any other leisurely day, today I still followed my instincts without a destination, eventually finding myself deep in the forest with Lin Xue. The demon town blends seamlessly with the surrounding big forest; urban and rural areas merge everywhere.

When we realized it, the shimmering Fairy Lake was already before us.

"Wow, we've walked so far without even noticing."

I set Mercury Lamp down from my shoulder, letting her walk on her own, as we approached the lakeside with Lin Xue.

This place is usually bustling with gatherings of Heroic Spirits but now it's exceptionally quiet. It's neither mealtime nor a break; most Heroic Spirits have part-time jobs in Shadow City or missions to attend, they're likely busy outside, leaving a quiet space just for me and Lin Xue. Yes, a space for two.

Mercury Lamp began discussing Titan Mercury Lamp's maintenance issues with her doll.

I exchanged a helpless glance with Lin Xue and whispered, "See why they say children are the third wheel in a marriage…"

Lin Xue picked up a small stone and tossed it over: "Who's married to you—and it's indeed rare to find tranquility today. How long has it been since we last had a moment alone?"

I thought for a bit: "It must have been a long time. You know how noisy the household is usually."

Lin Xue scratched her head: "I think I'm quite noisy too."

"You're a little less than Qianqian, mostly on par with Lilina."

I answered honestly.

The conversation continued in a casual manner; it's always like this with Lin Xue, seemingly without common topics, but in reality, having no specific topic is our greatest harmony. Being with Sandora is a heart-fluttering connection, with Qianqian it's boundless fun, but with Lin Xue, it's continuous banter—and both of us enjoy it. It's strange, but we both take pleasure in it.

Sitting shoulder to shoulder with my girlfriend at the tranquil Fairy Lake shore, on the lawn behind, our "daughter" was mumbling to her near-meter-high doll. Bantering with my girlfriend and occasionally answering Mercury Lamp's absurd questions, I feel my life aspiration might be this way—a goal slightly higher than a township enterprise manager yet akin to Qianqian's level. Amidst the leisurely atmosphere, our conversation grew boundless until I remembered a curious question.

"Speak up, Girl Lin, why didn't you come along when we were fighting outside this time?"

I casually picked up a stone and tossed it towards the calm lake, inadvertently knocking over a Pikachu drinking by the shore. This little monster Dingdang created on impulse flashed its teeth and claws and showed its middle finger before stomping off angrily, while Lin Xue looked at me curiously: "Why ask?"

"Because I feel like you're not the type to give me peace of mind." I replied.

Lin Xue ignoring a nearby dilemma? That doesn't fit her trouble-attracting personality. Normally, she wouldn't miss a chance to join outside fights; even when I spend a bit long fetching soy sauce, she'd bring a group to observe. But this time in Mobra World, we practically caused chaos, yet she hardly called—could this still be my proud Miss?

Lin Xue lowered her head in thought, unexpectedly careful in answering my simple question. Stirring my nearly uncontainable curiosity, she finally lifted her head, shrugged indifferently: "Because I'd die if I went." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to recommend and vote at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)