Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1344: Resurrection Experiment

Dealing with Xyrin Apostles is mostly a hassle-free affair: they lack the desire for power, don’t like to beat around the bush, are absolutely loyal and absolutely united; they prioritize race interests as their starting point, always making the most correct choices on this basis and placing personal demands in eternal second place. They’re willing to accept arrangements with "execution value," unaffected by any personal feelings. If something benefits the collective and has enough execution value, a Xyrin Emperor might even willingly run solo into enemy territory, executing a Nine Lives mission like a super soldier—I and Sandora have both done such things, though the latter is due to the nature of a Xyrin Apostle, while for me...because I couldn’t do anything else anyway...

In short, as long as there’s no force majeure—like being affected by Abyss infection—the reliability of a Xyrin Apostle is one hundred percent; they make judgments like machines, and are as precise and trustworthy as machines.

Harlan gladly accepted my arrangement, which made him much stronger than Bellavilla in this regard.

"You guys—finished talking?" A leisurely voice sounded beside us. Harlan and I looked up to see Silvia, sporting a warm smile, standing alongside the Xyrin at the table. "Want more juice?"

"Alright, bring some more," Harlan was still somewhat awkwardly looking at the silver-haired mole with Bellavilla’s face yet behaving like a silly girl, "also, give me two more pieces of this, it tastes pretty good."

I glanced at the cake in Harlan’s hand, he was holding a small piece of the golden cake, which was Silvia’s most proud dessert: the waterless mini cake. Xiao Xue’s words rang true, Harlan encountered the piece of cake he couldn’t avoid in his destiny...

Silvia reacted for a moment before turning to prepare juice and snacks; meanwhile, the Xyrin sat down next to me, cheerfully focusing on her cake: theoretically, this special lifeform doesn’t need to eat, but she has added "eating" to her program, probably as a form of entertainment for the Xyrin.

Harlan was silent for a moment, then remarked with feeling: "Life on your side is completely different from what I imagined, the city’s atmosphere as well, totally different from my impression of the Empire."

An Apostle who just awakened from the nightmare of the Fallen, whose memory still lingers in the glorious days of the Empire, is mostly unaccustomed to the relaxed and easy atmosphere of Shadow City, as well as the mixed presence of many "low-level civilizations" and the Imperial Army. Harlan’s lament is also similar to the Carlo Brothers’ initial impression, but they’ll soon grow fond of this place: I’m quite confident about that.

However, not everyone can easily set aside such lament. No sooner had Harlan’s words ended than I felt a fragrant breeze on my side and heard an urgent, rapid voice above me saying, "You have a choice not to eat! Indulging in good food and drink, resting here, and concluding with ’this isn’t the life I want’—how pretentious."

I looked up, seeing a silver-haired creature with Silvia’s face, and a mischievous smile, glaring at Harlan: it was Bellavilla coming around for her shift. I’ve been wondering why she hadn’t shown up yet: this somewhat malicious Raven King always likes to rib at any newly captured Fallen Apostle in Shadow City, for reasons unknown.

Harlan was taken aback by this burst of mockery, looking at Silvia like a monster: it’s the spitting image of people first encountering her, adapting to first snappy remarks only for her to suddenly break into rapid-fire Guo Degang-style chatter, which could easily lead to nerve damage with anyone of fragile nerves—Bellavilla revels in such mischief, with a personality that’s delighted by any prank.

I nudged Harlan’s elbow, whispering a reminder, "Bellavilla just woke up, she sporadically wakes up to startle people."

"Don’t make me sound like some resurrection," Bellavilla conveniently placed the snack on the table and, like caring for a child, instructed the Xyrin how to use a straw instead of using her tongue to lick the drink from the cup (lacking common sense to such an extent), before finally turning to Harlan, "Old buddy, long time no see. Last time I got pushed into the Void Storm by Ocam, I thought I might die before you, then recently heard you led your family to invade, again thought you would die before me, but turns out we both lucked out, neither of us ended up dying..."

Both Harlan and I were sweating nervously from the forehead: Bellavilla’s mouth indeed never says anything good, making me miss Silvia’s one-word-per-second rhythm...

A few seconds later, however, Harlan smiled, as if relaxing, "Well, now I feel a bit more familiar, previously just thought you were getting daft..."

"In a few days, you’ll know, except for speaking normally, there’s not much difference between me and Silvia. She’s essentially a protective persona I created in pursuit of the life I yearned for, which you can view as the most real side of a Xyrin Apostle when abandoning all rational constraints," Bellavilla said while unabashedly swiping the things in front of me and stuffing them into her mouth: being a store manager in her way is indeed one of a kind, "Hmm, Silvia’s skills have improved... Harlan, feeling disappointed?"

Harlan was speechless, forced into a rueful smile, "You’ve changed a lot, but you look like you’re doing well."

"Yeah, this guy has many shortcomings, but he’s made this Empire quite interesting," Bellavilla poked my arm like inspecting goods at a market, "initially, I was unaccustomed after waking up, but now I’ve grown fond of this mundane life. Just sharing some stuff from Silvia, planning to continue your old job? Why not consider my lifestyle? Semi-retired life is quite relaxed..."

I glared at Bellavilla with fury, if she dared convince Harlan to retire like her, I’d tie her up and send her to the Imperial Military Department!

Fortunately, Harlan’s will was strong, he felt no affinity for Bellavilla’s "decadent" lifestyle, instead starting to earnestly persuade her to renew her fighting spirit and return to the battlefield: discovering the once mighty and cold Raven King was now willingly baking cakes, her only occasional Apostle duty being training a few soldiers or giving advice to the urban planning department, Harlan displayed much disappointment, even though he had just rejoined the ranks of Xyrin Apostles, soon finding himself doing ideological work for Bellavilla. She dismissed everything with one sentence: "Given my current state, even a little exertion means I could nap anywhere anytime, plus bumping into a turtle makes me ponder for three minutes whether to dodge or not—want me on the battlefield? Do you truly regret that I didn’t perish before you?"

After that Harlan couldn’t manage a word.

"Hey, hey..." The Xyrin suddenly nudged my arm, with cream stuck on her face, I casually wiped it off. "What’s up?"

"Sandora and Taville are calling you," the Xyrin said as her body rippled with luminescent waves like water, then in a blink transformed into Sandora’s form, speaking in a voice identical to Sandora’s, "Ah Jun, come to the research center, urgent matter."

I was stunned by the Xyrin’s sudden tactic: although I knew she could mimic anyone’s appearance, didn’t expect her to relay messages this way; what a high-end video messaging feature—full 3D surround high-definition audio with tactile perception system video message, Xyrin, could your functions be even richer?

"That’s it," the Xyrin transformed into Sandora’s parlance, indulging in these contradictory movements, with a cold and noble Queen’s image unexpectedly performing inconsistent actions. I found the sight increasingly bizarre, and the Xyrin’s next sentence left my mouth agape, "Hey, what did I look like just now?"

I replied: "...so next time you relay a message, don’t mimic the person’s image."

Xyrin was still trying to transform back into her original form, but after half a day of effort, she finally gave up and started chatting with Bellavilla in Sandora’s form. I shrugged, stood up, and bid farewell to Harlan, assigning the remaining tasks: "Sandora wants to discuss something with me, so I’ll leave first—feel free to use the public database; it’s a perfect time for you to plan the development of the Abyss Angel Envoy. Besides, Zhadom recovered two days earlier than you and is now stationed at the Command Center. I’ve also assigned him to the Abyss Independent Group, so your troops are now complete."

Harlan waved dismissively: "Go on and do your thing; I’m not a rookie!"

I hurriedly headed to the research center, feeling a bit anxious because Sandora’s tone earlier was quite urgent—well, it was actually Xyrin’s copied voice that sounded urgent. I worried there might have been a life-threatening experimental accident here: Taville had previously blown up half a research institute, and although such occurrences have decreased in the past two years, the limits of a mad scientist are unimaginable for ordinary people.

Upon reaching the research institute, I found everything normal. The buildings were intact, no rescue teams were sighted, and groups of Taville and other technicians were busily yet orderly working, with many even showing joyful and excited expressions. Following the guidance from a spiritual connection, I arrived at the central area, where I saw one Taville and another Taville analyzing experimental data with three more Tavilles. Additionally, several Taville were helping other Tavilles elevate a coffin-shaped device to a multifunctional analysis platform, and many Tavilles came to greet me... Dazed, I looked around the stadium-sized laboratory and found nearly two-thirds of the staff comprised Taville’s mass projections! Assistant technicians only occupied a small portion, mostly busy with peripheral equipment—this was definitely a super important project, so the bespectacled lady concentrated a lot of her threads here. Nonetheless, my first impression was still like I arrived in South Korea, watching a clone beauty contest... indeed, Tavilles are quite pretty, easily dominating the clone beauty contests throughout a lifetime in Korea.

Experiencing a mental overload from being surrounded by these bespectacled ladies.

Luckily, I quickly found Sandora among the sea of Tavilles, thanks to her distinctive golden curly hair; otherwise, it would have been challenging to spot her. Sandora was discussing something with Taville—I don’t know which number at the central platform of the laboratory. I approached and patted her shoulder: "Wow, there’s an impressive setup here—what exactly is going on?"

"We’re attempting to resurrect the ancestor." Taville was the one who answered me, and I noticed this Taville differed from the surrounding mass projections: her body edges lacked the trembling interference patterns and appeared more real.

"Ah, Taville, long time no see—your real self," I greeted the genuine bespectacled lady before realizing what she had just said, "Wait! You’re resurrecting the ancestor?!"

"It’s merely an attempt, and we’ve already failed many times," Sandora said softly, stepping aside and pointing to the adjacent alloy platform. Following her direction, I saw a crystal container embedded in the platform, resembling an Egyptian sarcophagus. I recalled that this was the inner part of an ancestor’s hibernation pod found in the Far Frontier World.

Inside this crystal coffin, lying peacefully, was a middle-aged man with gray hair and beard, appearing calm, as if he were sleeping.

"Our troops manufactured a new universal interface to be compatible with ancient hibernation equipment, which is this experimental platform. We also developed a series of facilities to decipher what ’stasis’ on homeland materials truly means," Taville’s voice carried a lightness, implying she had full confidence in the entire plan, "Your Majesty, you know that things from the Hometown World are in a mysterious ’stasis’ state, preserving the ancestor’s remains yet making resurrection extremely difficult: reactivating the body against the stasis seems impossible as bodily tissues always rapidly revert to a deceased condition—but now we’ve made groundbreaking progress."

"By reacquiring the information flow, we can now break the stasis," Sandora gestured upward, "Activating this device will permanently reboot all homeland materials in stasis within the laboratory, allowing the resurrection process to proceed normally."

Following Sandora’s gesture, I saw a complex and massive machine installed at the laboratory’s ceiling. It resembled a circular ring formed by intertwining crystal clusters and hexagonal metal plates, emitting pulse-like flashes. Actually, I noticed this device when I first entered, but at that time, I assumed it was the laboratory’s new ambient lighting setup... well, let’s maintain our dignity.

I listened intently from start to end, knowing I have little say in these advanced technical matters. Yet, I felt an undefined sense of excitement tinged with unease seeping into my mind: resurrecting the ancestor, this astonishing plan had always felt intangible, the extreme time span making it seem like a dreamlike project, yet Taville progressed this far?

Originally thought to be a tall tale, the project materialized so tangibly before me that I found my breathing somewhat tense, akin to perpetually dreaming about inheriting vast wealth, never expecting such to manifest someday, only to awaken one morning to find a grand old man in Arabian attire outside, clutching your leg, saying, "I’m your long-lost father; I have over twenty oil fields..."

... In essence, that’s the feeling, utterly surreal, exceptionally dreamy, filled with anticipation yet inducing more anxiousness—what if that Arabian grandpa escaped from the neighboring psychiatric hospital?

These disjointed thoughts churned in my mind, helping stabilize my mood. It seemed like Sandora already decided to make the ancestor open his eyes, and technically, this project truly held potential. However, I suddenly pondered a logical issue: "After removing the stasis, will the ancestor’s body start decaying?"

"Technically, yes," Taville nodded, "Although stasis isn’t equivalent to a time freeze, they share similarities on a physical level. Once stasis is removed, the material making up the ancestor’s body won’t remain immortal; they would begin decaying and rotting as normal materials do, starting from the moment of bodily death—they were mortals, and post-mortem, the body deteriorates."

"We can employ technical methods to slow down or even prevent the physical decay process of these remains," Sandora interjected, "But the crucial aspect is the soul... If the ancestor’s soul were preserved by the stasis too, then upon activating the equipment above the laboratory, the soul would start dissipating. As we haven’t detected any soul fluctuations of the ancestor so far, I’m afraid that even if the soul exists, it is already too weak to be preserved..."

"Ola already came earlier today," Taville stated, "She’s the most powerful Leader Bee, extremely sensitive to souls. Yet, even with her strength, she couldn’t perceive the presence of the ancestor’s soul. The ancestor’s soul might have already dissipated, or it might be too feeble. Assuming the latter, once the stasis is lifted, the time we have will be extremely limited: there’s no method to delay the dissipation of the ancestor’s soul. Theoretically, that’s the case."

I understood Taville’s implication: even if the ancestor’s soul still exists, it’s so weak that no technical means can ’extend’ its life. This indicates the resurrection process will be a race against time: once stasis is removed, we must complete the resurrection before the soul naturally dissipates.

Of course, there’s the worst-case scenario where the ancestor’s soul vanished eons ago, and Sandora and Taville’s efforts are one-sided. Even if successful, only an empty shell would be revived—but I bet no one present wants to entertain this possibility.

Mentioning "time is precious," Qianqian naturally came to mind first. Her expertise in "buying time" requires no elaboration, but quickly I realized it might not be feasible: due to obvious reasons, the ancestor’s soul must remain "free" throughout the entire resurrection process, so Qianqian cannot interfere.

The final shortcut was also blocked.

I gazed at the peacefully resting ancestor’s remains in the crystal coffin, realizing that I was about to witness history.

Success or failure, the result will be revealed shortly. (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)