Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1356: Soul Unison

"Have you ever heard of soul unison?"

Bingdisi lay lazily across the couch, taking up two-thirds of the space alone, while giving me and Sandora a look that said, "I am omnipotent," before casually mentioning an unfamiliar term.

I thought for a moment and looked seriously at Bingdisi: "Are you looking for revenge because Sandora just hit you with a bunch of technical jargon?"

The female hooligan unhesitatingly brought her other leg over, and this time I couldn’t block it, so I flashed to the couch across and watched Bingdisi’s two legs clash painfully on the couch. All the while, I asked, "What exactly is soul unison? Can it let you upload together with me onto the Xyrin Apostle’s spiritual network?"

"A kind of special divine technique, both the Shadow System and the Holy Light can perform it," Bingdisi squirmed on the couch like a big insect for a while, realizing not even the nearby Sandora intended to pay her any mind, she sulkily sat up and finally assumed a more normal posture. "Simply put, it’s the adjustment of two souls, making one soul the main and the other a subsidiary, then merging them. The unified souls become a ’whole,’ as if kneading dough. After unison, the main soul can separate from the subsidiary soul and share information through a spiritual connection, or fully merge into one soul for action. In terms of outward characteristics, the merged soul will display all the traits of the main soul, while the subsidiary soul exists as an ’attachable product’ immersed in the depths of the main soul. In this process, both maintain their independence and their inherent consciousness will not be confused by the unison."

I seemed to see a ray of hope; this divine technique Bingdisi mentioned might be useful for the current situation.

"The Divine Race has been studying souls long before you... well, a long time ago. You know, techies like to dabble in quirky little technologies when they’re bored, aiming to save the world," Bingdisi casually rearranged her ankle-length silver hair, sounding relaxed, "Soul unison isn’t a particularly advanced divine technique, but it requires experience and comprehensive understanding of Soul Studies. After unison, two souls can be considered one, like the main soul carrying the subsidiary soul along. If your soul is unified with me, then you could bring me into the network, and at that moment, I could still act independently; but before the unison ends, my soul would be like your attached possessions: your permissions system wouldn’t check if an Angel Envoy is carrying a pen in their pocket, would they? After unison, I’d be like a pen in your pocket. This process may sound troublesome, but proper coordination will avoid issues."

I was fascinated by this magical divine technique, while Sandora thought of something else: "So, this is something that can bypass the Empire’s permissions system? Looks like the permissions system needs an upgrade..."

"Hey, don’t be so serious. It has been like this for millions of years, talking to you is the most boring," Bingdisi grabbed a couch cushion and threw it at Sandora, "Soul unison requires total trust and acceptance from both parties. If either holds doubt, the divine technique won’t work—and I’m the subsidiary soul! Do you know how big a sacrifice this is?! I, a high Divine Race member, have to serve as someone’s luggage, and you still have time to worry about your permissions system malfunction! Do you have a conscience?"

Sandora caught the cushion Bingdisi threw, and I’m sure she almost bit into it just now: luckily, she held back. She glanced at Bingdisi: "I mainly don’t trust your character—you are unreliable, letting you and Ah Jun upload together to the network makes me uneasy."

Then the two old friends of millennia started bickering in front of me. Two gorgeous Swannesses fighting, pulling hair, grabbing ears, tearing clothes—the first half minute was pleasing to watch, almost reaching the realm of alluringly disheveled panting bodies, so I quietly observed without interrupting. But then Sandora drew her commander’s sword and Bingdisi began swinging the meteor hammer against my house—so I had to intervene: "Calm down, you two, we’re discussing serious matters now!"

Sandora sheathed her sword, while Bingdisi reorganized her slightly messed-up clothes amidst swinging the meteor hammer. I watched, feeling a bit trophy: endless fun in girl games, but these ladies around me don’t seem convenient to go down this path. Two pretty girls fighting, swinging fists and swinging meteor hammers aren’t at the same viewing level; the former you can watch as an art film, while the latter even as a war film feels too gory...

"So, you know that soul unison divine technique?" I cautiously dodged Bingdisi’s meteor hammer while asking expectantly, as Sandora tidied the messed-up furniture on the side. The household furniture had been blessed and reinforced to adapt to our group of outsiders’ lifestyles, so their roughhousing didn’t cause much damage.

"How should I put it..." The female hooligan revealed an unusually reserved smile—of course, she was still holding the meteor hammer, "actually, soul unison was invented by me. Back then, I won first place in the junior category of the brilliant cup’s sixtieth-thousandth divine technique innovation competition. I still keep the trophy..."

Me: "..."

Sandora paused momentarily to look up: "Of course it’s you...only you would research such bizarre things. What was the original purpose of soul unison?"

"To cheat on exams," Bingdisi replied shamelessly, "think about it, if you unify with a soul of a straight-A student, then that’s it. There were no preventative measures against such cheating per the monitoring technology in the Divine Realm at the time. After I created this technique, I thought I might be a genius..."

I pondered for a moment and suddenly felt something was off: "Wait a second, I remember you enrolled in the wrong major, weren’t you the only student at the Light Divine Academy then—who were you copying?"

"Exactly, that’s why the divine technique wasn’t utilized for two hundred years. Eventually, in frustration, I released it publicly. After winning the award, all the schools in the Divine Realm announced using soul unison in exams constitutes cheating. My idea was to set an uplifting life example for future generations: if I couldn’t cheat, none of you could! That’s about it..."

Sandora and I again: "..."

No matter how absurd the origin of soul unison was, it truly proved quite useful. Bingdisi proceeded to go over its basic principles and usage methods again—of course, she spoke rather technically, almost beyond my comprehension. Only Sandora, being an expert in Soul Studies, seemed to understand, nodding multiple times during Bingdisi’s explanation. Judging by Sandora’s reaction, this path looked promising.

As for worries about Bingdisi joining the Empire’s spiritual network with me—in fact, there’s no need to be concerned. Although Sandora openly declared she didn’t trust Bingdisi’s unreliable character, it was just joking. This female hooligan might be unreliable oftentimes, but she’s never caused issues in serious matters. Furthermore, even relinquishing her temporary travel rights in the Empire’s network means she can’t cause trouble: as a member of the Divine Race, she can’t use the command link; as Sandora put it, hardware incompatibility...

Imagine if a Meow Star Person had gathered the seven Dragon Balls—granted, it could make a wish, but the Divine Dragon couldn’t understand it!

"So, what does this soul unison require of me?"

Bingdisi and Sandora finally finished the discussion. I saw the latter go directly to Shadow City to find Taville for experimentation, and couldn’t resist asking, since Bingdisi’s explanation earlier was too technical for me to grasp what I needed to do.

"Mmm, basically nothing needs your attention," Bingdisi thought for a moment, "relax, eat, drink, promptly pursue anything you wish to do, play, or see. Soul unison won’t start until at least tomorrow, so tonight you should take a shower, have a good meal, reminisce about life, wake up early tomorrow in nice clothes, then..."

I trembled: "Then I’ll be escorted to the vegetable market for execution, right? Why does this sound weird coming from you?"

"Nonsense! After soul unison, I’ll temporarily attach to you, and I’m a girl too, so I wouldn’t want to wear dirty clothes!"

Me: "...Then explain it to me in a normal way!"

Sandora looked at me and Bingdisi bickering and suddenly seemed thoughtful: "I think I’ve finally figured it out... Bingdisi, why do I feel an inexplicable discomfort—isn’t your soul unison with Ah Jun up to something unsavory!"

I was stunned for a moment, then recalled the details of the soul unison, well, recalling the part I could understand, and felt that this divine technique seemed a bit ambiguous: especially the part where Bingdisi said she would attach to my soul. Considering Sandora’s personality, she would definitely say at this time...

"You can’t touch someone’s bread that’s already claimed!"

Sandora and Bingdisi spoke this famous quote in unison, and then the latter reached out to poke Sandora’s forehead: "I’ve memorized it. What are you thinking, this is essentially a process of putting my soul in your pocket, but that pocket is your bread—if you’re unwilling, just let Chen go alone. After all, the Rift might not be that dangerous, and even if there’s a situation, having me as an extra guard might not make much difference. After all, not many people know this soul unison..."

Facing the shameless Bingdisi, the dignified Sandora was obviously no match, so Her Majesty the Queen was suddenly at a loss for words, merely looking at Bingdisi angrily, requiring me to come forward to show my loyalty: "Sandora, rest assured, actually all these years I’ve never even considered Bingdisi as a woman..."

While Bingdisi chased me around the living room, Sandora pondered for a while and finally decided: let this female hooligan follow us. Although she seems unreliable in personality, her skills are undoubtedly competent. It’s just uncertain whether her skills will be functional when her pure soul is uploaded into the network. In my understanding, the Xyrin Apostle’s spiritual network is essentially a high-level internet. In reality, how can a skilled person’s spiritual body fight on the internet?

"No need to worry about that, if the Xyrin Apostle’s spiritual network were merely a data network, things like Xyrin and the Rift wouldn’t exist," Bingdisi said, halting her pursuit after hearing my question, "and the network world isn’t different from real space: they’re all based on information. If you think high-level power can only affect the real world and not the informational layer, that’s too narrow-minded—Xyrin Apostles and gods are masters of manipulating information. I once roamed a dream plane in pure consciousness form and changed a world’s structure through a dream. You need to know, since information is everything, the boundaries between realms like the spirit realm, information realm, real world, light and shadow realm, and so on are essentially the same..."

"I don’t understand." I admitted my ignorance in this matter, and there’s no shame in that since there’s a lot of stuff I don’t comprehend...

"You don’t have to understand; Void Creatures are inherently super-dimensional. These layers of realms are just ’learning tools’ created for us individuals below the Void to facilitate understanding everything. Even if you understand them, you can’t apply them."

Then I was satisfied, and Bingdisi continued chasing me in circles...

Early the next day, a large group of us arrived at Taville’s laboratory: including Sandora, Bingdisi, Big Sister, Qianqian, Lin Xue, Xiao Xue, Pandora sisters, and of course, myself. The little girls wanted to come too, but considering they’d be disruptive, we left them behind.

Bubbles was also involved in this project but wasn’t on-site: she was in a machine room 800 meters away, responsible for full-time monitoring of network fluctuations. If the Rift unexpectedly went berserk, Bubbles would be the last firewall: she would use the highest-level disaster handling authority to instantly segment the entire Imperial Data Network into thousands of independent segments. According to Taville’s calculations, this action could "freeze" the Rift for a short time. Of course, this can’t last long; the network must recover within ten minutes, which is the window for Bingdisi and me to escape.

The laboratory was large but nearly 70 to 80 percent occupied by equipment: within the octagonal room were three rings of rectangular devices connected, resembling vertical coffins (though I’d rather say they looked like the servers made by Earthlings, only coffin-shaped invites ridicule). These devices were peripheral support facilities with a straightforward function: transcoding, converting the souls of beings from the real world into information streams that can navigate the spiritual network. It’s incredible, akin to converting zeros and ones on a computer into an apple you can hold and bite into, but based on the "unified information" theory, any form of transcoding is feasible with proper manipulation and sufficient computation, for which the support devices provide the manipulation while Bubbles and all mass-produced hosts in Shadow Space now form a network to provide computational power for this project.

The laboratory personnel bustling among these peripheral support devices were all Taville’s mass projections—to ensure nothing would go wrong, Taville had prioritized this task at the highest level and eventually took over all processes alone. Looking around the laboratory, it seemed like the bustling streets of South Korea, truly spectacular.

At the room’s center were the key components of the equipment—at least for us people in the real world. They were several side-by-side sliding lid coffins.

Hmm, Taville introduced them as her newly developed comfortable access pods, that’s how I understood it.

The communicator in the laboratory lit up, and Bubbles, now in emotionless mode, appeared on the screen, hovering within a crystal prism with more mass-produced hosts arrayed in the background. The little girl’s mechanical voice resounded through the hall: "Peripheral servers and computation units are operational, running well, computational power is ample. The mainframe inquires when to start working."

"Start a ten-minute countdown and begin preheating the upload components," Taville responded, directing her projections to activate the laboratory devices one by one. A low hum emanated from beneath the lab, gradually spreading to the server-like cabinets around us. The Xyrin Apostles’ spiritual network formed a vortex-like node here, ready to welcome an unprecedented massive data exchange.

"It’s almost time to begin soul unison," Bingdisi is prepared, slightly squinting her eyes with mysterious radiance flowing in her blood-red pupils. When she reopened her eyes, they appeared especially profound, as if one look could engulf a soul, "Chen, relax, have no doubt or resistance—my soul is much weaker than Void Creatures, and if you resist, I will be seriously injured."

I nodded, while Sandora looked more nervous than the two of us involved. She grabbed Bingdisi’s arm: "Tell me there’s no weird ritual for this soul unison, okay? If you dare say it requires a kiss, I promise to eat you raw without dipping sauce, got it?"

——It’s obvious Her Majesty the Queen isn’t anxious about the female hooligan possibly getting hurt...

"Have you been reading too many Earth novels?" Bingdisi gave Sandora a sideways glance, then turned back to press my shoulders with both hands, "Damn it, I told you to relax, not fall asleep!"

I was startled awake and then saw Bingdisi suddenly toppling towards me in a daze.

Instinctively catching her tipping body, I realized we were now in an embrace. The sensation in my arms was soft and warm. A moment ago, this majestic female Tyrannosaurus now felt soft as water, and as I moved my arms to help her up, she only held tighter. My first thought was: Sandora is really going to eat Bingdisi without sauce this time, and then Qianqian and Lin Xue might hunt me down for a bit...

But in the next second, the soft and "richly filled" sensation vanished, as if it never existed. I blinked groggily and saw I was still standing there well, with Bingdisi standing opposite with her eyes closed as if asleep, her hands still on my shoulders—just like ten seconds ago.

Was that an illusion, or did something happen on a soul level? (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote for it with recommendations and monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please read at m.qidian.com.)