Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1365: Harlan’s Preparations

During dinner, Bingdisi sat next to me—of course, this refers to her body in a disembodied soul state. Sister Bing herself is still stuck inside my soul. It’s clear that Bingdisi is full of resentment about her current state, as her biggest hobby is enjoying food and fun. Now all those favorite activities are gone, and the situation is such that the top priority food is already not feasible. What’s more miserable than watching your family eat a grand feast while you can only watch from the side? It’s watching yourself watch your family eat a grand feast. Those who can’t see the logic here can go back and scribble some formulas.

"Speaking of, what’s the point sitting here?" I negotiated with Bingdisi inside my soul, "How about I help your body back to rest? Maybe if it sleeps, you’ll be back."

The main reason I suggested this is that having Sister Bing sitting expressionless beside me is too stressful. I dearly miss the lively Bingdisi with chicken grease on her hands arguing with Qianqian about whether Earth or Mars is rounder!

"I can’t eat and now I can’t even watch?" Bingdisi huffed, "I’m just here to smell the aroma, is that okay!"

"You can smell something right now?" I muttered, "You’re currently a pure soul..."

Sandora glanced at me and then at Bingdisi’s (body), suddenly she picked up a piece of meat from the bowl and stuffed it into the latter’s mouth: "Here, eat."

The body in a disembodied soul state has basic movement ability and faint consciousness, so it instinctively chews. I hear Bingdisi swallowing in my mind (how can a soul make this sound?) alongside her exasperated voice: "This is useless, I can’t feel anything! Chen, eat an extra bowl for my sake!"

I wanted to say what’s the point, but feared she might sing some weird off-key tune to torment me, so I carefully shut my mouth and shoveled food while watching Sandora mischievously stuff Sichuan peppercorn and napkins into Bingdisi’s (body) mouth...

Bingdisi has entered a state of no joy, no sorrow, ignoring Sandora’s actions because she feels nothing anyway.

This chaotic dinner finally ended, and dozens of Three-inch Ding expressed great satisfaction with the meal. The scene of them circling a pot of soup looking for ladders was remarkable, especially when Pakiki fell into the pot: who knows how much they spoiled because of it. These dozens of little ones are staying overnight here (those taken by Dingdang are probably not returning from the temple), and I’ve pondered for a while how to arrange rooms and beds for them. Dingdang usually sleeps in the lampshade above my bed, but it seems we don’t have enough lamps...

They’re really a headache-inducing group of guests, though small in size, their sheer number is a big problem.

Just as I was stressing about this, the silly Nine-tailed Fox timed her appearance perfectly, swaggering her tail in front of me: her appearance brought tons of great ideas to my mind.

Fox Fairy Lord is perceptive; as soon as my gaze changed, she bristled, the fur on her ears visibly puffed up piece by piece, and even her tail went straight: looking like a spiked rake turning into a spirit.

"Fox, come here." I beckoned to the Fox Fairy Lord, who reluctantly moved closer and stopped at a three-meter safe distance: "What do you want—just to be clear, you can’t use me as a pillow for Xiao Xue, nor can you pluck fur from my tail, with winter coming, I’ve just grown warmer thick fur. If you want a new scarf, I’ll make you one next spring..."

The fox is currently shedding: even after thousands of years, she maintains many subtle wild animal habits, like shedding fur in winter. Nowadays, Fox Fairy Lord’s fluffy tail is more attractive than ever, especially to naughty kids like Xiao Xue, who grew up hugging her tail to sleep. The poor fox is about to develop a psychological shadow from all this torment; a few days ago, I even saw her wrapping all her tails in a scarf—probably realizing how stifling it is, she eventually stopped.

I anticipated the new scarf from the fox next spring and kindly went to stroke her fluffy ears, calling the dozens of Three-inch Ding: "You guys sleep in her tail tonight. Dingdang slept inside once and said it’s very comfortable. I reckon each tail can sleep at least seven or eight people..."

"Wait a minute!" Only now did the fox react, turning her head to escape, "You can’t do this, I haven’t agreed..."

Before she finished speaking, the whole group of Little Ones cheerfully pounced, showing their natural cooperative ability in group actions. Instantly, they distributed their sleeping spots, and a flash of green light later, all Little Douding disappeared into that thick golden fluff. Fox Fairy Lord’s muscles tensed up, a stiff expression and a long sigh of "Ugh—" followed.

"So ticklish..." Suddenly, the Demon Fox Girl flashed a foolish grin and then bizarrely went all flushed and fainted.

"I’m going to take a bath and sleep early today." I settled the fox in her room, returned to greet the family, and prepared to walk to the bathroom. But before I could take a step, Sandora rushed over to grab my arm: "No way!"

"Ah?" I look at her puzzled, then understood immediately.

"Bingdisi is still fused with you! She’s not like Alaya; she’s using your first-person perspective!"

A chill swept over me, and even Bingdisi stuck in my soul seemed to be hit by this chill too, muttering: "Wow... Sandora, you’re so crude after marriage..."

"What do we do?" At that moment, I thought of more than just taking a bath, fully realizing what merging with a female means—having a girl peeking at everything from a first-person perspective next to you!

Luckily, after my Life Form fully transformed into a Void Creature, I didn’t need a bathroom break anymore; otherwise, I couldn’t imagine the scene three days after merging with Bingdisi: in optimistic terms, Sandora would have probably swallowed me whole by then.

"Anyway, bathing is just a habit; you stopped getting dirty long ago." Sandora bit her lip saying, with Qianqian standing behind her who came over for the commotion, and the latter just smiled blankly.

"What about sleeping?" I started listing all situations I could think of.

"Sleep with your clothes on." Sandora firmly stated, Qianqian nodded along: though she hadn’t comprehended fully.

"What about changing clothes?"

"Close your eyes, if you’re bothered I can help change them."

"What about underwear..."

"We’re married," Sandora turned her face away, "I know even when you’re not dressed..."

Bingdisi hadn’t considered all this before; now every word I said brought her wailing in the Spiritual Connection, leaving her with the final statement: "My lifetime reputation, my lifetime reputation, my lifetime reputation..."

Actually, I felt that Sandora’s insistence on "closing your eyes" was self-deceptive since Bingdisi’s current state is beyond just "first-person perspective." She’s completely united with my soul, and you can regard Bingdisi as the co-owner of this body, she’s just not in control.

When I don’t think about it, it’s fine, but when I do, it’s goosebumps all over and a chilling realization.

Qianqian finally figured out what’s going on. She’s looking over here with a rather dangerous look in her eyes. She’s a bit naive, but not completely clueless, and I can only respond with an innocent, honest, silly smile: I’m definitely in an unprecedented unlucky state now. I mean, I didn’t do anything, so why do I have a suspicion of infidelity...

"Forget it, forget it, just bear with it," I sighed long, feeling life is indeed full of ups and downs, "Hurry up and finish the task at hand and make a trip to the Divine Realm, Bingdisi being stuck like this isn’t a good thing, why does this kind of divine technique going awry always happen to me."

Back in the room, bored out of my mind, I saw that little gothic doll lying on the bed reading a book. Due to her size, she had to spread the book open and lie on top of it to read. Looking at this little girl who resembles a mini-version of Sister Bing, and thinking of Bingdisi who is currently stuck with me, the words "family of three" just couldn’t be held back...

"What’s wrong? Your expression is weird," The doll girl propped herself up, her ruby-like eyes full of confusion.

"Nothing much, the three of us will sleep together tonight," I sighed, walking over to pick up the little doll and rubbing her against my face. She’s no longer resisting this standard father-daughter level of intimacy, but still very much dislikes being poked by my stubble, so she’s squirming around uncomfortably trying to escape.

"Why three people?" The doll girl pushed hard against my chin, "Oh right, I’ve heard Sister Bing is stuck with you."

Actually, she should call her Aunt Bingdisi, but the female hooligan strictly forbids anyone to call her "Aunt," plus the titles in the family are already a mess with no hierarchy (given that the vertical age difference is often billions of years, would you dare study the hierarchy?) so she just calls her that sometimes, of course only when she’s in a good mood. If she’s not in a good mood, this bad-tempered doll calls everyone by their first name, including Father God.

After a while, I lay on the bed dazed, pondering whether being stuck in the same body with a female hooligan is an ethical issue or a societal one. The doll today just wouldn’t sleep on the bed no matter what, climbing into her box early: usually she’s quite willing to be held like an ordinary doll to sleep, but today with Bingdisi involved, the little one might have some psychological discomfort.

Just then, I heard murmuring outside the door, as if someone was discussing something. Just as I was trying to make out who it was, the door was pushed open, and Sandora and Qianqian appeared at the doorway in pajamas, holding pillows.

"You two are..." I was momentarily stunned, while Sandora walked in with big steps and threw her pillow on my bed: "Here to supervise, we ran into each other at the door, Qianqian had the same idea as me."

Qianqian nodded earnestly, looking particularly serious. I scratched my head, feeling something was off: "You know, this probably isn’t necessary, Bingdisi and I are stuck together on a spiritual level, it’s not like anything substantial could happen, does it matter if you guys monitor or not?"

Bingdisi also strongly agreed through the spiritual connection.

"Nonsense, of course, I know that," Sandora pouted, as she made arrangements with Qianqian over who sleeps on which side, they’ve evidently formed a solid unified front, "but it’s a psychological thing: knowing you’re in close proximity to the most unpredictable woman in history, even if it’s not substantial contact, I still don’t feel at ease. Being here watching makes me feel much more at ease."

I was speechless, watching as Sandora and Qianqian swiftly decided the territorial division, while I had no say in the matter at all. Under their thin pajamas, the girls’ graceful figures made it hard to look away, but I could only desperately recite the Heart Clarity Spell in my mind - it was tough initially, but knowing that a female hooligan was witnessing everything through my eyes, all thoughts vanished...

I could only feel relieved that Lin Xue has to return home every day, otherwise, who knows how lively things could get tonight!

Even though Sandora and I have been in close contact for quite a while, and in theory "being honest with each other" shouldn’t be awkward, for some reason I felt more uneasy the more I thought about it, lying awake with eyes wide open, increasingly alert. Is this what they call a blessed life? It should be, there’s nothing more reassuring than being with loved ones, yet that off-kilter feeling kept bubbling up. Finally, Qianqian muttered something that suddenly made everything clear: "Ah Jun, if we count Bingdisi, wouldn’t that make it four..."

I jumped, "Qianqian let’s not, we agreed on all-age friendly..."

Bingdisi paused, then suddenly realized before lamenting dramatically, "Damn! Not like this! Let me out, let me out! I’ve stayed pure and clean for so many years, don’t hit me with such intensity right off the bat! Damn you adulterers, quit toying with my youthful heart ----"

"Those interfering in others’ marital life, shut up," Sandora gritted her teeth and said through the spiritual connection.

Looks like I won’t be getting any peace tonight...

Early the next morning, I woke up with two koalas clinging onto me, feeling utterly exhausted. Miraculously, I hadn’t heard a peep from Bingdisi: as the mastermind, she was snoozing comfortably. As a soul hitchhiker, this female hooligan could choose independently of my biological clock, sleeping or waking at will, along with her lawless and wanton nature, it makes her a mental soundbomb ignoring the host’s will completely. Thankfully, my biological clock and hers weren’t too different, because if our schedules were reversed, she’d nag me to death for sure.

"Morning, Ah Jun." Qianqian and Sandora woke up at about the same time, and this was where their different temperaments showed: Qianqian retained some semblance of a commoner’s worldview, sticking out her tongue sheepishly, while Sandora, with no Earthling thinking burdens whatsoever, didn’t make the faintest deal of the intimate morning setting, stretching lazily, her second line was, "Ah Jun, I’m hungry."

I went to the window sill and brought the little doll out of the box, pressing this bleary-eyed girl to the sink for her morning cleaning routine. Through the whole process, she stayed half-asleep, fully pliant: one can’t help but note that dolls could be spoiled, and this big-attitude kid’s probably on the verge of drowning in the sea of fatherly love, with the rare flutterings no more than refusals to call me Dad.

After breakfast, Bingdisi was still asleep, saving me a lot of trouble: like having to split my food as a token for the second soul inside me. Then, as usual, I set off for Shadow City to see if there were any official matters to attend to.

Punching in and working regularly, cycling through day after day, unless I have to set forth personally in battle, this is how my time passes—being a diligent Emperor isn’t too different from a nine to five worker. The only marked difference is you don’t have to lead millions of troops into battle every so often while doing a regular job, and as the Emperor, I have to keep my head and many others’ at the belt line... I must have a really long belt.

"You look quite haggard," a deep, resonant male voice interrupted my wandering thoughts, and I looked up to see a towering figure standing before me—a perfectly uniformed, steel-built frame, and a stern, slightly gloomy face: Harlan Levallet, it’s been a few days since we last met. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Harlan," I listlessly waved my hand, "it’s nothing, just some minor domestic hiccups—what brings you here?"

I knew Harlan was busy organizing the Abyss Independent Group, he’s a workaholic with Emperor-level autonomy, thus visits like this are rare with him usually being all business.

I assumed he’d speak about the Abyss Xyrin: after all, that was his previous allegiance’s leader, but Harlan seemed undeterred by his former master, bringing up something else instead: "Regarding setting up the Abyss Fleet’s full production line, we plan to proliferate Abyss Units within the Empire and want to consult you on it first, though it’ll possibly spark panic among ordinary races, it’s a necessary step for long-term growth."

I snapped to attention and straightened up, "Abyss Fleet production line? Do you have a complete set of industrial mother machines and Xyrin Host? Are you planning to build an Abyss Generator in the Empire?"

"I indeed have the full set of industrial facilities," Harlan nodded solemnly, "but building an Abyss Fleet doesn’t require setting up an additional Abyss Generator. Regarding those Imperial devices that have been tainted and transformed, there are some truths you might not know..."

Then Harlan began divulging secrets surrounding the Fallen Apostle that even Taville hadn’t uncovered. (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian.com), your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)