Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1393: The Stubborn Ancestor

Today is the second day back from the Deep Dive Test Port, Taville and her expert team transported the second Black Shuttle safely to Shadow City in the morning. Now a group of dismantling enthusiasts should be busy figuring out how to take apart the probe from the other side into a pile of rubble—after all, the previous Black Shuttle left people with no clue where to start, which made Taville’s research quite unsatisfactory. However, this time the shuttle seems to have lost its self-destruct function, its shell has already been opened, and Taville can finally take out what’s inside to see.

Plus, as long as the Deep Dive Port Control Center is rebuilt, the deep dive plan can continue. Lin Xue has guaranteed the upcoming deep dive mission, so I guess Taville and her buddies must be in a state of unprecedented happiness now.

Anyway, knowing these major projects can continue safely makes me happy too, which means at least until the Fallen Apostle throws another tantrum, I can enjoy some relatively peaceful days. For me, being busy with work every day isn’t scary, it’s having every task be unexpected. I believe many people understand this: Being busy with something you’re familiar with, even if it’s mundane, is bearable for most people, but if you also have to randomly go to the Middle East every week to maintain world peace, that’s beyond most people’s tolerance.

Most of the time, my life rhythm is like this—I calculated that in a month, I spend about twenty days reviewing tons of reports, and the remaining ten days randomly choosing times and locations to maintain world peace. Looking back, I feel I might be born as a wise sovereign—could any ordinary person handle this kind of life rhythm? Of course, the reason I can handle it might be because my brain’s slow; only when I’m idle and free like now, do I start pondering life’s marvel.

It’s now nine-thirty in the morning, Qianqian dragged Big Sister and Monina to the streets early, shopping to their heart’s content, and they haven’t returned yet. Perhaps they stumbled upon a store sale, or encountered some street pets fighting: There’s always a diverse range of reasons why Qianqian spends half a day out without returning; her thinking is like the diagrams in advanced calculus books—visible yet incomprehensible...

I just discussed with Sandora the details of the first submersion of the deep-diving ship in this mission. Because it’s the first time the new ship is executing a task since its port launch, and approximately seventy percent of the systems on it are newly designed: There is little resemblance with the first ship, so its maiden voyage is more about verifying the stability of new equipment rather than running explicit test missions. Its "depth" of submersion is unlikely to exceed that of the previous vessel. My plan is slightly conservative, ensuring all ship systems operate normally in the first trial is sufficient for me, whereas Sandora’s plan is a bit more aggressive: She intends to carry out a manned dive.

...Alright, that’s more than just slightly aggressive.

However, I understand Sandora’s perspective, because Taville indeed mentioned in the report this remarkable advancement: She not only enabled the new ship’s return function but also endowed it with considerable endurance capabilities. Unlike our previous launch which was almost a super-sized disposable probe "deep-diving ship," the new ship is an established and complete formal spaceship, capable of a hundred dives within safe "depths," and housing a scientific team of up to twenty people to work and live inside. Remember the communication device we retrieved from the Melowa People? It was developed back in the Fifteenth Day Zone but got stolen before being installed on Ocam’s deep-diving ship. Taville successfully replicated it and fitted it onto her newly designed spaceship, thus providing our new ship with external communication capabilities in the Abyss Deep Zone.

With all these significant advancements, Sandora naturally appears spirited, deciding to conduct a manned test on the first dive, since relying solely on a simulation cabin isn’t enough to verify all systems.

Sandora and I spent quite a while deliberating on this matter, weighing both aggressive and conservative ideas, each with sufficient reasoning. Finally, we concluded: two half-baked jars shouldn’t be arguing this topic, let’s just see how Taville arranges things...

Watching Sandora argue earnestly and seriously with me over the issue, realizing I’m also a half-baked jar in deep dive technology, struck me as funny—even the Queen occasionally has her dull moments, especially these days...

I leisurely wandered into the living room, curious to see if there’s anything interesting on TV: Even though I’m famed across the universe, I’m still interested in the happenings of this planet. However, upon descending the stairs, an even more eye-catching sight awaits: A huge tuft of golden fur sprawled over the coffee table, beside it is a silver-haired female hooligan lying on the ground.

Bingdisi and that silly fox somehow got together, both deeply engrossed in some research?

Curiously, I slowly approached these two unlikely companions from behind. They were so immersed in what they’re doing that they didn’t even notice me. The silly fox sat cross-legged on the ground, face pressed close to the coffee table, her tail swaying behind her in rhythm with her emotions, almost completely obscuring the view from my perspective downstairs, hence, seeing a big furball sprawled there initially. Bingdisi sat unceremoniously on the ground, gesturing and whispering to the fox while examining the objects on the coffee table.

Looking down, I found a small group of glowing little spheres floating above the coffee table, these little light balls in a soft golden color seemed to be made entirely of light, making them appear ethereal, suspended three to five centimeters above the table, dancing leisurely in front of the fox. Observing closely, I was astonished to find these little light balls bear faint facial features!

Instantly, I thought of certain low-level natural spirits of the Otherworld, as they resembled these very closely.

"What is this thing?" I suddenly asked aloud, "Did you buy new pets from Shadow City?"

The fox got startled by the spontaneous voice above, her tail shot up stiffly like a Sword Tomb, leapt up, and bumped into me. I shoved the Fox Fairy Lord back down, who then glared at me, cautiously gathering the little light balls from the table to show me: "The lice from my tail, just found they all transformed into spirits..."

I: "...?!"

Bingdisi kicked over towards the side: "So, what’s the deal with your information disturbance power, is it dependable or what, is it dependable or what?!"

Dodging the ongoing kicks from the female hooligan was challenging; I wound up grabbing Sister Bing’s foot and tossing her onto the couch, finally having the chance to examine the small light balls the fox held. Those little things I mistook for Nature Spirits bounced enthusiastically a couple of times, making a sound akin to wind chimes, leaving me utterly speechless at the bizarre scene.

After a short while, I snapped back, pulling Fox Fairy Lord’s ear: "How could you have lice on you when you bathe daily! Did you go find Cerberus to fight again? Or leading the wild cats at the west end of the street to revolt against human tyranny!?"

The fox’s multiple tails flapped against me defiantly like a windmill, grinning begrudgingly: "Let go! Let go! I am the Fox Fairy Lord! Ears are highly sensitive..."

"Alright, both of you eccentrics can settle down," Bingdisi surprisingly stepped up seriously to mediate, pulling the fox back, handing me a piece of paper, "Father God sent a letter, regarding your family grave... oh, [Sandora’s family grave]."

...Couldn’t this lady learn how to talk normally?

Speaking of the Hometown World, we recently sent the final bit of logs collated by the ancestors to the Divine Realm, where basically Ansis and a dozen ancestors have shared all the navigational details they’re able to recall from that log. As expected, the letter from Father God reports progress. It cheerfully states that the Divine Realm has found fairly clear clues among their massive data repository, indicating they can almost confirm the Xyrin Apostle’s Hometown World resides somewhere within a region once visited by the Divine Race, and after all those days of elimination, this area now encompasses quite a small range, perhaps allowing coordinates to be pinpointed within a short time.

Father God proudly mentions that the crucial clue was actually discovered by a batch of volunteer students summoned by Sovare: from the Yuqiang Vocational Technical School delegation of teachers and students from Holy Fire Continent...

This is the first time I realize, Divine Realm schools can also have such tasteless names, how endearing...

"What’s the content?" Bingdisi sat cross-legged on the couch holding onto her foot, casually engaged with the fox standing on the sofa continuing their study of the Louse Spirit, while asking nonchalantly.

"They say they’ve narrowed down the Hometown World to the list of worlds registered by the Divine Race, now undergoing the final exclusion method," I said while giving the fox a pat, reminding her not to stand on the couch with shoes: Though it’s not dirty, as the Fox Fairy Lord, maintaining dignity is important, "they also mentioned a Yuqiang Vocational Technical School in the Divine Realm..."

Bingdisi smoothed her silver hair: "Oh, that school, it used to be called Osiris Saint Academy. Later, its principal felt the names of Divine Realm schools generally followed one style, lacking creativity, so they changed it to this. It’s a renowned school, famous for innovation."

Me: "..." So this is how you stand out in Bingdisi’s hometown! I wonder if setting up a school called Yuqiang Middle School would count as a remarkable school in the Divine Realm?

While I was pondering this, suddenly a communication came from Shadow City, sent by Taville: "Your Majesty, there’s a situation regarding the Ancestors that requires your attention."

I was taken aback and immediately opened the teleportation gate to Shadow City; Sandora followed closely through her own teleportation, apparently having received Taville’s report as well. We arrived at the research center, bewildered, to find Anses, Lu, and several other Ancestors fiercely debating with the spectacled Maiden. Seeing Sandora and me, both parties rushed over as if they’d seen their saviors.

Sandora frowned, "What’s going on?" 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"The Ancestors have learned about the Deep Dive project," Taville said, looking troubled, "and they want to join."

I looked at Anses in surprise, and the faces of the other Ancestors were all serious. Clearly, this wasn’t a whimsical idea and seemed difficult to change.

Sandora and I exchanged a quick look, sharing our opinions through a spiritual connection, and then spoke in unison, "This project is very dangerous!"

"Our lives have always been dangerous," Anses dismissed this as if it wasn’t even a point worth considering, "and now, it seems like the Deep Dive project is one of the most worthwhile risks."

I knew Anses was a stubborn old man, and although I had a good impression of him, it was indeed worrying when the Old Master was being stubborn. So I was torn. We had never considered having the Ancestors involved in the Deep Dive project, nor had anyone thought to keep it secret from them. This project had evolved beyond its initial highest secrecy designation—although all its details remained classified, the project’s existence was widely known, so it was almost inevitable that the Ancestors would learn about it.

This should be considered a major oversight on our part: Nobody expected the Ancestors to request to join such a daredevil operation!

"Old Master, I know you have quite the obsession with the Abyss," I pondered how to persuade the Ancestors, "but this project truly cannot be undertaken casually. Even the personnel in the Deep Dive team tasked with simple jobs like tightening screws (if there are any) require layer upon layer of scrutiny and testing. How can we casually add people to such a mix? Moreover, you all know what the Abyss is; after striving for half a lifetime and finally not having to deal with them, why are you now thinking of joining?"

"Precisely because we know what the Abyss is," Anses’ voice was calm yet firm, "we want to see it."

"Just a look?" I eagerly added, "Sure, then we go home, okay?"

Anses’ expression stiffened, "It’s just a way of putting it..."

I spread my hands, knowing that the Old Master was not easily swayed, and that a group of Ancestors aware of the ability to enter the Abyss Gate wouldn’t simply "look." I had to clarify the situation: "Old Master, I’m not trying to throw cold water on you, but think about it. The Deep Dive project involves the highest level of Imperial Technology. Even technicians slightly below level are at a loss. Not being scientists yourselves, what help can you provide?"

"This project surely needs more than just scientists, right?" Lu stated softly yet resolutely. "We can do odd jobs, stand guard, or accept any work assigned—anything as long as we do not cause trouble. If we’re deemed useless, we can learn, right?"

At this point, I felt I had no choice but to nod, lacking the courage to label the Ancestors as useless—even though that might be true in some sense. I discussed briefly with Sandora, who also helplessly resigned to their tenacity: Given their knowledge of the plan, without force, no one could stop these stubborn Ancestors, after all, the single-minded spirit of the Apostles nowadays was inherited from these individuals.

"So we’re set," I reluctantly nodded, "but you certainly cannot participate with the research team since the technology content is too high. You may join the Sentry Team or service department to assist, but heed this: You must follow Taville’s orders completely—research on the Abyss Gate isn’t as simple as baking a cake without water, a single disobedient person could spell disaster!"

Anses beamed, his wrinkles visibly relaxed, "Of course we’ll comply, we’re no children."

I thought to myself, so you know, right—you all are just as headstrong as naughty kids, though those at home at least listened to adults.

"Your Majesty?!" As the situation took a turn, Taville only then realized the heavy burden landing on his shoulders, his eyes glazed, "You seriously plan to let the Ancestors join this..."

"The organization has great expectations of you," I said, patting his shoulder, "don’t feel too pressured!"

Taville: "...Yes, Your Majesty."

After everyone had left, only Anses remained, exchanging glances with Sandora and me, as he joyfully said, "I know you’re definitely cursing me now."

I quickly waved my hands, but before I could speak, the Old Master completed his sentence triumphantly: "Not that it matters if you curse; I’m not planning to listen anyway."

Me: "..." The Ancestors’ stubborn spirit is identical to the modern Apostles.

"We’ve sworn eternal enmity with the Abyss," the Old Master spoke solemnly, "yet until the day the Xyrin People were extinguished, we never knew what lay beyond its source, a grievance you must understand? Now that you can pass beyond the gate, for us old fellows, it’s a lifetime obsession hoping for resolution..."

The Old Master patted my shoulder, "Life isn’t only about eating and sleeping; we’ve come back to life, right? If we continue to stagger mindlessly into death as before, what’s the difference? So we’ll learn whatever we missed in life, reliving not to waste this opportunity."

With those words, Anses turned and left, leaving only a stubborn figure for Sandora and me to gaze upon helplessly until we sighed in exasperated amusement. Ancestors are great, except their temperament is stiffer than reinforced concrete...

Two days later, the control center of the once-destroyed Deep Dive Port was rebuilt, the deep-diving ship was ready as well, and Taville planned to conduct the first deep-dive test with this new ship tomorrow—though customarily Sandora and I should oversee it, an unexpected old acquaintance interrupted these plans.

Father God arrived. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to vote for recommendations, monthly votes at Qidian (qidian.com), your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)