Little Crow has been resting at home for a week, almost falling into a dead-end cycle of eating and sleeping. Sister couldn’t stand it anymore and reminded me that there’s still the Vanilla issue to solve, which prompted us to finally remember it’s time for Silly Bird to set off to that world.

During these days, Vanilla has stayed at home, only went out with Sister on the fifth day to understand what the outside world is like. It’s hard to say how familiar Vanilla is with this new place, but at least she’s learned how to use the bathroom and knows how to turn on the TV. To her, everything around is probably an unsolvable puzzle, so she simply doesn’t bother to research why anymore, as long as she knows how to use things. You can see that from her initial timidity and fear to now, the child is often able to show a happy smile. She’s not so in awe of this strange big family anymore: perhaps because she finally discovered everyone here is very kind. I still remember the cautionary moves of Vanilla in the first couple of days: scared to wrinkle her clothes when sitting down because they were "borrowed," nervous to eat without seeing the food, fearing her initiative might make others dislike her, and even cautious when getting into bed, afraid of damaging the soft mattress. She dared not touch anything or ask questions, living cautiously in a completely unfamiliar environment. If it weren’t for Anwina’s patient and meticulous care, who knows what other situations might arise, so Sister once commented on Vanilla: "She really is a child who makes people feel pity."

Now the situation is finally much better, at least sometimes she will shyly ask us about some things, which is a sign of actively integrating into a new group.

Anwina is giving Little Crow some advice about what to watch out for when going out, while Sister is organizing things with Lilina, preparing as if they’re heading to Zimbabwe for an aid mission. Before setting off, they must first go to Shadow City, letting the people at the Space Control Center help integrate a virtual state coordinate transmitter into Little Crow’s body. I tugged Vanilla along, mysteriously telling the little girl, "Today I’m going to take you to a very magical place, you might see lots of incredible things, don’t be scared."

Hearing my words, the little girl immediately became a bit nervous, twisting the tie in front of her skirt anxiously: "So... Am I supposed to learn some rules first or something? I heard before that when going to a noble’s territory, you must learn the rules, or you’ll be kicked out."

I was stunned and then laughed: "Ha ha, that’s not what I meant, it has nothing to do with rules. The place I’m talking about is called Shadow City, the true capital district of the Empire. You should have experienced it earlier, but only today do we have the chance. That place is more amazing than what you’ve seen on TV these past two days, and you might encounter many strange and bizarre races. I’m afraid they might scare you. As for a noble’s territory—you forgot, the biggest nobility here is our family. You’re with us, what rules do you think you need to learn?"

Vanilla immediately let out a sigh of relief, looking at me shyly: "Um... you’re all quite nice, really... nice."

The little girl’s vocabulary isn’t very rich. Her only adjective to describe us is "quite nice," but I’m quite happy, so I ruffled her hair, letting her prepare for passing through the Space Gate: for first-time users of the Shadow City’s Teleportation Gate, it can cause a little dizziness.

On a side note, Vanilla is wearing a dress today that resembles the Azeroth style, a pale yellow dress. This outfit was rushed based on her descriptions, presumably equivalent to what civilian girls wear in her world. Little Medwen and Big Sister also have similar clothes, so that once they arrive, they can better engage with the locals. We’ve already positioned this trip as a holiday excursion, and the whole family’s mindset is adjusted to a going-out-for-fun state. After all, we’ve always gone out for battles and haven’t engaged in this kind of harmless "mission" for a long time. Vanilla’s world sounds like an inconspicuous low-magic civilization, Lin Xue’s prediction shows that the world has neither Abyss nor Fallen Apostle, and no threat information has been found (certainly, due to the lack of information, Lin Xue’s prediction also has its limitations, probably limited to a binary judgment of whether enemies exist). So I’m not worried about getting into conflicts with anyone once we’re there.

The only thing that’s somewhat unsettling is that Lilina is still hung up on her mission of spreading faith, already determined to have Medivh Crow God make a dazzling appearance. I’m worried she’ll start a religious war there easily: considering that girl’s moral level, this situation is not hard to imagine...

However, according to Vanilla’s description, the world she lives in is currently in a state mixed with primitive religion, ancestral spirits, new churches, and other mythological stories. This is a bit similar to the chaotic era before the true "church" of human history was born, where almost every human group has its way of believing in the deities. With regional isolation, each place has different mythological tales, resulting in completely disorganized religious groups. Monotheism might exist but definitely hasn’t become mainstream. If it’s such a situation, then Lilina would be thrilled, as it means she can easily find a corner to take the throne...

Right in the center of the living room, the teleportation gate opened, and I pulled the curious yet nervous Vanilla: "Alright, remember what I told you, if after teleporting you feel the scenery in front of you is turning in an abnormal way, just close your eyes. Just for a few seconds, it’ll be fine. Now, walk through this door."

Teleportation is instantaneous, something we’re already accustomed to. Vanilla, however, still tightly shut her eyes, clutching my sleeve involuntarily. I noticed she stood steadily, clearly unaffected by the teleport, but just very nervous. "Are we there? Have we arrived?"

"Ha, alright, alright, we’ve arrived safely. You adapted quite well." I patted the young girl’s head and said with a smile.

Vanilla cautiously opened her eyes, then widened them, raising her head higher and higher, and couldn’t help but exclaim, "Wow—"

The exit of the teleportation gate was, of course, the Dimension Hub Square of Shadow City. The most magnificent building complex of Shadow City—the Command Center and the command centers at various levels were right next to it. On the other side was the magnificent Temple District, newly constructed to welcome envoys from the Star Domain Divine Race. Under the management of the current Divine Realm Ambassador Bingdisi, this Temple District was temporarily converted into a small commodity wholesale market. The Dimension Hub Square itself is also a grand landmark, vast could describe it. The square was paved with silver-gray alloy grounds, enormous luminous patterns flowed across this land. With several expansions, the hub was now centered around the square’s center, with precisely 127 teleportation gates arranged, each standing one hundred meters high. Every teleportation gate was composed of numerous metallic and crystal fragments suspended in mid-air, connected by beams of light, forming a slightly floating pillar configuration. This allows them to permit larger physical objects through the gates under special circumstances by increasing energy consumption, making each gate appear more mysterious and majestic. At the center surrounded by all these World Gates was the largest obelisk, constructed from black and silver-gray alloys, Ghost Energy Crystals, and transparent Refraction Crystals. The obelisk soared thousands of meters high, with each side measuring two to three hundred meters in length, featuring complex mechanical structures. Blue Ghost Energy flowed through the crevices of the tower’s surface, pulsating like the lifeblood of the structure. At the top of the tower was one of the two largest Space Replacement Devices in Shadow City, with the other located on Mother Star Gaia. This means, on that inverted earth above us, an identical tower stands, precisely corresponding with the space replacement devices at each tower’s apex. When activated simultaneously, they can form a massive Space Rift between Gaia and Shadow City, large enough to allow any conventional warship fleet to pass. Since Gaia and Shadow City are mobile spatial entities, this flexible super-world gateway can even expand. Under extreme output circumstances, it can enlarge to the extent of allowing Planet Fortresses anchored at Shadow City’s Starship Port to pass through directly. This super device was Sandora’s bold innovation. She believed that, in facing the cunning combat tactics of the Fallen Apostles, our military coordination speed and anti-interference ability needed urgent enhancement. So, she spent months constructing this gateway, and within the Empire’s territory, this gate would allow any of our group armies to complete instant teleportation, bringing along two or three Planet Fortresses potentially.

Without this set of devices, such a scale of a fleet would have to traverse traditional World Gates in batches, with each warship needing to recharge its energy core, and the spaceship’s own Energy Core has limited instantaneous output, often causing delays of ten minutes to several hours (for some Planet Battleships), a stark contrast to the instant activation of the "Double Tower Gate."

If it had been completed earlier, the Fallen Apostle’s raid on the Imperial Mainland would surely have paid a higher price—unfortunately, it only began trial operations a few days ago, and even now, it has revealed many issues that need to be resolved. Such a massive and sophisticated apparatus is not easy to put into full operation.

Even citizens living in Shadow City often feel amazed by such a grand and impressive architectural complex, not to mention Vanilla, who, since birth, had only seen the tallest building in her world as the Mayor’s three-story house. A few days ago, she was taken to the street and was astounded by the tall buildings outside. Now, she seemed to have no energy left to exclaim, only knowing to continue looking up, trying to find the top of the giant obelisk: which is impossible, at least from this close position, you can’t see its peak. However, the blue halo emitted from the tower’s top is visible.

"Wow..." Vanilla gasped again, instinctively grasping my sleeve. This gigantic metal structure imposed an indescribable sense of oppression on her, as if the whole world was collapsing from all directions, demonstrating that this obelisk might be a bit too slender, hmm, that’s always been my belief... ahem.

"What is that?!" Vanilla suddenly pointed to the sky and exclaimed, seemingly realizing that the bizarre scenes beyond the clouds were not auroras but another land, where clear mountain ranges, rivers, oceans, another cloud layer, and faint artificial structures could be discerned in the bright sky.

"Gaia, the Imperial Mother Star. The blue big sister you saw the other day in the living room reporting work in a projection, that’s the prime consciousness of Gaia," I explained simply, because explaining further would probably be beyond this child’s comprehension. Soon after, she discovered another incredible object: a massive metal ring structure floating in the nearby sky, "What is that?!"

Sister looked up and glanced: "That’s the command center of the Military Integration Department, where heroic soldiers from various worlds gather, awaiting new commands from the Empire, or collecting their army’s equipment allocations. Additionally, most technical support and other urgent assistance obtained by the clans from the Empire also begin distribution from the Military Integration Department."

"You’re already so surprised, you haven’t seen more outrageous things yet," Lilina glanced at Vanilla, "Have you seen spaceships that are several dozen kilometers long? Have you seen fortress-sized planets? And then..."

"If you get too close, you won’t be able to see the size anyway," I shrugged, and then pointed southward, "That’s the World Tree’s crown, and below it is a Great Temple. Haven’t you always doubted that Dingdang is a god? That’s the palace created by Dingdang’s power."

Vanilla and Dingdang exclaimed together, "Wow!"

I quickly pushed Dingdang back: What’s this guy exclaiming about! Has she forgotten that she has a temple herself?!

Since Vanilla was distracted by the things around her, we lingered a little longer in the square. While I was looking around absent-mindedly, I suddenly saw a familiar figure under the World Gate not far away.

Wearing a purple dress, with a white soft hat on her head, bright golden hair flying in the air as she turned around—Yukari Yakumo, she actually came to work honestly today, and she seemed to be using a folded umbrella to command work.

"Hey! Yukari!" I greeted from afar, the demon girl’s ears were sharp, she immediately turned her head, saw me and ran over, with a happy expression on her face, "Oh, boss, oh, there are two more girls?"

I: "...Did you guys plan this or what!"

I introduced Vanilla and Medivh to Yukari Yakumo, who was always lazing around at home, and hadn’t realized that the famous Crow God had turned into a little girl and gone home. At this, she showed a surprised expression and cheerfully poked the little Crow’s cheek: "So impressive, a god transformed from a crow? Then would she be related to Wenwen?"

No one paid attention to her, and I specifically pulled Vanilla aside, whispered a reminder: "Don’t get too close to this oddball, she’s sneaky. She’ll sell you and still try to dodge transaction tax..."

Sister Zi immediately raised her umbrella, pointing at us, "I heard that! That’s slander, escaping tax is Ling Meng’s thing!"

I glanced at Vanilla: You see, she didn’t deny she would sell you.

"Speaking of which, what’s the deal with my Lan?" Yukari Yakumo suddenly frowned, recalling something, and looked over with dissatisfaction, "She stayed at your place for a while, and when she returned home, she developed the habit of lying on the ground to sleep?"

I: "..."

"And I even found her bag stuffed with pet snacks. Meeting others, she wouldn’t greet properly, but would wag her tail first. When with Orange, she’d always curl her tail into a little nest, letting Orange burrow in and play. She insists I pet her ears to fall asleep, and recently she’s been leading all the cats and dogs in the town for running circles outside, saying she’s organizing training camp—tell me, what on earth did you do to my Lan?" Yukari’s eyes grew increasingly accusatory, "Why do I feel she’s regressed to, no—not only regressed, she’s become weird!"

Can I openly say that for the past month that nine-tailed fox has been acting as a watchdog at home?

I think this issue can’t be explained, so I could only awkwardly chuckle twice to Yukari, thinking thank goodness Qianqian didn’t complete training Lan, otherwise, if the fox returned home dragging Sister Zi to toss the frisbee every day, I’d really have no way to explain. Yukari took a look at us, noticing each person’s expression was rather subtle, so she could only sigh, "Well, she seems quite happy, so I won’t pursue it further. But don’t bully my Lan casually, she actually brought up wanting to return to be with you. Especially you, I think half of her habit of eating pet snacks has something to do with you, and I saw a collar on her neck with your name on it..."

I finally admitted defeat completely and led the family to retreat miserably.

Soon we installed a transmitter in the research center for the little Crow. This transmitter is specially made to adapt to the strong energy environment inside the little Crow. It employs Lost Shadow technology and has been improved by several Raven magic experts, allowing it to phase during Void Shuttle and merge with the little Crow’s body. This completely avoids affecting Medivh’s navigation: Shuttling through the Void is a precision-demanding task, where even a small misstep can land you in an unknown world. After making thorough preparations, the little Crow reverted to her giant bird form with a wingspan of one hundred meters in the square. Then, just like last time, she lowered her head to swallow her human form into her body, satisfiedly nodding, and spread her wings to show she was ready for departure.

Vanilla almost cried out "Wow" seeing that scene...

We installed a huge collar on the little Crow’s neck, the collar was also made by the Ravens, similar in manufacturing technology to the transmitter, capable of merging with her energy state body. The collar’s bell is the passenger cabin, where Big Sister leads Anwina and Vanilla to stay, and admittedly it’s quite a fascinating travel combo...

The transmitter has started working, the little Crow received the command to depart, and immediately bounced around excitedly, flapping her wings to start her takeoff run, while shouting in the spiritual connection, "Medivh, setting off now! Goodbye, master! Master, come find me quickly! Setting off!" She took a few running steps on the square, then raised her head to let out an exceptionally loud call (definitely not a caw), then transformed into a twist of light and shadow, disappearing before everyone’s eyes.

A few seconds later, we got up from the ground, brushing off the dust from our clothes, looking at the square’s edge where vending machines and billboards were all toppled over, feeling utterly helpless: This silly bird, her wings are one hundred meters now, could she not bounce around before setting off?! (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you’re welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with recommended votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)