Little Crow Ecological Observation Diary - Eggs and More.

From current observations, the split lifeforms hatched from the Little Crows share many similarities with their maternal forms, primarily in personality and biological instincts aside from appearance. Like Little Crows, mini Medivhs cherish their eggshells, treating the shell fragments they carry after birth as very important "companions." For these small creatures, eggshells are the first tools they learn to use, the most common toys, and even occasionally, props to express friendliness and trust: by using each other’s eggshells, mini Medivhs quickly make friends.

Although they treasure their eggshells, typically, a mini Medivh retains only a small fragment of her shell, about one-third to one-fifth of the eggshell. They fashion this small piece into a regular shape, seemingly enough for their "use," while most of the eggshell gets collected by Little Crows, who call for their owners to dispose of it (they appear to conduct a simple farewell ceremony nearby during this process). Only a few mini Medivhs keep their entire eggshells, attempting to piece them back together. Why they do this remains uncertain, possibly due to an innate collecting habit?

Currently confirmed uses for mini Medivhs’ eggshell fragments include: digging tools (they occasionally dig holes, probably related to the crow’s feeding instinct), utensils (during feeding, if given food in their eggshells they are delighted), drinking tools, stools, tables, toys, and simply perching on their heads while running around. Their usual storage place for the eggshells is unknown, but they can "summon" them at will, suggesting these clever creatures might have been born with space-like abilities akin to personal storage—a likely inheritance from the Crow God’s power.

Another research subject is the intelligence level of these Little Crows. This might be even harder to grasp than their eggshell habits. The initial impression of Little Crows isn’t particularly bright—they act on instinct, speak incoherently, behave clumsily, and their actions have extremely simple motivations. Initially, we didn’t know whether to classify them as intelligent beings. However, we gradually discovered these small creatures might possess high intelligence. They understand learning, quickly grasp relations around them, have an internal language only they understand (which Medivh can also use), although this language can’t be translated by any device. The Little Crows have their own social structure, perfectly collaborating on tasks seemingly impossible for their small stature, such as drilling holes in the floor. After mingling with the household, they figured out how to use the TV remote and succeeded in turning it on. Moreover, they understand "trading," exchanging small stones from the yard for vegetable leaves. Considering all Little Crows are newborns, there is reason to believe that, with adequate learning, these little ones will become as smart as Dingdang.

... Well, I mean smarter than Dingdang.

... Why does it seem wrong the more I say it? Alright, alright, that’s the gist. Everyone, just catch the spirit.

Satisfied, I put down the pen for a moment, nodded slightly at the flamboyant handwriting on the notebook, and then looked up at the two mini Medivhs doing morning exercises facing the sunrise under Dingdang’s guidance. So I picked up the pen again, starting a new line:

"Little Crow Ecological Observation Diary: Imprint Learning Chapter"

"I mean, even if you’re in pain, there’s a limit. I don’t have an egg and I feel pain for you, okay?" Just as I wrote these words, a wisp of wind suddenly sounded near my ear, followed by Bingdisi’s deliberately loud voice shouting into my ear, causing my hand to tremble, and a full stop sprawled over most of the paper—this perfect calligraphy piece of mine was ruined.

"You dare call it calligraphy when you can’t even recognize your own scrawl without context!" Bingdisi plopped onto the desk, patting my shoulder, "Look, look, Dingdang is starting to teach those two birds to jump through fire rings! Speaking of which, you’re truly something, huh. How did you come up with teaching the Life Goddess to jump through fire rings in the first place? That little fellow showcased it in the Divine Realm, and now those Dou Shorties are all practicing fire rings..."

Me: "..." Crap, did my whim back then cause such a ruckus? Is Xingchen going to personally come and kill me?

"Are you slacking off again?" I glanced at Sister Bing, finding her brazenly sizing me up, making me a bit uneasy. "Are you broke again? You’ve practically toured the entire Northern Hemisphere by now!"

Thinking of the pile of random stuff Bingdisi bought recently makes me shiver from the heart, understanding somewhat why Sandora once ordered the world to expel her good friend out of exasperation. This goofball Dark Goddess is more than just trouble-prone; her lifestyle choices challenge the moral baseline for average people! Not that I can’t afford a spendthrift like her—it doesn’t strain me—but... Do you know how Sandora and I looked when she suggested buying all the Northern Hemisphere’s drugs to make bricks for building a clock tower at our place?

I struggle daily to clean up for this whimsical female hooligan, so much so that whenever I see Bingdisi idle, I reflexively contact the Command Center...

"What’s with your attitude?" Bingdisi, annoyed by my wary look, swiftly swung her long legs over. While dodging, I tried to keep my eyes from wandering, thinking of how difficult it is to deal with an over-aged unmarried woman, just listening as Bingdisi continued babbling, "Bah, this grand beauty, with grace and elegance, deigns to visit you while you’re futzing around with bird breeding, you know what a blessing that is..."

I remain silent, fixing her with a blank stare, and a few minutes later, Sister Bing finally gives in, "Alright, I’m here to deliver a message: Father God has sent word again." Saying this, Bingdisi starts rooting around in her bosom right in front of me, a scene so unwatchable with its turbulent waves that I quickly pull out pictures of Qianqian, Sandora, and Lin Xue to perform a visual recitation and keep calm. At the same time, I think that if she pulls out two fans from her chest later, I’ll definitely fight her, but in the end, Bingdisi does indeed pull out a small, glowing paper note.

"Here, read it while it’s fresh."

Me: "..." Somehow, Bingdisi’s allure seems especially high today!

I took the so-called letter. Unlike the elaborate scroll from last time, this note from Father God was on a small strip of paper two fingers wide. Compared to that formally structured scroll, this format seemed much friendlier. As I focused on the content, the words immediately flowed into my mind: "To My Friend, Human King Chen Jun, Greetings. Long time no see... Running out of space here, so I’m concise. The information sent the other day was received. I am very interested in this ’Fourth Civilization’ and have organized personnel in the Divine Realm to gather some data, with a few findings already. The vanguard discovered a signal source possibly related to it at the Old Empire’s border with the Divine Realm. Once things become clearer and the coordinates are confirmed, I wish to invite you to investigate together. Also, if you come in person, please bring some chive boxes; the last time, Bingdisi ate them on the way, and I didn’t have the heart to expose her. Additionally, there’s no suitable paper here, so I wrote this on a strip torn from a Jia Di’s practice book—she rarely does homework anyway, hope you understand. Moreover, if Dante was indeed SSS all the way... never mind, running out of space, let’s talk when we meet. Yours, Xingchen. I don’t even know what day it is today."

"What did it say? What did it say? I can’t see what Father God writes!" Bingdisi eagerly leans in as I roll up the note, and I immediately feel two soft weights pressing on my back, but they quickly withdraw when I utter the next sentence: "Father God mentioned the chive boxes you delivered last time..."

"I suddenly recall an ailing world awaits my salvation, so I take my leave now; let’s discuss this later!"

I shrugged, casting one more glance at the rolled-up note in my palm. Truly... Father God’s letter style remains as sharp as ever.

Father God mentioned the Fourth Civilization matter, which was something I directly informed him through the Star Domain’s Imperial Capital representative—Bingdisi—when the Black Shuttle first arrived at Shadow City because Sandora and I both understood that this Fourth Civilization’s emergence not only impacted the Empire but might affect the entire Order World. We cannot, like the Old Empire, abandon our allies and take that old path, so we promptly informed Father God and asked him to pass it on to the Huron Divine Realm. As for whether Hila, being so far, can assist, we’ll see when the time comes. Meanwhile, while we still have the time, I hope to unite all allies to investigate this matter thoroughly as soon as possible.

It seems Father God places even greater importance on this matter than I imagined, and the pace of the Star Domain’s actions this time has far exceeded my expectations: In anticipation, I was already mentally prepared for the Divine Race’s sense of time. I even thought it wouldn’t be surprising if they managed to get started before Earthlings broke out of the Solar System, but now it seems, the most responsible Divine Race in history truly lives up to its reputation. The efficiency demonstrated by the Star Domain team in such significant matters is not inferior to the Empire; in just a few days, they’ve made such significant discoveries!

Father God mentioned in the letter that the people he sent out discovered some clues at the juncture of the Old Empire and the Divine Realm. I can’t help but wonder what that might be — in that place, there are no longer any intact worlds; could it be the remains of a world? Or perhaps a large piece of equipment that the Old Empire threw into the Void, still operating to this day? Could it even be another deep-diving ship from the Old Empire Era? These possibilities excite me a bit; I just hope things progress more smoothly on the Divine Race’s side. Dingdang, who is sharing a tender World Tree sprout with two new friends on the windowsill, curiously looks over: "Ah Jun is in a good mood!"

I smiled and took out a few candies to hand to the Little Thing, then got up amidst its surprised and puzzled gaze to find Sandora, who was watching TV and eating buns in the living room, to share the message from Father God.

Just as we were discussing whether the New Empire should also organize some personnel to investigate the Old Empire’s border without alerting the Fallen Apostles, an unexpected emergency communication suddenly arrived.

Urgent news from the Fifth Fleet.

Sandora and I were greatly surprised; we immediately activated the communication screen in the living room, and thus Cocogina’s translucent spiritual body image appeared above the steaming buns, looking like the persistent haunting of the buns... What a bizarre association, don’t you think?

"Imperial Leaders, we may have discovered the reason behind the attack from that day."

I immediately sat up straight: "Are you saying the reason those Melowa people attacked you? What’s going on? How did you suddenly find a reason now?"

The Fifth Fleet which had originally found a new home deep in the Void and settled down, had suffered heavy losses due to a sudden attack without time to organize a defense, which brought them to this situation. The attackers were, upon investigation, very likely vassal races of the Old Empire’s Fifteenth Day Zone, the Melowa people. The Melowa people are one of the Old Empire’s oldest vassal races, but all signs indicate that they may have already turned away from their ancient masters. These are the facts we know so far, but what we don’t know is why the Melowa people would suddenly attack the completely unfamiliar Fifth Fleet, with whom they had no enmity. Even the attacked Fifth Fleet itself was baffled by this, so the entire incident had reached a dead end. I thought I wouldn’t be able to figure out what was going on before finding the whereabouts of those Melowa people, yet unexpectedly, Cocogina suddenly had news.

"At first, no one connected the two things," Cocogina’s deep voice carried a slight echo, "We found a strange item recently registered in the warehouse of the Ankah 5 Colonial Giant Ship. No one knows what it is; it was discovered by our exploration team while examining nodes outside the World Barrier. All we know now is that shortly after this item appeared, we were attacked by those... Melowa people. This should not be a coincidence."

"Understood, prepare the scene. Sandora and I will go there personally."

I quickly said, pulling Sandora’s hand: "Let’s go, looks like today will be full of discoveries again."

"You seem quite enthusiastic about this matter." Sandora still maintained that eternally calm demeanor, smiling slightly as she looked at me. I realized that my enthusiasm for this activity was indeed quite high and after thinking about it, I said, "Probably... it’s because it concerns the Fifteenth Day Zone. The Melowa people were vassals of the Fifteenth Day Zone back then, so I always feel a bit uneasy when they cause trouble."

"Don’t overthink it," Sandora gently squeezed my hand, reminding me, "Bring Lin Xue along too; she can see more than we can. Also, we should bring someone who understands the Melowa people..."

Immediately, a candidate popped into my mind: Orelia.

With the concept of Fifteenth Day Zone differentiation lifted, information about the Melowa people has actually resurfaced in the memory cores of the Technology Side Apostles like Pandora. Thus, Pandora could understand the Melowa people too, but I ultimately chose that Kite. Because after the concept separation, the Melowa people ended up being left on the Mysterious Side, and before everything went to sleep, they went out for one last expedition with the Sky Zone Emperor of the time. Orelia, as a "Watcher" of the Mysterious Side Mother Star, witnessed the events until the end. What she knows is precisely what happened during that most crucial period. Therefore, before Sandora and I set off for the Fifth Fleet, we sent a message to Heavenly Realm City to summon Orelia.

She was busy organizing personnel to adjust a newly repaired military factory, but upon hearing about the Fifth Fleet, she immediately dropped everything and rushed over. It was apparent that she, too, was very concerned about the Melowa, the rare suspected traitors.

With Sandora, coupled with Lin Xue and Orelia, the four of us quickly arrived at Kerudak Star. The ships of the Fifth Fleet, which had just been repaired, were all docked in the high orbit of this planet. Cocogina had everything prepared; he was waiting for us at the Orbital Station, along with the Council and several senior officers. Anchored a few kilometers outside the Orbital Station was the "Ankah 5" Giant Ship, a massive double triangular-prism colonial giant ship looking as if two ends were connected, with a beam several kilometers long linking the Orbital Station and the colonial giant ship. To prevent further damage to any clues, Cocogina ordered the "thing" to remain untouched in the giant ship’s hold, which requires us to inspect it later.

After greeting each other, we boarded the traction rail vehicle together. As it smoothly started, I glanced at the Council and couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity, "By the way... this is the first time I’ve seen you outside, not only have you left the hall, but you’re even out here beyond the planet?"

The Council smiled slightly, "The data network between Kerudak and the surrounding Space City is complete. You know my form of existence; when the bandwidth of the data network is sufficient, I can appear in any place covered by the network..."

Before finishing, the Council suddenly disappeared from in front of us, and half a second later, she reappeared, apologetically saying, "Correction, any place covered by the hotspot..."

Then she vanished again.

I: "..." (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to come to the Qidian website (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)