Xyrin Empire-Chapter 710 We Recaptured the City—Although There’s Still Some Trouble

Chapter 710: Chapter 710 We Recaptured the City—Although There’s Still Some Trouble

The majestic golden pyramid stood silently on an exceptionally vast square, so broad that it could even be described as a small plain. Having withstood hundreds of thousands of years of weathering and turned into a historical relic, the Xyrin Nest inevitably bore the scars of history. Ancient vines entwined the pyramid’s exterior, and thick moss-like plants spread across the base of the Nest. The pyramid’s super-alloy shell, with its metallic sheen, still gleamed beneath these coverings, yet many areas were mottled with signs of battle damage—scars left by the fires of war from hundreds of thousands of years ago. After the Xyrin Host inside had fallen silent, the Nest’s self-repair had also ceased. Over hundreds of thousands of years, they operated merely as city dispatch machines with immense computational power, no longer capable of producing a Builder to repair the increasingly decaying city of splendor.

After inquiring with the city guard beside me, I learned some secrets about this "temple" and the ancient customs of this Ancient Civilization, which had been passed down among the people for hundreds of thousands of years.

Before leaving their homeland, the Daylight Temple and Midnight City were the factories where the Atlantians selected new citizens and elevated talented warriors with the talent to "Divine Servants". Every Atlantian baby was to receive "Divine Grace" near the energy exhaust port on the outside of one of the Twin Temples according to their gender upon birth. This involved letting a small part of their bodies be exposed to the radiation from the Mother Nest’s exterior Ghost Energy—they firmly believed that this low-dose radiation would temper the newborns’ bodies and leave a mark on both their souls and flesh (due to the special nature of the Mother Nest’s Ghost Energy, this mark was actually a non-fatal radiation burn). This mark was thought to bring them closer to godly thoughts throughout their journey in life. And at the end of their lives, Atlantians who had received "Divine Grace" could ascend to Heaven with the "mark" in their souls and coexist with the gods. In other words, the skin scars from the radiation were akin to life’s GPS for the Atlantians, and an invitation to the heavenly road after death.

Conversely, sinners who committed the four great sins of "blasphemy, treason, defection, and fratricide" would be stripped of this mark in a ritual (which involved amputating the part of the body with the mark, and it’s said that those marked on the forehead by the beam of light were rather pleased). This proclaimed that they had forever lost their chance to enter Heaven. In the case of particularly heinous acts, even their descendants would lose the right to receive radiation. Thus, in Atlantian slang, "not having been struck by the beam" was a very nasty insult, roughly equivalent to "doesn’t have a little JJ downstairs" in Chinese...

As for the "Ascension" ceremony (actually a term coined by the Atlantians themselves, directly translated from the Xyrin language, thus bearing several interpretations, the closest being a promotion in status), it was the greatest honor an Atlantian warrior could achieve in their lifetime. They were sent into the inner part of the Mother Nest, near the room with the most intense radiation (known as the ultimate place), where they lay for a day and night without eating or drinking and had to recite a prayer from ancient times every three hours to cleanse their body and spirit.

Twenty-four hours later, ordinary warriors would be elevated to Divine Servants, wielding the mighty Divine Power. On Earth, they would call it "Special Abilities"—abilities that could destroy heavens and earth.

These legends from the Ancient Era, still inherited to this day, carry an unspeakable weight in the hearts of Atlantians, and to me, they seem somewhat bizarre: they treat the Xyrin Technology products, which I am already familiar with as objects of religious worship, and answer the daily activities of Xyrin Apostles with interpretations full of symbolic meaning, well...

Perhaps the gods of the Star Domain feel this strange sense about the worship of mortals: slightly laughable, yet somewhat endearing—except for that oddball Dingdang.

"It looks like a battle has just taken place here."

Raven 001 surveyed the surroundings warily.

The grand square around the Ancient Xyrin Nest was a place where destruction was absolutely forbidden, even after the disaster struck; those Mutant Monsters should not have been inclined to engage in infighting in this area. But now, aside from the Nest still intact, the square was a chaotic scene of devastation as if after an intense battle: huge, broken pillars lay shattered on the ground, broken into segments; the granite arches that symbolized the Gate of Heaven, once used for religious ceremonies, had vanished, leaving only large debris in front of the Nest, and the ground was riddled with half-meter-wide deep cracks, the jagged edges clean and straight as if a gigantic iron rod with thousands of tons of force had torn these wounds directly into the earth.

And among the ruins, numerous bodies lay scattered—of Mutant Monsters, without exception. The states of their deaths matched the violently destroyed surroundings—strange and as miserable as could be. Some were flattened, some were sliced into segments, some were stretched into strands, and some were charred together. The corpses torn to pieces by the Armored Scorpion earlier seemed more intact in comparison. The square was covered in suspicious dark red marks—the signs left by even unluckier creatures: not a single piece of flesh remained, their last mark in the Mortal World was a color.

"I can make out at least three types of cuisine, and the knife work seems familiar." Looking at the monster corpses on the square, Monina frowned and sighed with a sense of resignation, while Chiruno instantly vomited.

As they looked upon the square, which seemed to have just withstood an apocalyptic event, the Atlantis Warriors felt a heavy heart—others began to be alert and on guard, while Uncle Kenser kept his eyes half-closed, sensing something until he suddenly made a discovery and stepped forward, the crowd watching him with puzzlement as he carried two people from behind a pile of pillars not far ahead.

One was Lin, who was snoring lightly, and the other was Yelsen, who had fallen into a deep coma for various obvious reasons.

Uncle Kenser carried the two who had been sound asleep on the battlefield to everyone, dropping them on the ground, one on each side, and nodded slightly, "Neither is injured, very good, very good."

Monina stepped forward to assess the situation of the two, making a judgment, "Lin’s intelligence has not yet recovered, the poor kid played until she fell asleep outright, and my stupid older brother was knocked unconscious. Lin’s immense strength can knock out anyone of the same level from the Divine Race with a direct hit, even fully armed my brother couldn’t take many hits."

"Looks like this place is the handiwork of these two goofballs." I clicked my tongue, surveying the chaotic scene around.

As I was speaking, there was a slight clash of armor from the ground. Yelsen really lived up to his reputation as a Light Guardian known for defense, and at this moment, he slowly came to. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a bunch of people including his own sister gathered around him chatting as if they were offering last rites, making him feel seriously creeped out. His armor clanked noisily on the ground as he tumbled and got up, "You all came?"

"Did you two do this?"

I asked, pointing to the plaza that resembled the aftermath of a tsunami and the various pieces of processed fresh meat strewn about—the monsters were clearly the city guards who used to station around the Xyrin Nest, but now they had become our enemies due to the Abyss Infection. Perhaps there were fallen Valkyries and Anubises here before, as energy fluctuations from Ghost Energy lingered in the air; however, those two special types of soldiers wouldn’t leave bodies behind after death.

Yelsen, feeling a bit dizzy, took a look around and immediately perked up. He looked all pleased with himself as if he had accomplished some great feat, "That goes without saying! These monsters were absolutely no challenge when it came to killing them. You guys know Lin’s strength, practically every punch of hers was clean and brutal. The girl and I were like wolves amidst a flock of sheep, cutting a swathe through the enemy; it was like dust to the wind with a wave of my hand. We only ran into some trouble with a few dozen flying female warriors and wolf-headed soldiers in the middle, but Lin is of the Dragon Clan, and naturally has high resistance to energy, their Light Sabers and lightning were basically meeting their nemesis. Lin breathed Dragon Breath a few times and burned them down to a crisp. Ah, forget it, in the end, we dealt with them all without getting hurt, though I’ve still got a bit of a headache."

I had long anticipated the combat power of these two members of the Divine Race. If the Xyrin Apostles were Secondary Gods, then what they’d just dealt with were mixed soldiers dispatched by a Secondary God—there would have been no difficulty if there were any. Meanwhile, Monina seemed contemplative and suddenly asked, "Bro, why is it all about Lin’s exploits in battle? What were you doing? And how come you ended up unconscious with a headache at the end?"

Yelsen stiffened, looked up to the sky, and started to whistle.

Monina thought for a moment and was suddenly struck with realization, "You didn’t just let Lin drag you around the whole time, did you?"

"Nonsense! Don’t you know how strong that girl is?"

I shuddered, taking a look at the countless half-meter wide gashes in the ground around us—this flooring was forged from man-made rock as hard as warship armor. Then, with sympathy, I glanced at Yelsen’s forehead—boy, he did have high defense, not even a bump!

Without a doubt, Lin’s weapon of choice during the battle had been... Well, Dingdang, you sure have a solid team.

"When Lin’s intelligence is impaired, she is particularly lethal," Monina said dismissively of her brother’s pitiful experience, "Of course, only to our own people."

At this time, Lin, the chief culprit, finally woke up leisurely. The Dragon God Girl yawned lengthily, just like a little girl with her fists rubbing her sleepy eyes, and then she looked around at us all in a daze. After a period of low blood pressure upon waking up, she frantically scrambled to her feet, timidly and anxiously looking down and asked in a low voice, "Everyone... did I do something wrong again just now?"

"No, you took out a few thousand enemies," Monina comfortingly patted the restored Dragon God Girl’s shoulder, "It’s just that the weapon was worn down a bit."

Upon hearing this, Yelsen trembled like a sifter.

After confirming that there were no enemies around, the ordinary soldiers formed a defensive formation on the spot around the Mother Nest, thoroughly protecting this control hub, while I, along with four lively members of the Divine Race, stepped into this ancient building that had been in existence for several hundred thousand years.

Just like the other ancient structures we had passed before, the exterior of the Mother Nest was covered with historical traces, but the interior was as pristine as new. The crystal walls all around were still transparent and unblemished, devoid of any impurity. The power of the Abyss had not penetrated this building, which was not constructed of ordinary materials. Apart from the absence of light spots representing the Host’s thinking in the crystal walls around us—due to the lack of a Host in residence—this place was indistinguishable from any other Xyrin Nest.

The five of us quickly made our way to the central machine room of the Mother Nest. Compared to Bubbles’ central machine room, this one was dimly lit. Although it was also a sparkling world formed from crystal, it appeared entirely devoid of life. The crystal prism in the center of the room was hollow, not even a shred of energy flowed within. Without the Host, the Mother Nest was like a giant without a soul, merely an empty shell.

Monina and Lin started curiously fiddling with the base of the Host’s slot, while I contacted the mass-produced Host on standby behind us and took out a data terminal.

The holographic projection showed the stiff face of the mass-produced Host, alongside a vast sea of complex data and charts, "Connection attempt commencing... Attempt failed, physical disconnection of the remote Host. Remote Mother Nest signal is good, please check the Host slot."

"Alright, enough playing," I waved Monina and Lin away and, following the system prompt, I paired the data terminal with the Host slot.

In the data terminal, a compatibility program had been prepared, allowing this ancient Xyrin Nest to accept external control without a Host. This was a cross-world download from Bubbles, and as the most powerful in the Host series, Bubbles was deeply knowledgeable about the operation and modification of all Xyrin Hosts and their components. This naturally included such Mother Nests that had been widely used in lower-tier Hosts hundreds of thousands of years ago. Based on technical consultation from Bubbles a few hours earlier, due to manufacturing dates, there was a compatibility issue between this ancient relic Xyrin Nest’s serial number and the operating system version number of our Xyrin Host. This caused a persistent error 678—remote disconnection—during the remote connection attempts. There were only two solutions to this problem: either downgrade our own Xyrin Host or refresh the identification number of this Mother Nest. My choice was naturally the latter, though all of this sounded ludicrously divine.

"System upgrade complete, verifying operator identification. No local user found, please select your method of intervention."

"The system Bubbles gave is really user-friendly, like Windows," I muttered and reached out to select remote desktop.

"Remote desktop established, please choose type of operation."

"A temporary system needs to be this complicated?" I shrugged my shoulders and selected remote assistance.

"Remote assistance commencing, please select assistance level."

I hesitated for a moment and then clicked on remote control.

"Remote control starting, please select control duration: a little while, a while, a good while."

Me: "..."

"You have selected a good while. For your data security, system is refreshing the super verification code, please enter serial number and verification code."

Everyone: "..."

"Serial number and verification code correct, establishing remote control... Sorry, due to a really stupid issue with the information link, which you might not be able to solve even if you try until you die, the connection has failed. The system regrets to inform you that you’ve lost remote access. We hope you will provide feedback on this unexpected situation. For complaints, please call 21549310023566540321 extension 1347890630, and press 1 for product renewal. Rescanning for users, no local users found, please select your method of intervention..."

"Intervene my ass!"

I indignantly shouted, while spiritually connecting to Sandora: "Kid, I can’t establish a remote connection here! Was there a problem with the compatibility pack Bubbles sent over just now?"

On the other end, Sandora was also starting up another Xyrin Nest and was quite surprised: "Eh? Really? It’s going smoothly for me!"

I was taken aback for a moment, about to contact Bubbles about the compatibility pack she provided, when a faint "beep" suddenly reached my ears. Immediately after, the crystal walls of the Central Machine Room began to emit the glow of a normal startup.

"Regrettably, I was just pulling your leg earlier, the remote connection has successfully initiated."

I’m telling you, if I hadn’t left my backup at home, I would have smashed this damn thing to pieces by now!

At first, I was baffled by the situation in front of me, but after a few seconds, it hit me: Isn’t this just because Big Sister stopped me before departure, preventing me from heading to Fantasy Country! Does the kid’s mom really need to take such revenge?

Regardless, the Mother Nest, which had been shut down for hundreds of thousands of years, finally started successfully under control of the remote host. The crystal chamber around us was gradually filled with blue and white light, the Mother Nest beginning to simulate normal operations without a host. A faint buzzing sound came from the empty host slots below, followed by numerous complicated, bright lines filling the crystal prism above. My data terminal in hand started to refresh the screen, showing crooked, crawling characters:

Virtual Drive 1.0 successfully launched.

Bubbles’ handwriting is still so graceful; I deeply regret that the kid still won’t download a proper font library for her own head.

The synthesized female voice for the system self-check echoed inside the host room: "Colonization Ship control system reconnected online, Mother Nest primary energy offline, auxiliary energy offline, external energy supplement detected, core system will operate in basic mode. Checking armed systems... system damage severe, usable external defensive armaments at 5%, internal defensive armaments at 75%. Part of the Ghost Energy Pipeline has collapsed, cutting off energy supply from D-3 to D-6 zones, call with no response, Olympus Energy Furnace offline, call with no response. Searching for city guard waypoints... Warning, dangerous numbers of city guards detected, abnormal state guards found... Command received, guard search masked. Valkyrie Regeneration Factory connected online, running well, Anubis Regeneration Factory connected online, insufficient power, operating at 75%, Valkyrie status abnormal, Anubis status abnormal... Forcing retrieval of Regeneration Soldiers and initiating forced purification commands."

"All system self-checks complete, miscellaneous self-checks begin and are automatically hidden... Operator, you have a message from the Shadow Fortress, please check."

I was surprised for a moment but before I could respond, the system began to read the message automatically:

"Kid’s dad~!! I have some unfortunate news, our girl has gone missing again..."

(About this Chapter’s edits: Actually, there was a bug here that conflicted with later plot developments, which is that after the "ascension" of the Atlantian civilization, no new infants were born. Therefore, this Chapter’s descriptions of the two Mother Nests would need revisions—of course, if you gentlemen didn’t catch this, that would be great... In any case, this is the result of tearing up the manuscript too many times and being too careless, speaking of which, how conscientious is it that we’re talking about fixing bugs even a hundred Chapters back!! Ahem, this bug has now been corrected.) (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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