Xyrin Empire-Chapter 720 Quite Joyful

Old Zaken’s story, while quite touching to the living, was perhaps the least remarkable among The Forgotten. Those who rose from their graves found it difficult to embark on a normal life’s journey again. Their tales often lacked the sight of radiant sunshine and joy. The only consolation was that Zaken’s tale had come to a comparatively happy conclusion—for this undead who only wished to protect his daughter and continue living with Nina, that was a fulfilling ending indeed.

"I’m quite satisfied with my current life," Zaken clacked as he rotated his somewhat severely worn wrist, caressing the head of Little Zombie, "much better than most dead folks, and I’ve even found a wife..."

I was suitably shocked: I’d heard tales of life renewing in dead wood, but this was my first encounter with someone who didn’t forget to find a mother-in-law even after death. Old Zaken’s afterlife was indeed rich and colorful; not only had he found his daughter, but he also found himself an old companion?!

"Basari is a very understanding skeleton," Zaken scratched his skull with a hint of embarrassment, "Her charming back molars deeply touched me, since she lacks front teeth. Old Zaken felt that all things worth pursuing in life had already been secured—a complete family and work that fulfills you. Look, this is the sweater Basari knitted for me—"

As he spoke, Zaken suddenly flaunted his "Love Sweater" by lifting his cape. I saw that each of his 22 semi-rib bones was fitted with a woolly sleeve of just the right size. It seemed that knitting a sweater for a skeleton was indeed a task that tested one’s creativity.

"I numbered every part of the sweater, as each rib bone is slightly different in size. Basari is truly dexterous with her hands, though putting on this garment can be a bit of a hassle. Lately, there has been a trend among skeletons for an even more innovative sweater design, using rib bones as a framework to weave wool directly among the bones, like a kite," Old Zaken muttered while applying lubricant to his wrist, "It’s a fascinating idea, but quite a nuisance to take off. Sometimes, I envy the Abominations, as they just need to grow mushrooms on themselves to serve as clothing."

I was heartened by Zaken’s description of The Forgotten’s uniquely joyful new life, and I sincerely wished them even more joy in their long journey of waiting for death. However, considering that Qianqian and I still needed to eat lunch, we stopped listening: the old skeleton was about to talk about the recent trend among zombies of pineapple-flavored preservatives.

"Just like we discussed before, The Forgotten should become a new Race—their own culture and lifestyle, just like living beings," I said to Qianqian as we left the Undead District, "Looking at the way things are now, this merry band of the deceased must be the ones who’ve undergone the greatest change in the world’s grand integration."

Qianqian wholeheartedly agreed as she turned to look at the unconventional father-daughter pair. Old Zaken was leisurely leading his zombie daughter back to the Earth Cave. If you could ignore their current state and the prowling corpses around them, this scene was indeed one of utter contentment.

Qianqian and I had no particular direction in mind; we just aimlessly wandered through the assembly area, letting her spontaneous new thoughts guide our path. Time slipped quietly away during our leisurely stroll. For some reason, despite the hustle and bustle around us, as I watched the radiant smile of this joyous girl beside me, I felt a sense of serene tranquility rise within me: Compared to grand adventures across the world, indeed, life spent accompanying one’s girlfriend on a shopping trip was a bit more interesting.

"Ah Jun, is there something on my face?" Qianqian, noticing the glances from others, quickly swallowed her mouthful of lamb skewers and with greasy hands, wiped the corner of her mouth. I gave her a helpless smile: "There was nothing before, but now your face is all covered."

"Hehe," Qianqian realized and tried licking the corner of her mouth with her tongue but found it too short. "Ah, I really envy Wangcai, the dog that lived next door when I was little; it could reach."

Qianqian’s worldview had defeated me once again.

In the afternoon, we encountered Boli Lingmeng leading a lively group of Fantasy Land Demons to the festival celebrations. She seemed to have completely forgotten her identity as a city manager here and instead took on the side job of a tour guide as her main gig. When Qianqian and I quietly approached her from behind, this Red and White with No Morals was explaining the living guidelines in Shadow City to a group of demons wearing Little Red Riding Hoods.

"Ahem, now that you’ve decided to settle down in Avalon, you’ll surely be visiting Shadow City often, so you must remember some key points about living here," Ling Meng waved a little red flag and shouted, "First, you can’t fly higher than five thousand meters because we have Magic Girls here, a dangerous Race that can cruise at thirty-five mach in the skies, and at five thousand meters, you’re likely to get knocked down by a Magic Girl. Second, you can’t set up stalls within two hundred meters to the left or right of Heaven—there are serious lessons to be learned from that! Plus, you can’t scribble around the doorstep of Heaven, throw firecrackers into the Goddess’s front office, or pass by the temple entrance with a dragonfly-catching net. If you find a wild Goddess, you must promptly take her to the lost and found center; otherwise, the Goddess will bite you. Third, if you see someone violently destroying a vending machine on the street, assess the situation. If it’s being kicked, that’s the Emperor’s sister trying to buy something, just pretend you didn’t see anything. If it’s being hacked at with a knife, that’s Vega getting thirsty, please don’t gawk for too long, otherwise contact the city management or the neighborhood committee—and definitely don’t take justice into your own hands. There’s a sixty to seventy percent chance you ordinary demons can’t even beat Uncle Zhang who sells newspapers here. Fourth, the Imperial Military Academy is the only government department here that is open to the public. You can visit, but never agree to any club inside that offers you so-called ’volunteer social practice’ activities! Especially the clubs that sound very normal; the more normal they sound, the more dangerous they are! Especially that Mysterious Research Society and Biological Department! Fifth, and most importantly, everyone, follow my lead: City managers are the strongest in the world... Bosses who owe migrant workers’ wages deserve to be kicked to death by a hundred horses..."

No one responded. Strictly speaking, when Ling Meng was halfway through, actually, no one was looking at her anymore. All eyes were focused behind the No Morals, while the Red and White herself still seemed quite pleased with herself.

"Eh? What’s wrong?" Ling Meng, oblivious to the impending disaster, asked in confusion, and the big butterfly knot at the back of her head dashed her last hope of noticing her own boss.

In the end, it was Moriya who couldn’t stand by and watch anymore, pointed behind Ling Meng: "Ling Meng, behind you."

I presented two choices to the No Morals Magic Girl who looked like she was facing the end of the world: either get slapped on the wrist, or lose this month’s bonus. Her stance was firm: "Just kill me!"

Having departed from a bunch of joyful demons and an Armpit Witch with a head full of bundles, the Imperial Leader and his partner continued to roam the assembly ground reverberating with the last day’s festive atmosphere. Time ticked away, even the happiest things have an end: The leisurely day passed by, and I finally got to enjoy the long-missed good life of idling away, despite knowing that countless tasks awaited me after the festival, at least today went well.

As dusk gradually descended, the stages around the assembly grounds were being disassembled one by one, and the visitors around me seemed a little reluctant to say goodbye. But all good parties must come to an end. I sat snugly with Qianqian on a bench at the edge of the Totem Area, gazing at the sunset that had hung in the sky for over an hour, filled with a multitude of feelings.

"Qianqian..."

"Speak."

"Although I know you don’t want it to end so soon, it’s about time it got dark, right?"

"Oh..."

That Artificial Sun, which had been tampered with for an hour, finally set successfully. Our Time Queen finally let it slide. Whenever there’s something Qianqian didn’t want to end too soon, she’d pull this kind of trick. The mass-produced hosts in charge of routine system maintenance in Shadow City really had it tough.

Just then, footsteps sounded beside me, and as I turned toward the noise, I was blindsided by a shadow pouncing on me. Thanks to my remarkable reaction ability, honed through years of grappling practice with Miss Xue, I instinctively raised my hand to block and deflected the shadow away—however, in less than a tenth of a millisecond, I realized my mistake. I dashed sideways after the shadow, but ultimately, I couldn’t prevent the regrettable blunder. I ended up back on the bench with my head covered in bite marks, as Mercury Lamp sat on my shoulder, tirelessly gnawing away at her old man’s head.

"That’s for throwing me, that’s for throwing me!"

Little Princess grumbled, biting my scalp with a crunch, while mumbling indistinctly.

Big Sister quipped as she approached with a smile, followed by a big group of our family, "I guessed it was Qianqian messing around again when I saw the sun wouldn’t set. It’s a bit of a pity that it’s over so soon."

"I planned to call you guys over, but it looks like everyone’s here," I said as I put on a steel helmet. Mercury Lamp immediately started thumping it with her tiny fists, and in the end, I just tucked the grumpy little rascal under my arm. "Anwina? Even you’re out here?" freēwēbnovel.com

"Because... since it’s the last day of the festival, Master would surely call us out," Little Ghost said timidly from within the crowd, nervously watching the dense throng of people coming and going in the gathering area. "Lady Sandora said there would be a fireworks evening tonight, and Anwina loves fireworks!"

Qianqian immediately exclaimed, "A fireworks evening!? How come I didn’t know about it?"

"And you even delayed it by over an hour," I said with a sidelong glance. "Considering that fireworks are a popular celebration in many worlds, they were scheduled to be set off after sunset. But right now, the control department must be busy synchronizing the mainframe. When you get involved, you always go overboard!"

The girl whose rash actions had postponed her favorite fireworks for over an hour, looked dejectedly down. Yet only a moment later, she slapped her head and exclaimed, "So it’s delayed by an hour, no big deal! Watch me!"

"Don’t—" I barely got the word out when the sky instantly transitioned from the dusky blue of sunset to the deep black of night. Bubbles’ voice shouted through the spiritual connection, "Baobao’s dad! Can you give Qianqian a break? My timing was just set right! Fireworks need to be set off on schedule, not just whenever it gets dark!"

Under Qianqian’s meddling, the fireworks evening that was about to begin got postponed again. The Mother Nest of Shadow City was in a flurry trying to correct the parameter fluctuations caused by the abnormal time distortion. Visitors from all realms waiting for the evening’s programs were utterly puzzled by the capricious changes in the sky—they had no idea that the artless Qianqian had changed the flow of time in the artificial sky dome, forcibly severing the temporal connection between the sky and the ground. This reckless act not only meant that poor Bubbles had to perform massive computations to correct various errors, but it also left the unsuspecting crowd utterly befuddled, with people speculating whether recent power-rationing policies to save energy were causing lighting shortages in the Imperial Capital: just look, transitioned from dusk to night and then to evening without any warning.

But when the first firework suddenly streaked across the night sky and blossomed into brilliance above everyone’s heads, nobody cared anymore about the dialectical relation between a setting sun and power cuts. The long-awaited fireworks evening, marking the end of the carnival, was also the final climax of the whole celebration. Visitors from every world came together then, joined in the last part of the festivities. The gathering place was packed, with folks wearing all sorts of native costumes from different worlds and sporting numerous exotic appearances, all looking up at the splendid brilliance of the sky, emitting cheers like waves rolling endlessly.

Even citizens from the Macro World, who had seen fireworks in their own realms, were in awe of the magnificent display before them. This "primitive entertainment method" had been slightly improved by Xyrin Technicians interested in Earth’s native culture, making the show even more unbelievable. Giant fireworks that rose into the sky not only formed into bright blossoms with each explosion, but some even transformed into lively three-dimensional images and lines of clear text.

Many of the drawings were iconic items from various worlds, chosen randomly as lucky participants, while the phrases were collected from every visitor at the festival and similarly selected randomly to create giant fireworks. When the message "Bless my sister Fan Ni" burst brightly in the sky, I heard surprised shouts coming from not too far away.

Earlier, volunteers had asked every visitor to input a line of text on their identification cards without informing them what it would be used for, so now it turned into a huge surprise. Lines brimming with well-wishes burst into flames across the sky, sparking continuous cheers and excited cries. Everyone hoped to be selected by luck, and those who were chosen excitedly shouted out, until finally, the organizing committee had to dispatch a large number of medical staff to perform CPR everywhere. The sales of Shadow City’s quick heart-saving pills hit a record high that evening.

Deafening cheers echoed around, pushing the atmosphere of the fireworks show to its peak. People hugged and congratulated each other, making plans to meet again at the second carnival in five years and warmly inviting friends from other worlds to visit their own. They enthusiastically exchanged addresses and ZIP codes, shared mobile numbers and Administration Bureau IDs, and promised to keep in touch online. A public judging team, consisting of uncles and aunties, emerged from who knows where and began critiquing the fireworks, quickly nominating several categories like "Most Creative Message," "Most Ordinary Message," "Most Annoying Message," and "Most Unlucky Message." The current winner for the most creative message was, "Reply to this message to see it," most ordinary was, "I like chives and eggs," most annoying was, "Apparently there’s no character limit in this input field, wonder if it’s true," and most unlucky was, "Looking for a partner: 137xxxx1352"—this guy’s wife hadn’t killed him yet.

Of course, as the fireworks evening went on, these message awards kept being updated. Holding an unsolicited composition contest was indeed a wise move, bringing indescribable joy to the masses, especially after one unlucky kid posted their bank card number and password...

Such joyful events naturally involved even more merriment from the Imperial Leader’s family. Pandora and Visca were preparing their own mini fireworks on a nearby open ground: they lined up over two hundred single-soldier cannons and gleefully got ready to light them up—of course, they were successfully stopped.

Anwina watched the orbs of light in the sky excitedly and after a while, simply soared into the air, apparently intending to embrace that splendor—though she was promptly knocked down by a firecracker thrown by Wugeng Liu Li, not too far away.

Mercury Lamp somehow obtained three "Big Thunders," two of which exploded above my head, while the little doll dared not to set off the remaining one, and instead, fed it to Sandora.

Little Baobao went out for a stroll and astonishingly came back holding a still-smoking Sky Bomb—which ultimately exploded in my hands.

Cui Xingshi and several other doll girls teamed up to carry a gigantic firework three meters long and weighing hundreds of pounds, probably stolen from the nearby Goblin Area. Mischievous Cui Xingshi ordered the firework to be placed upside down and sat on top, curious to see if it could launch her into the air. I strenuously stopped the foolish doll’s action, but by then Chu Mei already lit the fuse: The raging flames blasted my face, and afterward, the firework shot off and exploded near Cu Chulainn, who was on patrol.

Qianqian started off just excitedly shouting, but soon creatively suggested firing an "Artificial Sun" into the sky with an anti-aircraft gun to see if it could be seen from the ground. Due to her godlike speed, even Big Sister couldn’t stop her in time. We later found that the starry sky fired by the anti-aircraft gun was indeed not very visible from the ground, but it perfectly allowed Raven 001, who was patrolling above, to observe the fireworks closely. She thought fireworks were quite painful, especially when shot up by anti-aircraft guns.

Lin Xue babbled nonstop at my side, predicting every next surprise firework ten seconds in advance, until Big Sister had to silence her with duct tape.

Sandora stated she was very satisfied with "Fireworks," the human invention for entertainment, especially their taste—her image, munching on a half-eaten "Fire Breathing Dragon" and continuously smoking, left a deep impression. It’s important to note that Sandora actually bit into the big fire breather and ended up spraying flames in my face.

The carnival ended amid such joyful festivity. Because of the color that ended up on my head, I ultimately couldn’t attend the closing ceremony to give a speech—a small consolation after being bombarded by joyous girls...(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to cast your vote and monthly ticket at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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