Xyrin Empire
Chapter 515: Secret of Sin

Chapter 515: Chapter 515: Secret of Sin

As Qianqian and I leisurely made our way home, the setting sun still hung on the horizon.

Even though the feeling of strolling under the sunset was nice, but...

"Girl, it’s about time for nightfall, right?"

With an expression of wry amusement, I said to the girl beside me, who still looked as if nothing in the world concerned her. While it seemed trivial at first, by now even the densest person should realize something was off, right?

"Alas, Ah Jun is really slow to catch on. You’re just noticing now."

Shaking her head lightly and sighing, Qianqian raised her right hand and snapped her fingers.

"I just wanted to spend a little more time with Ah Jun."

As her words fell, like fast-forwarding footage, the clouds that had been still in the sky for no telling how long sped across it, the crimson afterglow quickly dimmed, and the sun set in an instant, with nightfall coming in the blink of an eye.

Just to spend a bit more time outside, Qianqian had interfered with the flow of time. Still got it, Qianqian.

"Hehe," having lifted the manipulation of time, Qianqian immediately returned to her lively and animated self. She snorted with pride and said, "When I was little, I always wished that time after school would just stop, then I could play to my heart’s content with Ah Jun! Now, this wish has really come true—wow, Ah Jun, what’s with that look?"

"It’s nothing," I forced a smile and waved my hand, "I have a stomachache—Right, can you now conceptually deconstruct timelines?"

"It’s not just you who’s getting stronger, Ah Jun," Qianqian replied, her face beaming with a self-satisfied smile. "Although I can only do this within the range of one block, I can now conceptually cut and control time lines, like controlling the ’twilight’ and ’breeze’ time lines separately. Maybe it won’t be long before I can create history."

That would be way too brutal. Do you want to get Dingdang locked up in solitary confinement shortly after he just took office?

"We’re back!"

I called out heartily at the doorway and then opened the door to be greeted by Big Sister, welding a stir-fry spatula, and a head peeking out beside her.

"Ah, Wood, I’m here to freeload a meal!"

"Sorry, I opened that the wrong way." I said with a deadpan expression, pulled Qianqian back, and closed the door.

Opening the door again, Big Sister was still there, and so was the owner of that head, sporting a sulky smile: "Wood, I’m here to freeload a meal!"

I knew it, there’s no escaping this troublesome Miss at any time!

Greeting Lin Xue with a friendly noogie, a greeting befitting my personal style, Qianqian and I entered the living room. Dingdang was still draped over the central coffee table, toying with his hoops—this silly fellow must’ve completely forgotten his initial protests. Upon seeing Qianqian and me entering, Little Thing immediately rushed over excitedly, holding aloft two hoops nearly as big as her height.

"Ah Jun! Dingdang learned it, oh! Dingdang learned it!"

At that moment, I wondered if blaspheming would get one sentenced to hell, and if hell was underground, whether I’d just burrowed out from the other side of the Earth.

Clearly oblivious to my peculiar expression and those around her, especially to Miss Lin’s expression of horror, Little Thing simply danced around before me, then threw the two hoops up in the air. In a blur, a green streak of lightning formed a sharp zigzag in midair, and Dingdang deftly maneuvered through the two angular hoops.

"Dingdang could use this to perform personal skills at the next Star Domain Gods Sports Games! Maybe Dingdang could become the first Life Goddess in history to win a medal there!"

"For the love of Gods, please don’t!" With a sudden chill and a burst of cold sweat, I grabbed the confused Dingdang with both hands, "Just keep this as a private hobby, okay? Don’t perform this in front of all the gods, got it?"

Because I would definitely be SM’d to death by the Nine Heavens Gods!

"Although I don’t quite understand, it seems Ah Jun is really concerned," Dingdang cocked her head, looked at me for a moment, then cheerfully exclaimed, "Then Dingdang will only perform hoop diving for Ah Jun!"

Miss Lin, who had been blankly watching the host and pet interacting for a while, rolled her eyes heavenward, "Tsk, @#￥%%￥#￥..."

Hey, your words just got censored and posted, you know.

"Alright already, how long are you all going to carry on?" A voice tinged with helplessness yet fondness came from behind. Turning to look, Big Sister, wearing an apron and carrying a warm, healing smile, was bringing a steaming pot of soup to the table, "Every time you go out with Qianqian, you always come back after dark. This habit hasn’t changed since you were little."

Well, Big Sister’s motherly tone hasn’t changed in over a decade either.

"Where’s Tsuruya?" Sitting down at the dining table, but not seeing the energetic black-haired girl usually bustling around preparing utensils, I couldn’t help but ask curiously.

"She’s already gone back to Academy City," Big Sister’s face was marked with an amusing wry smile, "That girl, she was almost freaking out."

"She was in that much of a hurry?" I was taken aback, "Without even saying goodbye."

Well, come to think of it, saying goodbye might not be necessary; with the World Gate, going to another world for school is like walking two blocks to school for us – hardly a big deal. But to rush back in such a hurry and without even a goodbye, that’s not Tsuruya’s style at all.

"We forgot about the time difference," Big Sister finally burst into a fit of laughter, "There’s a slight discrepancy between Academy City and our world’s time. While it’s evening here, it’s precisely the end of holiday, first day back, and assembly time there. Tsuruya, being the top student at Zhachuan Middle School, can’t be late, can she? That girl dashed off with a slice of toast right into the Single Soldier Fighter Jet and through the Teleportation Gate, just like you when you were late for school as a child."

Eh? So, when crossing to another world, we have to take time difference into account?

But landing in a fighter jet at an opening ceremony of the school year, isn’t Tsuruya causing an uproar with that? Also, Big Sister, are you sure that as a child, I would dash off in a fighter jet when I was late for school?

"So that means it’s evening here, and morning there," Qianqian, who was particularly sensitive to time, began her calculations, "So when we sleep at night, Tsuruya should be... in class?"

Me: "Great, she’ll have to deal with jet lag in class."

Discussing their respective topics, our unprecedentedly large family began their dinner. Although it was a bit noisy, it still felt genuinely heartwarming at that moment.

Watching Sandora devouring a huge rice cooker all by herself, watching Qianqian and a few of the little ones fight over sweets until they were dizzy and seeing Bubbles silently stuffing her face with food while staring at over twenty floating mini-windows watching the new series. And now, I had another amusement, which was to watch Sister Jier across the table, her face green with reluctance, yet having no choice but to patiently feed Little Baobao.

"I feel like just with the bustling joy in front of me, I could eat several bowls of rice," I said, voicing my bizarre thought of the moment.

"Then go ahead and use your sisters to help you eat, I won’t stand on ceremony," the sudden voice beside me interrupted my thoughts. Then, I watched as the sweet and sour ribs in front of me blinked into the bowl of Miss Lin two seats away, "Thank goodness I had the foresight to buy these miraculous long chopsticks from the ramen vendor on the street!"

Looking at Miss No Morals wielding her nearly half-meter long custom chopsticks triumphantly at me, I truly... had no words to express myself.

"Gurgle gurgle, gurgle gurgle."

Dingdang rolled her beloved new toy, a hoop, past me, weaving through the forest of gigantic utensils in search of her favorite food. Anwina’s head floated and swayed atop the dining table, helping those who couldn’t reach the distant dishes to pick up food and serve rice, while Prophet Lin had already snatched the last rib in front of me and was now sneakily trying to replace it with her green vegetables in my bowl—using those half-meter long custom chopsticks. Meanwhile, Pandora rapidly devoured her meal with icy-faced efficiency, subtly smacking away the leaping Visca trying to steal cake next to her with a blur of her supersonic hand blade. This scene was practically a standard for the sisters’ meal times.

I mean, it’s lively and all, but can you please act normally during meals?!

Joking around and roughhousing, such life was the ultimate pursuit. Thus, time passed, day by day, during these leisurely and joyful days. On the third day...

Damn, we really did take it easy for two whole days!

Fortunately, this time it wasn’t a huge hassle like saving the world, it was just Taville inviting us over to check out her research results.

Sometimes I really envy Bubbles, who even during work hours, could push Ak around, as well as every toilet man, prince, Necromancer, and Agarlon, not to mention various bosses. If only I had the same constitution, I could watch new series, old series, inside series, and all sorts of series while Taville was introducing formulas to me...

Visca Barrier Star, this space fortress high above the ground, still upholds its duties as a satellite, keeping a distant vigil over the ever-changing Earth, immutable and silent like the concept of time itself. However, inside this Planet Fortress, the vast space bustled with an orderly military city. Various War Factories and control nuclei floated mid-air, forming the skeleton of this three-dimensional city. The crossing Spaceships acted as nerves and blood vessels interwoven in the skeleton. This was the B-2 zone of the Moon Warship, belonging to the research and High Order Apostle restorative section, within the entire Moon Warship second only to the core A zone in terms of security level. And if one were to observe this space from an all-seeing perspective, they would notice a black cube-shaped building standing out distinctively among its surrounding structures—not only because it was situated in a solitary "golden location" mismatched with its neighbors, but also because nearly no Spaceships interacted with it, to the point where one could say that, except for the heavy gunboats and spherical Photon Cannons floating around the cube, no airborne units dared to approach the building.

Such a level of security is evident in the essential zones of the Imperial Mainland bases.

What made this airborne building look even more special was that the edges were constantly quivering as if projecting holograms under interference, occasionally flickering and disappearing for a moment.

This doesn’t mean the building is just a projection. Experienced old soldiers upon seeing this would pat the shoulders of the green recruits saying, "Kid, take a look, that right there is the Anti-Phased Unit, an invincible thing that’s always in a phase-reversed state. Back in the day, my fighter jet took out an entire Group Army with this gadget..."

And the green recruit would respond with awe and admiration, "Wow! Just the other day, XX officer, XX officer, and XX officer said the same thing!"

Of course, how some trouble-making Imperial Soldiers pass their time is not something within our current scope of discussion.

This black rectangular building was the Empire’s second Research Core. Apart from this mundane codename, it didn’t have any grand titles, understated just like its appearance, but the work carried out here was far from ordinary. It was so extremely dangerous that the entire research facility had to be built inside a Glory-class Starship. The anti-phased force field shrouding the entire building wasn’t for warding off external attacks, but rather to prevent something inside from escaping.

Here, they researched the knowledge of the Abyss.

"No matter how many times I visit, I still find this coffin-like design to be incredibly moving. Taville, can’t you give your creations a more appealing look?"

Walking alongside Sandora in the spacious and silent central corridor of the second research core, we were led only by a silent female researcher. Our footsteps echoed monotonously through the corridor, and out of boredom, I turned the conversation to Taville’s obsession with coffin aesthetics.

Anything related to her had to carry the image of a coffin, even a research facility as large as this was built in the shape of one—a sliding type, but still... cough, a coffin is a coffin!

Taville paused and then disagreed, "But Genova’s design style seems very popular."

Eh? The Xyrin people care about that too?

Meanwhile, Sandora sighed and said, "That thing went out of style over a million and six hundred thousand years ago."

"But they are indeed very concise and efficient, especially when applied to scientific research," Taville nodded firmly, unwavering in her aesthetic appreciation for coffins.

"It is a great honor that you have come in person," our conversation was suddenly interrupted by a voice up ahead. Following the sound, a hovering holographic signpost was blinking; it was the facility’s navigation system, "Isolation Area Three is now open. The residency time is two hours. Please follow the guidepost."

"That object, strictly speaking, should be unrelated to the Abyss, but it contains some unsettling records. Keeping it here is just a precaution—please follow me."

Guided by Taville and the indicator, Sandora and I arrived in front of a huge isolation door. The trapezoid-shaped door was surfaced with a honeycomb energy barrier that weakened as we approached and completely dissipated the moment we arrived in front of the door, which then abruptly became transparent.

Stepping through the door, we found ourselves in a very spacious circular hall, like the other research areas, filled with various information terminals and floating data screens along the perimeter walls. Busy researchers were walking back and forth, and the only difference was that the object of research in this hall was a cube just a few meters on each side, floating and rotating in the center as inconspicuously as Dingdang on the head of some Leader.

That was the equipment I had brought back from the Fate world; I had handed it over to Taville for identification and finally had some attributes figured out.

"This cube is commonly used in unmanned constructions for automatic data storage," Taville led us about ten meters away from the floating cube, where I saw a nearly transparent energy barrier separating us from the object, shaped like pipes. Taville signaled the research staff around to adjust the analytical device’s targeting parameters, and immediately, the once intact floating cube disassembled in front of us to reveal its true core: a crystal ball shining with red light.

The fragments of the disintegrated cube floated and rotated around the crystal ball.

"Most of its data is encrypted, and decoding it will take some time, but even the unencrypted part has provided us with a lot of information. Based on the cube’s records, I have discovered a large amount of key technology that can enhance our current energy furnaces. Some of these I had already been working on, but many more were beyond even my imagination."

"According to your analysis, this artifact is some kind of experimental next-generation energy furnace from the peak era of the Empire, right?"

"In theory, yes," Taville adjusted her glasses, which were more decorative than functional, "but that is only a small part of what I hope you’ll see. More so, there are records unrelated to technology."

"A seemingly insignificant footnote mentioned a grandiose plan carried out synchronously by the entire Empire. The plan had no name, only a codename ’X.’ Its goal appeared to be to gather the power of ninety percent of the Xyrin Apostles to calculate a previously unprecedented method of energy application, one that far surpassed Ghost Energy and even the technology to collect and use Void Energy directly. And that celestial energy body is an indirect product of this plan. Your Majesty Sandora, my Memory Core does not contain any related records; do you know anything about this?"

At this point, Sandora’s brows were tightly furrowed. Although I had no idea what Taville was talking about, from the expression on Sandora’s face, I had a vague sense that I had brought back an unrivaled secret.

"X, indeed, it only had such a code," Sandora touched her chin thoughtfully, "At that time, to challenge the Endless Void—the last region of space the Empire could not control—ninety percent of the Imperial Xyrin Apostles participated in this calculation. But... I do not know if any products resulted from this plan."

The problem was, right in front of us lay such a living product: the Red Moon Core. (To be continued. For further reading, please log on to www.qidian.com. More Chapters are available, please support the author and genuine reading!)