Xyrin Empire
Chapter 557: The Downturn of the Great Migration Era

Chapter 557: Chapter 557: The Downturn of the Great Migration Era

"...I’m not quite sure what happened, but your spiritual energy seems to be suppressing the Abyss within me, and they have indeed calmed down..."

The words Bingdisi had said upon awakening echoed in my mind, repeating over and over, yet failing to provoke any deeper enlightenment in me.

There was too little information to go on, and even I, at that time, didn’t feel anything; the Abyss Energy in Bingdisi just naturally weakened and seemed completely unrelated to me, but since that rogue Goddess claimed it was my spiritual power at work, she mustn’t have been spouting nonsense... But how exactly did I manage to do it at the time?

Or could it be a passive skill, a halo effect, that simply by maintaining a Void State, my spiritual power could purify the Abyss within range?

A guess that seemed quite reasonable, very likely an omen set by someone thirty-six thousand kilometers up in the sky, looking down on this world, that I would tread the YY path and rise from a salted fish. I couldn’t help but be eager to try out this promising skill—maybe find a deserted spot later and transform again to see the effects?

...Just kidding. Not to mention anything else, Big Sister would definitely tie me up and drag me back as soon as possible.

The ability to Voidify, having been tested, proved to have enough awesomeness, but its side effects seemed even more awe-inspiring than its power. First off, the terrifying consumption of spiritual and physical strength. My spiritual power, which had never been insufficient before, lasted less than thirty minutes while maintaining the Voidification. I could only probably find a sense of superiority in Ultraman for that brief period, and as for physical consumption, it occurred after the transformation ended. My physique, capable of withstanding meteor impacts and even pushing meteors back along their tracks, was no boast; even Clark Kent couldn’t reach this level after pulling his underpants over his trousers, but I had drained all my physical strength after just thirty minutes of transformation, ending up lying dead for an hour in outer space. Finally, I recovered thanks to Bingdisi’s treatment. The degree to which this skill drained my spiritual and physical strength was unlike anything I had encountered before.

Of course, such high consumption by a skill might be due to lack of proficiency. Once I precisely grasped the flow of spiritual power and physical strength in the Void State, maybe I could significantly reduce the consumption. However, it was foreseeable that, for quite a long time, "Voidify" could only be kept as a last resort. That elegant life of transforming every few minutes, bursting forth in a blaze of golden light, slaying in all directions, and returning full of vigor, was momentarily non-existent for me.

Let’s put aside the consumption issue; what’s even more troubling is the third kind of aftermath: Soul Scattering.

It was only after Dingdang’s reminder that I realized I had walked a loop at death’s door at that time. I originally thought I could survive in the Void, so the soul exposed there should also be no problem, but I didn’t expect that there was such a complex corresponding relationship between human souls and bodies. Once in the Void State, one’s own soul would become a vast domain of the Void. This domain would expand uncontrollably, dispersing the soul at an alarming rate. As long as this issue remained unresolved, the skill of Voidification would always be a time bomb.

Now that I think about it, if Bingdisi hadn’t urgently treated and repaired part of my soul at that time (and that rogue Goddess was just blindly lucky, even though her power was a hundred times stronger than Dingdang’s. She wasn’t from the Life God System, after all. In terms of soul damage, the stupid Nines’ Little Ding at least had an elementary school diploma), and if Dingdang hadn’t promptly noticed after coming back, who knows if I would have suffered any lasting effects from that transformation.

Ah, speaking of Dingdang’s credits, I’m reminded of that time today when that guy cluelessly got tricked by Bubbles into barging into my bathroom, and he was stupidly swimming in the bath...

Despite infinite regrets, I still have to admit, it was a genuine "Shared Bath with a Goddess," and the benefits were genuinely substantial. A lollipop munched by Dingdang could serve as a peerless divine weapon, a cup used by Dingdang could be thrown into the Fate world as a Holy Grail, and the bathwater used by Dingdang...

I really should have bottled some at the time, then headed for Azeroth to see if I could recreate another Eternal Well!

Reviving the dead is just a basic function. Planting Flat Peach Trees that ripen every seven days. Growing Ginsengfruit with a yield of eighteen thousand per acre. If you sprinkle a bottle at Heaven’s gates, Yahweh won’t even think about a world-ending flood for the rest of his life, mark my words, Dingdang Brand Golden Clam, one bottle equals two!

Sorry. I got a bit carried away by the miraculous properties of Little Douding’s bathwater... Wait, what an absurdity to think that the purest and most clean substance in the world—Dingdang’s bathwater—cured me!

"Ah Jun! Are you in your room? I’m coming in!"

A burst of energetic voice suddenly came from the doorway, interrupting my wild thoughts. I sat up from the bed, but before I could speak, the door was already pushed open from the outside. In the next second, a gorgeous face, beaming in the last rays of the evening sunset, was coming straight at me—no one else had such boundless vitality and barged into my room like that, except Qianqian.

Just like when we were kids, Qianqian completely disregarded ownership and ran into my room, then unceremoniously jumped onto the bed, landing about ten centimeters in front of me, beaming at me.

"What’s the matter, girl? You startled me."

I casually pushed her face away, which was almost sticking to mine, to focus at a more comfortable distance, and asked somewhat curiously.

Qianqian had now changed into some casual, solid-colored long pants and a white thin sweater on top that modestly accentuated her figure, a look full of limitless vitality albeit simple, but it suited this girl very well with her inexhaustible energetic demeanor—hurriedly rushing in front of me was indeed a sight for sore eyes, clearing all my previously cluttered thoughts—And even if it didn’t, with Qianqian around, not even Socrates would have a chance to contemplate in peace.

"Big sister told me to come up and check on you, she said you’ve been out of spirits, she’s really worried!"

Indeed, no matter how much one hides, in front of a big sister who’s taken on parental responsibilities since childhood and grown up depending solely on each other, it’s futile. Even though Dingdang had improved my condition quite a bit, I couldn’t conceal it from big sister’s gaze.

And big sister really was astute, noticing my lack of energy and picking the most invigorating person to send over, Qianqian. Her vibrant aura could nearly be counted as a natural talent skill.

"It’s nothing, just a few aftereffects."

I disheveled Qianqian’s shiny black hair with a few strokes of my hand, and then roughly explained the issue with Voidification. Of course, I only mentioned the excessive consumption of spiritual power and physical strength. As for the soul scattering...

Absolutely not a word, even someone as carefree as Qianqian isn’t oblivious to everything, she’s sensitive when she needs to be.

"Oh, so that’s what it was, you really scared me!" Qianqian showed a relieved expression, it seemed I had managed to bluff my way through, but just at that moment, unfortunately, from the start Dingdang, who had been foolishly drooling at the sunset along with the Mercury Lamp, suddenly darted over and perched on my shoulder, proudly seeking praise, "And also, Dingdang is awesome! When Ah Jun was bathing, Dingdang...mmm mmm..."

"Bathing?" Qianqian repeated puzzledly, then seeing the little thing I was clutching in my hand, only showing two pairs of wing tips and a single silly hair, her expression gradually turned strange, "Ah Jun, I just heard something very suspicious."

"Hallucination!" At that moment, I desperately wished I could stuff this catastrophe-causing foolish goddess into the pen container on the nightstand, "That’s absolutely a hallucin...wow, ow ow!!"

Dingdang bit me; this aggressive little creature had decisively bitten someone!

Blowing on my finger to cool it, I felt this scene was extremely familiar—right, it was just like the day I met Dingdang, when I got bitten for holding her too tightly, but back then Dingdang was a quite polite pet and apologized after biting, but now... not only did she show no remorse, she was furiously pulling at my hair while perched on my head.

Indeed, it seemed the situation was more severe this time; her wings had momentarily shown four S-shapes.

"Dummy! Ah Jun is a dummy! Ah Jun is a big dummy! Dingdang is really mad this time! Dingdang’s bites are very fierce!" the little creature muttered on, putting a few strands of my freshly plucked hair in her mouth and crunching on them as if they were someone’s fingers. Although I couldn’t see her actions from this angle, I could guess just from the feeling and the strange grinding noise that followed, along with this little creature’s usual habits, the current appearance of Dingdang seemed exactly like a resentful woman.

"Ah Jun, I now feel that Dingdang must have something very important to say."

Qianqian, usually quite absent-minded, was unusually attentive. So many seconds had passed and she still hadn’t shifted her focus away from the word "bathing." I knew something was up and I couldn’t hide it anymore.

At that moment, spurred by Qianqian’s comment, the silly Dingdang realized she had accidentally revealed something that was supposed to be kept strictly confidential. As such, being already quite a complainer, Dingdang became even more so, biting her hair as if she were facing her father’s killer.

Oh God, this is a lost cause...

Seeing Qianqian’s increasingly serious gossipy expression and knowing I couldn’t hide it anymore, I had no choice but to briefly explain the situation of Dingdang barging into the bathroom. There was really no way I could deceive Qianqian over such a small issue. More importantly, I didn’t know if the seemingly dim-witted God above would blurt out something if I lied.

Of course, I still tried to gloss over the details of the entire incident, the reason Dingdang barged in, and the part about the idiot not leaving the bathroom. I dared not mention the previous instances when Anwina barged in either. I focused on explaining just the parts where Dingdang wanted to use her divine power to help me restore my spiritual power and physical strength and how the water she touched had a healing effect. I hoped that would successfully divert Qianqian’s attention. Yeah, I felt that the success rate was quite high.

"Um, so that’s what happened," Qianqian blinked slowly and nodded. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to get very angry. It seemed that in her mind, Dingdang, being more of a small animal than a girl, and her posture as a girl version of the Life Goddess were mostly forgotten, "It seems it was just an accident..."

At that moment, I breathed a sigh of relief but then, seeing Qianqian suddenly adopting a thoughtful expression, I got nervous again: Could she be remembering that Dingdang also has a mature version of her body?

"Ah Jun, I suddenly have a bit of an immature idea~~"

Qianqian said this excitedly.

At that instant, cold sweat broke out on me: "Lady, please think this through carefully..."

Qianqian, every one of your not-so-mature ideas is enough to mature this world by eighty percent, you know?!

However, this girl completely disregarded my reaction and blurted out her plan: "Ah Jun, what do you think, should we post some advertisements at the crossroads for curing psoriasis? If we use the water Dingdang bathed in, we could make a lot of money selling medicine!"

This was a historic statement. When Qianqian finished speaking, the Mercury Lamp, who had been watching the excitement for a while, suddenly fell off the window with a plop.

I didn’t know whether I should breathe a sigh of relief or start crying; it felt like my girlfriend’s brain was beyond saving.

What made me want to cry even more was something Dingdang suddenly muttered: "Ah, Dingdang remembers, last month that human woman named Lola always dragged Dingdang to bathe together, and even collected the bathwater, calling it a holy artifact..."

Damn, today has been too fun.

Regardless of how things went, Qianqian’s digression meant that I was completely not in the mood to worry about the problems of Voidification anymore. There’s always a solution. With Dingdang, who graduated in Soul Studies, and the erudite ancient beings like Sandora and Taville working together, what would I have to worry about?

Getting a cool skill should have made me happy.

In Shadow City, the continuously increasing number of transmigrators finally showed signs of stability. The next afternoon upon our return, a decrease in stability appeared for the first time.

At the same time, news came that the number of transmigrators in the Kepulu Star Zone had also ceased to grow. Our vanguard teams sent across the universe to different life-bearing zones reported that the number of unregistered transmigrants had dropped to zero, and the probability of undiscovered transmigrants was less than one in ten thousand—the grand surge of transmigration had finally stabilized and was beginning to ebb.

Dingdang could finally rest for a few days. For a while now, this almost never "automatically monitored" foolish God had studied her world management terminal extensively, stumbling through a pirated manual that didn’t match up from serial number to version number, which she had flipped through countless times. She finally managed to get the World Tree back on track—look, that’s a miracle. I have to say, it’s purely for plot reasons that the world I live in hasn’t destroyed itself yet. Just try swapping it with any normal world and let Dingdang oversee it; it wouldn’t survive past the second Chapter!

Shadow City was now almost filled with transmigrators from various worlds, and the work of sorting and repatriating them was at its peak. Thanks to Taville and her group of tireless, inhuman technicians, the Space-Time Management Center had located the coordinates of over three thousand nearby worlds. Some of them I recognized, like the "Signal Source Plane" from movies and animation. Yet, there were many more worlds I’d never heard of—totally odd ones. I couldn’t fathom the extent to which the Star Domain Divine Realm’s Creation Science was badass, or where those painful creators received inspiration to create so many bizarre universes—circular worlds, shell worlds, ring-shaped worlds, layered space worlds, elemental worlds, worlds with just one giant planet, even worlds with skies covered in children’s doodles—I can’t imagine that the Divine Race creators even had a preschool crash course.

Anyway, my impression is that creators are like those internet writers, all filled with indissoluble ideas like Wang Zhihe tofu, thoughtlessly scribbling in some hidden corner. Dingdang, in this regard, belongs to the flop category...

Anyway, once you enter Creation Science, it’s quite simple—it’s just all about tweaking the MODs. If Dingdang could get certified, she would definitely be awesome!—Quoted from the Life Goddess Dingdang’s book "On Why Dingdang is So Awesome."

The Space-Time Management Center, once the loneliest building in Shadow City, had now become the busiest place. We had transformed the area within a thousand meters around it into a vast, flat square. Energy beams extended from the center and connected to twenty ring-shaped, over ten-meter-tall Teleportation Gates on the square. From the outside, these gates looked like series of metal fragments floating in mid-air. However, when they were assembled, a bright white two-dimensional membrane would form inside them, which was the channel connecting two worlds. These temporary gates formed a massive circular system, and shuttle pods, the size of bus carriages, moved in and out of these gates, allowing physically weak ordinary people to travel through the connected plane channels. Every hour, a batch of Otherworldly People used them to return to their hometowns. Every time the white light flashed, it meant the stress on this world had reduced a bit. After continuous hard work for over a month, we finally saw results today, and I laughed joyously.

Of course, that was from afar... up close, I felt like killing those assistant managers!

"King of Fighters! The world of King of Fighters! Last two seats! It’s a large seat! Hurry up, only ten minutes till the gates open! With luggage, find the guy wearing a yellow hoop, twenty-five per person!"

"Kadouron Kingdom is about to open! Those without tickets, come this way, only five left. It’s a crowded trip, and most will miss it. If you want to return home early, hurry up, or you’ll miss this chance!"

"Borren Hill, big group for Borren Hill! Thirty, just get on board for thirty! Last two people, there are souvenirs!"

"Goat horns, jade, jade bracelets! Various local trinkets, take a souvenir home, come take a look. As the saying goes, ’parting ways after a long journey, let’s leave a token of friendship, pay as you please—this traveler, you radiate a bright but worried aura, take a blessed cross, show your kids something new back home..."

"I’m just here to say farewell to Master Huijing..."

"Pan-fried bread, freshly made hot pan-fried bread, take two for the road, tasty and affordable!"

"The gates are opening, this time it’s a mountain path, rocky exit, passengers be careful... Please pay your baggage fee first..."

"This big brother, want a disk?"

The above is a bustling scene before the Imperial Capital station as the Great Migration Era ended and the Great Return Era began...(To be continued. To find out what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com. More Chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)