Xyrin Empire
Chapter 748 Leader’s Family Full of Eccentrics

Chapter 748: Chapter 748 Leader’s Family Full of Eccentrics

When we returned to Ice Sealed Valley, it had already been over three hours since we left. The exploration trip had been incredibly rewarding. Lili Na and I jointly discovered a magical Lake of Truth, and Lili Na personally acquired a magical and shameless Magic Mirror. Moreover, we encountered the extremely fierce Supreme Dragon God—an Immortal who could forcefully squeeze out Dull Cat Angel and Little Qijing from my Spirit Sea using just scattered words.

It was said that he almost drove the judge mad during a debate—despite his sister arguing that gift of gab and being a chatterbox were not the same thing, I still thought it was awesome.

The seven hundred billion vehicle came to a smooth stop at the original departure spot, and as soon as the car door opened, the first one to rush out was Little Qijing, who had been restlessly perched on the driver’s seat. The Spiritual Body little girl, who had never seen such a vast snowfield before, let out a muffled cheer and floated up to the snowfield like a weightless cloud, disappearing from sight in a blink.

...She really disappeared from sight! It was just a vast expanse of white.

"Alaya, hurry up and keep an eye on the child!" I hastily dispatched Dull Cat Angel. "That girl is all white, don’t let her run off down the valley!"

With her individual growth, Little Qijing’s Spiritual Body strength was becoming more stable. Now she could stray several hundred meters from my side. In this ice and snow-covered world, a pure white little girl running around everywhere, I was indeed afraid of losing her.

Still rubbing her eyes, Dull Cat Angel mumbled an agreement and pushed open the passenger door to step out. With a ’puff,’ the fool vanished even more abruptly than Little Qijing.

I got out of the vehicle and gazed silently at the angel-shaped white marks on the snow in front of me.

I just remembered that this guy is even whiter than Little Qijing.

Through Spiritual Connection, I repeatedly instructed Little Qijing not to stray far and made sure the little one understood. Then, I shrugged helplessly and bent down to pull up Alaya, who was a master at flat-on-the-ground-falls.

"Ah Jun, Ah Jun!" Just then, Qianqian bounced over, cheerfully pulling at my arm, "Why did you only come back now? I was about to go looking for you—did you find anything fun outside?"

I waved at her: "Don’t ask—first, get off Alaya."

Qianqian looked down, promptly hopped to the side, and Dull Cat Angel, who had initially plowed head-first into the snow when getting out, clumsily got to her feet. As she patted the snowflakes sticking to her chest and vigorously shook her wings, we soon could barely see each other. This fool’s habit of shaking her wings everywhere really couldn’t be corrected. Last time, Qianqian had the sudden idea to wash her feathers, and as a result, the moment this girl shivered at the bathroom door—Little Baobao, who was strolling by, got a full wash, head included.

Speaking of which, washing the wings of an Angel who never gets dirty—was Qianqian still not clear-headed after just having bathed Mercury Lamp?

Once Alaya shook off the snow from her body, it was our turn to slap off the accumulated snow on us. The naturally-spacey Angel finally seemed to realize that her wings had caused trouble for others again, and she hugged her arms, looking a bit uneasy as she said, "Um... Lord Brother, sorry oh, did I make a mess again?"

"No worries, no worries," I dug out the snow inside my collar and straightened Angel Sister’s shoulders to turn her around, "Don’t move, you still have a footprint on your back. Didn’t that hurt?"

Angel Sister thought for a moment and nodded, "A little, but I didn’t realize it right away."

Not only was she naturally ditsy, but now she had to contend with low blood pressure caused by a lack of sleep, so I didn’t have much hope for her intellect. Seeing that the Angel Sister wasn’t too keen on going back to sleep yet, I let her stay close to me, making sure she wouldn’t wander off. This girl, with her white wings, white dress, and even her white hair, could easily blend into the snowy landscape. If you didn’t hang a sign on her, most people wouldn’t be able to see her. Just now, when she got out of the car, she plopped into the snow, and Qianqian came over and stepped right on her, a triumph of protective coloration.

I pulled the disheartened Lili Na along and told Qianqian about what we’d seen and heard on our "adventure." When she heard about a magical lake that could reflect the true essence of anything, she was visibly excited, and she very much regretted being preoccupied with making snowmen and not coming to see it for herself. I quickly comforted her, highlighting the story of a Fake Lolita who, either due to not using her brain or precisely because of that brain’s weirdness, had picked a magic mirror from over that mystical "lake." Lili Na seemed to plan on claiming that magical mirror as her own. When she heard me suddenly mention "her precious mirror," her face fell, and she pouted, since it was obvious that such an interesting object wouldn’t stand a chance in front of Qianqian.

"Oh, so this is the magic mirror?"

Qianqian curiously observed the oval crystal that Lili Na pulled out from her personal space. The fragment from Heart Mirror Lake was still emitting a faint chill, cool to the touch, and even more amazingly, although it was a completely transparent block of ice when viewed from behind, it turned into a fully reflective mirror surface from the front. You could only see your own reflection and not what was on the other side of the ice.

Following our instructions, Qianqian stood in front of the ice mirror without moving, waiting for her reflection to become the so-called "truth." Lili Na, the completely incidental Alaya, and I watched from behind. Sure enough, in a matter of seconds, Qianqian’s image in the mirror started to distort, the magic mirror employing some sort of mysterious power we couldn’t understand to reconstruct Qianqian’s true self. The image first appeared as a beautifully smiling young girl, quickly transformed into a radiant sun, then a glass of juice, a Tibetan antelope, a flock of origami cranes, a rice cooker, a bottle of farmer’s spring water, a five-cent coin, and finally settled into a giant question mark.

An infuriated female voice echoed in the air, that of an Artifact Spirit with a voice taken from a certain Blue Dragon Sister: "Hey! You’ve scraped it off already, and you’ve even gone and changed its name. How can you still joke like this? Line up, one at a time, in a small-window mode, no onlookers!"

Looking at the only girl in front of the mirror, I remained silent while the question mark in the magic mirror continued to twist about.

"Ah Jun, Ah Jun, what does it mean?"

Qianqian asked with a radiant smile, the very picture of innocence and confusion: thank goodness the black Qianqian didn’t show up.

"It’s nothing, this just proves that consumer-grade goods are unreliable."

I stuffed the malfunctioning magic mirror into Lili Na’s hands, "Take care of your precious mirror!"

Lili Na pouted, "Tsch, I’ll just use it to freeze popsicles and not share with you!"

Afraid of you? Shadow City’s West City District Chiruno’s Cold Drinks Shop, I could swindle away the last bottle of cool water if I wanted to.

"By the way, where did Pandora and Visca go?" I looked around but didn’t see the sisters who should have come over by now, only a distant snowfield where snowflakes were fluttering about in motion. That was Little Qijing, who had run into the deep snow area. The doll-like girl who stood only a few dozen centimeters tall was running back and forth under the snow layer, invisible from this perspective, with only the rising snowflakes on the ground signifying the current location of a certain Rose Maiden.

Just like a sapper.

Alaya didn’t wait for my word and went over to look after her daughter, while Qianqian tugged on my sleeve and pointed to a huge castle several hundred meters away, "Over there, Pandora is on the gatehouse!"

Following the direction of Qianqian’s pointing, indeed there was a small figure on top of the castle gates, Pandora was bent over, appearing to be busily occupied with something, but it was hard to see from our angle.

"Visca is inside," Qianqian added.

I was a bit puzzled, "They’re not playing with snow sculptures anymore? Have they switched to helping Lin fix the roof?"

"Ah? They’re still playing with snow sculptures," Qianqian scratched her head and pointed to a huge castle in the distance, "Isn’t that their snow sculpture? Lin’s castle is invisible now."

I instantly felt incredibly disordered and took a closer look with determination. Indeed, what I had thought was Lin’s Dragon God Castle seemed off in color, and Pandora, who had been bending over, now stood up straight: The little girl was meticulously positioning a huge block of ice on the almost completed brick wall in front of her.

Which means...

I stared in disbelief at the majestic fortress before me, feeling utterly speechless. A barrage of thoughts was stuck in my chest, threatening to suffocate me: It meant that in the past three hours, Pandora had been non-stop, meticulously stacking up the house, and ultimately she’d built a to-scale Dragon God Temple, damn it! My sister couldn’t possibly be that obsessive—well, okay, she really is someone who would do something like this.

So what was Visca doing inside? What role did that little girl, who only knew how to roll snowballs, play in Pandora’s spectacular and unprecedented snow sculpture or, more accurately, compressed and hardened ice sculpture project?

"She led the Combat Puppets to chisel ice bricks. She’s responsible for the building materials," Qianqian nodded exhaustively, "Lin is in there too; she has great strength and is responsible for pressing the loose snow into solid casting blocks, which support the main structure of the castle. Then Pandora is in charge of building the house, and there are a lot of Soldiers helping. The less important parts of the castle are just covered with whole snow slabs, so that’s why it was finished so quickly."

I held Qianqian’s hand, revealing an astonished expression as I looked towards the Ice and Snow Castle in the distance. Pandora was still painstakingly placing ice bricks, and all I could say was: The naughty kids on Earth who are still having snowball fights and making snowmen, you’ve been utterly outdone!

As it turned out, Pandora was a standard Xyrin Apostle, frustratingly stubborn to the extreme. I had never imagined that just from starting to make snowmen, the little girl could develop to such a ferocious extent without a word. After waiting outside the huge snow castle for fifteen minutes, I watched as my pig-headed sister personally put the last ice brick into place. Then, groups of Soldiers led by Visca and Lin exited the castle gates.

These were the construction workers from inside just now.

"Brother, snow sculpture." Pandora trotted over, tugging at the hem of my clothes and pointing at the Ice and Snow Castle. Although her face remained expressionless, her voice seemed tinged with a hint of pride, and those gray, cloudy eyes seemed to be filled with a "hurry up and praise me" glow.

Visca also ran over and said, "Brother Brother! Visca helped make this snow castle! Isn’t it pretty?"

Indeed, this was one of the few collaborative projects between Visca and Pandora. They usually fought with each other, but once they work together on something, they show an incredible understanding.

"Very strong. You guys really know how to keep busy," I bent down to hug the sisters, looking at the massive construction with heartfelt admiration, "But what do you plan to do with this thing? Carry it home?"

It seemed a pity to just throw away such a laboriously assembled giant snow sculpture.

"Carry it home? That’s not impossible," a light bulb seemed to flash on top of Qianqian’s head as she clapped her hands excitedly, "After all, you can fit a Fleet in your Personal Space, so an Ice and Snow Castle shouldn’t be a problem, right?"

Doing it as soon as she said it was Qianqian’s style; before I even had the chance to express my opinion, she already released swarms of mechanical Soldiers with all sorts of equipment, preparing to put the massive Ice and Snow Castle into her Personal Space. I didn’t doubt their ability to do so, but I was very concerned about the stability of the castle, and hurriedly grabbed the already excited girl, "Hey, girl, this castle is made of ice and snow blocks. Aren’t you afraid it’ll collapse? And this stuff melts, you know, will it last?"

Lilina leaned in, taking out her precious mirror, "Don’t worry, Magic Mirror, tell me, can you freeze ice pops?"

"Don’t even mention ice pops, I can freeze the entire ocean!" the Magic Mirror said arrogantly, "The Dragon God has bestowed upon Heart Mirror Lake the attribute of freezing, anything I touch can be frozen. Hmph, if I wanted to, it would be possible to freeze you into ice too."

"So, you’re saying you can control your freezing ability," Lilina said, looking at the Ice Demon Mirror dangerously, "No wonder there’s such a clear boundary of ice and snow at the edge of Heart Mirror Lake, and outside the boundary line, there’s not a trace of ice on the snow..."

"Wait! What are you doing! I’m warning you, vandalizing public property..."

"Public property my ass!" Lilina threw a punch and knocked a chunk of ice from the bottom of the mirror, "Didn’t you hear what the Dragon Sister said? You’re now a gift! Be obedient, or else I’ll toss you into the furnace. Tsk, a creature with not a trace of tact, you can’t even suck up properly."

The Magic Mirror shut up, but a thin, sharp voice emerged from the piece of ice that fell on the ground, "You asshole, you knock off a piece today and another tomorrow, will I even last until it’s time to be thrown into the furnace?!"

The piece of ice knocked down by Lilina, because it was located at the bottom of the mirror and due to the just right force, looked just like the shape of an eye. The Archbishop on the spot gave this piece of ice the name Extreme Cold Eye and announced it to be an Orange Equipment. The Magic Mirror, now missing a piece at the bottom, had a crescent-shaped gap, and the Archbishop on the spot pulled out a draft of the new Bible and wrote down such a mythological story:

The Extreme Cold Eye, Ice Demon Mirror, two powerful Divine Artifacts from the Divine Realm, originally one, but split into two due to their excessive powers by the just, kind, righteous, compassionate, great, illuminated, and correct Female Pope, Ding Lilina Dang. She made the Extreme Cold Eye the energy core of the Ice and Snow Castle, while the Ice Demon Mirror was personally suppressed in front of her toothbrushing basin. It is said that when these two Ancient Artifacts are combined, the world will be frozen over, and Doomsday will descend... "Life Goddess Scripture—Revised at lunchtime"

After recording these events, Lilina handed the Extreme Cold Eye over to the soldiers, instructing them to embed this chilly object at the very top of the tallest tower of the Ice and Snow Castle.

Despite the ridiculous process, the icy piece indeed proved to be mighty powerful; the massive Ice and Snow Castle underwent a change visible to the naked eye beneath the enveloping blue light barrier. The originally ordinary ice and snow rapidly solidified into something unmeltable, and all the cold air of the castle was contained within the countless blocks of ice bricks. The entire castle, initially coarse due to the rush job, now appeared crystal clear and exquisitely crafted, an artistic masterpiece. The power of the Extreme Cold Eye radiated, shining a blue light from the top of the tower, leaving no doubt that as night fell, the castle would become more whimsically beautiful due to the mysterious magic power.

Once again, Lilina inadvertently recreated a mythological story—well, alright, I’ll just admit it, this was a myth.

Although I bore witness to this miraculous event, and it indeed qualified as a myth, a profound feeling of absurdity persisted within me, unable to dissipate; this was probably the most common problem when spending too much time with Lilina. In her fabricated Bible, every miracle was undoubtedly real, yet none inspired awe. I don’t know whether the source of all this was some idiotic God or some scheming loli, or even both.

The Ice and Snow Castle, now an unbreakable unity reinforced by magic, greatly facilitated the transportation work. It was soon cut from the ground and became one of Qianqian’s collectibles: Pandora and Visca only liked the process of making snow sculptures; they were more than happy to give the castle to Sister Qianqian, who had always been good to them.

It was about time to head back, and I turned to wave at Little Qijing and Angel Sister, who were playing in the distance—okay, I guess many people have figured out that these two have also cultivated new tricks.

Nearby, the snow was lined with dozens of snowmen resembling Little Qijing, in various poses, as if a sequence of images of a lively little girl running had been captured with a high-speed camera. Little Qijing and Angel Sister were still cooperating to make even more snowmen: Little Qijing would strike a pose and stand still, while Alaya would flap her wings nearby, and after a gust of wind and snow, there would be a pretty little snowman. As an Energy Life form, Qi Jing could simply release her physical form and come out from the snow shell...

The two joyous creatures were having a great time with this.

Thus, inside the Ice and Snow Castle, the first batch of collectibles was quickly established: a large group of snowmen several dozen centimeters tall. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it with recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)