Chapter 464: Chapter 464: The Newcomer

Mounting was an incredibly complex process, and even the Ravens carrying out the task didn’t fully grasp its principles; perhaps only Dingdang, who controlled the World Tree Temple, and designers of the entire plan like Taville and Bubbles, could explain everything. Anyway, our job was to stay within the protective force field of the shuttle, ever vigilant to prevent any accidents: not accidents that threatened us, but rather those that could affect Artemis and the others.

Before the whole process concluded, they could not leave this world, nor could they take refuge inside the shuttle. Consequently, throughout the three-hour-long world fusion, these fragile ‘ghosts’–even more vulnerable than humans–had to remain on the world fragments, which were undergoing tremendous shock. Their only protection was a newly retrofitted, untested transparent shield, made from an old information barrier. Even though this shield was theoretically capable of withstanding the stabilizing force of an information storm, we didn’t dare to let our guard down.

As for those under protection, Artemis and her companions seemed blissfully unaware of the danger they were in. Whether they would remain unharmed or reduced to bones depended entirely on that two-dimensional plane which had no thickness to speak of, a thought that left me on tenterhooks.

Ling Yin was a girl who blushed easily, but she had a curiosity and recovery power to match Qianqian’s (Is it really a strength if it’s synonymous with being heartless?). Having overcome her initial unease, she was now curiously observing the hexagonal mechanical structure above, glowing faintly in the high sky. It was the force field generator at the rear of the shuttle, and since the shuttle was standing vertically in the air, from the ground it looked just like a mechanical disc several dozen meters in diameter, resembling a UFO straight out of a cliched sci-fi novel.

“I’d advise you not to stare at the force field generator,” Lin Xue said, glancing at Ling Yin who had already taken out her phone, ready to snap a picture of the shuttle’s ‘rear.’ “The light emitted when it switches to secondary stance could fry your brain to eighty percent done.”

“Waaaah!” Ling Yin exclaimed without a stutter and then quickly crouched down and covered her head, while Hu Wen shrugged innocently at us.

“Anyone up for playing cards?”

Seemingly out of boredom, Qianqian suddenly suggested, and then with a whoosh pulled out an enormous table from her personal space, followed by a snowfall of playing cards descending from the air, covering the entire table.

“Ah Jun, Ah Jun! We’re free anyway! Let’s play!!”

Um, Qianqian, your method of lightening the mood isn’t bad, but don’t you think it’s a bit too bizarre to play a card game with twenty people, where after discarding you need to brew a cup of tea before it’s your turn again, and those on the opposite side of the table have to climb up just to see the cards thrown by others?

“Information network established, Mother Nest transmitting… Preparing to implant World Tree vines…”

And look, it seems we’re not entirely without things to do after all, we can watch a movie!

As that gentle female voice echoed once more, a notable change began in our surroundings–buildings, streets, trees, everything in sight was slowly undergoing a subtle transformation, losing realism.

It was as though a very realistic 3D model was now being subjected to a downgrade in material effect. The once lifelike objects around us were now trending toward artificiality; their surface colors growing uniform, color transition effects more abrupt, and slowly even the lighting and reflection effects vanished. A minute later, they looked like rough three-dimensional models that had just been modeled and primed, with monotonous, lifeless hues emerging coldly under uniform self-illumination.

Then came the loss of details in these “models,” as their polygon counts decreased, and the once smooth curved transitions gradually turned into sharp trapezoidal assemblies. A pale ghost student passed by not far from us, who, upon appearing, was a person with a complete shape, but as he approached the corner of the flowerbed, he turned into a comical puppet made of rectangles, cylinders, and spheres.

The so-called flowerbed in front of us was now nothing more than a pile of white slabs of varying heights and a vast, dusty gray rectangle.

Artemis and her compatriots held their breath, watching as the world they were familiar with gradually turned into a grotesque, simplistic model. The students clutched each other’s hands tightly and huddled together in fear. At that moment, no one entertained the idea of stepping out from behind the transparent shield to take a closer look, especially after witnessing a humanoid figure approaching from a distance suddenly turn into a paper cut-out midair before collapsing on the ground as a moving line drawing.

“Is… is this the first impact?!”

Artemis managed to stay calm, barely swallowing her saliva before leaning in and whispering her question tentatively.

“No, this is just a preparation,” I shook my head, then pointed ahead, “The first impact will happen when the flash occurs over there.”

Almost as soon as the words left my mouth, the impact alarm went off, “Injecting the Shadow City’s adaptation laws, starting command: Fight for the glory of the Empire, attention, the first impact is about to arrive, Mother Nest mainframe please prepare for impact resistance.”

Three seconds later, a blue flash suddenly erupted from the direction of the gymnasium. The flash was not intense, but it instantly cleared away everything.

The surrounding scenery, already reduced to paper cutouts and line drawings, rapidly disintegrated from the center of the blue flash like a beach smoothed over by the waves, offering no resistance. When the blue light faded, everything familiar about Artemis had vanished–darkness, silence, emptiness.

The ground had become a mirror-like plane of black crystal, evenly marked with blue light grids at two-meter intervals, resembling a checked drawing paper. And above us remained the blue honeycomb-patterned sky curtain. Except for the shuttle and a small group of people below, heaven and earth had turned into their simplest state: a blank canvas, waiting to be filled.

In this incredibly simplistic world, there was one place that attracted the most attention.

It was where the blue flash had first appeared, in the direction of the former gymnasium. There, a beam of light as powerful as a tower reaching into the heavens soared into the sky, illuminating everything around it. The square light grids on the ground nearby were distorted, gradually converging at the base of the beam. It was becoming visible that something was growing there.

“The first impact is over, now docking with the World Tree Temple, starting command: Dingdang is really awesome, attention, the second impact is about to arrive, Mother Nest defense system please prepare for impact resistance.”

… This command… It must have been Dingdang’s idea, right?

Just as I made this remark, the impact from the World Tree Temple swept across the world with a force far greater than that of the first one, a more miraculous and spectacular sight!

Mountains, rivers, forests, plains, huge rocks, unknown wild beasts…

I really can’t describe it all; a world explosively unfolded before my eyes. The black grid below instantly turned into endless grasslands. Ancient trees of a thousand years pierced through the ground amidst thunderous roars, overshadowing the sky. The flat land rapidly grew, contorting to form various landscapes. Depressions were quickly filled with water from unknown sources, forming rivers and lakes. Brilliant flecks sped through the wind, transforming into beautiful and elegant exotic beasts in their leaps. They bowed down, adorning themselves with the fresh springs from the world’s inception, or curiously hopped up to us, gazing at us with surprise, as we were protected within a transparent shield.

Well, at this moment, my impression of Dingdang improved slightly. It appears that her skills in creation have something to them after all…

Although this world was, at most, a hundred kilometers in diameter.

“Boss! Everything’s smooth!”

Lilina’s voice echoed from afar. I first commanded the shuttle overhead to turn off the protective barrier, then looked towards the sound, just in time to see a beautiful little girl dressed in a lake-green gown with elfin pointed ears and green hair reaching halfway down her back, riding a unicorn towards us with a light trot.

For a moment, I felt as if I were witnessing a little fairy flitting towards me. Lilina’s current pure and beautiful appearance possessed an astonishing impact, even making one temporarily forget her usual unscrupulous demeanor.

What a dazzling wild loli!

Lilina, riding the unicorn, effortlessly stopped in front of us. Her talent for unimpeded communication with any animal allowed her to easily control this stubborn creature that once dragged Sicaro stubbornly from the southern to northern end of Shadow City–indeed, the exotic beasts here weren’t born of this nascent world; they were the result of species research during Dingdang’s idle experiments. Now, I will tearfully announce that I finally have a place to settle this flock of animals that disturb the social order in Shadow City every day…

“Thank you~~~”

Lilina hopped off the unicorn and then gently hugged its neck, rubbing her little face against its soft, white fur. The latter let out a peculiar “gugu” sound, causing our elf Lilina to frown slightly.

“This won’t do! It’s too much!”

“Gugu…” The unicorn, seemingly practicing some language, continued to gugu resolutely.

“Two pieces, no more! I don’t have much stock either!”

“Gugu!!” The unicorn protested stubbornly, as we looked on, utterly baffled.

In the end, Lilina couldn’t outlast the exceptionally obstinate creature. Angrily, she kicked its hind leg, then carelessly hung a large bag of cookies on its horn: “Eat until you burst, you Glutton! Next time I’ll make you carry Sicaro through the streets selling platters!”

…Farewell, my few remaining precious childhood memories; the sacred unicorns and forest elves have turned into greedy Gluttons and crude gangster girls…

“Boss, how about it? This world is pretty beautiful, right?”

After the beautiful little elf had roughly kicked away the sacred unicorn, she bounced over to me, her little head swaying as if it barely needed a sign that read “Come praise me”.

Pfft, as if you made this place.

Just as the thought flashed through my mind, I suddenly felt a slight fluctuation in the space beside me. A small, green figure zipped out from a palm-sized space gate and… went straight through the gap between everyone, like a cannonball heading towards a nearby stream, leaving a trail of loud cries:

“Huwah huwah!! Water! Water! So bitter, so bitter, so bitter!!”

As I stared dumbfounded, the Lady Goddess, who had just created this world, almost completely submerged herself in the creek, her head under for a whole minute!

After a good while, the almost bloated Dingdang finally resolved her urgent need, holding her slightly distended belly as she floated over unsteadily. Then, she lay on top of my head out of habit and let out a breath: “Huwah… Dingdang has finally come back to life; I thought I was going to die from bitterness…”

That’ll teach you to think of the dumb idea to use Shadow Clones to eat sugar! Didn’t you know that stuff gets bitter if you eat too much of it?

I inwardly scolded the foolish Little Goddess, and reached up to pick the Little Thing off. Having a Little One perched on my head in front of a group of people really wasn’t a good look. Sadly, just as my hand reached out, Dingdang saw my intention and immediately let out a panicked shout: “Ah no! I’ve drunk too much water! If Ah Jun grabs me now, it’ll definitely spray out!”

An image vividly popped into my mind of myself, holding Dingdang like a watering can, watering the flowers and plants below.

“Little Douding, I’ll teach you a technique. You can create a Super Space-Time Channel in your stomach and throw all the water into Other Space…”

Before I could finish, Dingdang on my head stopped her continuous rolling motion that aided digestion. Then I felt a very subtle, disdainful gaze sweeping over my head.

“Whose idea was this? Even Dingdang isn’t that bored!”

Ha! You’ve been scorned, Lin Xue. You’ve been scorned by a tiny creature only three inches tall!

“Ah Jun, let’s focus on what’s important right now.” Big Sister’s voice suddenly echoed in my mind, interrupting the joyful interaction between me and my pet. Only then did I notice the changes in our surroundings.

After the initial shock, Artemis and the “Awakeners” had all snapped back to reality. They gazed around at the new world, which resembled Immortal Realm, casting curious looks our way.

And, unsurprisingly, all the girls’ attention was focused on a certain little animal, still oblivious and happily looking around from atop its master’s head.

Lilina, who had turned into a green-haired beauty with long Elf ears due to her Divine Technique, also caught many glances. The Unicorn had gone unnoticed earlier due to everyone’s shock, but now the Elf Lilina and the Little One, Dingdang, definitely drew significant attention from these New World inhabitants.

“This is God,” I said with a grin, pointing at the Little One on top of my head, who jumped in surprise and then, out of habit, clung to the finger in front of her. So when I pointed the finger at Lilina, a dainty Life Goddess was hanging off it, “And this is the Pope.”

Finally, I pointed to myself: “And I am their Master.”

“Wow!” Lilina, realizing she had been categorized as a pet as well, let out a startled cry, while Dingdang began nodding with thoughtless glee.

Is this Little Thing actually proud of its pet status?!

“I should be awake now…” Artemis said in disbelief, pinching her face, “Aren’t you from some otherworldly Empire or something? God? Immortal?”

“This is quite complicated to explain; let’s walk and talk.”

I smiled slightly and took the lead, guiding everyone in a certain direction, towards where the “gymnasium” used to be. However, that structure had vanished along with the old world, becoming echoes of the past. Now, a brand-new Sanctuary stood in its place. The fifty Ravens had not come with Lilina because they were finalizing the last few steps to activate the Sanctuary.

Explaining everything about the Xyrin Empire, the Multi-universe, and the pantheon to these newly reborn lucky ones was not easy. The topics were too numerous and complex, and even a concise explanation would probably take three days and nights. Thus, we directly opened a mental link, sharing all publicly available information with Artemis and her group. They were first startled then slowly began to grasp the situation as a flood of information poured into their minds, quietly accepting the local download.

This process should have been instantaneous, but unfortunately, the average Human constitution is quite frail, and handling such a volume of information exceeded their processing limit. It took more than ten minutes to complete the data transfer, and I couldn’t help but think: indeed, when using USB, speed is essential!

“That’s everything.”

After the information exchange, I snapped Artemis and the others out of their stupor. They rubbed their foreheads and looked our way, their eyes filled with amazement and reverence.

Well, there’s no need for reverence. In no time, all of you will surely be led astray by the veteran rascals and clueless Imperial High Level…

“This is a New World, an Empire’s new territory,” Just then, a voice suddenly resonated in front of us, drawing everyone’s attention. I followed the sound and saw that Sandora was already waiting ahead of us, surrounded by a group of Imperial officers, “You have accepted the Empire’s salvation, so becoming a glorious Imperial Citizen is also your duty. From today on, you will live under the rule of the Xyrin Empire. Work hard, live proudly, and obey the Empire’s laws, and I will bring you peace.”

That girl sneakily sent me another message: “Ah Jun! Get these Refugees settled and come home for dinner!”

With that one sentence, Sandora’s radiant Queen image in my mind collapsed for the Nth time. (To be continued. For more, please visit www.wuxiaworld.site. More chapters are available, and support the author and genuine reading!)