Chapter 465: Chapter 465: Sandora’s High-Energy Cooking

The sudden appearance of the golden-haired girl brought Artemis and her party to a temporary halt, and the girl’s imposing aura along with her proud declaration left everyone stunned.

Surrounded by a dozen or so Imperial Officers clad in Xyrin Army uniforms, with expressions as steely as their resolve, stood an exceptionally eye-catching beautiful young girl with waist-length golden curls. She wore a sky-blue noble long dress that seemed starkly out of place amidst the blood-and-iron atmosphere. Yet far from bestowing upon her any hint of frailty, her princess attire accentuated an unusual nobility and inviolability. Connecting this image with her robust statements just moments before, everyone was momentarily intimidated by Sandora.

Then, I waved at the person opposite me.

“Ah Jun!” Sandora immediately responded to the call, launching herself into a flying pounce from ten meters away. Incredibly, in such a brief time, she went from a standstill to multiple times the speed of sound. The next second, before the eyes of all, the two Emperors concealed by roiling dust vanished from everyone’s sight.

Uh, it wasn’t just the two Emperors; also involved was a Little Goddess who had been perched on my finger and consequently innocently swept up in the event. Dingdang, who didn’t have time to let go, was inadvertently taken into the sky by us, her cries of alarm trailing behind her.

“Sandora, I think my ribs might be slightly fractured…” I earnestly began after prying the queen who clung to me like an octopus off my body and giving her a passionate kiss, a token of our long-awaited reunion.

Sandora blinked, then her eyes emitted a faint halo as she scanned over my chest.

“It’s nothing!” the golden-haired girl carelessly slapped her lover’s chest. “It’s just a bit of muscle bruising, and it’ll heal in a bit. Your body is the type that can withstand meteors, you know~~~ Let’s quickly finish taking care of the refugees so we can go home and eat!!”

Me: “…”

Do you really have nothing else in your mind besides getting things over with so we can go home to eat?

“This is my… ah… girlfriend…” Supported by Sandora, I slowly made my way back to Artemis and her companions, hissing in pain because of the “slight muscle bruising.” “She’s another one of the Empire’s Emperors. Despite her somewhat harsh words just now, the situation is indeed as she described. You don’t need to be nervous; this is definitely better than the ghostly world we were in, isn’t it…”

“We don’t really have a problem,” Artemis said, her expression a mix of amusement and puzzlement as she looked at me and Sandora. “But are you sure you’re okay?”

This wasn’t the first encounter between Sandora and Artemis. They had met during the previous Olympus incident, and of course, the experience of arresting Artemis wasn’t a fond memory for either of them. For Sandora, Artemis’s series of invasions into the Xyrin relics certainly wouldn’t have endeared her, and in the latter’s mind, the cold-looking “Queen” before her could easily be classified as a dangerous entity.

But now, it seemed there was a subtle change.

Their past antagonism had evaporated like smoke into the air. Upon understanding Artemis’s circumstances, Sandora, as an Emperor, naturally wouldn’t hold a grudge over the previous “sacrilege.” Moreover, she found herself expressing a slight admiration for the steadfast girl–those few words of praise shouldn’t be underestimated. For outsiders, receiving such praise from a proud queen like Sandora was near impossible; the leaders of the Empire even treated a nod from her as an honor akin to a military medal. For Artemis, an ordinary human, to be commended by Sandora as a “tenacious girl” actually earned her a significant level of acknowledgment among the Xyrin Apostles.

However, all this was unknown to Artemis. Although she no longer held any animosity toward Sandora, her first encounter with the latter’s strong-willed nature and unique haughty demeanor had clearly made a deep impression. More importantly…

When Sandora had captured Artemis and before handing her over to the Superpower Team, she had “warned” the girl who had once tampered with a great number of Xyrin relics and “studied” them to their destruction. Of course, it wasn’t a barbaric interrogation; for Sandora, a mental reprimand was clearly more effective. A touch of psychic intimidation didn’t cause Artemis significant harm but did inflict a serious psychological impact on her. With Sandora’s arrival, I could clearly see Artemis’s reaction of tenseness and the desire to flee.

But this tension lost its edge when Sandora publicly revealed her quaintly peculiar inclinations. Artemis could only look on with a twisted expression at me and Sandora, who was still sweetly hanging around my neck, as she tried to figure out how to translate the thought processes between Xyrin Apostles and humans.

For the next several minutes, the changing expressions on Artemis’s face kept scrolling across the screen, never stopping.

Even without knowing her thoughts, the look on her face was a clear sign that whatever she was thinking, it was nothing good. I cleared my throat to interrupt what might have been an exceedingly rude train of thought from Artemis, “Cough cough… Anyway, the situation in this world has been mostly sorted out, and the building next to you now is the World Core–of course, just the surface layer. Here you’ll find suitable housing and other life supplies; you can get accustomed to it first. There’s a lot to adjust between the two worlds, and you’ll need about a week to stabilize the transition from information state to physical state. So for now, this is still a closed space, but I think it might not be so bad to enjoy a few days of leisure in such a beautiful place. Everyone, please bear with it for a bit.”

It was then that Artemis snapped out of her distraction, noticing that her comrades had already moved around with expressions of awe. Hu Wen and Ling Yin had even run off to who knows where. Only now did she start to pay attention to the environment around her.

Right beside us, less than a hundred meters away, a colossal architectural system was gradually taking shape amidst wandering mystical lights.

Its main structure was a magnificent pyramid hundreds of meters tall, lined with golden metallic casing. Pale blue energy streams coursed through every line of the pyramid like blood, converging on the rhombus-shaped crystals that dotted the four faces and apex of the pyramid, causing these charging crystal hearts to pulsate continuously. Winding green vines, seemingly out of place amidst the machinery, grew from no one knows where, crawling up the pyramid’s surfaces. Rather than seeming out of place, these vines added a sense of perfect harmony between technology and mysticism. Furthermore, these vines seemed to serve as the linkage to several other buildings, which were neatly spaced around the pyramid. These silver-grey towers looked like a series of rectangular slabs pieced together, creating a unique form that tapered towards the ends and swelled in the middle. Apart from the blue light flowing along their edges, the tall metallic “towers” seemed to lack any entrances or exits. Upon close inspection, we could see that these towers were not built on the ground but floated less than a meter above, undulating with a barely perceptible rise and fall. With each undulation, rings of light were stimulated from their bases, synchronizing with the crystals on the pyramid but with a one-second delay. The vines on the ground extended all the way from the pyramid to the base of these hovering grey towers, forming circular runes.

The growth of these vines continued. They didn’t form as rapidly as Xyrin architecture, but eventually, they would cover a considerable portion of the pyramid. I had seen the renderings provided by Taville, and in a few days, over eighty percent of the pyramid’s surface would be wrapped in ancient green vines, resembling an ancient relic buried over time, emanating a sense of history from its very core. A brand-new building turning into a relic in a matter of days–a process not even Taville could halt once the Tree of Life’s vines began to sprawl.

It was this device that maintained the new appearance of the “World Fragment.” Of course, the crucial world management terminal couldn’t be so blatantly exposed. What we saw was just the outer mechanism of the entire device; the special Xyrin Mother Nest inside did not have a mainframe slot. It formed an information exchange port together with the surrounding “antennas,” i.e., the floating towers. The real core device was parallel to us in a half-plane, where the stone platform that hovered in the star realm housed an identical set up, only with World Tree vines far more luxuriant than those here. The Xyrin Host, acting as the core processor, was placed within the half-plane Xyrin Nest with a security level of five pluses.

Think about it: Shadow City was already in the Inner World outside the real world, World Fragment was mounted underneath Shadow City’s shadow, and the management terminal was placed inside a sub half-plane beneath the World Fragment. A security measure of such degree…

Indeed, only a headache could describe it.

But what I really wanted Artemis and the others to notice was not the super “Amplifying Antenna” next to us, but rather, a small residence… Eh, I admit, compared to the imposing pyramid that resembled ancient relics, a grand courtyard house was not too eye-catching.

“How do you feel about this place?”

My voice interrupted Artemis, who was lost in thought, and she let out a soft gasp of surprise, relaxing only when she saw it was me.

“A simple thank-you could never suffice,” Artemis took a deep breath, then bowed deeply to me. “So…”

“Wayward girl, be brave and offer yourself in marriage!”

Lilina levitated into the air, raising a sapling of the World Tree in her hand, and with a backdrop of radiant light, she declared aloud.

If she weren’t floating, I would have kicked her!

“It’s not much trouble at all, and after all, this unique world is a rare windfall for us,” I helped Artemis up. “We’ll be taking our leave then. Someone will be here to arrange your temporary living, and the support team will be arriving soon.”

The newly birthed world, despite its Immortal Realm-like scenery and numerous exotic creatures, had no residents nor specific architectural plans yet, so there wasn’t much to arrange. After securing temporary accommodation for Artemis near the world management terminal, we were finally able to call it a day and head home.

For Sandora, what was most important was that she could finally eat!

You see, this silly girl hadn’t eaten since she got up, waiting for me to come home. For a dining table queen who would include eating as part of the Empire’s five-year development plan, this was as bizarre as a little monster changing careers to save the world or a superhero joining municipal services!

No matter how you look at it, even if you’re waiting for a lover to come home for dinner, hanging on from morning until afternoon seems a bit too much, doesn’t it? What on earth is this girl trying to pull?

That question was answered after I got dragged into the dining room by Sandora.

“Ta-da! Ah Jun! I made this with my own hands~~~ I thought you guys would be back in the morning, but because of a sudden fluctuation in the timeline within the World Fragment, time between the two worlds became asymmetrical, and it dragged on until now. But no worries, I reheated it, and the taste hasn’t changed at all~!~!”

Sandora clung to my arm, her face full of joy and excitement, her sweet voice laced with a thick sense of seeking approval.

And I, stiff-legged, was ushered by her to the dining table, then creakily took my seat.

“Boss, I’ll resurrect you,” Lilina solemnly made the sign of the cross over her chest, “in the name of our Goddess.”

Your Goddess would absolutely die if she ate this stuff!

Sandora, I know when we’re not home, no one’s around for you to mess with and you get bored. But you could at least take up some normal hobbies, no, even if not normal, just something that’s a bit more light-hearted. The stuff on this table, it’s truly deadly if eaten!

It was a curious piece of cookware that looked like a giant clay pot but was entirely made out of silvery alloy. This “Kitchen Helper 3000” developed by Bubbles during her downtime supposedly had the intense firepower capable of cooking Noke Stones from a supernova. However, what was bubbling inside was a pot with colors… damn it, they’re changing colors! Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple shades were shifting, Sandora, Sandora, that’s clearly a vigorous chemical reaction going on, right? The pot kept bubbling up with huge billows, rapidly changing vivid colors, and inside was a thick soup littered with sections of black unidentifiable skeletal remains. Are you sure this isn’t meant to be a new type of fuel for our battlecruiser?

Just one glance, and Qianqian and the others fled in terror to the other end of the table. And now, a certain queen is full of expectancy, hoping I’ll drink this stuff down!

“Ah Jun, try it, will you? It might not look very appealing, but I tested it, and it really is fine!” Sandora admitted that her creation looked terrible, albeit with a hint of self-awareness. But what’s the use of you taste-testing? Don’t you know you possess the type of stomach that could handle eating concentrated uranium dipped in nitroglycerin without issue?!

“And Bubbles told me that to conquer a man’s heart and soul, you must first conquer his stomach! So this is definitely a self-confident and extraordinary work!”

As soon as I glanced at Bubbles preparing to secretly take her seat next to the table, she disappeared with a whoosh.

Could it be that you include “total annihilation” as one form of conquering too?

“Can I ask what ingredients are actually in this, first?”

Holding onto a sliver of hope, I trembled as I held the spoon and asked.

If the main ingredients were still within edible range, I’d be willing to accept it, no matter how bizarrely it was presented! In the face of the iron walls of my stomach, even a poison that could kill in seven steps would probably just cause an upset stomach. I could see that despite its fearsome look, it was a labor of love from Sandora. I could imagine the hardship and effort the usually regal queen undertook, hiding in the kitchen all night to prepare breakfast for her lover – yeah, just take one look at the obviously recently installed new kitchen door to imagine it.

“The main ingredients are um… ribs…”

Oh, those are probably the charred remnants that remained, just black charcoal sticks.

“Green onions?”

After some searching, I indeed found a pitiful vegetable leaf that was almost a postmodern art piece.

“And various spices; I put in whatever I could find…”

I guess for that I would have to deduce the formula from the continually changing chemical reaction on the surface of the soup.

“Some effervescent ingredients, supposedly to enhance the flavor… I think it was inert carboxy…”

My rummaging gesture suddenly stiffened; did something very odd just get mixed in?

“And a high-activity curium-sodium compound that quickly releases nutrients from the bones.”

“A concentrated pan-olympic crystalline compound to adjust the sweetness.”

“And energy-packed, vigorous non-repulsive compressed Helium-3 composite and a tristate triazine catalyst to help digestion!”

When Sandora’s voice ended, you could have heard a pin drop in the dining room, filled with a whole family of people.

“Pandora!”

I waved at the small loli across the table, and immediately, although she maintained a “I’m calm and collected” facade, she darted over in a flash, eager to come over after not seeing me for several days.

The 1.2-meter-tall little girl stood eagerly by my side, her face full of joy, until I handed her the pot oozing with eerie green vapor, and her smile morphed into confusion.

“Take this to Taville; let her test how this new fuel works with the Sixth Generation Conventional Afterburner.”

Pandora nodded vigorously, then, holding the pot of high-energy fuel, ran out of the dining room like the wind.

“Um…” Sandora immediately looked wronged, slumping over the table, “Even Ah Jun does this to me.”

So that means you’ve been warned more than once about the weirdness of this concoction!

Although I managed to narrowly avoid a fiery explosion from consuming Sandora’s lovingly made high-energy fuel, seeing the golden-haired girl looking downcast and gloomy, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity. Gently, I patted her head: “Honey, I appreciate the thought, but if you really want to cook, it might be better to learn from Anwina…”

As soon as I finished speaking, a certain faintly glowing ghost’s head popped up from the table: “But Master, after asking me for the basic method of stewing ribs, it was indeed Sandora who made that stuff!”

…Forget it, Sandora, you might as well continue your research on fuel improvement. (To be continued, please visit www.wuxiaworld.site for more chapters and support the author and genuine reading!)