By the time we returned to the Empire District, it was already the afternoon of the next day — three thirty in the afternoon in the capital.
The reason for the delay was to drag the sanctuary world into the empire's territory. Although the Abyss District had been rendered harmless by the Abyssal Schilling, and the surrounding pollution had become inert, the environment of the Abyss was not suitable for the survival of ordinary races. No matter how lazy it was, it would still be harmful. It was safer for the survivors of the old Empire to live in the Empire District. In fact, if it was just to settle the refugees, there was no need to drag the entire universe over. After all, all the survivors were now living on a single planet, and their numbers were not large. It was just that after a wider range of scanning, we found many abandoned ruins in various parts of the universe. Considering that these things could still be used for reconstruction, and even if they were not used, we could still give them to Tawil to dismantle for fun. So Sandora decided to write the word "migration" in the background radiation of the universe.
And then the entire world was dismantled.
Now, the world had settled down in the Empire District and started a series of basic construction.
A large number of engineering ships were busy in space. This was an empty space less than one astronomical unit away from the "refuge planet". The engineering team wanted to build a permanent World Gate here to connect this universe with other areas of the Empire and integrate it into the world network. Every new territory had to be handled in this way. Building a World Gate was the first step, and the second step was to build a sovereign hub in the depths of the universe. If this universe was set to be a military or industrial world, then a large number of Empire bases would be built. But there was no need for the last step here. The civilians on the refuge planet did not know that a door to a new world had been opened so close to their planet, nor did they know how many starships were shuttling around their star system, preparing for their future lives. But even if they did not know anything, they were experiencing the most earth-shattering moment in tens of thousands of years: the Church of the Lost Gods announced to the world that the dark age of the frozen civilization had ended.
Countless priests, who did not know the truth of history, received an elaborately worded propaganda document from the Holy City Cathedral. This propaganda document had been decided many years ago, and had just been revised yesterday. The propaganda document used doctrinal methods to explain the forgiveness of the God of Technology and the God of Magic for humans, as well as the process of the Supreme God reopening the Celestial Forge. It also announced the schedule for the global ruins to be fully opened in the next few years, as well as the plans for the reconstruction of various civil academic organizations. At the same time, the priests announced even more shocking news: due to the divine grace of the gods, the technological revival organizations all over the world had been "pardoned within the scope of religion." These revivalists would be cleared of heresy. The extremists and radicals among them would be punished by the human code, but the ordinary scholars who were once regarded as heretics would be freed. The impact of this announcement was almost no less than the news of the "end of the technological winter", and it was likely to reduce the prestige of the Church of the Lost Gods. But it was all in the plan of the old men: the church would continue to weaken, slowly reduce its influence, and in the end, it was likely to become a purely philosophical organization or a spiritual symbol. It would no longer have divine authority, and it might even completely disappear after thousands of years. This was the result they wanted. The world was about to usher in a new order, and it no longer needed any chains.
Of course, in a short period of time, the church still had to rule the world, and continue to maintain its prestige so that it could completely control the process of the entire civilization revival. The explosive revival after the end of the technological winter was easy to lose control. The wise old elves knew that someone must steer the ship in the coming storm, and this mission could only be undertaken by the Church of the Lost Gods. This was also the realization they had when they established the church many years ago.
There were still many things to do next:
The Masker would appear in front of the world with a new image. Those revivalists who had been under house arrest until now (many of them had been under house arrest for almost their entire lives) also received the news that the pollution had subsided. They had been driven mad by this despairing truth, but now that the dark clouds had subsided, there was no need for these people to continue to be imprisoned. Most of them would have a chance to return to normal society, and a small number of them would be transferred to the neurology department. The great joy and sorrow made them even crazier.
Various schools and civil scientific research organizations were quietly built. These teams appeared to be completely formed by the people on the surface, but in fact, they had the shadow of the Church of the Lost Gods behind them. They would use various channels to subtly change the way the people thought, and it would only take one or two generations to cultivate new enterprising forces. The younger generation used to be the biggest factor of instability and even disaster in the world, but now the Church of the Lost Gods would personally cultivate more dynamic and creative young people than before. The Ark of Civilization had set sail again, and it needed younger and stronger sailors.
Some of the elven monks were planning public opinion, which was a relatively long and slow work: they had to find a way to tell the people the truth bit by bit, change the atmosphere of the entire society and the direction of public opinion, and finally reignite the interest of the ordinary people in the stars above their heads. This work needed to be carried out in conjunction with the previous plan.
In short, everything was going according to plan. Everything seemed to be developing smoothly, and the world no longer had to worry about facing the danger of doomsday with the slightest mistake. Now that they had a backer, even if there were any problems in the revival process, the Empire and other spawns would come to help. A large number of support personnel from the Galactic Civilization Community, the New Eden Federation, and the Allied Fleet of Exiles were already in place. They were experienced, well-equipped, and had abundant theoretical and practical case studies. They were a team that specialized in solving such problems, and had been active in the Empire for a long time. They were famous, and Shallow Shallow had named them the Rebirth Corporation. Indeed, it was a group of ultimate merchants that specialized in providing reconstruction services to other civilizations. The services included reconstruction after a race was on the brink of extinction, reconstruction after civilization disintegration, and reassurance of the people after a global catastrophe. At the same time, they also took on all kinds of technical consulting and colonial planet rentals.
Now, the members of the Rebirth Corporation had built a workstation on the back of the planet's satellite, and some of their representatives were in contact with the Church of the Lost Gods. Since the latter had a detailed reconstruction plan, the Rebirth Corporation's business seemed to be more difficult, and perhaps only technical consulting and equipment support could be negotiated. But they themselves did not seem to mind: after all, most of their activities were funded by the governments of their respective civilizations, and they could be considered a semi-public organization. Now, I remember the Animal Protection Association.
I really did not think that these races that had experienced post-disaster reconstruction would have such a magical new industry, and they had even developed into a cross-world company that even Sandora had never heard of before. It seems that the relaxed and gentle environment that the New Empire provided for their spawn, as well as various policies that could strengthen their cohesiveness, had produced some unexpected rewards. How could the Old Empire have such a thing?
Come to think of it, it seemed that there were a lot of amazing businesses in the Empire. There were Void-level mercenary organizations, "colonial merchants" that manufactured artificial planets for wholesale and retail, "rapid transit" moving companies that provided mass migration and even mass migration of planets, and "Yiwu Small Commodity Wholesale Market" that spanned across the entire Macro World (yes, that's the name, Shallow Shallow. No one would dare to say anything about it). And while the Empire provided the technical foundation for these businesses (not everyone could build the World Gate), it was also the largest manufacturer in the world … although we never charge for it, we only accept "loyalty".
Finally, the most amazing thing is that I recently found that the Fairy Void Consortium has a foot in almost all of the above industries. Except for the fact that they can't create a world like the Empire, they have almost become an omnipotent merchant. The Queen of Peddlers is simply amazing! Dingdang above, their civilization level had just broken through the World Barrier, just how did this group of geniuses evolve?
I couldn't imagine what would happen to these strange organizations in the Empire after the Shiring Apostles completed their deification. There was a sign hanging next to the Basilica of the World Tree that said "No stalls are allowed within a hundred meters of Heaven", but the Schilling Pantheon had already established relations with a bunch of Void Peddlers. We had really taken a completely different path from the Star Realm …
The second day after I returned, the Shadow Military District, Headquarters.
I retracted my gaze from the holographic projection in front of me. Seeing that the sanctuary was beginning to rebuild, I felt a lot better. Then I thought of Celine's stunned expression when I bid farewell to her two days ago, and the scene of little Ailu jumping around and shouting that she wanted to go to the Heavenly God's forge to help the Heavenly God … My mood became even better. Celine seemed to be interested in living in the Shadow City, but she wanted to wait for Ailu to reach adulthood before discussing this matter. I respected her choice, but I could still bring them over to the Shadow City to play for a few days. It could also be considered as letting the mother and daughter, who lived a tough life, enjoy a few days of happiness in advance.
I took a deep breath and gathered my thoughts from the trivial matters. I looked up at the woman sitting in front of me. She had black hair and a black dress. She had a calm temperament and beside her was a gigantic black box. It was Abyss Schilling.
"You really don't intend to meet with those Elves?" I looked at the woman in front of me who was once my mortal enemy, but today … I could be considered an ally. "They have waited for you for 70,000 years. The oldest generation of the three Elf tribes still remembers you."
"They have already completed their mission well. The agreement between me and them has ended, and there is no follow-up to it. So there is no point in meeting them." Abyss Schilling's tone was calm and unperturbed. "It is best to do less meaningless things and waste energy."
I smiled. "What a standard Schilling way of thinking. Sandora was the same as you five years ago."
"I believe she is the same now. This is the nature of the Shiring Apostles. It cannot be changed." Abyss Schilling shook his head. "And as for those Elves … what can I do even if I meet them? They still remember me, but I don't remember them. I don't think there is anything to say to a group of strangers. "
"You have erased your memory completely. We have turned the entire database of the Abyss upside down, but we couldn't find any records of the shelter you gave to that world." I twitched the corner of my mouth helplessly. I quickly flipped through the reports on the MDT. "But now there is trouble. No one knows what the thing you stuffed into the Deity Forge was. You should at least tell the Deity Forge. You knew that you had to erase your memory after you closed the door of the shelter. Why didn't you know that the truth of the thing in the storage was stored somewhere else? It would be a headache for the future generations. "
After closing the shelter, Abyss Schilling took a drastic measure to prevent herself or the other corrupted Apostles from destroying the protective layer that she had just built. That was to delete all the information about the shelter from the data network. Now it seemed that the deletion was really clean. When Abyss Schilling found out that there was a clean world in the depths of the Abyss, she was even more surprised than we were. Then there was the problem. Even she could not remember what the thing she gave to the Deity Forge was for.
Abyss Schilling rubbed her forehead as if she really needed to use her 'brain' to think. "I don't think I would make such a low-level mistake. In fact, I would rather believe that I did tell the Deity Forge's mainframe about the secret of the storage, but the mainframe forgot about it. Or maybe she didn't listen to me at all."
I thought for a while and could not help but sweat. "You don't say. This is really possible. The lunatics created by Visca …"
Abyss Schilling and I had an unprecedented tacit understanding. When I mentioned the lunatic AI, both of us lowered our heads and sighed at the same time.
"In any case, we can only leave it to Tawil and her research team. Let's hope that they can figure out what that thing is as soon as possible." I looked into Abyss Schilling's eyes. "But I would like to ask your personal opinion about that weird thing that looks like a bunch of ice cream balls."
"You have a lot of adjectives," Abyss Schilling said as she sat on the sofa and unconsciously rubbed the black box beside her. "Personal guess … I am not good at this form of thinking, but I do have some thoughts. I agree with you. That device does not look like an Empire creation. It is very likely that I did not make it back then but obtained it from somewhere else. If I have to say … I suspect it has something to do with the 'other side'. There are three reasons. First, when the Empire was about to collapse, the thing that I tried my best to preserve at the last moment must be extremely important. Excluding the Empire's property, only the creation from the other side would have such value. Second, the technological level of that thing is obviously quite high. Didn't you say that it has the power to transform the Abyss and even purify the ring fragments? This thing is now the pinnacle technology of the Protoss and the Empire. There was no such advanced third-party civilization near the Empire back then, so I suspect it came from the other side. Finally, the third point … I tried to put myself in the situation back then in the virtual environment to see what I would choose in that desperate situation. Then I realized that my greatest concern was to let the 'later generations' know about the existence of the 'other side' and know about the bridge. This matter is even as important to me as the Empire. "
Abyssal Schilling sighed in the end. "In that situation back then, I couldn't be sure how many of the Empire's kindling would survive. So the relics that I protected were not just for the survivors. Be it the Protoss or another powerful mortal civilization, it didn't matter who it was, as long as they were aware of the Void Cataclysm and built the bridge. Perhaps the relics in the Divine Forge were to tell others about the existence of the 'other side'."
After listening to Xi Ling's honest words, I was speechless for a moment. Then, I changed the topic. "Speaking of which, we have unexpectedly solved another problem — the Tree Elves finally know what's going on with their mother tree's' returning memories'."
"Tree Elves?" Abyssal Schilling raised his eyelids. "I'm not that interested in them, but I don't mind listening to you."
"Actually, the Green Planet really didn't return. The Mother Tree's memory of the voyage was just an illusion. Although it sounds strange, that plant is indeed capable of creating illusions." I chuckled. "Back then, didn't the tree elves split into two groups to escape? The first group was on the Green Star, and the second group was trapped in the Sanctuary. When the Mother Tree rushed out of the Empire District, she knew that the second group did not manage to escape successfully. Although the specific mechanism is still unclear, the plant became depressed and began to hallucinate due to the strong depression. It began to imagine itself returning to the Empire District to kill and rescue the other Elves … That's what happened. "
Even someone like Abyssal Schilling was stunned at this moment. "… A tree, it was depressed?! And it could even imagine? Are you sure there's nothing wrong with the results of the investigation? "
"Anyway, this is what was written in the report that the Tree Elves gave me." I raised the MDT in my hand. "Didn't the Green Star Tree Elves and the Sanctuary Tree Elves reunite? A group of old people from both sides had a warm and friendly gathering yesterday afternoon. After one-third of them had a heart attack and were sent to the emergency room, the remaining two-thirds decided to go to the Mother Tree to pray and tell the Mother Tree the good news of the 'Wanderer Reunion'. Then … Hmm, it was written in the report that an old elf heard the Mother Tree's murmur and translated it. Finally, the mystery of the 'returning memory' was revealed. All the elves present had a short discussion and unanimously agreed to pay more attention to the mental health of the Mother Tree. "
Abyssal Schilling listened to me in a daze. His expression was a little strange. "This … Even a plant has such complicated feelings. The world of the mortal race is really unreasonable."
"Come in contact with the 'mortal' world that you speak of. There are still many things that will surprise you." I finally finished the report at hand and stood up while stretching. "By the way, why are you in my office so early in the morning?"
I had been holding this question in for a few hours. Now, I couldn't help but ask. It would have been fine if someone else showed up here. Even if Little Bubble came to cause trouble, it would be normal. But why was Abyssal Schilling in my office so early in the morning? First of all, she didn't look like someone who had nothing to do. Secondly … No matter what, she was the current commander-in-chief of the Abyss (and had become the only commander-in-chief again). Having such a person sitting in the office and chatting with me made me feel uncomfortable.
Abyssal Schilling glanced at me and opened her mouth, startling me.
"I'm here to see if there are any sequelae after your self-destruction. After all, you are my biological father."
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