Xyrin Empire-Chapter 704: Food Poisoning—What Are You Here For!

Warriors who had watched since ancient times knelt on the ground, welcoming the return of the gods they had eagerly awaited for hundreds of thousands of years.

They were so majestic and strong. Precisely engineered, their genetics had brought these ancient people close to a perfect state of carbon-based life. Each cell in their bodies contained magical energy ready to burst forth at any moment, and every inch of their muscles possessed the strength of steel. But now they were covered in scars, eighty percent of them bore wounds, and some were even bathed in blood. Moreover, apart from Ares, who had undergone a complete "promotion ceremony" and became a "god," the weapons and armor of every Atlantian were severely worn out—because for many years, the antiquated recycling factories of Atlantis had been declining in efficiency. These factories had been awkwardly patched up by the Atlantian technicians just to keep them running till now. Without these factories, the Atlantians couldn’t manufacture the super interstellar alloy needed to create equipment themselves. To ensure the highest overall combat effectiveness possible, using brand-new weapons and armor had become a privilege reserved for senior warriors.

Despite their myriad scars and outdated equipment, these ancient warriors still possessed astonishing willpower and physical strength. The latter could be attributed to their bodies that had undergone countless modifications. As for the former, it could only be explained by the religious fervor ignited by the "return of the gods," especially since they had been fighting for several days and nights and even infinite physical energy would struggle to keep up.

"Can you still fight?"

Sandora looked at the ancient warriors and asked flatly.

"As long as an Atlantian lives, he can fight!" Ares responded, his voice booming like a bell.

"Then prepare for battle."

Atlantians were super soldiers created by the Old Empire, and they greeted today’s reunion in the efficient manner most admired by the Xyrin apostles. Thus, this was the so-called "return of the gods." There were no grand welcome ceremonies, no mysterious miracles and forebodings, and certainly no oaths or vows tearfully expressed by "mortals." The whole process proceeded as naturally as the most common pre-battle order. The Empire’s army stepped back onto this long-lost territory, leading the soldiers of yore to recapture positions, all just as they had been decreed hundreds of thousands of years ago: commands and obedience, fighting side by side, advancing and retreating together. Despite the "gods" who once led them to a glorious civilization having been replaced, these ancient soldiers still adhered to their deep-rooted vows. When Sandora’s command was issued, Ares immediately stood up, leading his people to gear up and ready themselves for the next battle.

"I never thought such fragile and variable carbon-based beings could be as excellent as a Xyrin apostle. They can actually measure up to the Imperial Soldiers," Sandora said softly, somewhat amazed, "Without authority systems and thought branding, how do they manage that?"

"Don’t underestimate faith and the will of carbon-based life forms. Thought locks aren’t the only effective racial chains," I scratch my head, feeling a bit awkward, "Besides, I’m carbon-based too, right?"

Sandora suddenly paused, "Eh? I’d forgotten!"

I coughed violently as if I were having a fit.

Thankfully, Vega came crunching along just then, easing my embarrassment slightly. After a fierce battle, the Scorpion Girl still carried the fresh scent of blood on her. Even the armor plating on her lower half continued to drip with filthy dark red fluid. It’s no wonder that Raven 001, who admired an "elegant, wise, and beautiful" style of fighting, had some criticisms about the Armored Scorpion’s violent tactics. But in my view, Vega, who had just returned from a great victory, radiated a wild kind of beauty.

"Commander, we have cleared all the enemies in this area called ’Elder’s Path,’" she reported. "Only seven soldiers were heavily injured by concentrated enemy attacks and have been sent back to the mother ship for repairs. However, the enemies gathered here were mostly weaker, rarely possessing lethal skills."

"As a warm-up battle, that’s not bad."

I nodded and turned to hail the Leader Bee who had just finished buffing the soldiers, "Ola, transport a Xyrin Host over here."

Having a Leader Bee is great, their functions aren’t that strong, but their versatility is incredibly satisfying—compared to her, a Swiss Army Knife is seriously weak.

The silent masked girl utilized her crystal wings to slice open a teleportation gate that shimmered with white light in mid-air, and a servile mass-produced Xyrin Host walked out from inside, its expressionless face looking at me and Sandora, awaiting orders.

You know, having been around the carefree Zhai Pao Pao and the charming Little Baobao, seeing a disciplined version with a stern face ready for orders, I somehow felt quite unaccustomed.

"Let’s begin as planned; this should be the building. Hopefully, the foundation matrix below is as good as the agents reported."

The mass-produced leader robot shipped from the mother ship saluted me and Sandora and then began to unfold its host slot in the square—of course, this wasn’t a good place to establish a base for expanding the Mother Nest, nor did time allow for it. Its mission was to quickly take over the control systems of Atlantis City and figure out a way to get the crashed city host running again, or without the city defense system’s support, our ground forces would face too many variables in their advance.

That is why we chose this site as our initial landing point. According to intelligence collected by the agents, the Elder’s Path was one of the main data nodes of Atlantis, where an auxiliary computing array, now abandoned and rebuilt as a temple, existed—however, the data matrix underneath hadn’t been dismantled and could be activated immediately and used.

A squad of Xyrin Soldiers dressed in heavy armor appeared out of thin air just as the host slot was deployed. This Host Guard, more powerful than the typical Imperial Soldiers, lacked sufficient personality and intelligence, but possessed the most excellent individual reactors and enhanced energy shields, which could ensure that, in emergencies, they could buy enough time for the host to escape the battlefield.

As a crucial unit in the Xyrin military system, second only to the Supreme Commander, every Xyrin Host, even the mass-produced clones, was highly secure. Still, in my memory, only these well-behaved mass-produced models strictly follow operational procedures by deploying the Host Guard at the start of their missions. Bubbles, the carefree guy, always finds it troublesome and leaves his guards in the space fold, while Little Baobao doesn’t even know what the soldiers in her personal space are for...

The crystal prism placed on the complex mechanical platform gradually transformed from light and shadow into a physical body. The mass-produced host began to operate inside the prism, and the previously invisible "information" materialized into pipelines somewhere between matter and energy, spreading gradually underground and into nearby building walls. A slight flow of energy began to hum, and the voice of the mass-produced host echoed through the spiritual link: "Found usable routes, Error 678, remote computer unresponsive, initial judgment city host energy depleted, the unit will use backup energy to start remote host, please ensure energy supply for the unit."

I think Bubbles teaches his girls too much weird stuff. free𝑤ebnovel.com

Just then, a series of intense explosions came from the nearby district, blue-purple lightning with bright flashes lit up the sky over there, and vaguely the smell of medium-rare grilled meat wafted through the air. Sandora sniffed towards the direction of the explosions, "Seems like Raven has begun suppressing the ’Wise Path’ enemies. That area appears to be occupied by mutated War Beasts, so the Ravens used the Mississippi method."

As Sandora’s words fell, the air’s smell turned into medium-well.

"Seems like the Mexican method?" the Queen, whose nose could almost be used as a radar, corrected herself.

Curiosity peaked inside me, and I sniffed, catching the scent of cumin mixed with green onions. This time, without needing Sandora to speak, I knew it—this must be the Xinjiang method...

"Those Ravens must have eaten too much!"

I yelled, pointing in the direction of the rising smoke, my face twitching. It’s not wrong to bully little monsters if you’re a higher level, and it’s not a big problem to roast them medium-rare after bullying them. But sprinkling cumin, Sichuan peppercorn, green onions, and sweet bean sauce over a medium-rare-roasted beast? That’s a bit inhumane, even if the beast was originally a wild animal. You shouldn’t actually barbecue them! They could have learned from the Armored Scorpion—though a bit violent, at least they don’t desecrate corpses, right?!

I finally realized that among the animal kingdom heroes at home, there was a group of mass-produced soldiers who were a bit too lively for their own good.

But after roll-calling my own soldiers, Raven 001 showed me a look of grievance, "Your Majesty, it wasn’t us this time—you’d never guess who’s throwing the barbecue party."

Startled, I grabbed Sandora and headed towards "Wise Path," a street just a block away. No sooner had we started walking than the fervent cries and laughter ahead made us stop in our tracks, the familiar voices being utterly startling.

"Ling Meng! What on earth are you doing?!"

Turning around the corner, I was dumbstruck by the lively barbecue party unfolding before me. I felt my bronchial tubes twitching.

The girls of Fantasy Country—yes, this time without the usual unimportant extras like in Dragon Armor—the sight before me was filled entirely with powerful demons from Fantasy Country. They were gathered around a dozen large bonfires on the still-smoky paved streets. Celebrating joyously, the air was filled not only with the aroma of grilled meat but also with the pungent smell left by the strong energy scorching it. The street, once riddled with monsters, was now strewn haphazardly with the bodies of war beasts. Each dead creature had been turned into a veritable piece of performance art. Judging by the double-digit variety of wounds on every monster’s corpse, they had contributed significantly to the biological dissection classes of the Fantasy Country girls before dying. Meanwhile, outside the cheerful celebration, about a hundred clueless Ravens and Armored Scorpions stood by. They had indeed participated in the recent fight, but the post-battle scenario had certainly exceeded these Imperial Soldiers’ expectations.

Sandora and my arrival barely caught the attention of any Fantasy Country demon. They continued to immerse themselves in their happy barbecue event, until I could no longer bear it and stormed forward, grabbing the closest Moriya.

"Wah! Chen! You’re here too?"

The Black and White Witch, startled, turned her head and shouted, her body hanging horizontally in the air because I had grabbed her belt. She struggled to hold onto her large witch hat to prevent it from falling off, but even in such a state, she didn’t forget to throw two more logs into the fire pit.

"What on earth are you all doing!"

"It’s a victory celebration!" Chiruno chirped, bouncing around with a large block of ice in her hand. Her method of barbecuing was truly intriguing: first grilling the meat, then freezing it into a big icy chunk, and finally sprinkling various seasonings on it. I wasn’t sure whether to categorize the result as grilled meat or cumin-flavored ice cream, but one thing was certain, this ditzy shorty was quite happy. "Humans, we’ve occupied this street! We came to help! These monsters were tough, but we proved to be the strongest!"

Chiruno’s words were almost illogical, but I still understood why these jabbering treasures were here. Immediately, I cast a stern look towards a direction: Yukari Yakumo, busy grilling meat with her Shishen and her Shishen’s Shishen.

The demons of Fantasy Country wouldn’t use a Legion Transmitter, and even if they knew how, they wouldn’t have the permissions to operate it casually. Only one person was an exception: Yukari Yakumo, who still held the position of an Executor at the Time-Space Administration and had both the authority and experience.

"Don’t look at me, I just wanted to help," Zi noticed the gaze directed her way and just smiled faintly, her demeanor calm as ever, "Besides, this is our own issue to deal with. Outer Heaven Island almost destroyed Fantasy Country, and as hosts, how could we not teach these monsters a lesson? Demons are vengeful creatures, after all."

"Right, and initially I did underestimate the strength of those monsters, almost faced a setback, luckily your soldiers were nearby. After figuring out the enemy’s weakness, we finally won." Lan spoke with a gentle smile, her tone a mix of slight apology and more pride, her beautiful nine tails slightly disheveled—an obvious sign of the fierce battle endured. Now a little loli with cat ears was cheerfully burrowing through that fluffy mess, occasionally casting strange glances my way. "This might be a bit troublesome for you, but please understand everyone’s feelings. And both Lord Zi and I genuinely wanted to help alleviate some of your stress."

Miss Fox made her case logically and with a proper attitude, and despite Ling Meng being an unmotivated slacker always ready to join the crowd, Lan perhaps genuinely felt grateful, and yes, the monsters from Atlantis City had indeed invaded Fantasy Country. Looking around, instead of a break between battles, it felt more like a barbecue outing, and even Sandora found no reason to be angry.

What more could I say? I sighed, looked around, and got in touch with the transport mother ship above: "Call the medical soldiers, the kind that can treat carbon-based life, have them bring down thirty pounds of stomach medicine..."

Yakumo Lan’s fluffy ears twitched slightly, "Huh?"

I flashed two fingers to the fox lady, "Two things. First, I finally confirmed that Yakumo Zi wasn’t lying, gorging on food actually does make your tail shed. Second, the habit of Fantasy Country’s demons to randomly pick and eat things is too severe."

"You dared to roast and eat something that has been infected by the Abyss!"

I yelled furiously, managing to interrupt the ongoing barbecue dinner of over a hundred people. Only Chiruno kept stuffing a bunch of messy stuff into her mouth even after everyone else stopped, and after swallowing, she blankly opened her mouth: "Huh? What?"

Then, just like the others, this fool started clutching her stomach and jumping around.

Yes, the Abyss is dangerous, but it’s not a material, nor a toxin. Wild animals contaminated by the Abyss go mad but don’t actually contract any diseases. Moreover, once the infected hosts are killed, their body’s Abyss energy gradually gets purified by the world. There aren’t any virus residues that might endanger the digestive system, but— anyone foolish enough to think this means you can eat an Abyss monster post-mortem is sorely mistaken!

An object that has been through an Abyss infection has every structure crumbling, even each molecule deteriorating. You can find any kind of potential genetic mutation or even more minute molecular changes in a completely Abyssalized beast post-death. The crazy destruction at various levels could completely transform the inside of a heavily infected individual into something else. Amidst this chaotic destructive mutation, god knows what kind of crazy cells might come together: you could say if an Abyss monster croaks, then flattening it gives you something resembling a periodic table—completely randomized!

Think about it, eating a pile of something that even gods can’t ascertain what’s made of, other than Sandora, who else could still stand?

So now, out of over a hundred demons from Fantasy Country, two-thirds are suffering from various kinds of food poisoning! The kind of food poisoning that could knock out demons!

On the scene, the Armored Scorpions and Ravens are Xyrin Apostles, special life forms with good stomachs that basically have no concept of food poisoning. Therefore, even as they saw the people of Fantasy Country start to barbecue the hunted monsters, they only felt a bit troubled, not knowing they should have stopped them—they still thought the Abyss energy on those monsters had dissipated cleanly and were safe now, but I knew the foolish mistake in doing so. Heaven forbid, Sal had been laid low by such before...

The only silver lining was, the blunderers on scene were merely experiencing food poisoning. They weren’t at risk of Abyss infection, at most they would suffer from dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, exhaustion, and digestive issues for a while as they dealt with the heap of elements accumulated in their bellies. Of course, the "Uncle Five" brand fast-acting stomach medicine from Shadow City Pharmaceutical Factory Six will surely adequately relieve these silly girls of their symptoms. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, I welcome you to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your votes and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)

The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr𝒆e(w)𝒆bnovel