After handing the Abyss Xyrin to Taville, Sandora and I went straight home. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The house was just as it always was... To be honest, after being away for just a day, there couldn’t possibly be any changes. A group of naughty kids were still making a ruckus, while a few oversized kids pretended to discipline them, competing to be the loudest. It seemed as if, no matter when, this big house would always be enveloped in a lively atmosphere, with heavy and complicated matters being more than half insulated from the people here.

Upon coming home and seeing the little ones in the living room fighting over the TV, I instantly felt a sense of relief: home is a shelter from the storm. No matter how floods rage outside or mountains crumble, it feels as if everything is far removed once you’ve returned home.

Just for the sake of these mischievous guys around me and this joyful world, we have to hold back the great catastrophe.

My sister was originally by the coffee table taking care of the Little Crows, and when she saw Sandora and me coming out of the teleportation gate, she approached us with concern: "You’re back? I heard the Abyss Xyrin came... Is it true?"

"Ah, it’s true, and she’s at the lab right now," I said while handing my jacket to Anwina who appeared from the wall beside me, "to be precise, she just sent over a communicator; her actual body can’t move freely. You can check the logs in the upper database for the specific situation. This time it’s really something extraordinary."

"I glanced at those logs, about the great catastrophe or something," my sister seemed to have been following our progress at home, "I don’t understand the technical stuff, but I got the general idea... So we’ll be cooperating with the Abyss Zone in the future?"

I moved to the center of the living room, picked up Lilina who was sprawled across most of the sofa and put her aside, then sat down somewhat wearily: "To be precise, we’ll be cooperating with the Abyss Xyrin herself. Her Fallen Apostle Army has drastically changed; the situation in the Abyss Zone is very complicated now, with the new and old armies dividing the territory. Moreover, the new army possesses some sensitive information... Anyway, we can ignore the Abyss Zone affairs for the time being and let Abyss Xyrin handle it herself. Sis, don’t worry too much, a catastrophe of this scale isn’t something that can be resolved by one or two people. Even the combined forces of the Abyss Xyrin and the New Empire might not suffice; I plan to send an urgent letter to Father God, we probably have to bring in the Divine Race... Even the Divine Race from Huron."

"Just be careful with everything, be cautious when cooperating with the Abyss Xyrin and when initiating any major projects. You’ve never been a reckless kid; just don’t lose your composure this time," my sister said with her perennial gentle smile, while ruffling my hair with her hand, "Rest for a bit, I’ll get you some food, you probably didn’t get a chance to eat."

Only then did I realize that I hadn’t eaten for nearly half a day and night during this trip away: the events after meeting the Abyss Xyrin were so intense that one completely forgot there are things like eating and sleeping. We basically talked through the night with her. Then my eyes naturally fell on Sandora: the Gluttonous Queen also seemed to have gone hungry just like me...

Sure enough, Sandora hadn’t thought about it either until my sister mentioned it. When the Queen’s eyes turned from blue to green, scanning the living room with a greenish light...

"Don’t chew the furniture, anything else is fine." I knew my words wouldn’t keep Sandora calm, so I just gestured to her. No sooner had I finished speaking than a swoosh sounded beside me, Sandora turned into a blue whirlwind and dashed into the kitchen. Moments later Anwina’s exclamation came from the kitchen, judging from the noise, Sandora was chewing on the microwave...

I gestured to my sister: "Before she eats the pot, hurry and make me a bowl of noodles, otherwise it’ll be too late."

My sister went to the kitchen to cook, while I spaced out a bit, trying to organize the chaotic thoughts in my mind, first getting the gist of what the Abyss Xyrin told me, then pulled out paper and pen preparing to write a letter.

Bingdisi passed by the coffee table, lowered her head and saw me writing something, and directly said: "Looks like I have to make another trip, huh?"

"Sorry for letting you go through the trouble," I looked up at Sister Bing, but due to the angle I could only see a pair of formidable 36E, her face was mostly out of sight, "this situation is urgent, you should be able to gather some information from the data link."

"Then stop with that flowery language," Bingdisi plopped down beside me, and casually took the letter I had just started writing, folded it into a paper airplane, "with your summarizing skills and writing level, do you plan to clarify so many things on one page? I’ll pass the message for you."

I watched in a daze as Bingdisi tossed the paper airplane out the window: "Uh... Isn’t writing a letter supposed to be formal..."

"With your lousy handwriting, it’s considered spiritual pollution even when typeset; spare Father God’s eyes from your mess," Bingdisi reclined against the sofa back, crudely placing her feet on the coffee table, "Oh dear, I’m depressed. You tell me, how come I have to encounter the Void Catastrophe in decades? If we can’t make it through, will I become a wandering soul in the Void for life?"

I frowned while catching sight from the corner of my eye of a sneaky oversized kid slipping past the corner, suddenly remembering something: "Hey, you crazy girl over there! Come here."

Xiao Xue was slipping away halfway but was startled by my voice, then shrunk her head, ambled over with a silly grin: "Dad, what’s up?"

I wanted to talk about serious matters at first, but seeing her response, I couldn’t help but laugh: "You went to bully your Sister Fox at the door again, didn’t you? Can’t you let her bask in the sun in peace?"

Xiao Xue usually acts mischievously, doing astonishing things like Qianqian, but over time, with that kind of blood bond (of course if you insist that this girl inherited some bad habits from me and Lin Xue, that’s fine too), I can easily tell what this girl intends to do. Apart from sticking around Lin Xue and me, she also hangs out the most with the fox at home. The Silly Fox isn’t just this naughty kid’s nanny and playmate, but also the subject of her antics. Not to mention that grabbing the tail or pinching the ears are good-natured acts and from what I’ve observed, the fox seems to enjoy it...

"Just wanted to play a prank on Sister Fox," Xiao Xue extended her arm in front of me, revealing two dog biscuit cookies in her hand, "Although she always claims to be the Fox Fairy Lord, if I put this next to her mouth while she’s dozing, Sister Fox will drool~~"

"No kidding, I trained that behavior," I pulled Xiao Xue over to sit next to me, "stop fooling around, I need to ask you about the Void Catastrophe."

"Speaking of... the Abyss Xyrin has arrived," Xiao Xue finally restrained her mischievous smile, replaced by an unusual seriousness on her face, "So finally we’re talking about the Void Catastrophe. I’ve already seen the general info in the data link."

"About the Catastrophe and the Abyss Xyrin, and the bridge-building stuff," I gazed into Xiao Xue’s eyes, "you probably have more to say. I know you had concerns before, but now that we’re here, do you think you can share something?"

Xiao Xue tossed the dog biscuit cookies to the two Little Crows running on the coffee table, then leaned against my arm saying: "Actually, I’d like to lay it all out, because whatever I say won’t change what happens during the Void Catastrophe. Even if I forcibly alter some things now, the factors during the Void Catastrophe will be supplemented in other ways, but I don’t really know much about it... I can only confirm that the Catastrophe indeed didn’t occur to its fullest extent, meaning the ’bridge-building’ plan was successful, but the detailed process and matters before and after are rarely talked to me about. Plus the historical knowledge on these subjects is part of the curriculum in the second term at the higher academy—the Shadow City’s higher academy, I’m still in the first term and haven’t graduated yet.

Only now do I realize this daughter from my timeline hasn’t graduated yet...

"Haven’t you already enlisted?" I curiously asked Xiao Xue, "I remember you often go out to fight."

"No contradiction here," Xiao Xue rolled her eyes, "Being a member of the Royal Family means you need to get familiar with the battlefield atmosphere from the age you start walking upright. Before I came here, my summer break internship was in the Turbulent Zone."

I made an "uh" sound, almost forgetting the First Family’s rule of enlisting at three, marching at four, and accumulating battle merits by five. I then patted Xiao Xue’s hair, "So, you only have a vague understanding of the Cataclysm?"

"I have a clear understanding of the impacts after the Cataclysm. I’ve read a lot of materials on that, but I don’t know what happened before it. On one hand, I suppose it relates to many secrets, and you, thinking I’m too young, didn’t let me access them early. On the other hand, I’ve been trained towards being a military prophet since childhood, so I didn’t need to touch on those technical aspects. Little Shan knows quite a bit, though — but she didn’t come."

I understood now. Though Xiao Xue is a mischievous child, her education from young to old was quite systematic and orthodox. If she was educated under the direction of a military prophet, then she indeed didn’t need to pay much attention to the Void Cataclysm. However, I believe she at least knows about the Abyss Xyrin — this was evident from her expression when she mentioned "Abyss Xyrin" just now.

"Abyss Xyrin, huh, I do know her. She was active after the Cataclysm, but I rarely met her," Xiao Xue indeed wasn’t avoiding the topic, "It seems ’bridge building’ was indeed successful, just I don’t know the specific details. Dad, don’t ask too much about these things. When the time comes, you’ll naturally know what’s going on, and everything will proceed smoothly — of course, the premise is you decide to let everything go smoothly and don’t slack off in the middle."

I looked into Xiao Xue’s eyes, all serious, showing that even a mischievous child would be cautious on sensitive topics like bridge building and the Void Cataclysm. But I was a bit confused: "Didn’t you say the direction of the Void has already been fixed? Since your future is peaceful, theoretically, no matter what I do here, the bridge building should succeed, right?"

"You and Uncle Xingchen have the ability to change the direction of the Void," Xiao Xue reminded seriously, "For example: If someone else tries to prevent bridge building, or if Abyss Xyrin proactively abandons bridge building, they certainly wouldn’t succeed. No matter how strangely events develop, eventually the bridge will still be built, and the Void pattern will still head towards its destined direction. But if you, Dad, stop the bridge building, or Uncle Xingchen proactively wants to trigger a full-scale Cataclysm, then the Void’s future would collapse. Because your wills are synchronized with the Void, you can overturn everything, even what is already destined. Individuals outside the Void beings can consider everything destined, but you all can’t be so lazy: you must put in effort, at least not actively sabotage, to let everything develop in a good direction."

I couldn’t help but wipe my forehead that wasn’t sweaty: "Well then, that just upped the sense of responsibility... but even though I don’t quite get it, as long as Xingchen, Hila, and I don’t suddenly decide to end the world, and try to do our best, we can safely get through the Void Cataclysm?"

"That’s basically it."

"Then I have another question," I put aside the headache-inducing issues like space-time paradox and causality, "Now, according to you, all that Abyss Xyrin said is true, but according to her, after bridge building, the Abyss phenomena within the Void should diminish across the board. But you say the future is an era of Abyss explosion, with decades of continuous warfare — what’s going on? Is Abyss Xyrin’s information false?"

Because Xiao Xue also only had a vague understanding of the Cataclysm, we couldn’t yet ascertain that Abyss Xyrin’s information was a hundred percent correct: even if she didn’t intend to deceive, we must consider the possibility of errors in her direction of research. So even with a future-poking mischievous child at home, Sandora and I insisted on assessing all of Abyss Xyrin’s data. And now, the biggest contradiction in these materials seems to be the depiction of the Void’s prospects after the Cataclysm: Abyss Xyrin painted a picture of peace and dormant Abyss, but Xiao Xue’s childhood was evidently not so peaceful.

"I don’t know if Abyss Xyrin’s information is wrong, but I was indeed born in the Abyss surge period," Xiao Xue blinked, "Dad, my childhood was really turbulent, not to mention acting cute in front of you and mom, even having a chance to meet was rare. When I was a baby, mom was timing with a stopwatch every time she fed me. Before six years old, I always thought I came out of Sister Fox’s tail because my time in mom’s arms was less than a sixth of the time inside the tail..."

As soon as I heard this, I knew Xiao Xue was starting to spout nonsense again; whenever she had an unclear explanation, she’d surely use this method to muddle through. So she also didn’t know why the Abyss phenomena in the Void increased instead of decreased after "bridge building" — could it be due to Abyss Xyrin’s problematic information?

It shouldn’t be intentional deception on her part. If the other Cataclysm information is true, she had no need to lie specifically on this matter. So, could her research have issues? The bridge building mitigated the Cataclysm but failed to improve the Void environment?

I felt it was another matter that couldn’t be explained in the short-term, better to wait until Father God and Hila are called over to research together: those two are experienced and knowledgeable, even if they can’t explain it, they’d probably have more profound-sounding insights.

Seeing this was unrelated to her, Xiao Xue got up with a mischievous smile to continue troubling the Fox Fairy Lord sunbathing at the door. Shortly after, the yard got lively: Xiao Xue’s surprised laughter and playful commotion mixed with the silly fox’s vexed cries.

That silly fox is quite the treasure. With any family member, she can multiply the liveliness, could this be a racial talent of canines or something?

And then, here comes Dingdang crawling out of who knows where, this little thing probably just played with her girl companions for a while, looking all dirty with a leaf on her head. Seeing me in the living room, she instantly showed a delighted expression and buzzed over to paste herself onto my face: "Ah Jun, you’re back! Dingdang was playing on the slide with everyone!"

Now I understood why this little one was gray-black: her so-called "slide" was the house’s rainwater drainage pipe...

"Aren’t you concerned about dirt," I carefully took out a tissue to wipe her dusty body, "Speaking about it, the number of Life Goddesses at home has increased again. Does it mean the soldiers in the Divine Realm have all been treated?"

"Yeah," Dingdang vigorously flapped her wings, dropping a shower of green light...and mud dust, "Father God said there’s temporarily no war with the Abyss Zone... Ah Jun, don’t randomly touch, or Dingdang won’t be able to marry out..."

"Who would you marry at your grand height of three inches," I said with a wry smile while tossing the tissue aside, ultimately pulling out a plastic cup from my personal space, "How about a bath, you’ve got clumps of dried mud on you..."

This time Dingdang reacted unprecedentedly fast, the moment I pulled out the cup, she shot away: "No bath! Bath makes me dizzy..."

Soon enough, she had just zoomed out when a golden-yellow shadow rushed in from the door direction, accompanied by an exasperated shout: "Master, control Xiao Xue! She tied my tails into..."

Turns out it was the silly fox, her nine tails were braided into three twisted ropes, seemingly done while she was dozing off in the sun, but that’s not important — the important part is that Dingdang’s route coincided with her rushing-in route, that little thing didn’t get to finish her sentence before the fox’s tail whacked her, pasting her to a wall on the other side of the living room, and now she’s stuck firm...

This is truly one "palm" stuck to the wall!

Just as things started heating up here, a louder commotion came from the kitchen, sounding as if something exploded, and Anwina hurriedly rushed out of the kitchen: "Master! Mistress gnawed the gas tank! Your noodles are gone..."

Me: "..."

How wonderfully lively this daily life would be — if only my noodles could have been saved. (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations, monthly votes, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)