Along with the Divine Clan Five and later arrivals Qianqian and my sister, we briskly made our way to the command hall. The place was already bustling, Sandora and Taville seemed to have arrived early. As I teleported into the hall, they were intensely discussing something in front of a large data terminal, while the Abyss Xyrin floated not far away. It was no longer the wandering sleepwalking state of two days prior; this network ghost, always calm as water, now appeared quite excited.

"I thought with our usual luck, we’d have to eliminate all coordinates until the last one this time," was Sandora’s first remark upon seeing me. Her face carried a radiant smile, her tone was quite excited, such that even the normally composed Queen couldn’t maintain her calm demeanor, "Information characteristic match exceeds ninety percent, coordinates align perfectly, this is the homeland, although none of us have seen it personally... but this is the homeland, even by intuition I can sense this."

"Intuition, not something I’d expect you to say," Bingdisi decided to tease Sandora a bit at this moment, "But I do understand your feelings. So, are we landing now?"

"We’re doing a rough scan of the hometown world first, to ensure there’s no danger inside and to determine if large-scale fleet landings would put pressure on this universe... Yes, and to check the stability of the hometown world, perhaps it has been damaged or is at some critical point, our large-scale entry might ruin things. Taville, confirm the situation thoroughly, not a single mistake can be made!"

Sandora contemplated several scenarios in succession, instantly revealing her cautious, even over-cautious state, as the hometown world seemed like a delicate, fragile crystal bottle, as if even a light touch from us might shatter it. Subsequently, she arranged a multitude of scanning tasks and instructed the fleet to reduce the Order Field to a minimal scale, commanding the shutdown of all ships’ main engines, relying only on auxiliary engines for power—this series of measures was almost unnecessary; typically, they would only be employed when facing a diminishing critical universe, but Sandora now applied them all at once. Others in the command hall exhibited no confusion; even Taville, an inherently "precise, rational" scientist, added several safety procedures, while on the other side, the Abyss Xyrin remained silent, merely observing the intricate charts displayed on the central holographic projection (this being the identification code of the hometown world), while static interference akin to a severely disrupted video signal continuously appeared all over her body: a manifestation of extremely turbulent emotions.

It was abundantly clear that these powerful Xyrin Apostles, eternal Xyrin Apostles, Xyrin Apostles seated among the gods, were currently experiencing an unprecedented nervousness near their homeland, the hometown world lay right before them, yet they feared that even a breath might blow the homeland away...

Everyone busied themselves in their respective positions, their intense emotional turbulence causing no work-related errors among these Imperial Soldiers, yet hundreds of solemn eyes could explain everything. A stifling atmosphere pervaded the command hall, growing ever denser with each clear and precise report from each department’s staff. The fleet’s Order Field was gradually approaching that universe, radar displayed increasingly clearer information waveforms, the blue ripple representing the fleet’s Order Field slowly intermingling and merging with the white ripple representing a certain Order Universe, and within the Spiritual Connection I sensed a tide of agitation—this stirring power partially emanated from the fleet, partially from the distant Imperial District.

Despite additional safety measures not delaying much time, Sandora seemed intent on further scanning of this world; I couldn’t resist stepping forward to pat the Queen’s shoulder: "Enough, if you scan any further, the radar will be burnt out. This is the hometown world."

Sandora’s shoulder twitched, as if startled by my pat, then her expression quickly settled, she nodded slightly, and faced the command area below: "Attention all units, switch Order Field, fleet descent to the Main Material Plane. Open sensory radar fully, closely monitor any anomalies during the descent, cease descent operations immediately if the World Barrier’s strength reduces."

The Order Field view from external monitors began blurring, innumerable chaotic light and shadow flickered momentarily, and as external monitors resumed normal function, we found ourselves in a familiar yet strange starry sky.

I widened my eyes to view the scene on the holographic projection, attempting to grasp the entire universe’s appearance in a single glance—

Here, stars shone dimly, celestial bodies in outer space seemed scarce, yet not entirely barren; sensory devices turned towards the deep dark space, detecting numerous massive targets devoid of light and heat, seemingly cooled interstellar clouds and gigantic celestial bodies; the universe’s background was profound darkness, but within the darkness was an almost imperceptible hint of pale purple spectrum, likely a feature of the hometown world; most attention-grabbing was a magnificent yet dim halo, spanning seemingly the entire universe, its scale possibly far exceeds any conventional star system or celestial body, only a faint strip of light extending towards both sides from afar, then merging behind the fleet, imparting a feeling akin to the entire outer space being divided by a halo, another feature of the hometown world.

So this is the hometown world?

The fleet’s position appeared to be within an area of sparse material in outer space, nearby were no planets or star systems, nor were there material bands like clouds, and looking afar revealed nothing particularly unusual—except for the immense light band structure within the universe backdrop, but just a mere light band hardly seemed strange, countless bizarre universes exist, each world boasting few awe-inspiring space spectacles, the hometown world seemed unexpectedly ordinary.

The Imperial Officers at the command posts were diligently working, directing departments for data collection and fleet operations, Taville’s attention appeared attracted by this world’s parameters, Abyss Xyrin had no time for distractions, so I turned towards Sandora: "Hey, so this is the hometown world? It doesn’t seem particularly outstanding?"

"This ordinary," Sandora glanced at me with amusement, "What did you expect the hometown world to be like?"

I gestured awkwardly, trying to portray my imagined hometown world, but after randomly combining a slew of grand words in my mind for quite a while, none seemed suitable, how could I describe it? A scene like this: endless clouds, golden light illuminating, pavilions and terraces with painted beams and carved rafters laid amidst them, at times bright celestial light descends, ethereal bells sound, resplendent clouds multiply, spectacular divine colors flow, stars sequentially emerge...

Speaking like this, I’d feel sick, and Sandora would certainly bite down on my arm, hanging for two hours.

Ultimately, I realized I truly knew nothing of the hometown world; simply identifying this as the Xyrin Apostle’s origin led me to contrive a multitude of fanciful imaginings with no practical use—that this place should be a universe of magnificent splendor, or that the whole world should be shrouded in a solemn majestic atmosphere—but where would such a solemn majestic universe be found? Isn’t the world just this way, besides the Divine Realm’s distinct absence of planets and pervasive floating islands... Oh, one more feature is Father God’s unprecedentedly deep basement.

The original Xyrin people were a mortal civilization, their originating hometown world also a mortal world, and an exceedingly ordinary native universe. All origins were ordinary, rightly so. This place before us, no longer young and seemingly plain, is the source of all, the homeland of the Xyrin Civilization—its greatness stems from the people it nurtured, even if this place appears ordinary, its significance remains extraordinary.

Ordinary has never been synonymous with being weak. Even if one starts as a mortal, as long as one persists, there will come a day when they become as great as a god. Perhaps only such an ordinary-looking universe can better interpret the trials and tribulations the Xyrin Empire has gone through over countless years: starting from the mundane, reaching the divine, and still not stopping.

I know I’ve started waxing poetic again, which doesn’t quite fit my style, but I can’t help sighing like this. Looking at the seemingly ordinary starry sky before me, feeling the surging emotions of the entire race coming through the spiritual connection, and recalling the ups and downs of the Xyrin Civilization and its current achievements, a heavy feeling inexplicably weighs on my heart. Who wouldn’t marvel at this scene? The only reason I’m not composing a poem right now is because I can’t find the words. If I had the eloquence of a second-rate nutcase, I’d surely produce a seven-line verse...

At this time, Qianqian also calms down from her initial excitement, or rather, this girl has already gotten used to being startled at any time and place, so she can easily calm down in any situation. Seeing everyone around busy, she remembers what she can help with and begins to use her power to examine the timeline of this universe.

Qianqian has grown too—back in the day, she could only use time control for small situations, but now she can casually grasp the timeline of an entire world, even one where she never had any divine authority. Fortunately, she’s always had a good handle on her power; otherwise, this special ability would surely be a weapon of mass destruction. But then again, when will Qianqian figure out how to use True God Authority? It seems like no one in the family is quite savvy in this regard—her sister has been a god for a while now and still hasn’t chosen a pope. Currently, their preaching relies on Lilina sending tweets on the Imperial Data Network every now and then...

"This universe indeed has a stasis phenomenon," Qianqian mutters while checking, star light in the distant space flickers violently, large-scale celestial displacement, even entire star systems rapidly dimming and flaring. Qianqian manipulates this universe’s timeline like dragging a progress bar on a screen (of course, only small adjustments; otherwise, it would be doomsday), checking the world’s information snapshots "frame by frame." This method of inspection can’t be imitated by anyone else, and it’s undeniably effective—it was something Qianqian figured out after encountering her ancestors in a stasis state last time. She calls it the "progress bar hanging in there great method," and don’t mind the name; this girl has always been quite imaginative. "Time is still flowing, but the universe’s entropy increase resets every so often—these celestial bodies have been extinguished and reignited countless times, and the energy needed for reverse evolution of vanished energy and matter seems to be replenished from the void... Overall, the entire universe has long exceeded its life expectancy, yet it survives, and internal matter evolution has never stopped either."

"Replenished from the void?" Sandora slightly lowers her head in contemplation, "This is a typical closed universe, entropy increase is an eternal rule for such a world, but if its world barrier conveniently has a deficiency, allowing it to receive a continuous flow of Genesis Power from the void, then the entire world will be renewed... No, it can’t be called renewal, instead, it’s trapped in a small segment of time just before doomsday, time flows, matter evolves, but the universe will never face its demise, what fades can always be restored. A normal universe model can’t explain this phenomenon, but for us... it’s a good thing. However, it’s hard to explain why the separated matter from the hometown world is also in a stasis state; the void really holds too many secrets, never boring us, huh."

"What’s that halo in the distance?" My sister curiously looks at the scene in space. She isn’t very adept at researching such profound knowledge, but she’s very interested in various space wonders, driven by pure curiosity.

"The scan indicates it’s a high-energy cloud belt spanning the entire universe. Its light is visible throughout this world, and the material distribution of this universe seems to have a certain connection with this cloud belt. It should be a spectacle from the dawn of the creation big bang; I suppose many, many years ago, our ancestors might have gazed upon this cloud belt too... It must have guided the Xyrin Civilization’s steps into the universe," Sandora quietly gazes at that dim majestic halo. Her appearance has calmed down, but the desire of the Xyrin Apostle lasting millions of years has solidified into something deeper and more profound in her eyes, "I can’t believe there would be such a day... We gaze at the same starry sky our ancestors did countless years ago, and even after doomsday, this world remains so... unchanged. The Xyrin Civilization has finally found home, but unfortunately, we can’t let the ancestors see this with their own eyes."

I know Sandora is referring to Anses and the others. Those ancestors are still trapped on the other side—they were the ones who longed for home the most. Compared to the Xyrin Apostle who could only learn about their home from historical databases, those ancestors were the ones who truly experienced the destruction of their homeland, displacement, and a series of hardships firsthand. When they learned about the hometown world, they were the most excited.

If it weren’t for a series of mess, they should have come here with us this time. However, that failed deep dive experiment isolated the ancestors in a place even farther than from the Imperial District to our hometown world, which is somewhat lamentable.

But I quickly boosted my spirits: "No problem, aren’t we just about to build the bridge? And the success rate is promising this time, once the bridge is built, we’ll bring the ancestors over. By the way, the connection point of this bridge will be set directly at the hometown world, so the ancestors will arrive right at their doorstep!"

Speaking of this, Bingdisi also got excited. This uncertain character, no matter which side they belong to, exuberantly suggested, "Check the channel, check the channel, if the state of the Leaving World Garden is good, we can send a message to Anses and the others now!"

"Why are you more concerned than us," Sandora gave Bingdisi a peculiar look, then laughed, "But indeed, we should send a message. We’ve left relays all the way, and the relay station in the Abyss Critical Layer is working well, we should be able to contact them now. Taville, prepare the communication link. Additionally, various departments of the fleet will proceed with their usual operations; first... search for that gate."

We came to the hometown world to find that Abyss Gate from back then, or we should call it the "half-finished bridge pier," according to ancient records. The ancient mother star of the Xyrin Civilization was also near that Abyss Gate—though who knows if that planet is still there, it probably turned to dust by now. Searching for the Abyss Gate is easy; just scan where the Abyss reaction is concentrated in this universe. I’ve already sensed that the entire world is filled with a kind of "gentle" Abyss Power, and it indeed seems more "uniform" than the Peace Core back in the day. It appears that the judgment by Abyss Xyrin and a group of experts was correct: although the hometown world is in a peculiar "stasis state," this stasis doesn’t prevent the Abyss from spreading. Over time, the nature of this universe has gradually become what we had hoped for.

This also indirectly confirms that the Void model proposed by Abyss Xyrin is the correct one: according to the already debunked old model, the Abyss is a tangible "thing," and it exists on the same level as the world on the Void Ladder. In such a case, a stasis state universe shouldn’t continue to be polluted by the Abyss, it should lose this "process." In the end, either the stasis is broken and the universe instantly collapses, or the Abyss is also caught in stasis, leaving no chance of slow infection. But following the new model, the Abyss is no longer a tangible object, it doesn’t belong to the Void Ladder and is merely a universal process. Thus, a stasis state universe will also be slowly remodeled by the Abyss, everything is explained clearly.

Abyss Xyrin herself also thought of this, she drifted over with a pleased smile, "Father, the facts prove that my theory is correct, so henceforth, can you stop letting those bizarre sisters of mine bully me? Having a normal daughter is very rare, you ought to protect such a rare resource."

I: "..."

But what baffles me more is that I can’t even refute it!

This Abyss Xyrin, who seems most abnormal in every way, when did she become the only normal one? Is there still hope for that bunch of naughty kids at home! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read it at m.qidian.com.)