Xyrin Empire

Chapter 154: Chapter 154 The Problem with Coordinates

If Sandora were to transform into the final boss of a game, she would be that super being with high attack, thick health, all skills, and even a second transformation that’s bloodthirsty. Watching her easily scare the wits out of Liu Zicai, I could only sigh that talent is something you can’t learn from others.

Liu Zicai’s expression now was quite unsightly, mingled with surprise and even more fear. The surprise was because he was let off by the female devil in front of him, and the fear came from various aspects, not just from the pain of being burned by flames that could nearly drive a person to bite their own tongue in suicide, but also from the thousands of “alien insects” parasitizing his cerebrospinal fluid.

Just the thought of it made one shudder.

“What exactly did you feed him?” I asked curiously because to my knowledge, Xyrin Technology apparently didn’t have this kind of nanomechanical carrier in the form of a pill, and Sandora also didn’t have the habit of carrying these disgusting things around.

“Milk tablet—orange-flavored. Want to try some?”

…This milk tablet completely ruined your image of a super alien villain!

Liu Zicai, of course, didn’t know that the “alien insects” he swallowed were just an orange-flavored milk tablet. Overwhelmed by extreme fear, he didn’t even get to taste it before he gulped it down. Now, he was enduring the sensation of his every hair standing on end all over his body, and the terrifying illusion of millions of little bugs inhabiting his brain made him even feel an itch at the back of his head.

“You can scram now!” Sandora said, and with a careless wave of her hand, swept Liu Zicai away.

It was almost a frantic run with all limbs touching the ground—quite a difficult feat to achieve.

“As for you all…” After dealing with Liu Zicai, Sandora turned her gaze toward a bunch of mobsters who were sifting through chaff.

They could not be let go.

That was the consensus reached in a flash between Sandora and me. Letting go of one Liu Zicai was somewhat acceptable. With his cowardly nature, plus Sandora’s intimidation, he definitely wouldn’t dare to utter a word. But the bunch of desperados in front of us was a different story. Dozens of people, with just a few who were a bit too talkative, would cause us great trouble—we could, perhaps, plant parasitic machines inside their bodies like we did with those three assassins last time, controlling their mental cores and turning them into madmen, but…

I felt that was a bit wasteful…

Moreover, these guys were unruly bullies on a regular basis, with no shortage of bullying men and strong-arming women. The number of murder cases on their hands was also a staggering figure. In the police station, each was a shoot-first ask-questions-later kind of deal. Only because they were all under Liu Zicai’s protection could they survive unscathed until now, so releasing them and allowing them to return to their old ways wasn’t a wise decision.

Executing them on the spot was a good idea, but out of respect for the fact that they were Earthlings, I decided to let them live—okay, I admit, I actually thought it was too easy for scum like them to be briskly shot dead. So, I wanted them to experience something more thrilling than the death penalty.

“Send them to Shadow City.”

I suddenly remembered the deserted Shadow K City that Pandora projected with the space-time distortion device. That place had now become the Xyrin Army’s station. A bunch of idle Xyrin Soldiers usually chatted, farted around, and developed silly things like plastic jade and Shariputra there. It would be absolutely safe to use as a concentration camp. The only ones with authority to open the spatial gates were Xyrin Officers, and once those guys were put inside, even without guards, they wouldn’t be able to escape.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Sandora nodded in agreement, “and while you’re at it, have that little girl Pandora set up a biochemical experiment base for me inside. I’ve recently become interested in the physiological structure of humans…”

See, that was the kind of thing I said was more thrilling than the death penalty.

I knew that having these scumbags become prisoners of the Xyrin Apostle was definitely scarier than death, unless I ordered special care to be given. Otherwise, an Xyrin Apostle who didn’t regard carbon-based life as a form of life would never consider issues of human rights…

While using living people as experimental materials does go against my character and moral beliefs—however, if the subjects are all criminals who bully others with impunity, I consider it acting as an agent of retribution!

I’ve even made up my mind that if Liu Zicai doesn’t correct his ways, I will personally send him to the Imperial biochemical laboratory!!

Sandora’s words were not spoken softly, practically everyone present heard clearly. Those mobsters, already sifting chaff under the guns of Xyrin Warriors pointed at their heads, began to sift even harder—just the thought of becoming a biochemical experimental subject was enough to make one’s body twitch. Perhaps these bullies weren’t afraid of anything on a normal day, but there’s a limit to that, and clearly, the fear of undergoing various biochemical experiments had surpassed their psychological threshold.

On the spot, pleas for mercy arose one after another.

Plead for mercy? Had they ever listened to the pleas of the innocent victims who died miserably at their hands?

They would never have imagined that what started as a simple “knock” on an insignificant country bumpkin would end up bringing about such a conclusion for themselves.

After the last desperately struggling man in a black suit was knocked out with ease by two Xyrin Soldiers and thrown at the entrance to Shadow City, I informed Pandora to lift the one-way space-time blockade around the area.

I stretched languidly and said, “That little nuisance, Liu Zicai, is finally dealt with.”

“And now onto our bigger problem…” Sandora pulled out a large handful of candies from nowhere and began tossing them into her mouth as if they were peanuts.

Naturally, Sandora was referring to the situation in Azeroth.

The conflict between the Fallen Xyrin Apostle and the Divine Race had escalated, potentially leading to the wholesale corruption of a world—this was no small matter. To use a more relatable example, it was akin to a group of deranged rebels from one friendly nation suddenly destroying another nation’s customs office; such an incident can’t be simply resolved with explanations and apologies. If we don’t deal with those suspicious Abyss Army units that might be Xyrin Apostles quickly, we may have to prepare for war with the gods before long.

Even if the Divine Race was as just and tolerant as Dingdang claimed, bearing no grudge against us, we couldn’t just ignore a rampaging Xyrin Army in Azeroth, not to mention these dangerous madmen could possibly reach Earth through some space-time convergence point at any moment!

“Of course, we must go to Azeroth,” I said on the way back, bringing up my own concern. “But we don’t have the coordinates of the Azeroth world!”

That’s precisely where the difficulty lay. While the existence of the Azeroth world was confirmed, knowing of its existence is one thing, knowing how to get there is quite another. Worlds within the planes float around like bubbles, usually repelling each other to maintain distance. Without precise spatial coordinates or a clear jump beacon, random jumping would only result in a dizzying return to the starting point.

The few otherworldly journeys I had previously embarked on didn’t count as space travel since there was no specific destination. In fact, they might better be described as spatial drifting—lucky for us not to get lost in the Endless Void.

At the height of the Empire, this wasn’t much of a problem. The Empire would often use a kind of space-time sensor that could scan an entire plane in search of a suitable world. However, the effort required to build such monster-like space-time sensing devices was exorbitant, not to mention that annihilating a Constant Star just to construct the sensor core was enough to drive me mad.

“Can the Dalaran County Ghost House serve as a beacon?” Qianqian tentatively asked.

“No, the Dalaran County Ghost House might be a projection of the Azeroth world, but the spatial distortion there is too severe, making any coordinates inferred from it highly inaccurate.”

For a moment, we were at a loss for what to do.

We couldn’t just build a space-time shuttle and blunder around the planes, could we? The concept of space is pretty chaotic within the Ethereal Sea of the plane, and wandering around there would be even less sensible than jumping from the twentieth floor with a nuclear bomb for comfort.

“Actually, there might be someone who can help…” Sandora said tentatively.

“It’s not that troublemaker, is it?” The mental connection with Sandora meant I immediately knew whom she was talking about.

In my imaginary world, a solitary figure in black clothes with a desolate expression appeared, the words “Problem” prominently branded across his back.

Lin Xue, an unconventional weapon fully maxed out with the spirit of mischief and troublesome talent, capable of frustrating the Imperial Leader to the point of having to seek training at another’s house in utter confusion.

Her Prediction Ability and enhanced Energy Perception Ability might be the only help available right now.

Although with her current power, searching an unfamiliar world in the planes was still unrealistic, Xyrin Technology was full of various energy amplification techniques, and after enhancement, she might actually be able to sense the signal from another world.

Besides, we had no better options at the moment.

“So, do we go find her now?”

“Let’s wait a few days. Dingdang just reported to the Divine Realm a couple of days ago, right? We’ll wait for a response from the Divine Realm. If even the Divine Race doesn’t have the space-time coordinates of the Azeroth world, then we’ll have to figure out how to make a makeshift version of the space-time sensor…”