Xyrin Empire Chapter 177

Chapter 177: Chapter 177: The Picnic-style Strategy Meeting Sandora’s analysis quickly and effectively calmed me down from the joy of easily eliminating fifty variant demons, and I finally realized that the real enemy we were facing was not just these half-baked mixed demon soldiers, not even the mighty demon army, or demonic lords like Akmonde and Kil’Jaeden. Our true enemies were the corrupted Xyrin Apostles who, after mastering Abyss Energy, could even defeat the Divine Race; compared to them, the fifty small fries we eliminated today were simply not worth mentioning. As a result, not only did we not have an advantage, but we were at an absolute disadvantage—this made me quite uncomfortable; I wasn’t afraid of powerful enemies, but this was the first time I had encountered such a situation where the invincible Xyrin Empire Army had become the weaker side; to be honest, I was feeling pretty terrible. To get rid of this awful feeling as soon as possible, I immediately pulled Pandora over, and rubbed her soft little face, watching the little girl’s slightly confused and silly reaction—ah, that felt much better… After returning to Serramo, we temporarily said goodbye to Jaina, who took the unfortunate, demoralized leader of the demon mixed soldiers, also known as Extra A, back with her, while we returned to the Faith-class with the Broken Horned Demon Guard, who Lin Xue had singled out as quite interesting but had remained unnamed due to the author forgetting to give him one, hence still tragically referred to as Extra B, ready to convene a meeting. The outposts built by the Baobaos were three small islands that could perfectly form a triangle, with the Faith-class parked right in the center of these outposts, tightly guarded yet also serving as the command center. Thanks to the effective operation of these three bases, the crazy scenarios we had feared of zealous Holy Light followers swimming overnight to the Faith-class to pilgrimage did not occur. However, a craze for underwater swimming had recently emerged around Serramo, as these avid Holy Light followers realized that swimming across the surface was tremendously ineffective and thus pinned their hopes underwater. Now, the typically serious and humorless Holy Knights and Priests rush to the docks every afternoon after changing shifts, where they undergo various hilariously rapid training sessions led by so-called professional swimming coaches before plopping into the water—this development really leaves one speechless… Alright, we’ll set aside these boneheaded behaviors caused by their brains being fried by Holy Light for now and redirect our focus back to the meeting room. The Faith-class is truly large, a treasure capable of interstellar colonization that Earthlings could only imagine in science fiction—a Starship City. Inside the Faith-class, there were even two small towns, or as Sandora would call them, Colonial Ecosystem Balls, a type of “Simple ecological equipment” that can be directly deployed from outer space to the surface of a planet for colonization. As for this “Simple ecological equipment,” I remained quite nonchalant… Compared to the cold, steel-constructed grand hall, everyone still preferred the lively atmosphere of nature. Thus, we moved our meeting from the core command room, filled with radars and surveillance equipment, to a small jungle within the second Ecological Ball of the Faith-class. This development was met with huge disapproval from a certain troublesome aggregation, while our Little Goddess displayed wildly jubilant cheers—though I don’t believe this explained why our Supreme Commander meeting eventually turned into a picnic… “I mean… can everyone at least try to be serious…” Looking at the bunch of beautiful ladies in front of me, all in a picnic mood with no sense of gravity, I felt utterly powerless. Who can tell me why a perfectly good strategy meeting turned out ? In this small forest clearing, aside from a tragic man seemingly completely assimilated by deep shadows and a troubled aggregation with a tangible sense of resentment, there was a festive atmosphere of a holiday picnic everywhere. Qianqian, dressed in a pure white dress, quietly curled up on the grass, diligently weaving a beautiful garland, bearing a serene and beautiful resemblance to a forest goddess, which was unexpected given Qianqian’s normally lively demeanor. Next to Qianqian, a true Goddess—Dingdang—was engaged in activities wholly unbefitting her status. The little thing was laughing boisterously while flying around in a dazzling green halo in the air, clearly thrilled and excited by the lively jungle within the Faith-class. Meanwhile, the Loli trio was engaged in their usual activities: Bubbles had her eyes slightly closed, her face occasionally crossing with peculiar smiles, clearly immersed in some large-scale RPG world; Little Baobao and Pandora, as usual, were staring motionless at each other, with a terribly-designed but oversized lollipop placed on a stump between them, the two Lolies settling the ownership of the lollipop made by their elder brother through their own invented duel method. Behind the two little Lolis stood their respective backup teams dragged along forcibly: Sivis stood behind his superior, helplessly grinning, while the elder sister stood behind Little Baobao, her face filled with resignation. The two mature beauties had obviously witnessed this scene more than once, but no matter how many times they saw it, it did not change their helpless expressions… Little Baobao was manageable, but Pandora… Sivis was now beginning to question if this little Loli, competing with another child for a lollipop by not blinking, was really his superior anymore. Oh God, if time could rewind a few months… this scene was something she could never have imagined… As for further away, a certain queen, dribbling by a barbecue grill, giggling foolishly—let’s gloriously ignore her… Fairly speaking, the scene of these adorable girls relaxing freely in the forest clearing was indeed a pleasant sight, of course, if all of this hadn’t been under the premise of a “battle meeting”… It was supposed to be a meeting, discussing highly important matters, why did it turn out in the end? Maybe moving the venue from the command room was a mistake after all? “Yes, it was a mistake!” Lin Xue suddenly lifted her head, her face grim as she looked at me. Oh, it looks like I was lost in thought on the public channel again. Never mind; given how often this happens, I won’t complain about it anymore. Moreover, it’s normal for a Holy Emperor like me, who is deeply concerned about the Empire’s safety, to feel down as a battle meeting turns into a picnic, but why is Lin Xue, who never seems to take serious matters to heart, resenting this as well? Could it be just because she was taken away from the hall filled with various interesting machines? Shouldn’t everyone appreciate a bit of fresh nature ? That is to say, Lin Xue’s true nature is actually a Transformer… “Bang!” A huge noise startled the girls, then all the beautiful ladies, except for Little Baobao who looked surprised and gestured at the big crater I had made, looked at me spinning down from the sky with indifferent expressions on their faces, showing no surprise at all. Hey, hey, hey, you saw that, didn’t you? Lin Xue just made a pretty obvious personal attack, didn’t she? Rising Dragon Strike with a side kick followed by an upper kick—a three-hit bug combo! Could you at least react a bit? Condemn this violent woman, hurry up! But in the next second, many voices of Spiritual Connection resounded in my mind simultaneously: “Serves you right…” Alright, it seems I’m a hopeless case when it comes to having inappropriate thoughts in public channels… “So, um…” I made one last effort, trying to pull everyone away from the deadly allure of garlands, candies, and barbecues, “Shouldn’t we consider our main crisis right now? As for the picnic… It can wait a bit longer while…” Thank heavens, it seemed that after having fun for half the day, the misses finally reluctantly set aside what they were doing. …Or maybe they had just had enough fun. Qianqian had just finished making a garland, Pandora had won a battle against Little Baobao, who was now pulling at her mother who just emerged from a game to complain pitifully, and a Queen who had been barbecuing from the start now approached them, face greasy—only now did you remember to do something serious? “Alright, let’s start the meeting,” Sandora wiped the grease off her face, burped slightly, and then looked around, “Everyone should already understand the situation—Little Baobao, you don’t need to know—today we are discussing how to confront the Burning Legion, who are stronger, more stable, better informed than us, and supported by Xyrin Technology.” …Darling, are you a spy sent by Akmonde? As soon as Sandora spoke, she used a grand parallelism that effectively killed everyone’s will to fight, a severity in line with Xyrin’s characteristic… Though it might sound unbelievable, Sandora’s opening remarks were not inappropriate at all. The Xyrin Apostles never cared about morale, and for such an army that would never be intimidated by enemies, inspiring morale is a waste of time; speaking bluntly about the current strength comparison of us versus them was more useful—Sandora was used to speaking this way. But just because she’s used to it doesn’t mean we are, and almost the moment the words left her, Sandora suddenly realized she had made a mistake… Seeing everyone looking utterly struck, Sandora immediately came over with a pitiful look and said, “Ah Jun, I was wrong…” Of course, I couldn’t bear to blame her. After all, considering it from a Xyrin Apostle’s perspective, her way of speaking was perfectly normal, and the situation was as bad as she said. “Bubbles, if the outpost runs at full capacity, how long will it take to build enough military forces?” “Currently, the resources and area of the three outposts are limited, significantly restricting our development. However, the Xyrin Nest will produce the next generation of simplified Xyrin Hosts in a week, which if used for expansion will greatly accelerate our development. It’s estimated that within six months, we can form an army capable of confronting the alliance of the Burning Legion and the Fallen Apostles.” Forming a powerful army capable of confronting the wicked alliance from scratch in six months truly demonstrated a terrifying military expansion capability, but it still wasn’t enough—we needed six months of peaceful development, while the Burning Legion could invade at any moment, making the traditional military development route unlikely. Then, everyone proposed other strategies, including sending special forces to Drano World and the cosmos to proactively seek and sabotage the enemy, but none of these plans were sufficiently practical. “I say…” Lin Xue, who had been acting dead on the ground, suddenly raised a hand, signaling she had something to say, “Why is it that we have to fight alone? Or rather, why does every power in the world intend to fight alone?”