Ravaged Federation!
In the headquarters of the Quip Clan, Zhya stood before Kenka Echo’s unconscious form, still observing the latter. She remained still for hours without budging in the slightest. However, the place could crumble if she were to release her actual weight.
"Did something change?" Her ears twitched as Zhya remained in the same spot, unflinching as she heard the footsteps of the Zinger Princess, Zaihaya Echo. "I didn’t think you were the type to approach me unless something was amiss."
"The hitlist you’ve placed on Inala," Zaihaya stated coldly, "Recall it."
"I’m afraid you’ll make him consider us his enemy."
"That will never happen." Zhya shrugged, "He would never destroy his life’s work for a selfish reason..."
"No, you don’t understand." Zaihaya stepped closer and sat on the Biome Bomb that contained Kenka Echo, "Inala isn’t a selfless being, not in the slightest."
"His motives are completely selfish." She stared at Zhya, "You should know better."
"I do," Zhya nodded, her gaze unflinching from Kenka Echo, "I know exactly the extent he is ready to go to achieve his objectives. And I am aware of what he considers the Quip Clan to be."
She finally turned her head to face Zaihaya, "Without the Royal Zinger’s influence on his being, he doesn’t have any emotional concern towards the Quip Clan. Logically, he won’t move against us, but emotionally, nothing is holding him back. We are originally a means of convenience he made to safeguard his daughter."
"Then why are you pushing him?" Zaihaya frowned, "The last thing we need is him as our enemy."
"That’s the last thing we need," Zhya nodded, accepting the other party’s statement, "But it is also an unquestionable fact that the first thing we need is our Deity."
"We have our priority." Zhya said, "The Royal Zinger will be targeted first by the continental invaders. We need time to prepare our Deity."
She pointed at Zaihaya’s heart, followed by the head, "You know what kind of existence our Deity is, right?"
"Obviously." Zaihaya nodded, "The Royal Zinger is the Quip Clan’s initial and final point."
The Royal Zinger could birth all Quip Clansmen on its own, wield all their powers, and store every piece of data ever possessed by them.
A Quip Clansman’s strength was literally a factor of the quantity of Royal Zinger genes acquired by them. And the stronger a Quip Clansman grew, the closer they approached the Royal Zinger in terms of body, mind, and soul.
"We’re merely a hive, a collective consciousness in fact." Zhya began to speak, "Think of the Quip Zingers as possessing small fragments of the Royal Zinger’s body, mind, and soul. They have other elements in their body, which are nothing but pollution in a sense, which corrupts their existence."
"As they grow, they are purifying themselves." She made a circle and made a dot representing a Quip Zinger at the border. And then, she made the dot orbit while steadily reducing its orbital radius, "The purer they become, the closer they approach the centre."
She then pointed at the centre, "And at the centre is the Royal Zinger, our source, and our sync. We’re born from the Royal Zinger, and throughout our lives, we strive to become the Royal Zinger, and when we die, we become one with the Royal Zinger."
"That is our existence." Zhya tapped the centre, "Now, what do you think happens when you become this existence?"
"The ultimate existence, one that cannot be ever destroyed." Zhya proclaimed, "If even a single gene of the Royal Zinger exists, Mystic Royal Art could be activated, which would cultivate more of them. Eventually, a Quip Clansman will appear, live life, propagate, and increase their numbers until our Deity is reborn amongst us."
"Basically, even if the entirety of the Quip Clan is wiped out." She stated solemnly, "A single Royal Zinger gene that has survived in the Ravaged Federation simply doesn’t have the genetic capacity to store the volume of information belonging to the Quip Clan."
"However, our information never vanishes." She pointed at the sky, "That is pretty much an authority, a perennial, incomprehensible power which incorporates the Royal Zinger as an existence."
"Eventually, when a Royal Zinger is born, you’ll be surprised to see that none of the original data has been lost, even when we had been reduced to a single gene." She spread her arms wide, her expression one of elation, "I hypothesise a higher order, a mind space inaccessible by us beings that live in three dimensions. And the Quip Clan’s data is stored there. So, even if we were to all be annihilated, not a single moment of our lives is ever lost. It’s all stored in that higher dimension, until the Royal Zinger can access them all again."
"Are you simply saying that even Inala cannot destroy us, no matter what he does?" Zaihaya asked, "And that makes it perfectly fine to completely antagonise him?"
"You’re focusing on a completely irrelevant topic." Zhya shook her head, "In essence, what I meant to convey is simple,"
"There’s too much information. Even with a Mystic Grade mind, the Royal Zinger is incapable of accessing all the information it will have access to." Zhya sighed, "We’re merely about to enter the Quip Clan’s second generation."
Every generation of the Quip Clan was an account of the appearance of the Royal Zinger. When the second Royal Zinger appears, that marks the birth of the Quip Cla’s second generation. Similar to how Sumatra Continent conveys an Era with the birth of a Mystic Grade existence, the Quip Clan followed the same with their Deity’s birth.
The sheer amount of data that the Quip Clan had accumulated—whether in terms of memories, Skills, knowledge, Natures, etc.—had become so much that the Second-Generation Royal Zinger wouldn’t have enough time to process them all.
Over the generations, this will only grow worse and worse. "So, our Deity in every generation will have to cherry-pick the data according to the needs of that era."
"That’s exactly why I’m concerned," Zhya explained, "The second-generation Royal Zinger needs a lot of time to pick the data it will work with, make it a part of itself, and then begin building atop that foundation. It will take decades."
"And without going through this process, the Royal Zinger won’t be able to exhibit even a fraction of its power." Zhya expressed her concern, "I’m afraid we will need all our strength against our enemies."
"And it’s already getting late. Even if we start right at this moment, I can’t say with assurance if we’ll have enough time to be fully ready." Zhya said, "I gave Inala fifteen years of vacation time. That is plenty enough."
"Now, I simply cannot afford to be considerate of his wishes." Zhya concluded as she stared at Zaihaya, "We need to look at the bigger picture."
"Alright," Zaihaya nodded as she stared at Kenka Echo with a concerned gaze, "I originally came here to report two things to you."
"First, we’re done with preparations." Zaihaya nodded at Zhya, "We have a Quip Zinger ready at the 10-Life Stage. He has been equipped with a Minor Treasure of Prana Stitch to ensure he can fend himself in the Transcendent World."
During the process of becoming a Transcendent, the Minor Treasure of Prana Stitch would fuse into the Quip Zinger, becoming a part of his power. That would allow him to tap into the Quip Clan’s arsenal without issues and hold his ground among other Transcendents.
Since the Continental Invasion was about to start, the Quip Clan needed a scout among the Transcendents to relay information about the invaders back to them. And unlike other cultivation techniques, Mystic Royal Art basically emulated the Royal Zinger.
Therefore, the Transcendent Quip Zinger would only be a temporary anchor to Mystic Royal Zinger. The anchor would be transferred to the Royal Zinger the moment it becomes a Transcendent. This way, the Quip Clan didn’t have to worry about wasting its anchor’s potential.
"That is good news. I’ll be there to witness it." Zhya nodded and then asked, "What is the second item?"
"I intercepted Hunsar’s distress signal." Zaihaya scratched her head in irritation, "I guess he did well enough and won the game he played against Inala."
"And now, Inala has accepted his loss." She groaned, "He realised he’s no longer up against helpless kids..."
"How many casualties?" Zhya asked, quickly picturing the root of the picture, ’I sent that elite army to gain some experience facing Inala and then kill him in the end.’
If she wanted to ensure Inala died asap, she would have gone personally. But she wanted the Quip Clansmen to recognise their flaws in combat by fighting Inala. And by rectifying it actively, they’ll eventually manage to kill their target.
Most of all, she understood Inala’s personality, aware that the latter wouldn’t hold it against them even if he were to get killed. ’That’s why I sent kids, since they aren’t strong enough to kill him.’
Or rather, Inala would obviously hold back against the inexperienced Clansmen and get killed because of it. The outcome Zhya expected here, and was also confident Inala wouldn’t object, was the latter’s careless death.
’That was what was supposed to happen.’ Zhya frowned, ’I never expected Hunsar to perform so well.’
Hunsar performed beyond expectations and was no longer treated as a kid by Inala, but rather as an adult, ’Which means I can no longer expect a careless death from Inala.’
"Seven dead," Zaihaya groaned, "And more are bound to follow. Even at the speed of sound, it takes time for the news to reach all the way here."
"I..." She stared at Kenka Echo and uttered, "I should probably face him. Now that he’s serious, my State of Harmony is our safest bet to kill him."
"No, you’re too valuable." Zhya shook her head, "You have the closest relation to the Royal Zinger, as being part of the cause in the evolution that birthed it."
She patted Zaihaya on the shoulder, "You’ll become one of the Quip Clan’s strongest pillars as a Transcendent. I can’t afford to waste you, Kenka, or Kenzar."
"Then what will you do?" Zaihaya asked in worry, her expression widening in protest, "You don’t mean you’ll head there personally? It’s too dangerous."
"A Brully is a good counter to your abilities. And Inala knows your fighting style the best." She shook her head in a flurry, "No matter how strong you are, Inala will play you like a fiddle. He knows what you can do before you even think about it..."
"Relax, I’m self-aware." Zhya chuckled, "That’s why I have the perfect solution to this, someone strong enough to get the job done, cannot be read by Inala, and is expendable enough that I won’t have to worry about wasting this card."
"Are you...serious?" Zaihaya gulped nervously as she understood just what card Zhya wanted to use, "It’s not a card we can control. Even you cannot control it."
"I cannot control it, but it’ll at least listen to me." Zhya nodded as she accompanied Zaihaya and boarded a Mystic Biome Bomb to take a discreet route and arrive at a spot closest to the Dieng Canyon.
It was an 18-kilometre-tall barren mountain, with a lake at the top filled with Phells. This was a regular spot for the Zingers to obtain an endless reserve of Prana. There was a large group of them, practically covering the entire surface area of the mountain, alongside Quip Zingers.
Droves of Zingers carried a large pile of Prana Bombs each, bringing them to their respective colony. Emerging out of the lake was the duo of Zhya and Zaihaya.
Retracting the Mystic Biome Bomb once they had reached land, Zhya waved her hand upon seeing all the Zingers and Quip Zingers alike prostrate before her, "Make way."
Once the mountain was cleared, Zhya assumed her Zinger Representative form. Her body turned jet black, soon highlighted by a network of golden lightning behaving as her nervous system. The sharp spike in her presence caused the Phells in the lake to froth at their mouths and fall unconscious.
Newly hatched Phells simply exploded into blood mist, lacking even a trace presence to guard against Zhya’s.
State of Harmony—Zinger Roar!
Mystic Royal Art—Piezo Response!
"I need to disperse it in a frequency only you can feel it." She muttered and transmitted her message.
Mystic Royal Art—Piezo Slip!
Zaihaya felt intense prickles on her skin, watching endless waves of Prana getting released by Zhya at twelve times the speed of sound, dispersing a single statement far and wide, so that the target individual, whose hiding spot was unknown, would become aware, ’I only hope he listens.’
[Root, I need you to kill our Deity’s enemy!]