Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

Shen Liang tilted his head and looked at the beautiful married woman who resembled Raiden Mei but had an even more mature temperament. He then shook his head and chuckled to himself.

Why do people always assume that a mature woman is a "wife"? Even though Mei has never been in a relationship, if I had to say… wouldn't she be my wife too?

"There's no reason why, I just feel like I was a coward in the past." Shen Liang looked at her and chuckled, "Sister Mei, you're so beautiful."

Eve had never learned to use such a cute way of addressing someone, so Mei was slightly taken aback.

“So you’ve finally been affected by… the Herrschers.” Mei said softly.

“Yes,” Shen Liang said with a smile.

He didn't want to explain, nor did he want to deny it, as that would only cause Mei more pain in order to kill him. Even if Mei was just a figure in his dreams, he loved her deeply.

This dream should come to an end.

Ling pinched him and said coldly, "You're with me and you're still thinking about Mei?"

"Strictly speaking, Ling, you might not be as important to me as Mei... Sorry, I was just kidding! We're all the same! If we're the same, why are you still pinching me!"

Mei silently raised her hand, and in an instant, Shen Liang and Ling both lost the Honkai energy they were sensing.

She wears the Blank Key, an armor developed based on Shen Liang's characteristics. This armor can provide abilities similar to those of different Herrscher cores when loaded. Currently, it is loaded with the Herrscher of Binding core, capable of suppressing all Honkai energy within its range.

The Son of Man plan failed, and this coup led to a Herrscher riot. However, for some reason, Eve and the Herrschers did not have any intention of escaping. Instead, they waited for her to come and end it.

The other fusion warriors who arrived at the scene raised their high-powered annihilation rifles under May's command. They surrounded the rooftop, and with a single shot, they could destroy both people along with the rooftop.

"I'm going to die." Shen Liang spat out a tooth, weakly holding Ling, who nestled in his arms and smiled softly.

"It's lonely to die alone, but it's better to die with someone else than alone."

“Better than one person…yes, much better than one person!” Shen Liang hugged the Herrscher girl tightly in his arms. The two embraced each other tightly, their backs to the world that did not accept them, and laughed loudly.

The roar of gunfire drowned out the laughter.

------------

"The third precept is: Do not betray humanity."

The ethereal voice continued to echo.

"Shut up," Shen Liang said softly.

"The twenty-ninth commandment: Do not harm your closest relatives who trust you."

"Do I have a solution?" Shen Liang shrugged.

"The 634th precept: Do not betray your beloved."

“I didn’t let them down this time. Of course, if you say I disappointed Mei and Ying, I’m sorry.” Shen Liang finally sighed. “Alright, stop repeating the precepts. I admit I’ve broken them all. I hurt my family, betrayed my friends, indulged in lust and love, killed countless people without remorse. That’s who I am, and I’m willing to do it! What can you do about it? Can you just say what you want to do? What exactly do you want to test me with this dream?”

Chapter Twenty-Six: The "Witches" Bless the "Little Princess"

Countless laws and regulations exploded in his ears one after another.

Shen Liang remained unmoved.

Although he didn't understand what these precepts were, he could guess that they were doctrines used to bind him, and his actions in the dream were definitely not in line with these rules that were clearly meant to make him a saint.

Perhaps it is precisely because he repeatedly fails to comply with regulations that he repeatedly fails to break free from the dream.

But there is no way.

If he could control his desires with reason, there might be a chance, but once he enters the dream world, he will quickly be assimilated by the "Eve" of the past, becoming that cold-hearted, heartless, and tearless little dwarf. In his Eve form, he didn't even have basic values; let alone precepts, he might not even abide by the law.

“The first of the 1529 precepts is: Do not become trapped in the cycle of hatred.”

Shen Liang was stunned.

“I am not trapped by hatred. I do not hate those fusion warriors. Our fighting was completely justifiable and purely a matter of position,” Shen Liang said. “They wanted to kill me, and I killed them, but it was a necessary choice and had nothing to do with hatred.”

War is like that; it's a struggle for duty, obligation, and ideals. So even if there is hatred, it's directed at the "whole," while it's difficult to describe when it comes to the "individual."

The precepts did not respond; they continued to be chanted.

Just when Shen Liang was getting impatient, the last precept finally arrived.

"The three thousand precepts should not be constrained by."

Shen Liang's heart skipped a beat.

We should not be bound by precepts. What is the purpose of those three thousand complicated precepts? Most importantly, who issued the precepts, and why did the person who issued them finally loosen their grip after restricting them with three thousand rules?

What exactly does the person who issued the precepts want him to do?

How can he escape this recurring dream? He still has so much to do; he can't afford to get lost in this dream.

His memories have already been restored to so much; he even knows about his past. So what's the point of testing him now? And what's the significance of this past? Those older sisters who existed in his memories, who lived with him for so many years, are already history from tens of thousands of years ago. What is the purpose of this unknown being reviving his past memories?!

"What exactly do you want me to know? What do you want me to do?" Shen Liang pondered, hugging his knees in the darkness.

However, as he was pondering this, he suddenly realized something was amiss.

The broadcast criticizing him for breaking more than three hundred precepts has ended, but based on the last impression, he will begin the next round of dreams after the broadcast ends.

It will most likely refresh under the showerhead in the bathroom, and then his "Shen Liang" consciousness will be slowly stripped away, and he will start a new life from the perspective of "Eve" until some event makes it impossible for "Shen Liang" consciousness to be suppressed any longer.

Then the dream collapses, and the cycle begins again.

But this time, after thinking about it for so long, a new dream still hasn't appeared?

As Shen Liang was thinking, he suddenly felt the tide rising in the darkness.

Warm water enveloped him, its taste slightly salty and astringent. He instinctively tried to struggle, but found himself weak and powerless. Then he suddenly realized that the darkness wasn't because he was trapped in a world of consciousness; he simply had never opened his eyes!

"Damn it!" Shen Liang suddenly realized how this dream had started, but he didn't even have the strength to open his eyes.

"This time, it's highly likely I won't be able to leave any information for 'Eve'..." Shen Liang smiled bitterly to himself; this was the last thought that flashed through his mind. Then, he hugged his knees, silently sank into the warm water, and lost all consciousness.

------------

Hawaii Island, Fire Moth Resort.

“Sometimes I think this plan is insane.” Qianjie lay under the parasol, gazing at the azure sea. “Just for a possibility, so much money is wasted. You Fire Moths really don’t care about taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”

"Are you still unhappy about the 'Child of Man' project?" The boy with short, soft green hair, also wearing beach shorts, glanced at him. "Or are you just a little annoyed that you contributed a gene sample to Sakura?"

"What are you saying, you brat!" Qianjie said angrily. "I just think it's a waste of time! We finally got to come to Hawaii on public funds, and there are only a few of us men on the beach. It would have been better not to book the whole place. If we hadn't booked it, maybe I could have seen a few pretty women in swimsuits!"

“Brother Qianjie isn’t really interested in pretty women, is he? I bet you’re just a little annoyed.” Kosmo scratched his head, somewhat uncertainly. “Well, probably because if he could really create ‘Eve,’ then his child would be no different from Sakura’s and the others’? But you actually have some feelings for Sakura, so you’ve had this idea, which is…”

“I think you can shut up now, Kosmo.” Qianjie’s eyes turned terrifying. “There are some things that can’t be said, or you’ll die.”

"I'm sorry, I hurt your pride, but I still want to say that if you have any feelings for Sakura, you should do it sooner rather than later. Whether in the military or the Moth Chaser, a woman as beautiful as Sakura will have no shortage of suitors."

"What does a little brat know about aspirations?" Qianjie sneered.

"Then you'll regret it sooner or later," Kosmo said calmly.

The reason there aren't any girls out playing on the beach today is because everyone is crowded into the sauna on the second floor of the sanatorium.

The sauna was so hot that you couldn't see anything. The girls were wrapped in bath towels, with wet towels on their heads and their long hair tied up. Most of the girls sat there quietly enjoying the dry sauna, but some were pacing back and forth in a hurry, their slippers making a clattering sound on the hot stone slabs.

Finally, Eden opened his eyes and said lazily, "Paddo, you look just like an old father anxiously waiting outside the operating room for his wife and child to be safe."

“Aren’t you?” Pado frowned. At this moment, she was still a little girl with long brown hair. “What do you mean by ‘similar’? We are exactly like that now!”

“Actually, I’m a little worried too.” Sakura opened her eyes and said calmly, “As we all know, the countless embryos cultivated by the Child of Man project have never had a successful case. Our genes are not anything special. Who can guarantee that what we’ve cultivated will be a human being and not a suicide soldier?”

She looked at Alicia.

The "Children of Man" project was proposed by Alicia and implemented by May and Mebius as part of a national salvation plan. Theoretically, if enough human genes with good adaptability to Honkai energy are extracted, it would be possible to analyze which gene chain can cope with Honkai.

By conducting countless gene fusion projects, an embryo capable of fully adapting to collapse can be cultivated.

But theory is just theory. In fact, the Son of Man project extracts data from almost the entire human gene pool, and so far, there has only been one successful case. Möbius only managed to cultivate one diploid cell that was trending towards stability.

These two hundred somatic cells, representing infinite possibilities, have nine individuals as their underlying genes. Interestingly, three of them actually come from the very person who proposed the plan. However, it's not surprising that the Moth Chasers are indeed individuals with a high tolerance for Honkai energy.

The nine individuals come from all over the world: Mei, Alicia, and Mebius, researchers from the Moth of Fire; Eden, a pop diva; Velvi, a renowned genius engineer from the Americas; Sakura, an assassin from the Poisonous Pupa Squad; Hua, a member of the Moth of Fire combat squad; Padofelis, a small-time hoodlum from Twilight Street; and Sister Aponia, also from Twilight Street.

“So Dr. Mebius will be performing the surgery himself, and Medu will only be assisting.” Alicia said with a smile, “But that’s Mebius, who has already become a fusion warrior. If the 'Eve' that is born is a failure, Dr. Mebius will kill him in the cradle.”

All the girls fell silent when Alicia uttered such terrifying words in a light tone.

"Thinking about it like that makes me a little sad again," Hua said softly.

Paddo nodded quickly. She understood Hua's thoughts and felt sorry for him as well.

Regardless, those were artificial beings connected to their blood, practically their shared creation in a way. Women are indeed more emotional creatures; she knew perfectly well that the child named Eve had little to do with her, but she still couldn't help but imagine him... imagining how wonderful it would be if he were born a beautiful and well-behaved baby, how wonderful it would be if he hadn't died but had been conceived.

"Regretted it?" Alicia asked with a smile.

"Regret...what?" Pado suddenly realized that the pink fairy had somehow gotten right in front of her.

“I think what Ellie wants to say is, do you regret—” Eden stood up, his eyes slightly complicated, “regret not choosing to be Eve…”

She didn't say it aloud, but all the girls in the sauna knew what she meant.

"No," Pado said softly, turning her head away.

“No, I’m about to join the Firemoth for fusion warrior surgery, so I don’t have that possibility,” Sakura said calmly. “I also don’t have overflowing maternal love.”

"Does that mean Sakura won't like this child?" Alicia blinked. "How pitiful it is for a child to be born out of no expectation. He'll cry, he really will cry."

“Don’t try to morally blackmail me, Miss Ellie. Whether we like that child or not is none of our business. What are we to him? The only one who truly matters is Aponia.” Velvi shrugged.