Regarding the question of whether one thousand lives are enough to beat Honkai Impact 3rd.

Yaehiko was pulled into an even greater emotional tide by the shrine maiden's laughter, and for a moment, the excessively intense emotions made him empathize with her.

She is sad.

Even though she was laughing, the man understood that.

This Yae Sakura is completely different from the girl in my memory.

"My father, you are so weak, hahaha, it turns out you are only half-baked."

She suddenly roared in fury:

"Get it over with! What good is someone like you who's only good at making people sad?"

The priestess drew her sword.

In that instant, Yaehiko could only see a flash of light, and then the sacred sword passed down through generations of the Yae Shrine was placed against his neck.

Cherry blossom blizzard. Such a spirit sword can easily sever human bones; one's life is now in the opponent's hands.

Extremely fast, like light and shadow.

Such swift swordsmanship was something his wife could never achieve even when she was alive.

Sakura, when did you reach this level?

The shrine maiden grabbed the man's collar with her left hand, and the spirit sword she was holding shakily, due to her emotions, cut the skin of his neck, and blood slowly seeped out, but Yaehiko continued to look at the girl's furious face as if he did not notice.

"Didn't you already intend to go all the way?! Didn't you already intend to eliminate Rin's path to survival?!"

Yae Sakura's roar shook the man's soul. He couldn't understand the specific meaning of her words, but he knew she was blaming herself, she was angry, and she was sad.

But in the end, this was the only answer the man could give:

"I'm sorry, Sakura. But I am Yae no Kami."

Yes, so even with such vague expectations, men showed no mercy in their actions.

In the man's eyes, before his identity as a father, he was the Lord of the Eightfold Gods.

Yae Sakura's emotions instantly subsided into a state of perfect tranquility. This was the self-control she had honed over five hundred years. Even now, with most of her body broken, she still possessed the ability to perfectly control her emotions for a short period of time.

She released her grip on the man's clothes.

The sword was sheathed, a movement that was also difficult to discern.

After leaving a message, the priestess turned and left.

"Father, so be it. We will draw our swords against each other."

Should they draw their swords against each other? The man touched the line of blood on his neck and smiled.

His cold, hard face seemed to soften in that instant, but then a dark red mist appeared in his pupils.

Just like countless previous cycles, the story's direction was forcibly corrected by the power of Higokumaru.

This is a reflection of history, so naturally it must follow its original ending.

The compassion and expectations that Yae no Shinichi had when making his decision five hundred years ago are unnecessary to recreate; they are useless burdens.

He only needs to make the same choices as before; changes caused by Yae Sakura's transformation are unnecessary variables.

The man is not as lofty and supreme as he appears on the surface. He is more like a puppet bound by the will of the villagers, and the more traditional the rules are, the harder it is for him to disobey them from his position.

Yaehiko had trusted confidants and possessed considerable martial prowess, but if he had chosen to refuse the ritual, the Yae family's fate would not have been good.

Yae Sakura understood this.

In the end, he weakly chose to sacrifice Rin, and coldly grasped Yae Sakura's hand, killing his own daughter.

The reason is that only in this way can Yae Sakura's status as a shrine maiden remain unshaken.

And in any future rituals, it would be impossible to mention Yae Sakura.

Compromise, compromise, compromise.

This man ultimately chose this half-baked and despicable approach.

Such reasons don't even qualify as self-comfort or self-satisfaction.

Therefore, neither Yae Sakura nor Yae Rin will forgive her.

He himself would not.

But it doesn't matter, Yaehiko is a half-baked father.

Even from the perspective of a villain, he remains incredibly pure.

Whether it was due to Higokumaru's guidance or the man's own inherent flaws, the final result was that Yaehiko suppressed all his emotions and compassion.

The Eightfold God Lord muttered indifferently to himself:

“Sakura. You have become stronger than your mother. But it is all in vain. The power of the gods is a mysterious force that cannot be faced by human strength. Even powerful demons can only tremble and prostrate themselves before the gods.”

"In such mountains and forests, Yae Village can survive, relying not only on the sharpness of the spirit sword, but also on the gods."

"The monstrous beasts that lurked day and night, and the impending drought. Under such a crisis, the lives of the village's hundred households were all in my hands."

"Therefore, from the perspective of the God, I am not wrong."

But... as a father, I have no face to face them.

So, draw your sword against me.

Your last look was very good; you've already become a qualified priestess.

You should take what you want yourself.

You won't hold back, will you? And I won't either.

66. Conversation, selection.

Under the moonlight, the boy stood in the corridor, watching the priestess approach from afar, and said:

"Miss Yae, you haven't lost your memory, have you?"

The priestess did not give an answer immediately; she gazed intently at the boy's face.

Su Qing'an.

Yae Sakura wasn't familiar with this person, and her level of knowledge about the boy was almost the same as Hishimaru's.

In a sense, the two of them were meeting for the first time today.

The priestess nodded in agreement:

"As you think, I haven't lost my memory."

In fact, aside from her attitude towards Theresa, Yae Sakura made almost no attempt to hide anything.

Rather, even if Su Qing'an hadn't discovered it, she would have confronted him sooner or later.

He was drawn into her and Hishiyomaru's battlefield as soon as he came into this world.

She pretended not to know Theresa because she didn't want to get involved, but ignoring the two of them and letting them wait for the ending was not something she would do.

Su Qing'an nodded, took out a golden cross from his pocket, handed it to the priestess, and said:

"Miss Karen asked me to give this to you."

In this way, he could be considered to have fulfilled his promise to the nun.

Yae Sakura accepted the ornament, gazing at the gleaming cross under the moonlight, her heart filled with complex emotions.

After a long while, the priestess seemed to awaken from a brief, fleeting dream, and she said:

"That's not Karen. The real Karen is dead."

"That's just Kallen that Yae Sakura wanted to exist."

The priestess sighed:

“I don’t need this anymore, Su Jun.”

She handed the cross back to Su Qing'an without any hesitation.

"Please take this with you and that girl. It will guide you to a part of the Scarlet Prison, and the power within the cross will suppress it. At that time, a gap will appear there, through which you can return to the present world."

Su Qing'an remained silent for a moment, pondering the meaning behind the other person's words, before asking:

"What about Principal Theresa?"

Yae Sakura bluntly stated:

"That's all I can do. The Yae Sakura standing in front of you is nothing but an empty shell. I can't beat Himeko in this state."

"That cross houses my obsession with Kallen, and also the last bit of power that could barely overpower Higokumaru."

"And all it can do is let you leave and let that girl hold on a little longer."

Su Qing'an was suddenly speechless. He thought, "We were counting on you to come up with some useful information, but you just raised the white flag and said we can't win."

It's like the battle between good and evil in a martial arts novel. The leader of the righteous faction raises his arm and calls out, and countless heroes rush to respond. Everyone thinks the outcome is still evenly matched. But on the day of the final battle, the leader of the righteous faction spends all his money and says, "Go back to your own homes. I've left you a way out." But this battle is already lost.

So you took the money and embarked on your journey home, feeling utterly pissed off.

Su Qing'an has the same idea now, but the difference is that he can't just easily choose to go back.

He said:

"Miss Yae, do you think you're doomed to lose?"

"Why? If it's just about preventing the tragedy that happened in Yae Village in history, things shouldn't have reached the point of no return."

Yae Sakura sighed:

“Su Jun, this is just a replay of history. Even if it is changed, it is meaningless. The key to victory or defeat has never been this. And from the beginning, I could never beat Hiyokumaru.”

Yes, Yae Sakura could never beat Higokumaru.

From the very beginning, it was Yae Sakura who sought powerful strength from Higokumaru in order to use it for revenge.

Yae Sakura is not exactly known for her strong will or self-sacrifice; all these years she has simply been atoning for her past actions.

It was the existence of that saintess and the occasional childish games played by Hiyomaru that allowed her to persevere until now.

“Su Jun, you might find this strange, but Yae Sakura is no longer normal. From the day she descended into the mortal world, I had already lost.”