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

"According to the data, this remains the case."

"It's just like a heart."

"Let's cut it open, just use the data from last time."

The magical yet bloody dialogue and images reached his ears and were reflected in the boy's pupils, making him suddenly realize the significance of their arrival.

With the aftershocks of the Honkai Fission Bomb's launch and explosion dissipating, and the Herrscher's Honkai energy fluctuations disappearing, it is only natural for the relevant forces to come and inspect the results.

it's wired.

I felt neither sad nor indignant, neither absurd nor regretful.

The lake, clear as a mirror, remained undisturbed, and the sword heart maintained its crystal-clear appearance.

What pain, what despair, what sorrow, what hatred.

After experiencing the reality of Sato Yuno's death, these intense emotions seemed to have dried up, as if a torrential rain had poured down all the moisture from the ocean, making it difficult for the boy to feel any emotion at all.

Without hesitation, the long dagger fell, its sharp edge splitting the soft white fabric in a second, cutting into the withered skin, slicing through the chest cavity to reach its final destination, and taking out the Herrscher Core and placing it into the appropriate container.

Su Qing'an's eyes were fixed on the falling dagger, and he felt that time was passing slowly in his hazy consciousness.

This is a dress she cherishes. If it gets damaged and needs mending, it won't look as good as it used to.

The image of the chest cavity being cut open, resembling a hot knife slicing through butter, is utterly devoid of any aesthetic appeal.

So how could you let her become like that?

[Soul Essence: 5.80 (78.31)]

Driven by a pure vision and a terrifying obsession, and in a situation where one cannot achieve their desires without pushing beyond their limits, the boy is forced to understand the true nature of the soul more deeply.

The 0.1 mark thus transforms into silent greatness, and in a fleeting moment, a breathtaking beauty is revealed in the minute details.

In an instant, the advance team of the fifth squad all grasped the fear between life and death, as if a god had raised his eyes and cast his gaze upon them.

Their conversation abruptly ended, their blood turned cold, their bodily functions ceased, their consciousness became hazy and confused, and they almost forgot everything.

The extremely high spiritual essence exerted a complete domain-like pressure on the beings below.

This is essentially the ability that Su Qing'an should know, just like the instinctual hunting and foraging of animals.

However, he has always been in a habit of keeping his abnormality from affecting the people around him, and he rarely encounters conventional enemies, which is why he is unaware of it.

Normal human beings have no right to lay a hand on him; that has been true for a long time.

But now that the meaning of the soul is being explored more deeply, this fact can continue to be upheld even though Su Qing'an is in a life-threatening situation.

The 0.1 increments consumed just now only allowed one's soul aura to emanate outwards. Once one gets used to it, even this small amount of expenditure will be unnecessary.

The highly precise instruments were incredibly sensitive at every step, which resulted in the silver blade successfully stopping in front of the fabric after everyone was frozen in place, no longer moving.

The entire team of seven collapsed to the ground, falling into a coma.

Su Qing'an ultimately chose to restrain herself. For a target with such a large disparity in power, the pressure on the soul was nothing short of a terrifying illusion.

If they do not actively dispel the effects, these people may even be deceived by the tremors of their senses to the point of actual death.

The launch of the Honkai Fission Bomb must have been a decision made by the higher-ups; these soldiers were merely following orders.

Yuno's death had nothing to do with them.

Even though touching the remains was a forbidden zone that Su Qing'an could hardly allow, the impression that the Herrscher himself gave them made it difficult to criticize this behavior.

Yes, these are all correct logics and reasonable reasons.

But Su Qing'an was far too calm.

He was so calm that he still had the lingering sense to care about reason and goodness, and he could weigh the pros and cons of the future and this approach.

The source of this rationality lies in the temporary aftereffects of previously burning through energy to gain leverage through emotions.

After experiencing Sato Yuno's death, the boy chose to deliberately continue to maintain this aftereffect.

The wounds that the soul alone could heal were indifferently torn open again and again, causing the birth of emotions and empathy to fall into an extremely depressed indifference.

The current Su Qing'an is rational, calm, possesses a broad perspective, and is a martial arts immortal who is bound to the limit by invisible reins.

The real reason he chose this self-destructive approach was that he couldn't guarantee how far the hatred and anger that would ignite after truly experiencing the pain, understanding the despair, feeling the sorrow, and thoroughly digesting it all would go.

Even for the sake of Seele and Fu Hua, Su Qing'an could only refuse to fall into that vicious cycle.

Facing the entire upper class as an individual is not absolutely impossible for a boy. The combination of pure [power] and [concealment], along with normal-level intelligence, makes him a far greater threat than a typical Herrscher in certain aspects.

Moreover, the development of [Feather Crossing Dust O Critical] has brought his frontal combat to a whole new level.

However, this approach amounts to engaging in significant involution amidst an impending collapse.

Unless Su Qing'an twists his own personality, loses all his ties, and goes completely mad to choose the path of slaughtering the whole world, this is an absolutely forbidden zone that must not be entered.

The boy tried his best to suppress his gloomy consciousness, and the result of forcing himself not to faint was that his soul was slowly and abnormally regressing.

If the value reaches zero, in addition to being forced into a coma and having a slower recovery of the soul's essence, even the upper limit of the original increase will be weakened.

But he cannot faint yet.

Subsequent troops will likely arrive one after another. The higher-ups will not choose to stop until they obtain the Herrscher core, and trying to negotiate with them while seriously injured is a pointless endeavor.

Even Su Qing'an's survival is seen by some as a terrifying problem.

Having witnessed the boy's scattered combat data, no single human being in the world would be willing to provoke such an existence.

In short, keeping the people who come to retrieve the Herrscher's remains unconscious is not a long-term solution.

Let alone whether continuing like this would allow them to protect the girl's remains, the boy's own injuries did not allow him to be any more willful.

Therefore, Su Qing'an is currently waiting for someone.

Himeko.

Whether it's to find out Fu Hua and Seele's current situation or to find a way to intercept Sato Yuno's remains, Su Qing'an must rely on this person's power.

Himeko and Himeko Murata are one soul.

Even if her experiences later in life lead to differences in personality and principles, she is now the only person Su Qing'an can choose to trust.

Su Qing'an believed that she had kept her initial promise to him, and he also had to believe that she had successfully taken Fu Hua and Xi'er away from Canghai City.

Otherwise... even the deliberately maintained aftereffects of the soul would find it difficult to withstand such a cruel reality.

Therefore, these advance troops could only be members of the fifth squad led by Himeko from Moth of Fire.

Because if it wasn't the fifth squad, it already meant that the other party hadn't kept their promise to them.

However, given that Himeko has not yet arrived in Canghai City, the group of people who know nothing about the Honkai Fission Bomb will most likely continue to stay in the shelter and wait for their return.

The consequences of continuing to wait in this way are self-evident.

Su Qing'an had no choice but to eliminate all variables from her mind and place all her hopes on this one bet.

The reality he was in made him realize more than ever before how isolated and helpless he was in this world.

In previous timelines, St. Freya Academy and even Schicksal could become their support.

Whether it's the friends in the academy or the convenient path paved by Destiny's funds and power, they are all necessary in critical moments.

But in the previous civilization, Su Qing'an, who had nothing, had to face all the cruel, dark despair and predicaments alone.

Even though he was used to shouldering many burdens alone, he still couldn't help but feel lonely when he suffered a crushing defeat and had to wait for others to help him.

Fortunately, he can no longer sense any emotions.

The boy remained expressionless, his eyes, stained crimson with blood, staring blankly into the distance.

If it weren't Himeko who greeted Su Qing'an, he might have really ended up in that situation.

……

……

When Himeko rushed to the scene, the sight before her left her speechless.

The team members who had fainted were being hurriedly checked by the others to determine their exact physical condition.

The woman's attention was completely drawn to Sato Yuno's corpse and the mangled body of a boy not far away.

The dagger's edge was only a few centimeters away from the corpse's fabric, but those few centimeters felt like an insurmountable chasm, making it impossible to strike.

Su Qing'an is still alive, and this miraculous survival shows that I underestimated him a little.

Perhaps it was his survival that prevented anyone from touching the remains of the Herrscher's body.

Himeko didn't understand what kind of profound and special meaning Sato Yuno represented to Su Qing'an, but at least she could understand that this person was very important to the boy.

It was so important that even if the other party became the Third Herrscher, he was willing to risk death to entangle with them.

So important that even though he was on the verge of death, he did not want anyone to desecrate the other person's remains.

When Himeko saw Sato Yuno's remains with her own eyes, she vaguely realized the thoughts she had had back then.

So, Herrschers... are no different from humans after all.

This is a pure sentiment, yet it is also a seed destined to sprout.

Himeko took out a vial from her protective suit and, while examining the boy's battered body, deftly injected it into his veins.

The woman gazed into those scarlet, lifeless eyes and felt a profound chill.

Just how terrifying is the willpower and self-control to maintain such a calm and indifferent demeanor in the face of such an event?

Su Qing'an's state of mind is completely different from the age data obtained from his genetic sampling. Even Himeko himself cannot guarantee that he can maintain this level of restraint after encountering the same situation.

But what lies hidden within this restraint is like a dark shadow that blocks out the sky beneath the floating ice, exuding a chilling temperature.

The woman realized that even setting aside all personal feelings and her own feelings for Su Qing'an, the sheer pressure and the ability to cause her teammates to fall into unconsciousness did not allow her to treat the current situation casually.

She whispered in the boy's ear:

"Hua and Xier are on a warship 15 minutes away from here. Carol, Shigure Kira, and your other students are also fine, so you can rest assured."

Even after seeing them and realizing they were probably safe and sound, Su Qing'an's tense nerves only relaxed slightly after Himeko said it herself. He gazed at the woman with deep eyes but remained silent.

Himeko continued:

"You know, with my power, there is no way I can protect the Herrscher Core of the Third Herrscher. This is a waste that the entire civilization cannot allow."

"No matter how important she is to you, in your severely injured state where you are unable to move, any threats or requests you make will only become a reason for your superiors to get rid of you."