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

But even after overcoming these trials that were like purgatory to his past self, such awareness and willpower alone are far from enough to truly catch up with Su Qing'an.

The conversation with Fu Xiuran a few days ago was still fresh in the girl's memory. Perhaps in her father's eyes, Master Su had a more profound and powerful presence.

That quality was something I hadn't even realized I possessed.

If Fu Hua wants to become stronger than him, she must first overcome that threshold.

85. Fu Hua's efforts, and Mei's appearance.

June 7th, morning.

Hundreds of meters below, in the quiet warehouse, Su Qing'an remained asleep in the medical pod.

[Soul Essence: 9.94 (78.31)]

The fact that the recovery rate remained in the single digits for more than ten days was incredibly slow. Just as he had initially thought, the near depletion of his soul essence led to extremely dire consequences.

If it weren't for the conflict with the laboratory caused by Seele, which led to the agreement with Himeko, such a long period of unconsciousness would have been enough for the boy to die directly without nutritional support.

Compared to the decline in the spiritual realm, the physical recovery was excellent, with all bones, flesh, and organs having been completely replaced.

It took only half a month to reach this stage; the basic body shaping was happening even faster than Himeko had anticipated.

However, the boy's physical strength is far inferior to what it used to be. If he could previously break through the sound barrier and heat barrier under normal conditions simply by relying on his body strength and Honkai energy shield, he can no longer do so now.

Su Qing'an is not a fusion warrior; genetically, he is just an ordinary human.

The combination of rigorous training in martial arts and the inherent quality correction from the Taixu Sword Qi is what allows the boy to far surpass ordinary people even without using Honkai energy, enabling him to easily defeat a Temple-level Honkai Beast.

Even so, this special feature is worlds apart from that of a fusion warrior.

Su Qing'an's body has now been repaired, but she is as weak as she was in the beginning; this is the essence of ordinariness.

In theory, this is similar to how an athlete who has suffered a major injury needs to undergo painful training again to return to their former peak.

But now, after experiencing hardships and undergoing its third restart, the boy has finally developed something special.

The body's cellular instincts and muscle memory, originating from the soul, are consuming the nutrients continuously supplied within the medical pod in an effort to rebuild and restore the strength of the previous physical form.

The rate of consumption inside the medical pod was so astonishing that it completely exceeded Himeko's initial expectations.

However, she had prepared for the worst in advance, which resulted in reserves of up to three years' worth, enough to restore the body to its peak condition.

While the underground area continued its steady recovery, Fu Hua was also undergoing persistent training.

The girl's initial aversion to the use of Honkai energy was her naivety, just like Su Qing'an's thoughts back then.

But it seems there is a cycle in the world. In the previous timeline, Fu Hua led Su Qing'an to a more mature path.

Her presence made the boy stop obsessing over this, and he learned the [Thousand Stars] technique that he still uses today, which greatly improved the limit of his normal combat power. From then on, Su Qing'an no longer needed to deliberately burn his life in ordinary battles.

Now that the world has been restarted in the previous civilization timeline, Su Qing'an's existence has allowed Fu Hua to abandon her so-called disgust and hatred on the very first day she encountered the Honkai, and to wholeheartedly explore how to use Honkai energy, and to begin to elevate the practice of the Sword Heart Technique to all aspects of her life.

As for the [Thousand Stars] technique, which holds profound significance for both of them, Su Qing'an had already taught it to Fu Hua beforehand.

However, the version is different from his. It is the "Thousand Stars" that Fu Hua herself tailored for herself in the previous timeline. It is likely that she can learn it without much self-correction in some details.

Although Fu Hua's Honkai energy adaptability is vastly different from Su Qing'an's, the difficulty of learning [Thousand Stars] did not rise to the point of endangering her life.

However, Su Qing'an still instructed her that she should not cultivate unless she had the opportunity to use virtual devices with a realism level that was infinitely close to 100% in the future.

And the training in the recruit camp... perfectly suited this opportunity.

This resulted in Fu Hua becoming the recruit who died the most in the virtual battlefield during those two weeks.

Even for someone as gifted as Fu Hua, achieving the [Thousand Stars] level quickly would be an incredibly difficult task.

Su Qing'an completely mastered [Thousand Stars] at the cost of nearly a thousand deaths in the virtual world and several near-death experiences in reality.

Fu Hua's experience was much gentler compared to this, but it still shouldn't be a terrifying experience and agonizing pain that a 15-year-old girl should have to endure.

As if recovering from the suffocation of the deep sea, the crimson and pitch black in front of my eyes slowly fade away.

The girl gasped for air, staring blankly at the transparent, fluorescent blue shell of the virtual pod. Beyond it lay vast expanses of white and emptiness, like the only stroke of pure white paint in an abstract painting, exuding nothingness and eeriness.

It hurts.

The sensation of my entire body being completely expanded, burst, and crushed from a microscopic perspective lingered in my memory, pricking my nerves and tormenting my will, even after I left the virtual battlefield.

The visions of death continued to cast blood-red spots on the pupils, catalyzing the ever-closing distance between the virtual and the real.

The vivid image of the Honkai Beast's spear tearing through his abdomen, the excruciating pain of [Thousand Stars] being forcibly activated and burning flesh to ashes, the Honkai energy ravaging his limbs and bones, and the disorientation of his mind being blank and his memories resurfacing—all these stirred up strange scenes in his brain.

She kept taking rapid, deep breaths, looking at this upside-down, distorted world, feeling as if she were about to vomit.

As her chest heaved, her soft, slender body convulsed involuntarily inside the chamber, as if every nerve in her body was spasming.

The virtual pod emitted a light red warning, and a warm liquid covered her entire body, forcibly putting her consciousness into a deep sleep with the medication, causing the tremors in her brain to stop and enter a passive rest.

a long time.

Consciousness returned.

The little girl's worried face came into view, and in a daze, Fu Hua saw that her golden eyes were filled with sorrow. She wanted to speak, but was interrupted by the other girl's words.

"Xiao Hua, stop messing around in the virtual battlefield."

"The instructors all said that we should develop the habit of prioritizing our own lives during virtual combat, so that we will be more likely to survive when we are actually in battle."

“You are completely contradicting what she said, and as you have seen, this is the third time you have been forcibly rendered unconscious in the virtual pod.”

"The instructor said that if this happens again this week, she will consider whether to temporarily suspend your eligibility to use the virtual pod."

Another girl in my field of vision nodded earnestly, her pale blue braids falling onto the shell of the virtual pod, swaying back and forth with the nodding motion, which was rather cute.

She said softly:

"Xiao Hua, everything needs to be done at the right pace."

"Just like even though I'm not a great singer, I still believe I can become a qualified idol."

"In short, just take it slow. The goal is there, and it's great to just follow your own pace."

Looking at Carol and Shigure Kira, whose words were filled with unease and worry, Fu Hua gave a faint smile and softly agreed:

"I will apologize to the instructor."

"Kira, Carol, I'm so sorry to have worried you."

Fu Hua stepped out of the virtual pod and onto the white ground barefoot.

Her thin clothing revealed large expanses of fair skin, and her slender figure could not be concealed beneath the close-fitting fabric, her increasingly delicate waist exuding a supple beauty.

As if because she had been soaking in the liquid, the girl's lead-gray hair was wet, and transparent water droplets dripped onto the ground.

Carol placed a towel over Fu Hua's head and began to dry her hair, while Shigure Kira handed Fu Hua another towel to wipe away the fine water droplets on her skin.

"Didn't the same thing still happen after we told you off last time?"

"Xiaohua's promise doesn't count for anything with me and Qiluo-chan anymore. Her credibility has been reset to zero."

"Also, I've heard that the instructors next door don't share our philosophy. The fifth squad's recruit camp is clearly the most concerned about the lives of its soldiers."

"With such conditions, you're still pushing yourself to the limit. How can anyone feel at ease with you like this?"

She ruffled Fu Hua's hair with a towel, then continued in a more forceful tone:

"You absolutely cannot act recklessly on the battlefield, especially with that weird move of yours, whatever it is, you must not use it in real life."

"This looks just like in the manga, an ultimate forbidden technique that kills you the moment you use it. This kind of thing looks cool in anime and manga, but it's completely different in reality, okay?"

Carol's rambling chatter and Shigure Kira's frequent nods warmed Fu Hua's heart even as she remained silent.

While silently expressing her gratitude, she recited the Sword Heart Technique, accumulating both the shadow of death and this warmth into nourishment for the lake of her heart.

【Thousand Stars】and the Realm of a Clear Mirror.

almost……

Once all of these goals are achieved, you can get one step closer to that person.

Therefore, even if recalling these painful memories in the middle of the night causes intense phantom pain, the girl will never give up.

……

……

Within half a month, the aftermath of the third Honkai outbreak had completely entered the stage of humanity cleaning up the mess.

During this period, Himeko's actions of concealing the fact that Su Qing'an was alive prevented the officials, who were already indifferent to him, from discovering this fact.

However, the Quantum Sea experimental group, which was the first to discover Su Qing'an's existence, is different.

The existence of Seele Voller is of great importance to the establishment of the entire experimental group. Given this premise, the fact that the experimental subjects could not be brought back due to Su Qing'an's existence has made Dr. Moon very concerned about this.

After the third Honkai outbreak, while worrying about the world order and the future of all living beings, the old man continued to focus his attention on Canghai City.

After communicating with his superiors, he successfully obtained the biological data that Himeko observed during the battle between Su Qing'an and the Third Herrscher. Combined with the data provided by Xing Chen, Dr. Moon reached the same conclusion as Himeko.

At that time, someone was indeed fighting the Third Herrscher, which is why the Honkai Fission Bullet's killing of the Herrscher seemed so smooth.

This person is Su Qing'an.

Since Himeko had a dispute with the higher-ups about the launch of the Honkai Fission Bomb at that time, it suggests that the two may have been in contact before.

Considering Himeko's refusal to hand over Seele Voller, a precious experimental subject, Moon began to doubt whether Su Qing'an was truly dead.

This suspicion is quite logical, because the outside world's opinion of Himeko is consistent: he has a broad perspective and a rigorous work style. Yet, such a person did something that is completely contrary to the interests of the Moth Chaser and the current trend of human civilization.

This made it hard for the elderly not to think about it carefully.

However, some things cannot withstand scrutiny, and once Mu En thought about it carefully, he could only conclude that Su Qing'an was not dead.

Because, apart from that, the old man couldn't imagine any reason why Himeko would do such a thing.

As the captain of the Fire Moths, she is definitely not the kind of person who acts recklessly because of pure, overflowing love.

Therefore, based on the previous information, as long as Moon is willing to believe that someone can actually survive in that many tons of Honkai energy fission bombs.

That would allow us to break through all the logical dead ends and arrive at the conclusion that Su Qing'an is not dead.

But once you know that the boy can fight the Herrscher head-on, whether you believe it or not becomes irrelevant.

Since Su Qing'an has already transcended common sense, it would be meaningless to try to understand his limits using common sense at this point.

Even if Su Qing'an doesn't die, he will definitely be in a very bad state of serious injury.