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

That thing that only existed in the assumptions of the two people actually exists.

The true nature of the living doll, or its origins, are right before our eyes.

The origin of the quest in Kanbaru Village can be said to have finally begun to unveil its mystery.

If Su Qing'an hadn't decisively chosen to use the Holy Mark, they might still be engaged in a meaningless battle with the living puppet.

"Found it!" Sato Yuno said to Su Qing'an, who was keeping watch over the living doll, her voice tinged with joy.

In this increasingly protracted battle, she was naturally delighted to have finally found the key to killing the living doll.

"Thankfully, it wasn't an unexpected situation." Even the usually calm Su Qing'an couldn't help but feel relieved.

In their view, the key to the problem lies in the immortality of the living dolls, and once this is broken, the living dolls will be no threat at all.

Even with the Honkai energy accumulated over ten years and the added benefit of this domain gradually eroded over five hundred years, the combat power unleashed by the living puppets was still no match for that of an Emperor-level Honkai Beast.

Even in terms of individual Honkai energy fluctuations, it is not as strong as the Honkai Emperor, the strongest among the lower-ranking Honkai Beasts. It is only its ability to manipulate the Honkai energy environment that makes it somewhat troublesome.

Given their skill level, killing a living doll wouldn't be difficult.

"Don't touch it directly yet. Gather all the Honkai energy from underground and destroy it all at once," Su Qing'an cautiously decided.

Sato Yuno nodded her chin. She understood what Su Qing'an meant. If Honkai energy were used to touch and grab directly, even a living doll with a logical intelligence that leans towards mechanization would not be indifferent to something that concerns the very essence of its existence.

However, directly concentrating all the Honkai energy to destroy it could potentially allow for a quick victory and end the battle.

Sato Yuno's control over Honkai energy is very high; countless tiny roots slowly extend into the vicinity of that object, quietly wandering around.

She was very careful. A living doll must take its own existence very seriously, so a distance of ten meters was necessary.

These roots were all shaped by power, but at this moment, Sato Yuno reversed them all and transformed them back into pure Honkai energy.

Honkai energy, like trickles of water, converges into vast rivers and seas.

Then it condenses and compresses.

The pseudo-Herrscher possesses near-perfect control over Honkai energy. Without needing to know any techniques for manipulating Honkai energy, she can achieve results surpassing Su Qing'an's after reverse-analyzing the Taixu Sword Qi, and even do a better job.

Finally, all the Honkai energy collapsed into a fist-sized sphere.

By this point, Sato Yuno's attack could no longer be concealed. The Honkai energy fluctuations, with their terrifyingly high density, formed after the sphere was created, and even ordinary people would subconsciously feel uncomfortable here.

“How dare a mortal blaspheme against a god?” The living puppet was discovered.

It was still the same fixed answer, but the words conveyed by this will descending into the mortal world now contained a more complex tone.

Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions.

The villagers of Kambara Village, who have worshipped living dolls over the past five hundred years, speak here with a highly overlapping pace and tone, traversing the long river of history and time.

"How dare mortals blaspheme against God?" Those words contained the fervor of countless saints, and their extreme and profound sorrow and anger.

It is sad that some people do not believe in God.

That was anger at someone trying to blaspheme the gods.

Purple light shone from the ground, and the Honkai energy produced a crisp and powerful explosion.

The ground trembled and cracked, and a faint light flickered in the darkness of the night. A huge roar raged underground, enough to prove the power of this attack.

That should have been a deafening roar, but the words of the living puppet still surpassed that sound.

Their hearts sank.

The object was not destroyed, and the living doll remained unharmed, even being forced into a second form by them.

The fog dissipated, and the barrier shattered.

All the Honkai energy surged into the living doll's body.

Beneath the ground, a red arm armor overcame all obstacles and entered the living doll's body along with the mist.

The appearance of the living doll has changed; it has transformed from a beautiful young girl doll into a demon without any concrete form.

Its appearance could only be described as a demon or monster. Black and red mist formed half of its enormous body, and the tattered arm armor it wore looked like decoration. It carried a huge katana wrapped in flames.

Although they had guessed that it wouldn't be so easily broken, the change was still unexpected.

It's perfectly normal for a boss to have a second form in a game, but it's not so interesting to encounter such a thing in real life.

Moreover, its appearance is too similar to the boss Jizo Mitama in the Honkai Impact 3 game; it's practically a simplified version of it.

His current physical strength is insufficient to unleash his full combat power, and the living puppet in this state should be stronger than before, a situation that is completely one of rise and fall.

Purple flames flickered and burned in the empty eye sockets of the living doll. It looked indifferently at the two of them and raised its katana.

“How dare a mortal blaspheme against the gods?” it said, its voice like the tolling of a bell.

The scarlet katana swung down, with stray black flames scattering and falling in the process.

It felt like the final judgment.

39. The Tree Realm Descends, the Final Strike.

The massive katana cleaved through the fragile ground, and the violent Honkai energy exploded upon contact with the ground. Centered on the impacted ground, several jet-black flames burst forth in the form of slash waves.

With just one strike, the landscape surrounding the shrine was altered once again.

The area was already messy and chaotic enough, but the flames easily burned away most of the debris, making the landscape appear clean and empty.

The temperature around us was strangely high; it was winter, yet our bodies began to feel unbearably hot.

Strong air convection caused light refraction, making the scenery in front of you look like a distorted illusion.

The black flames filled the field of vision, and only ashes remained of the torii gate and the shrine ruins.

The two stood atop the towering ancient tree that Sato Yuno had sculpted in an instant. After dodging the exaggerated attack, they chose to temporarily escape the battlefield in this way.

In retrospect, this was the right decision. Even with Su Qing'an's physical condition, it would be difficult for him to engage in strenuous activities in such an environment. The air, hotter than boiling water, was no longer a place where normal humans could stand.

They looked down from above at the enormous, demonic creature that slowly approached, its katana trailing behind it, leaving behind indelible black flames.

In fact, the pitch-black flames were already burning the roots and branches of the ancient tree. Without the help of the living puppets, it wouldn't be long before the ancient tree collapsed.

The two began a brief tactical exchange.

Su Qing'an concluded, "It can no longer cheat with resurrection coins, and the living puppet that can only pass the game with one life has lost its original mystery."

"Yuno, you should be able to use it one more time, right?"

Upon hearing this, the girl turned and asked, "Has the Tree Realm descended?"

Su Qing'an nodded seriously in agreement, just as he didn't think it was a cringeworthy thing to use the names of anime characters' moves.

Sato Yuno glanced at the boy and said seriously, "My powers left a mark in the mountains and forests outside, so I should be able to use them once more. But for me now, this is my limit."

Su Qing'an understood what she meant. After using that move, Sato Yuno would be unable to overuse her powers for a period of time. This meant that if this attack still failed to kill the living puppet, then he would be the only one she could rely on.

"It's alright," he replied with a smile.

If one is a pure pseudo-Herrscher, one will naturally not suffer from the distress of having limited power output.

However, what Sato Yuno, who severed the Honkai consciousness with her human will and forcibly controlled this power, faced was far more than others could imagine.

But the girl just nodded and agreed, just as Su Qing'an didn't care about the strong side effects of using artificial holy marks, Sato Yuno didn't care that she couldn't use her powers to their full potential for a short period of time.

Perhaps in the girl's eyes, even though she had mastered the power of a pseudo-Herrscher, Su Qing'an was still a very strong and powerful person.

She is far stronger and more powerful than her.

Sato Yuno suddenly realized that Su Qing'an's sword light was already powerful enough, and he might become even stronger in the future.

In her heart, no matter how powerful or dazzling the boy's attacks might become in the future, none could compare to the strength and gentleness of the sword that severed the girl's despair that day.

The massive Honkai energy within the pseudo-Herrscher core is linked to the power imprint. Sato Yuno's control is now smoother and more skillful. Withered trees in the mountains and forests sprout new branches and leaves, and a strange vitality begins to flourish and spread in the world filled with flames. Ancient trees, towering like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, sprout wildly against the laws of nature.

In the untouched lands, ancient trees grew wildly, their twisted trunks eventually transforming into enormous, thick vines that surged rapidly toward this direction.

Those ancient trees sprouted beneath my feet, trying to entwine my body and turn me into a cage.

It didn't have the time to deal with the two ants on the tree. As a living doll whose body was shaped by Honkai energy, it naturally understood how dangerous these ancient trees were.

The katana that the living doll had been holding above its head suddenly changed direction. Its hands, formed from condensed mist, gripped the katana, and its massive body turned to the side as the katana slashed horizontally.

That was a standard sword-wielding motion, like that of a samurai.

The air was distorted by the high temperature, and the path the knife left in the air was transparent as it cut through the air, with hot wind and flames blowing by.

The scorching heat and the sharp blade easily pierced through the ancient tree's tough outer shell. This single cut severed all the ancient trees that attempted to approach the living doll, as easily as slicing through thin paper.

In terms of single-element affinity, Sato Yuno's power is clearly somewhat disadvantageous compared to fire.

But these trees were clearly not going to give up so easily. The ancient trees that had been cut down and burned grew back and entwined, and the upper part of the tree, which had been broken off into another section, twisted in the air and turned into vines, which danced like mad snakes and pounced on the living puppet relentlessly.

The living doll's body is mostly composed of Honkai energy mist and still maintains a misty form. If an ordinary weapon attacks it, it cannot cause any damage. However, the ancient tree and vines are themselves formed from Honkai energy, so they can naturally touch and even harm the living doll.

The monstrous creature, resembling a demon, had its left arm entangled by deadly vines. The mist inside its body surged, corroding the surface of the vines like sulfuric acid, but its terrifying regenerative power made the mist unable to continue.

A torrent of vines surged in from afar, wrapping around the lower limbs of the living doll and intertwining with each other, transforming and fixing it into the shape of a tree.

The massive katana was swung continuously, with scorching flames burning and surging.

Then all of these were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. The domineering power far exceeded the limits that the living puppets themselves could reach. If the two of them encountered living puppets like this at the start of the game without expending any energy, the battle would only be easier.

"How dare a mortal blaspheme against the gods?!"

The demon roared defiantly, its sound waves surging and shaking the earth along with the mist within its body. The black flames that should have been confined to the katana burst forth from its entire body, and the mist transformed into endless flames, attempting to help it break free from this formidable barrier.

An attack that consumes the Honkai energy mist that forms the body is essentially consuming the life of the living doll itself, but it is undoubtedly very effective. Flames have a great restraining effect on Sato Yuno's powers. If everything is burned away at once, no matter how strong the regenerative power is, it will be meaningless.

The ancient tree vines before her were already the limit of what Sato Yuno could control. If she were to be attacked by the living puppets, all her offensive efforts would be in vain.

This was a situation that Sato Yuno had anticipated, but still could not avoid.

The best option is to cut your losses and inflict maximum damage on the living doll. If the vines and trees are countered by fire, then simply return everything to its original state.

In an instant, Sato Yuno's will caused all the vines and ancient trees to disintegrate into pure Honkai energy.

Black flames and mist intertwined with emerald green Honkai energy, erupting into a pillar of light that reached the heavens.

The roar pierced the sky, and even standing atop a distant, towering ancient tree, the two men were almost deafened.

The perception granted by Kenshin allowed Su Qing'an to understand that the living puppet was still alive.

"Leave it to me," Su Qing'an said to Sato Yuno.