10. The result of long-term stone sculpting / 11. Hare: Ugh, I'm so mad. I get a mouthful of PDA and still have to go save her

As Seele still looked somewhat worried.

"What's wrong, Seele? Are you still thinking about the Thousand-Man Herrscher?"

"Hmm... Sister Xia Ling, this is the first time I've directly experienced what it feels like to Herrscher at their peak standing on the opposite side of us."

"It's quite oppressive, isn't it?" Xia Ling patted Seele's hair and comforted her, "Don't worry, even if the sky falls, there's always someone taller to hold it up. Although we're in a bit of a passive position right now, we haven't suffered any losses, have we?"

"Don't touch Seele's hair!"

A voice, seemingly carrying a reverberation, suddenly rang out.

"Hey, another Seele? How did you manage to come out?"

Seeing that Seele's eyes had suddenly turned red, Xia Ling was taken aback, then smiled and lowered her hand.

"Hmph, I can come out whenever I want. What can that coward do to stop me?"

Black Seele gave a soft hum, glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and then lowered her voice.

"Thank you for yesterday..."

"You mean you saved Seele? It's alright, it's what I should do."

Xia Ling had no intention of teasing Black Seele any further after her hesitant thanks. Taking advantage of this rare opportunity, she quickly asked, "Speaking of which, Seele, there's something I'd like to ask you."

"Ask me?" Black Seele was taken aback and asked, "Is there something I know that Seele doesn't?"

"Of course." Xia Ling took out the receipt she received yesterday. "Recently... have you been feeling uneasy, or rather... have any dolls been bothering you?"

"Harass me? How dare they?" Black Seele's lips curled into a bloodthirsty smile. "They are indeed a little unsettled, but that won't stop me from tearing them to shreds."

"So it hasn't happened yet... Then be careful." Xia Ling nodded. "If you have any problems, go directly to Fu Hua, I mean the smaller one."

"You think that, compared to that coward, I am the breakthrough point for those puppets?"

"Hmm... hard to say."

"... Never mind, I'll be careful."

Although she still seemed unconvinced, Black Seele didn't refute Xia Ling. Perhaps, even though she wouldn't admit it, she was aware of her recent situation.

"That's all for now, I'm going back first. It seems like my older sister is on her way here."

As she spoke, Seele's eyes returned to their azure color.

"Hey, has the other me finished talking? Sister Xia Ling, she didn't say anything..."

"Of course not!"

Before Seele could finish speaking, Black Seele's embarrassed and angry rebuttal rang in her mind.

"Don't ask random questions!"

"Seele, Xia Ling? You're here too?"

Bronya walked over from the other side, accompanied by her signature sweet, babyish voice.

"We just finished talking with Ain and were just about to come find you. And... Mr. Welt is here too? What are you all up to?"

"The morning training is over. Bronya and I just saw what looks like a sculpture exhibition downstairs, so we're going down to take a look."

Welt pushed up his glasses. "Want to come along? Let's take this rare chance to relax."

"Of course, Ain also has some things she needs to tell you."

Chapter Ten: Caused by Long-Term Stone Plasticization

"By the way... what's the story behind this sculpture exhibition?"

After explaining what Ain had said, Xia Ling turned her attention to the exhibition venue right in front of her.

"I don't know either. I didn't receive any prior notification... It was probably a last-minute decision."

Welt looked at the information displayed outside the exhibition area and exclaimed in surprise, "Huh, most of the sculptures in this exhibition are works by one person... That's really rare."

"If an exhibition of this scale features only one person's work, it likely means that her work from over a long period of time is on display here..."

Welt's voice abruptly stopped. Xia Ling looked at him in confusion, then followed his gaze and saw...

A lifelike stone sculpture of Chariot-class Honkai Beast.

"?" ×4

"If Bronya isn't mistaken... these sculptures should be... Honkai Beast?"

Bronya's voice was filled with doubt.

"I think so, and it's a one-to-one restoration." Xia Ling didn't know where to start complaining.

"But, for ordinary people, shouldn't the information about Honkai Beast be kept secret?" Seele looked around and realized that there seemed to be more than one type of Honkai Beast here.

"Strictly speaking, it's also possible that this sculptor survived a Honkai Beast disaster and then developed a liking for the appearance of Honkai Beast..."

Bronya became increasingly less confident as she spoke, so Xia Ling sighed and said, "Then I can only say... it's caused by long-term stone manipulation."

"I'll go ask," Welt said, getting up and leaving. He returned shortly after with a staff member.

"Is this parent bringing their daughters... uh, their daughters to see the exotic animals?"

The staff member, who appeared to be a guide, excitedly explained, "We were entrusted to help an organization exhibit these sculptures. When we first received these things, we were indeed a little worried. These monsters always gave us a creepy feeling."

"But to be honest, after a while, these things actually look quite decent..."

As she spoke, the guide glanced at Bronya and Xia Ling and said, "Well, your two daughters are quite young... If they don't like these bigger ones, there are some smaller ones over there that are also very nice."

The staff pointed to the Assault-type Honkai Beast path in the distance.

"Ah...?"

Amidst Seele's snickers, Xia Ling, who was grouped with children at the table, couldn't help but cover her face.

So what if she's a little short? Did short people eat your rice?! At least, at least I'm taller Theresa...

"Sir, you must shut down this exhibition immediately! These sculptures are dangerous!"

Welt said in a serious voice, "If you need identification, I can have it delivered now and show it to you later, but for now, we must evacuate the crowd."

"Huh? Shutdown? Dangerous?"

The guide looked bewildered. "Are you worried your daughters will get hit by the sculptures? Don't worry, we have load-bearing rods behind each sculpture, so there will be no collapse, and they certainly won't grow legs and bite anyone, haha..."

"Wait a minute, Mr. Welt, it seems these statues are already..."

Before Seele could finish speaking, the sculptures had already come to life.

Xia Ling clearly saw that in that instant, a strange core appeared above all the Honkai Beast sculptures, and then several golden threads extended out and wrapped around these Honkai Beasts.

"Sigh... Let's focus on the battle first, and leave the investigation for later."

With a slight raise of his hand, Welt's gravity enveloped the Honkai Beast sculptures.

"Huh?"

Welt was stunned.

"Mr. Welt, what's wrong?"

"The feel is off." Welt's expression turned serious. "These things... aren't Honkai Beast, they're actual sculptures."

"That's right, these things don't emit any energy reaction, just like..."

"Just like puppets on strings, like the ones that Seele and I encountered yesterday."

Xia Ling did not turn the Seven Thunders of Retribution into a sniper rifle, but instead fired several low-powered electric currents into the air in the form of an arm guard.

"They are controlled by threads extending from the Imaginary Space... This manipulation can be stopped by breaking the singularity that connects the Imaginary Space."

As Xia Ling moved, several Honkai Beast sculptures fell to the ground like puppets with broken strings, turning into a pile of stones.

"Like this."

After a while, the area outside the exhibition site was cordoned off, and Anti-Entropy staff were moving back and forth among them, breaking down and recycling these large stones.

"Our staff are contacting the organizers of the battle to find out who provided these sculptures. Also... using the testing equipment we brought, there are indeed extremely slight traces of Herrscher energy on these stones."

As if he suddenly remembered the identities of the people in front of him, the anti-entropy cadre coughed awkwardly and added, "Well, except for the Herrscher of Reason One and Two Ling =⊙qi Si Qun'k, the energy of the Herrschers."

"As expected..." Welt sighed with a headache, "Let's go back to the Salt Lake Base first. It seems that Ain just sent me a message, asking us to go back first."

"She probably discovered something on her end."

Salt Lake Base, Conference Room.

"It seems that there have been incidents of people being injured by sculptures over there as well."

After listening to Welt's description, Ain said calmly.

"Also?"

"That's right... the problem this time is with Congress."

"A member of parliament has a lot of these kinds of things in his home. Yes, they are the same kind of things you just saw downstairs."

"We originally intended for Theresa to handle this matter, but when Theresa arrived at the villa, whether she was bewitched or swayed by a thousand people, the senator took his precious sculptures and ran away."

Ain's tone was full of exhaustion.

"Theresa went to great lengths to catch up with that senator, and when she finally found him, he was nearly bitten off the head by a living sculpture that crawled in through the skylight."

"Wait, bite off the head in one gulp?"

Seele paused for a moment, then said, "Isn't this...?"

"That's right, it's the announcement on that ticket."

Xia Ling nodded in confirmation and read aloud the contents of the performance ticket.

"Foolish Jack, Foolish Jack, Foolish Jack who was obsessed with pumpkins. He picked up his beloved pumpkin, and the pumpkin bit off his head."

"So it seems that the ticket wasn't left there, but rather... it was deliberately shown to us by the Thousand-Man Herrscher."

"This is a... show preview."

Chapter Eleven: Rabbit: Ugh, I'm so annoyed! I got a mouthful of dog food (a Chinese slang term for witnessing public displays of affection) and now I have to rescue her.

Miss Rabbit has been feeling quite melancholy lately.

Not long ago, she was peacefully staying in her own Stigmata Space, preparing for the preliminary arrangements of the Stigmata Project.

Then, out of nowhere, a brother and sister came to my door, adding a lot of extra work to my schedule.

After finally managing to deal with the brother and sister, she was then asked to go to Mount Tai Xu to check on the situation of the Herrscher of Consciousness.

"Go ahead, it's just a field mission anyway, I have plenty of time to sneak around." However, Rabbit was still slacking off on the way when she was suddenly called back by an urgent mission.

However, this time, World Serpent had a legitimate reason. Because Rabbit had wasted too much time on the road, the matter at Mount Tai Xu had come to an end, and in its place was the threat of the Thousand-Man Herrscher.

The target of this protection effort is a name that Rabbit know all too well— Reed.

Rabbit had long wanted to see what kind of person this colleague, whom she had never met, was who had added so much work to her workload.

According to Gray Serpent, after the Herrscher of Ice incident, due to Anna's special mental condition, researchers from both Schicksal and World Serpent unanimously agreed that she was currently unfit to participate in combat.

So, to stabilize her mental state, Anna returned to live on Coral Island.

However, due to the environmental damage caused by the fifth Great Honkai, the Honkai Energy concentration on the main island of Coral Island is no longer suitable for normal human habitation.

So, before the Fourth Divine Key could fully restore the environment here, Anna had already acquired a villa island—a freebie.

After all, in cases like Kiana or Welt, who are easily constrained by their respective organizations, the United Nations still dares to make demands and squeeze a little something out of them.

However, they dared not disturb Wendy and Anna, who were only nominally under Schicksal and were essentially "free Herrscher."

Otherwise, if we anger them and they come and cause trouble for the United Nations, it's obvious to anyone with a brain which side Schicksal and Anti-Entropy will be on.

Rabbit's mission is to ensure that the few people currently living on Coral Island are not disturbed by the Thousand-Man Herrscher.

Before arriving at Coral Island, she had imagined her future would be filled with a wonderful mission environment, harmonious colleagues, and weak enemies.

However...

The reality is that the environment is indeed beautiful and the colleagues are harmonious, but this harmony refers to the harmony among colleagues themselves.