64. The Ascension of Power and an Expected Visitor / 65. Xia Ling: What the heck? What do you want to borrow from me?

So she invited Sirin over to check on Xia Ling's condition. Unexpectedly, Sirin's words made her heart jump again.

"Yes, I did see those malicious thoughts you mentioned. To be honest, they're not a threat; it's just a matter of time."

Sirin nodded. "But the problem is that Xia Ling's body currently contains a rather strange energy... The existence of this energy makes it impossible for me to intervene in her body at all."

"Strange energy? Then... how dangerous is this energy?" Ain asked. "Is it Imaginary Energy? What about its reactivity?"

"Uh..." Ain's series of questions were clearly a bit beyond Sirin's academic level, but she could understand what Ain meant.

"Although there is no evidence, I feel that this energy is not malicious towards Xia Ling... nor is it malicious towards me."

"After all, when my power touches it, the feedback I get is very... peculiar."

After hesitating for a while, Sirin finally added, "Like... a mother's gentleness?"

Sirin's answer obviously failed to resolve everyone's doubts, but her description made Kiana was standing to the side, suddenly realize something.

"A motherly tenderness... Ah, I think I understand now. You're not talking about Sister Elysia's power, are you?"

"Elysia? That name sounds familiar..." Kiana's words startled Sirin. "It seems like I've seen that name in the Old Fossil's memories? Hmm... I haven't really looked through those distant memories in detail. Should I call the Old Fossil out?"

While Sirin and Fu Hua were talking, Theresa quietly tugged at Kiana's sleeve.

"Kiana, who exactly is this Elysia you mentioned?"

"Hmm... I don't know much either. She must be a warrior from Previous Civilization, a very strong one."

Kiana thought for a moment and added, "According to her own words, she should be... only slightly weaker than Kevin?"

"Only slightly weaker than Kevin? The World Serpent has someone like that?" Theresa was startled. Although she knew that Xia Ling might have a close relationship with the World Serpent, she did not expect that the World Serpent had such a trump card.

Today, they have a much better understanding of Kevin's abilities.

Although they had already overestimated Kevin's abilities as much as possible, as the Stigmata Project and information about Previous Civilization gradually became available, they always found that they had clearly underestimated Kevin.

"Yes, Kiana is right. If the Elysia she mentioned refers to the second- Flame-Chasers from the Previous Civilization, then she does indeed possess strength second only to Kevin."

"So strong..." Theresa's gaze was somewhat worried, after all, as far as she knew, Xia Ling should have already been in contact with the World Serpent a long time ago.

"Don't worry, Headmistress, Sister Elysia is definitely a good person," Kiana reassured her.

"Yes, I can confirm that too, but..." Fu Hua's eyes held a hint of doubt. "If I remember correctly, Elysia should have already passed away..."

"Old Fossil, aren't you also from Previous Civilization? I remember that Flame-Chasers, you were one of them, weren't you? I've also brought back quite a few of your memories from Mount Tai Xu, they're not all burned like before."

Sirin at Fu Hua's genuinely puzzled expression, Xiao Shi said speechlessly, "How come you don't know anything!"

"Ahem..." Fu Hua turned her head away somewhat embarrassedly. "After all, back then..."

"Sigh, that's just how blockheads are."

Sirin sighed helplessly, "Since you think there's nothing wrong with this power, then there's nothing I can do but let Xia Ling slowly digest those evil thoughts on her own."

"However, I feel that Xia Ling's mental strength has increased significantly compared to before. After all, the Herrscher of Domination is at least half a Mental Perception type, so she should be fine."

"If all else fails... you can call that guy named Mulsus back. She's one of the Thousand-Man Herrscher, after all; she should be able to determine the Dominator's status, right?"

"The problem is that Miss Mulsus won't be back anytime soon. She's currently dealing with the remaining special dolls with Sirin and Bella."

Ain brought up the terminal, looked at the taskbar, and said, "I estimate... it will take at least another week."

"Sirin, Bella? And Mulsus? What are they all doing together?"

Theresa tilted her head. She felt like she had only been in the room for a few days, but the outside world seemed to have changed a lot...

Chapter Sixty-Four: The Sublimation of Abilities and the Expected Visitor

"Here's the thing. While you were away from the Seven Kingdoms Dream, we carefully screened all the unusual events that had occurred since May and identified several special individuals who had broken away from the core network."

"For example, the fire in the ancient city of Benevento, the Sea Monster incident in Valencia, the winged man in Cairo, etc..."

"These isolated dolls don't sound like good people either?"

Theresa asked, puzzled.

"That's right. Miss Mulsus's situation is rare, or even an isolated case. Her ability to completely break free from the control of the Thousand-Man Herrscher is not only due to Dr. Kal'tsit's timely help and her personality, but also inseparable from her awakened abilities."

"So I asked her to help me get rid of these special individuals that we hadn't had time to deal with before."

"As for Sirin and Bella ... their situations are a bit complicated," Ain sighed.

"I do know something about Sirin's situation..." Theresa sighed, "That Xia Ling really did something big without making a sound."

"That's right, but she seems to have educated Sirin too successfully..." Ain said helplessly, "So much so that Sirin insisted on asking me for the list of victims of the Honkai she caused in Schicksal, because she wanted to make some compensation for those people."

"But the problem is that the warnings for that Honkai were very thorough. After all, Otto practically had his intentions written all over his face. Both we and Schicksal were well prepared... The number of victims was obviously not as many as Sirin had imagined."

"Moreover, this incident happened a year ago. There weren't many victims to begin with, and the compensation and resettlement procedures that should have been followed have long been completed."

"Those people have moved on with their lives now, so why bother them with this matter?"

"Uh... doesn't that make a lot of sense? Doesn't Sirin agree?"

After hearing Ain's explanation, Theresa was even more confused.

"No... the key point is that Sirin thought I was lying to her to make her feel better." Ain's expression was very complicated.

"Her impression of our Honkai warning mechanism is still stuck in the Second Honkai Outbreak... to the point that she doesn't believe the number of victims is so small, but it is indeed the reality. The impact of the Schicksal War is mostly concentrated on property damage."

"This... Ain, didn't you show her the disaster analysis report from back then?"

"Of course she saw it... but she couldn't understand it."

"Well..."

An awkward silence fell over the scene.

"In short, after my repeated persuasion, I finally persuaded Sirin to temporarily join the high-risk target disposal team on the grounds that fighting against the Honkai was also a form of atonement. Of course, to prevent any accidents from happening to her, I put Bella with her."

"Then, it just so happened that there was this special individual incident. Those special individuals were of average combat strength, so they could be used as practice targets for Sirin to familiarize herself with her abilities."

"That's a pretty good way to handle it..."

After Xia Ling's matter came to an end, the Salt Lake Base entered a brief period of calm.

Of course, there wasn't much of a threat of Honkai. In fact, there were quite a few personnel changes within the Anti-Entropy base, to the point that some strange urban legends appeared.

For example... the Hyperion captain Himeko who came back from the dead; the mysterious doctor who commands black monsters and appears from time to time; the purple magical girl who is often active in the middle of the night; the mysterious cloning experiments secretly carried out by Anti-Entropy...

This series of topics left Theresa somewhat amused and exasperated. After all, there were too many unexpected events during the Herrscher of Domination incident, and they had to gradually release information through Anti-Entropy to avoid causing too much of a stir.

However, just as everything was peaceful at the Salt Lake Base, Xia Ling encountered a situation that she had not anticipated.

"Um?"

"This power is..."

Elysia, who was resting with her eyes closed inside Xia Ling's Herrscher Core, suddenly opened her eyes.

"If it's this person... let Xia Ling make the decision herself."

After a moment of contemplation, Elysia decisively placed her hand on a light cocoon radiating a pale pink glow within the core.

However, even without this incident, she should have woken Xia Ling up around that time.

"Xia Ling, Xia Ling, time to get up?"

"Hmm..."

The cocoon of light gradually shattered, revealing a somewhat dazed human figure inside.

That's right, it's Xia Ling who researches and develops powers within the core.

After nearly ten days of integration and exploration, although her understanding of the Origin Authority was still not deep, using a small amount of Origin Power was no longer a problem for Xia Ling.

The most obvious benefit of being able to use the Origin Power is that she has greatly developed her abilities. Now, even without the aid of the collection, she can try to use the power of "lockdown".

For her, digesting the evil thoughts of the Herrscher of Domination became a secondary objective, mainly because... the Origin Power was something that was quite addictive to use.

"Hmm..." Looking at Xia Ling rubbing her eyes, Elysia's gaze fell on her hair. "I have a feeling that Xia Ling looks a little overeaten."

"Yes, really... But this time it seems I really did spend a long time fusing..."

Xia Ling shyly twirled the strands of hair that fell to her chest with her fingertips, and then she was surprised to find that her black hair seemed to have a lot of peach pink highlights mixed in.

"It's not just your hair color, you see?"

Elysia casually conjured a piece of crystal, and from the reflection in the crystal, Xia Ling could clearly see that her eyes had turned into a pure and flawless pink, just like the crystal.

"So, merging with the authority of the Origin also brings about changes in appearance?"

Xia Ling patted her cheeks, her tone quite cheerful despite her confusion.

"I don't know either, but I think it should be okay, after all... I had a really, really beautiful dress back then."

Seeing Xia Ling's expectant gaze, Elysia chuckled, "If you want to see it... you can go to the Elysian Realm to see it. The people who have the keys won't refuse you."

"Well, let's forget about it then... I just wanted to see how pretty Elysia looked, I don't want to go through that ordeal again..."

Xia Ling quickly shook her head. "However, I do need those four keys... I have a new idea about the Elysian Realm."

"Alright, we can talk about our thoughts later. Right now... we have a guest who's been waiting for quite some time. Of course, whether or not you want to see him is up to you, Xia Ling."

"Him?" Xia Ling was taken aback.

"Is it... Otto?"

Chapter Sixty-Five Xia Ling: What the hell? What do you want to borrow from me?

"Hmm... I think so. In any case, what I felt was the power of the Void Archive."

"That must be him. At this point in time, he should have already retrieved the Void Archive from Kevin."

Xia Ling thought for a moment and said, "I do know what he wants to see me for... Let's go see him."

"Long time no see, Your Lord Bishop. You seem to be in good spirits lately."

Elysia to drive away the malice surrounding her core and leave the two of them a quiet place, Xia Ling greeted the golden feathers outside her core without any surprise.

"Of course, with someone like Miss Xia Ling to help me solve my problems and remove the interference of the Honkai, I, an idle person who hides away to do experiments, am naturally very happy."

The golden feathers transformed into a figure familiar to Xia Ling, along with a golden cube beside it.

However, the gold cube seemed hesitant to speak at this moment.

One reason is that Xia Ling once crashed it using some unknown method, and the cause of the crash has not yet been found.

On the other hand, it was because of the person who was with Xia Ling earlier.

"Elysia? Shouldn't she already be..."

Void Archive's voice paused for a moment, as if he remembered something, and then he trembled even more violently.

"No, this isn't the main body, it's a memory! But how could a memory..."

"Alright, alright, adults are talking, so weapons shouldn't interrupt. Look how well-behaved the Seven Thunders of Retribution are; they're never as nagging as you."

Xia Ling looked at the small golden cube with a threatening smile.

To be honest, while she had some respect for Otto, this thing... well...

It's fair to say that if this guy hadn't had such a significant role later on, she would have easily found an opportunity to send him back for rework.

"My previous guess about Miss Xia Ling was that she had some contact with the Previous Civilization, but now it seems... I underestimated the intimacy of this contact."

Otto glanced at Elysia, who was clearing away evil thoughts in the distance, with some apprehension. Although the records of this person in the Void Archive were limited, as if a lot of information had been deliberately erased, the limited information all mentioned that this woman's strength was terrifying.

"To be precise, you've already made this inference once, you just forgot about it."

"Oh?" Otto raised an eyebrow. "It's the Soul Steel body I lost contact with during the Schicksal War, right?"

"No wonder you went to great lengths to intercept that part of my memory. If I had known you had such a huge 'power' back then, I would never have allowed this uncontrollable factor to threaten my plans."

"No, Bishop Otto, you are wrong again."

Xia Ling shook her head again. "On the contrary, you spared me back then, and only after I killed you did I find the Schariac Holy Blood, which you had used as your trump card, in your body."

"So, Theresa actually holds a significant place in your heart, to the point that you gave up the chance to kill me back then because of Theresa... After all, I was completely unprepared for the fact that you were carrying the Holy Blood."

"Everyone says that you, the archbishop, are cold and ruthless, but I know very well that you are the one who believes in emotions the most."