Xia Ling: Hey, sis, did you read my script or something? / Xia Ling: I don't wanna be the Herrscher of Finality!

Seeing Elysia emerge from the room beside her, Serpent crossed his legs and asked absentmindedly.

"You've already left, so... can you tell the truth now, my dear Serpent?"

Elysia approached the youthful-looking Doctor with a smile, but the latter immediately turned his head away with a look of "disgust".

"Why did you make an excuse to send me away from Xia Ling's side? Or... was this Xia Ling's idea?"

"Tch, didn't you already guess everything?"

Serpent impatiently pushed away Elysia, who was trying to rub her face against his. "Since you know, then don't bother me. Go ask your girlfriend yourself. You can easily make her blush."

"No, Doctor Mobius is also my favorite friend!"

"You seem to have an abundance of favorite friends..."

Serpent turned his head and looked at Elysia with a playful expression.

"Sometimes I really don't understand... With your personality, can you really just watch her do something so suicidal? Or do you not know why she went to see Vill-V alone?"

"You should know what the consequences of using the Key of Blankness are... After all, you were the one who saw Mei off on her final journey, weren't you?"

Chapter 53 Xia Ling: Hey sis, did you read my script?

Is anyone there?

Xia Ling peeked her head in from the entrance of the Spiral Workshop.

Seeing that no one answered, she simply crawled inside.

There was no other way; time was of the essence. Elysia might figure out the problem soon, so she had to resolve the issue of the Key of Blankness before Elysia did.

Upon entering the Spiral Workshop, Xia Ling indeed found Vill-V in an area on the second floor.

To be precise, it is the discovery of "Bai Wei".

"Ah, it's you..."

Bai Wei looked over. "Would you like to try my newly developed dish?"

"No wonder there was no sound outside..." Bai Wei's appearance made Xia Ling instantly understand why the Spiral Workshop was so quiet.

"However, let's postpone the food tasting... I have an urgent matter to attend to with the conductor."

"The conductor? If I remember correctly, she should have just switched back not long ago..." Bai Wei wiped his hands on his apron and said, "I'll try to call her out for you, but I can't guarantee which one will come out."

"It's okay, anyone else will do..."

Before Xia Ling could finish speaking, the Vill-V in front of her, Lin Mengling, had already completely changed her expression.

"I knew it was you... Xia Ling."

Although he still looked tired, the conductor did not seem surprised by Xia Ling's arrival.

"Huh?"

"What do you mean 'hey'? After all, Hiyomaru has been making quite a stir lately... I've already received several warnings. If I didn't know it was your doing, the automatic defense mechanism would probably have been triggered more than once."

The conductor waved his hand, looking completely unsurprised.

"So, you want to imprint my Memory Plate? I've already prepared those for you; they're over there. Just go get them yourself... By the way, how was your experience using the storybook I gave you last time?"

"The experience was great; I took down the Void Archive of another world in one fell swoop... but that's not what I'm talking about."

Xia Ling said seriously, "I came here specifically to talk to you about the Key of Blankness."

"Oh?"

The conductor's face showed interest.

"The Key of Blankness... Interesting. Did you get Elysia away?"

"She's been sent away, so she probably won't be coming anytime soon."

"Actually, given Elysia's personality, even if she found out, she wouldn't expose you..." the conductor pondered for a moment before saying.

"I know you probably don't just want to ask how to use this Divine Key, but in the few times we experimented with the Key of Blankness, I wasn't actually in charge... How about this, I'll try for you and see if I can get her to come out and talk to you personally."

"She...?"

Xia Ling was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized. "You mean, the id?"

"She's the actual user of the Key of Blankness?!"

"You wouldn't believe it, would you? Actually, I don't know either, but in the few tests we've had, the id was definitely the one with the best compatibility. So I speculate that she was probably manipulating the body during the Finality battle."

"However, we don't have the memories of the Finality battle after all. You know, I probably didn't make it back to Earth, otherwise I would definitely have synchronized my memories."

The conductor shrugged, still appearing completely unconcerned despite discussing his own life or death.

"Alright, just Astra Yao..."

With that, Vill-V closed her eyes and fell silent.

A moment later...

She slowly opened her eyes, then, as if stimulated by the light, she abruptly closed them again. After adjusting for a moment, she looked at Xia Ling.

"Um... hello?"

"It's our first meeting. The conductor said you needed to see me and insisted on calling me out... Ah, no need for introductions. I actually know you from my memories, and I've been wanting to talk to you for a while now."

The authentic Vill-V really does look just like in the original work, appearing quite... shy.

"As for your question... let me take a look." My ego frowned slightly, as if he were quickly reading something.

Then, a hint of doubt appeared in her eyes.

"That's strange... Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Ah?"

Xia Ling was dumbfounded.

Hey sis, I haven't even said anything yet, how come you act like you know everything?

"Uh, you mean... in which aspect?"

"In many ways, your actions are almost entirely suspicious..." The ego pressed its temples, feeling a bit of a headache, and said, "Let's start with the simplest thing: how do you... plan to solve the problem of the erosion caused by the ten cores?"

"Excluding the Heavenly Fire in Kevin's hands, and excluding the thousand people you represent... all the remaining cores you plan to insert into the Key of Blankness are foreign cores, right?"

Although she didn't get Xia Ling's affirmation, her tone remained unquestionable, even though her voice sounded unusually soft and easy to bully.

"So... ten Herrscher cores at age two, right? The load from running at full power is enough to push your body to the late stage of severe Honkai Disease in an instant." Vill-V paused, then carefully changed her wording. "Well, the end-of-life care period."

"Wait, wait, wait, why are you so sure that I should collect as much of the power as possible from all twelve cores?"

Xia Ling quickly shook her head and said, "I haven't said anything yet."

"This result is based on an analysis of your usual behavioral patterns, although the pattern itself gives me a very strange feeling."

Myself's Vill-V explained, "Besides, didn't you say you were only temporarily getting Elysia away? Are you sure you want to waste time on these issues?"

"Okay... I do intend to mount all ten Divine Key cores on the Key of Blankness, and I've even prepared a similar ability as a substitute for the Herrscher of Flamescion core."

"As for the erosion you mentioned... that was not even within my consideration."

Realizing that she probably couldn't hide it from one of the most brilliant geniuses of the Previous Civilization, Xia Ling had no choice but to reveal the truth.

After all, among the three geniuses of the Previous Civilization, neither Mobius nor Mei were particularly adept at interpersonal relationships, and he was certain that his little schemes would not escape the notice of Vill-V, who had a background in social engineering.

"So, you can indeed be resurrected at a certain cost...?" Vill-V pondered for a moment, "It seems you are different from Mobius; you are very clear about the price you will have to pay."

"However, you are, after all, Herrscher. Excessive Honkai Energy might not kill you immediately, but it will certainly render you incapable of movement..."

"I have a way to ensure that even if my body is severely damaged, I can still exert my maximum strength."

Xia Ling's lips twitched slightly as she explained.

"I see... Then you really are a natural candidate for the Key of Blankness."

Chapter 54 Xia Ling: I Don't Want to Be the Finality!

"Alright, since you're aware of the situation, I'll temporarily set aside the issue of the damage the Key of Blankness might cause to the user."

Seeing Xia Ling's unwavering confidence, the self-centered Vill-V stopped pressing for answers and answered decisively.

She knew perfectly well that the girl in front of her probably had a big secret, but... so what?

After all, this is the successor chosen by Elysia. I have already done all the necessary tests and investigations in the two years since we met. So all I need to do is fulfill my duty and resolve this child's doubts.

"So, the next question is, how do you plan to use the abilities of these Herrscher Core?"

Vill-V glanced at the stunned Xia Ling and sighed, "Or to put it another way, I'm manipulating different cores simultaneously by controlling each personality independently of the core. So... how do you plan to solve this problem?"

"From what I've observed, although you also have several different 'selves,' there's still a certain difference between your way of thinking and mine. For example... you can't integrate everyone into one body, right?"

"That's true... but it seems I can actually control multiple cores at the same time."

Xia Ling raised her hand in confusion, and the twisted gravity and the power of restraint appeared in her hand at the same time, the two forces rotating in a clear distinction.

"So he's a naturally gifted player. I remember the Herrscher of Domination shouldn't possess this ability..."

"It's not entirely about domination... I wasn't quite used to this method at first either. The reason I can manipulate it like this now is mainly because I'm using some of the power of the origin as a lubricant."

Xia Ling raised her hand in front of Vill-V so that she could clearly sense the pink hue between the two forces.

"Origin, the power of the twelve Herrscher, granting immunity to even the most severe injuries for a short period..."

Vill-V pondered, her tone gradually shifting from doubt to... sudden realization?

"I knew this group looked so familiar!"

Vill-V clapped her hands and looked at Xia Ling, saying, "So the most important question is, after completing the above operations, what level of strength... can you reach?"

"Levels? But I've never tried it..." Xia Ling pondered for a moment, then tilted her head. "Kevin said it might at least be comparable to a karmic demon?"

"That's right!"

Vill-V nodded emphatically.

"Yes, yes to what?"

"Xia Ling." Vill-V placed her hands on Xia Ling's shoulders and said seriously.

"Do you... want to Finality?"

"Ah?!"

Xia Ling was completely bewildered by Vill-V's inexplicable remark.

"Me, I'm going to Finality? Really?!"

"I'm serious, you do have a certain chance of gaining the cocoon's approval."

"In my opinion, this combination can guarantee that you can go deep into the cocoon and meet Him," Vill-V said earnestly.

Xia Ling immediately thought of the light cocoon that she communicated with Kiana at the end of the original work.

What Vill-V meant was that with this kind of power, she could be considered to be able to eat at the table with the cocoon?

"At least, you get a chance to be recognized."

Seemingly understanding what Xia Ling was thinking, Vill-V explained.

"The existence of the Origin Herrscher is different from the other Herrscher... You know about Elysia, so you should understand this deeply. The fact that someone has obtained the Origin qualification represents a kind of recognition."

"And collecting all the Herrscher Core is equivalent to collecting all the Herrscher Authority of the previous generation—although you are missing the Herrscher of Flamescion and the Thousand Herrscher."

"In this situation, if your power is enough to reach the level of a karmic demon, then you have already obtained the opportunity to seize power from the cocoon."

"But..."

Thinking about the system she carried, Xia Ling hesitated again.

The power of the Finality holds no appeal for her, and because she has a system with her, she might get stuck in the cocoon, adding unnecessary variables.

Most importantly, she didn't really want to take away the original position of the Kiana... In fact, she already felt a little guilty about taking Mei's origin, and she didn't want to change too much in this regard.

"You seem hesitant... Is it because there are better candidates in the current civilization?"

Vill-V immediately saw through the girl's thoughts. Based on her understanding of Xia Ling, if becoming the Finality was a very dangerous thing, then Xia Ling would definitely step up without hesitation.

Xia Ling's current hesitation likely stems from her belief that there is someone more suitable than herself.