What Happened to the Promised Third Honkai?!!

"Steady Emotions Before the Grave of the Deceased"

As Fu Li looked over the fruits of that hard labor, it was like oil had started gushing from his backyard—he was over the moon.

With a wave of his hand, the whistling Shadow Blade carried the gem and core over to him.

After all, he had toyed with Ling's feelings for so long.

Naturally, Fu Li had to take responsibility to the very end.

By continuing to toy with her body.

"I'm sorry I couldn't entertain you to your satisfaction."

He mocked her with a grin, not caring whether Ling inside could hear him.

Then, he casually tossed the Four-tailed Fox Demon's Honkai Beast Core into the system for that once-a-week single pull.

"End-of-World Assistance System exchange/lottery conditions met. Does the host wish to reward himself now?"

Reward himself? Fine, fine, fine. The person was clearly asleep, yet the voice she left behind was still this cheeky!

Fu Li muttered to himself as he selected confirm.

"Hyper-mutation Factor 'Fu Li' activated. Multidimensional otherworld resonance: 0%--100%. System searching..."

The moment Prometheus's recorded voice faded, Fu Li's vision was flooded with familiar white radiance.

A moment later, a grim, majestic iron mask with a single eye appeared out of thin air in his hand.

Name: God-King Mask

Rank: A

Type: Item/Consumable

Effect: A one-time-use item, a peculiar one-eyed mask.

After wearing it, the user enters the God-Transformation: King of the Hunt state. This state greatly enhances all of the wearer's basic attributes and grants the ability to manipulate causality. The transformation can last for at most one battle.

Note ①: One battle means one battle. Any bug-abusing behavior will result in consequences borne by the user.

Note ②: The blood of every king shall end with a sword!

First, it had to be said that among items of the same rank, consumables usually outperformed ordinary items.

The reason was simple: the more restrictions there were, the stronger the ability.

Between ordinary items that could be used until damaged and consumables with a fixed number of uses, there was no reason for the latter to be weaker than the former.

Take this rare A-rank consumable, the God-King Mask. Based on Fu Li's experience, once he wore it, it would be perfectly normal for his strength to soar to the level of an absolute powerhouse among Critical ranks.

As for that ability to manipulate causality, he would have to wait until he was in a life-or-death situation and put on the mask before he could truly grasp it.

Given how lofty and overpowered the term "causality" was in all sorts of works, it surely would not disappoint its user.

"Soth! Sob... Soth!"

The wailing from behind interrupted Fu Li's delight.

Still playing with the Corrosion Gem and God-King Mask, he turned around and looked at the white-haired girl sitting duck-legged on the ground, clutching the mechanical dog's remains and crying.

She was really bawling her eyes out, flinging snot everywhere without a trace of delicate, tearful beauty.

Her little face had already been filthy, and after all that, she looked like a lump of coal.

Only those azure eyes remained bright. Huge tears washed every speck of dust from them, leaving them as clean as two sapphires.

Fu Li put away his treasures, walked over, and waved a hand in front of her eyes.

"Hello? Hello?"

"Ugh! Don't bother me! Sob... Soth..."

Kiana glared fiercely at him!

"Then take a look at this."

"!!!"

The thing in Fu Li's hand immediately revived Kiana's spirits. She hastily wiped away the tears on her face, then tightly grabbed his hand with both of hers. "Th-this! Is this—what is this?"

"A disc containing your dog's AI and memory data." Fu Li was speechless. She did not even know what it was, so why had she gotten so excited? "When I have time, I'll find you another mechanical dog of the same model. Just install this into it."

Kiana's dramatic arrival had indeed disrupted his plans, but it had also saved him from using the absurdly powerful life-saving item, the Flying Thunder God Kunai. All things considered, he had definitely come out ahead.

Besides, the girl had come to help out of kindness. For someone who risked her own safety to help others out of goodwill, even if her good intentions had caused trouble, Fu Li would not hesitate to praise her.

He added, "And your dog really was loyal."

Soth could have released Miko Ling's wrist to evade the attack, but in order to give Kiana more time to react, it had still allowed its body to be shattered by that kick.

"Of course! Hmph, just look who raised it!"

Learning that her furry child could be saved, Kiana lifted her chin proudly and planted both hands on her hips.

Then her gaze fell upon the thumbnail-sized Corrosion Gem in Fu Li's hand.

Her little face scrunched up as she asked nervously, "Does this thing... have any chance of being cured?"

"The situation before the Grave of the Deceased is stable."

"That's good."

The girl let out a long breath of relief.

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she took a huge step back.

Narrowing her catlike eyes, she turned into a radar and scanned every detail of Fu Li's body, as carefully as a young wife inspecting her husband after he came home from fooling around.

Now that the battle was over, it was time for Kiana Kaslana to get some answers!

What was coming would come eventually.

Facing the white-haired big kitty whose expression had turned fierce and aggressive, Fu Li had a headache inwardly but maintained a righteous expression. "I haven't even asked why you came here!"

He had turned the tables on her.

"This young lady suspects you've been possessed!"

The words flew out of her mouth without passing through her brain. It could only be said that this was very Kiana.

"I told you not to read so many trashy novels."

Fu Li brushed her off verbally, while silently cursing to himself.

A fool's intuition really worked. Her answer was actually pretty close to the truth.

"Then how do you explain all this?"

Kiana crossed her arms and pressed closer step by step.

"A-and your personality..."

She was no longer pressing him now. A lovely blush had appeared on her cheeks, and her gaze unconsciously drifted to the right.

Luckily, her face was smeared like a tabby cat's, so nobody could tell.

Fu Li knew what she meant.

Just two days ago, he had been sweet-talking her, confessing his love and proposing marriage. Today, he had suddenly seen through the world and cast aside all romantic attachments. That kind of change in mentality was indeed abnormal.

"Does It Sound Good? A Good Sound Means a Good Head"

Faced with Kiana Cat's grumbling interrogation, Fu Li thought for a moment and decided to make a dirty joke. "A change in personality doesn't necessarily mean someone has been possessed. Just like a drone flying up doesn't necessarily mean it's spraying pesticides, and a nun kneeling down doesn't necessarily mean she's praying."

In his experience, as long as he cracked a lewd joke, most women would stop dwelling on the previous topic.

Whether they would shout "Pervert!" and rush him was another matter, so it was not recommended to try this around women one did not know well.

Sure enough, the instant she heard about a nun kneeling down, Kiana, who had been serious moments ago, spat at him with a flushed face. "Peh, peh, peh! So improper!"

"That's what boys in the springtime of youth are like." Fu Li spoke with complete seriousness. "After pining for a white-haired beauty for so long and failing to get her, can't he at least go online and watch some interesting little movies to console himself?"

"It's puberty!" Kiana corrected him. "You're not from the Far East, so why are you using their horribly ambiguous naming convention? Oh, thanks."

She took the towel and bottled water Fu Li handed her, poured out some water, and began wiping her dusty little face.

Only then did Kiana notice that, compared to her filthy state, Fu Li had fought far longer than she had, yet he was actually much cleaner.

She eyed him suspiciously a few times, but ultimately sighed. "Hey, A Li."

"What is it?"

Fu Li kept playing with the Corrosion Gem without even raising his head. Even though it was still incomplete and unusable, he simply could not get enough of handling it.

Ling: Peh! What a shrimp-headed loser!

After considering her words, Kiana said, "Um, I don't know what happened to make you go from an ordinary person to... this, but once someone gets used to taking shortcuts, they won't want to travel the long road anymore... Uh, you know what I mean, right?"

In the end, the kind-hearted girl chose not to dig into Fu Li's changes. Instead, she gave him a warning.

She hoped he would stay grounded and not let excessive power break the shackles restraining his desires, causing him to do something he would regret for the rest of his life.

Unexpectedly, Fu Li gave her a strange look, as though asking whether someone who used cheats herself was qualified to tell others not to take shortcuts.

"You creep!"

Kiana immediately flew into a rage. She had been kindly warning him, so why was he being so ungrateful? Could he not tell good advice from bad?

Rolling up her sleeves, she decided to teach this guy a proper lesson!

She took three steps forward!

Then two steps back!

Hmph! She had almost forgotten that she really might not be able to beat him now!

The white-haired little dumpling lowered her small hands resentfully. In her fury, she could only stay furious.

They were both exceptional B-ranks, but some people were even more exceptional than others.

At that moment, Fu Li remembered something. He put away the gem-like Key of Corruption, took a skirt from his backpack, and handed it over. "Oh, right. This."

The skirt's design was rather straight-laced: a simple pleated plaid skirt in dark and light brown, somewhat resembling the JK uniform bottoms of Senba Academy.

"Mm, mm? Wait, wait, wait!!!"

Although she had stood heroically before Miko Ling moments ago, Kiana now resembled a startled rabbit.

She leaped backward, holding her freshly cleaned, soft little hands in front of herself as the words poured from her mouth. "So you really haven't changed at all but sorry even though you're completely different from before now I still like guys older than me and besides just because we fought side by side once doesn't mean you can become my boyfriend that's way too presumptuous this isn't a romance novel where saving a beauty once or twice makes her fall for you and offer herself to you maybe after a few more times there might be a chance ahhh what am I even saying anyway this young lady is leaving now no need to see me off see you tomorrow!"

Without waiting for Fu Li's answer, she turned and sprinted toward the foot of the mountain.

Thunk!

She ran straight into a utility pole.

Did it sound good? A good sound meant a good head.

"Relax, that isn't what I meant."

Fu Li finally caught up to her after some effort, looking utterly speechless. Still, he knew it was his relentless pestering before his rebirth that had given Kiana a reflexive confession PTSD.

Unfortunately, a man's preferences and XP system changed over time.

The old me really thought girls who could smash boulders barehanded, shoot lasers from their eyes, and blow up battleships with a single shot were incredibly cool. But now, women would only slow down the speed at which I drew my blade!

To be safe, Fu Li solemnly made another flag. "Don't worry. Even if heaven and earth collapse, tectonic plates shatter, Earth explodes, crystal walls break apart, the universe is destroyed, and all dimensions vanish, I will never cling to our Lady Kiana all day like I did before!"

Hearing that, the white-haired little dumpling rubbed her reddened forehead and carefully glanced over at him.

"...Really?"

"Really!"

"No confessions?"

"No confessions!"

"That's good."

The girl breathed a sigh of relief, only belatedly realizing that in their chase and escape, they had already left the smoke-filled battlefield behind.