Eve of the Great Honkai

"I thought the person escorting the biological samples from the Great Heaven this time would be Himiko." Uriel examined the biological samples from the Great Heaven in the container. "You are the captain of the action team the Present being led by Elysia, Kaede, right? Captain Himiko has a pretty high opinion of you."

"I am truly honored to receive such high praise from Senior Himiko." Zhu Yufeng glanced around Uriel's laboratory. He didn't have any impression of Uriel, except that when he came, Mobius had mentioned that Uriel died in the Seventh Herrscher Incident. It was presumed that the Judgment-class Honkai Beast Su Liyeh was born near the research institute she worked on. Su Liyeh's flames destroyed the entire research institute, which was why he had paid attention to Uriel's laboratory.

There was nothing he could do about it. After all, he had been forcibly transferred back to headquarters during the Seventh Herrscher Incident in order to fight the Seventh Herrscher, and he had absolutely no chance of establishing a relationship with Uriel.

As for the reason why Himiko didn't come, it was naturally due to the secret operations of World Serpent. When Himiko at headquarters, she underwent a physical examination, and no conditions were found that matched the requirements of Herrscher. Therefore, Zhu Yufeng was even more convinced that Himiko was Herrscher forcibly created by Honkai Energy. Mobius remained skeptical of his guess, but as a precaution, he still found a way to Himiko at headquarters and monitor her regularly.

What Zhu Yufeng is more worried about the Present is, assuming his guess is correct, if Himiko no longer has the conditions to become the Seventh Herrscher, then where will the Great Honkai that erupted during the Seventh Great Honkai eventually flow?

This is also what Mobius and Vill-V are worried about. If Ruka's opponent this time is still Himiko, then they are quite confident that they can kill Himiko in time. At worst, Australia will still be burned down, and there will not be a worse outcome. But if Ruka becomes someone else... the strength of the Seventh Herrscher will become an unknown.

Himiko, as the Seventh Herrscher, was able to wreak havoc in Australia, paralyzing both Australia and the Fire Moth's means of retaliation, because even though her consciousness was replaced by the Honkai, Himiko's own combat awareness and experience were also absorbed by the Honkai. Therefore... the Seventh Herrscher is actually quite formidable.

While possessing the combat abilities of an elite warrior, she also possessed the destructive power of the Seventh Herrscher, capable of incinerating everything, which rendered most of humanity's countermeasures ineffective.

The Fire Moth was forced to accept May's proposed Fusion Warrior Project because of this. The Seventh Herrscher Incident truly posed a great threat to humanity. Otherwise, the Fusion Warrior Project, which at the time only existed in theory and even May herself predicted had a zero success rate, would have been difficult to pass the council's vote.

In other words, while Himiko's transformation into the Seventh Herrscher was incredibly powerful, at least everyone in the universe had a general idea of her strength. Mobius even believed that, given the right conditions, the only Fusion Warrior the Present Xila had a considerable chance of killing Himiko, but if it were someone else...

While it's possible that she might become even weaker, like the Third Herrscher who was just a student before awakening, the possibility of her becoming stronger cannot be ruled out.

According to Zhu Yufeng's memory, in the process of fighting against the Honkai, the former Herrscher of the Seventh Herrscher encountered three crises that directly threatened the survival of humanity. The first was the Seventh Herrscher Incident, the second was the Tragedy of Binding, and the last Finality the final battle.

These three crises had a tremendous impact on humanity. The Seventh Herrscher led to the birth of the Fusion Warrior, the Eleventh Herrscher almost annihilated all the Fusion Warrior, and the Herrscher of the Finality was able to control the earth's surface.

Perhaps after the Twelfth Herrscher Incident, humanity was already close to extinction, and the Finality battle was just a death throes. However, the Twelfth Herrscher was not comparable to the Seventh, Eleventh, and Herrscher of Finality in essence. These three Herrscher presented humanity with a situation that was difficult to overcome with existing means, and if humanity did not defeat them, it would perish. Moreover, they were extremely powerful to humanity at that time.

Zhu Yufeng felt a headache coming on. The reason he wanted to keep Himiko was for Hua's sake. He and Kevin had both seen the rare look of excitement on Hua's face when she saw SEELE successfully transform back into a human from Herrscher. Himiko... For Hua, Himiko was her mentor in life and the most important person to her. The memories that Himiko left for Hua, even though they had been deleted by Feather Dust 50,000 years later, still made Hua, who had lived through countless years, cry uncontrollably when she saw Himiko's time-space counterpart, Murata Himeko, even though she herself did not know why she was crying.

"I want to save Captain Himiko, I want to reverse the tragedy that has befallen us." This was the first time Hua had spoken of what she wanted.

So...

"I still have to give it a try, don't I?" Zhu Yufeng thought to himself.

He stopped thinking and noticed a gaze that had been fixed on him. He looked at Uriel, who was staring straight at him. Even though Uriel was a pretty girl, it was still strange to be looked at like that without any attempt to hide it.

"Dr. Uriel, why are you looking at me like that?" Zhu Yufeng suppressed his unease, but also became wary of Uriel. This gaze was different from the way Mobius looked at experimental subjects; it seemed to be probing, yet also carried some other meaning...

Could it be that the Seventh Herrscher born this time will be Uriel? After all, Su Liyeh was indeed born near the research institute where Uriel lived in his previous life, but the Present Seventh Great Honkai hasn't even happened yet? As far as he knows, the Herrscher of the Seventh Great Honkai was born when the Honkai occurred...

But that doesn't make sense either. In her previous life, Uriel was still in Australia. If she met the requirements for Herrscher body, she would have been the Seventh Herrscher body before the Seventh Great Honkai. So why was Himiko the Seventh Herrscher at that time? Moreover, Himiko was forcibly infused with Honkai Energy to become the Seventh Herrscher.

Is it the butterfly effect that occurred after I gave birth to this child?

Uriel withdrew his gaze and said calmly, "I'm starting to believe Himiko's judgment. You might indeed be... no less capable than Elysia."

Huh? That's it? After all that time, you looked at me with such a weird gaze and all you said was this?

Himiko, what have you done to me that you look at me like that?

That's true... Before coming here, Himiko said that Uriel believed Elysia was currently the strongest warrior of the Fire Moth. Even with himself and Lilith, Uriel's battle record was still somewhat lacking compared to Elysia's.

Then, considering that Himiko also said that Uriel was a somewhat eccentric scientific researcher, Zhu Yufeng began to find it no wonder that Uriel looked at him with such eyes. After all, the people he knew who were involved in scientific research... were all somewhat... different from ordinary people.

"The biological samples have been sent. For the next while, I'll be staying in Australia with Elysia and the others to assist with the cleanup of Honkai Australia events that have occurred there. If you're not busy, Dr. Uriel, I'll be leaving now," Zhu Yufeng said. He was still uncomfortable with the way Uriel had looked at him earlier and was ready to run away.

Just when Zhu Yufeng thought that there was nothing more for him to do, Uriel suddenly spoke up, "Feng, what are your thoughts on the Honkai?"

Zhu Yufeng frowned. Why was she asking this?

Seeing that he didn't answer, Uriel continued as if talking to himself, "Current academic opinion holds that Honkai appeared with the birth of humanity and evolved with the evolution of humanity. In other words, Honkai can even be considered as an existence that has always accompanied humanity. So, do you think that Honkai is like a mechanism used by the Earth to cleanse humanity?"

I am more inclined to believe that it is the mechanism of the Imaginary Tree filtering out the imaginary numbers.

Zhu Yufeng thought to himself, but on the surface he asked Uriel, "Why do you think that, Doctor?"

Uriel replied calmly, "Because humans are the only species in the current history of animal evolution that has wantonly interfered with the natural process. The steel jungle has replaced the original vegetation, animals that used to roam freely are now imprisoned in cages for human viewing, creatures that should have gone extinct are kept alive by human greed, and creatures that shouldn't have gone extinct are extinct because of human greed... Humans are constantly trying to challenge the laws of nature, trying to dominate nature, trying to transcend nature. They themselves will wage war for their own desires, destroying nature. If the Earth is a conscious life form, could the Honkai be a mechanism the Earth uses to eliminate humanity?"

Zhu Yufeng clearly didn't care about this. What the humans did in the past had little to do with him, and he wouldn't waste his time on such things. Besides, war... it can't be said to be unique to humans. In her previous life, when Vill-V was imprisoned on a deserted island, she distributed weapons to the monkeys on the island, and the monkeys waged wars just like humans.

"Humanity may indeed need to reflect on itself, but if the self threatens the survival of humanity, who stipulated that humanity cannot resist?" Zhu Yufeng recalled a similar discussion in a certain Ultraman series about the destruction of the earth. "Human history has always been about development and progress in the struggle against the self. Humanity may indeed not have the right to point fingers at the self, but that does not mean that humanity should be destroyed by the self."

"So, you're fighting the Honkai for the survival of humanity?" Uriel asked again.

Zhu Yufeng's doubts and wariness deepened. Because of the fact that the Seventh Herrscher's vessel was unknown, he subconsciously wondered if anyone in Australia might be the Seventh Herrscher. He wasn't familiar with Uriel, yet Uriel stared at him so intently upon meeting him, and now he was asking him so many questions that seemed to have some hidden meaning... He really was a suspect...

However, scientists like this do exist. Just like Admil's teacher, whose grave is now overgrown with weeds, the former director of the Third Research Institute was extremely biased about some things. He even cooperated with the assassin organization just to kill Mobius. The reason was even more outrageous: he felt that Mobius's research was a threat to humanity, so he wanted to get rid of Mobius for humanity.

What is all this nonsense?!

Zhu Yufeng didn't want to discuss this issue with Uriel too much. As he turned to leave, he replied, "I'm not fighting for humanity; I'm only fighting for the people I care about. If that's all you're going to say, then there's no point in continuing this topic, so I won't keep you company."

"Because of Elysia?" Uriel asked again from behind him.

Zhu Yufeng paused in her steps.

After all, the fact that he joined the Fire Moth because of Elysia is no secret within the Fire Moth. In fact, when the Fire Moth opens up about his romantic pairings, it's hard to avoid mentioning his original purpose for joining the Fire Moth when he talks about Elysia and himself.

"You could think of it that way." After saying that, Zhu Yufeng left.

Uriel stared at the now-closed laboratory door for a long while before muttering to himself, "After all... you are similar beings, both similar to and different from us... no, you are only similar to us, not different..."

After leaving Uriel's laboratory, Zhu Yufeng glanced at her phone. It was a message from Elysia, roughly saying that she and Lilith had gone shopping for clothes because Eden would be holding another concert in Australia soon, and she planned to dress up nicely before going to see Eden's concert.

He also wanted to go over there.

Zhu Yufeng turned off his phone, looked up at the sky, but he seemed to remember that the Seventh Great Honkai had occurred when Eden held a concert. Wouldn't wearing overly elaborate clothing really hinder his combat ability? Wait, the concert was held over several days...

Fine, Elysia will go pick them up herself, so be it...

After leaving the research institute, Zhu Yufeng went directly to the commercial center where Elysia and Lilith had gone. Looking at the bustling scene before him, he glanced down at Elysia's message, which said that he could wait at the entrance.

It seems like I didn't buy too many clothes, so I don't need to go in and carry them myself...

Then let's wait here.

Just as Zhu Yufeng was chatting with Mobius on his phone, trying to learn some information about Uriel, a voice came from not far away. "Sir, who are you waiting for here?"

Zhu Yufeng looked up and saw a silver-haired, purple-eyed young man looking at him. Looking at his face, and his distinctive eye and hair color, he could basically tell that this was the younger brother that Lilith had mentioned but had only mentioned briefly. His name was... what was his name again?

"Is there something you need?" Zhu Yufeng didn't rush to answer his question. At the same time, he was also sizing up the young man. He looked like he was only a little over 10 years old, but he seemed calm and experienced. That must be Lilith's younger brother. After all, when Lilith disappeared, her brother was still a teenager. He was the only one left in the family. So he must be more mature than people his age, right?

Moreover, the Lilith family are monsters in a sense...