The Eighth Herrscher Appears

"Hmm..."

Zhu Yufeng opened his eyes, rubbed his head, and sat up in bed. Just as he was still a little dazed, he heard Elysia's somewhat languid voice beside him. "... Feng?"

Elysia?!

Zhu Yufeng instantly snapped awake. He looked at his side and saw Elysia rubbing her eyes and sitting up, yawning as she said, "You still wake up early as always. You always sneak away before I get up, but I caught you this time..."

It seems that my actions disturbed Elysia... Wait, so why is Elysia in my bed?

No... He vaguely remembered that he was reading a storybook with Astaroth, but his consciousness had only been hazy for a moment...

So that's how it is. Since he read the book with Astaroth this time, he also fell victim to it? Is this the so-called dreamlike world that grants all of humanity's wishes?

"Hmm? Feng, didn't you sleep last night?" Elysia looked at Zhu Yufeng with some doubt and said, "You don't look too well... Did you have a nightmare?"

Zhu Yufeng paused for a moment, then stood up. "It's nothing, I'll wash up first. What would you like for breakfast?"

"Hmm...I like anything that Feng makes by hand~" Elysia said with a smile.

"I understand, you can sleep a little longer." Zhu Yufeng said and left the bedroom. Before leaving, he looked back at the bedroom's layout, then went to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.

Zhu Yufeng looked at himself in the mirror, then at his pink pajamas. He remembered that the bedroom was decorated in a very girly way, with pink crystal decorations everywhere. Suddenly, he was speechless... It was obvious to anyone with half a brain that this was Elysia's taste, but...

He wondered why the Eighth Herrscher had depicted him and Elysia together in the dream she was creating for him. Did he subconsciously favor Elysia?

"Oh, you're up right on time, just like always," Lilith's voice rang out in the living room. "I guess you're preparing breakfast for Elysia? No problem, I've made your breakfast."

"Lilith?"

Zhu Yufeng looked over at the sound and saw Lilith sitting with her legs crossed, reading a newspaper. Seeing his expression, she said teasingly, "What's wrong? What's with that surprised look? Did you forget everything after sleeping with Elysia for one night? That really makes me sad..."

"Will you really be sad?" Zhu Yufeng asked casually.

"If you need, I can be sad too~" Lilith said with a smile, then covered her mouth in surprise as if she had thought of something, and said, "Um... you're not thinking of not coming to my place tonight, are you? Do you need me to cry?"

Zhu Yufeng looked at Lilith and said, "No need."

This is not Lilith. Lilith does get sad, but she hides her emotions deeper than anyone else. This Lilith, while similar to the everyday Lilith, is only similar to her. In other words, this is Lilith as seen by others.

If the Eighth Herrscher truly constructed this world according to her own memories and desires, then... the Lilith she simulated shouldn't give him this sense of unfamiliarity. After all, he and Lilith have been paired up for so long, he must know in his heart whether it's the real Lilith or not.

Then he looked at the breakfast on the table. Lilith looked like she had already eaten. He was supposed to prepare Elysia's breakfast, and Lilith had also left him a portion... How come there was an extra portion for one more person? Moreover, the portion didn't seem to be enough for an adult's breakfast, which meant it was a child's breakfast?

What?

Is the Eighth Herrscher really that powerful? She can even create a child out of thin air for him?

Let him sort it out. According to Lilith, in this world, he probably rotates between two people's rooms...

"Lilith, whose is this other breakfast?" Zhu Yufeng asked.

He was now a little confused. Whose child was it? Lilith's or Elysia's? That shouldn't be the case. It should be one child for each of them... Hmm... His thoughts seemed to be getting more and more dangerous. He should stop thinking about this for now and not think too much about it.

What he needs to know now is, if this is a dream constructed by the Eighth Herrscher for himself, then why did he see through it at first glance? If he remembers correctly, even Spasi, after being trapped in the Eighth Herrscher's dream, only came to his senses after a while and realized that this was a dream. But he was different... He only had a moment of mental confusion, and then realized that he had been dragged into a dream by the Eighth Herrscher.

According to Lilith, and based on her vague memories of the Honkai manga, the key to Spasi and Lilith breaking through the dream of the Eighth Herrscher lies in breaking the life they desire.

Lilith killed "herself" in her dream, while Spasi killed his "wife and children".

So if I want to break this dream... do I have to personally kill "Elysia" and "Lilith", as well as that "child" I've never met?

First of all, suicide is definitely ineffective. In the previous life, when the Fire Moth gathered all the mental Fusion Warrior to try to locate the coordinates of the Eighth Herrscher, Aponia once saw someone in the mental world searching for themselves in the Eighth Herrscher's dream, but unwilling to hurt even the illusion of their "lover," they chose to commit suicide. After that, they also died in reality.

"It's easy to talk when you haven't been affected, but it's really a headache when it happens to you..." Zhu Yufeng thought with a wry smile, but for him it was just a headache. As long as he figured out who was the center of this world, even if it was an illusion of Elysia and Lilith, he could still take action.

Because only what you actually experience is real.

An illusion is, in the end, just an illusion.

Just as Elysia had told herself before, there are countless Elysia in countless worlds, but only she fell in love with him.

Therefore, he has even less reason to pursue a false illusion.

The reason he hesitated to act was simply because he was curious about this world and the powers of the Eighth Herrscher. The Eighth Herrscher could accurately reproduce the behavior patterns of a person's "lover" whom they thought about day and night, and could even be described as comprehensive. Some subtle habits could be perfectly replicated, but why did it become someone else's impression when it came to him?

Putting Lilith aside, Elysia also somewhat different...

"Hey, hey, hey, are you really still half asleep?" Lilith said, somewhat exasperated. "This is breakfast for your dear little sister, Astaroth. You still have to take her to school afterwards, you didn't forget that too, did you?"

Astaroth?! My... little sister?

Zhu Yufeng suddenly looked at Lilith, Lilith expression was full of speechlessness. "What happened between you and Elysia last night? You've forgotten everything after waking up?"

Zhu Yufeng withdrew her gaze and said, "I was a little sleepy and didn't quite catch what was happening..."

"... Did you take any safety precautions? Hmm, considering I also have to take care of Astaroth, then I'll have to wait a few more years..."

Zhu Yufeng: "..."

How was he supposed to answer that? He knew absolutely nothing! And what kind of nonsense was he even thinking of? But this was probably something Lilith would never think of...

Zhu Yufeng now roughly understands that the main body of this dream is most likely not him, but Astaroth... But why is he in the same dream as Astaroth? And in this case, even if he kills "Lilith" and "Elysia", it won't matter, because the main body of the dream is not him.

To escape this dream, without considering external forces, everything seems to be a dead end. If one dies in the dream, one will also die in reality. And without a doubt, if Astaroth wants to awaken, she might have to kill herself, and to leave, she must kill Astaroth ...

"This is getting a bit troublesome..." Zhu Yufeng thought to himself. Now, he could only take it one step at a time and check the current situation.

He recalled that the Seventh Herrscher, Uriel, had said that her initial target was Elysia, but then she felt that he posed a greater threat Elysia, so she turned her attention to him. By analogy, did the Eighth Herrscher think the same way?

However, according to information from the previous life, the Eighth Herrscher only knew that such an organization against the Honkai existed, which is why she used memetic weapons on a large scale to try to find the Fire Moth. In that case, she shouldn't have directly known that she was a threat like Uriel did...

Could it be that the Eighth Herrscher noticed something was wrong the moment she and Astaroth were reading a storybook and were attacked by a memetic weapon?

This possibility cannot be ruled out...

Now that she is also Herrscher, the Eighth Herrscher obviously doesn't have the power to directly read her memories. Therefore, she can only construct this world through Astaroth's memories and then trap herself in it. She is also gambling, gambling that Astaroth is useful enough to her, so that even if she realizes something is wrong, she will not be able to escape this world.

"I remember when Kiana was dragged into the Herrscher of Sentience Recognition Domain, she beat up the Herrscher of Sentience directly... But the Eighth Herrscher isn't showing up, so what am I supposed to fight?" Zhu Yufeng pondered while eating breakfast. "Moreover, the longer you stay in the Dream World, the weaker your body becomes in reality, and you're constantly being Corrosion by Honkai Energy... Mei's body started to gradually..."

Mei's body Honkai Energy, making it impossible for her to become Fusion Warrior. During the Eighth Herrscher Incident, she was attacked by the Eighth Herrscher, and then during the Tenth Herrscher Incident, in order to personally test the Key of Blankness, her body completely collapsed, to the point where she had to rely on drugs to stay alive...

No, even if I am Herrscher now and can withstand the Corrosion Honkai Energy, it is not good to be dragged here like this. I must find a way. After all, I am the Thirteenth Herrscher. In terms of serial number, I am even lower than the Eighth Herrscher. In terms of peak strength, wouldn't I be able to beat the Eighth Herrscher to a pulp?

Even if I'm not at my peak right now, I should at least give it a try.

"Wait a minute..." Zhu Yufeng paused in his breakfast eating. He looked at the breakfast in front of him with a serious expression. After a while, a slight smile appeared on his lips.

Of course, the Eighth Herrscher probably realized her own identity, but she was not sure whether she was her kind or her enemy, so she might have done something shady in various places here.

By dispersing one's power into any person or thing one might come into contact with, one can then use this power to investigate one's own background. In other words, by following the path of dispersing one's power, one can trace back to the source of the problem.

"What's wrong? Did you not like the breakfast?" Lilith's voice rang out.

Zhu Yufeng thought for a moment and decided to observe for the time being. The Eighth Herrscher had no physical body, and her exact location in the consciousness space was unknown. He had performed the Fusion Warrior surgery, but he also discovered that as time went on, the Fusion Warrior surgery seemed to provide him with a way to gradually unleash his power.

What's even stranger is that he's gradually starting to recover the special abilities he absorbed from other Honkai Beast through the Chimera Project, just like in his previous life. It's odd, though; his power should be time, so why does it seem like a bunch of things that don't really relate to time have sprung up? He asked Mobius, but Mobius just told him to study it some more and then fell silent...

In short, he can use the power of the Eighth Herrscher to Mitra pinpoint her exact location. Right now, he's only releasing a tiny bit of her power, which is far from enough to pinpoint her location...

Thinking of this, Zhu Yufeng no longer hesitated. While guarding against the possibility of the Eighth Herrscher Corrosion him, he secretly tried to counter the Eighth Herrscher's probing and repositioning.

As for the outside world... we can't put all our hopes on Elysia and the others and do nothing ourselves, can we?

Fortunately, the Eighth Herrscher knew that everyone was Herrscher, or at least an equal, so she didn't dare to openly test him everywhere. At the same time, the Eighth Herrscher also had to find the Fire Moth and Fire Moth from within, so she probably didn't have much time to focus on Zhu Yufeng. He only found a faint trace left by the Eighth Herrscher in the breakfast.

Zhu Yufeng could somewhat guess the Eighth Herrscher's thoughts: regardless of whether he was her companion or not, she would first trap herself Fire Moth, and after dealing with the Fire Moth, she would focus her main energy on herself.

"I wonder what the situation is like outside... Lilith is probably not worried, but as for May and Disaster... Speaking of which, after SEELE's surgery, it was confirmed that she's a mental Fusion Warrior. When it comes to location tracking, she'll probably be involved too... Tsk, I'm still a little uneasy. I need to get things done here as soon as possible..."