"This is all I can tell you. Whether you go or not is entirely up to you," Otto said calmly. "If you wish to leave, follow the path I took here and keep heading west. You'll reach Schicksal territory, where you'll receive Schicksal's protection."
Though even he did not believe Schicksal could withstand Immortal Chi Yuan. With the one deep within the Shaniyat family's forbidden grounds added in, perhaps it would be enough.
"I... want to go home and see my father and mother. I want to tell them that I've completed my studies..." Ling Susang said softly, her voice firm. "If Immortal Chi Yuan truly did this, then I should avenge them against her."
Then she asked, "What about you? Foreigner, why are you so determined to meet Immortal Chi Yuan?"
Otto looked toward the place where Schicksal and the Ming Empire had once gone to war. "About twenty years ago, Schicksal fought a war against the Ming Empire. Schicksal used a power forbidden to this world, drawing Immortal Chi Yuan's intervention. In the end, the war concluded with Schicksal's complete defeat."
"Twenty years ago?" Ling Susang's eyes widened. "But... you were only a child back then, weren't you?"
She studied Otto. He looked barely over twenty years old. Back then, shouldn't he have been just a little boy?
"Heh..." Otto gave a bitter laugh and continued, "That war nearly tore Schicksal apart. In fact, it did. About ten years after the war ended, Schicksal descended into civil war."
He had led the Rebel Army against his nephew Marcel, and with Eleanor's assistance, crushed the old Schicksal forces with overwhelming force.
He still vaguely remembered the sight of his sister begging him for mercy. Yet he chose to repay her in kind, giving her the lie called "hope of survival" and delivering revenge called "death" to her and his nephew.
Before the Rebel Army found him and elevated him as their leader, he encountered a mysterious woman. Gears turned amid her clothing, giving her an unusual, eerie presence.
That mysterious woman had called him a genius rarely seen in this age. But whenever Kallen was involved, his intelligence plummeted logarithmically.
She told him of the conspiracy behind Sister Lisa's supposedly "kindhearted" plan, as well as the flames of war raging everywhere.
She wanted him to step forward and become Schicksal's Overseer.
"Why should I do that?"
"Because this path holds the only possibility of allowing you to see Kallen again," the woman had said.
"The dead cannot return to life, and Kallen would not want me to do this," he said.
"Yes, she would not want you to do this. But don't you wish for her to have a second life?" the woman said in a low voice. "She could have survived. Her master, the one named Arthur, had already secretly prepared an escape route for her. But because you released the Honkai Beast, she died. Isn't that right?"
Yes, Kallen had died because of him!
At that moment, he completed his transformation earlier than history had originally decreed. No longer swept along by the will of the people, he led the Rebel Army through multiple battles of annihilation against Schicksal's forces for his own selfish reasons.
After becoming Schicksal's Overseer and further analyzing Void Archive, he discovered that woman's identity. She was one of the thirteen forerunners. He also understood her intentions, but he willingly allowed himself to be used, because he truly wanted to save Kallen—save the only Kallen who had ever been real to him.
"So what was the final outcome of the civil war? And what does that have to do with you coming to Shenzhou?" Ling Susang's words interrupted Otto's thoughts.
Otto looked at Ling Susang and smiled. "Then the civil war ended. The rotten order was overthrown, and Schicksal was reborn. Only then did I have the opportunity to come to Shenzhou and meet Immortal Chi Yuan."
"You've said all this... but why exactly do you have to meet Immortal Chi Yuan?" Ling Susang frowned. Why did foreigners like speaking in such roundabout ways? If he got killed someday, would he still have to write on the ground:
"The one who killed me did so because many years ago, I once..."
Then write a whole pile of words without even naming the murderer before he ran out of breath.
"In that war, I lost my fiancée—the girl I loved very, very much," Otto said. "I want to bring her back. Immortal Chi Yuan... may be able to help me bring her back. That is why I came here."
Perhaps he could deceive the girl before him, but that no longer held any meaning for him. He had already obtained news of Immortal Chi Yuan. Finding her was merely a matter of time.
The Present him... did not lack time.
On the other hand, when it came to his feelings for Kallen, he would never lie.
Ling Susang stared blankly at Otto, then bit her lip and said, "Back at the Golden Sand Gang, I said I would definitely help you find Immortal Chi Yuan. And right now, I truly need to meet Immortal Chi Yuan as well. Our goals are the same, so I suppose I can travel with you for now."
Otto looked at Ling Susang and smiled softly. Mimicking Shenzhou's gesture of clasping his fist in his palm, he said, "Then, thank you for your help, heroine?"
Ling Susang merely glanced at him before walking out. "You should focus on recovering from your injuries first."
Ling Susang left the room. Cheng Lingshuang was sitting at a loom, weaving cloth. When she saw her come out, she said, "Just look at you. Both you and your mother have terrible taste in men."
That foreigner—she could tell at a glance that he was no ordinary man. Though he looked young, inside he was like an old fox full of schemes.
He was someone who acted solely for his own benefit.
She had watched Susang grow up. What was there about the girl that she could not see through?
Ling Susang fell silent for a moment, then gave a lighthearted smile. "He already has someone he loves. There's no need for me to ruin a relationship. Isn't that what they say in the plays? 'Better tear down a temple than break up a marriage.' Besides, I haven't even known him for long."
Cheng Lingshuang continued weaving. "You can let go of it easily enough."
Ling Susang gave her master a helpless look. What else could she do if she could not let go? She was meant to roam the martial world, and in this world, she could not cling too stubbornly to a relationship that was clearly impossible.
In life, one would always meet people who were fated never to be together on the road ahead. Learning when to hold on and when to let go was also a very important skill.
Her nature was to live freely, repaying kindness and avenging wrongs. Naturally, she would not bind herself to a love doomed to bear no fruit.
"Once I finish weaving this cloth, we'll prepare to set out," Cheng Lingshuang said.
Ling Susang glanced at the half-finished bolt of cloth Cheng Lingshuang had woven and calculated the time in her heart. By the time her master finished weaving, the foreigner should have nearly finished healing himself as well.
Immortal Chi Yuan... in terms of lineage, she should be Ling Susang's grandmaster. But in terms of position, she was also Ling Susang's enemy.
Therefore, Ling Susang had already prepared herself. She had to take revenge on Immortal Chi Yuan for her parents. But she also knew that she would very likely die at Immortal Chi Yuan's hands. She had no regrets.