The Divine Lord of Yae Village

"It was our second meeting, little girl."

The man Yae Rin had seen before had now risen from the hillside.

"Y-you-you-you—"

Yae Rin could barely speak properly now.

"Hm?"

The man's eyelid twitched. "What? Didn't we just meet during the day? Have you forgotten me already?"

"Uncle..."

Yae Rin looked as though she was about to cry, trapped within the enormous hand the man had conjured.

"Could you put me down? It's so high up here. I'm scared..."

"..."

The man looked at Yae Rin, who was only a little over two meters above the ground, then fell silent for a moment. "Actually, compared to how high you floated earlier, this isn't very high."

"Wah..."

Seeing Yae Rin's expression, which clearly said that she would cry if he did not put her down, the man said, "Fine. I'll put you down."

With a wave of his hand, the giant hand holding Yae Rin dissipated into the air, and she slowly floated back down to the ground.

"Since you have entered my domain, let me introduce myself briefly."

The man nodded to Yae Rin. "First, I am probably the Divine Lord your village worships."

"Second, my name is Xu Yanwu, and I come from the Land of Shenzhou."

Xu Yanwu paused and stared directly at Yae Rin. "Lastly, your mother, the previous Miko, once asked me to cure your illness."

"Now it's your turn. Your name..."

After the little girl's tearful account,

"Yae... Rin?"

Xu Yanwu frowned. He seemed to have heard that name somewhere before.

Though he was curious, Xu Yanwu's body was still dormant. Without his heart, appearing in this current state, something like a soul body, was already his limit.

He had no way to use his abilities to sort through his memories.

Although Xu Zifu had spent most of his time in this world in dormancy,

during the four thousand five hundred years after Chi You, his consciousness had remained awake.

Hm... like that girl Jianzhen who crossed eastward...

The Honkai world truly was quite Honkai...

Because of that, Xu Yanwu's memories were somewhat complicated.

"Uncle, do you know me?"

Yae Rin asked, tears still lingering at the corners of her eyes.

"I have always known you. All these years, I have tried to help nurture your body, but because my body is dormant, your condition has not improved much."

Xu Yanwu lowered his head and looked at Yae Rin. "I think... I heard the name Yae Rin somewhere else... It seemed to be..."

"...the younger sister of an Eastern fox who was good at cuckolding blond brats?"

Xu Yanwu shook his head. "Forget it. I really can't remember clearly."

"But..."

Xu Yanwu crouched down and pulled Yae Rin's cheeks apart. "Although I do not have enough emotion right now to get angry, my memories tell me that you calling me uncle is a very bad thing..."

"That hurts—"

Yae Rin covered her face, looking utterly aggrieved. "B-but my sister and I call all uncles as old as you uncle..."

"Your sister?"

Xu Yanwu thought for a moment, then confirmed, "You mean the little girl who looks a lot like you, the one who saw my Spiritual Clone practicing swordsmanship today?"

"Yes!"

Yae Rin proudly raised her little face, proud of her sister. "My sister saw the same swordsmanship Mother did! That's what Father said!"

"..."

Xu Yanwu was somewhat puzzled. "Your mother saw swordsmanship?"

"Though it's true that I taught your mother swordsmanship,

what that crazy girl saw back then was clearly a hammer..."

"Huh?"

Yae Rin froze.

"...Looks like that crazy girl's swordsmanship practice was decent enough. She actually did not give herself away."

Xu Yanwu put away his puzzled expression.

"But... her other daughter..."

"Rin, how about we go watch your sister practice swordsmanship?"

"Huh?"

---Inside the courtyard of Yae Shrine---

A Xu Yanwu even less lifelike than the one beside Yae Rin stood in the center of the courtyard. A long blade hung at his left hip, and his right hand rested upon its hilt.

"That is the clone I use to practice swordsmanship."

Xu Yanwu sat with Yae Rin atop the courtyard wall, watching the Xu Yanwu clone in the courtyard, who stood there like a wooden stake.

"Huh? Divine Lord, has your clone always been in our courtyard?"

Yae Rin asked curiously.

"Yes, it has always been here. It is just that none of you could see my clones. Throughout your village, my clones are everywhere, studying all kinds of combat methods."

Xu Yanwu shook his head. "But no matter how I researched them, I made little progress. Given my current condition, I cannot verify them through actual combat. I can only slowly improve through countless repetitions of practice..."

"On the other hand, your mother had far more talent than I did. She was clearly better suited to using a hammer... yet she forcibly learned swordsmanship from me..."

Xu Yanwu muttered to himself, but Yae Rin did not catch what he said afterward.

"Divine Lord, you said we came to watch my sister practice with a sword, but where is my sister?"

"Your sister does not have senses as strong as yours... Hm, let's just call it spiritual awareness. Although my body absorbed her blood, it will still take her a long time before she can enter a projection-like state on her own."

Xu Yanwu explained to Yae Rin.

Yae Rin tilted her little head and thought for a long while before understanding what Xu Yanwu meant.

"So Sister still has to wait a while before she can appear?"

"Mm..." Xu Yanwu nodded. "She should be here soon..."

Before Xu Yanwu finished speaking, silhouettes of Honkai Beasts slowly condensed in front of the Xu Yanwu clone within the courtyard of Yae Shrine.

"...The Honkai Beasts I spawned have appeared."

"Huh?"

"Your sister picked a terrible time to come in... She landed right in the middle of those Honkai Beasts... Looks like neither of you sisters has much luck..."

"W-w-wait!"

A little girl with loose pink hair fell from a point just over a meter above the ground.

Around the little girl stood more than a dozen Knight-type Honkai Beasts that had only just formed.

With her sharp eyes, Yae Rin immediately spotted her sister among the Honkai Beasts and screamed, "Sister!"

"It's useless. She cannot hear you. Right now, she has only entered halfway... She will only be able to hear once her invincibility period ends."