March 11, 2014, 11:23 a.m.
Qingyue Temple was the oldest temple in the land. Though it had been renovated many times, visitors could still feel the weight of history when admiring it. The cultural heritage it contained was a treasure of humanity.
The timeworn bluestone slabs reflected dazzling arcs of light beneath the sun before being trampled underfoot by passersby. The streams of tourists, the temple built against the mountain, and the cherry blossoms occasionally falling into the pond all formed a peaceful, tranquil scene on this day of high skies and wispy clouds.
Qingyue Temple covered an area of 140,000 square meters, making it one of the few large attractions in the country. At that moment, on a stone bridge seldom visited by anyone, Kiana was sprawled over the railing without a trace of grace. Her fingertips rubbed a pale pink cherry blossom, like an immature child playing with a toy.
Her jewel-like, pure azure eyes gazed at the clusters of cherry blossoms embracing one another as they slept on the branches. As the blossoms occasionally drifted down, she seemed somewhat absent-minded.
In her brief sixteen years of life, she had rarely had days like this, going out to have fun with someone.
She had no memories from before the age of eight. Her father had told her that her mother had died. The brief four years she had spent with her father had been the happiest days of her life.
Although Siegfried Kaslana was a man who loved drinking himself senseless every day and lived his life in complete disarray,
Although the sight of him often returning covered in wounds after fighting Honkai Beasts was enough to make anyone worry, Kiana still felt he was the best father in the world.
Even though that man had left her without a word four years ago, Kiana still thought so.
That lousy old man is probably fighting Honkai somewhere in some godforsaken corner of the world.
Hmph. He just abandoned his adorable daughter without a second thought.
When I find him, I'm definitely punching him in the face.
Kiana secretly clenched her teeth and made up her mind.
Her fingertips dug into the stone railing with unconscious force. Su Qing'an, standing beside her, broke out in a cold sweat. He had apparently ruffled the white-haired girl's head before.
"What are you thinking about, Kiana? If you squeeze this railing to pieces, we can make a run for it right now."
"Sorry! (ﾉ○Д○)ﾉ I didn't do it on purpose! No, no, it wasn't me!"
Hurriedly reining in her strength, the girl stuffed her hands behind her back in a classic act of self-deception. She was like a weasel that had stolen a chicken, seriously covering the blood around its mouth with its paws after seeing the owner return—while the bloodstained feathers scattered all over the ground behind it silently betrayed everything.
Su Qing'an examined Kiana's "evidence" and said helplessly, "You idiot, Kiana. This bridge probably hasn't been renovated in years. I don't know whether completely crushing it would count as damaging a cultural relic, but at the very least, you'd have to pay with all the money you'd otherwise spend on ice cream for the rest of your life."
"...I look so delicate and adorable (๑•.•๑). Even if someone saw me, everyone would blame the shopkeeper instead. So, to keep the shopkeeper from having to pay the money he uses to buy me ice cream and my wages, we should run."
Her argument was logical and convincing.
As she spoke, Kiana grabbed Su Qing'an's hand and ran forward.
He had not even had time to speak when he felt an irresistible force dragging him along. His instincts told him that if he did not run with her, the sudden reaction force might dislocate his fragile arm. Thus, Su Qing'an obeyed his instincts and started running.
"Kia-na! Where are you trying to run?" After they had run some distance, Su Qing'an's untrained body left him breathing unevenly.
"I don't know! Wherever we end up, I guess! Hahahaha!"
For some reason, Kiana laughed into the wind. Her lips curved into a beautiful arc, and her eyes glittered brightly. Her steady, effortless breathing made anyone want to complain about how such a slender, petite body could contain so much energy.
At last, when they reached an area where the crowd was gradually thickening, Kiana slowly reduced her pace and stopped.
Panting heavily, the boy bent over awkwardly with his hands on his knees and began planning his future exercise regimen. In a world shrouded by Honkai, this body, corroded by years of idleness, was unquestionably inadequate.
Whether he ran for his life or cultivated the Void Sword Qi later, physical strength would be an indispensable factor.
But for now, he set aside that future, whether dark or bright.
Fresh air entered his nose and mouth with every breath. The gentle wind circled around him. Shadows reflected across the bluestone slabs, the faint sound of a dipper catching stream water, and the radiant smile of the girl laughing amid the warm sunlight and falling cherry blossoms all calmed his mind and filled him with happiness.
"Feeling a lot better, aren't you, Shopkeeper? When I'm in a bad mood, I like exercising. Relaxing after physical exhaustion keeps you from overthinking."
"Today, the shopkeeper has a lot on his mind. I know some things are hard to tell other people, but we're friends. If you're in trouble, this miss will help you."
When she said the word "friends," the usually carefree Kiana became unusually bashful. But she quickly composed herself and added,
"Even if a hundred street punks came to smash our shop, I could knock every last one of them flying."
Her expression was full of confidence and a hint of smug pride.
The scene was reflected in Su Qing'an's eyes. For an instant, he felt as if his heart had been struck by a heavy drumbeat.
An unfamiliar warmth spread through his chest. An emotion more difficult to suppress than despair, helplessness, loneliness, sorrow, or anger tugged at his tear ducts. At that moment, he actually felt the urge to cry.
No, Su Qing'an. How can you become this fragile just because you came to an unfamiliar world and died once more?
To avoid exposing anything embarrassing, he forced his emotions down as far as they would go.
As expected of the harem king, Kiana. I nearly got conquered.
He complained inwardly as he slowly calmed himself.
"Thank you, you idiot, Kiana."
"(angrily) Why add 'idiot'? Shopkeeper, are you in elementary school? Why are you so awkward?"
"Let's go see that Moonlit Waterfall. It's Qingyue Temple's most famous attraction." Su Qing'an changed the subject awkwardly and pulled Kiana toward the temple.
"Hmph. (angrily)"
It was called a waterfall, but in reality, it was merely a small stream that guided mountain spring water down along three stone channels. According to legend, the three streams represented health, romance, and academic success. If one drank the spring water and sincerely made a wish, it would come true.
The two of them each took a long-handled dipper from the water tank.
"Shopkeeper, the internet says you can only choose one spring to drink from. If you drink from all of them, it won't work anymore. Which one are you choosing?" Kiana had clearly already calmed down as she earnestly explained this useless bit of knowledge.
"Health." Although superstition was not to be trusted, Su Qing'an had come to a different world, so he decided to start believing in metaphysics and made a sincere, down-to-earth choice.
"Huh? Surprisingly practical." While teasing Su Qing'an, Kiana used her dipper to scoop water from the middle stream, the one representing health.
"Compared to the others, health is more practical. Besides, didn't you choose the same one?"
Amid the bustling crowd, the sound of the stream falling into the pond was exceptionally crisp. The boy and girl chatted about the most ordinary things. Though the cherry blossoms of March were not as beautiful as those of April, they were still lovely enough. The green mountains surrounded the temple as if witnessing these ordinary, warm years pass by.
The wooden dipper tapped against the bluestone railing with a clear sound, sending ripples of reflected light across the water.
The boy and girl raised their heads and drank the spring water at the same time.
As if time had frozen, yet also as if everything had changed in one ten-thousandth of an instant, Su Qing'an's world transformed.
Before the mind-shattering pain could surge through his nerves, the central nervous system was torn apart by incomprehensible wavelengths. As his numb body disintegrated, the vision and reason he still retained allowed him to understand.
This was a scene he had already experienced.
He was turning into a Zombie amid dense Honkai Energy.
"As expected..." The organs in his throat remained intact, but the voice that emerged was already hoarse and unpleasant. The boy turned toward Kiana, who still could not understand what was happening, and said, "Kia...na, run... and... I'm sorry..."
Run. This place will become very dangerous.
I knew something incomprehensible might happen, but I still forced you to come with me. I'm sorry.
I took advantage of your gentleness and kindness to indulge my selfishness. I'm sorry.
I lied to you. I'm sorry.
You don't have many friends, do you? Then I owe you an even greater apology.
I'm sorry for making you watch one of the few friends you have die before your eyes.
The peaceful scene was brutally shattered by an unreasonable force, and a sight of demons running wild swallowed everything.
Except for the few women who possessed resistance to Honkai Energy, all the other humans were violently transformed into Zombies in a very short time.
Kiana stood frozen in place, watching Su Qing'an rapidly turn into a Zombie as he told her to run and apologized.
"Su Qing'an?" Kiana embraced the boy before her, whose body had already been destroyed by Honkai Energy. "You'll be fine, right?"
Spouting foolish words she did not even believe herself, the girl panicked until she became incoherent. "I'll grind out every piece of equipment in Homonculus Fantasy for you. I won't clumsily smash the plates at work anymore. I swear I'll never curse you for failing to get any drops again. So, so... stop joking around, okay?"
Having fought Honkai alongside her father since childhood, she clearly understood this better than anyone. She knew that ordinary people who began transforming into Zombies were like souls falling into hell.
You really are an idiot, Kiana.
Compared to the other humans who transformed into Zombies instantly, Su Qing'an's death was clearly much slower. Even after more than ten seconds, he could still barely control his body. Perhaps this was God's punishment, making him watch himself step into death more completely and more vividly.
But that was fine too. At least it would give him time to finish what he wanted to do.
He could roughly estimate how long he had before he completely lost control of himself.
Twenty seconds remained.
He suddenly shoved Kiana away. Though most of his body had been destroyed, his strength had also become powerful and uncontrollable as the human body's limits collapsed. That was good. Otherwise, he would not even have been able to escape Kiana's embrace.
Su Qing'an used his right hand to tear apart his left arm. Then, without hesitation, he smashed his remaining right arm against a bluestone pillar. Finally, he used the railing's hardness to smash his own teeth.
In less than ten seconds, his limitless strength and increasingly fragile body allowed him to perfectly remove every claw and fang with which he could hurt someone.
Even before, despite having no sense of pain, he would never have understood how he could perform such a decisive and insane act.
But who could blame him? Kiana was an idiot, after all.
This was the final tenderness Su Qing'an had decided to give Kiana before his death.
Why? Why? Why?
Kiana was already sobbing so hard she could no longer speak, tears blurring her vision.
Even on the day her father abandoned her, she had never cried like this.
She knew why.
Because she believed her father was still alive somewhere in the world. She could keep trying, follow the clues step by step to find him, and believe that one day she would be able to punch him in the face before showing off how much she had grown. She could believe that the future was worth looking forward to.
But now she understood.
She would never see Su Qing'an again.
Panicked and helpless, she crouched down and embraced the boy whose limbs had been shattered beyond recognition. She stared at the face whose skin had been consumed by Honkai Energy. His toothless mouth and endlessly flowing blood made him look terrifying, while the light in his eyes gradually faded into nothingness. At the very end, Kiana heard a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz.
He was speaking. "Idiot Kiana, you... have to live well." It sounded like a final echo. After that, his face twisted into a fierce, vengeful-ghost-like shape, and his throat produced a sound that no longer resembled human speech, only a meaningless howl.
Su Qing'an was dead.
Kiana was speechless.
"Honkai. Honkai." Unprecedented savagery, fury, and grief nearly tore her soul apart. In one of Kiana's azure eyes, an ink-black gold began to spread.
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