A Future Like That Was Not the Future I Wanted.

The girl's slender body seemed to be submerged in an invisible and colorless ocean. In the fleeting moment, her tears fell like pearls, as if left behind by a mermaid in legend.

It was as if someone was holding an eraser, trying to wipe Seele's existence from this world. This familiar scene made Su Qing'an feel very uncomfortable.

The boy seemed to be witnessing once again the scene of that child withering into a cherry blossom. The overlapping of the past and the present caused an uncontrollable surge of sorrow, making his Adam's apple bob involuntarily.

Su Qing'an's eyes darkened slightly, yet they seemed to be burning fiercely, fueled by something.

I haven't answered your question yet.

So before that, anything that wants to take you away should ask me first, out of courtesy.

Martial Intent descended upon this place, carrying with him a vast and unwavering will, following the ebb and flow of his emotions.

In the brief moment when pure spiritual will swept through like a storm, the life of the entire apartment building seemed to be frozen in time, and thought stopped for a second.

That's not enough.

If using Martial Intent before was like blowing a gust of wind to gently lift something that was already on the verge of collapse, then the power of the Sea of Quantum is no longer as weak as it once was.

An unbreakable barrier shuts everything out, rendering Martial Intent meaningless.

Having witnessed previous successes, Su Qing'an understood that only the unique Soul Essence could shake this mysterious force.

Now he needs a more subtle, direct, and domineering application of the Soul Essence.

And it has to be fast.

The boy's intuition told him that once Seele disappeared from his sight, there would be no chance to see her again.

It would be a reasonable outcome if she were to be taken to an unknown region again and taken away by the original organization for further research.

Therefore, I must disappear faster than her.

It's possible.

Or rather, it simply cannot be done without doing it.

Despite his reluctance to see a similar outcome, the boy's ever-increasing control over the Soul Essence eventually led to a breakthrough.

In the brief moment the flames burned in his eyes, emotions resonated like waves, and the Soul Essence began to burn grandly as well.

In a daze, Su Qing'an reached out his hand to the girl, who was now mostly transparent.

Oh, so that's how it's used.

As memories surface, the sorrow and pain that surge into my heart melt into fuel for burning.

In the brief moment of mental blankness, the boy's fingertips touched the barrier.

Here, the flame of the soul consumed the droplets of the Sea of Quantum.

Su Qing'an grabbed Seele's wrist. Ignoring the confusion lingering in his mind, he suppressed the weariness that came from his very soul and answered earnestly:

"I don't know if that's the future they want."

"But that's not the future I want."

In the fraction of a second that those words touched her ears and struck her heart, Seele looked at the boy's expression and the slowly dying embers in his eyes, and suddenly understood so much.

So... there really are idiots like that.

This is truly incomprehensible...

Seele felt the warmth of the other person's fingertips touching her skin, like the warmth of early spring melting away the ice and snow, which miraculously soothed her turbulent emotions.

Just as she was wondering what to do and how to respond to Su Qing'an, the force that had been pulling her wrist disappeared, her fingers no longer touched her skin, and the warmth separated them.

She looked up in bewilderment, and the image vividly flashed into her mind.

His dark pupils lost focus, and before he lost consciousness, he released his grip, letting his body fall to the ground.

The unexpected consequences of exploiting the Soul Essence caught Su Qing'an off guard. His hard-won will was like a fortress built on solid ground; with the change in its foundation, he could only helplessly fall into a predicament.

However, such changes were negligible due to the limitations of his physical exertion; physiologically speaking, he was simply asleep.

Hearing Su Qing'an's steady breathing, the girl calmed her uneasy heart slightly. After thinking for a while, she decided to squat down next to him.

Looking at Su Qing'an's sleeping face, Seele covered her small hand with her sleeve and carefully poked his soft cheek with her fingertips through the fabric.

The delicate touch made the little girl linger.

I hope everything is alright.

She thought for a moment, then rested her head on the boy's chest, listening to the sound of his blood flowing and his heart beating.

She doesn't seem to be sick, so why did she faint?

Is it because of the cost or effort expended in pulling oneself out of the Quantum State?

The scent emanating from her thin shirt made her nostrils twitch slightly; it was a fresh, bright citrus aroma that gradually transitioned into a subtle minty fragrance.

But in Seele's mind, the only conclusion she could draw was that it smelled very good.

My brain was immersed in this hazy, intoxicating scent, and a drowsy state slowly blurred my consciousness.

Having already not had enough sleep, Seele became even more drowsy after experiencing the entry and exit of the Quantum State. Her weak will and lack of aversion to the "pillow" made her even more sleepy.

The sound of her heartbeat in her chest was like a lullaby, soothing her to sleep. The girl blinked in a daze, then her eyelids finally closed completely...

The only sound in the apartment, besides breathing, was the still-warm breeze. A little girl in dinosaur pajamas slept in the boy's arms, her tail trailing on the floor, looking adorable.

Somewhat incongruous with her well-behaved and adorable face, her little head would occasionally shift unconsciously, visually appearing as if she were rubbing her cheek against the boy's chest from time to time.

The girl's hair was loose on her white shirt, and with the movement of her head, the dark blue color under the light transformed into a completely different kind of magnificence.

Seele hadn't drifted off to sleep so peacefully in a very long time.

Perhaps this sense of security only came when she knew nothing and thought that sugar was simply sugar.

At this moment, Fu Hua, who was in the same school, was sitting on her bed in the dormitory. Her Roommate Miss was staring at her slightly uncomfortable, fair face with a mischievous and cunning look.

Her Roommate Miss leaned closer and whispered to her:

"Hua, are you the legendary ultimate 'normal life' person who brings her own boyfriend to school?"

Fu Hua withdrew her gaze from the night view outside the window. She gently touched her Roommate Miss's freshly showered, rosy cheek with her small hand to stop her from being affectionate, and said softly with a hint of helplessness:

"I'm really not in a relationship."

Ignoring the little girl's dejected and bored face after hearing this, Fu Hua glanced at her phone, which hadn't replied yet, and muttered:

"Boyfriend... that's not it at all."

When Su Qing'an Awakened, it was already the next morning. Before he could even think about how his body, which had been lying on the cold floor all night, felt, the object on his chest that looked like a living thing made his face show a strange expression.

What happened yesterday?

The depletion of his Soul Essence manifested in Su Qing'an as a side effect, much like a blackout from being drunk.

Without time to ponder what had happened, the boy followed the weight and saw the familiar little dinosaur hat.

As a trace of memory recollection, all sorts of details from yesterday re-fill the brain.

He retrieved Seele and yesterday used a novel method of manipulating the Soul Essence to bring her back to the real world.

Therefore, Su Qing'an also understood the price that must be paid to truly utilize the Soul Essence.

[Soul Essence: 70(78)]

Even after a night's rest, I still haven't fully recovered my mental state.

At the same time, there's that most crucial factor...

The boy picked up the girl and put her back on the bed.

The child shouldn't experience the same problem again anytime soon.

Hopefully, this experience didn't frighten her.

Even though she had long understood that absolute fairness did not exist in this world, Su Qing'an still found it difficult to remain unmoved by the suffering inflicted on the girl.

Is this humanity's primal evil, or a tragedy born from the oppression of Honkai?

Su Qing'an couldn't figure these things out, and had no intention of getting entangled in thinking about them for the time being. He gazed at Seele's sleeping face for a while.

At least... whatever the answer may be, and regardless of whether the result is right or wrong.

During the time Su Qing'an took in the child, she would not stand idly by and do nothing about her safety.

He sat alone on the sofa in the living room and turned on the television.

Su Qing'an listened to the news clips broadcast inside, she simultaneously entered a Zen Meditation state.

The boy began to actively recall that scene that should have made him feel sad.

But inside, there was only a deathly emptiness.

There was nothing wrong with the memory itself; the final battle in the Stigmata Space was successfully recreated in his consciousness, frame by frame, with clear images.

The scene of Lin withering and dying, turning into cherry blossoms, is vividly clear in my mind, yet Su Qing'an, gazing at this past scene, seems like a passerby completely detached from it all.

There was no sadness, no regret, no anger, no remorse.

Only by deeply understanding that this is a past experience of one's own can it remain firmly etched in one's heart as an unshakable fact.

... We must not forget.

Even though empathy had been extinguished deep within his soul, the boy still tried to recall his entire experience in the Stigmata Space through Zen Meditation, attempting to restore himself to his original wholeness.

Forcing oneself to recall those negative emotions may seem unnecessary and foolish, but the emotions nurtured by forgetting memories are not only sadness and pain, but also provide Su Qing'an with reasons to transform into a more resilient and determined person.

Without this difficult process of breaking free from the cocoon, even I would be affected in the same way now.

Such consequences may sound like altering one's own history, but in reality, there is not much difference.

All Su Qing'an needs to do is lose all empathy and realism for all the pain and sorrow of the past, and he will inevitably become a completely different person.

Therefore, to avoid such consequences, the boy can only recreate the emotions he is entitled to by attaching the empathy that has not been erased.

The final result calmed his somewhat uneasy heart a little, and empathy was slowly resurfacing in that blank area.

Su Qing'an is still the same person she always was.

He opened his eyes, and his gaze toward the outside world became conflicted and profound.

Incomplete.

The price of resonating and burning the Soul Essence is this incompleteness that almost gradually erases the meaning of Su Qing'an's past.

The power created by fueling emotions is indeed incredible. Using only a tiny fraction of it, it was able to turn the mysterious power of the Sea of Quantum into dust. This can only prove that the special nature of the Soul Essence itself has exceeded Su Qing'an's own imagination.

But the price was too heavy.

Now he can use related memories to empathize and revive the original corresponding emotions, but if more than just these are burned away, things can easily lead to a path of no return that leads to his self-destruction.

The temporary decline in the Soul Essence also proves that emotions are merely fuel, and the cost is far more complex than that.

If one burns out all of their soul, completely exceeding the limits of self-healing, the result would likely be the death of both the soul and the body.

Even if the deity is still willing to grant Su Qing'an a chance to be reborn, will He still have the ability to revive Su Qing'an's soul?

Everything is unknown.

To avoid such a future, Su Qing'an could only restrain herself.

It was impossible not to use this power. In the perilous Previous Civilization, it was quite normal for the Emperor-class Honkai Beast to be several times stronger than those he had ever seen.

Moreover, there will be a series of Herrscher appearing one after another, and with their bodies now limited to their maximum capacity, they will inevitably find themselves unable to perform to their full potential.

Su Qing'an couldn't deceive herself into thinking she wouldn't use this power at this moment, so she could only restrain it to a certain extent.

The boy set three rules for himself.

[1. We must not let our feelings for Hua fade away.]

[2. It cannot burn beyond the soul's self-healing ability.]

[3. It should only be used when there is no other choice.]

After setting these constraints for herself, Su Qing'an breathed a sigh of relief.

From the current perspective alone, exploring this ability is not a bad thing; proper use of it will only make it a powerful tool for future battles.

But its existence is like a Pandora's box haunted by the whispers of the devil, always ready to tempt the boy to open it completely at the most crucial moment.

If things go as the devil wishes, Su Qing'an will be condemned to an endless hell.

However, the development of the Soul Essence is unrelated to the Void Sword Qi given by the gods. Therefore, as long as Su Qing'an has not raised the banner of admitting defeat to the gods, he will not give up the potential possibilities.

Because this is hope.

The boy sighed and picked up the phone on the table. As the screen unlocked automatically and the information that appeared before his eyes, his expression suddenly froze.

Oh no, there was no news of them returning to China yesterday.