Fuxi's Identity, and the Inevitable Crisis

The Scandinavian Peninsula means "dark land" in Germanic languages.

It was mid-July, and before nightfall, dusk slowly descended upon this deserted, tranquil lake, gently whispering the prelude to the night.

From a distance, the shimmering lake surface resembles a fairyland, with beautiful arcs of light emanating from every ripple. Water droplets splash and fall into the dust-like light spots scattered around, refracting to reveal their crystal-clear texture.

The luminous dust danced in the twilight before settling into the lake, encompassing the surrounding area. A profound sense of holiness transformed this place into a solemn and dignified hall.

The destination of all those points of light, however, is a fairy residing at the bottom of the lake.

She was a girl who could breathe safely even in water. Her pale hair became even more crystalline under the light, and her fair face was no longer as immature and childlike as before, but rather mature, just like the curves of her figure.

As time passed, the lake spirits gradually unified their sense of embracing all things under one sky.

At that time, Fuxi will truly awaken.

Within the Soul Steel Cube, an illusory lotus floated naturally, radiating a faint glow from its center, illuminating the boy's profile. He gazed at this Divine Key, which had an incredibly complex relationship with him, and pulled the White Sparrow that had popped out of its head out of curiosity back into its Mind Lake.

Udu-dust, who should not exist here, was just born in the normal timeline.

The opposition between these two is equivalent to the clash of refutations.

Although Su Qing'an believed that Little Feather, who had undergone various changes, could coexist peacefully with the other party, it was still best to be cautious.

The boy ignored White Sparrow, who was staring intently at him from within the Mind Lake, closed his eyes, and placed his palm on the surface of the Soul Steel Cube.

He had no reason to refuse Mei's request, but whether he could master this Divine Key remained to be seen.

This time, unlike the previous owners of the Divine Key who left behind a power within their souls, and unlike the Little Feather that experienced the restart of the natural connection, it requires truly fulfilling the requirements to master the Divine Key.

That is, a natural match of soul wavelengths.

Only after testing whether they possess the necessary compatibility and qualifications can the next steps of control and connection be taken.

The fluctuations of the soul spread like moonlight, gently brushing across the surface of the illusory lotus, attempting to resonate with it.

A long time.

Su Qing'an opened his eyes and gazed at the illusory lotus that floated on its own like a breath, and he understood the answer.

He did not possess the prerequisites to control the Key of Consciousness; his compatibility with the power within it was so low that he couldn't even reach the level of basic communication, let alone become the master of the Divine Key.

Perhaps this is the unique nature of the Key of Consciousness. In the past, Su Qing'an had tried other Divine Key, including Kevin's Judgment of Shamash, and he was able to establish a very faint connection with them and forcibly control them.

While it cannot be used perfectly, it is still not difficult to unleash some of its power.

Su Qing'an had encountered situations where the compatibility was so low that communication was impossible, but by relying on the special nature of the soul and advanced methods, it was not impossible to forcibly establish a connection.

The power of the Key of Consciousness itself is aimed at this. While the strength of the Abyss Flower Domain and the soul can certainly prevent one from accepting interference from the other party, the reverse is also true. Normal forced operations are meaningless to Udu-dust.

From this perspective, the compatibility between Fu Hua and Udu-dust may be an extremely rare thing.

But to simply give up is another matter entirely. The boy lowered his eyes and murmured:

"Let's try it, use a more violent method."

The hand, which was attached to the surface of the Soul Steel Cube, gradually crossed the barrier of matter. In Soul State, ignoring the special nature of Udu-dust itself, it forcefully grasped the swaying lotus flower in its palm.

At the same time, a crimson light suddenly burst forth, but it was instantly and forcefully absorbed by the [Stigmata] into the Honkai Energy phenomenon.

Su Qing'an, in her Soul State, grabbed Udu-dust's physical body, extinguishing the instinctive reaction of his powers, opening all the barriers of the Divine Key, and forcibly leaving a one-sided imprint and communication channel.

After being forced to link, the illusory lotus shattered into countless scattered specks of light, which gathered on his wrist and wove into a red rope with a copper lock.

Su Qing'an glanced at the red string on her wrist. That dream did indeed have a subtle influence on her. The Udu-dust was originally an invisible and formless Divine Key, and its form and the medium in the mortal world did not affect the manifestation of its power.

Even if he forcibly contracts with this Divine Key, it remains to be seen whether the power he can unleash will be sufficient to erase the missionary's [bewitchment].

All we can do is try our best.

In fact, it would have been more likely to succeed if Fu Hua, who has the adaptability of the Divine Key, had used Udu-dust to try it out. However, it would be difficult for the opponent, who has not become Fusion Warrior, to establish a connection with the Honkai Energy can be controlled and the soul that has not undergone tempering.

The research on the Hyper-Mutation Factor has now reached its final stage. If successful, mass production of Fusion Warrior will no longer be an unattainable dream.

As long as one possesses the potential, after being injected with the Hyper-Mutation Factor drug, there is a high probability that, under certain circumstances, one will transform into Fusion Warrior within a few seconds.

Fusion Warrior evolved in this way do not require extremely strong willpower, because the Honkai Beast genes will skip the processes of fusion, rejection, and transformation in an instant, directly reaching a stable stage. They can achieve success without having to endure any pain, so the requirement for willpower will naturally become negligible.

Mei decided that after perfecting the Hyper-Mutation Factor, she would select a group of soldiers to be injected with it and send them to fight in harsh areas.

There is great terror between life and death. If one cannot stimulate the Hyper-Mutation Factor and transform into Fusion Warrior under this fear, it means that the other party is not qualified.

Su Qing'an initially preferred that Fu Hua undergo a traditional gene transplant, since only by experiencing such a purgatory could one gain the qualification to ignore the interference of the Honkai Consciousness.

However, considering that becoming Fusion Warrior would inevitably lead to some transformation of the soul, and given the special nature of Udu-dust, the interference of the Honkai Consciousness was no longer effective against the opponent. Furthermore, considering the risks of normal gene transplantation, the Hyper-Mutation Factor was the best choice.

He once had Mei test Fu Hua's data and perform genetic matching, but was surprised to find that the most suitable match was the rare Judgment-class Honkai Beast - Benares.

Theoretically speaking, the potential of Judgment-class gene is inherently stronger than that of Emperor-class gene.

This is likely one of the reasons why Fu Hua can serve as a successor of civilization; the strength of her Judgment-class Honkai Beast genes may not be much weaker than Kevin's after accepting the Chimera Project.

At the same time, Su Qing'an finally understood why he had been unable to use many of Fu Hua's magical techniques.

Assuming she inherited Benares' ability to manipulate Celestial Phenomenon, then most of her magical arts would likely be about exploring and developing this fused Gene Ability. It would be meaningless for someone without the same ability to cultivate it.

As the boy sensed Udu-dust's specific abilities, he murmured to himself:

"Let's talk to her about the Fusion Gene later."

He understood the choice Fu Hua would make, but he still wanted to hear her opinion first.

Udu-dust's abilities correspond to the powers of the Herrscher of Consciousness; basically, whatever the Herrscher of Consciousness can do, Udu-dust can do as well.

Suppose we use dreams as a medium, set certain keywords, and put those 100,000 people to sleep all at once. At the same time, we use their subconscious to recall their original selves before they were bewitched. Using this as a template, we can use our powers to make secondary corrections, and thus solve the problem left by the missionaries without affecting their original personalities.

Of course, we cannot rule out extreme cases where people already believed in the Honkai.

In theory, if the above operations can be performed, these people's problems can still be solved using Udu-dust's ability.

The current problem is that the Herrscher of Consciousness himself can achieve this level of accomplishment by personally going to nature.

However, the extent to which Su Qing'an can exert power through the forced connection to the Divine Key remains unknown.

Trying to liberate everyone at once is a foolish move.

Su Qing'an decided to first test his skills on the most serious Honkai Cultist. Since the modification of consciousness and beliefs was involved, he had to be extremely careful and cautious. Otherwise, if anything went wrong, it could easily cause serious aftereffects to the person being modified.

In more serious cases, if one's consciousness is allowed to succumb, the physical body becomes no different from being dead.

The [Sleeping Sickness] previously created by the Eighth Herrscher is an example of this; even if some of the individuals regained consciousness like the others, they still suffered from serious mental problems.

Those Herrscher of Consciousness come for destruction, so they are naturally unscrupulous.

If Su Qing'an wants those bewitched technical talents and scientists, and even the warriors who were originally Moth to Fire, to fully recover their original selves, then she has no choice but to conduct trial and error experiments first.

He does not deny the cruelty and brutality involved, nor does he believe that it lacks sufficient humanitarian concern, and he sincerely believes that it is not true redemption.

From an idealistic perspective, those who cannot escape the bewitching, even if they are reverted by Udu-dust, the essence of their actions is merely a secondary correction that favors civilization. In essence, it is no different from the actions of missionaries.

But this was already the limit of what Su Qing'an could do, and besides, these 100,000 people held considerable significance for modern civilization.

The missionaries select mostly people with Honkai Energy resistance, and many of them meet the minimum data threshold for reaching the Hyper-Mutation Factor. The fundamental reason for this approach is that those who cannot pass the basic screening are not worth trying to seduce in her eyes.

Under the missionaries' control, nearly 100,000 people were screened, and some of them met the criteria for Mei's mass production Fusion Warrior Project.

Therefore, Su Qing'an did not hesitate, nor was he interested in getting stuck on the details. He had experienced a similar choice in Changkong City, the only difference being that the current situation and responsibilities were much heavier.

Through the corrosive medium, Udu-dust's power was successfully released. He leveraged his internal authority and autonomously channeled Honkai Energy into the red rope on his wrist, stimulating his core to unleash even more Honkai Energy levels. He wove a keyword and had Prometheus help cover the death row area with it.

At the same time, illusory dreams are thus created.

Two hours later, Su Qing'an rescued thirteen people, after four failed attempts, but fortunately, no serious side effects occurred.

"How are you feeling? Are you confident you can rescue those people in a short time?"

Faced with Mei's question, he sensed the remaining half of his Soul Essence and answered softly:

"If we rely on slow and inefficient methods, even after several months, we won't be able to rescue everyone. Even rescuing just that portion of the population will take some time."

"And..."

The red string on her wrist shook off on its own, disintegrating into crimson petals that drifted among the Soul Steel cubes, transforming into illusory lotus flowers that swayed quietly.

Looking at this scene, Su Qing'an said with some helplessness:

"I am ultimately not the right person for this Divine Key. The risks and costs of forcibly using it are too great. Furthermore, if my Soul Essence drops to two-thirds of its peak, Udu-dust will break free of my control and refuse to let me use the power of the Herrscher of Consciousness again."

Mei did a quick mental calculation and said:

"Based on your recovery rate, you can only use Udu-dust for a maximum of six hours a day. The efficiency of about fifty people a day is indeed too slow."

Furthermore, the girl herself felt that Su Qing'an shouldn't waste too much time on this. More than that, she cared about his attitude towards another matter:

"Kevin's Chimera Project has officially begun."

"Mr. Su should be more aware than I of how close the Finality to coming. What are your thoughts on what we discussed last time?"

Su Qing'an understood what Mei meant. Their initial meeting and plan were about Fusion Warrior. Now that he possessed the perfect Stigmata and could continue fighting, it was only natural to put it into practice and gain even greater power to resist future enemies.

Mei should know that she doesn't care whether she's considered human after becoming Fusion Warrior. The only reason she would ask for confirmation is because of Fuxi's appearance recently.

If Su Qing'an only possessed the Stigmata given by the Herrscher of Death, she could still use her half-baked Soul State to avoid death.

However, becoming Fusion Warrior changes everything.

This means that unless Su Qing'an can enter a perfect, holistic Soul State like Fuxi, he will only return to dust under the [Purification] realm.

Kevin continued down this path because he had no other way out but to push it to its limit and peak, hoping to find a way to contend with it.

Given his circumstances, it was only natural for him to accept the Chimera Project.

However, Su Qing'an possesses the same ability as Fuxi to reverse between soul and flesh, and also has [Stigmata] which are essentially the manifestation of the soul. Even though he is more immature than his opponent, he still has other paths to take.

That's why Mei asked him about his options.

The boy was silent for a moment, then said softly:

"Did your exile plan fail?"

Mei calmly stated:

"Yes, it failed."

"Three hours after the rocket launch, Fuxi disappeared."

"I realize that with our current level of technology, we cannot banish such a being, and even containment would be meaningless for her."

"So, I chose to observe."

She posted several photos showing the unusual features of a lake in Scandinavian Peninsula.

And, the girl who is still peacefully asleep.

Mei gazed at the serene Fuxi in the painting, her eyes downcast, her emotions heavy. She said:

"She's grown up."

"After the Ninth Herrscher caused massive casualties."

Su Qing'an was momentarily overwhelmed and surreal by the sheer amount of information conveyed in that statement.

The young female scientist then released dozens of comparison images of Fuxi's appearance before and after the Mu Continent incident, and emphasized the date when the mysterious golden light appeared, circling it in red. That date was only a few minutes different from the time when the Mu Continent was annihilated under the Pseudo Black Hole, and the meaning it represented was extremely profound.

"Mr. Su, I generally dislike making these kinds of metaphysical assumptions."

"But according to instrument testing, those golden specks were all human souls."

"Based on the tens of millions of completely different consciousness fluctuations detected by the Fuxi, and comparing them with the death toll before and after the Great Honkai, the origin of her existence is probably this."

Su Qing'an remained silent for a long time before saying:

"Mei, she didn't use her full strength last time."

"How much stronger do you think her overall abilities have become as she's grown up?"

Mei presented a simple and easy-to-understand data table, stating:

"Assuming we take one unit as a measure of a soul's foundation, the deaths and injuries caused by the recent Honkai and anomalies across the Mu Continent and the world are roughly equivalent to one-third of her original level."

"If Fuxi's limit is determined by this unit, then roughly speaking, she has become one-third stronger than before."

Su Qing'an sighed:

"Moreover, this process is irreversible and uncontrollable, making it even more unstoppable than natural phenomena."

"She will continue to grow stronger, surpassing even the most seemingly insurmountable peaks to reach new heights."

Mei said softly:

"Mr. Su, do you think such a being could possess a truly clear consciousness? Amidst hundreds of millions, or even billions, of chaotic consciousnesses, what kind of enlightenment could Fuxi gain from this ocean-like stream of consciousness after his awakening, and what actions would he take?"

Su Qing'an looked into her purple eyes and said softly:

"The so-called manifestation of the soul is essentially a crystallization of the host's nature and desires. My [Stigmata] is like this, and so is [Purification]."

"Fuxi's soul will not be distorted by so-called growing up, and her final actions will correspond to the visions of countless consciousnesses."

Mei turned off the screen displaying the photos and said:

"[Purification]'s ability is to erase everything related to Honkai; it's a terrifying ability that rises to a conceptual level, is unavoidable, and leaves no room for detours."

The answer is already obvious.

"She will destroy everything related to the Honkai."

"Including Fusion Warrior."