"...It's Hua," the girl said, rubbing her eyes and yawning. She lay sprawled over a table that looked like a workbench, seeming utterly exhausted. "I remember sending out a designated request for you to take this sword-testing assignment."
She was a petite girl who looked less than five feet tall. Her black hair was a tangled mess, and her rose-red eyes were narrowed, making her appear listless.
"Miss Changguang, although an artisan's dedication is admirable, please remember to balance work and rest. In fact, you only posted this assignment half an hour ago."
"Is that so? I forgot. Oh, right—who's the boy beside you?" Changguang had clearly ignored Hua's advice and instead turned her interest toward Su Qing'an.
"This is Su Qing'an. He'll soon be enrolling at St. Freya Academy," Hua replied.
"Oh, oh, oh! Perfect! Let him spar with you! I happen to have another sword here that I made as a prototype for fighting Honkai Beasts."
"It's different from ordinary anti-Honkai weapons. It has very low requirements for Honkai Energy resistance. In theory, even someone with the resistance of a normal man could use it for up to five minutes without their body beginning to transform into a Zombie."
"This technology is already nearing maturity, but there's still a certain degree of risk. Of course, since you can enroll at St. Freya Academy, your Honkai Energy resistance should already be higher than that of a normal man."
"Why don't I check your physical data?"
Changguang excitedly examined Su Qing'an's physical report. Her eyes swept across the panel projected by the instrument, and she exclaimed in delight:
"Heh heh, your resistance is just enough to withstand the Honkai concentration from this Changkong City disaster? Not too high and not too low. You're a perfect candidate for testing the sword!"
"A man with just the right level of Honkai Energy resistance using a Honkai Energy weapon would be a first. I'm very interested in data like this."
The girl ran over to the boy and casually patted him on the shoulder, saying something utterly tactless.
She glanced at Calming the Tempest in Su Qing'an's hand. "You came here carrying a broken sword on purpose, so you must want to have it reforged and repaired, right?"
"If you test my sword for me, I'll personally repair it for you. I can even use most of the materials within my authority."
"How about it? With your level of Honkai Energy resistance, the risk of something going wrong during the test is very low."
"Okay." Su Qing'an nodded without hesitation.
He had no reason to refuse.
Beside him, Hua unconsciously furrowed her delicate brows, but she still said nothing.
"Then everyone wins," Changguang said, before immediately launching into a complaint. "I haven't had any time to sleep these past few days because of this mass-produced sword."
Because of the large-scale Honkai disaster in Changkong City, the Far East Branch, being the closest branch to the disaster, had begun preparing for possible future Honkai disasters.
Mass-produced weapons with improved power were one part of the plan.
As things stood, this seemingly young swordsmith had already reached the pinnacle of weapon forging. Only a month had passed since the Honkai outbreak in Changkong City, yet she had already made considerable progress in this field.
The girl was the director of Schicksal's Saint 1504 Research Institute. Traces of her activities could be found as far back as the Kamakura period, and she was a legendary swordsmith who had lived for more than a thousand years.
As someone named Changguang Changchuan, she naturally possessed such abilities.
Her greatest strength was also her greatest flaw: she had an extraordinary ability to focus, most notably when forging swords and sleeping.
She often forged swords day and night without rest, and once she finished working, she slept regardless of the time.
If they had arrived a little later, it would have been no surprise to find Changguang snoring away, impossible to wake.
In every sense, Theresa's assessment of Changguang had been entirely accurate.
They arrived at the sword-testing grounds. The two stood opposite each other, silently gripping their swords.
How many important memories had Udu-dust burned away back then?
Whenever she looked at the boy's face, a strange familiarity and nostalgia constantly rose in her heart. Yet that was all it amounted to; no memories surfaced.
Only this faint, smoke-like emotion remained, impossible to trace.
The girl was like a cracked porcelain vessel. Her unbreakable will allowed her to continue functioning and moving forward.
But the weight of her soul was growing lighter and lighter. There were already only a handful of things she could hold on to. In theory, someone in this state should have felt curious, happy, or tried to understand and approach him.
Yet her terrifying self-control suppressed every impulse. The girl remained calm and composed.
The sword she drew was one of Changguang Changchuan's creations from the past few days. Its designated name was Composite Sword—Black Tortoise.
She tested the sword with Honkai Energy, comparing it with the mass-produced swords she had used before.
After briefly familiarizing herself with the weapon, they were about to draw their swords against each other.
Are you Hua?
That face, identical to the girl who had taken root in his memories, had nearly made him blurt out the question earlier.
Calm as still water, he silently recited.
And so, reason suppressed his impulse.
Even if Hua is Fu Hua, so what? he told himself.
After the long journey of fifty thousand years, those seven days of knowing each other had been far too insignificant. He had broken his promise on the final day; surely he had long since been buried and forgotten beneath the vast jumble of memories.
Besides, the girl standing opposite him appeared perfectly intact, but both her body and her mind were already on the verge of shattering.
Hua, who had lost most of her memories and endured the passage of countless years, was no different from a stranger to Su Qing'an.
But he couldn't help thinking.
Compared to himself, who had died once and for all, Hua had crossed those endless years alone and reunited with him here. She had not broken her promise.
Without dwelling on those tangled, chaotic thoughts, he felt happy.
It might have been selfish to say this about Fu Hua, who had endured loneliness and hardship to survive until now. But after realizing that the girl was Hua, his first thought was happiness.
Because he could still see her.
In his memories, on that rainy day, he had watched the girl's sleeping face bathed in moonlight for a very long time.
He had once believed he would never see her again.
Yet now she stood right in front of him, bright and vivid. Her long, thick eyelashes and beautiful, clear eyes were both plainly visible.
Even though this reunion, where they could not recognize each other, was no different from a first meeting, the boy was still delighted.
He drew his sword.
Compared to the Composite Sword—Black Tortoise in Hua's hand, which Changguang had made after only a few days of work, the sword in his hand had clearly consumed far more of Changguang's effort and painstaking labor.
Anti-Honkai Weapon—Prototype One.
It was a strange-looking sword. Unlike the ancient swords of Shenzhou, its appearance was bluntly technological, with a heavy straight blade.
It weighed several times more than Calming the Tempest. It required not only a certain level of Honkai Energy resistance, but also a threshold of physical strength and power. Anyone with less than 15 Strength would find it extremely difficult to wield this sword in ordinary combat.
With his strength and stamina, fighting with this sword for a long time was no difficult task.
According to Changguang, the functions built into the sword could greatly increase its user's combat power.
If its functions truly worked as she claimed, he would not have needed to change routes upon encountering a Chariot-class Honkai Beast in Changkong City that day.
At the time, relying on Calming the Tempest's sharpness and pure force, he could not even break through a Chariot-class Honkai Beast's defenses without channeling Honkai Energy.
And controlling Honkai Energy consumed tremendous mental energy. As a result, whenever he encountered Honkai Beasts, aside from individual Assault-type Honkai Beasts, he could only choose to go around them.
Yet despite being so cautious and advancing step by step, he still ended up running into an Emperor-class one.
Before you continue