You asked for healing, but you wrote Honkai Impact 3rd?

Everything before was just setup—now we're getting to the real deal!

The cute, charming, and mysterious maiden! Elysia in her Flame-Chaser attire.

And her Herrscher of Human form, wearing a gown adorned with crystals, magic, flora, and other elements!

Fairy Ai Li, modeled after Elysia, is also adorable.

No matter which form Elysia takes, she's always so lovable!

And the story of The Past's Paradise unfolds from Mei's perspective of exploration.

Elysia...

At first, she was a character so overly familiar that players suspected she was a "pink on the inside, black on the outside" villainess...

I was skeptical at the start;

In the middle, I remained neutral;

But later...

Like all beautiful encounters, after meeting her by chance once, she left.

Still...

What exactly was the reason Mei went to The Past's Paradise in the first place?

The version was so long that even Su Nian couldn't remember clearly.

Although Kevin wanted to recruit a Herrscher to fulfill that promise with Elysia: "If you ever meet a Herrscher who fights for humanity in the future, tell me about it."

That probably wasn't the reason.

Su Nian thought carefully, delving deep into the plot.

Ah, it was because the new-era Herrschers could break free from the Honkai God's control.

[The Past's Paradise Arc]

[Inside the World Serpent base, the "Sovereign" is conversing with the current era's Third Herrscher.]

["...When I used the Herrscher's power to collide with the puppet, my consciousness was pulled into an indescribable space."

"That place should be the root of the Herrscher Authority. I felt a boundless consciousness looming there."

"That consciousness seemed to want to force something directly into my brain... but that attempt was thwarted by the excess electromagnetic waves overflowing within my domain."

"Kevin, this made me wonder—if that consciousness is what they call the Honkai God..."

"Would it really be unable to influence its own apostles for such a reason?"]

It was precisely because of this question that Raiden Mei, along with all the players, unveiled the entirely new concept of The Past's Paradise.

And now, this dialogue struck all the viewers like a hammer blow.

[What?! What did you say?! The Herrscher's power?!]

[He called him, Kevin??? The World Serpent Sovereign?!]

[Conversation? Since when could a Herrscher use both their Authority and keep their sanity?! What did I miss?!]

They extracted the key information quickly.

In an instant, they had dissected every line.

Su Nian had just written that the next era could begin the fight against the Honkai again.

And now the story jumped straight to the next civilization era?

Logically, it would have been best to end this story with an open ending right after the battle against The End, wouldn't it?

But now, Su Nian had introduced another segment of the plot.

Playing by his own rules.

Bet you didn't see this coming—this is where his real story begins!

[The man hadn't expected her to ask such a question. When had she understood things to this extent?]

["The last hero of the previous era, who has fought from that age to this, can't possibly be ignorant of this." Mei's eyes locked onto Kevin.

"How many more secrets do you have that you haven't told this era's humanity?"

"I need an answer. Right now."]

[Kevin remained silent, pondering something... After a long silence, he acquiesced.]

["...Fine. You've earned that right now."]

[Kevin raised his hand, pointing in a direction. A lightless corridor wound out from a corner of the ritual ground.]

[The end of that darkness connected to the beginning of the world.]

["The right to seek answers."]

When you first went through this part of the story, you thought he was being cryptic.

Actually, he just didn't want to answer—and didn't know how to.

If you look at Kevin from the end backward, a lot of things start to make sense...

[Want to know the answer to this question? If you do, I can tell you everything.]

[But you have to find it yourself.]

[Go see it—The Past's Paradise!]

[The truth of everything lies there.]

But she's really cute, though.jpg

That's a bit terrifying—you guys actually racked up seven chapters of debt through bounties???

Luckily, I set an upper limit out of fear. I updated seven chapters tonight, two of which were the base update, paying back five. I'll clear the rest soon!

The censors will be back at work tomorrow, so the images are probably going to get nuked. Enjoy them while you can.

Chapter 43: The Flying Petals of the Past, The Prologue of Paradise

Su Nian wrote the last segment in the form of a meme. At this point, the curtain of The Past's Paradise has already risen.

And the first Flame-Chaser Raiden Mei encounters after entering The Past's Paradise is...

[Raiden Mei didn't know how long she had been walking. From a moment ago, everything around her had been pitch black.]

[It seemed this corridor stretched endlessly, extending into another space.]

["...Kevin, Kevin. You really do love causing trouble for others."]

At this moment, the pink fairy girl sitting atop something like a "throne" had already sensed Raiden Mei, who had come seeking answers.

[In the boundless darkness, she seemed to notice something.]

[Suddenly, the darkness before her vanished. Opening her eyes, what she saw was a rather bizarre structure.]

[Crumbled stones and broken walls spiraled upward around a tower, interweaving into a grid like a birdcage, as if proclaiming itself the center of the world.]

[The color palette of The Past's Paradise was mostly pink, and here, the sky, as well as the trees beside it, were all pink.]

What lay before Raiden Mei now was a strange sight.

The architectural style of the Previous Civilization era was once common everywhere.

But for Mei, a person of the modern age, it was still a bit too avant-garde. The state of the Previous Civilization was far beyond what she could imagine from mere fragments of words.

Upon first entering The Past's Paradise, Mei was immediately arranged to undergo a trial.

This was something every cadre from World Serpent had to face.

Gaining the recognition of the Flame-Chasers through combat and obtaining their sigils counted as passing the trial.

But Mei wasn't here for a trial—she was here to seek the truth she had asked about.

Yet she understood very little about this place.

And so, in a daze, she stumbled into an unfamiliar land.

Unaware of Kevin's purpose or intentions, Mei couldn't comprehend it either. When she first entered, she was somewhat wary of this stranger named Elysia.

Kevin had only told her that she could find the answers she sought here.

How she found them was up to her.

[A playful girl's voice echoed through this space, chatting idly with Mei. After confirming that Mei had adapted to the state of The Past's Paradise, and while Mei was still unaware of the current situation, she began a "lesson."]

There was no goal. Raiden Mei didn't need to defeat anyone in particular, nor did she need to find anything.

The structure of The Past's Paradise was simple, and its purpose was the same.

Captains just needed to use their playable Valkyries to grind scores and claim rewards here as much as they wanted.

Experiencing the story... that was something only a few people did.

After all, the amount of text was just too much. Even though every line had voice acting, it was hard to have the patience to listen through it all.

For some players, The Past's Paradise meant only one thing: get the crystals, and once you got the crystals, run!

Su Nian appropriately omitted some content, after all, the difference between a novel's format and a game's was too great.

If she just used dialogue to push the plot forward... obviously, Su Nian wasn't writing some actor's script.

["Anyway, just follow your heart and explore to your heart's content. I'm really looking forward to seeing how far you can go... without the help of the other Flame-Chasers."]

[That playful voice didn't seem like that of a pre-programmed system. Her interaction with Mei felt like casual small talk.]

[Guided by this voice, Mei decided to move to the next step. At this point, she offered her blessing to help Mei proceed more smoothly.]

["I will bestow my blessing upon you, and your soul will shine with even more dazzling radiance."]

["Raiden Mei's grand adventure in The Past's Paradise begins now!"]

Call it an adventure...

But in reality, it was a process of Mei stumbling around like a headless fly, constantly verifying her own conjectures.

Though, sometimes her actions were indeed quite risky. Calling it a grand adventure in The Past's Paradise wasn't entirely wrong.

To judge whether a line is famous, you look at whether players who never read the story still know it.

For example, that time she took the initiative to provoke Chijie and seek death in order to break Aponia's prophecy...

"Chijie, please come over here."

This line provoked the hot-tempered Chijie, but also had an unexpected contrast because of the word "please."

It has the same charm as "I'm asking you, kid."

It's one of miHoYo's little detail quirks.

[What awaited Raiden Mei was a battle against an unknown target.]

[This building seemed capable of recreating certain enemies based on Raiden Mei's memories—a few Honkai Beasts and... Anti-Entropy Titans.]

[But for a Herrscher, the strength of these enemies was still far too weak.]

[Not worth fearing, and she took no damage.]

Raiden Mei had been through many battles herself and knew swordsmanship; enemies of this level were indeed nothing to fear.

Elysia wouldn't lie—she really had performed well.

[The battle ended, and Raiden Mei returned to the hall of The Past's Paradise.]

[A part of this building's appearance was revealed to her—unfamiliar decorations and layouts, one side in a gorgeous classical style, the other decorated with a technological aesthetic.]

["I'm over here."]

["Hey~ Welcome back."]

[A pink-haired girl was sitting on a nearby sofa. Seeming to notice Mei's gaze, she smiled sweetly.]

[She had pointed ears like a fairy's, her clothes custom-made by Eden, and every accessory, every detail on her was the result of her careful styling...]