Give Life to the Barren, Give Fire to the Cold.

"What are you thinking about? You look so serious."

Seele could not understand many things. She was the sort to act faster than she thought, and Fang Jie had piqued her curiosity, so she asked him directly.

She just had the feeling that if he kept thinking, things would turn out very badly!

Fang Jie came back to his senses. "I was just thinking about sociology. The kind of sociology that creates shocking lunatics."

"Forget it. You don't need to tell me."

Seele did not want to hear it. It sounded troublesome.

"Haha, you should still listen, because I want to say it. Do you know what the galaxy is like now? Especially the galaxy ruled by the Company, the galaxy under the Credit Point system."

Fang Jie explained it to her. His eyes were like a clear pool of water, shining with an ever-brighter light.

Don't think—

Empty your mind. Relax your body.

—Don't think!

In the galaxy, the things that flowed from philosophy were more dangerous than anything else.

Seele did not understand what that unsettling feeling was. There was too much she did not understand, and she let him speak of possibilities that might stop the world from burning. She looked away and pricked up her ears.

"Compared to Belobog's Upper and Underworlds, it is a far greater world of differences—differences so immense they are impossible to measure—and it has created an inescapable vicious cycle. Whenever it erupts, it becomes an event that affects the entire universe."

"These differences cannot even be described as upper and lower classes, paupers and nobles, poor people and capitalists. They are differences between species, differences in civilization level. It is a world that can barely coexist only through 'faith,' 'ideals,' and 'philosophy.'"

Fang Jie had not seen it for himself yet, so he could only use the worldview he knew to draw an analogy—

Well, consumerism, since Credit Points ruled the galaxy.

"Under an ideology resembling consumerism, ordinary people who have been commodified often seek, through consumption, the value in life that they are destined to lack—the value that capitalists have taken from them. By consuming vast quantities of things with symbolic value, they declare themselves successful, standing atop the social pyramid.

And beneath that noisy facade lay, without question, an infinitely deepening despair."

"More tragic still were those who did not even have the right to consume, who were stripped of even the value of pursuing life's value, becoming tools of slaves, slaves of tools, slaves of slaves, tools of tools."

"Everything was meaningless. Ordinary people would gain nothing substantial from anything they did. They would only be casually and easily crushed, unable to close even the slightest distance between themselves and the great figures—the gods."

From the small to the large, the galaxy was a miserable world, far more miserable than Belobog.

"In the galaxy, Emperor II once said: I live, eat, rest, day after day. In production, labor, and work, I am a wound-up man, a living tool, a machine of flesh and blood, a slave to slaves. All life is like this.

"The Emperor II who had not yet awakened was so sorrowful that he felt the urge to leave, to go and see the legacy of Emperor I—the true machines, tools, and slaves. In the end, he arrived there, was crowned, and came to understand:

"'—I will kill these sorrowful organic lives.'"

Had he understood before he was crowned, or had he understood only after being crowned?

Who knew? The Aeon of Finality had obscured the truth, and everything had long since been distorted. Treat it as a fairy tale, then. Fairy tales would not say exactly how many Emperor II had killed.

Seele could not understand it, so she was not terribly shaken by it. All she heard was kill, kill, kill, kill...

Fang Jie, meanwhile, felt much lighter after saying it aloud. He was also somewhat emotional. The reason for slaughter was precisely a love of life; the Company's sins were as vicious as ever.

He had simply been moved to reflect on the accident and inevitability of a lunatic's birth. Here in this orphanage full of talent, in the suffering Underworld, he watched Seele, whose potential was as limitless as Hook's, imagining her potential to become a lunatic—and his own.

Philosophy flowed out, faintly resonating.

"All of this..."

"All of this is like a saying I dislike: the sea of suffering has no shore."

"Pitiful people pursued illusory value, struggling across an endless ocean of despair."

Seele was expressionless. She followed The Hunt.

"Are you done? If you are, we should go. Since you quickly took care of those monsters, I'll call some people to move the supplies."

What an uninteresting beautiful girl.

Strangely interesting, though.

"Hahahaha, Seele, you really are a good girl."

Fang Jie's eyes shone brighter and brighter. Then a bold idea—or rather, an impulse—arose within him. After meeting Seele, even Bronya would not do. Cocolia was even less suitable.

So he followed that impulse.

"I want to ask you for a favor, Seele."

Smiling, he stopped her as she turned to leave and made the presumptuous suggestion. This place was not bad; it could greatly stimulate Seele's potential.

"What?"

Seele looked curiously at Fang Jie's outstretched hand. After thinking for a moment, she simply took it.

She did not blush. Open and straightforward, she exerted enough force to crush an ordinary person's bones. After all, this guy could fight quite well.

"And then?"

she asked.

"Straightforward. Feel this power, this authority. I can only extract 'cellular reorganization' from it, but it can actually create life—especially plants. It can make a great many things grow at once. Try to awaken and use it."

Fang Jie's philosophical musings had been interrupted, bringing him back to his senses. He did not know what would have happened if he had continued earlier, but Honkai energy should still get moving.

Seele was here too, wasn't she?

He had once used Sato Yuno as a God Key. The residual information from that experience had given him a certain lower-level authority of the Herrscher of Death and Rebirth, but developing that aspect was not his strong point. He was somewhat...

Actually, he did not dare continue developing his power.

His rapidly advancing lower-level authority of the Herrscher of Thunder had already been deduced to a level close to the true Herrscher of Thunder. Was that normal?

Even his authority of corrosion was not weak. He could effortlessly project inorganic objects like swords and blades. Was that reasonable?

Fortunately, he had no idea how to project organic matter, let alone perform "human transmutation." These were the only things he wanted to develop but could not obtain. Wasn't that strange?

The existence of Nihility always made people hesitate. Fang Jie decided to find someone for dual cultivation. The last time he had cultivated the Trailblaze path together, he had relied on Himeko, not to mention Rin afterward. He had experience.

Seele, I believe you can do it too.

"What are you even saying? I told you I don't understand."

Seele pouted, wondering whether outsiders were all this cryptic and mysterious. Yet she did not let go of Fang Jie's hand, gripping it tightly.

"So basically, you mean it can grow grass, right?"

She had never seen flowers. Perhaps she had as a child, but she had forgotten. She had seen tough wild grass, though. It had all dried up, then been eaten.

It was said that under the protection of the Amber Lord, plants could grow naturally if conditions were suitable, and that they tasted exceptionally delicious.

Her eyes gradually brightened as she reached out and sensed that power.

It was not about rationally controlling anything. She simply thought of it emotionally—perhaps not even emotionally.

Grow. Grow.

Nothing happened.

Seele gradually became irritated. "How could something like this be possible? I've never heard of grass growing like this. Are you lying to me? You babbled on about a bunch of useless nonsense!"

"If it doesn't work, forget it. I'll think of something else."

Fang Jie scratched his head. Perhaps he lacked the qualifications to become a God Key. After all, he was a man, and this Seele had grown crooked too. He was even afraid she might suddenly start crying someday.

Perhaps getting his hands on the real Abyss Flower would make it easier to develop.

"Wait. Let me try again."

Seele had never heard of anything like this in all her life. She did not believe something so absurd, but Fang Jie had no reason to lie to her. Was teasing her fun?

She was not a confident Seele. There were many things she could not do, yet she was also an arrogant Seele.

Even if it was arrogance, pride, or conceit, she could not be inferior. That was the way to survive in the Underworld.

She simply tossed aside her scythe, held Fang Jie's hand in both of hers, and closed her eyes as well.

"Together with the butterflies—grow for me!"

Paths had neither reason nor logic. Some wandered among the stars, while others could not even catch up to a single footprint.

Especially when one had fallen to the ground and no one was there to help them up, it was difficult to comprehend how to stand again. So, for something one could grasp...

Give it here!

The world was so false. Everything was merely an illusion from ages past. Disperse, disperse, let everything disperse. Nothing was real, so why not dream?

The death of withering suddenly erupted!

The terrifying poison made even Fang Jie dizzy for an instant. Fortunately, he was hard to kill and quickly regained his senses... Not that way, but I can feel it now.

"That's it—no, change direction, quickly, change—"

"Shut up!"

Seele felt an indescribable impulse, only to be stopped at the very edge. Damn it—

Her body and mind trembled. It was not just Seele; Fang Jie also felt the power trembling... surging as he chose to alter Seele's choice.

But in the end, after difficult coordination, they succeeded. Their initial synchronization rate had been too low.

But in the end...

"Boom—!"

A flower of creation erupted with a roar, blooming like a miracle.

Fang Jie instinctively looked down. Together with Seele, who opened her eyes with sweat covering her face, he saw a sight she would probably never forget.

Beyond the space eroded by the Fragmentum, in a remaining corner of the orphanage, the ground began to bulge, swell, and split apart at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A fresh shoot broke through the soil and blossomed in this sunless place.

It was so full of tension. Where it connected to the withered frozen earth, it rapidly tore free, breaking its restraints, rising, rising, rising...

A seed that had fallen into a crack perhaps many, many years ago suddenly grew into a towering tree.

"Rumble—"

"Ah?!"

Mixed into the sounds of growth was Seele's panicked cry as she came back to her senses, rare confusion making her words incoherent. "This, you... No, you were serious!"

"It was your achievement."

Fang Jie stared dumbfoundedly as a giant tree rose beside him. His body felt weak, but his expression became smug.

"Of course, I helped too."

Seele did not think about achievements. It had not answered her at first, but life was also something she had longed to receive a response from. And when it truly answered...

The two of them stared blankly at the scene together. Seele became unprecedentedly silly.

"Where's the grass?"

Fang Jie did not know either. Sato Yuno was still a poisonous vine. He had estimated that his lower-level authority would at most produce Grassy Terrain. This was probably talent.

"Want to try again?"

"Let's do it!"

Seele's eyes shone brightly. The synchronization rate rose.

P.S. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, friends. I hope you all have a happy day. The end of the month is almost here, so please give this child your unused recommendation tickets and monthly tickets to help them grow strong, okay? (՞o՞o)??

Give life to desolation, give flame to cold.

Seele had never imagined that she could be this cool!

—Flash Burst Form!

Being cool like before was actually this exhausting.

"Can you do it, Seele? If you're taking disciples, you need to know how to warm the bed."

"Fuck you. Wait, let me... catch my breath. Just let me rest a little. I can't take it anymore."

Seele supported herself on Fang Jie's shoulder, exhausted beyond belief. Yet she looked extremely excited and had no intention of stopping at all. She just needed a rest.

By now, the orphanage was surrounded by towering trees covered in lush branches and leaves. This was scenery that had never existed in the underground world. She greedily watched it all, clutching Fang Jie and refusing to let go.

You're cool too!