Honkai's Thousand Laws, Abducting Kiana at the Start

"And you? Chen Tianwu."

"Night Owl."

"What? Are you hungry?"

Glancing at Raven, who was deliberately teasing him, Chen Tianwu felt annoyed but patiently explained, "An owl is a creature that hunts at night and rests during the day. It's just a nickname. 'Night Owl' sounds better."

"Alright, alright, Night Owl. Let's go, I'll treat you to a late-night snack..."

"You..." Chen Tianwu felt a pang in his chest, but after estimating his combat strength, he didn't say anything more.

"Are you eating or not? If not, you can go back by yourself."

"..."

"I'll eat."

Chapter 66: Ms. Jackal

One day earlier, at Shencheng Pharmaceuticals Industrial Zone.

"Your codenames have been approved by the Serpent, and you are now official members of the World Serpent." Raven brought good news to Su Jue and Chen Tianwu. Chen Tianwu had been scouted by Raven herself, so it was natural for her to lead him. Su Jue, on the other hand, was introduced by Gray Serpent, but due to Gray Serpent's busy schedule, he was now assigned to Raven as well, and she was handling his onboarding.

Chen Tianwu showed no particular reaction to the news. Having lost his sister and with his body corrupted by Honkai and forced to undergo modifications, he would have ended his life long ago if not for the lingering desire to see Anna again. He had been drifting aimlessly in the Thousand Fists Society before, and now he was drifting in the World Serpent. To him, there was no difference.

Su Jue, however, appeared somewhat surprised, finding it hard to believe he had obtained a codename so easily. "I thought there would be more stringent checks, like investigating family backgrounds and such."

"Those are merely restraints for the incompetent. For those who are valuable, the World Serpent has never demanded much. You can even leave in the future if you wish," Raven said, speaking from personal experience. She had once been a mercenary living on the edge, and her role in the World Serpent was primarily due to more stable and generous benefits. As long as she completed her missions, there were few restrictions. In fact, finding work had been harder after leaving the World Serpent.

"Uh, is the World Serpent short on people?" Su Jue asked in a low voice, having keenly caught the hidden meaning in Raven's words.

Raven, however, was unconcerned. "There's nothing to hide. There are only a few executives with codenames: Gray Serpent, Raven, Ms. Jackal, Rabbit, and your Ink Moth, Night Owl..."

"Sounds like a zoo," Su Jue muttered under his breath, immediately drawing Raven's attention.

But before she could speak, a woman's voice echoed from the corridor's broadcast.

"Newcomers, the Serpent is supreme and will not tolerate your slander. When the Honored Master descends, you will all pay for your words." The woman's tone was laced with disdain and arrogance, clearly identifying herself and the World Serpent as a unified front.

Facing Su Jue and Night Owl's confused gazes, Raven shrugged. "This is Ms. Jackal, the one in charge of research. How should I put it... besides conducting experiments, her brain isn't exactly her strong suit..."

"Shut up, you battle-obsessed idiot." With a crackle of electricity, Ms. Jackal's voice returned, mixed with some furious curses. Raven ignored her and led the two into the underground laboratory of the industrial zone.

"This is our primary research facility. I believe with your abilities, you two have already grasped the nature of our research."

Su Jue nodded, making no attempt to hide anything. Thanks to the power of that man, the World Serpent never worried about espionage. They didn't pry much into individuals with unknown information sources like Su Jue. In fact, the more he knew, the more he could secure a position within the World Serpent.

"The destruction caused by Honkai is a global threat. For humanity to achieve victory, sacrifices are inevitable. The Honored Master's choice is not wrong." Faithfully acting as a lackey, Su Jue completely aligned his stance with the World Serpent.

The broadcast voice sounded again. Su Jue's words greatly pleased Ms. Jackal. "That's right. We bear the heavy responsibility of saving the world. Compared to Schicksal, which directly creates Valkyries using artificial Stigmata and then discards them after use, the Honored Master's goal is far more benevolent. Even if the initial sacrifices are greater, one day, when everyone possesses Stigmata, there will be no need to fear the erosion of Honkai, and they will then accept the Serpent's guidance and shoulder the responsibility of continuing human civilization."

"I didn't expect you, who just joined the World Serpent, to so deeply understand the Honored Master's intentions. You truly are an Ink Moth, born from chaos and striving for fire."

"Thank you for your praise, Ms. Jackal." Su Jue nodded, greatly pleased. Although Ms. Jackal's personality was arrogant and overbearing, from another perspective, she was quite straightforward. As long as one agreed with her views and supported her choices, she could set aside her prejudices. People like her most needed flattery and recognition. What Su Jue needed to do now was to play the role of a supporting green leaf, thereby integrating more easily into the core members of the World Serpent, and perhaps even forming a standard villainous duo with Ms. Jackal.

"Since that's the case, are you interested in joining my faction? The current executives are all self-serving individuals. Not a single one is wholeheartedly loyal to the Serpent..."

"..." Good heavens, he had just called Ms. Jackal easy to fool, and now she was putting him on the spot.

The executive who invited him was Gray Serpent, and the one who assessed him was Raven. If Su Jue were to immediately join Ms. Jackal's faction, those two would likely tear him apart.

"Ahem, Ms. Jackal, I believe that since we are all striving for the Honored Master's goals, we should not be fixated on factions and camps. Mutual cooperation is the best choice for everyone." After speaking, Su Jue glanced at Raven beside him and found her watching him with an amused expression. If he had just accepted Ms. Jackal's invitation, his future standing in the World Serpent would likely be precarious.

"Tch, fine if you don't agree. I know you all have your own agendas anyway. But since you've offered to help, my experimental subjects have just run out. If you can help me find experimental subjects with high adaptability to Honkai Energy, I won't mind giving you, a newcomer, some benefits."

Seeing that she couldn't win him over, Ms. Jackal shifted to a transaction. She wasn't really trying to recruit him. She was the only executive in the World Serpent fully dedicated to research. The others were mostly responsible for dealing with Schicksal and Honkai, or developing the World Serpent's economy. They were from different circles and wouldn't easily join. It was better to take this opportunity to have the newcomer find some experimental materials for her, thus speeding up her research.

"Then I thank you for your appreciation, Ms. Jackal. I will bring you experimental subjects as soon as possible."

Time returned to the present. After roughly understanding the World Serpent's deployment in Sky City, Su Jue couldn't help but marvel at their madness.

Using hyper-mutation factors as activators to forcibly stimulate the Stigmata hidden within human genes, thereby achieving the expression of natural Stigmata.

Although Raven hadn't elaborated, Su Jue was well aware that this was the Stigmata plan formulated by Dr. Mei of the Previous Civilization. With the other plans—the Seed Plan, the Ark Plan, the Sand Plan, the Shelter Plan, and so on—basically having no hope, Kevin, facing the impending Great Honkai predicted by Mei, was conducting experiments at any cost, even incorporating the entire Sky City into the experimental scope, using millions of lives to activate the Stigmata.

It was indeed worthy of being the strongest warrior who had witnessed the destruction of a civilization; he could sacrifice millions of lives without batting an eye. If it were Su Jue, he could probably gather more than half of the Herrscher of a Thousand.

Su Jue didn't care about the fate of Sky City. He didn't need a Great Honkai or a massacre. With the World Serpent and Schicksal organizations acting this way, humanity would lose at least half of its population even without the Herrschers taking action.

What he needed to do now was to deliver a suitable experimental subject to Ms. Jackal.

A girl with short, light blue hair with a hint of red shyly followed behind him, her eyes filled with fear and curiosity as she looked at the surrounding buildings. As they stepped deeper into the laboratory, the noise of the running equipment could already be faintly heard.

"Ms. Jackal, I've brought the experimental subject you requested."

The little girl's gaze finally settled on the woman in the white lab coat, her face showing an expression of terror.

Chapter 67: Voluntary Test Subject Agreement

Behind the glass curtain wall, Ms. Jackal was covered in blood. The bottom of her white lab coat was completely stained red, her brown hair was messily scattered behind her, and she was holding a syringe, injecting it into a test mouse.

Upon hearing Su Jue's voice, Ms. Jackal didn't pay him any mind and continued to inject the entire contents of the syringe into the mouse.

The next second, the injected mouse began to rapidly swell. Large amounts of purple patterns started to spread across its body, a sign of Honkai Energy erosion. As the purple patterns continued to spread, white chitin gradually appeared on its surface. It was clear that the mouse was mutating in the direction of a Honkai Beast.

However, this state didn't last long. The continuously swelling mouse suddenly exploded like a balloon. The Honkai Beast's chitin had not yet fully formed when the excess flesh and blood turned into mud. Scattered blood further stained Ms. Jackal's clothes, and the shattered half of the mouse's head hit the glass in front of Griseo, then slowly fell after leaving a long bloody streak.

Griseo, startled, immediately hid behind Su Jue, no longer daring to look at Ms. Jackal.

It was clear the experiment had failed again. Ms. Jackal tossed the mangled remains of the white mouse into the lab's recycling bin, which was already overflowing with similar corpses.

Taking off her dirty outer coat, Ms. Jackal opened the lab door and greeted Su Jue.

"Ms. Jackal, what is this?"

"Just testing the load-bearing capacity of Honkai resistance to the activator. It seems white mice are too insignificant; we need human subjects." She then noticed the little girl beside Su Jue. "Is this the test subject you brought?"

"Yes, this is... my daughter."

"Daughter? Are you insane? I warned you about the dangers of this experiment beforehand. How dare you use your own daughter as a test subject?" Ms. Jackal scanned Su Jue and Griseo, her gaze filled with doubt. While she didn't care who the test subjects were, Ink Moth was a high-ranking cadre with a title. If the experiment failed and caused trouble, it would be difficult to handle.

Ruffling Griseo's hair, Su Jue offered a helpless smile. "I have no choice. I'm just an ordinary person, barely able to protect myself from the coming Great Honkai. If my daughter can't gain the power to protect herself, she'll eventually be swept into the chaos. It's better to conduct the Stigmata experiment now. At least with your supervision, Ms. Jackal, the success rate will be higher."

"I think you've misunderstood. Whether I personally conduct the experiment has no bearing on its success or failure; it might slightly increase the survival rate at best."

Ms. Jackal had always used Shencheng Pharmaceuticals' propaganda, which claimed to cure all diseases, to trick patients seeking medical help into signing voluntary consent forms to become test subjects, euphemistically calling it 'the price.' Since there were so many sick people, test subjects were practically inexhaustible, so she had never considered whether they could survive.

"If you've truly decided to let your daughter undergo the experiment, then sign this voluntary consent form."

With a test subject delivered to her doorstep, Ms. Jackal wouldn't refuse. As long as the voluntary consent form was signed, she wouldn't care about anything else.

Looking at the form handed to him, then at his daughter, Su Jue was silent for a moment. "May I speak with her for a moment?"

"Of course. You still have time to change your mind."

Nodding gently, Su Jue led the somewhat frightened Griseo to a small room nearby. He wasn't actually going to communicate; since both bodies were under his control, he used this opportunity to thoroughly examine Griseo's body's characteristics.

In the original timeline, the Herrschers of a Thousand existed as puppets, controlled by the Herrscher of a Thousand's core. They possessed independent thought, and their ideas and actions were often bizarre.

However, in Su Jue's hands, these puppets were under his control, possessing flesh and blood. Griseo was the most special, as she was the only one who had been infused with Su Jue's blood, giving birth to a body unique to her existence.

Su Jue was not a scientist and couldn't determine if her body would retain his genes. Sending her to Ms. Jackal for experimentation served two purposes: first, to frame World Serpent later when dealing with Kiana and sow discord between them. Second, he was genuinely curious about the Stigmata Project. If Griseo truly awakened the Stigmata, wouldn't he also be able to use its power?

If the Stigmata Project succeeded, Su Jue would go all-in, handing over all the puppets to Ms. Jackal for modification. With a thousand Stigmata-enhanced puppets, he could even crush Finality.

Of course, this possibility was extremely low, and Su Jue didn't hold out much hope.

After a perfunctory conversation with Griseo, her face showed worry and fear, with even tears welling up in her eyes—such detailed personality simulation was difficult for his other clones to achieve.

"Confirmed? Then sign."

Taking the consent form from Ms. Jackal, Su Jue signed his name as 'Ink Moth.' Ms. Jackal nodded in satisfaction. After a brief observation, she saw that Griseo had a basic tolerance for Honkai Energy and hadn't shown any discomfort in the lab for so long.

"You found me a test subject, so what do you need?" She handed Su Jue a material list, not forgetting that this was a transaction, and generously offered her terms.

After a moment of thought, Su Jue selected one of the reagents.

"HSN-b46 Serum."

After the transaction, Ms. Jackal quickly began her Stigmata activation research. Griseo's strong adaptability to Honkai Energy quickly caught her attention. Her capacity to withstand Honkai Energy far exceeded that of ordinary humans, leading her to transfer all her pending experiments to Griseo and place increasing importance on her.

She was, of course, unaware that Griseo was controlled by Su Jue. The various modified Honkai Energy Ms. Jackal provided were like feeding him an assortment of desserts, and Su Jue happened to have multiple stomachs.

"[Ink Moth], Gray Serpent has successfully infiltrated the Hyperion. You need to proceed to the Abyssal Eye for support. It's time to welcome the Lord's descent."

Here, after confirming that Griseo wouldn't be exposed, this clone, [Ink Moth], received a notification from Raven, asking him to go to Sky City to provide support.

According to the trajectory of the original timeline, the opening of the Abyssal Eye signified the imminent awakening of the Herrscher of Reason and the return of Kevin, who was trapped in the Sea of Quantum. This would be a significant test for Su Jue, but also an opportunity if he could gain some benefits.

The work in Sky City would be taken over by Su Jue's main body.

Chapter 68: Sunset Falls, the Starry Sky Fills the Heavens

The scenery of Sky City wasn't always gentle. As Honkai continued to occur, the city gradually began to collapse. After the Great Honkai, ordinary people, for survival, almost entirely gathered in large cities. The outskirts of the cities gradually shrank until they were slowly devoured by Honkai.

Sitting alone on the edge of a skyscraper rooftop, the distant sunset slowly sank. Smoke rose from areas damaged by Honkai Beasts. The cold wind carried faint cries from afar, brushing past Kiana's hair before dissipating.

The afterglow falling on her brought no warmth, only enveloping her in a profound loneliness.

She clutched the broken star hairpin in her hand. The bloodstains had been wiped clean, yet in the twilight, they were coated in crimson.

"You've been staring at it for half an hour. If you care that much, then go find him," Fu Hua's voice sounded in her ear. This wasn't the first time Kiana had zoned out. Ever since that battle, Fu Hua had clearly felt another rift forming in her heart.

This situation was dangerous. Sirin's consciousness was still constantly eroding her. If another crack were to open and she once again took over Kiana's body, it would be a disaster for the entire Sky City.

"..." Kiana remained silent, but her eyes held a deep weariness.

She looked up at the distant sunset. A red sun was being swallowed by the black horizon. Soon, the entire world would be plunged into darkness.

"Was my choice back then the right one?" Confusion and hesitation intertwined in her heart. She had asked herself this question countless times but could never find an answer.

Fu Hua fell into a brief silence. She couldn't answer Kiana's question.

Although Kiana never said it, ever since she discovered that little girl had gone missing, she had been tormented by guilt and regret.

"Kiana, that child's disappearance is not your fault. You don't need to blame yourself..."

In the end, she could only offer such pale words of comfort.

Right and wrong were never the answers; it was the divergence of choices that led to different outcomes.

Griseo's disappearance was essentially unrelated to Kiana. She had merely passed by. She was neither the culprit who caused it nor did she change the outcome due to her own mistake. In fact, when she wanted to help, it was Fu Hua who advised her to prioritize the bigger picture.

But every time she recalled the scene that night, the cool evening breeze rustling the grass, the creaking swing swaying under the starry sky, Griseo painting a cloudless starry sky, while she and that young man shared their pasts.

And this beautiful moment vanished like smoke due to her own easy choice, filling her heart with intense pain.

If she hadn't been concerned about her identity being discovered back then, and had instead helped her find a safe place before investigating the bloody smell, would the outcome have been completely different?

Griseo's whereabouts remain unknown, and her life or death is uncertain. Kiana is afraid not only because she failed to save Griseo due to her own actions, but also because she fears she will no longer have the courage to face that person.

She feared that the future, like shattered stars, could never be reclaimed.

"I'm sorry, Kiana. If I hadn't persuaded you to leave it be back then..." In her mind, Fu Hua was still nagging at her, but Kiana could barely hear her anymore.

Whether it was Fu Hua secretly monitoring Kiana for Otto, or the wrong choices made in the Griseo incident, a deep chasm had ultimately formed between them.

After she indulged Otto in the Herrscher of Void experiment, destroying everything she had and plunging the world into a great Honkai outbreak, all words had long since become pale and powerless. And after she fled, when she needed help the most, no one was there.

If she hadn't met Su Jue, who was struggling in the same mire of despair at that time, and borrowed courage from him, she would have long since collapsed and become a vessel for the Herrscher of Void.

Now, she was alone again, but the road still had to be walked. Whether for Teacher Himeko, or for Su Jue, or for the missing Griseo, she couldn't stop here.

A strong fluctuation of Honkai Energy erupted not far away. At some point, Honkai outbreaks within the city had become increasingly frequent.

Forcing her tired body up from the rooftop, Kiana gazed at the horizon. The sun had completely set, and the afterglow had dyed the sky crimson, like a sky set ablaze by fire.

Her heart was filled with confusion, her body ached, but she had many things to say, many things to do, people she wanted to see whom she hadn't met yet, so she couldn't fall here.

There were still many people waiting for her help; she couldn't make another wrong choice.

"Kiana, your body has been severely corrupted. You can't use Honkai Energy anymore. If it gets out of control, it will be a true disaster for this city." Seeing Kiana ignite her Golden Eyes again, Fu Hua tried to persuade her.

"Enough, stop talking." No amount of words could change the facts. Fu Hua now only made Kiana feel annoyed.

"Your current psychological state is very dangerous..."

"I said enough! Don't you understand? Fu Hua." Forcefully interrupting Fu Hua's voice, Kiana no longer even used the term "class representative." She didn't want to hear her persuasion anymore. "You've been by Otto's side for too long. You've learned to weigh pros and cons, always talking about what will happen to Sky City, what will happen to the world, what will happen to the future. But have you ever thought about the cause of all this?"