The Dimensional Codex of Destruction Chapter 43

"At the very least, this world, I will definitely protect it!"

Chapter 17: Night Talk

Love Train, this ability was obtained by Fani Valentine after collecting the remains of saints. Qin Mo felt that, just like Requiem, the evolution of this ability stemmed from personal needs. Fani, wanting his country to be strong, wanted to expel all bad things forever and leave only the good.

Therefore, his ability was to transfer misfortune and attacks to other places in the world, because he didn't care about anything other than his own country.

But Qin Mo was not that kind of person. After being transformed by Heaven's Gate, Love Train also became an ability suitable for Qin Mo, and the ability he needed: the ability to connect with others.

Although the introduction was simple, the more unadorned the introduction, the more terrifying the power it contained.

Taking out Nika's Mask, Qin Mo was still in the role of The Dark One. The Dark One used his own power to absorb the power of the shadowy figures from the mask to create the Shadow Legion.

But this had its pros and cons.

The advantage was that the negative emotions of Nika's Mask could not affect Qin Mo, the user. The disadvantage was that the number of Shadow Legion summoned this way had a limit, exactly one hundred.

The principle of Nika's Mask was to use one's inner darkness to summon soldiers from one's own shadow. The greater the inner darkness, the more could be summoned. Therefore, as long as one had boundless darkness in their heart, theoretically, the soldiers summoned could even flood the entire world.

However, the forcibly absorbed shadowy power lost its ability to connect with the inner darkness, and could only rely on its special properties to summon soldiers from shadows. But this shadow was not just one's own shadow, but any shadow could be used. However, the number was limited to one hundred. It seemed that without the support of inner darkness, this was the limit.

And now, Qin Mo was going to use a new method to wield this power.

He tossed Nika's Mask backward. Heaven's Gate reached out, caught it, and placed its hand on the mask.

Qin Mo immediately felt a bond form between him and the mask. He could freely take power from the mask or infuse his own power into it.

He didn't know if all people and objects were like this, or if it was just because he was facing an inanimate object.

Qin Mo felt two powers within the mask: one was cold and evil, and the other was pure darkness.

There was no need to distinguish. Qin Mo knew what he needed. After putting on Nika's Mask, that evil power would constantly stimulate the host's dark side, but the Shadow Legion was not purely the power of the dark side.

Heaven's Gate extended its hand and extracted that pure darkness from Nika's Mask. Immediately, many cracks appeared on Nika's Mask.

Now, Nika's Mask had lost the ability to summon the Shadow Legion, and only retained the ability to awaken the host's dark side.

Casually putting it back, Qin Mo watched Heaven's Gate play with the black sphere in its hand.

Although it was energy extracted by Heaven's Gate, it seemed unable to use it itself, and eventually merged into Qin Mo's body.

"As expected, it's enough for a hundred people..."

Feeling the energy within his body, Qin Mo silently summoned all the Shadow Legion using the shadows under the cover of night in a place outside the window where no one could see. Exactly one hundred people.

The Shadow Legion could not die, but they could be dispersed. After being dispersed, they would turn back into shadows and needed to be re-summoned near the controller.

One hundred people were enough. At least Qin Mo didn't expect them to fight Honkai Beasts.

Waving his hand, he let the Shadow Legion dissipate. Qin Mo looked at the night outside the window and pondered. The power of this Love Train was not actually born for Nika's Mask. It was just unlucky. This power was prepared for Mei and Kiana. Mei was fine, but if Kiana were to be corrupted by a large amount of Honkai Energy and the Queen awakened, he could use the power of Love Train to siphon the Honkai Energy or even the authority of the Herrscher of the Void.

"Knock knock."

As the knocking sound echoed, Kiana's voice sounded from outside: "Qin Mo, we're done washing, you can go now."

Accompanying Kiana's voice was Theresa's crisp roar, seemingly telling Kiana to wear more clothes?

"Okay, I'll be right there."

Only after the others had finished their baths did Qin Mo begin to take his own bath.

Before soaking in the hot spring, one needed to take a bath first. After all, the purpose of soaking in the hot spring was not to wash away dirt in the spring. Therefore, to prevent polluting the hot spring, one needed to wash away the dirt on their body beforehand to prevent polluting the hot spring.

After taking five minutes to quickly wash his entire body and walking out of the room in a bathrobe, Qin Mo saw Kiana and Bronya playing games in front of the TV in the living room. Mei was sitting on the sofa behind them reading a book, and Himeko was, as usual, drinking beer.

"Waaaaah! What are you looking at! Hurry up and go to the hot springs!"

Before Qin Mo could look any further, Theresa, wearing a Haxxor Bunny pajama, jumped in front of him, raising her hands and hopping as if trying to block his view, looking very cute.

"What's there to see? I've seen this scene for several days."

After soaking in the hot springs, none of them were wearing too many clothes, just simple nightgowns. In comparison, Theresa, who was the oldest here, was actually wearing the most and looked the most childish.

"That's not allowed either!"

Himeko said with a laugh while drinking at the dining table, "Alright, Theresa, Brother Qin Mo has been living with us for several days, don't worry."

"Shut up! You bomb-toting woman! You're the one dressed the most immodestly here!"

Hearing Himeko's words, Theresa immediately gave up on Qin Mo and ran towards Himeko.

Qin Mo took the opportunity to slip away.

Immersing his body in the hot spring, Qin Mo let out a sigh of relief. Sitting in front of the computer for a long time typing also brought him a lot of fatigue. Soaking in a hot spring could relax him greatly.

He scooped up a handful of water with his hand, looking at it, which was no different from ordinary water.

But Qin Mo knew that this hot spring was created using Nen and had magical effects.

He didn't know its principles, but he was very fascinated by the myriad of strange Nen abilities. After obtaining the role cards of two characters with Nen abilities, Qin Mo also tried to switch and feel them. In the role card state, he could skillfully perceive and use Nen abilities, but after removing the role card, he could no longer feel them at all.

Although he felt a sense of shared origin when practicing Ripple, for some reason, he had not yet awakened his own Nen abilities.

He slowly submerged his body from the neck down into the hot spring. He didn't know when the noisy sounds in the villa had stopped. It was also very late, and they probably went back to their rooms to rest.

The location of the hot spring was not visible from any of the villa's windows. The only glass sliding door connected to the living room also had an emergency curtain installed by Theresa due to the hot spring.

It could be seen that Theresa was very wary of him. However, this made Qin Mo feel a bit more at ease, as he was also a young man in his prime, and seeing such tempting scenes every day could be quite unbearable.

As for the hot spring, even if others allowed Qin Mo to join them for a communal bath, he felt he would refuse...

"Qin Mo..."

Just as Qin Mo closed his eyes, a faint voice reached his ears.

Chapter 18 Sharing Abilities

"Mei! What are you—"

Seeing Mei emerge from the living room, Qin Mo was initially surprised. Then, noticing the bath towel wrapped around her, he lowered his voice.

God, if Theresa saw this, she'd definitely use Judah to bash my head in.

"Shhh..."

Mei placed a finger to her lips, then quietly walked to the edge of the hot spring and stepped in. In the dim, cool light, Qin Mo could see a blush spreading across Mei's face, unsure if it was from the heat of the water or from shyness.

"Kiana and the others have gone back to their rooms."

Mei added, then submerged half her face in the water.

What are you doing here? Qin Mo really wanted to ask, but while he was a straight man, he wasn't a completely oblivious one.

Even though she was wrapped in a towel and her body was submerged, Qin Mo could still see Mei's flawless, porcelain-like skin through the water.

Because she had to tie up her hair for the hot spring, her neck, as white as fine jade, was incredibly alluring even underwater.

"Ahem."

Seeing Mei's face grow redder from his gaze, Qin Mo coughed and looked away slightly. "It feels like it's been a long time since it was just the two of us."

Qin Mo didn't know what prompted Mei to do this, but it certainly wasn't just for a hot spring bath. Although he didn't know why she hadn't spoken up, Qin Mo decided to break the ice himself.

"Mhm..." Despite Qin Mo's attempt at awkward small talk that threatened to kill the mood, Mei still replied. She slightly lifted her face out of the water, keeping her body submerged. "Because Kiana is always clinging to me."

Even as she said this, there was no hint of complaint in Mei's voice.

"Kiana is just like that. She's the most lost herself, yet she always manages to bring vitality to others."

"Yeah."

Looking down at the surface of the hot spring, "Actually, sometimes I think, wouldn't it be nice if things could always be like this, just like our travels back then."

"There will be opportunities. If we travel again, where would you like to go?"

Thinking of the charging dungeon system, Qin Mo asked.

"There are still opportunities..."

Mei's voice was filled with anticipation. "As long as we're all together, we can go anywhere."

"But..."

As if remembering something, "Qin Mo, what do you think of Bronya?"

"Bronya?"

Hearing Mei's question, Qin Mo was taken aback. "What aspect are you referring to?"

Mei pursed her lips, seemingly contemplating how to express herself. Qin Mo didn't rush her. After a while, Mei finally spoke. "I overheard Bronya seemingly contacting someone named Cocolia."

"And she seemed to be reporting our situation to her..."

"Bronya was secretly contacting Cocolia and got found out?"

Qin Mo chuckled softly. Of course, she used to contact her through an internal chip. After they destroyed it, she could only use external means, making it highly likely she'd be discovered.

"Don't worry, Mei. Bronya was also deceived. She's not a bad person, really."

Qin Mo felt like he was constantly spoiling things for Mei. He thought about it and realized that instead of beating around the bush, it was better to just tell her the truth.

"Bronya was once a mercenary living precariously, known as the Ural Silver Wolf. During an assassination mission against Cocolia, she was captured and then adopted into Cocolia's orphanage. There were many other orphans adopted by Cocolia, all victims of Honkai, and they all called Cocolia 'mother'."

"In the orphanage, Bronya met a girl named Seele and they became friends. Their relationship, well..."

Qin Mo thought for a moment and said, "It's similar to yours and Kiana's."

"Cocolia is a very strange and contradictory person. She loves her children, but she's also filled with ambition. She wants to defeat Honkai through experimentation, and the test subject is Bronya."

"Seele, like you, was born with a Stigmata. Upon learning about Cocolia's experiments, she showed Cocolia her Stigmata and asked to be the test subject instead of Bronya. The result was that the experiment failed, Seele's body turned into a quantum state, and she fell into the Quantum Sea, that place outside the world."

"To see Seele again, Bronya voluntarily participated in the experiment and entered the Quantum Sea, where she met Seele. She originally wanted to stay there with Seele, but Seele didn't want Bronya to make such a sacrifice. Using the power from her Stigmata combined with the power of the Quantum Sea, she constructed the Heavy Tank Bunny 19C and gave it to Bronya."

"Bronya promised Seele that she would definitely rescue her. However, after the experiment, Bronya's emotional circuit was damaged, and her legs lost their mobility, which is how we saw her at the beginning."

"Cocolia initiated the third Honkai outbreak, concealing it from Bronya. She deceived Bronya, telling her that if she could retrieve the Conqueror Gem, she could save Seele."

Qin Mo finally shook his head. "Cocolia's lies were full of holes, but Bronya believed them wholeheartedly. Perhaps she just wanted that one sliver of hope to be real."

"So that's why you..."

Mei thought of Qin Mo telling them about the Quantum Sea in front of Bronya. Qin Mo nodded. "That's right. I hoped she wouldn't rely on that woman. Originally, the three of you were meant to become good friends who could rely on each other. After Cocolia repeatedly controlled her through the chip to do things that hurt you, Bronya burned the chip herself and completely broke ties with her. She also rescued Seele through her own efforts, and all I'm doing now is trying to accelerate that process."

"I misjudged Bronya. I never thought she would..."

Mei buried her face in the water again, seemingly blaming herself for suspecting Bronya earlier.

"It's not your fault, Mei. As she is now, she still wants to carry out Cocolia's mission. Bronya never had a mother, nor did she have a normal childhood. If you want to make amends, give her more care."

"Mhm, I will."

Qin Mo watched as Mei, still looking self-reproachful, leaned towards him from the other end of the hot spring.

"I just gained an interesting power today, it's perfect for running errands, doing chores, and cleaning. The villa is so big now, I'll share some with you."

Mei didn't refuse as Qin Mo leaned closer. "What power?"

"Give me your hand."

Qin Mo took Mei's outstretched left hand, and a pink ribbon appeared between them. A black substance then entered Mei's body through this ribbon.

"This is called the Shadow Legion."

Before Mei could ask, Qin Mo spoke up. He then summoned a ninja soldier that stood in the shadows in the distance, startling Mei so much that she dove underwater.

"Haha, don't worry, they don't have consciousness. The Shadow Legion is a polymer of shadow energy that can be summoned through shadows. What I just shared with you is the energy of ten ninja soldiers. Since they are made of shadow themselves and are agile, they can even get through gaps that ordinary people can't."

As Qin Mo spoke, the Shadow Legion soldier darted up a tree and then slipped into a crevice beneath the villa's exterior.

"They're different from Stands; they can only understand simple commands."

"So it was them cleaning the rooms back then?"

Mei poked her head out, watching the ninja soldier perform, and suddenly remembered something.

"That's right. But I don't want to expose this to Himeko and Theresa, so remember to keep it a secret for me. Be careful when you use it too. No one can see Stands, but everyone can see the Shadow Legion." Mei nodded. Shared secrets always brought people closer.

"Oh, right, what is this?"

She looked at the faint pink ribbon that hadn't disappeared even after transferring the Shadow Legion's power. This ribbon wouldn't vanish unless Qin Mo actively withdrew it; at most, it would just become invisible.