Chapter 21: You Are Not Him
Fu Hua extended a faintly glowing hand, her consciousness tracking the feather implanted in Lin Wei's mind. She monitored and protected his thoughts, ensuring his safety.
Suddenly, her brow furrowed. Her closed eyes snapped open, revealing deep blue irises filled with a whirlwind of emotions. She stared at the unconscious man lying before her.
She had seen many things—far more than she anticipated. Yet, most of them held little practical significance.
Except for a certain someone's reckless audacity.
The magnanimous Phoenix wouldn't usually concern herself with such trifles. But this?
"That idiot… he gave the feather away."
Her voice carried an edge of frustration, though she quickly regained her composure.
Fu Hua could no longer locate Lin Wei's consciousness. Three minds had become entangled, their streams of thought interwoven into a chaotic tangle. Information flowed in every direction, impossible to unravel.
Pinpointing anything useful felt like searching for a needle in an infinite haystack.
The feather had been Lin Wei's preemptive anchor—a tether to clarity, a lifeline to escape the mental abyss.
And now, he had abandoned it.
The logic was sound, albeit reckless. Since their consciousnesses were intertwined, transferring the feather—bound to his mind—along the mental link was possible. It was, in its own way, perfectly logical.
But logic offered no solace to Fu Hua as she considered the cost of such a desperate act.
"Hah, what an unreasonable jerk!"
Without the feather's guidance, it was nearly impossible for Fu Hua to accurately find and influence Lin Wei's consciousness within the vast data stream.
Fully activating the Fenghuang Down might give her a chance, but her body wouldn't allow it. She had her own mission, one that demanded her focus. Rationality dictated she couldn't throw her life away for this blockhead.
Fu Hua glared at Lin Wei, her patience thinning. With no other options, she could only wait for him to wake. Perhaps he would be the one to solve this. Or perhaps...
Her hand absently rubbed the hilt of her blade, concealing her inner turmoil beneath a calm exterior.
They were in a hotel a few hundred meters east of Chiba Academy. The hotel, inside and out, was eerily silent and lifeless. The front door hung open, revealing a scene of devastation: overturned trash cans in the hallway, a toppled computer desk at the reception, dust-covered floors, and scattered limbs.
A corner of the hotel was missing, seemingly ripped away by a passing giant Honkai beast—perhaps a Judgment-class, an Emperor-class, or maybe just an unusually large Chariot-class. Across the street, the devastation was complete, buildings reduced to rubble, a horrific sight.
This destruction did offer one advantage: an unobstructed view from the hotel's mostly intact windows. From the windowsill, the vista of rubble and silent cityscape stretched out before them.
Unfortunately, only one person was currently in a position to appreciate this scenery, and she was clearly not in the mood.
Fu Hua had brought the unconscious Lin Wei to the hotel. She found a relatively clean room and immediately began her task.
First, she opened the windows, letting in the cool air. Then, standing in the center of the room, she calmly unleashed a punch.
The resulting gust of wind howled through the space, instantly sweeping all the dust out the windows, leaving the room spotless. She quickly shut the windows again, the air now fresh and clean.
Hardcore cleaning.
Next, Fu Hua flipped the mattress, burying the dusty side beneath. She did the same with the pillow, tucking it away before tidying the inside of the duvet. Satisfied, she placed Lin Wei gently onto the bed.
It was temporary, just enough to get the job done.
If it were just herself, she wouldn't have bothered with comfort or hygiene.
The entire process, while seemingly lengthy, was surprisingly swift.
The moment Lin Wei lost consciousness, Fu Hua, blade in one hand, scooped him up with the other. The sight of the 5'5" girl carrying the 6' tall young man looked odd, but in this world, it was perfectly normal.
She spotted the hotel, dashed over, and ascended the stairs. Kicking open a door, she placed Lin Wei outside, entered, opened the windows, and punched the air.
In one smooth motion, she brought Lin Wei in, closed the windows, rearranged the bedding, and tucked him in.
An incredibly stylish flow.
She was the Phoenix, after all.
Truthfully, while Fu Hua was annoyed by Lin Wei's unilateral decision, she wasn't displeased.
She had witnessed the entire scene—how he'd unhesitatingly given away the feather meant to protect him to someone else. Her internal assessment of him rose another notch.
That was what annoyed her.
Was that your feather to give? Did you even ask me?
Smooth move, pulling a "gift of another's flowers." [The idiom 借花献佛 (jiè huā xiàn fó) refers to presenting someone else's gift as your own.]
Fu Hua was irritated. Yet, she found herself reluctant to let Lin Wei die.
There was nothing she could do, though.
All she could do was wait for the final verdict.
Fu Hua hated this feeling of helplessness, of leaving things to fate. She was proactive, always seeking and finding solutions to problems, always fighting to the end. That was why she was always the most reliable comrade.
But now, she had to surrender to fate.
She knew how to save Lin Wei, but her fractured consciousness and battered body had to be spent elsewhere, not squandered here.
Lin Wei understood this too. His final act of offering the blade was drawing a line.
You've done enough for me. Now, just wait for my return, or attend my funeral.
Don't do anything more.
Fu Hua understood the unspoken message. At the time, it hadn't struck her, but now she felt… cheated.
"Hah, playing the hero, are we?"
She glanced back at the sleeping Lin Wei, her irritation growing, projecting her unease and guilt onto him.
Had it been anyone else, Fu Hua wouldn't have cared. She'd seen too much death, grown numb to the passing of individual lives.
But Lin Wei was different. In their brief interaction, hadn't they become… friends?
Fu Hua's definition of friendship was simple: sharing a part of oneself with another.
Lin Wei… barely qualified.
And besides him, she had no one else she could call a "friend."
Sometimes, Fu Hua wondered if her standards for friendship were too high. She'd forgotten what it felt like to chat with someone without reservation.
Loneliness had become her companion, yet she still yearned for someone by her side.
Therefore, on a personal level, she was loath to lose this rare friend.
But personal feelings were one thing, duty another. She bore a burden she couldn't abandon.
As for the "future" she'd glimpsed in Lin Wei's memories, she didn't dwell on it. It was the story of another "Fu Hua," not hers.
Even if it was her future, it wasn't her present.
The future should be left to the future…
Fu Hua sighed. It was enough.
Perhaps… this too was part of her mission.
She banished her distracting thoughts and fell silent, only the increasingly frequent rubbing of her hand against her blade betraying her inner turmoil.
A short while later, even for the troubled Fu Hua, it felt brief.
Lin Wei's aura shifted.
Her heart skipped a beat. This shouldn't be happening so soon. She quickly approached Lin Wei, her gaze fixed on him with concern.
Lin Wei slowly opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and looked at Fu Hua with sincerity and deep emotion. "I succeeded, Fu Hua."
But Fu Hua's reaction was different. Her hand, which had been restlessly moving, suddenly gripped the hilt of her blade. She stared intently at Lin Wei, then shook her head, speaking flatly,
"You are not him."
"…If it were him, he would have at least said thank you."
Her even tone couldn't mask the underlying regret.
Chapter 22: Please Instruct Me
Had he become too arrogant?
"Perhaps… it's just unwillingness to accept things as they are."
Gazing into the boundless darkness, Lin Wei cradled the faint, shimmering golden light in his hand, listening to the voice within his heart.
There was too much sorrow in this world, too much helplessness, too many unavoidable tragedies.
Yet, Lin Wei still believed some things could have been better.
That girl who persevered for five hundred years, refusing to give up… didn't she deserve a brighter future?
So, he cruelly shattered her final dream.
He transferred his last protective charm to her, shielding her from the nightmares others had woven for her.
When this dream ended, she could finally touch the future with her own hands.
That poor girl from fifty thousand years ago, deceived, betrayed, abandoned… Filled with sorrow and rage, yet still obediently sealing herself within that small black box for fifty millennia…
Didn't she deserve a happy ending?
The Elysian Realm was right there, her sister was right there!
Though separated by fifty thousand years, they were a hair's breadth away. All it took was someone to connect the threads, to guide this lost girl back to her true home.
She was merely consumed by an eternity of darkness, driven to madness by its crushing weight.
So, Lin Wei stepped into the darkness, hoping to rekindle her light.
"I'm truly greedy…"
He mocked himself. He was as weak as an ant, unable to save even himself, yet he dreamed of saving others.
He was nothing but an opportunist, coveting their power, yet he deluded himself into thinking he was a hero.
Lin Wei searched his soul: "I do."
He could accept unavoidable tragedies, but he couldn't accept near misses, the cruel twist of fate that snatched happiness away.
So, he wanted to try.
Even if he failed, the outcome wouldn't be any worse, would it?
In the end, he would still have to face this final step, confront the Herrscher.
There was no difference.
If so, why not follow his heart?
A carefree smile touched his lips, his inner turmoil settled. He took the final step.
…
"You are not him. If it were him, he would have at least said 'thank you.'"
Fu Hua's voice was tinged with melancholy. She regretted that the one who awoke wasn't her newfound friend.
Her only "friend."
Should she honor their agreement and send him on his way?
She hesitated.
"Tsk, how boring."
The "Lin Wei" before her dropped the gentle facade the moment his disguise was seen through, his expression twisting into one of intense disgust. He snorted, stretching languidly as if waking from a pleasant slumber.
The Stigmata on his back flared, releasing a surge of Honkai energy. Countless purplish-red lines snaked across his body.
"Lin Wei" groaned in apparent pleasure.
"Ah… this vitality of life… such a long-forgotten sensation… this damned frail body!"
His words turned to frustrated curses as the Honkai energy retreated back into the Stigmata space.
What a useless vessel!
The Herrscher cursed internally, feeling cheated once more.
Just a sliver of Honkai energy, and this body nearly crumbled.
This was… unexpected.
She knew this body had extremely low Honkai adaptability, but not this low.
Ordinary people had some resistance, however minuscule. A thousandth of a percent, perhaps—useless in practice, as any increase in Honkai concentration meant instant corruption and death.
Unless, of course, you combined the resistance of a thousand people into one. Then, perhaps, survival was possible.
At least, that's how it was fifty thousand years ago.
But this guy's Honkai resistance…
It wasn't just low, it was nonexistent.
It was like others had a field ready for planting, while she had to start by burning down a forest.
Even a Herrscher couldn't carry this dead weight. This was pathetic.
"Where's Lin Wei? What have you done to him?"
Fu Hua ignored the Herrscher's shifting expressions, even though the Herrscher wore Lin Wei's face. She went straight to the question that mattered.
She knew a normal human couldn't possibly fight a Herrscher. But this Herrscher was dying, and Lin Wei was notoriously cautious, never fighting a losing battle. A sliver of hope remained.
Perhaps there was a chance?
"Oh my, you're asking about that ridiculous, foolish fellow?"
The Herrscher completely disregarded Fu Hua, moving as if she posed no threat. He carefully shifted, testing the unfamiliar limbs, slowly acclimating to this new body.
She wasn't going to repeat the mistakes of the one in Lin Wei's memories, who had been humiliatingly defeated due to unfamiliarity with their physical form.
"I thought that weak, arrogant little thing would be so much more entertaining. He dared to threaten me, a god? Hehehe, such a novel experience. Are all humans this amusing fifty thousand years later? It's almost a shame to kill them all at once! Hahahahaha~"
The Herrscher dredged a green-haired figure from the depths of her fading, fragmented memories—memories held together by fifty thousand years of anger, hatred, and resentment. Mimicking her peculiar, affected mannerisms and tone, she mocked Fu Hua relentlessly.
Combined with Lin Wei's male form and voice, it was even more unsettling.
Then, covering her mouth with a hand, she feigned surprise. "Ah! I remember now. This little fellow isn't even from this world, just a homeless wretch. He can't even breathe the air without dying. Such a fragile, laughable life, wouldn't you agree, Hua?"
"Oh, I should say Fu Hua, shouldn't I? Or… Class Monitor? Say, Class Monitor Fu Hua, may I ask you a question?"
The Herrscher's malice intensified, circling Fu Hua, scrutinizing her from head to toe.
"The world you fought so hard for… turns out it's nothing but a game for others to enjoy! All those sacrifices, just entertainment for someone's idle hours. The friendship, companionship, the touching moments… all just part of the story, a bit of gossip, nothing more."
The Herrscher, in Lin Wei's body, bent down, bringing her face close to Fu Hua's ear. Like a demonic whisper, she unleashed her inky malice.
"How does it feel? Empty? Betrayed? Manipulated? Meaningless?"
So much pointless chatter. Fu Hua remained unmoved, sidestepping with a look of disgust, brushing off her shoulder as if to rid herself of the taint.
Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, or did the butterfly dream it was Zhuangzi? Lin Wei had once posed this question to her.
At the time, Fu Hua had grasped his confusion, suspected his origins. Now, having witnessed his memories, she had confirmation.
Just another, slightly unusual, world. A world free from the Honkai threat, safe and enviable. But so what?
Though the state of Liang is pleasant, it is not my native land. It wasn't her world.
Zhuangzi's butterfly… did it truly matter?
Though Lin Wei was puzzled, he hadn't wanted to delve deeper.
His world was a story to him, and his memories were a story to her.
Fu Hua didn't care.
She had seen Lin Wei's desperate will to survive, his near-mad attempts to cling to life, his underlying kindness beneath the madness and calculations.
Just as he believed this world was real, she also believed that this was a living, breathing, irritating yet not entirely unlikeable, real life.
That was enough for her. She tuned out the Herrscher's clumsy taunts.
Only one question mattered.
"Where is Lin Wei?"
Seeing Fu Hua's imperviousness, the Herrscher felt a surge of frustration. Fifty thousand years of resentment threatened to boil over, but she forced it down with a cold laugh.
"Him? Don't worry, he won't die. Did you forget? I swore to torment him for eternity. He dared to threaten a god with his own mortality. This is the price he must pay!"
"Oh, I remember something. He asked you to end him with that crimson blade if he didn't wake up. But he's still alive…"
"Could it be…?"
The Herrscher chuckled, taking two mincing steps forward, clearing her throat. She put on Lin Wei's earnest expression once more.
"Please, Fu Hua."
Fu Hua's brow twitched.
"HAHAHAHAHA! How about it, Hua? It's time to fulfill your mission! Just like you did in the past, just like you did fifty thousand years ago! Kill the Herrscher! Eradicate the Honkai!"
"Come, raise your blade, pierce my heart!"
"See? Just like back then, isn't it? No difference at all, isn't it? AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The Herrscher's laughter was shrill, the facade gone, replaced by the chilling truth of a vengeful spirit.
He lunged towards Fu Hua, frail yet frantic.
"As you can see, this body is under the Herrscher's control. His consciousness is lost in a dream, never to awaken! Even if he could, what difference would it make? You wouldn't care anyway! You don't care about innocence, you just kill! You kill the innocent to mask your own fear and incompetence!"
"So what are you waiting for? Do it!"
He reached for the blade in Fu Hua's hand.
Fu Hua dodged, releasing the hilt of her blade, letting it hang loosely at her waist. She exhaled, a weight lifted.
"Finally, confirmation. Lin Wei was right. This body truly is your greatest prison. You pose no threat."
Fu Hua's prolonged silence, enduring the Herrscher's mockery in her friend's voice and body, had served a purpose. She needed to confirm two things:
First, Lin Wei's safety. This dictated the urgency of her actions.
Second, the Herrscher's threat level.
Now, it was clear Lin Wei's guess was correct. The Herrscher of Corruption was a shattered remnant, its core and powers fused with the black box, leaving only a sliver of vengeful will and Honkai energy clinging to existence.
Her course of action was now clear.
"I believe you've been mistaken from the start, Herrscher of Corruption of the Previous Era. I'm not here to settle past grievances."
Fu Hua spoke formally, making her stance clear.
"Oh?"
The Herrscher was surprised. Though Fu Hua's appearance was unchanged after fifty thousand years, she seemed different from the Hua in her memories.
She couldn't pinpoint the difference, but she didn't care. She wasn't here for a reunion.
"So, you're not here to kill me? Are you here to negotiate peace? To redeem me? To exploit my power for your hypocritical civilization?"
The Herrscher's voice dripped with sarcasm and hysteria.
She vaguely remembered a time when she would have willingly done so. She'd entered the Fire Moth's prison hoping to help them control the Herrscher's power, to contribute to their crumbling civilization, to ease her sister's burden.
But the result…
"Too late!"
Rage consumed her again as she charged at Fu Hua.
Fu Hua watched the slow-motion attack, her mind racing, desperately searching for the right approach.
It wasn't that she feared the Herrscher's power.
She feared accidentally killing the Herrscher—and Lin Wei along with her—with a single, reflexive blow.
This body was far too fragile, unable to withstand even a basic attack.
The pressure was immense, the situation absurd.
In all her long life, she'd never fought such a ludicrous battle.
Despite her internal complaints, Fu Hua answered the Herrscher's question seriously.
"The past holds no meaning for me. I came here because I learned a Herrscher still lived, a great enemy of civilization."
It did hold meaning. But that wasn't important.
"Empty words!" The Herrscher raged.
"But now that I've confirmed you pose no threat, my initial mission is complete. What remains is to honor my agreement with a friend, to hold the last line of defense for him."
Fu Hua dodged a sluggish punch, gently grasping the outstretched arm and pulling, sending the Herrscher sprawling.
How gentle? Incredibly so. She feared crushing Lin Wei's arm.
The force felt right. She was getting a sense of the limits.
"Your true battlefield isn't here, Rin."
"Don't you dare!"
Hearing her long-forgotten name from Fu Hua's lips, the Herrscher nearly exploded with rage.
"All I need to do is keep you within my sight. The rest is for Lin Wei to face. This is his choice, and I will respect it. I will wait here."
Fu Hua lightly tripped the Herrscher, who fell with a thud.
Her expression turned serious as she watched the dust-covered figure struggle to its feet, seething with rage. She spoke in a solemn tone:
"Fu Hua of Taixu Mountain. Please instruct me."
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Zhuangzi's Butterfly Dream
Zhuangzi, a famous Chinese philosopher, once dreamt he was a butterfly, fluttering around without a care. Upon waking, he wondered: Was he Zhuangzi who dreamt of being a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming he was Zhuangzi?
It's a thought experiment about the nature of reality and the limits of human perception.
Can we ever truly know what is real?
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