With a clear mind, Ji Lin began to learn about history after Bronya sealed Chi You to protect her.
While Bronya was speaking with Ji Lin, Mei did her best to guide Kiana's emotions.
"Kiana, look at me."
Upon finding herself in front of Kiana, who had gone silent and had even started avoiding her after leaving the Q&A room, Mei finally showed her assertive side.
She cupped Kiana's cheeks in her hands, forcing her to look directly at her.
Although at that moment, she was not even one ten-thousandth as powerful as she was shown to be in the rooftop battle video.
But for Mei, who has always carefully played the role of a kind and gentle person, and who did everything she could to differentiate herself from the Herrscher of Thunder in the Third Honkai Impact, this was already an incredible breakthrough.
Mei's life at Chiba Academy became hell after her father's imprisonment. It was Kiana who reached out to her, bringing light back into her world.
From then on, she suppressed the power within her, reluctant to destroy the hard-won daily life she had achieved.
Call her self-deceptive or cowardly, this was her new way of surviving after losing everything she once had as the young lady of the Mei Company.
"Don't call me Kiana!"
As Kiana shouted back, a golden flash flickered in her eyes, filling Mei, who caught the moment, with uneasiness.
She didn't understand why Kiana, who had handled herself perfectly well in the Q&A sessions, had become like this once she was out of the room.
However, no matter what Kiana became, she would never let her go.
Kiana seemed to realize she had overreacted, lowering her voice to whisper, "I'm not Kiana... Mei, haven't you realized? Otto's classified files say I'm experimental subject K423. I'm not Kiana. The real Kiana is still in Otto's hands."
Kiana repeated "I'm not Kiana" twice, and every detail of her bewildered murmur was like a sharp blade piercing Mei's heart.
She had never seen Kiana so helpless. At that moment, Kiana seemed to be the same as when she suffered countless episodes of bullying due to her father's imprisonment, and felt as if the world was collapsing around her.
"I don't care if you're Kiana or K423, a name is just a code. All I know is that without you, I might still be in an endless hell; or, as in the video I saw in the Q&A section, Cocolia might have captured me and used me for experiments, turning me into an inanimate corpse. You saved me and gave me a new life."
In that instant, Kiana directly triggered Mei's past, which lay hidden deep in her heart. Mei didn't want Kiana to experience everything she had suffered, so she rushed to express her view and save Kiana in the same way Kiana had saved her.
However, how could Sirin, who had seized the slightest psychological weakness in Kiana, allow Mei to succeed?
Just when Mei thought she was about to succeed, Sirin suddenly broke through Kiana's psychological defenses, took control of her body, and forcefully shoved Mei away.
"Kiana?!"
Mei, whom Kiana had pushed and stumbled, looked at her with a bewildered expression and then met a pair of cold, distant, and expressionless golden eyes.
In that instant, Mei felt her heart sink. Even though it was the hot month of June, she felt as if she were in a snowfield, with a bone-chilling cold.
She had seen that look in Kiana's eyes before.
It wasn't Kiana, but rather the reflection of herself in Kiana's pupils: the self that had once been a Herrscher.
This is the look of a Herrscher.
Mei and Kiana's commotion naturally alerted Bronya and Ji Lin, who were nearby.
Seeing Kiana's extremely strange eyes, Bronya and Ji Lin exchanged a look, their hearts sinking.
Faced with the sudden turn of events, Bronya was about to step forward when she saw Ji Lin pick up the golden greatsword that had fallen beside Himeko and use the blade to block her.
"Take good care of your professor. Since you call me 'senior,' what follows is a battle for you."
Bronya could only watch helplessly as Ji Lin's determined figure walked away, her heart filled with resentment.
But when she looked at Himeko, who was still unconscious on the ground, she could only clench her fists and purse her lips, summoning her Project Bunny to carry Himeko to a corner of the space to prevent her from being injured by the battle's aftershocks.
At the same time, her gaze was fixed on Ji Lin and Kiana, who was in a state of fury and out of control.
After realizing her deep helplessness, Bronya made a decision in her heart at that moment.
On the other side, Sirin, controlling Kiana's body, pushed Mei away, stretched out her arms, and sighed, "Six years. I'm finally out again. Tsk, but I hate this place."
Sirin looked around with an expression of disgust on her face.
Although this is happening inside Chi You's body, all her Honkai energy was previously concentrated in Ji Lin, and that energy was completely absorbed in the Q&A Space. Therefore, there is not much Honkai energy in this heart space for her to absorb now, making Sirin's current strength pitifully weak compared to any previous moment.
The mere thought of that Q&A space made a flash of apprehension appear in Sirin's eyes.
Previously, during the Q&A session, Kiana revealed a psychological vulnerability after learning she was an experimental subject.
However, at that time, Sirin did nothing because she feared that if she did, she would be forcefully separated from Kiana's body, just like Ji Lin before her.
She had already sensed it; the Honkai energy snatched from Ji Lin's body seemed to have never existed, vanishing into thin air.
She cannot suffer the same fate under any circumstances.
She also wants revenge on humanity and the world!
Suddenly, Sirin's gaze fell on Mei, mainly on her chest, well, on her heart.
She smiled as if she had discovered something she loved.
"My other half..."
However, before Sirin could touch Mei, a golden greatsword blocked the path between them.
Sirin looked away in annoyance, only to see Ji Lin standing firmly beside her.
"You are now a cripple who has lost her Honkai energy. You can't stop me. After I leave here, absorb enough Honkai energy and recover my maximum power, I will annihilate all of humanity, including the people of China you once protected!"
In response to Ji Lin's arrogant behavior, Sirin made her characteristic arrogant comment, which was extremely irritating.
"It seems you are now so weak that you can't even distinguish your opponent's strength. Who told you I am a cripple who has lost her Honkai energy?"
Ji Lin looked at Sirin with a hint of solemnity in her eyes.
She realized that the other person's boasts were not empty words, so she couldn't tolerate something like that happening.
That's right. In the Q&A section, when she went mad due to the corruption caused by the Honkai energy, she was indeed forcefully stripped of that energy from her body for violating the rules.
But that part belongs to Chi You.
As an excellent warrior, she herself contains Honkai energy, and this part still resides safely within her body.
If we go by Schicksal's classification system, Ji Lin is undoubtedly an S-rank Valkyrie. She would be more than capable of facing a Herrscher personality whose Honkai energy is insufficient to activate Herrscher Mode.
"What?!"
Evidently, Sirin had not considered this.
Her face looked quite pale at that moment.
Then, as if a sudden thought had struck her, Sirin smiled radiantly at Mei and said, "It seems today is not the time for our reunion, my other half."
After saying that, the golden eyes instantly vanished, returning to their original clear blue, like the sky.
"Kiana!"
Seeing that Kiana was about to faint, Mei quickly ran to her and caught her in her arms.
Mei looked at Kiana, who was unconscious, with a worried expression. No one noticed the flash that appeared in her eyes.
Being able to scare away the Herrscher personality without lifting a finger is a good thing for Ji Lin.
After all, if a fight really broke out, she couldn't guarantee she wouldn't hurt Kiana.
Moreover, the consequences of the battle could very likely cause injuries to other people present.
After a soft sigh, a bitter smile suddenly appeared on Ji Lin's face.
Thus, even before anything happened, two of the five people in the group were already lying down.
If Otto, the Archbishop of Schicksal whom everyone at St. Freya Academy fears, were to come looking for them, wouldn't they be annihilated in a single blow?
"Ji Lin, the elder."
Just as Ji Lin was thinking about how to reinforce vigilance, Bronya's voice came from behind her.
"Bronya?"
Ji Lin turned around, her expression bewildered.
At that moment, Bronya's gray eyes seemed to hold a great emotion. She looked at Ji Lin and asked, "Senior Ji Lin, may I ask where I can obtain Chi You's body tissue?"
After entering the Nine Underworlds, all they saw was a secret realm resembling a cave, and they saw no trace of Chi You, the Judgement-class Honkai Beast.
However, the fact that these outsiders cannot find it does not mean that Ji Lin is incapable.
Ji Lin frowned: "Chi You is a Judgement-class Honkai Beast. Approaching its body tissue rashly would be very risky."
She didn't know why Bronya was asking that question, but she had to warn her about the risks involved.
Bronya stroked the heavily armored rabbit that had been summoned behind her: "I won't go myself; he will go look for it for me."
Ji Lin glanced at Project Bunny; this thing looked a lot like some of the machines Cang Xuan and Dan Zhu had tried to teach her tribe to use back then.
It was precisely thanks to those machines that the Judgement-class Honkai Beast Chi You appeared.
Therefore, Ji Lin harbored a degree of suspicion towards machinery.
"Can it really work?"
Ji Lin's tone was laden with deep suspicion.
"It is the guardian spirit that my beloved gave me before leaving, so the elder Ji Lin has nothing to worry about."
When Bronya spoke of her beloved, her eyes filled with tenderness and sadness, reminding Ji Lin of a dazed Lianshan.
She told Lianshan that she would wait for her, and now she's back, but Lianshan...
Ji Lin shook her head to drive away the sudden surge of emotion and refocused her gaze on Bronya, softening her tone: "Yes, I believe you."
"Cang Xuan once told me that Honkai Beasts are silicon-based life forms, very different from us, who are carbon-based beings. Therefore, after Chi You was sealed, most of its body was transformed into this secret realm, with only a small portion of its core preserved. The place we are in now is more like its atrium than Chi You's heart. And if I'm not mistaken, its remaining Honkai energy core is right beneath our feet, in the ventricle. That should be the point with the highest concentration of Honkai energy in Chi You's body right now. If that Herrscher personality had discovered it a while ago, we probably would have had a tough battle today."
As she spoke, Ji Lin tapped the ground where they were standing with the golden greatsword in her hand.
"It's underground?"
Bronya gave a knowing look: "Ji Lin, please take good care of Professor Himeko. I will go look for the weak points here first."
"Alright, be careful."
Ji Lin nodded and walked towards Himeko.
Immediately after, Bronya summoned Project Bunny and activated the computer inside it to analyze and calculate the space they were in.
Time passed second by second, and Bronya couldn't help but miss Prometheus' magnificent calculation speed.
If it were Prometheus, the result would probably be obtained in a matter of seconds, right?
Of course, Bronya wouldn't wake Prometheus up again for this reason.
She had agreed to run for forty minutes every day, so there was no need for her to push herself to the limit at a moment like this.
And so a full hour passed.
"I found it!"
Bronya's eyes lit up, and she put the device back into operation.
While Project Bunny undoubtedly possesses considerable combat prowess, she has better helpers when it comes to digging and the like.
When Xing fled in a panic, he left behind all of Anti-Entropy's most modern tactical mechs. Now is the time for them to be useful.
Coincidentally, she had already hacked Xing's control over the tactical mechs, so now, with a single electronic order, more than ten tactical mechs launched their most powerful attack against the place she specified.
"Boom!"
When the tactical mechs began to operate, Chi You's heart space instantly transformed into a construction and demolition site, causing Himeko and Kiana, who were in a coma, to frown as if they were about to wake up.
As expected of a Judgement-class Honkai Beast?
This silicon-based body is truly resistant.
After almost half of her tactical mechs were destroyed, Bronya finally saw a dark passageway.
Just as Ji Lin had said, approaching Chi You's core was very dangerous. Even now, standing at the entrance of the cave, she could feel a slight discomfort.
"Such a strong reaction to Honkai energy means we've found the right place."