Hua felt that the worldview she'd built up since childhood was probably about to shatter.
It all started a few days ago, when she was walking home as usual.
Suddenly, as if drawn by some mysterious force in the darkness.
Possessed by something inexplicable, she looked up at the sky and discovered a crimson feather like fire floating down.
When she came to her senses, she found she'd somehow already arrived home.
Just as she was puzzled about this, an extremely familiar-sounding voice suddenly rang out in her mind.
This voice called itself the Crimson Immortal, claiming to be her past life, and saying it would teach her the supreme divine martial art called Taixu Sword Qi.
But Hua initially didn't think she'd encountered an immortal destiny. Instead, she thought perhaps something was wrong with her mind—that the voice in her head was just an auditory hallucination.
She'd originally wanted to tell Father, but then thought this might make him worry, so she decided to keep it to herself for now.
Until yesterday.
After dinner, she went for a walk as usual, walking until she reached a nearby park with few people.
Then she encountered a monster—a monster like a zombie from an apocalypse movie.
And this monster wasn't slow like zombies in movies. On the contrary, it was extremely fast with tremendous strength.
She'd prepared to fight to the death using her learned martial arts.
But just as this monster was about to charge at her, Hua saw that familiar crimson feather appear, transforming into a phoenix bird of spreading flame wings that turned the monster to ash.
The surrounding dozen meters burned to ash-white earth all testified to an iron-clad fact.
—This voice in her head might not be a simple hallucination.
"So you're saying my past life was an immortal, and you're my awakened past life memory?"
"Correct." The voice in her mind replied in the same tone: "I am the remnant of your past life's memory, and you are my present incarnation."
"Your past life was named 'Crimson,' an immortal who had protected the people of Shenzhou since the age of ignorance—undying and imperishable."
Hua discovered some contradictions in the other party's words. As an honest child, she chose to ask directly.
"If I was really that strong, why did I die?"
"The Crimson Immortal is indeed undying and imperishable. Even if body dies and dao disperses, after long ages she will return from death."
"My appearance precisely shows you've begun awakening your past life's memories. Soon you'll reclaim your former power."
"As for why you died... it's because you were backstabbed by seven disciples!"
Speaking of this, Hua heard clear anger from the voice in her mind.
"You raised them, taught them supreme arts, taught them how to be human... but in the end, they betrayed you."
"At the peak of Taixu Mountain, these seven traitorous disciples used your trust against you, personally backstabbing you with the martial arts they learned from you."
"Not only did they destroy your body, they annihilated your divine soul!"
"However, you ultimately are an undying and imperishable immortal. Even if divine soul is annihilated, you can return from the long passage of time."
"Heh... Those seven traitors gained some of your power. Their reincarnations might also retain some memories."
"Hua, you need to quickly recover your past life's power..."
Having witnessed various wonders from this being claiming to be her past life, she'd already somewhat believed their claims. Now hearing these words, she couldn't help asking worriedly: "You mean those seven disciples might again commit the act of deceiving teachers and destroying ancestors?"
"You overestimate those seven traitors. They're not worth worrying about. What I'm concerned about is something else."
"Before entering nirvana, you sealed a fierce beast named Chi You in the Nine Serenities. Because you were backstabbed by those seven traitors, you couldn't completely seal it. Now with the passage of time, the seal probably can't hold much longer."
"Once Chi You breaks free from the seal, it will certainly cause rivers of blood."
Listening, Hua felt her heart grow heavy. She was just a child about to enter high school. Such matters were too premature for her.
But the good moral foundation cultivated since childhood drove her not to turn a blind eye. Finally, she said with some confusion:
"I don't know what to do."
"It's alright. You can trust me, because I am your past life."
"I'll help you reclaim your power, make you once again become the invincible Crimson Immortal."
...
"Hehe... very good. Finally fooled her onto the cart."
In Hua's consciousness space, Lucius held a bubble with a colorful texture, smiling with satisfaction.
At this moment, the so-called past life in Hua's mind was actually just a consciousness he'd separated relying on Fenghuang Down (Mimic).
And the reason he was doing this was naturally to advance the next production.
[Moon's Origin and Finality - Chapter 1: Wind-Colored Poem]
[Mission: Check in at 'Three Herrschers Fight Wendy'. Reward: Herrscher Character Card (Wind), S-rank Stigmata Selection Box x1, Crystals 3000]
[Mission Status: Plot characters not detected]
After completing the Escape from Nagazora storyline, matters in Nagazora City temporarily came to a close.
Lucius had originally wanted to use this time to first handle St. Freya Academy matters, then advance the next chapter's check-in.
But for some reason, he always felt that if he continued staying in Nagazora City, something quite ominous might happen.
For this kind of ethereal feeling, Lucius always took it seriously rather than lightly, so he decisively fled.
After leaving the Far East, he found that besides continuing to advance the plot, he had nothing else to do.
Just right—he already had Fenghuang Down (Mimic) in hand, so he could do even more.
This wasn't the real Divine Key Fenghuang Down, but rather a Fenghuang Down simulated by the Void Archives.
When he first obtained this thing, he'd thought he'd earned a Void Archives for free.
But after operating it, he discovered this was just a Fenghuang Down mimicked by Void Archives. Beyond that, it had none of Void Archives' other abilities.
However, even as just a mimicked Fenghuang Down, aside from being unable to activate the zeroth rated power and having lower output than the real Fenghuang Down, it had all the functions Fenghuang Down should have.
This naturally included the ability to separate consciousness that Lucius currently needed most.
Heaven knows, during this time to keep busy with Nagazora City's plot, he sometimes even had to travel back and forth between the Far East, America, Mu Continent and several other places in a single day.
Besides that, he alone had to simultaneously be Kiana's good brother, Mei's father, Eden's best friend, Shigure Kira's good listener... Sometimes Lucius even wanted to split himself into several people for use.
And now, with Fenghuang Down (Mimic) in hand, he could completely separate consciousness after consciousness, throwing them around the globe to advance the plot.
Efficiency greatly increased!
And the self now appearing in Hua's consciousness space was likewise just a consciousness clone existing via Fenghuang Down.
And the reason for being here was naturally to throw Hua onto the stage of destiny he'd written.
Compared to the prologue "Escape from Nagazora," the currently advancing "Wind-Colored Poem" was many times more complex.
Although from the chapter name it was obvious this chapter's check-in clearly related to the Herrscher of Wind Wendy.
But after Lucius reviewed the main storyline through his understanding, he discovered that in this chapter, Wendy might actually have the least screen time...
Lucius looked at the many plot points requiring check-ins on this sheet, thought about the actors he needed to gather, and felt his vision darken.
[Mission: Witness the end of Data Kallen in Schicksal's database (Cast needed: Data Kallen)]
[Mission: Witness Theresa's two defeats against Pseudo-Herrscher Yuno (Cast needed: Yuno, Theresa)]
[Mission: Check in 'London Holiday' plot (Cast needed: Durandal, Rita, Otto, Jackal, Stan)]
[Mission: Check in 'Inheritance' plot (Cast needed: Su, Durandal)]
[Mission: Check in 'Nine Serenities' plot (Cast needed: Fu Hua, Hei Xilin)]
[Mission: Check in 'Anti-Entropy Invasion' plot (Cast needed: Welt Clone #1)]
[Mission: Check in 'Moon Shadow' plot (Cast needed: Fu Hua, Phantom, Welt Clone #2, Dr. Marki, Sirin Herrscher Personality)]
[Mission: Check in 'Where Dreams Begin' (Cast needed: Moonlight Throne)]
[Mission: Check in 'Three Herrschers Fight Wendy' (Cast needed: Wendy)]
Calculating the actor gaps needed to achieve the plot in his mind, Lucius felt the urge to just lie flat and give up.
"This pre-civilization can't be saved. Everyone just lie flat and wait for death..."
But the moment this thought arose, a Kiana bigger than the Moon floated up in his mind.
Then this Kiana grabbed her chest bigger than Earth and slapped his lying-flat thoughts to smithereens.
Lucius covered his head with one hand, a cruel smile appearing at the corners of his mouth.
"Hehe... no matter what price I pay, I must bring the Herrscher of Finality to their knees!"
To survive under the Herrscher of Finality, no difficulty could stop him!
Moreover, every time he thought about being able to bring the Herrscher of Finality to their knees several times, he couldn't contain his excitement!
After adjusting his mindset, Lucius was once again full of fighting spirit.
Although there were many difficulties, they could be completed bit by bit.
However, matters had priorities. He still needed to prioritize the upcoming tasks.
"Fu Hua, Theresa, Otto—these three are key to advancing the main missions. Need to prioritize finding actors for them. The others can be pushed back for now."
"So for Fu Hua, the key points are suppressing Chi You, the Seven Disciples' patricide, and the Second Great Eruption."
"For Otto, it's Schicksal's Eastern Expedition, Kallen's death, seeking immortals in Shenzhou, founding New Schicksal, First Great Eruption, Second Great Eruption."
"The simplest is actually Theresa—Kallen's genes, Otto's granddaughter, Second Great Honkai, St. Freya Academy principal..."
These three important characters were located in Shenzhou and Europa respectively. Before obtaining Fenghuang Down, he could only handle them one by one, or run back and forth.
But now with Fenghuang Down, he could split one person into multiple people for use.
Therefore, this time he decided to do a two-pronged approach with Shenzhou and Europa.
Both Otto and Fu Hua's important turning points were five hundred years before the original plot—the Seven Disciples' Patricide and Schicksal's Eastern Expedition.
Beyond that was the Second Great Honkai period.
Therefore, Hua's plot and Otto's plot were greatly related. Now with the conditions, he prepared to do a Shenzhou-Europa co-production.
"—Shenzhou's Broken Sword Chronicles: Schicksal's Eastern Expedition? Sounds like it has flop potential..."
"But whether the script is bad doesn't matter, as long as it can fool the system."
Lucius continued pondering. On the Shenzhou side, the most important was Hua.
He needed to first make the currently ordinary Hua become the Crimson Immortal.
Initially, he'd thought of loading the current Hua with Fu Hua's stigmata, giving her the power of herself from fifty thousand years in the future.
But he quickly discovered—it wouldn't work.
Because in the system's assessment, Fu Hua had no A-rank period. Even at her weakest she had S-rank rating, so this matter kept getting delayed.
Until recently, after clearing Escape from Nagazora, he obtained his first S-rank stigmata, so without hesitation he chose Fu Hua.
The result was joyful. Could only say, worthy of being S-rank stigmata with rarity approaching Herrscher character cards—it could grant the target all of peak Fu Hua's power.
Divine martial arts, Taixu Sword God, Garuda body... all there!
However, there was one small flaw.
That was the power seemed a bit too much—like Fu Hua's fifty thousand years of memories.
Just loading it onto Hua like that, he could indeed get a "Fu Hua."
But the current student-period Hua would probably be directly washed into a blank slate by this terrifying memory stream, losing herself.
Lucius felt this was still a bit too extreme, so he thought of a compromise method.
He borrowed Fenghuang Down (Mimic) to block these memories, acting as a flow limiter for these memories flooding into Hua, limiting memory input to a degree Hua's consciousness could digest.
But what he had was not the real Fenghuang Down after all. Wanting to block tens of thousands of years of Fu Hua's accumulated memories was quite difficult.
Therefore, Lucius chose a somewhat extreme method—finding a scapegoat to serve as the flow limiter.
He separated a consciousness, had this consciousness load this stigmata from Fu Hua, thereby framing the flood of memories within this consciousness clone.
At the same time, he separated another consciousness to continuously extract memories and transmit them into Hua's consciousness.
And this constantly surging bubble in his hand was this consciousness clone that had loaded Fu Hua's stigmata. The reason it became like this... purely from being stuffed with these memories.
This consciousness clone in his hand, after loading Fu Hua's stigmata, had been washed into a blank slate by fifty thousand years of memories, leaving only some instinctive reactions.
As for benefits, it wasn't without them.
This bubble in his hand was equivalent to Fu Hua herself, naturally also inheriting all martial arts including Complete Realm Taixu Sword Qi.
With this, he could complete the next Crimson Immortal cultivation plan.
Although the contemplation time was long, Fenghuang Down could accelerate thought processing, so on the reality timeline only an instant had passed.
Lucius gripped the bubble in his hand and said to Hua:
"Hua, find a quiet place. I'll teach you Taixu Sword Qi."
"When you recover some cultivation, we'll rebuild Taixu Mountain and build a Fucloud Temple on top." Lucius told Hua his plans.
Hua was about to nod, but the next moment her face showed conflict.
"But I still have to do homework..."
Lucius sighed. What an honest child.
"True, you're a student. Studies can't be neglected. Can't be like those illiterate Herrschers."
"Past life, what are Herrschers?"
"You'll know, but not now."
"Relax. I'll now teach you a divine art that can let the weak defeat the strong, killing powerful enemies across several major realms."
Hua was naturally interested in the divine art Lucius mentioned.
"Past life, what divine art is it?"
But just as she asked, she felt she'd lost control of her body.
At the same time, she saw crimson firelight igniting on her body, with crimson feathers seeming to fall.
If Hua looked in a mirror now, she'd discover her hair and eyes had already become blazing like flames.
"Hua, remember—this is the first martial art I'm passing to you."
"This is the divine art—Ghost Possession."
After taking over Hua's body, Complete Realm Taixu Sword Qi began circulating.
Free-floating Honkai energy was bound by spirit, guided, finally transforming into other forms of energy, displaying various peculiarities.
So Hua saw.
After the consciousness claiming to be her past life took over her body, it casually struck out a sword light.
Then with a light leap, stepped onto the sword light, transforming into an escaping light soaring into the clouds.
Until thick cloud layers passed beneath her feet, violent wind swept past her ears, Hua finally somewhat believed the other party really was her past life.
After all, this operation was exactly like the sword immortals in those cultivation dramas.
Since immortals existed in this world, having reincarnation settings was also quite reasonable, right?
Thus, as a girl who not long ago was still struggling between morning class and morning practice, an unreal feeling arose in her heart.
"Who would have thought... I'm actually an immortal reincarnation?"
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