Cultivating in Honkai!

The flying sword is like a thin hoverboard. It is nigh-impossible to step on it without using [Cloud Seeking Steps].

I willed the sword beneath Kiana's feet to float up. The burden started to appear. Lifting her higher consumes more spiritual qi and exerts mental fatigue.

Nevertheless, I can sustain it for a while.

"Oh! Can we do it outside? It'll be uber cool!"

That is the beginning of it all.

*****

Bam-!

"Weurgh! That's it! I am done!"

Two months.

For two months, Tesla investigated the case of that special eruption that did not produce any honkai beasts. She combed through numerous records and miraculously found another case related to it.

It was a small-scale eruption in the middle of Glastonbury. Their orbital surveillance captured it. Yet, when she sent people to investigate further, there were no traces of fabrication. People did not turn into zombies. No honkai beasts appeared either.

If it was just that, she would not be as stuck up.

When some of the people in the Russia case had a check up, there has been a significant spike of better health performances. It was not just one; but full of hundreds of people having the same thing.

Unfortunately, things ended there. Aside from the health reports, lack of honkai beasts, reduced appearance of zombies, there is nothing else.

Tesla ended up crashing out after finding zero results.

"You won't solve any problems by pitching higher decibels, you know?"

"Urgh!"

She almost tore off the document she's reading.

"We checked everything. Honkai readings. Gravitational pulls. Sea of Quanta. Even the Imaginary Space! There's none!"

The mophead with blue hair, Einstein, silently picked up one of the documents. It wasn't her first time assisting Tesla comb through the information. It was just that she wasn't as enthusiastic as Tesla.

"...Wait a moment. We scanned Russia's typical gravitational pulls before. They are off by a few margins."

The tilted Tesla woke up upon hearing her words.

"I attributed it to the changes Earth suffered. It's near Siberia, after all."

Despite talking like that, she hurriedly looked up the previous records of Glastonbury. Then she started combing the records on their surroundings.

"...This is it."

It became clear that these two places' changes are significantly higher compared to everywhere else. The special honkai eruptions disrupted Earth's gravitational pull to a certain extent.

"Decreased gravity. Lack of honkai beasts…"

"...can you check Kaslana's tracker?"

"Huh?"

Einstein found a disturbing answer.

"Siegfried's daughter."

"Ah!"

Tesla saved her reactions for later.

Out of the entire Anti-Entropy, only three people knew about Kiana's true situation. She bears the Second Herrscher with her.

Welt's health deteriorated after the Second Eruption. Anti-Entropy is gradually leaning to the whims of the radicals. Once people knew that Otto's Sirin Project bore fruit a long time ago, they would be scrambling to obtain Kiana.

Thus, the best course of action they decided on is to secretly monitor her through Ryoma. The black card he gave functioned as such.

"...It's very abnormal."

"Zero honkai energy?"

Tesla felt somewhat stupid. The answer is right in front of her. Although it could not be blamed on her. Kiana's relocation to Cocolia had only been known to Einstein since a week ago.

The two of them fell silent. It is much to their shock to see this result. It is merely a 'way' to monitor Kiana's condition.

"Zero… It should not be her. The second herrscher needs honkai energy to awaken. Lots of it. We'll pick it up if that's the case…"

"That doesn't matter. We need to look up her situation now."

*****

Fwoosh-!

The sound of air spread widely. My surroundings moved slower in my spiritual consciousness.

Seeing Kiana's incoming right arm, I dodged by leaning backwards. It is barely enough to prevent her from touching me.

Her hand started coming downwards. I retracted my entire left arm. I shifted my center of gravity to the right.

Bam-!

My body rolled to the ground. I managed to avoid it. 

"It's already been five minutes. Can you still do it?"

"You're becoming more arrogant!"

This is a game of tag. Ever since we did it in the gym, it became a normal routine. The results are leaning in her favor at first. When I gradually overtook her, it turned to my side.

With the newly unlocked spiritual consciousness, my mind works faster. I can predict her movements well.

Fwoosh-!

She did not hesitate to use her [Cloud Seeking Steps]. It only took a second to close the gap between us. For fairness' sake, I won't use it.

Spiritual consciousness versus sheer speed.

Thirty minutes later, I found the answer.

"How clever. Huff…"

"Heh. You got tricked!"

"Can you get up?"

I looked away. Kiana is pressing me down. This is her 'solution'. She couldn't catch me, so she threw her entire body. I couldn't dodge by then, thus this result…

"Oh. Right. Your hair's already gotten so long!"

She did as she was told. I accompanied her by sitting on this snow-covered soil.

"I always forget to do it."

I got lazy.

My current haircut is shit. You can't even call it a proper haircut. I rashly cut down my bangs before I learned the [Zither Fairy Get-up Technique]. It resulted in a somewhat chopped haircut.

Since then, the pressure for breakthroughs became overwhelming. I simply left it as it is.

Now that it got pointed out, I might as well cut it down.

"Hm. That's it."

I stood up. My fingers are coated in hazy silver light. I used my spiritual consciousness to 'see' my hair.

One by one, strands of my hair fell on the snow-covered ground. It took five minutes to complete a brand new haircut.

Spiritual qi acted as a comb. The [Jade Cold Touch] used to warm my pillows and the [Life Extending Heavy Water] did the trick to form a new hairstyle. It served as a gel of sorts.

Just like that, a new haircut is done.

Clap-!

"...the nine heaven trembles."

A small crimson line emerged from my palm. It circled to the ground beneath me as it burned snow and hair alike.

"Done. How is it?"

"...It's good."

"Is that so? Thanks."

I offered a hand to the dazed Kiana. When she took it, I pulled her up.

We started walking back to the orphanage. My spiritual consciousness proved how safe its surroundings were.

In some places, I saw strange 'shattered' glass. It goes as high as five meters. If I am not wrong, that's an Anti-Entropy Titan.

They must have used the Sea of Quanta or something as a medium. Maybe a pocket dimension to hold these mechs? Concealment of sorts? I don't know much about their actual honkai tech.

Strangely enough, Kiana did not speak much during our return trip.

"Hungry?"

"Ah. No."

I learned from my previous lesson and did not use my spiritual consciousness on her. I decided to let her be.

Five minutes later, we are back. We were greeted by Seele who was hanging around near the orphanage's gate.

"You finally returned. It's already turning…"

For some reason, she did an unnatural long pause. It lasted for a few seconds.

"...dark."

"Sorry about that."

These days, our talks have become more casual. It's not only her. Even Bronya who is always seen hanging around with Seele.

I would have definitely felt strange if it was the past me. 

Interacting with characters I see in a game…

It makes up a wild fever dream.