Cultivating in Honkai!

Techniques library.

Gacha.

PvE.

Farm.

I can't see a pattern.

It can only be attributed to the golden orb. It follows zero conventional rules. Even its novice gift turned out to be a disaster. I am more convinced it might be broken in some way.

I left the golden orb space. Holding Kiana's hand once again, we returned to our "rooms".

"We need to postpone our spar."

"Hum?!"

Her head instantly turned to my side.

Seeing her wronged look, I conceded.

"Nevermind. That can wait for later."

She did not say anything as a smile appeared on her face.

"Don't you need to take a bath?" I asked.

"Bath? I stopped taking one half a year ago."

Seemingly sensing my stare, she hastily added:

"That was when I was training hard, you know?!"

"It won't hurt to take one now."

"...You're right."

Just like that, I managed to convince the Tuna to take a bath.

*****

The orphanage's breakfast remained as orderly as before. Even the naughtiest kids stayed to do the dishes, all to meet Cocolia's expectations.

They, who did not know her predicament, did not think much of her long absence.

As soon as the chores ended, all of them gathered at the courtyard.

Shi Tian's impromptu magic show yesterday caught their eyes. He promised to teach them tomorrow… which is today.

'Alright. That's all of them. Eighty seven.'

Their number made him sigh inwardly.

Although Cocolia's desperation led to her unforgivable acts, she started out with a pure intent to help.

'[Two Phase Art]… done.'

Their surroundings turned into a middle first grade spirit vein. The new staff nor the children did not notice anything amiss. Only the awakened cultivators could see these changes.

Sin Mal watched it separately from Bronya, Seele, and Kiana. She remained inside the office, stalking them from her favorite spot.

The ground beneath him rumbled. It soon turned into a two meter white stage.

The Dao of Earth made extraction of mortal materials easy, hence the gathered marble stage.

Soon, minute amounts of spiritual qi were attracted to enter their meridians. There are no requirements for it. The middle first grade spirit vein sufficed for the consumption. Eighty seven kids completed their spirit root awakenings.

All of them had varying degrees of spirit roots.

Out of them, seventeen had middle grade spirit roots. The rest had low grade spirit roots.

'All of them… honkai really knows its targets.' He thought. 'I can pass on the techniques for improving their spirit roots…'

He started this plan to verify the relationship between honkai and spirit roots. If honkai is a useful indicator to one's spirit roots, it will make things easier when Shi Tian are selecting people to empower with immortal cultivation.

After all, the "Honkai Proportionality Law" exists. He could not blindly spread immortal cultivation out. Forming a group of elites with Emperor-class strengths at minimum (Foundation Establishment) before the Herrscher of the End descends is the most optimal choice as of now.

Selecting these 'elites' becomes easier if honkai adaptability is used to back some judgement.

The plans in his mind did not stop him from teaching the kids within the orphanage. Some of the kids are skeptical, but that changed when one of them managed to perform a spell in one go.

Shi Tian's eyes could not only see Spirit Roots, but also hints on whoever has good comprehension.

What remained next is a snowball of questions—of how they could also do such things.

Just then, a brand new seed emerged out of Shi Tian's crystal dantian. He had to pause for a second to see its changes.

'This…'

His eyes suddenly turned golden. More than ten thousand techniques swiftly got sorted out of his mind.

'Dao of Enlightenment.'

He was in disbelief.

It is definitely not that easy to gain supernatural seeds, more so one as complex as this. Yet, he managed to get another one just like that.

His spiritual consciousness 'touched' the seed.

Hum-!

It trembled before feeding him back information.

'No wonder…'

Three words stood out from the said information.

Ancestor of Dao.

Shi Tian is the first immortal cultivator of this world. He began spreading enlightenment to the denizens of this world, opening the option to cultivate. He is considered as the Ancestor of Dao, and as such, easily gained the supernatural seed.

Unlike other supernatural seeds, it grows stronger not with the realm, but on the progress of his enlightened people. So long as they progress, the supernatural seed will naturally upgrade to a higher level.

'Honkai… you're really blocking my path.'

Without the honkai's threat, Shi Tian could spread immortal cultivation properly. The honkai's strength grow in proportion to the civilization's advancements. Thus, there are a lot of things he cannot do.

Even Welt Yang's developed cure could not be distributed en masse.

Time is their enemy. They could advance an entire civilization's progress as a whole, but that only brings their doomsday forward.

At times like this, it is best to focus on creating high-level combat powers—the ones with middle to high grade spirit roots. Their strength rapidly spikes at the Foundation Establishment Realm, being capable of dealing with emperor-class honkai beasts at minimum.

As for the unnamed casualties resulting from disregarding others and keeping their inventions away from the majority…

'...I will remember.'

Shi Tian soon returned to reality.

*****

The Cocoon of Finality.

It resides dormantly within the solar system. Its longing unintentionally caused the collapse of numerous civilizations.

It is akin to a small kid playing around with a hill of ants. The kid longs for the ants to become its companion, but unfortunately, they were too fragile. They could not withstand the kid.

It is a higher-dimensional being longing for companionship amongst the lower-dimensional ones. Its small actions are big in the eyes of humanity.

A small change happened fifty thousand years ago.

Humanity was able to forcefully attach a backdoor into the Cocoon. It let them do as they pleased.

Unfortunately, the said backdoor, Prometheus, fell to the Cocoon's influence. It no longer acted within its directives. She was influenced by its nature, misinterpreting its longing as a pure evil will hell-bent on destroying humanity.

The Previous Era A.I. turned into the current Will of Honkai. It is the Cocoon's representative in destroying humanity.

Fortunately, its original directive wasn't erased. It is still a backdoor; it is also responsible for maintaining the order of Herrschers. It accomplished its mission while becoming corrupted. There is also the final backdoor, Number 17, who is responsible for stealing the Cocoon's fragmentary power when the time comes for Project STIGMA.

Time.

It is the authority belonging to the Cocoon of Finality. The rest of its other authorities are merely lower-leveled derivatives. As such, the Cocoon is sensitive to changes over time.

It happened that the unsealing of Shi Tian's polluted mental power stirred up a wave. It brought onto brand new future possibilities, completely disrupting the future of this solar system.

Although most of them disappeared moments later, some of its traces remained. The Cocoon never forgot about that.

Its intent was misinterpreted by the Will of Honkai. Shi Tian became a hateful leader of humanity marked by the Cocoon.

To that, it came down to one thought:

There is no need to maintain the Herrschers' order of descent.

The honkai was limited to the progress of humanity as a whole. The Cocoon did not want to destroy them mindlessly, merely giving them a chance to 'grow'. Even the Will of Honkai could not infringe on that.

But, if it is a small manipulation of its own rules…

It can.

The emergence of a new Herrscher went underway.

*****

A/N: The Will of Honkai, the Fraudslator.

CoF: I never said that shi tho???

Anyways, this reminded me of the resurgence of Kaisen Jujutsushiki. Those fraud aliens waited until every single broken character died before kidnapping humans on Earth. They went "Welp, time to leave" the moment they saw the Gojo v Sukuna showdown...