From the clouds in the sky, to the mud on the ground, to the frozen layers of permafrost...
There were no blind spots. The moment the high-danger zone detected the presence of a living human, the Honkai Beasts sealed off every possible route of escape.
Li Wu clenched his fists, golden blood splattering in all directions, and stared straight ahead.
"Keep coming."
Time once again lost its meaning.
His body was impaled by bone spikes; his heart was ripped out, tossed onto the snow, beat twice, and then crushed underfoot.
He threw a punch against an indestructible black spear imbued with the Authority of Death, only for the spear to extend from his palm and pierce straight through his entire right arm.
He failed to dodge in time and was pinned to the ground by an elephant-like Honkai Beast, completely immobilized but not dead. Then, his limbs were torn off, and his head was smashed to pieces.
...
...
Twenty-four hours passed.
But to Li Wu, the number had lost all significance.
He didn't know exactly which life it started on, but the pain of his injuries was no longer as sharp. His movements became highly efficient; his body felt impossibly light.
After absorbing massive amounts of Honkai Beast blood, his combat experience and physical specs were skyrocketing.
On the dim, dreary snowfield, Emperor-class Honkai Beasts fell one after another. Rivers of dark purple blood converged, melting through the thick layers of snow.
The earth exposed its barren skin—devoid of vegetation, nothing but withered, lifeless permafrost.
In a daze, a single beam of light pierced through the hazy clouds and struck the snowfield.
It was a bit blinding.
Li Wu's vision slowly cleared.
What drifted down from the sky were no longer freezing snowflakes laced with a Herrscher's Authority.
A warm, pale-yellow light bathed his body. It felt exactly like the noon sun after the final morning class at school—a refreshing, generous light freely offered to the world.
It was warm, comfortable, intoxicating.
Li Wu stretched out his fingers. They felt light and easy, without a trace of heaviness.
He looked down. There was no horrifying dark purple blood, nor was there any of his rare golden blood.
Instead, a small red box rested in his palm. Trimmed with delicate gold thread, it was incredibly exquisite.
Opening it, he found a pure, beautiful silver-white diamond ring resting inside. Under the sunlight, it refracted a dazzling rainbow of colors.
The corpses of the Honkai Beasts surrounding him had vanished.
In their place—
Were fresh flowers and an audience.
A rich, intoxicating floral scent filled the air. It was fresh and fragrant; every breath he took made him feel indescribably comfortable and deeply relaxed.
Li Wu froze. He looked straight ahead.
Kiana, Raiden Mei, Raiden Ryoma, Cecilia, Haruko Sato, Yuno Sato...
It was the scene of a grand wedding. Countless people—some he knew, some he didn't—sat in the guest seats, smiling warmly as they all looked directly at him.
This was...?
Countless deaths and relentless, high-intensity slaughter had long since dulled Li Wu's nerves.
Before he could process the situation, Angell appeared beside him. She pressed a hand against his back and gave him a gentle push forward.
"If you want to make my sister happy, you'd better do it right. If you ever make her cry, I will absolutely not let you off the hook," Angell said.
From the stage not far away, a bright, melodic singing voice drifted over—
"Oh scorching sunlight, please illuminate my beloved's journey home."
"Let me see him walking toward me."
"Let him see that I am waiting for him."
...
Under the soft lights, the girl's expression was utterly enchanting. Her eyes shimmered faintly, as if she had scooped a brilliant galaxy straight from the cosmos.
The wedding was incredibly peaceful. The beautiful singing voice flowed like crisp, clear air, leisurely filling every corner of the magnificent hall.
The sea breeze from the Irish beach, the dreamy sights of the St. Lilian Aquarium, the bright sunlight on the country paths, the vibrant cherry blossom trees at the ruined Tide Sound Shrine, the cute penguins in Antarctica, the retro medieval architecture of Vienna, the Y2K-era Shenzhou neighborhood...
These memories crystallized into framed pictures lining the walls of the holy, romantic hall.
They were the experiences of their seven-day vacation.
Li Wu walked forward, and with every step, he recalled the events that had transpired back then.
Who was the one singing?
Li Wu looked ahead. Even though they weren't far apart, he couldn't quite make out her face.
All he knew was that she wore a pristine white wedding dress, her makeup perfectly applied. She possessed both the innocent purity of a young girl and the mature grace of a woman. She was like a flawless Lily of the Valley, harboring a story in her heart that invited endless imagination—a story he wanted to spend his entire life listening to, reading, and accompanying...
His footsteps moved on their own, growing faster and faster.
Eventually, Li Wu broke into a run, sprinting toward the girl with the blurred face.
The wind ruffled his black hair, leaving it flowing and fluffy. It blew away all the grime on his face, leaving no trace of blood or dishevelment.
The path was perfectly flat, the sunlight brilliantly bright.
But Li Wu ran for a very, very long time. A distance he could have crossed with ease stretched out endlessly.
Finally, after passing the picture of the Y2K-era neighborhood, he arrived before the girl.
The girl in the pure white wedding dress clutched a bouquet of lilies of the valley, smiling radiantly at him. Her chestnut hair was impossibly long, cascading all the way down to her waist. A few playful strands clung to her neck, contrasting with her skin that was as pale and flawless as jade.
The hazy fog obscuring her face slowly dissipated, revealing that breathtakingly beautiful face. At first, it looked as monotonous and rigid as when they first met, but the next second, it became lively and mischievous.
"Anna..."
Li Wu uttered the girl's name in utter disbelief.
The air froze.
Time ground to a halt.
Li Wu's five senses slipped completely out of his control. It was as if they had been stripped away by some mystical force, entirely converging onto her deeply affectionate expression.
The colors of the world faded away at a visible rate, yet she remained brilliantly illuminated.
Those romantic, beautiful pink eyes blinked, tugging directly at Li Wu's soul. Her intentionally grown-out chestnut hair amplified her ethereal aura, but her vivid, charming little expressions shattered that cold filter, replacing it with an easily reachable warmth.
Li Wu stood frozen in place. The surrounding cheers and commotion blurred into a low, unobtrusive hum, like waking up from a nap on a midsummer afternoon to the endless drone of cicadas, unable to fully snap back to reality.
He looked down and realized he was wearing a clean, perfectly tailored black suit with a white tie. A delicate white flower was pinned to his chest. Everything looked so immaculate and perfectly in order.
The officiant began to speak.
"Ms. Anna, do you take Li Wu to be your lawfully wedded husband? For richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, do you promise to love him, honor him, cherish him, and be faithful to him, until death do you part?"
Hearing this, Li Wu instinctively opened the exquisite velvet box, took out the diamond ring inside, and gently offered it to the breathtakingly dreamlike girl before him.
Under the combined illumination of the stage lights and the sun, the silver-white diamond ring refracted fragmented, illusionary light.
Anna nodded. The snow-white, gossamer veil shifted, fully revealing her gorgeous face.
She reached out her hand, her fingertips trembling slightly—a mixture of fear and overwhelming anticipation.
A comforting fragrance of lilies of the valley washed over him like a fresh breeze, instantly enveloping all of Li Wu's senses.
"I do," she said.
The officiant continued, "Mr. Li Wu, do you take Anna Schariac to be your lawfully wedded wife? For richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, do you promise to love her, honor her, cherish her, and be faithful to her, until death do you part?"
Li Wu lowered his head, his gaze intensely focused. The magnificent color of his golden pupils was rapidly fading, dimming like a dying flame on the verge of extinguishing.
He looked at the girl's incredibly expectant eyes, opened his mouth, and prepared to accept:
"I..."
SQUELCH!!
A violent, excruciating pain erupted from his abdomen. His golden pupils completely darkened, reverting back to their original brownish hue.
His movements grew sluggish, his limbs losing all sensation. As his golden blood poured out, his body temperature plummeted rapidly, as if he had been buried deep within the Siberian permafrost.
So cold...
Li Wu stared blankly up at the sky. There was nothing there—only flowing, aluminum-grey clouds.
Like a massive shroud, it completely sealed in the bitter cold of Siberia.
The lively wedding and the sweet scent of lilies of the valley slowly faded away.
Fighting through the agony, Li Wu forced his eyes back into focus. This was no wedding venue... He was still clearly in the high-danger zone of Siberia. He had never left.
The pure white snow before him was stained with a massive, blinding patch of his own golden blood.
From the spatial rifts surrounding him, grotesquely mutated Honkai Beasts poured out endlessly.
Behind him stood an Emperor-class Honkai Beast, its massive front claw entirely impaling his abdomen.
The cold, silicon-based texture of its limb slowly twisted inside his body...
Li Wu's lips parted, and he coughed up a mouthful of warm, frothy blood. He reached one hand behind his back, tightly gripped the wrist of the Honkai Beast's front claw, and violently wrenched it.
"ROAR!!"
The Emperor-class Honkai Beast let out a shrill shriek of agony. Li Wu snapped its limb entirely and casually tossed it onto the snow.
[There are twelve hours remaining in the boundary survival mission.]
[The Emperor-class Honkai Beast you just encountered is known as the "Phantom Killer." It weaves illusions for its prey before launching a fatal attack.]
The System notified him.
Twelve hours, huh...
Li Wu clutched his wound. His pupils grew increasingly unfocused, struggling to regain their normal clarity.
"I just fell into an illusion it wove for me?"
[No. Your consciousness is strong enough, and it is protected. You cannot fall into any illusion. However, due to dying too many times, losing too much blood, and overloading your brain, you naturally generated a hallucination to alleviate some of the mental strain.]
"I see."
Li Wu responded coldly, removing his hand from his wound.
The blood was still pouring out frantically, but the situation was much better than before.
His regenerative abilities were far superior to an average S-Rank Valkyrie's.
"What am I supposed to do? Kill them all?"
"No, that reason doesn't hold up. I... I came here to pay off my debt to [Future Loan]."
"Twelve hours. My current condition doesn't seem like it can support me surviving for that long. Then... I'll borrow an advance to repair my body. It's unavoidable. Tell me, what's the price?"
Li Wu reached his hand out in front of him, his expression completely blank.
As the final word left his lips, his body began to heal in a bizarre, almost unnatural manner.
The gaping hole in his abdomen rapidly closed. His torn flesh began to bridge and seal itself together. His half-destroyed organs swiftly regenerated the missing tissue. Even his shriveled veins plumped up again as golden blood surged through them like a raging river.
[...]
The System seemed to want to say something. Under normal circumstances, Li Wu would absolutely never use [Future Loan] so recklessly.
Because all the benefits he enjoyed now would have to be paid back with an astronomical amount of blood and sweat later.
"I know what you want to say, and I know that I've currently entered a state of 'dissociation'." Li Wu's tone was incredibly calm. "In fact, I mentally prepared myself for this before entering the high-danger zone. After initially entering dissociation, I knew I would have to use [Future Loan] to repair my body. It was unavoidable. Tell me, what is the price?"
[...You have borrowed a complete Divine Body Restoration. In forty-eight hours, your physical body will forcibly die due to being unable to withstand the Divine Blood modification.]
[After dying, you will be forced to Return, and then you will forcibly die again. This will create an infinite loop.]
There was no 'price' to repay; there was only a 'result.'
Without requiring Li Wu to take any compensatory measures, the System had directly sentenced him to death.
One debt had not yet been cleared, and now a new one had been added.
"[Future Loan] is exactly like a loan shark. Just when you're desperately trying to pay off the principal of your first loan, you find you can't even cover the interest, forcing you to take out a second loan. You rack your brain, work yourself to the bone, and just when you finally scrape together enough to pay the interest on the first debt... the principal and interest on the second debt come crashing down on you..."
In the end, you inevitably fall into an eternal cycle of debt you can never clear.
An infinite loop of death?
Li Wu stared blankly for a moment, but didn't seem to care much.
"Sounds incredibly annoying, but it's not something I need to worry about right now. Once I survive these twelve hours, I'll figure out a way to resolve the Divine Blood modification. I have [Future Loan] anyway. Worst case scenario, I'll just borrow another advance."
Li Wu clenched his fists, looked at the relentless tide of Emperor-class Honkai Beasts charging at him, and rushed forward to meet them in a bloodbath.
Golden Holy Blood... No, it should be called Divine Blood.
Every time he slaughtered a Honkai Beast, the dark purple blood splattered against his wounds. The energy and essence within the beast's blood were fully absorbed by the Divine Blood, eventually manifesting on the surface of Li Wu's skin in the form of various mysterious, grotesque markings.
Starting from his spine, the markings spread outward in all directions.
The eerie yet deeply sacred pattern of a tree materialized on Li Wu's back.
The Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
It had twenty-two winding branches, each stretching in a different direction. Ten fruits hung from the branches. Nine of them were completely devoid of color, but the fruit on the very edge radiated an unsettling, ghostly white glow.
[You are becoming something that should not exist.]
The System warned.
However, Li Wu was entirely consumed by his battle against the endless tide of Honkai Beasts, completely ignoring the warning.
It didn't matter what "something that should not exist" was.
The only thing he needed to consider right now was how to survive these twelve hours, and how to find a solution to the Divine Blood modification in the remaining thirty-six hours.
For some reason, Li Wu felt vastly stronger than he had just moments ago. Even Emperor-class Honkai Beasts couldn't withstand a single punch from him anymore.
As time passed, this disparity only grew wider. Eventually, a single punch was enough to blast away two Emperor-class Honkai Beasts at once.
Li Wu was incredibly satisfied with this overwhelming power.
Compared to the hellish struggle for survival during the first thirty-six hours, now, it was the Emperor-class Honkai Beasts who needed to figure out how to survive the hell he was creating over these final twelve hours.
The roles of hunter and hunted had been completely reversed.
One hundred, one thousand...
The Imaginary Space endlessly pumped Honkai Beasts into the high-danger zone, constantly generating new Emperor-class threats. But with his Divine Blood activated to such a terrifying degree, even getting injured had become a luxury. The Honkai Beasts could no longer hope to win through sheer numbers.