[Ding! You have a new commission!]
[World Serpent's Invitation]: The Serpent wants to invite you to World Serpent to catch up.
Reward: 200 Primogems + Entry Qualification for the Elysian Realm.
Difficulty: 2-Stars
When he saw this commission, Chen Luo instinctively nodded at Raven.
Why wouldn't I accept a commission? And it's just a trip to World Serpent? I'll go.
Whether one should have intentions to harm others is uncertain, but one must always be vigilant against harm from others. However, Chen Luo was now fearless.
After obtaining the Teleport Waypoints, it didn't matter if it was World Serpent; even if you asked Chen Luo to face the Herrscher of Finality, he would dare.
"You agreed?" Raven looked at Chen Luo in pleasant surprise.
Is $3 million about to come in?
"Wait a moment." But just as Chen Luo opened his mouth to agree, the Herrscher of Sentience suddenly appeared and stopped him.
"What's wrong?" Chen Luo asked in his mind.
"Give me a moment to think." At the same time, Chen Luo also turned to Raven and said.
Although Chen Luo didn't know what the Herrscher of Sentience intended to do, it didn't stop him from trusting her judgment.
Besides, it was just a moment of thought; no big deal.
"Didn't I tell you earlier that I found something interesting?" the Herrscher of Sentience said, sitting down beside Chen Luo.
Earlier, after Chen Luo completed the achievement and was about to bring the Herrscher of Sentience back, she said she had found something interesting and left alone. She had only just returned now.
"What did you find?" Chen Luo asked.
"I found a new pseudo-Herrscher."
"A new pseudo-Herrscher? Do you mean Yae Sakura?" Upon hearing the Herrscher of Sentience's words, Chen Luo instantly remembered.
Nagazora City didn't have just one pseudo-Herrscher; two had appeared in the manga.
One was naturally the pseudo-Herrscher Yuno, who had just been killed by Durandal.
In the original storyline, this pseudo-Herrscher had nearly killed Theresa, and the reason Theresa survived was that she was saved by another pseudo-Herrscher.
That other pseudo-Herrscher was Yae Sakura, a formidable individual among the many pseudo-Herrschers who truly possessed a core.
For example, the pseudo-Herrscher Yuno didn't leave behind even a single hair after she died, let alone a Herrscher core.
Due to the sudden appearance of Chen Luo, an Outworld Traveler, Raiden Mei was taken away early, causing the pseudo-Herrscher Yuno to be rapidly accelerated.
As a result, the newly accelerated pseudo-Herrscher Yuno was killed because of Chen Luo, leaving the Honkai energy from this Third Eruption with nowhere to go.
Yae Sakura was sealed, and after a series of events, it was only normal for the seal to loosen ahead of time.
"That guy..." Whenever Yae Sakura was mentioned, Chen Luo felt a bit unsure how to handle it.
Was Yae Sakura powerful? Yes, she was indeed powerful. But could Chen Luo kill her? There were indeed many ways to do so.
The key point was that Yae Sakura currently had no conflict with Chen Luo.
But letting Yae Sakura fend for herself was also not an option.
What if, because Yae Sakura never met Theresa, she was gradually consumed by the Herrscher of Corruption, who then took over her body, leading to the Herrscher of Corruption emerging early?
This Nagazora City was the territory of the Far East Branch, which was under Theresa's responsibility. Chen Luo couldn't possibly do that to his friend.
So the question arose: how should Yae Sakura be handled?
"Exactly, that Yae Sakura," the Herrscher of Sentience nodded.
"But why are you bringing up Yae Sakura now?" Chen Luo asked.
"To discuss how to handle Yae Sakura, of course. She's a pseudo-Herrscher. If we defeat or kill such a powerful pseudo-Herrscher, we should get a considerable Primogem reward, right? I think it should be at least 800," the Herrscher of Sentience said.
"Ah, we haven't even met her yet, and you're already planning to beat up Yae Sakura?" Chen Luo was taken aback.
"No, no, this is just a precaution. Because I suddenly realized why you didn't receive a Herrscher core after reaching 200% Honkai Energy Adaptability," the Herrscher of Sentience said.
"Hmm?"
"You know that the Honkai energy in Nagazora City isn't enough to nurture two Herrschers, right?"
"I know." Chen Luo nodded.
Herrschers also need sufficient nourishment, especially entities like pseudo-Herrschers.
If given enough time, a pseudo-Herrscher could potentially grow into a true Herrscher.
The method of growth is undoubtedly by absorbing Honkai energy.
Due to Chen Luo's various unconventional actions, basically every Herrscher or pseudo-Herrscher either left or died immediately because of him after emerging, resulting in Nagazora City not losing much Honkai energy overall.
The Honkai energy with nowhere to go would naturally choose to accelerate new pseudo-Herrschers.
But with one party being Chen Luo, who had reached 200% Honkai Energy Adaptability, and the other being a veteran pseudo-Herrscher, the Honkai energy didn't make an immediate choice.
"So, if Yae Sakura is removed from Nagazora City, the Honkai energy with nowhere to go will choose me to become a Herrscher? And then I'll get a Herrscher core?" Chen Luo was somewhat skeptical about this.
"It's just a guess, a guess. Who knows if it will work?" the Herrscher of Sentience shook her head.
Who could decipher the intentions of the Will of Honkai?
It was like how Otto never expected the Herrscher of Sentience to emerge within Fu Hua's body.
"So, the plan is to get Yae Sakura out of Nagazora City, right? What do you think about sending her to St. Freya Academy?" Chen Luo asked.
"Don't ask me; you need to handle this. But I can give you a suggestion," the Herrscher of Sentience shook her head again.
The Herrscher of Sentience had no experience in this area.
"What suggestion?"
"You need to prepare two plans. One plan is to send her out of Nagazora City. The other plan is to suppress her by force," the Herrscher of Sentience said.
"Understood. I'll handle the talking; you handle the suppression." Chen Luo had an epiphany.
Chen Luo had a skill called "100% Fox Repayment." Besides making foxes he saved repay his kindness, this skill also came with a buff that increased foxes' favorability towards him.
So, Chen Luo would handle the persuasion.
And if Sakura refuses to listen, then the Herrscher of Sentience will need to make an appearance.
If you're unwilling to leave Nagazora City and also unwilling to get beaten up, you're putting me in a difficult position.
However, Chen Luo personally leaned towards sending Yae Sakura to Theresa's side, letting her continue that five-hundred-year-old ill-fated relationship.
Moreover, in the original storyline, it was Theresa who handled this matter.
Also, Yae Sakura herself was already quite pitiful. If it could be resolved peacefully, it should be resolved peacefully.
"You understand nothing! Both are on you. If I make a move, won't you miss out on the Primogems?" The Herrscher of Sentience knocked Chen Luo on the head.
"But I might not be able to defeat her?" Chen Luo lacked confidence in this regard.
Although Chen Luo had already learned the Edge of Taixuan and Eminence, Yae Sakura was, after all, a five-hundred-year-old shrine maiden, and she also had the Herrscher of Corruption assisting her.
It wasn't that he couldn't win, but since he had never actually fought her, he lacked confidence.
However, Chen Luo might not be able to defeat her, but he could definitely kill her.
Just consider the one-hit kill skill from the Honkai Terminator achievement.
"So, this is where this commission comes in. Doesn't Raven want to invite you to World Serpent? Then you make a demand: ask her to lend you the Third Divine Key," the Herrscher of Sentience said.
"With the Third Divine Key, are you still afraid you can't defeat Yae Sakura? Of course, defeating Yae Sakura is secondary; the main point is that you can use the excuse of eliminating a pseudo-Herrscher to get your hands on the Third Divine Key and obtain its blueprint."
"The Third Divine Key..." Chen Luo stroked his chin.
The sniper rifle mode of the Third Divine Key has an ultimate move that can reduce the target to atoms.
It's basically a guaranteed kill.
With the Third Divine Key, he could indeed defeat Yae Sakura.
And the most crucial point wasn't actually fighting Yae Sakura, but obtaining the Third Divine Key.
As long as Chen Luo could touch the Third Divine Key for a while, he could analyze its structure. After limit-breaking Void Archives, he could then use the full-power version of the Third Divine Key.
Chen Luo had been coveting the one-hit kill ability of the Third Divine Key for a long time.
Compared to this, expelling Yae Sakura seemed less important.
"Cioara, I don't mind going to World Serpent with you, but I have one condition," Chen Luo turned to Raven and said.
"What condition? Tell me," Raven asked.
"Lend me the Third Divine Key for one hour. I need to use it to take out a pseudo-Herrscher," Chen Luo said.
Analyzing the structure and such requires time; a brief touch won't suffice.
"Don't rush to refuse or agree. Perhaps you can ask Gray Serpent's opinion first." Before Raven could speak, Chen Luo suddenly interrupted her.
"...I think it's basically impossible, but if you insist, I can ask for you," Raven said helplessly.
When Chen Luo suggested that Raven consult Gray Serpent, he was actually transferring the risk to Gray Serpent instead of Raven.
Although Raven currently had quite high favorability towards Chen Luo, making her decide whether to lend the Third Divine Key to Chen Luo would indeed put a lot of pressure on her. But if the decision was left to Gray Serpent, then it was fine.
If anything goes wrong, Gray Serpent will take the blame.
At most, she just wouldn't use the Third Divine Key anymore, which wasn't a big deal for Raven.
You do things according to your ability. Without the Third Divine Key, Raven wouldn't take on those outrageous missions anyway.
Therefore, when Chen Luo made this seemingly unreasonable request, Raven didn't have much of an emotional reaction.
After all, the Third Divine Key was temporarily assigned to Raven by Gray Serpent. If it's gone, it's gone. What does it have to do with Raven?
After figuring out this key point, Raven walked to a corner and began discreetly contacting World Serpent.
Chen Luo glanced outside and saw that it was still early, so he decided to go out and continue hunting some zombies and Honkai beasts, while also demolishing a few more buildings.
There were still 16 hours left until the 7-day event ended.
There was no need to rush to spend the Crystals he had earned yet, because within seven days after the event ended, there would be a reserved period for exchanging items. Any spending within those seven days would enjoy a 10% discount.
After seven days, the 10% discount would truly be unavailable.
Correspondingly, after the 7-day event ended, defeating enemies would not yield Crystals but would instead yield Primogems.
But there's no such thing as a free lunch. The event gave you 7 days to freely farm mobs for Primogems, a 10% discount, unlocked team (support) functions, activated faction events during the event period, and made achievement tasks extremely easy to trigger...
The consequence was that after the 7-day event ended, when Chen Luo killed the weakest basic zombies, he would not receive Primogems. Only by defeating stronger elite individuals, like Emperor-class Honkai beasts, Herrschers, and pseudo-Herrschers, could he possibly obtain Primogems...
According to the talent panel's explanation, the higher your own level, the less experience you gain from killing lower-level mobs.
It was like how defeating a thug used to give Chen Luo 20 Primogems, but now, if defeating a thug gave him 5 Primogems, it would be considered generous of the talent panel.
The talent was meant to promote Chen Luo's continuous growth, not encourage him to bully weaklings every day.
The talent panel's definition of enemies was quite strict. For example, Chen Luo wouldn't receive Primogems for stepping on ants. Similarly, after becoming stronger, Chen Luo wouldn't receive Primogems for defeating ordinary zombies.
The reason Chen Luo could receive Primogems for killing zombies regardless of how strong he became or how many he killed during these 7 days was because of the event.
Otherwise, without any restrictions, if Chen Luo just found an anthill and went on a killing spree, wouldn't he make a fortune?
Remember, after defeating enemies, there is a chance to drop their abilities.
Just like how killing zombies drops Honkai Energy Adaptability—that Honkai Energy Adaptability is an item dropped by zombies.
Kill 10,000 ants and drop an ability like "possessing the strength to lift 400 times your body weight"—wouldn't that make Chen Luo invincible?
Later, when Chen Luo gains the ability to destroy planets, he could just cultivate a planet full of zombies and wipe them all out at once, instantly gaining hundreds of millions of Primogems—wouldn't that also make him invincible?
Therefore, Chen Luo didn't have any major objections to this.
Because protesting would be useless.
Actually, Chen Luo rather suspected that the talent panel defined things this way to prevent him from constantly bullying weaklings and to instead go complete commissions and do some proper work.
Since he awakened his talent by helping others complete commissions, this talent leaned more towards commissions.
If he had awakened his talent by killing people to increase progress, wouldn't the awakened talent have leaned more towards killing?
Precisely because this talent leaned more towards commissions, it prioritized commissions, with defeating enemies being secondary.
Perhaps, from the talent's perspective, Chen Luo spending all day bullying weaklings and killing enemies was like Barbatos spending all day being a bard, singing and slacking off—neither was doing proper work.
"Sigh, I wonder if going to other worlds in the future will trigger events," Chen Luo sighed.
Chen Luo suddenly realized why Barbatos loved slacking off so much—because not doing proper work was just too enjoyable.
But upon closer thought, sometimes the random items rewarded after completing a commission were actually more valuable than the Primogems from the commission itself.
For example... Furniture Mastery.