The more you try to endure it, the calmer things are; the more you step back, the angrier you get.
It had been three days, and Ryn still couldn't accept the memory of being stabbed by those people.
"Fu Hua, don't you resent them?" Ryn leaned on the railing, watching Fu Hua as she fed the Azure Empyrea Birds.
"What if I do, and what if I don't."
Fu Hua didn't turn to look at Ryn, continuing to plant the Azure Empyrea Birds on her own.
"They did it to survive. They were both wrong and not wrong..."
"But that's no reason to kill you! Couldn't you have talked it over?" Ryn couldn't understand. In the memories he experienced, Fu Hua and the Seven Swords of Taixu clearly had a good relationship. Why could they strike so decisively?
"Because those who succumb to their inner demons must be executed... They succumbed, so I would have killed them... If I had succumbed, they naturally would have killed me too."
Fu Hua placed a crystal into the ground and covered it completely with soil. This way, by the next year, an Azure Empyrea Bird could be harvested.
"There's no right or wrong, and no why."
Fu Hua turned around. Her eyes turned fiery red, crimson feathers sprouted from her body, patterns spread across her neck, and flames began to erupt around her.
"'Those who succumb must be executed' is a rule of the Taixu Sword School. From the moment they began practicing the Sword Heart Sutra, it was engraved in their minds like a mental steel brand. This is the so-called Divine Sound... or perhaps, a commandment...."
"Do you remember Higokumaru? We had no choice back then..."
Fu Hua closed her eyes, and the patterns and flames on her body began to gradually dissipate.
"It seems that regaining my memories wasn't a good thing. My emotions have become more unstable..."
Seeing Fu Hua calm down, Ryn curiously circled her, observing her closely and said with some surprise:
"Fu Hua, you... what was that state just now? In that moment, you completely lost your human aura! You were more like... more like a Honkai Beast! No, not a Honkai Beast either..."
"That's Human-form Collapse, an ability of a MANTIS. It's a state that manifests when emotions spiral out of control, or when one deliberately suppresses their humanity, allowing instinct to take over."
Fu Hua clutched her forehead, her body swaying slightly. Ryn quickly reached out to support her, but she pushed him away.
"Sorry, I've also been reviewing some memories lately, and my Hyperthymesia is acting up again... I need to be alone for a while."
"Do you need help?"
"No... I can handle it myself."
Fu Hua returned to her room and placed Fenghuang Down in front of her. After a brief pause, she activated it to strip away her memories once again.
By the time Ryn, worried about Fu Hua, followed her, there were many more memory feathers on the table.
"You just keep stripping away your own memories like this... Is there really no cure for Hyperthymesia?"
"Perhaps there is... but my body is already in ruins. When my head was pierced by the Sword God, part of my brain was directly destroyed. Even if it regenerated, the damage remains. Later on, I went through some other things and was injured too severely. My self-healing ability disappeared... and my immortality ceased to exist. Now, I have to strip my memories every three or four years."
Ryn pressed on, "Schicksal's technology is so advanced, can't it heal you?"
"No, I don't trust Otto... Besides, even Otto can't repair my injuries..."
At this thought, the serious expression on Fu Hua's face softened into a smile. She thought of a joke to lighten the mood.
"Unless a Herrscher core suddenly appears inside me, and the Herrscher transformation creates a miracle sufficient to return me to my peak~"
A cold wind blew past, and Ryn shivered and hugged himself.
"Fu Hua, hearing a joke like that from you is so lame..."
"Is that so? Does that mean my deadpan humor is pretty good? Haha..." Fu Hua awkwardly scratched her head.
"Haha..." Ryn also laughed awkwardly a few times.
——————————————
He had already learned Taixu Sword Ki, but Ryn didn't need to delve deeply into the Heart State. He only cultivated the Heart State to reach the Taixu realm. Any further study of it would only allow him to mobilize more Honkai energy.
When it came to mobilizing Honkai energy, what could be faster than a Herrscher's authority connecting to Imaginary Space? What's more, Ryn had basically plugged a door directly into the Imaginary Tree.
Even though the Imaginary Tree didn't grant Ryn its power, it still gave him strength far surpassing other Herrschers.
At least Ryn wasn't like the Previous Era's Herrscher of Rock, whose authority was less effective than the Star of Eden.
The Form State and Intent State had also been honed quite well by Ryn, but he still had no clue about the Soul State and Divine State.
However, Ryn could directly simulate the attack power and form of the Divine State with his vast Honkai energy and mental strength.
At the time, Ryn had eagerly sought out Fu Hua for a demonstration. As a result, the Divine State he mimicked—the Taixu Sword God—sliced Mount Taixu in half with a single strike.
And on that day, Ryn witnessed a true Human-form Collapse....
But Fu Hua's Human-form Collapse didn't even last a few seconds before she collapsed herself. Fu Hua's current body, apart from still looking human, was internally no different from how it was after being betrayed by the Seven Swords of Taixu.
"The mountain... My Mount Taixu..."
The awakened Fu Hua stretched out a trembling hand and pointed at Ryn. She looked so haggard, as if she could pass away at any moment.
Ryn took her hand and pressed it back down by the bed.
"You can count on me. Mount Taixu is already repaired, I guarantee it's exactly the same as before!"
Ryn directly changed the direction of gravity on both sides of Mount Taixu, sticking them back together. Because the initial sword flash was extremely sharp, the two sides of the mountain fit together perfectly. Apart from the overall height being slightly lower, there were no other problems!
After confirming that Mount Taixu was fine, Fu Hua let out a long sigh.
At the academy, she could be driven half-mad by Kiana at any moment. She didn't expect that even after leaving, she could still be driven half-mad by Ryn.
"Ryn, remember that strike of yours. Although it was a mimicry, it already has the shadow of the Divine State. Or rather, that is the prototype of your own Divine State."
"Divinity is the pinnacle of change. With no sword yet a sword, manifesting a sword through spirit, the sword ki forms on its own, thus reaching the Divine State.
Divinity is the pinnacle of change, the wonder that gives voice to all things, it cannot be questioned by form."
Ryn only half-understood. That strike seemed powerful, but it was not, in the end, the Divine State.
Because that strike could not achieve the other description of the Divine State:
"It has no form, nor does it need one. This sword fills space; this sword is space. Therefore, it is everywhere and ever-victorious."
The Soul State was just for fun. Ryn was too lazy to learn it, nor did he want to. Because the Soul State belonged to the realm of "no sword in hand, but a sword in the heart, thus a sword is everywhere."
But Ryn was a Herrscher. Once he learned the Divine State, he could just wipe out everything, people and objects alike. When you're poor, you use precision strikes (Soul State for killing people); when you're rich, you use fire saturation (Li Sushang's ultimate).