Nightfall.
Within the Youxiong tribe.
The primitive people of Shenzhou lit bonfires one after another, singing and dancing, using their mysterious rituals to celebrate Chiyou's defeat.
They didn't understand what a Honkai Beast was, nor the concepts of the Previous Era, starships, or advanced technology.
To them, it was simply the descent of heavenly gods who had slain a demon for them.
In their eyes, Setsuna, Fu Hua, Dan Zhu, and the others were immortals beyond mortal reach, so they instinctively cleared a wide space around them.
Only a few cast timid glances in their direction.
During the celebration, tribespeople carried rough clay plates, offering the finest cuts of meat and freshly gathered fruits before Setsuna.
"Mmm—this doesn't taste good."
Griseo reached out with her small hand, tried a bite, puffed her cheeks, and tugged on Setsuna's sleeve.
She quietly pulled a packet of jerky from her pocket and began to chew.
Without the spices of later ages, the cooking of the ancients was bland and unpalatable by modern standards.
"Not bad."
Cangxuan and Dan Zhu had long since grown used to being treated as honored guests of the tribes.
They even struck a few poses at the right moments, leaving the primitive folk utterly awestruck.
Setsuna couldn't help but admire how genius the idea of spreading knowledge through myth and legend truly was.
"Honestly, I feel reluctant to leave here."
Jilin's gaze drifted.
Unlike Cangxuan and Dan Zhu, who were girls of the Previous Era, she was a true native—the leader of the Youxiong tribe.
"Do you want to lead Shenzhou's people into the future? That won't work. If you stay, it'll really create a bug."
"After all, originally you perished together with Chiyou."
Setsuna asked with a smile.
"I know. But more than that, I want to see the Shenzhou of the future."
Jilin thought for a moment, then looked at Setsuna seriously:
"Then, how should we guide the tribes of Shenzhou from now on?"
"So that even without me, they can continue to thrive and grow stronger?"
"Leave that to me."
Setsuna patted the girl's shoulder.
"When it comes to leading a civilization, I have plenty of experience."
"After all, I also started from the Stone Age. Well, though I did live a little off the shipgirls' support."
...
Setsuna temporarily stayed in the Youxiong tribe.
Following the research division's instructions, he made small adjustments to the worldline.
Unlike Cangxuan and Dan Zhu, who often accelerated humanity's progress by teaching iron smelting or steel forging far beyond their era,
Setsuna's goal was to restore the timeline to normal.
He only guided the tribespeople to discover the right technologies at the right time.
Whether it was smelting or farming, he kept it strictly within the level of 2000 BC.
Even though these were simple skills, to the primitive people, the man who taught them was no less than Nuwa (Dan Zhu) and Fuxi (Cangxuan).
Beyond that, he also had to complete another of the Yellow Emperor's great tasks—uniting the tribes.
In the ancient world, constrained by transportation, the Yellow Emperor had spent years bringing together the tribes of the Central Plains.
For Setsuna, this task was far easier.
Buzz—
A small starship carried Jilin, Cangxuan, Dan Zhu, and Fu Hua as it cruised across the Central Plains using holographic navigation.
Before long, a simple settlement appeared below.
"Commander, that's the Shennong tribe—also ancestors of Shenzhou."
"In the original timeline, they joined with the Youxiong tribe, forming the foundation of Shenzhou culture. We need to bring them in."
One of the observing lolis reminded him.
"Got it. Proceed as planned."
Shua—
The ship descended slowly above the tribe.
"!!!"
The tribespeople below gawked in terror.
Cangxuan and Dan Zhu leapt down.
The two ancestors had already mastered the art of playing gods before primitives.
"I am Fuxi of the Youxiong tribe. I have come to discuss important matters with you."
Thud—Thud—Thud!!
A few loud blasts—
Cangxuan set off fireworks, startling the tribespeople so much they dropped to their knees in worship.
"I am Nuwa, under the command of the Commander of the Starsea Empire, here to guide you…"
"Commander… who is that?"
The chieftain of the Shennong tribe asked, baffled but cautious.
"He is the Lord of all worlds, Lord of the Starsea, traversing the vast cosmos…"
Dan Zhu folded her arms and pointed up at the towering starship above.
A space warship appearing in 2000 BC was a cognitive strike beyond imagination for the primitives.
They couldn't comprehend, couldn't picture it—only believe it was a divine creation.
"I command you to go to the Youxiong tribe. From this day forward, unite as one, and together rule over Shenzhou…"
With tall tales and what looked like magic—modern technology—Dan Zhu easily persuaded the Shennong tribe.
"Are you sure this is really fine?"
In the control room, Fu Hua sounded worried.
"I recall we said we shouldn't spread advanced technology to them, to avoid Honkai and other accidents?"
"It's fine, the research division simulated it already."
Setsuna waved casually with a smile.
"We didn't spread advanced tech. We just used it to achieve certain effects."
"To the primitive people of Shenzhou, anything too advanced is incomprehensible anyway. They'll only pass it down as myth."
"Oh…"
...
With Setsuna, Cangxuan, and Dan Zhu's efforts,
History gradually returned to its rightful course.
The tribes of Shenzhou quickly united, choosing another outstanding leader to guide the Youxiong and Shennong together.
No longer a scattering of primitive clans, they now had the beginnings of a nation.
Setsuna, Cangxuan, Dan Zhu, Fu Hua, and even Griseo were revered as divine patrons of the tribe.
One day—
Setsuna received a transmission from Grey.
"Commander, the worldline corrections are complete. Simulation and observation confirm that this time jump won't disturb the original trajectory."
"Good."
After sharing one last rough but heartfelt meal with the tribespeople, he and his companions boarded the ship.
"My lord, please wait!"
A tribesman of the Youxiong clan called out behind him.
"Are you leaving us?"
The people looked on with reluctance.
"Yes. From here, you must walk the path yourselves."
Setsuna nodded.
"…"
The tribespeople knelt together, begging him to stay, but Setsuna only smiled and shook his head.
"Do not grieve, and do not fear. In this age, you have already established a remarkable civilization."
"Even without our guidance, you can carry Shenzhou's civilization forward."
"…Will you come see us again?"
A young woman looked up hopefully.
"Perhaps."
Dan Zhu thought for a moment, then teased:
"Could be a hundred years, or maybe thousands. Who can say~"
The tribespeople froze at that, before one more stepped forward:
"My lord, we have one final question:"
"How can we preserve words and drawings for the longest time possible?"
"Oh?"
Setsuna found the question amusing.
He considered their technological level, then smiled:
"Carve them into stone."
Boom—
The time-space passage opened, and the starship vanished into the sky trailing fire.
...
The people of Shenzhou continued as history decreed, spreading across the Central Plains.
The tribe's craftsmen, using primitive writing and memory, carved into stone what they had seen in those days—
Starships, Honkai Beasts, immortals wielding impossible power…
They couldn't understand what they had witnessed, so they etched the shapes of ships and monsters as they remembered them.
They also recorded how Setsuna, Fu Hua, and Griseo had taught them farming and metallurgy.
Words they often heard—"Honkai," "Commander," "Starsea Empire"—were meaningless to them, yet they carved them beside the images as annotations.
The slabs, revered at first as sacred relics, later passed through wars and migrations, collected by nobles and merchants, some destroyed, others scattered across the world…
Most eventually buried deep underground.
Crafted with crude but enduring skill, they survived millennia, waiting to shock the modern age as an unsolved mystery of the world.
...
"This is our research base in the Honkai world."
"To study Honkai energy more conveniently, and to avoid causing too much impact on Earth, we spend most of our time here in Honkai Station-1."
Inside the space station—
Setsuna landed with the ancestral figures he had brought through time.
"An orbital space station!! Anti-gravity!!"
"It's huge!!! Bigger than a city on Earth!!"
As soon as they stepped off the ship, Cangxuan and Dan Zhu were overwhelmed by the wonders of the interstellar era.
When carrying out the Project EMBER, they had borne the accumulated achievements of the Previous Era's science.
But compared to the Starsea Empire's accomplishments, it seemed insignificant.
"Ah la, I thought I'd entrust you with this terminal, but now it looks unnecessary?"
Cangxuan fiddled with a spherical computer in her hand.
It was a quantum computer storing knowledge from the Previous Era. Some had been scattered in ruins on Earth, others lost to the ages.
One had even been crafted into Little Cangxuan.
"If you mean the knowledge of the Previous Era, I already gave it to Brother Setsuna."
Griseo replied.
"The Ark carries all the Previous Era's research, plus Dr. Mei's reports on Honkai energy. Mhm, it should be more than what your terminal contains."
"Hah?"
Cangxuan was startled.
"I was going to use it to repay the Commander. Just giving a figurine felt inadequate… and you already beat me to it?!"
"Brother Setsuna was the one who saved me…"
Little Griseo puffed her cheeks and tugged Setsuna's sleeve.
"No need for you to repay me."
Setsuna ruffled Cangxuan's hair.
"Hua's been thinking of you two for a long time, and asked me to bring you back if possible."
"If you survived, she would never have gone mad."
"!"
Fu Hua was almost used to Setsuna teasing her at every turn.
She pinched him lightly and said softly, "Thank you. They… are very important to me."
"I will find a way to repay you."
They walked to the research division.
Grey, Mio, and several shipgirls were already waiting.
"Husband!!"
"Why didn't you take me with you on your time jump?"
The Spirit of Origin flung herself into his arms, pouting and sulking.
"You were only gone for less than two weeks. What's so fun about primitive civilizations?"
"Eating roasted meat and picking fruit with tribespeople?"
Setsuna chuckled, pinching her cheek.
After spending so much time with Fu Hua, suddenly seeing Mio, his first thought was—so big! Too big!
His sense of proportions had been warped by an immortal.
"As long as I'm with you, anything is fun! Take me next time~"
Mio clung to him like a girlfriend, making Fu Hua glance sideways.
Mio was terrifyingly strong. In their sparring, Fu Hua had discovered this silver-haired girl could flatten her in a single move.
Yet, despite her power, by Setsuna's side she was a pure lovestruck fool, the kind who even wanted him to feed her at meals.
"Jealous?"
Cangxuan nudged Fu Hua, whispering.
"!?"
"I'm not."
Fu Hua kept her eyes forward.
"Blockhead…"
Cangxuan tugged her again.
"Look, there are so many girls here. You're beautiful, though your figure has some flaws. But it shouldn't matter."
"A slow bird should fly first! If someone else steals him away, you'll just end up shutting yourself off again."
The two sisters lectured earnestly. Though younger than Fu Hua, they cared for her—who had always been aloof, friendless, and socially clumsy.
Outside of battle, it was often Cangxuan and Dan Zhu taking care of her.
"???"
Fu Hua felt that since reuniting, the two had constantly been attacking her character.
"I… don't really understand these things."
The immortal shook her head.
"Don't worry! Leave it to me! Follow my plan in the future!!"
Dan Zhu suddenly perked up.
"I've read so many shoujo manga! Perfect for a blockhead like you!"
The immortal suddenly felt anxious about her future.
After the brief greetings—
A few research lolis brought the Angeloid to conduct routine medical checks for everyone.
Cangxuan, Dan Zhu, and Griseo were already used to it, but Jilin was a complete native girl.
Dragged from the tribal age straight into the spacefaring era, she clutched her belongings nervously and followed behind the lolis.
It was hard to imagine that this short, timid girl would one day become one of Shenzhou's ancestral founders.
"Ahem. In short—after our simulations and calculations, Commander, your time jump basically had no impact on the later timeline."
In the laboratory, Grey tapped the holographic screen, pulling up massive amounts of data.
"The mission was highly successful. Earth's history here suffered no disturbance."
"Good."
Setsuna nodded.
In previous jumps—whether in the Date A Live world or in the Angeloid world—every traversal had caused massive changes to the original worldline.
This time, spanning over 3,000 years, with the mathematical law weapon's deductions, history had completely returned to its proper course.
The Honkai world's time-jump technique would have even more applications in the future—
To alter the past, correct the future, and guide worlds to develop according to their will.
"Commander… what happened to the Youxiong tribe afterwards?"
Jilin raised her hand timidly.
Now she felt disoriented—she had leapt forward 3,575 years.
Those who had been her companions yesterday were now figures of the distant past.
"Hmm…"
Kayo Senju opened the historical records.
Since Jilin was a true native girl, the histories of Xia, Shang, Zhou, and the entire feudal era were all the future to her.
"After you left, the Youxiong and Shennong tribes united, absorbing other primitive tribes in the Central Plains."
"After some evolution, they together established Shenzhou's first dynasty—the Xia."
"Later came Shang, Zhou, Spring and Autumn, Warring States… mm, too long. Just read the history books yourself."
The research lolis handed Jilin a tablet loaded with a complete history of Shenzhou in the Honkai world.
"However… since the Commander appeared flying a starship, the early Shenzhou people developed some peculiar worship."
Grey scratched his head.
"They treated you as deities descending from the heavens. They carved starships, the Commander, Hua, Griseo, and the others into murals and stone tablets."
"This odd worship spread for a while, but later faded due to wars and the progress of society."
"…"
Setsuna suddenly thought of ancient Egyptian relics and similar finds—where archaeologists discovered strange UFO-like images.
They often dismissed them as imagination or misidentified animals.
Maybe future archaeologists of the Honkai world would face the same doubts when unearthing Shenzhou's relics.
"Next is arranging accommodations for you all."
He turned to the ancestral trio.
"Cangxuan, Dan Zhu—you'll go to the research division with Grey to study Honkai energy."
Setsuna thought for a moment.
They were chosen as geniuses of the Previous Era—perfect to handle research.
"Alright, alright~"
The black-haired, blue-eyed girl in the white backless dress answered lazily.
"Let me see the Starsea Empire's tech. After mixing with natives so long, it'll be refreshing to stay with scientists again."
"As for Jilin…"
Setsuna looked her way.
The girl still seemed shy, clutching a golden longsword.
"Go first with Yae Sakura and Yae Rin to study—get used to the Starsea Empire and life here."
"By the way, can I borrow your sword for a while?"
"Ah, oh—yes."
Jilin hurriedly handed the golden sword to Setsuna.
"This is the sacred heirloom of our tribe…"
The blade was exquisitely made and heavy.
It was one of the Tenth Divine Keys—the Key of Domination forged from the core of the Herrscher of Dominance in the Previous Era: the Xuanyuan Sword.
In ancient times, Cangxuan and Dan Zhu had given it to humanity, and the Youxiong tribe had revered it ever since.
Because the Tenth Herrscher core possessed infinite divisibility and distribution, humanity created nearly a thousand mass-produced Divine Keys.
Some suppressed Honkai, others were destroyed in long battles. Xuanyuan Sword, the Grips of Tai Xuan, and Redsword all came from the Keys of Domination.
Setsuna brushed the blade lightly, feeling a powerful Honkai presence.
Xuanyuan Sword was one of the more unique Keys of Domination, holding six Herrscher powers—lightning, flame, ice, and others.
For Jilin, a native girl who had only just awakened her stigmata, to seal a Judgment-class Honkai Beast like Chiyou proved the sword's terrifying strength.
"Hmm…"
Setsuna examined it for a while.
"Interesting. For now, hand it to the research division for study."
"Since the Tenth Herrscher core can be infinitely divided, maybe we can use it to make more things?"
...
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