Several days had passed since Yae Sakura's departure. Li Xuan continued to lead a busy life, running around every day to collect food and Honkai Crystals. The food in this city was becoming increasingly scarce. He didn't know if there were other survivors, but several times when he went to more distant shops, he found that all the edible things had been taken. Additionally, much of the food, even if vacuum-sealed, was starting to mold.
"
Boom-crash~" A five-meter-tall dog-shaped Honkai Beast crashed to the ground, smashing a large crater into the concrete.
Phew~ Li Xuan stood proudly on the body of the dead Honkai Beast and let out a sigh of relief, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. His right hand tightly gripped a silver firearm—the Flintlock Shotgun.
The Flintlock Shotgun now looked different from when it was first summoned. Its bright silver casing and blue-purple patterns were more exquisite, and a faint silver glow emanated from the gun's body, making it look quite extraordinary. This was because Li Xuan had been continuously spending Honkai Crystals to strengthen the Flintlock Shotgun these past few days. After being consumed by the gun, the Honkai Crystals seemed to be assimilated into another gentle and powerful energy that was absorbed by the weapon.
He had raised the Flintlock Shotgun's level to its maximum, greatly increasing its power and ammo capacity. Paired with his divine equipment—the Xuanyuan Festive Garb—he could barely manage to take on a small Honkai Beast by himself.
I still need to work harder, Li Xuan thought. After extracting the Honkai energy from the beast below him and turning it into Crystals, he jumped off the corpse and disappeared into an alley.
…
"Here we go..." After breakfast that day, Li Xuan did not go out to "socialize" with the Honkai Zombies (i.e., mutual harm). He sat in his base, his face a mixture of excitement and anticipation, looking at the things laid out before him: the Gate of Vows and a small mountain of Honkai Crystals.
"Gods, please..." Li Xuan clasped his hands and prayed to the heavens, fervently hoping some deity would bless him with better luck and that he wouldn't be so unlucky again. Each vow cost 280 Crystals. If he only pulled useless women's underwear, he would lose his own shorts. At the very least, if he had to pull panties, please let them be men's. He really couldn't bring himself to use women's panties.
"It begins..." Li Xuan stretched out his hands, which he had washed more than ten times, and quickly placed the Crystals into the Gate of Vows. For this session, he had prepared enough Honkai Crystals for ten pulls, the majority of which were obtained with Yae Sakura's help.
As the Gate of Vows continuously devoured the Crystals, it began to emit a faint light again. Just like before, a blue light suddenly appeared, forcing him to close his eyes. After the light dissipated, a sword appeared. Li Xuan picked it up, and information flowed from the blade—'Yamamoto Yage Samurai Sword.' He glanced at its abilities and, without hesitation, tossed it into his ring as a backup weapon.
Li Xuan continued to place Crystals, but the Gate of Vows kept emitting a blue light, and the weapons it produced were not very strong. Soon, he reached his ninth pull. The items from the first eight pulls were all thrown directly into his ring. It couldn't be helped; they were all junk, nothing impressive. Things like a samurai sword, an FN2000R, an MK2A1 grenade, a C90 submachine gun, a Colt Python, a MENGSHI MS-F1 military axe. He even had the misfortune of pulling a pair of lace-trimmed panties and ribbon panties. Of course, these small garments were still useless to Li Xuan. After a very careful 'inspection,' he threw them into his ring.
Li Xuan took a deep breath and began the tenth vow. The Gate of Vows quickly consumed the Crystals, and then a strange transformation occurred. The gate emitted a purple light that Li Xuan had never seen before. The purple light did not form a heaven-piercing pillar like the golden light, but it still illuminated the entire house.
At this moment, a thousand meters away from Li Xuan, three young women were standing on a street filled with the Honkai Zombies they had just defeated.
"Eh~ a strange..." The silver-haired girl, Kiana Kaslana, looked at her phone in surprise as it suddenly displayed a strange Honkai energy fluctuation.
"What's wrong, Kiana?" The black-haired girl, Raiden Mei, said, panting.
"A strange Honkai energy fluctuation has appeared again in the place where the golden pillar of light appeared before," Kiana said, staring at her phone, watching the Honkai energy fluctuation suddenly appear and then quickly disappear.
"Mei-senpai~ let's go check it out..." Kiana's eyes darted around, and she threw her arms around Raiden Mei, starting to act cute.
"The Bronya can locate the place via satellite positioning..." Bronya, who usually liked to contradict Kiana, was also curious this time and sided with her.
"This... alright! Kiana, stop shaking me, I'm getting dizzy." Raiden Mei quickly stopped Kiana, covering her forehead and agreeing helplessly.
"Oh! Oh! Let's go!" Kiana was instantly filled with energy, waving her arms and shouting loudly.
As a result, unfortunately, they were once again surrounded by Honkai Zombies attracted by the noise.
"Kiana! You idiot!" Raiden Mei's angry voice came from within the group of Zombies. "Sorry..." and Kiana's sheepish apology followed.
On the other side, Li Xuan picked up the item on the Gate of Vows—it was an exquisite badge. The moment his hand touched it, a piece of information flowed into him: 'A Knight Never Dies with Empty Hands,' a 5-star badge. The wearer of this badge has their unarmed attack power increased by twelve thousand percent, and V-type weapon attack power increased by twenty percent.