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As Li Sushang secretly glanced toward Otto—
Inside the chat group,
many people's hearts tightened at once, sensing something amiss.
[Jean: Mm… the Golden Sand Gang was really unlucky, provoking two tough opponents at once.]
[Silver Wolf: Traveling together? Going pretty smoothly.]
[Hu Tao: This is where Otto finds a path forward!]
[Keqing: What a coincidence—running into someone connected to Immortal Red Kite so quickly!]
[Kafka: Wait, that kid's gaze…]
[March 7th: Her gaze? It looks pretty clear to me.]
[Himeko (Star Rail): I think you're the one who's clearly stupid.]
[Shenhe: Mm, she's thanking Otto, isn't she?]
[Hanabi: Hehehe~ Isn't it obvious? The little girl's fallen for him~]
[March 7th: Huh??? Fallen for who???]
[Furina: Otto?!]
[Silver Wolf: Huh?? N-no way…]
[Robin: You can indeed feel a very shy, budding affection.]
[March 7th: How can that be!! That's Otto!]
[Hanabi: Hmph. When an innocent little girl meets someone as gentle and elegant as Otto, isn't it normal to fall?]
In the desert, the girl suddenly jolted awake.
Her heart raced wildly. Instinctively, she reached for the cloth bundle beside her and gripped the Xuanyuan Sword, only then calming down.
"You had a nightmare?"
Otto's voice came from nearby.
Li Sushang looked at him.
(Strange… when we first met, his Divine Land speech wasn't this fluent—he still had that awkward Western accent. But in less than two days, he's already speaking like a local.)
"N-no… I'm fine."
Otto shrugged, turned his gaze away, lifted his cup and took a sip of the gently swaying red liquid. When he set the glass down, the liquid instantly stopped moving.
The girl often wondered what it was. She had a few guesses, but didn't dare ask.
Li Sushang climbed up, her drowsiness gone. She shook the sand from her clothes, sat down beside Otto, and looked at the blond man.
"Hey, Rakshasa."
"I have a name."
"Your people's names are weird. I'm too lazy to remember."
Otto smiled faintly and didn't respond, his gaze falling instead on the large coffin beside him.
He always carried this massive, heavy coffin with him, sometimes even muttering softly to it. Each time, it made Sushang deeply uncomfortable.
She waited for a while. Otto still didn't speak.
"Hey… why are you looking for immortals?"
"..."
A long silence followed. Just as Li Sushang was racking her brain for another topic, Otto suddenly spoke.
"It's a very long story. Do you really want to hear it?"
"That's fine! I've got time. Just—don't make it too complicated! Simple! Simple!"
"All right. Twenty years ago—"
"Wait, twenty years ago? How old are you?!"
"..."
Otto let out a long sigh.
"Sorry. Go on…"
"Twenty years ago, when Schicksal marched east, even the strongest Valkyrie was defeated by her."
Otto rubbed his forehead and told Li Sushang the story of Schicksal's Eastern Campaign—
the story of his first encounter with Immortal Red Kite.
Beside him,
Li Sushang listened intently. After a day together, she had already noticed that although this Rakshasa man could laugh and joke at times, the moment his gaze fell upon the coffin, he would sink into a solitude that rejected the entire outside world.
Uninterested in war stories, Li Sushang finally couldn't hold back and asked,
"What's inside that thing? You're always talking to it. Is there someone inside?"
"No…"
The Rakshasa shook his head. He seemed confused, his gaze wandering over the coffin, then to his own palm.
He didn't answer.
His thoughts seemed to have flown far away, leaving behind only an empty shell beside Li Sushang.
She waited patiently, propping her chin up, staring at the hollow eyes that didn't match his appearance, curious about what he was thinking.
(Is he thinking of home?)
(Missing a distant Western homeland I can't even imagine? Or thinking of someone?)
(…Does he have parents? Oh, silly question—of course he does~ What about friends? A lover? Probably… Could he already be married? Does he have a master? Is he a disciple of that Schicksal faction?)
Li Sushang suddenly realized she knew nothing about him.
Although they had traveled together for two days, she hadn't exchanged a single truly meaningful conversation with him.
(I should talk to him more…)
She felt a little dejected. Suddenly, she remembered that once she brought this Rakshasa back to her master, they would part ways.
The time left together was only half a day.
That was… really very short.
[March 7th: Oh no… the little girl's really fallen…]
[Silver Wolf: That fast…]
[Tesla: Th-this… how can she like Otto of all people?!]
[Furina: But… Otto's actually so gentle right now? And so patient? No wonder Li Sushang would…]
[Theresa: Grandpa… he actually had a side like this…]
[Herta: At this point, Kallen hadn't been gone for very long, and Otto still held great hope.]
[Herta: But as time passes, people are changed by obsession.]
[March 7th: Li Sushang's eyes are full of Otto—but Otto's eyes…]
[Kamisato Ayaka: Carrying a coffin across thousands of miles already proves it. There's no room in Otto's heart for anyone else.]
[Keqing: Sigh… poor girl…]
[Sushang: Ahem… could you use my full name, please?]
[Keqing: Eh?! S-sorry! I didn't realize… there was another Miss Sushang…]
The group watched Li Sushang gaze at Otto,
her eyes filled with innocent, budding feelings.
And Otto—though he laughed and chatted—
had never once stepped out of his own world.
The world where Kallen was already gone.
[Within a dream]
[Amid the endless deluge of knowledge, Otto struggled to remain conscious]
[In the unknowable depths, an enemy he had once defeated—Void Archives—still coveted his body]
[Infinite knowledge was its bait, generous gifts its weapon]
[Otto knew it was waiting, waiting for the moment he let his guard down]
[Yet he continued to search. The search would never stop]
[All of this was for the sake of saving that person—]
[Compared to that, what did hardship matter?]
[What did danger matter?]
[What did time matter?]
[What did eternity matter?]
Even within his dreams,
Otto was still immersed in the ocean of knowledge created by Void Archives, searching for a way to resurrect Kallen.
These inner thoughts
left everyone deeply moved.
Otto's world had been reduced to a single pillar—
Kallen alone.
The next day.
The Golden Sand Gang's two best horses pulled a flatbed cart, racing across the desert.
Li Sushang lay atop the cart, humming an off-key tune, her spirits high. The rushing wind whipped up her long braid.
On the other side,
the Rakshasa man surrounded himself with layers of invisible air barriers. Within the domain created by Void Archives, his long hair remained perfectly still, his expression calm.
"Aren't you hot?"
"Hot, sure. But that's just how deserts are~"
"Mm."
Otto had intended to extend the invisible domain to cover the girl as well, but hearing her words, he lowered his hand.
"Besides, you're injured, aren't you? Don't risk using techniques unnecessarily! Sitting like this is fine!"
Li Sushang genuinely worried for him, afraid he'd waste his already limited internal energy.
But the Rakshasa man seemed to harbor an irreconcilable hatred for the wind.
Even sitting on a rickety flatbed cart, he insisted on maintaining a pristine appearance—those seemingly casual strands of golden hair could not be disturbed even slightly.
"Why don't you tell a story this time?" Otto suddenly said, glancing at Li Sushang. "Tell me about that immortal."
She tried hard to recall, but unfortunately, she didn't know much about her grandmaster, Immortal Red Kite.
So she could only ramble on about the legends circulating in the martial world.
"That's about all I remember. There were others, but I forgot."
"Hm… those are all exaggerated praises. Do you know anything concrete?"
Otto's gaze suddenly sharpened.
"For instance… since the immortal is all-powerful, has she ever brought someone back from the dead?"
"Bring someone back to life?"
"Yes."
The man stared at Li Sushang, yet it wasn't really her he was looking at.
It was as though some enormous presence beside her was glowing, burning—
making his eyes blaze with heat and brightness.
"I… I don't remember."
Sushang avoided that searing gaze, glancing instead at the coffin before him. Suddenly, understanding dawned on her.
"You… you want someone to be revived?"
"Mm…"
Otto hesitated briefly, then gave no meaningful reply.
The light in his eyes dimmed, cooled.
Beside Sushang was once again that foreign traveler—sometimes lost in sorrow, sometimes joking lightly.
"So that's it… no wonder you're seeking immortals. You want her to revive someone?"
"Yes."
Otto lowered his lashes and smiled gently.
"Isn't it normal for mortals to have such a wish?"
"I want her to be revived. That's all. How simple."
"And yet, the simpler the wish, the harder it seems to be fulfilled…"
"Nineteen years now. In four more days, it'll be exactly nineteen years."
"Nineteen years…"
As he spoke,
Otto's fingers gently traced across the coffin lid.
"But it's only the blink of an eye. I have time—so does she. Once we meet the immortal, she'll come back."
"We?"
Li Sushang froze slightly, thinking he meant her.
But—
those jade-green eyes were fixated on the coffin alone, his mind wandering far away, as if he had forgotten her entirely.
So Li Sushang fell silent, simply watching Otto, lost in thought.
The cart returned to silence.
A silence that made countless onlookers outside the screen sigh repeatedly.
Soon enough,
the cart raced onward through the desert.
With Li Sushang's help, Otto quickly arrived at her master's residence.
Though there were some minor mishaps along the way,
the task was ultimately completed.
Now, all that remained was to search for Immortal Red Kite's whereabouts.
Time passed.
At Schicksal Headquarters,
Otto finished handling an urgent matter from the Australia Branch and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Though his body was already made of soulium,
immune to the fatigue of ordinary humans—
a glance to the side revealed Amber staring blankly at the screen, not even noticing his gaze.
"…It should be over by now."
A trace of dejection flickered in Otto's eyes.
He opened the screen himself.
As expected,
a long time had already passed since Kallen's death.
And on screen,
his journey seeking immortals in the Divine Land
had reached its end.
What followed was still vivid in Otto's memory—
the beginning of his five-hundred-year friendship with Fu Hua.
As for Li Sushang,
she was now in hibernation within Schicksal.
Otto still remembered the promise he had made her.
At this moment,
the chat group exploded in shock!
[Ningguang: Immortal Red Kite… was actually killed by her own seven disciples?!]
[Shenhe: Betraying one's master—death would be too light a punishment!]
[Yanqing: And why is there someone named Yanqing too?!]
[Keqing: This is far too cruel… especially with such brutal methods…]
[March 7th: Thank goodness… thank goodness Qin Suyi secretly hid Immortal Fu Hua's body! Otherwise revival wouldn't have been possible!]
[Raiden Mei: Fu Hua… Immortal? Are you okay?]
[Fu Hua: Mm. Many memories are already gone. But it's all in the past now.]
[Ruan Mei: Th-this… can even be revived?]
[Furina: Unfortunately, Immortal Red Kite's revival… could never be replicated for others. Otto's hope truly shattered at this moment.]
[Robin: To think a journey of ten thousand miles ended in disappointment…]
[Raiden Ei: Is that it… the end?]
On screen,
Otto was returning with the gravely injured Fu Hua and Li Sushang.
Back at Schicksal, he began treatment for both.
Fu Hua's injuries could heal on their own, so Otto wasn't overly worried—he merely assisted in her recovery.
But Li Sushang was a mortal. At the level of civilization back then, complete treatment was difficult.
So before finding a cure, Otto placed Li Sushang into deep hibernation.
Before she entered sleep, Otto asked her,
"If everything goes smoothly, what kind of future would you like to awaken into?"
Li Sushang's answer made everyone's hearts ache.
She didn't choose a peaceful era after humanity defeated Honkai.
Instead—
she chose the era when Otto fulfilled his wish.
She wanted to see Otto achieve his dream.
Fu Hua, who returned with Otto to Schicksal,
also gave him tremendous help.
As a Previous Era MANTIS, she naturally possessed vast knowledge of that civilization's truths.
Otto made a deal with the immortal.
He would assist with the Ember Project, and the immortal would help him seek the truth.
With her aid, Otto was finally no longer harassed by Void Archives.
Though the immortal's knowledge didn't rival that of the Key of Revelation, it was sufficient.
To prevent Void Archives from plotting further, Otto didn't discard it—
he imprisoned it instead.
Knowledge would be sought bit by bit.
Civilization would advance step by step.
With Red Kite's help, Otto quickly came to understand the Honkai Will.
The Imaginary Tree possessed a filtering mechanism over worlds.
The more a civilization advanced, the more likely it was to draw the attention of higher-dimensional existence—
which would then descend trials upon it, bringing Honkai into the world.
The gods would send down apostles.
These apostles were called—
Herrschers.
[Herrschers… yes. Perhaps Herrschers can give me the answer.]
Studying the records of the Previous Era,
Otto felt that he had found a new direction at last.
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