"Ren? Are you listening?" Kiana's voice reached Ren's ears. He looked up and saw the girl's pretty face close to his, looking at him curiously.
"Sorry, I was a bit distracted just now."
Two days had passed since the Herrscher of Sentience was born. In these two days, he and Kiana had temporarily stayed in ARC City, enjoying a brief period of peace with Himeko and the others.
However, while Kiana could relax, Ren, knowing the threat of the Herrscher of Sentience, couldn't ignore it.
In these two days, he had to frequently locate the Herrscher of Sentience. The other party was carrying the Core of the Thousand Authorities he had deployed, so theoretically, locating her shouldn't be difficult.
However, she was, after all, a Herrscher of Sentience. The Core of the Domination Authorities, as a signal source, could easily be disrupted by her unintentional authority. Only by using Ren's own Dominance authority for positioning could he accurately determine her location.
But this required much more effort.
What was even more troublesome was that this Herrscher was like a real child. After leaving Schicksal, she didn't go directly to her destination, but instead leisurely wandered around Shenzhou.
In the two intermittent positioning periods, she might even be going in completely opposite directions, so Ren still couldn't accurately grasp the Herrscher of Sentience's movements.
Of course, there was also a high probability that she couldn't find Ren's location and was just wandering aimlessly. In short, she was lost.
In any case, for Ren, the threat of the Herrscher of Sentience was something he couldn't easily let his guard down about. That was why he had invested a lot of energy in tracking her, even neglecting Kiana by his side because of it.
"Are you too tired?" The girl worriedly pressed her hand to his forehead, trying to gauge his physical condition through his temperature.
Generally speaking, girls' hands are relatively cool, but Kiana's were very warm and soft, perhaps due to the Herrscher of Flame's authority, or perhaps it was the girl's care. In any case, it made Ren feel quite comfortable. Just as he was about to enjoy it a little longer, Himeko's voice came over.
"Idiot Kiana, how could you possibly check someone's physical condition with Honkai energy using body temperature?"
"Ahaha, you're right." Kiana smiled awkwardly, removing her hand from Ren's forehead.
"..." The soft, warm sensation disappeared, and Ren felt a little disappointed. He didn't say much, just glanced at Himeko intentionally or unintentionally, silently adding a mark against her in his little notebook.
After the brief interlude, the topic returned to serious matters.
Apart from Wendy and Eden, all three of them had close ties with Kiana. Ren and Himeko's return had resolved the biggest knots in the girl's heart, but that didn't mean things would end there.
What she was most worried about now was naturally Class Monitor Fu Hua, who was still in a slumber.
"Fenghuang Down has been maintaining the lowest power output. This can ensure the safety of Fu Hua's consciousness to the greatest extent." The crimson feather floated in front of the three of them. Weak consciousness fluctuations indicated that Fu Hua's consciousness was still in a stable state. Himeko turned her gaze to Kiana, continuing the previous topic.
"But in that case, if we want to wake Class Monitor up again, we will inevitably have to break the power balance of Fenghuang Down." Kiana naturally understood Himeko's meaning. She gazed at the unremarkable feather, her voice low, "Class Monitor has proactively awakened to help me three times. Each time she appeared, it would cause her consciousness to become weaker."
Ren didn't stand idly by, but frowned and added, "Divine Keys are, after all, just tools. Each time they are activated, it consumes the user's own power. If she has been in a dormant state for so long, it is very likely that her power has reached its limit."
"That's what I'm worried about." Himeko sighed deeply. "If she awakens next time, it's probably going to be…"
Kiana's lips trembled slightly, subconsciously clenching her fists. "The last time."
The atmosphere became heavy. Ren placed the girl's fist in his palm and gently squeezed it, soothing her tense emotions, and softly comforted, "Don't be too nervous, at least she's safe now. We still have a lot of time, we'll be able to find a solution sooner or later."
"That's right, I brought up this matter also to get you to think about solutions. Kiana, don't worry, there will definitely be a way. Maybe after a while, things will be resolved?"
Himeko As if nothing had happened, she looked at Ren, Kiana might not be able to handle the problem of Fenghuang Down, but Ren definitely had the ability to solve it.
After being in contact for so long, she had reason to believe that as long as her good student was willing to ask, Fu Hua could appear unharmed before Kiana in less than two days.
Unfortunately, Himeko could only think about it. She couldn't interfere with Ren's thoughts. Apart from Kiana herself, everyone else was just a dispensable tool to Ren.
"Since Fu Hua helped you back then, she probably hopes that you can also rely on the people around you."
With the comfort of the two, Kiana's emotions also eased. She lowered her head and looked at the floating Fenghuang Down, reaching out her palm to let it fall into her hand.
During her wandering period, Fu Hua had always been by her side in the form of Fenghuang Down. Even though there had been conflicts and disputes between them, Kiana had now grown up. She could understand Fu Hua's position and good intentions, even if her choices were not entirely correct, she would always be her Class Monitor.
"I will definitely bring Class Monitor back." Having made up her mind, Kiana clenched her palm. Fenghuang Down transformed into flowing light, merging into her body. She looked up at Ren, her eyes carrying a hint of request.
"Ren, will you accompany me to find her, please?"
"..."
It still came down to this.
Ren sighed silently in his heart, glancing at Himeko next to Kiana. Sure enough, the other party revealed a teasing smile of [plot] succeeding.
He was very clear that the Herrscher of Sentience was still looking for his whereabouts. If he went out to awaken Fu Hua at this time, there was definitely a high probability of encountering her.
For Ren, who hated trouble, this was completely unnecessary risk, but what could he do?
Looking at Kiana in front of him, he could only nod in agreement.
"Okay, in that case, let's first consolidate the current information." Having agreed to Kiana, Ren naturally wouldn't slack off. He took out his phone from his pocket and gently pressed it. A rather detailed holographic map was projected.
"Fenghuang Down is a Divine Key. The one who knows the most about Divine Keys is probably Schicksal."
"But Fenghuang Down belongs to Class Monitor herself. She told me that she once lent it to Otto for research, but he didn't get much results."
"Then let's temporarily rule out Schicksal." Ren nodded. "Fenghuang Down is a composite Divine Key. Among those Fu Hua has been in contact with, most are your classmates, Kiana. Perhaps she might have distributed extra Fenghuang Down to them, or perhaps we can find a way to awaken her through other Divine Keys."
"Class Monitor did leave one with Bronya, but after the battle with World Serpent, that Fenghuang Down was also lost in the Sea of Quanta." As the possibilities were eliminated one by one, Kiana's eyes also dimmed.
"Then there's one last option. I've researched the culture and history of Shenzhou and found a lot of information about the Tai Xu Sect in the ancient texts. Fu Hua is a successor of Tai Xu Sword Art. The place where she lived in the past is very likely to have traces of her past."
Hearing this guess, a light flashed in Kiana's mind. She racked her brains to recall, finally remembering some details that Fu Hua had once revealed.
"Right, Mount Tai Xu! Class Monitor lived in Mount Tai Xu for a long time, and in order to maintain the stability of her consciousness, she chose to burn her memories through Fenghuang Down. If it's Mount Tai Xu, perhaps there will be Fenghuang Down she used to use left behind. With the help of these Divine Keys, at least we can provide more energy."
"But, since five hundred years ago, the Tai Xu Sect has already disappeared, and the address of the sect is also unknown." Himeko's words poured cold water on them, and the hope that Kiana had finally raised was shattered.
"It's okay, leave it to me." Saying that, Ren lit up his golden eyes, connecting to the humanoid machine in the Dominance Theater.
The massive computing power of the quantum computer quickly boosted his mind. Enduring the discomfort in his forehead, Ren quickly operated on the holographic map.
"Filtering, screening, narrowing down the target range." Muttering to himself, the map covering the entire Shenzhou was like a toy in his hands. At the same time, the vast Obsidian Concord network also began to operate at full speed, merging all the collected information into his mind.
A few minutes later, only one marker remained on the vast map, and this was precisely the location of Mount Tai Xu.
Memories from his previous life didn't clearly point out the location of Mount Tai Xu. Ren could only use this method. Fortunately, he didn't disappoint Kiana.
However, when he clearly saw the location in the data, Ren couldn't help but pause slightly. He had been to this place before. The place where he used Puppet K424 to attract Schicksal's attention was precisely a small village at the foot of Mount Tai Xu.
"Ren, what was that just now?"
"Just an application of my abilities, by constructing the coordinate latitude of Imaginary Space, to perform calculations…" Ren expected Kiana to ask, and had long prepared a set of explanations, launching into a long string of theories.
The other party knew that Ren had contacted the Imaginary Tree, but with Kiana's education level…
Sure enough, Ren's long speech hadn't even started before the girl felt a little sleepy, and proactively interrupted him.
"It's just like listening to Himeko-Sensei's lectures." Kiana whispered, but quickly perked up, "Since we've found Mount Tai Xu, maybe we can find a way to awaken Class Monitor there."
"Mm, you two go, I'll help you watch the house." Himeko Offered to stay, she wasn't stupid, if she really went, Ren would probably give her the cold shoulder.
"Then we'll leave it to you, Himeko-Sensei."
…
Just as Ren and Kiana established their target, the Herrscher of Sentience, who was troubled by being lost, suddenly brightened up, as if she had discovered something interesting.
"Huh, isn't that…?"
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