Ryn didn't believe Fu Hua's claim that it didn't affect her life. Her body was burning like a fire, and her consciousness and personality were already somewhat distorted. How could that not be having an effect…
Ryn's power of Creation flowed through Fu Hua's body, sensing her internal condition, and he quickly found the reason for her fever.
"Huh… why are your cells like an unceasing flame, full of scorching heat and rapidly dividing and growing. But…"
Normally, a person's cells have a limited lifespan and vitality for division, but Fu Hua's cells seemed to have infinite vitality, constantly growing, dividing, and emitting a fiery energy.
This ultra-high-speed cell division meant that Fu Hua's metabolism was thousands or even tens of thousands of times faster than a normal person's. A normal person might live out their hundred-year lifespan in a single day under these conditions, but if each cell had infinite lifespan and vitality, it would mean Fu Hua could, like in a novel, "regenerate from a single drop of blood."
Yet, in reality, Fu Hua's body was covered in scars, battered and broken. Even though she could have revived after being dismembered five hundred years ago, those injuries remained deeply etched on her body.
The culprit behind all this was the Taixuan Sword Ki she cultivated… or rather, the unmodified "Sword Heart Sutra."
Taixuan Sword Ki emphasizes that Ki should not pass through the body; it should be controlled externally. Although it is a method for manipulating Honkai energy, it forbids Honkai energy from entering the body.
Using the heart as a sheath to nurture the sharp sword. The principle is to cultivate the Sword Heart to serve as the "sheath" for bearing and controlling Honkai energy, using one's own mind to manipulate this "sheath" to utilize Honkai energy.
At the same time, the Sword Heart can also block Honkai energy from entering the body, thereby increasing the user's Honkai energy resistance.
For an ordinary person, Taixuan Sword Ki might be a celestial art for ascending to immortality, and it might even be effective for Ryn and Kiana, but for Fu Hua…
It was a poison that was killing her.
Because Fu Hua's super-regeneration required Honkai energy, but the Sword Heart blocked Honkai energy from entering her body. Without the versatile Honkai energy as a power source, all the energy needed for regeneration was being squeezed from Fu Hua's own life force…
Ryn looked up at Fu Hua with a meaningful expression.
"Fu Hua, your body is in a state of chaos right now. Your Sword Heart and your body are in conflict. Life and death are out of balance within you."
"Mmm… I know. It's fine. It'll fix itself in ten days to half a month."
"Are you sure?"
"Mmm… sure." Fu Hua shook her head, then nodded. "I've made it through all these years. I know what I'm doing."
"You know jack squat. Look at you, you're half-dead. You'd be better off shattering your Sword Heart completely and choosing to develop that power inside you instead," Ryn advised with good intentions.
"Ryn… it's not that simple." Fu Hua pulled her hand back, sat cross-legged on the sofa, and closed her eyes.
"I believe I've told you about the origin of the Sword Heart, haven't I?"
"Mmm…"
"Once, by a twist of fate, I joined an organization dedicated to fighting the Honkai called the 'Fire Moth'…"
Fire Moth? Ryn was taken aback for a moment. Hearing Fu Hua mention the Fire Moth, he thought of Penglaiji Ryn's Fire Moth. He wondered how everyone was doing now and if pioneering a new world was difficult.
Seeing Ryn fall into thought upon hearing about the Fire Moth, Fu Hua paused, waiting for him to process the news.
Coming back to his senses, Ryn gave Fu Hua an apologetic look.
"Sorry, I zoned out. Please continue."
"Mmm… I'm already done." Fu Hua took a sip of water, then sat up straight, maintaining her previous meditative posture.
"What? Didn't you only get to the part about joining the Fire Moth? You haven't said anything else!"
"Mmm, I only remember joining the Fire Moth. The other memories were stripped away, and I haven't recalled them yet." Fu Hua took another awkward sip of water.
"What a waste of my popcorn… I'll tell the story instead." The Book of Cangxuan, who had been ready to listen to a story, handed the popcorn to Fu Hua, cleared her throat, and began to speak for her.
"If we let the old antique tell it, she'd probably start from her birth and go all the way to the present. Let's just get to the point.
Basically, the old antique used to be a rookie soldier in the Fire Moth. At the same time, for certain reasons, she was ostracized, and her resolve to fight the Honkai was shaken.
Many others were in the same boat as the old antique, so the higher-ups in the Fire Moth initiated a plan, the 'Divine Sound Project.'
Through the ability 'Discipline,' wielded by a MANTIS, they strengthened Fu Hua and the others' Honkai energy resistance and willpower, firming their conviction to fight the Honkai. And through 'Discipline,' they tempered their physical fitness, Honkai energy resistance, and so on…
Finally, they injected them with Hyper-Modification Factors and threw them into a horde of Honkai Beasts, forcing them to face an enemy they couldn't possibly defeat, in order to squeeze out all their potential.
If the old antique hadn't managed to activate the injected Hyper-Modification Factor at a critical moment and defeat an Imperator-class Honkai Beast, she would have probably ended up as Honkai Beast food long ago.
And as for those who didn't activate the Hyper-Modification Factor… the Divine Sound Project had only one survivor…"
The Book of Cangxuan glanced at Fu Hua.
Ryn knew without being told that everyone else, apart from Fu Hua, had become a string of experimental data.
"Divine Sound is 'Discipline,' which is the Sword Heart Sutra you all cultivate using Taixuan Sword Ki…
The reason the Divine Sound Project failed, the reason it was terminated with such tragic results… was because one of the tenets of 'Discipline' is to eliminate the Honkai.
The requirement of Divine Sound was to eliminate the Honkai, while the requirement to activate the Hyper-Modification Factor was to accept the Honkai. The two were incompatible from the start. That's why the Divine Sound Project only had one lucky survivor, the old antique, who successfully activated the Hyper-Modification Factor and lived.
Unfortunately, they realized it far too late…"
"The Hyper-Modification Factor the old antique fused with was from a Honkai Beast called Garuda. While it didn't have powerful attack or destructive capabilities, it possessed the characteristic of being unceasing and indestructible as long as the Honkai existed. As long as there was enough time, it could regenerate even if it was beaten down to a single speck of dust.
Because the old antique's fusion method was to inject the Hyper-Modification Factor, in order to better fuse with Garuda and reduce rejection, the higher-ups required Fu Hua to continue the Divine Sound training.
They used Divine Sound to stimulate her brain, modifying her body to become more adapted to the Honkai. At the same time, it compensated for Garuda's relatively weak mental aspect.
And the result is what you see now. The old antique's Divine Sound has been cultivated to the point of instinct, and 'Discipline' has been carved into her every cell.
The 'eliminate Honkai' of Discipline and the 'embrace Honkai, as long as Honkai is not destroyed, I am not destroyed' of Garuda came into conflict…
I also advised the old antique to just abandon the Sword Heart, but the Sword Heart has already been implanted into her instincts, even her genes. Even deleting memories related to Divine Sound cannot completely remove its influence."