One minute later…
Fu Hua stood in the basement of an abandoned apartment, and the entrance to the Hollow was hidden right in front of her.
Fu Hua pushed open the rusted iron door, and a cold wind mixed with the smell of metal and decay hit her face.
At the end of the basement, an irregular crack split open on the wall, and eerie dark purple light surged within it, resembling a breathing wound.
On the edge of the crack, a layer of bright fluorescent aether crystal was attached, emitting a faint glow in this pitch-black environment.
The Hollow is the “wound” of the world and the culprit behind the destruction of the old civilization.
Ordinary people would lose their direction due to the disordered space inside, be eroded by aether energy, mutate, and eventually die.
Even those with “aether aptitude” could only linger on for a bit longer inside, and wanting to escape could only rely on the professional navigation “Carrot” made from data collected in the Hollow, or…
Slash right through it!
Fu Hua took a deep breath and stepped across the crack.
The moment she entered the Hollow, a bizarre sense of oppression surged from all directions.
The air became thick and cold, and every breath felt like wearing a firefighter’s mask, making one’s breathing unconsciously heavy.
Aether energy was like countless tiny needles, trying to seep into her body from every pore.
She lowered her head to look at her arm—the surface of the black armor flickered with extremely faint fluorescent green patterns, which was the aether energy trying to erode the armor.
But the next instant, the green patterns quickly receded as if they had encountered something terrifying.
Fu Hua could feel that a completely different power was awakening within her body.
That power was older, purer, and more overbearing than aether energy, much like a pure and cute little white rabbit meeting a sleeping behemoth, where the behemoth just rolling over could scare it into fleeing in panic.
That was the power originating from the source of this body of hers, a power from another world and another energy system.
An extreme, crazy energy named “Honkai”.
Honkai Energy
In front of Honkai Energy, the aether energy of this world was like a stream compared to the ocean, or a candle flame compared to the scorching sun.
She didn’t even need to deliberately mobilize it; the remaining Honkai Energy within her body automatically crushed the invading aether.
“Interesting.”
She finally understood why the system said that “the energy level of Honkai Energy is higher than that of aether energy”.
This was not a gap in quantity, but a gap in dimensions.
Even standing and waiting for aether to erode for a whole day, the damage brought to her was less than staying up late.
The interior of the Hollow was even more bizarre than she had imagined.
The ground was tilted, and some places were completely inverted, with shattered concrete blocks suspended in mid-air, slowly rotating.
The walls were covered with dark green aether crystals, flickering with an eerie fluorescence in the dark purple light.
In the distance, green light spots flickered in the darkness; that was the core of some Ethereals.
Fu Hua strode forward in the tilted corridor, the high mobility of the shadow knight armor fully displayed at this moment.
The thrusters behind her spewed flames interwoven with incandescent white and crimson, like a compressed sun exploding.
The exhaust flame was as straight as a blade, with a dazzling blue-purple flame core, instantly burning the surrounding air into distortion.
With a loud bang, the figure in place had disappeared.
Sashing through several high walls, she finally saw the trapped person—a middle-aged man huddled in the corner, with a pale face, and fluorescent green erosion patterns already starting to appear on his arm.
Crouching beside him were two small Ethereals named “Tyrfing”, whose bodies were composed of gray and fluorescent crystals, with their heads being black hole-like spheres, making a low hissing sound.
Facing the two Ethereals, Fu Hua didn’t hesitate and directly made her move.
She lowered her stance, pushed off the ground with both legs, and shot out like an arrow.
The displacement of every step she took far exceeded a normal stride.
With every step her metal boots landed, the hard ground cracked in response, gravel and dust splashing and exploding under her feet.
She was like an out-of-control heavy chariot, spraying flame streams wildly, ripping through the ground, and charging forward with a momentum that crushed everything.
Although the shadow knight armor had not activated its Eclipse Form, Cunjin Martial Arts, the martial arts polished by Fu Hua herself over ten thousand years, could still be smoothly executed in this body.
Her fist edge broke through the air and smashed into the body of the first Ethereal, her heavy iron fist blasting out with a momentum of pulling out rotten wood.
The moment of contact, the Ethereal’s body was like snow meeting the scorching sun, instantly ground into nothingness by the violent power, leaving not even wreckage.
It directly turned into a ball of white mist and dissipated in the air, leaving only a scorching heat wave in place.
The second Ethereal pounced over, but Fu Hua sidestepped to dodge and lashed out with a whip kick to its side.
Honkai Energy wrapped around the force, producing a strange reaction the moment it touched the aether crystal—not a collision, but disintegration.
The crystal seemed to have encountered a power of a higher dimension, beginning to shatter from the molecular level, making a crisp and dense cracking sound.
The second Ethereal hissed and turned into dark green light spots, dissipating in the air.
Two of them, in less than a second.
[ This part has deep meaning: What kind of terrifying luck is this???
If I didn’t read it wrong, was the first one beaten into a blood mist?
]
[ Konghou Who Likes Ancient Scrolls: Incorrect, it was directly vaporized.
]
[ I Am A Butterfly Chef: Such smooth movements!
What kind of combat system is this?
]
[ Fu Fu’s Little Cake: What is that purple energy?
It looks completely different from aether energy!
]
Fu Hua walked quickly towards the trapped person and squatted down to check his condition.
The degree of erosion was low, and the fluorescent green patterns on his arm had spread to his elbow, but his consciousness was still quite clear.
He opened his eyes, looking at her with a complex gaze between fear and gratitude—the black armor revealing only his mouth, looking like a silent statue in the dark purple light of the Hollow.
Fu Hua helped him up and gave him a shoulder to lean on.
The middle-aged man staggered and leaned against her; Fu Hua could feel him trembling, not only because of the aether erosion, but also because of fear.
Trapped in the Hollow and watching Ethereals wandering around, not knowing whether they would be devoured in the next second, this kind of fear was not something anyone could bear.
“Thank you.”
Fu Hua’s movement paused for a moment, and without speaking, she continued to evacuate along the route guided by the system.
Just as they were about to reach the entrance, the system suddenly popped up a new red warning.
[ Host, be careful!
Elite-class Ethereal energy reaction detected!
Distance 200 meters, approaching at high speed.
]
Fu Hua stopped in her tracks and placed the middle-aged man against the wall.
“Let’s go, the exit is just ahead.” The cold female voice mixed with electronic sound was the first sentence she spoke tonight.
The voice was very light and calm, but carried an unquestionable firmness.
The middle-aged man nodded and turned to leave with a limp.
Fu Hua turned to face the direction she came from.
In the darkness, a huge silhouette was approaching.
Semi-humanoid, nearly two and a half meters tall, its whole body was covered in fluorescent crystalline shells, with gray and fluorescent green stripes winding across the surface of the shell.
At the head, a particularly bright core crystal was beating, emitting a dark purple light, like a twisted heart—an elite-class Ethereal.
The Hollow was filled with the unique oppressive feeling of aether energy, that heaviness that made one’s breath short and heartbeat accelerate.
But the Honkai Energy within Fu Hua’s body was slowly flowing like an invisible barrier, isolating those viscous aether auras outside.
The Ethereal took the lead in attacking, its huge crystal fist wrapped in aether energy, smashing straight down at her head.
Before the fist arrived, the aether energy had already formed a dark green shock wave, squeezing the surrounding air into distortion and deformation.
Fu Hua sidestepped to dodge, the fist wind brushing past her mask and blasting a deep pit on the ground with gravel splashing everywhere.
Without waiting for her to stand firm, the second punch was already chasing after her.
“How terrifying~ Much faster than those two small monsters just now by more than a notch.”
Fu Hua retreated continuously, the monster’s attacks following like a shadow.
She dodged, blocked, and diffused force—the combat instincts accumulated by Fu Hua over fifty thousand years flowed within this body.
Although most of her power was locked by the system, her skills and experience were still there.
The trajectory of every punch, the gap of every attack, the stress limit of every crystal shell—this information automatically flooded into her consciousness during the battle, requiring no thought, relying purely on instinct.
When the fourth punch was swung, Fu Hua had already found the pattern in the monster’s attack rhythm.
Although the Ethereal’s attacks were fierce, they lacked flexibility.
After every heavy blow, there was a brief charging gap, which was the moment when the crystal core re-gathered energy.
The monster’s right fist missed, its body leaned forward slightly, and the core crystal on its head was exposed!
Fu Hua lowered her center of gravity, pulled her right fist back to her waist, and the Honkai Energy in her body began to condense.
A purple shimmer leaked through her fingers, appearing particularly striking in the dark purple Hollow.
“Cunjin—”
The power of her whole body condensed, transmitted, and erupted in an instant.
Honkai Energy wrapped around the fist force, turning into a white arc of light.
“——Open Heaven!”
One punch, hitting the core crystal dead center.
The moment of contact, Honkai Energy and the aether crystal produced a violent reaction.
It was not a collision, but crushing—Honkai Energy directly tore the aether crystal apart from the molecular level with an absolute energy advantage.
The sound of the crystal shattering was crisp and piercing, like countless pieces of glass being shattered simultaneously.
The cracks centered on the landing point of the punch spread in all directions like a spiderweb, and the dark green light poured madly from the cracks, quickly dimming under the impact of Honkai Energy.
Under this massive power, the huge body flew backward like a missile, but before flying ten meters, it turned into light spots and dissipated in the air.
Fu Hua withdrew her fist and let out a long breath.
Her knuckles were slightly red, but her bones and muscles were intact.
The physical fitness of Lord Immortal was indeed more terrifying than she imagined.
She lowered her head to look at her right hand, where the purple afterglow of Honkai Energy slowly dissipated between her fingers, like the last ray of moonlight during an ebb tide.
[ South-Southeast: One-punched an elite monster???
What the heck is that purple energy?!
]
[ Pink Donkey: It’s not aether energy, it’s a completely different energy system.
Could it be a hidden setting?
]
[ Wolf No.
1 in the World: Screenshot taken and posted on the forum.
Black armor, gray hair, blue eyes One-Punch Man, I declare this is my new waifu.
]
Fu Hua looked at the barrage jumping in her mind, the corners of her mouth slightly hooking up.
She knew that the players in the real world were frantically discussing that punch just now.
They didn’t know Lord Immortal, and didn’t know what “Honkai Energy” was, but that didn’t matter.
The more mysterious it was, the higher the discussion degree; the higher the discussion degree, the faster the popularity points would rise.
Fu Hua turned and walked towards the exit.
The moment she crossed that purple crack, the viscous oppressive feeling of the Hollow disappeared, replaced by the damp and real air of the basement.
The middle-aged man who was rescued was sitting beside the crack, his breathing noticeably slowing down.
After leaving the Hollow, mild aether erosion could recover on its own, although it took time.
Fu Hua brought him to the steps at the entrance of the abandoned apartment, and after confirming that his vital signs were stable, she got up and left.
She didn’t leave any words, or rather, she couldn’t leave extra information.
Leaving any traces might allow others to trace it back to her.
That middle-aged man would remember that a person wearing black armor and revealing crimson eyes saved him, but he didn’t know who she was and would never know.
That was enough.
She turned and disappeared into the night of Sixth Street.
Twelve o’clock midnight.
Fu Hua silently vaulted back in through the small window of the utility room.
She took off the shadow knight armor, folded it neatly, and put it back into the metal box.
She put on Xunyu’s blue combat uniform again and wore her red-rimmed glasses.
Her movements were proficient and quiet, not making a single sound.
She lay back on the bed, listening to the footsteps coming from downstairs.
It was Ling’s pace, light and fast, seeming to pace back and forth.
Suddenly, Ling’s voice came down faintly through the floor slab.
“Brother, there is an abnormal Hollow fluctuation alert on the system…
Northeast of Sixth Street, C-grade, people are trapped inside, but it shows it has already been cleared.”
“What?
So fast?”
“Is it someone from the Public Security Bureau?” Saying this sentence, Wise himself didn’t quite believe it.
“Doesn’t look like it, the Public Security Bureau wouldn’t be this fast, and their standard procedure is to blockade first before entering, but this time it was resolved too quickly.”
There was an undisguised excitement and confusion in Ling’s voice.
“Brother, who do you think it could be?”
“I don’t know.”
“But someone who can single-handedly solve an elite aether body in a C-grade Hollow is enough to prove that person’s strength.” Wise’s voice paused.
“And those who haven’t been recorded in the Inter-Knot are even fewer.”
“Do you think it’s a new Agent?”
“It’s possible, or maybe someone who doesn’t want to leave a name…”
Wise didn’t finish, but Fu Hua could hear the meaning in his tone—someone who clearly did a good deed yet deliberately left no trace; this was not normal.
In New Eridu, the reputation of Proxies and Agents was everything; no one would act as an unsung hero.
Unless…
this person didn’t want to be discovered.
Fu Hua closed her eyes, the corners of her mouth hooking up slightly.
“Keep guessing slowly, you guys.
Entertainment is only exciting when you keep the suspense.”
[ Fengyoujing Brand Body Wash: Ling and Wise are upstairs analyzing the “mysterious person”, little do they know the mysterious person is lying right downstairs.
]
[ Ice Jelly Hotel VIP: ( ఠ ൠ ఠ )ﾉ Could this wave be the legendary “darkness under the lamp”?
]
[ Demat East Asia!!!: Looking forward to the day Wise and Ling discover the truth.
]
Fu Hua rolled over, facing the wall.
Downstairs, Ling’s footsteps stopped, followed by a gentle sigh.
“Brother.”
“Hmm?”
“You said that person…
why did they do this?
Saving people, yet leaving nothing behind.”
“Maybe they just wanted to do this thing, not to be remembered.”
Fu Hua closed her eyes, and in her mind, the system interface flashed with a new prompt:
[ Popularity Points: 215, 285 points still needed to activate the Eclipse Form of Shadow Knight Yuelun ]
[ New Task 1 Released: Establish personal reputation on the Inter-Knot, complete at least three commissions, follow-up pending unlock…
]
[ Task Reward: 300 Popularity Points ]
215 points, still 285 points away from activating Shadow Knight Yuelun, and even further away from Azure Empyrea and her other forms.
But it didn’t matter.
Fu Hua rolled over.
In the darkness, her azure blue eyes glowed slightly through the lenses of her red-rimmed glasses, like two faint, tireless fires.
The night of New Eridu was still long, those hidden dangers, those fates destined for tragedy, everything she wanted to change—
It was all still in time!
Because she was here!
Although now in the identity of an “ordinary person”, wearing red-rimmed glasses, she was carefully protected by Ling and Wise.
But in a place they couldn’t see, the Shadow Knight Yuelun’s black armor lay quietly in the metal box under the bed, its red core emitting a faint light in the darkness, as if waiting for the arrival of a certain moment.