The Vixen's Gambit: Tonight We Hunt

As for Kevin, he chose to remain alone on the moon, rejecting the suggestion to return to Blue Earth with the others.

Considering his final agreement with Lee, Otto planned to visit the moon again once things settled down, to try and persuade Kevin to come down… But Lihua felt it was completely unnecessary.

According to the map provided by the system, Kevin had quietly descended not long after they returned to Blue Earth, secretly following Lihua from a distance. Although he was still a dozen kilometers away, with Kevin's speed, that distance was practically negligible.

Typical Kevin, acting like a creepy stalker despite being a pure-hearted virgin…

"The moon is so round tonight."

"Don't worry, Lihua! With Kevin's strength, he could be here in an instant if he wanted to!"

"Ahaha…" Hearing the cheerful voice beside her, Lihua could only offer an awkward laugh.

She sat on the balcony, gazing at the bright moon, putting down her teacup and sighing. "Elysia, it's really not necessary to follow me around all the time…"

With [Lee] defeated, Elysia's consciousness had finally returned to her body after they returned to Blue Earth. Since then, Elysia had acted as if nothing had happened, ignoring everything else and sticking to Lihua's side constantly.

When Lihua came back online and discovered that Unit-3 had left the Divine Keys with her, she promptly returned them to Elysia, hoping to avoid any trouble. But Elysia was still a pink-haired menace, and her intentions were clear to everyone…

Kallen and Eleanor couldn't stand the constant clinginess, but Elysia was as thick-skinned as they came. Even if Kallen threatened to beat her up, she wouldn't retaliate, simply raising her hands in surrender—Hit me if you want, I'm not leaving.

And Lihua clearly wouldn't let Elysia get hurt, so Elysia's persistence had left Kallen and the others helpless, forced to watch her shamelessly cling to Lihua.

"Oh, I'm protecting you, Lihua. This world is dangerous. What if something happened~?" Elysia smiled, propping up her chin and staring at Lihua.

After Lee's true revival within Lihua, Elysia was less anxious, knowing that the Lee of the past had returned once, and could do so again… What mattered was that she was still there.

Elysia wasn't in a rush to awaken Lee. If she wanted to rest, then let her rest. The world was still in chaos, and hastily awakening her would only burden her further.

"Elysia, I know what you're thinking, but I'm really not Miss Lee," Lihua sighed, continuing her futile attempts at denial. "It was just her consciousness, hidden within the Kaslana bloodline, that helped me…"

So go find other Kaslanas. Kiana and Durandal, even Theresa will do! Stop focusing on me!

But seeing Elysia's knowing smile, Lihua knew her words were useless.

"Dr. MEI and Otto… There haven't been any problems, have there?" she finally asked, resigned.

"Everything seems to be going smoothly, though I don't understand the specifics of their projects… But Otto has managed to put himself back together."

Though she didn't wield the 8th Divine Key, Elysia had used her own power to summon Dr. MEI, Vill-V, and Mobius… If possible, she would have preferred to keep those three in the Elysian Realm and out of trouble. But Kevin was too great a threat. Without their intelligence and technology, defeating him was impossible.

And to understand the nature of the soul and truly revive Lee, they also needed their help… As for the others, those who only knew how to fight and couldn't offer assistance, they could wait until they were needed.

Otto was a brilliant scientist with vast resources. Any research would inevitably require his cooperation, so MEI and the others had chosen to collaborate with him, willing to comply with his demands.

Otto had made one condition for their cooperation: they couldn't have any improper designs on Lihua. They could interact with her normally, but no harassment… In exchange, he would provide them with his backup plan and all his resources originally intended for reviving Lihua.

The research trio agreed, which was why Lihua hadn't been pestered by Mobius these past few days.

"That's good… I'm glad everything is going smoothly."

Lihua fell silent, sitting in her chair, gazing at the moon and sipping her tea.

These past few days have been hell. I went from being the senior unit to the lowest, taking the blame for everyone… Is this the fate of the weak?

Though, I am stronger now…

But regardless, her mission was temporarily complete—Blue Earth was safe, at least for the short term.

The dangerous individuals had finally calmed down. Kevin was still a threat, but he had given them time to prepare. He might even—no, definitely—provide some protection.

As for the rest, she didn't need to worry about it for now. That was the protagonist's job.

"Everything… is proceeding according to plan…"

At the airport in the not-so-distant Sakura Nation, Li Bei smirked—with a few simple maneuvers, he had neutralized the threat posed by the Honkai-infected troublemakers from Earth. It had put a strain on Unit-1, but the results were good. He could finally return to the Dragon Nation.

The Immortal Phoenix, who had scared him away before, was still cooped up in her room, posing no threat. Even if something happened, she would only go after Lihua.

But the cost of averting this crisis was considerable… His hard-earned savings had taken a massive hit.

He had once possessed nearly 70 million energy points, but his various expenditures had been significant—new system functions like Synchro Summon were nothing compared to the Temporal Isolation Field, which had cost him nearly 50 million energy points!

But without it, Blue Earth would have been too vulnerable, so it was unavoidable…

Fortunately, he had found quite a few "gold coins" on the moon. Adding it all up, Li Bei still had around 24 million energy points left.

It was a considerable sum, but not enough for Li Bei.

He was waiting to add a template to the world, otherwise, in a few months, Blue Earth would truly become a Honkai world! Herrschers could be contained within the isolation field, but the numerous disasters couldn't all be dealt with in time…

"A'Bei, hurry up! We're boarding!" Gao Ming and Liu Yue called out to Li Bei from a distance. He looked up, sighed, and picked up his bag.

Looks like I'll have to create a new unit.

The 70-million-point gap would take forever to bridge if he created many small units…

And with the troubles caused by the existing units from the Honkai-verse, he couldn't imagine what kind of chaos would ensue if a horde of new units started causing problems. It was best to solve it all at once…

Based on past experience, the greater the investment, the greater the return. Might as well go big.

…

Damn it, all I wanted was a peaceful, carefree life! Why do I have to save the world now?!

Blue Earth, can't you just pull yourself together?!

(End of Volume III: Faith Extinguished In Previous Era)