St. Freya Academy Headmaster's Office
Knock, knock, knock!
"Come in... Ling Feng? What do you need me for?" Theresa put down her work and took a sip of bitter melon juice as she looked at Ling Feng, who pushed the door open.
Ling Feng's gaze habitually swept around the room before he walked to the desk, placed an A4 sheet of paper on it, and gently pushed it towards Theresa with his finger.
The white-haired loli picked up the paper and looked at it. The first thing she saw was "Leave Application" written at the top. Her eyebrows twitched slightly, and she instinctively asked, "Taking leave again?"
It wasn't Theresa's fault for thinking so. In an entire semester at St. Freya Academy, very few teachers had taken leave.
And in these three semesters, Ling Feng's leave count had been slightly more than the combined leave count of all other teachers.
Especially since Ling Feng often took leave to sneak Kiana out to play. This left a deep impression on her.
"You're not planning to hide Kiana in the car and sneak her out again, are you? Even though the Valkyrie exams are over, you can't always indulge Kiana like this."
Theresa stared at Ling Feng suspiciously. Such situations had happened frequently. These two always came up with new ways to skip school, making it impossible to guard against.
Ling Feng couldn't help but chuckle. "No." He then became serious, his brows furrowed, and said sternly.
"This time, it's for a very important matter. I need to leave for a day or two."
Theresa pondered for a moment and nodded. "Alright, I understand. I'll arrange for Himeko to cover your classes for two days."
"Achoo!"
Himeko, who was drinking in her dormitory, suddenly felt an itch in her nose and sneezed, almost spilling the wine in her cup.
This startled her. This was her treasured peach blossom wine! Ling Feng said there was no stock left, and every sip was a precious one!
After getting leave, Ling Feng immediately returned to his dormitory. In the living room, Mei was sitting on the sofa, watching TV and enjoying dessert. Seeing Ling Feng return, she smiled and waved.
Ling Feng walked over and sat down next to Mei, whispering.
"Mei, you don't need to cook for Hong Hong and me for the next two days."
"Last night, after Hong Hong and I cultivated together, her cultivation has reached a critical point, and she's about to break through to face the heavenly tribulation. I need to go and protect her."
Although crossing the tribulation in the White Stone Grotto-Heaven doesn't require worrying about external disturbances, he couldn't guarantee that Hong Hong would safely pass the heavenly tribulation.
Crossing the heavenly tribulation was no small matter; it was a matter of life and death. Failure meant complete annihilation.
However, with him protecting her, there was no need to worry about it. If nothing else, with his current strength, how could a mere ordinary Four-Nine Thunder Tribulation be ten times stronger?
Could it be stronger than his monstrous tribulation? At worst, he would use merit points to offset the lightning tribulation. The more than ten merit points he had saved for protection and survival were more than enough for this.
"Hong Hong is crossing the tribulation... Will she be alright..."
Mei put down her dessert, looking worried. After spending these days together, she had already treated Hong Hong as a sister, and Hong Hong felt the same way.
Their relationship was so close that they could talk about anything. In fact, on certain matters, they would even team up against Ling Feng, though they were always the ones to admit defeat first.
She had witnessed firsthand how terrifying the heavenly tribulation was.
Ling Feng gently embraced Mei, letting her lean on his chest and soothing her tenderly.
"Don't worry, I'm here... I won't let anything happen to Hong Hong."
When Mei regained her usual smile, Ling Feng's figure flickered and disappeared.
Pushing open the gate of the courtyard, Ling Feng soared into the sky and flew away like a rainbow.
On the peak of White Stone Mountain, Ling Feng looked at the woman in red sitting cross-legged not far away and walked over.
"How is it."
"No problem." Hong Hong stood up and said calmly, her fair feet stepping on the snow, seemingly unaffected by the cold.
"Hong Hong, you can cross the tribulation with peace of mind. Leave everything else to me, and I won't let anything happen to you."
"Do I seem so unbearable in your eyes?" Hong Hong tilted her head, her pupils showing signs of turning red.
"How... how could that be." Ling Feng panicked and quickly waved his hand.
"Then stand aside and watch obediently!"
Ling Feng quickly flickered and instantly appeared a thousand meters away, putting distance between himself and Hong Hong.
Seeing that Ling Feng had retreated to a safe area, Hong Hong no longer suppressed the power within her. This power directly broke through the shackles of her cultivation.
Rumble, rumble. Instantly, dark clouds gathered in the sky above the White Stone Mountain range, and thunder roared.
"A mere lightning tribulation cannot defeat me, Tu Shan Hong Hong!"
...
After the Valkyrie exam, everything returned to normal.
During Ling Feng's absence while protecting Hong Hong, the third squad, based on the message from the "Moonlight Throne" central control, planned to collect four gems, and the first destination was the Oceania branch in New Zealand.
Keqing scanned her surroundings. They seemed to be in a villa district. Saguaro and Mirai cautiously checked their surroundings.
After confirming the area was safe, Keqing opened her communicator to report.
"Major Himeko, we have arrived in New Zealand."
"Received, Lieutenant Keqing. Now, I will explain the mission." Himeko's voice came from the communicators of everyone present.
Before Himeko could continue, Kiana suddenly interrupted.
"Wait, Himeko, I'm very interested in the analysis result of that ghost battleship from before..."
"Prioritize the mission, Kiana." Himeko said sternly, then proceeded to inform everyone of all the intelligence and mission objectives for this operation.
"Here's some bad news: a strong Honkai outbreak suddenly occurred in New Zealand a day ago. The area is now filled with MANTIS and Honkai Beasts."
"The Oceania branch is basically paralyzed, and the 'Gem of Desire' was lost during the Honkai outbreak."
"However, fortunately, the Hyperion's detector can locate the 'Gem of Desire.' Hurry and retrieve that gem."
"Major Himeko, what exactly is the 'Gem of Desire'?" Saguaro asked, confused. There was no information about the 'Gem of Desire' in the knowledge they had learned.
Himeko did not hide it and said frankly with her arms crossed.
"Fourteen years ago, Schicksal obtained three high-intensity Honkai energy crystals, one of which was called the 'Gem of Desire.'"
"Three years ago, Schicksal launched a secret research project hoping to develop weapons that could rival Herrschers through this crystal."
"However, regrettably, the research failed, and the 'Gem of Desire' has since been stored at the Oceania branch."
"That's all I know."
After Himeko finished, everyone pondered for a moment. Kiana excitedly exclaimed, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's hurry and retrieve the 'Gem of Desire'!"
The group didn't linger at the spot and quickly headed towards the real-time coordinates sent by the Hyperion.
As expected, it was just as Himeko had said. They encountered a large number of MANTIS and Honkai Beasts along the way.
Fortunately, they were all minor enemies, and the group easily dealt with these roadblocks with their strength.
After all, the overall strength of the third squad was now capable of fighting even Emperor-class Honkai Beasts.
The Ganesha they faced in the last assessment was an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
Although their strength might not be comparable to a real Ganesha, it proved that the third squad, excluding the captain and vice-captain, also possessed the strength to confront Emperor-class Honkai Beasts.
In a fountain square, Mirai looked at the wrist-mounted personal control terminal on her gauntlet and frowned in confusion.
"What's going on? The detector shows the location right here, but I don't see anything? Could the positioning system be wrong?"
Everyone else also searched around and found nothing.
"Wait a moment, my life detector shows a life signal 50 meters to the east."
East?
Everyone collectively looked in that direction. They were not ordinary people, and they could see clearly from 50 meters away.
In that direction was a green-haired girl sitting in a wheelchair.
"There's a girl in a wheelchair over there. It's very dangerous here, we need to rescue her quickly."
Mei said and was about to run over, but Keqing grabbed her arm.
"What's wrong, Keqing?" Mei asked, puzzled.
Keqing narrowed her eyes and spoke with great caution.
"Don't you find it strange?"
"In a place filled with Honkai Beasts and MANTIS, a girl in a wheelchair suddenly appears. Let alone ordinary people, even athletes would turn into MANTIS under this Honkai."
Hearing Keqing's words, Kiana and the others pondered and indeed found it strange.
"But there are survivors of the Honkai, though very few. We can't guarantee she's not a survivor."
"If she is a survivor, we can't just leave her in such a dangerous place."
Everyone pondered for a moment. Indeed, if it was as Mei said, abandoning her to her fate would be tantamount to sentencing the possible survivor to death.
After some thought, Keqing said.
"In that case, let's proceed with caution."
When Keqing and the others approached the green-haired girl, they found that she harbored no ill intentions towards them, so they decided to take her with them after the mission.
"It seems you've found your target," Himeko's voice suddenly came from their communicators.
"Target? Our target isn't the 'Gem of Desire'? But we only found this girl."
Mei pushed the green-haired girl's wheelchair and asked confusedly, the others also looked bewildered.
"According to the latest intelligence from the Oceania branch, this young lady *is* the 'Gem of Desire'." Himeko explained.
"Um, my name is Wendy." The green-haired girl corrected.
Seeing that Wendy only corrected her name and didn't deny it, it meant she truly was the 'Gem of Desire', which surprised Keqing and the others.
Seeing this, Himeko solemnly explained Wendy's situation.
In simple terms, during the experiments conducted at the Oceania branch three years ago, the 'Gem of Desire' was transplanted into Wendy's leg, in hopes of achieving power comparable to a Herrscher.
"So, Miss Wendy should possess immense power? But she looks very weak right now."
Bronya looked at Wendy, who was pale and emaciated in her wheelchair, with confusion.
"Although Wendy was the most outstanding Valkyrie at the Oceania branch at the time, she was once considered to become the fourth S-rank Valkyrie of this generation."
"But unfortunately, she couldn't control its power either."
Himeko shrugged helplessly and said.
"It's my lack of power... Not only can I not control the power of the 'Gem of Desire,' but due to the crystal, my legs are also incapacitated."
Wendy nodded slightly in agreement, feeling a bit guilty about it.
"How could this happen... Then why not remove the crystal? Because of this, Miss Wendy can only sit in a wheelchair!" Mei exclaimed indignantly.
"In almost all mediums, the 'Gem of Desire' is extremely unstable in form, but it stabilized within Wendy's body."
Hearing Himeko's explanation, everyone immediately understood why they didn't remove the 'Gem of Desire'.
"So, to preserve the crystal, Schicksal used Miss Wendy's body as a container? This is... too much!"
It was clear that Schicksal's actions had angered Kiana greatly, and so had Saguaro and Mei.
Himeko sighed helplessly. She felt the same way, but...
"Alas, arguing about this here is meaningless. Now, bring Wendy back to the Hyperion."
"Are we going back... But I'm in a wheelchair, and moving is a bit inconvenient..." Hearing Himeko's words through the communicator, Wendy looked a little troubled and looked down at her legs.
"No! Bronya does not believe Miss Wendy will be a burden to us. Heavy Armor Little Bunny, activate!"
As Bronya summoned it, the Heavy Armor Little Bunny appeared behind her, its appearance instantly capturing Wendy's attention.
"What is this... Is it a robot... It appeared so suddenly!"
From her reaction, it was clear that Wendy was very interested in robots.
"Heavy Armor Little Bunny, lift Miss Wendy."
Upon hearing Bronya's command, the Heavy Armor Little Bunny directly reached out, grabbed the sides of the wheelchair, and lifted it up.
"See? This way, you won't be slow."
Bronya smiled. She felt great sympathy for Wendy's plight, as her legs had also been injured, and she understood the feeling of only being able to sit in a wheelchair.
"Whoa, it's flying."
"Amazing! Bronya, I didn't expect your robot could do this. Let me try next time!"
Seeing Wendy's happy expression, Kiana's interest was also piqued, and she exclaimed repeatedly.
"Kiana, no."
Next, with Wendy aboard, the mission objective was considered complete. Keqing and the others headed to the designated meeting point sent by Himeko.