Fu Hua knew how devotion felt. Her nigh-undying belief drove her to fight against the honkai for more than two thousand years. The Discipline placed by Aponia wasn't the only thing that kept her going. Had she ever regretted dedicating her life to it, she wouldn't have lasted until the Cocoon of Finality was destroyed.
Still, dedicating yourself to a person is vastly different from it. Fu Hua could never relate to Ji and Hei Xuanyuan. The best she could do is to scour through her thousands of years of experience as the Immortal Jingwei.
Unfortunately, it did not work.
In the Previous Era, Hua was just an ordinary reclusive student. She faced bullying because of her looks and her poverty. It wasn't until Carole, her first friend, came did everything become much more meaningful.
Then…
Hua failed her.
Because she was visiting her home town, Hua couldn't do anything to save her best friend. She was killed by the honkai eruption that broke out in the city of their school. She also couldn't do anything to save her father. She was left all alone until Hua was rescued by Fire MOTH's combat squad led by HIMEKO.
When the seventh eruption came, HIMEKO turned into a Herrscher. Yet AGAIN, Hua could not do anything to save her captain. She only watched as the theater got thrashed into nothing but heaps of burning trash. The scent of scorched flesh filled her lungs, disgusting her to the ends of the world.
Hua wasn't able to do a single thing right, so…
Why even act like a proper teacher now?
…
…
…
"Fu…"
Fu Hua fell silent for a long time. Her mind was clouded as always, her heart sinking to the depths of the abyss. The past she claimed to have overcome caught up to her once again. Ironically, she chose to live in the past while Senti lived in the present. But, it was she who cannot come to terms with her own choices. The Sea of Suffering merely resurfaced her unresolved problems.
'I cannot properly guide them at all…'
Her mind acted fast. Fu Hua concealed her current state to everyone; she cannot reveal it now. Especially with Senti. If she had known that Fu Hua hadn't untied the knot inside her heart, she would face her disappointment. She did not understand why but she feared that outcome the most!
Knowing it was hopeless, Fu Hua changed her thinking.
'If there is something I would want to hear now…'
Her chaotic heart settled onto one thing.
"No matter the ending, you must face it."
Fu Hua's deep voice trembled slightly as she said these words. The two Xuanyuans' minds turned blank at them. Ji Xuanyuan's eyes moved towards the back of her respected teacher.
'...Shifu is right.'
Fu Hua's words cleared up her doubts. They had been too muddle-headed, isolating themselves from anything else. Fu Hua is their respected teacher; her words carried immense weight. It tore through the countless doubts and heavy guilt originating from the Sea of Suffering. A simple answer was all they needed to surpass their brewing Heart Demons.
Before long, spiritual qi fluctuations appeared amongst them. A vague, intangible feeling descended from nowhere. It brought an air of peacefulness—a manifestation of a serene and firm mind. It was clear they are currently breaking through to the eighth-level.
"I…"
Fu Hua could only sigh out of helplessness. She set up the formations placed around her residence—a peak seventh-grade compound formation set up by Bronya—before leaving them behind.
'When will I truly… resolve it?'
*****
The solar system has a total of eight planets orbiting around the Sun. Every one of them had long turned into high-level cultivation environments, each housing thousands of varied spirit veins. Mercury was reserved for those practicing fire-based and yang-based cultivation techniques. Jupiter, on the other hand, serves great use for those practicing earth-based and wind-based techniques. Neptune is reserved for ice-based and yin-based practitioners, and finally, Saturn's harsh environment opened up the possibility of body tempering for everyone.
As for Earth, it is the home planet of the Federation. The people living off on artificial and satellite planets view it as the sacred land, while those who are living on Earth ensure it would be left untouched. Venus and Mars belonged to the civilizations destroyed by the Honkai. In its virtue, it was left alone for Vita and Leylah to manage, respectively.
Vita handled Venus as it was. She did not shy away and allowed others to utilize its unique environment to complete their tasks. Nobody dared to make a mess out of a Void Refinement Realm Star Lord's home planet, hence they honestly stayed within their designated place.
It was the exact opposite with Leylah. She never allowed anyone else—save for her colleagues—to enter Mars. She rejected others' help multiple times. She never used the [Two Phase Art] to fully convert it into an immortal utopia. She retained everything as it was.
In the eyes of the Federation, she was a recluse. For her fellow Void Refinement Realm colleagues, they thought and didn't want to push beyond her comfort zone.
One fact remained after everything:
Leylah is very unpopular.
Still, she did not care about it. She continued taking prolonged periods of seclusion. People checked up on her every now and then, which was enough to let everyone know Leylah was still there.
She was extremely unreachable, barely speaking a few words to everyone else. However, things changed with Shi Tian's order to convene a meeting. Leylah was present during that time. Her presence was low, but she listened intently to the plan. When it came down to the execution, she also did her part well. Apart from helping others, she was designated to be the trump card when things go south.
Leylah inherited Senadina's power as the Goddess of Mars. She possesses full authority over the Mars Supercomputer, capable of affecting the real world via the erosive nature of its core—something that came from the Sea of Data/Quanta. Although it was dormant, everyone felt its hidden strength.
Ultimately, she was also affected by the Sea of Suffering and entered seclusion.
'This ominous feeling…'
Shi Tian recalled every bit of information related to her in his mind. Then, he placed his attention onto the results of the divination he had conducted. Typically, the coins would give a sum of numbers that corresponds to a certain reading—from one to sixty-four. One divination would result in a sum of numbers.
However, he had just received two sets of numbers in one session: 29 and 47.
The former represented Abysmal Waters, indicating that the subject is facing strong turbulent tides and is in the danger of drowning. The latter represented Oppression, showing how the subject repeatedly keeps their thoughts to oneself, leading to self-imprisonment.
If it was just these two, Shi Tian wouldn't have been this concerned. Their combined readings, however, tell an entirely different story:
Water flows uninterrupted, reaching its goal;
The abysmal water repeatedly scowl;
As man who walks unimpeded has great virtue;
A person everyone conforms to;
Otherwise, he is but a liar;
With falsehoods spat out by a choir;
Hence he drowns in a pyre.
Only a single thought remained in his mind:
'Why would meeting her pose great danger to myself?'