Cursed Sword

Kouro who was sucked into the wall for a while ended up in an unfamiliar large room behind the wall.

Kouro turned to stare at the wall but did not touch it before looking around him to figure out Himeko's location.

"That's strange. I was sucked into the wall along with her, yet I can't find her here. How did she disappear like that? Even the sensor marks are not picking her."

The wall behind Kouro suddenly moved, spitting out Kiana, Bronya, Ayame, and Mei.

They were seen falling to the ground in their haste before standing up and inspecting the cave in amazement before finally finding Kouro standing a few tens of meters away from their position.

"Kouro!" Kiana shouted.

Kouro waved for them to come closer.

After approaching close enough, they noticed that Kouro was alone and is not with Himeko.

"Kouro, is Himeko not with you?" Kiana asked.

"Yeah, it's strange… I was certain that I entered the wall at the same time as she did." Kouro answered.

Hearing that, Mei looked down on her watch and began to get worried as she said, "I can't find Major Himeko as well. The sensors are not picking up anything."

Kiana sprung into action and calmed Mei down, "We'll search this place to find her, then. Don't worry, Mei. It's Himeko. She'll be alright."

The communication interface suddenly popped up alerting them and Fu Hua appeared on the screen, "[Kiana, I just saw inscriptions on that stele. Those characters were used as a means to ward off evil. I'm curious about the purpose of this place. Tell me if you find anything.]"

"Understood." 5x

After that, they went around to explore and scout the place for several hours, in contrast to the pervious cave, which was dark and narrow, this room has certain engravings on the wall, plus the room is similar to a labyrinth.

They occasionally encountered Honkai beasts and some arrow traps.

After going through the place and running inside a tunnel, they returned to their original location instead.

Feeling frustrated, Kiana complained, "This place like a maze. Have we been running around in circles? Grr! This is getting on my nerves!"

The communication interface hasn't been closed, so Fu Hua was watching everything that they were doing and what they experienced.

Looking at Kiana, who became frustrated, Fu Hua intervened and said calmly, "[Be patient, Kiana. You are smart, but impatience is your greatest weakness. It has affected your tests and missions]."

"Are you trying to compliment me or what?" Kiana said confusedly.

Seeing Kiana not understand, Fu Hua could only shake her head with a helpless expression before changing the topic.

"... "

"[I've managed to review data feeds in the last hour while you were walking around in circles. The design of this place was based on the Bagua Trigrams.]" Fu Hua reported as she pushed her glasses up. For some reason, Kouro saw a brief ray of light in her glasses when she pushed them up.

"Bagua?" 4x

Kiana, Kouro, Ayame and Mei asked.

Kouro thought for a moment before remembering that Bagua were eight diagrams or symbols that were the basis of the cosmogony system and ancient Shenzhou philosophy.

'Don't tell me the person who popularized that knowledge was Fu Hua herself because Project Ember...' He thought with an interested expression.

Fu Hua then explained, "[A special array used in ancient Shenzhou. As I thought this place must be hiding something.]"

"[The exit is to the southwest, Kiana.]" Fu Hua added.

"How do you know?"

"[I've studied the Esoteric Gates of Eight. I'll explain this later.]" Fu Hua said.

"Esoteric Gate eight... If I'm not mistaken there's something called the gate of life and death on one of those gates, right?" Kouro muttered while rubbing his chin.

He recalled one of the Xianxia Chinese novels he read in his previous life that mentioned it in 'body transformation'.

(PR: For some reason, I know this Esoteric Gates of Eight. Praise be to CN for the knowledge it has imparted us.)

Following that, they headed to the direction Fu Hua mentioned, and after half an hour, they safely managed to get out of the 'labyrinth'.

Kiana then said happily after coming out.

"Awesome! We finally get out of the maze! You're super amazing, superviso- I mean, Fu Hua."

"[Thank you, Kiana.] "

Ayame, who was on the side, also said enthusiastically, "That Bagua is super interesting."

They wandered for a while before finding another maze.

"Hmm? Another maze! I know! Let's head southwest again." Said Kiana.

Just as she was about to take a step forward, Kouro quickly pulled her back by the scruff of the neck.

Kiana who was pulled by Kouro quickly fell backwards, she looked at him with an annoyed expression.

"Ouch! Kouro, what are you doing?"

"You almost stepped on a trap, Kiana." Reprimanded Kouro while pointing down at Kiana's feet, there was a nondescript bulge on the floor.

"[That right, Kiana. The Eight Gates spell different omens. Your current position is extremely dangerous.]" Fu Hua explained.

"Really? Phew! Thanks, Kouro." Kiana sighed in relief.

Kouro then examined the road ahead for while before speaking, "Be careful when walking and just follow my footsteps."

Finish talking, Kouro lead the way in a stranger pattern for a few hours before coming to the end of the road.

After they exited the Bagua road and entered yet another room again, on halfway through, Kiana looked back and sighed again in relief.

 "That was close... That Bagua is so complicated."

 "Everyone, look, there's a golden sword over there!" Mei shouted as she pointed to the front.

"[The golden Sword? Could it be the legendary Xuanyuan Sword? Turned out the maze was designed to protect this weapon...]" Fu Hua exclaimed in surprise, after hearing Mei's words.

"[But the stele inscriptions talked about sealing evil... wasn't Xuanyuan Sword used to fight the Honkai?]" Fu Hua questioned, bewildered by the situation.

"Let's worry about that later. Let's get the Xuanyuan Sword first. Himeko has been looking for it. "Kiana said.

"it's floating in the air. We can't even reach it." Mei said while raising her head towards the sword.

Kouro rubbed his chin while thinking whether to take the sword now or wait for Himeko to take the sword herself.

By the way, Kouro's jumping power was already high enough to reach the sword that was floating in the air.

Bronya who looked around then said, "Bronya's noticed that there are three Jingwei statues around the Xuanyuan Sword."

Ayame then stared at one of the statues for a moment, before saying, "Huh? Is it just me or are the eyes of the statues are glimmering?"

Hearing Ayame's words, Kiana then looked at the statue as well before saying.

"Hmm. Indeed, Jingwei led the way. We should take a look at the statues. Perhaps there's a mechanism."

They approached one of the statues, and as Kiana said, there was a certain mechanism inside the statue, the same as the other statues.

They then activated the statue's mechanism after a few minutes of searching for the key.

The three statues suddenly shone and emitted a ray of light from the tip of their beak, before all the rays of light converged to the sword.

The sword then absorbed all the light and then slowly descended from the air.

But just as the sword was about to drop to the ground, a sudden footstep was heard approaching the sword and then holding it.

That person is... Himeko.

Kouro's expression was a bit gloomy when he saw Himeko picking up the sword.

Kiana looked at Himeko and said with relief, "Himeko, where have you been? We were so worried... Huh?"

An extremely fast slash of energy suddenly came towards Kiana.

"Kiana-chan! Watch out!" Mei pushed Kiana to dodge the attack.

"Kyaa!" Kiana fell after being pushed by Mei.

 "What exactly happened to Major Himeko, Kouro-kun?!" Ayame asked after seeing Himeko suddenly attack them.

(PR: Remember, kids. When you don't understand something, ask Kouro onii-san.)

"Major Himeko has been possessed by that sword." Bronya reported with Bunny 19 behind her raising an energy shield to cover Kiana and Mei.

The aura of 'Himeko' that raised the Xuanyuan sword towards them, turned very dangerous, her eyes also turned red like demon and smiled sadistically.

Seeing that, Bronya then said in a calm tone, "Bronya calculations : High danger level. Prepare for grade 1 Battle."

"That sword can emit various elemental attacks, so be careful with her attacks!"

After saying that Kouro took out his Alloy Gluttony katana and pointed it at Himeko, he gripped the sword very tightly.