Li Mo now knew Hua's true whereabouts. She was in the Taoist temple. The person who called his real name that night was Hua, after she had been corrupted.
For some special reason, she maintained her normal state from before she was alive, but from her speech style, it was clear that she had been severely corrupted.
Once Li Mo entered the Taoist temple, he would trigger the Bizarre rule. She would then be replaced by another consciousness, becoming a substitute for the Bizarre Hua of this world.
As for the Bizarre treasure chest in the Mirror Lake, Shigure Kira's strongest desire at that time must have been to obtain a clue to break the deadlock, which is why that diary page appeared.
The Hua of the Previous Era, and even the subsequent civilization, would not have put the diary alone in a box. It didn't make sense.
Li Mo sped through the night, dashing across the rooftops of the small town at the foot of Mount Taixuan. Compared to the streets, the rooftops were obviously safer.
From a high vantage point, his vision could be greatly extended. As a living dead, Li Mo's murky eyes could see more than a living person's.
In addition, Li Mo also avoided the firelight lingering in the streets and alleys for some unknown reason.
Even though it was less than two minutes before the xu hour, Li Mo chose the safest method.
But one thing, he did not avoid the moonlight. He chose to accept it gladly, letting the bright moonlight wash over his entire body without any hesitation.
"I hope my guess is correct."
Li Mo didn't have time to use the notebook, nor did he want to use this damned thing again.
Now, if he opened the notebook, only the first page would respond to him.
The purpose of the first page was obvious: to make him die in a way that "she will descend," such as dying in the moonlight, or dying after approaching or triggering a medium related to Bizarre Kiana.
If Li Mo revealed even a sliver of his coordinates before he died, he would be found by Bizarre Kiana after his death, and then the scene of his first death at St. Freya High School would be repeated—
Bizarre Kiana would eat him with tears in her eyes.
In this way, Bizarre Kiana could get even closer to him.
Ever since he resolved the funeral incident, Li Mo had a feeling that Bizarre Kiana was very close to him, very close.
The notebook had predicted that the next time Bizarre Kiana descended completely, if there was nothing to restrain her, he would truly die.
Either locked into a state of death by space-time, or killed and then revived as a complete Bizarre being named Li Mo.
Coupled with the recent diligent performance of the first page of the notebook, Li Mo was even more certain of this.
To counter Bizarre Kiana, Bizarre Mei was impossible. Bizarre Hua might be able to hold her own for a bit, but she alone was not enough.
Even a complete Bizarre Mei and a complete Bizarre Hua might not be able to restrain Bizarre Kiana. Another controllable Bizarre being was needed.
Or...
Let Irene do it?
Li Mo was sure that Irene could definitely handle Bizarre Kiana.
Ignoring rules, in a sense, Irene was almost invincible. When facing Bizarre Things with a lower degree of completeness than her, she could easily dissolve their attacks.
Coupled with the Netherfire and soul spirits that could suppress Bizarre Things, as well as unknown abilities, it could be said that Irene was more suitable for handling supernatural events than Li Mo.
The notebook also confirmed that Irene was the most complete Bizarre being he had ever encountered.
Bizarre Mei had existed for hundreds of years, Bizarre Hua for fifty thousand years, and Bizarre Kiana for at least a million years. Then how long had Irene existed...
The more Li Mo thought about it, the more terrifying this woman seemed.
Because he had already had a relevant example. An ordinary person's will simply couldn't survive for a long time.
Even for a long-lived species, a million years would destroy a person's will beyond recognition.
As for a longer time... Li Mo couldn't imagine it with his short-lived mind. He couldn't imagine it at all.
But the Irene he had met before had a playful personality with a touch of ladylike etiquette, and her mysterious actions revealed a direct heart.
It felt like she was deliberately teasing him.
"Forget it. That woman is not on a level I can deal with right now."
"Her promises are meaningless. No power can force her to keep her promises."
"Back to reality."
"Trying to save Shigure Kira, who has already triggered a certain-death rule, is like a fool's dream. Locked by a certain-death rule, there are only two ways: the first is to use another rule of similar or greater completeness to collide with it. But right now, I can find too few Bizarre rules, and it's likely to end in failure."
Li Mo pondered. If the Bizarre coin hadn't been used, it might be able to collide with the drowned ghost's rule. But the rule on the Bizarre coin had been consumed a lot on the night Irene arrived, and it couldn't collide with a complete rule.
The human-head ghost was silent, but he could wake it up to fight the drowned ghost.
However, time did not allow for it, and even if he brought the human-head ghost, it might not be able to stop the drowned ghost.
The essence of the drowned ghost was lake water. Every drop was a complete drowned ghost. There were multiple ways to kill. In the lake, it was dragging. Outside the lake, it was unclear. The final step was always assimilation.
Then the only Bizarre rule that could be controlled by him and actively released was the "Usurp" of Bizarre Mei's left hand.
But Li Mo couldn't use "Usurp" to save Shigure Kira. The price was too high. He was very likely to lose himself directly after using "Usurp" and become an unknown Bizarre being.
Therefore, Li Mo could only pin his hopes on his own judgment and understanding.
Relying on the complete memories of the Mo of this world that he had obtained, he would deduce the rules of various Bizarre Things and thus find a way to save Shigure Kira.
In fact, Li Mo had already found it, but he wasn't sure.
Because deducing a way to save Shigure Kira from the memories of this world required ensuring that the obtained memories were not interfered with, distorted, or concealed.
It was like solving a math problem. Every step must be guaranteed to be free of errors and logical, to ensure that the next step is correct.
And obviously, his memories of Hua in the Previous Era had clearly been falsified.
Fortunately, after Saori Tsuruyo told Li Mo the contents of the diary page, Li Mo was able to connect all the memories with reality and finally carry out a relatively complete integration.
"From the moment Hua opened the Bizarre treasure chest and saved me, the nature of the me of this world was already determined."
"It wasn't Elysia, and I wouldn't have said those hurtful words to Hua out of disgust."
"I was always by her side, and then, I suffered hardship and disaster with her..."
The moment Ganesha was about to step on Hua and kill her, he had not said those words full of disgust and contempt—
Why aren't you running?
Do you want to die that badly?
Hua, I'm very disappointed in you.
A truth hidden beneath the surface memories began to faintly emerge in Li Mo's mind.
He saw it.
That day, Hua was indeed crushed into pieces by Ganesha. There was no miracle, no chosen one.
Hua was not the protagonist of a novel, and neither was he.
At the critical moment of life and death, her body did not activate the ICHOR factor. Like all her dead comrades, like all living beings, she was as fragile as a piece of paper in the face of disaster. Hua, like the soldiers who had been killed before, was effortlessly trampled to death by Ganesha.
Her fragile body became a bloody mess, crushed into countless pieces.
Broken limbs, incomplete organs, and blood vessels and intestines gushed out like silver pulp, splashing all over the ground.
He was not that confident at all, nor was he as powerful as Elysia, who treated the Honkai as a child's game, able to play with Honkai Beasts with ease, walking on the edge of danger.
...
In fact, that day, he was clearly being hunted by Ganesha in the mining area like a rat in the street.
He could only flee in a sorry state, picking up Hua's limbs and organs one by one, then returning to her head, his hands trembling as he pieced together a complete human puzzle.
In this process, he was killed countless times, then revived, then crushed again, and revived once more.
Elysia did not appear on this day, or rather, no savior was watching this area.
What the Fire Moth wanted were MANTISes who had transformed through life and death, not ordinary soldiers who would die on the battlefield with a single touch.
So no one cared about what happened here.
Mo could only rely on himself.
"Ngh!"
In reality, Li Mo suddenly staggered, lost his balance, and fell from the roof, crashing straight to the ground from a high altitude.
Countless shocking images of death, and unbearable pain swept over his entire body in an instant, making Li Mo tremble uncontrollably.
Over and over again, he was tortured and killed by Ganesha in various ways in the mining area. When the complete memories appeared in his mind, the pain of each death was clearly visible, as if he were there.
The intense pain instantly made Li Mo lose control of his body, falling from the air and continuing for a full half-minute.
Within this half-minute, even Li Mo could not maintain the same posture for more than three seconds.
He wouldn't die, nor would he show a painful expression, but he would still feel pain and react accordingly.
Unless Li Mo let the Bizarre power corrupt him, he would still retain some human characteristics. This was his proof of being human.
As long as there was a trace of human signs, he could clear the accumulation of death by returning to Elysia's side.
"Much better..."
Li Mo stood up expressionlessly. It wasn't that it didn't hurt anymore, but that he was used to it.
His body had adapted to this high level of pain, so his actions were no longer restricted.
Lifting his head, Li Mo glanced at the swarm of black shadows approaching him from a distance, and quickly returned to the roof to continue forward.
At this time, it was exactly 9:00 PM. There were only four minutes before Shigure Kira was found by the drowned ghost.
And he had already alerted the flesh-and-blood ghosts in the town. Fortunately, the flesh-and-blood ghosts moved very slowly, and it would take some time for them to catch up to Li Mo.
But their slow speed did not mean that Li Mo could play with them in the palm of his hand. On the contrary, Li Mo had to be on high alert for the flesh-and-blood ghosts behind him.
Strictly speaking, flesh-and-blood ghosts were not a single type of ghost. Their killing rules and action rules were all different.
It was just that their form was uniformly that of a flesh-and-blood ghost.
Quantitative change produces qualitative change.
Once one approached their area, layers of intertwined and overlapping unknown certain-death rules would be instantly triggered. No matter how careful one was, one could not escape. The best way was to stay away and eliminate the possibility of triggering the rules from the root.
Li Mo ran towards Shigure Kira's direction while absorbing Mo's memories.
How many times had he been stepped on and killed over the years?
A thousand? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? A million?
Even with rebirth, the Mo of the Previous Era didn't seem to have become stronger because of death...
He could only repeat the most clumsy and simple method, using death to get a chance to piece together Hua's body.
A long time passed. Even the Fire Moth thought that the mission of MANTIS transformation had failed, and all the soldiers were buried in the mining area and no longer paid attention to.
But he was still alive, and even pieced together Hua's body quite completely. Although it still looked a bit scary and thrilling, with blood vessels and bones exposed, piercing through the skin, the rotten body was covered with maggots and insects, and the foul-smelling organs were rolling and squirming under the filthy flesh...
But there were still omissions. In the previous disaster, Hua's heart and other parts were crushed into a pool of blood, which could not be picked up at all.
"Hua, it's okay, I'm by your side, I'm by your side..."
"Don't die, I won't let you die..."
So he cut open his chest with a broken weapon and took out the warm, beating heart, placing it where Hua's heart was.
Death, rebirth.
Cutting his wrist to replenish the blood in Hua's rotten and smelly incomplete body.
Death, and rebirth again.
He didn't know how long it had been. Hua woke up and saw him, who was in unbearable pain because he had saved her.
Hua reached out her hand, and just with a light touch, he showed a look of fear and forbearance due to a conditioned reflex.
Hua was silent for a while before she responded to him in a hoarse voice—
False memory: "Hua, you look so pathetic right now. Why did you give up on survival just now? I'm very disappointed in you."
Mo: "Hua, you're awake! I'll take you home, let's go home... let's go home together..."
Hua: "Home... where can we go back to?"
---||---
False memory: "I never believed the rumors about you being a witch in the Fire Moth, but now it seems I have to. Of a team of more than fifty people, only you survived. The Emperor-class Honkai Beast let you, who had lost the will to live, go, and instead slaughtered those who fought to the death first."
Mo: "I don't know... but wherever you want to go, I will follow you. Whether it's wandering or fleeing, as long as you are willing, I will always follow you."
"The Fire Moth wants to harm you, so let's leave the Fire Moth and go to a place where no one can find us. Uncle... Uncle is dead. I was too late, I couldn't wake up his consciousness... Sapphire City is an uninhabited area, there are no houses to live in. Australia has become a sea of fire, with no survivors. Then let's go to another continent. I can take care of you. You won't die by my side!"
Hua: "Captain Himeko is dead, Dad is also dead, where can we go back to... we can't go back. If this continues, you will also die... you will also die..."
---||---
False memory: "Witch, you live up to your name."
Mo: "Hua! I'm very strong, I can save you from an Emperor-class Honkai Beast, believe me, okay? I can protect you! I can come back even if I die, as long as you are alive, as long as I can keep you alive... wasn't this the oath we made when we met? I will protect you for a lifetime."
Hua: "Liar... you're not strong at all, you almost died, you were so close... please, leave me, stay away from me..."
"I'm scared... Mo, I'm afraid that one day you will die and not come back... I don't want to bet... please don't follow me anymore, please, at least you have to live well..."
---||---
False memory: "I'm leaving with Elysia, you take care of yourself. If you need anything, you can come find me, but I hope that the next time I see you, you won't still be so weak. In that case, I will look down on you from the bottom of my heart, even if you are Hua."
Mo: "Hua, you're not in a good state of mind right now, I'll take you away first..."
Hua: "Why are you still lingering! Go... go away!"
---||---
After that, Hua activated the ICHOR factor in her body and returned to the Fire Moth to be valued by the higher-ups...
Li Mo substituted the two different things he said in his memory, and only then did he understand what was going on back then.
The memory he initially obtained was an absurd dialogue, where the two of them seemed to be performing a one-man show, each saying their own thing.
However, the memory buried under the sand, when the sand was cleared, the truth was finally revealed.
He had never given up, nor had he ever despised Hua.
On the contrary, he tried every means to give Hua true happiness, bearing endless suffering and misfortune for her.
Yes, not just this time. In the numerous memories of the past, Li Mo also saw scenes of himself saving Hua.
From childhood, death had always been by Hua's side.
Crossing the road and being hit by a sleepy truck driver, her head separated from her body; shopping and being hit by a heavy object falling from the roof, her face disfigured, her flesh and blood mangled; going out and inexplicably encountering a fugitive, and then being stabbed in the neck by the fugitive with a knife on the spot...
Time and time again, she hovered on the edge of death, and was even already in hell.
And Li Mo, in the realm of the undying, never let go, holding her hand forever.
He couldn't pull Hua out of death, and his efforts were meaningless.
But from the moment he was brought out of the Bizarre treasure chest by Hua, the undying person named Mo lived only for one person.
Both of them were children abandoned by the world, one abandoned by death, one abandoned by life.
Both of them were ordinary people at the beginning.
In order to protect each other, they both exhausted their energy and thoughts.
He wanted to put Hua at ease, and Hua wanted him to stay away.
The first person Mo met was Hua, so the way he gave happiness was always implicit and reserved. Elysia-Mo was a fantasy of Hua's.
One hoped the other would remember, one hoped the other would forget.
Fate really played a... disgusting joke on people who longed for an ordinary life.
"...It's over."
Li Mo pulled himself out of his memories. His heart was not moved by the profoundness of the memories. He had already lost his emotions. No matter how real and moving the memories and images were, he was indifferent, feeling nothing.
The only thing that could move Li Mo at this moment was the Bizarre rule.
At the same time, Li Mo finally found Shigure Kira in a patch of darkness. Her body was trembling slightly, and her eyes clearly showed fear and apprehension.
"I hope my luck isn't too bad this time. Whether the bad luck ghost can bear the curse of misfortune brought by opening the Bizarre treasure chest is the key to whether I can survive."