Ice Cold Heart | A 'Honkai: Star Rail' Fanfiction

Chapter 12 - Fear, Life, and Death

(Image Credit: HoYoVerse -- ran out of ideas for a picture, so have this instead (｡◕‿◕｡) )

A shaking body, chills down her spine and yet a burning sensation at her core, the phantom pain of the hundreds of needles that pierced her skin constantly tingling, and the muffled voices of those around her and those in her head. This was the state Jingliu had been in for the past few days, weeks, months, hell, she cannot recall how long it'd been since her capture.

As per usual with these experiments, everything suddenly went quiet and her body went numb. Jingliu angrily glared at the scientist overseeing the experiments being done; an attempt to show her steel resolve despite her weak state. "Don't be so mad, Jingliu... Your suffering will end soon." The scientist told her with a wide smirk visibly curving underneath the facemask. "The boss is losing her purpose for you. You tried to stop us, in the end, you helped us." The hospital bed shook and clanged as Jingliu tried to free herself from the restraints. "What are you talking about!?" She, rather uncharacteristically, yelled out. The constant experiments had broken Jingliu. At the back of her mind, she knew she was no longer the same, but that she wouldn't exactly be strong enough to fight it.

The scientist brought over a final vial and had a hypodermic needle take in its contents. "This is the culmination of our research. The Sanctus Medicus wanted to give the abundance's gift to all of the Xianzhou. We realize now that it isn't giving the gift that's the issue." Jingliu's skin was once again pierced by yet another needle, her bloodstream again took in the elixir, and her blood vessels darkened to the point of visibility. "It was stopping those who opposed our goals."

Jingliu's head began to cloud once again. She wasn't sure what the Sanctus' plan was, but she knew 3 things: The elixirs somehow give the gift of the abundance, other elixirs cleanse a person of mara, and finally, that fear somehow plays into everything.

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Jing Yuan had been working with Dan Heng for the past few days while they awaited the Astral Express' arrival. Among other things, Jing Yuan mostly had him work on looking over the notes and pictures sent over to try and put together any explanation of the Sanctus Medicus' actions.

The young man's thoughts were interrupted by Jing Yuan entering the room, who himself had just gotten off the phone. "Y/N and a friend are arriving soon, they're nearby. Have you made anything, Dan Heng?" The young man nodded and pointed to a pile of papers he had set aside specifically to show his findings. "In the effort to enforce the forbidden practice of immortality research, the Xianzhou had banned all imports of all known substances known to directly lead to the extension or longevity of health." Dan Heng then showed Jing Yuan a group of photos that Y/N had sent over from his on-field investigation. "None of the chemicals that were photographed are derivatives of or use any of the banned substances. Judging from the state of their labs, its impossible that they have the capabilities of synthesizing their own through raw materials." During the insightful rambling, Jing Yuan couldn't help but smile at the young man. Despite it all, he still reminded him of his old friend. Dan Heng noticed the staring and returned with a confused gaze. "Sorry, it's just... You really are him." Not wanting to compare Dan Heng to his previous incarnation however, Jing Yuan shrugs off his own comment and focuses back on the task at hand. "I've been looking at any unrecorded movement myself. It is impossible that they've smuggled any synthesis materials as far as I could tell on my end. Weight constraints, container constraints, if smuggled with other compounds then it would've spelled disaster. Basically, I doubt they snuck anything into the Xianzhou. Tell me, what exactly were the chemicals around the lab?"