The "Herta" Changli referred to was another character Lu Jingming had spent years accumulating power to summon. Like Jingliu, she was from Honkai: Star Rail—the 83rd member of the Genius Society, a cosmic-level genius.
With Jingliu and Changli's help, Haiyuan City recovered from chaos. The occasional sea soul beasts that came ashore seeking trouble never lasted a single round against Jingliu's power.
But Lu Jingming knew that mere stability wasn't enough. For real prosperity, Haiyuan City needed new directions and development.
After learning the world was in the Peerless Tang Sect era of the Douluo Continent, Lu Jingming focused on soul tools. He knew that in this era, soul tools were the driving force of progress, rapidly developing and even posing a real threat to the once-dominant soul masters.
The neighboring Sun Moon Empire was becoming ever stronger thanks to their investment in soul tool technology. As a transmigrator, Lu Jingming knew that soon, the Sun Moon Empire would sweep across Douluo Continent with overwhelming technological might—if not for a certain god-king's intervention in the original story, the Sun Moon Empire would have already unified the continent.
Seeing all this, Lu Jingming realized the importance of soul tools for Haiyuan City's future. He endured for years, saving up the power of Truth.
His efforts paid off: he finally gathered enough to manifest Herta. But even then, Herta arrived massively weakened. Lu Jingming didn't mind, because what mattered was not her strength but her unparalleled intellect and inventive genius.
In his plans, Herta's wisdom and creativity were indispensable—maybe even more so than Jingliu and Changli.
Though summoned to Douluo Continent weakened them and took away many of their original powers, they also gained Martial Souls and soul skills unique to this world. For them, getting these powers was a limitation compared to their old selves—but it also paved a new road for cultivation.
Given their immense talent, it was only a matter of time before they regained their former strength, or even surpassed it.
"Herta didn't come—she's probably holed up in her lab again!" Lu Jingming looked around but didn't see Herta, and knew that the research-obsessed genius was once again immersed in exploration. For Herta, curiosity was a core trait—everything in this new world was novel and fascinating to her. Once she figured something out, she'd lose interest, but the byproducts of her research greatly benefited the city.
In less than a year, Herta had thoroughly studied soul masters, soul beasts, and soul tools with astonishing insight. She was truly worthy of being called a universal genius—if not for the vast differences between worlds, she might have surpassed all the soul tool makers in this world in just a month.
Lu Jingming could sell the rejects Herta tossed aside and easily make hundreds of millions in gold soul coins. To the soul engineers of the Star Luo Empire, those were masterpieces, finer even than those from the Sun Moon Empire's Illustrious Virtue Hall.
Within a year, Herta's name became well-known among the engineers of Star Luo. Sadly, traditional soul masters still looked down on soul tools, so Herta's fame didn't spread further.
Lu Jingming preferred things this way. Since Haiyuan City was still in its early development, keeping a low profile was safer.
To push the city's development, Lu Jingming did everything he could—even volunteering as Herta's test subject for her research on the power of Truth, just to get her to invent practical soul tool appliances to improve the city's environment and technology.
Actually, he could have forced Herta to work, but he never wanted to treat her as a tool. To him, these summoned companions were his most trusted friends and family in this world.
Perhaps it was this sincerity that moved Herta to dedicate herself to the city's construction, lightening Changli's load and solving many problems.
Though it was still early, and the city's changes weren't obvious, Lu Jingming firmly believed that before long, Haiyuan City would become the most advanced city in the Star Luo Empire—perhaps even surpassing the Sun Moon Empire's capital.
After all, Herta had only been in this world for less than a year, most of it spent analyzing the new world's basic rules and materials. Even so, she was already a level-nine soul engineer. In time, her achievements would only grow more astonishing.
At this moment, Lu Jingming stepped into the center of the Awakening Room, standing firmly in the middle of a six-pointed star array.
He looked calm, his gaze steady as he looked at Jingliu and declared, "Teacher, I'm ready."