Clearly, this idea was a bit ambitious, especially since he hadn't offered Zhongli any additional reward for lending his help.
With the deal concluded, Zhongli had gone to help the Earth Dragon remove his seal.
Seeing that dusk was falling, Nolan figured it was time to bring Yanfei back. He teleported to the Naganohara Fireworks Shop.
After sharing a brief moment of intimacy with Yoimiya, he then went to the Arataki Gang to fetch Yanfei and brought her back to Liyue Harbor.
Upon returning, Yanfei didn't forget to give Nolan the Primogems she had promised him. She had found them at home the night before—over three hundred in total.
Nolan hadn't expected that many.
Adding everything up—1,200+ from Moon Carver, 1,000 from Cloud Retainer, 2,000 from Zhongli, and now over 300 from Yanfei—he now had 4,522 Primogems in total!
Each Primogem provided 3,000 EXP, so 4,522 Primogems would give him a total of 13,566,000 EXP.
Combined with the 5.5 million EXP he already had, once he absorbed all of them, his total EXP would exceed 19 million!
Just when he'd been worrying about leveling up, suddenly he had enough to nearly gain two levels in one go!
Bidding farewell to Yanfei, Nolan returned to the Wonderland space, now eager to level up.
He took out all the Primogems, piling them in front of himself, then dove into them like he was jumping onto a bed.
Clatter! The glittering heap of Primogems collapsed like a small mountain, and one by one, the stones began to vanish.
His character panel started flashing like a waterfall, notifications appearing in a continuous stream:
[Illuminated In The Radiance Glow Of Dreams And Hopes, Obtained 3000 Adventure EXP]
[Illuminated In The Radiance Glow Of Dreams And Hopes, Obtained 3000 Adventure EXP]
[Illuminated In The Radiance Glow Of Dreams And Hopes, Obtained 3000 Adventure EXP]
[Illuminated In The Radiance Glow Of Dreams And Hopes, Obtained 3000 Adventure EXP]...
It didn't take long for all the Primogems to be absorbed. His character panel now showed a total of:
[Adventure EXP: 19,069,027]
Now, it was time to level up.
Nolan stood up and dumped a massive amount of Adventure EXP into his level progress, maxing it out in an instant!
Adventure EXP - 9,738,385
Lv100 (261,615/10,000,000) → Lv101 (0/11,000,000)
A powerful surge of heat coursed through his body, nourishing every cell and his very soul.
Nolan could feel his strength increasing dramatically—he could now effortlessly overpower his previous self.
All of his skills had grown significantly stronger as well.
His character panel now displayed:
---
Name: Nolan Walker
Level: Lv101 (0/11,000,000)
Race: Human
Titles: Honorary Knight, Distinguished Citizen of Liyue, Legendary Adventurer, Honorary General of Watatsumi Island
Innate Talent: Entangling Affection
Skills:
- Lumine's Authority: Divine Level Lv.10 (Starsea Manifestation, Boundless)
- Musou no Hitotachi: Divine Level Lv.10 (Musou State)
- Abysswalker: Arcane Level Lv.10 (Deep Space Warp)
- Flowing Sky Shot: Awakening Lv.10 (Frostglow Arrow)
- Element Manipulation Lv.10 (Max Level)
- Martial Arts Lv.10 (Subtle Mastery)
Specialties:
- Beloved by Maidens (Exclusive)
- Unmoving Gospel of the World Tree (Exclusive)
- Threads of the Northern Wind (Exclusive)
- Spiritual Core (Exclusive)
Adventure EXP: 9,330,642
---
Though he was now level 101, reaching the next level required 11 million EXP. Still, he only needed around 1.67 million more, which wasn't too far off.
The girls around him had also grown much stronger with his help recently. As long as he worked hard and stayed close to them, it wouldn't take long to gather the needed EXP!
With that thought, Nolan didn't want to waste time. He planned to see which of the girls were free so he could help them grow stronger—and boost his own power in the process.
Sensing the feedback from the Wonderland space, he knew that Noelle, Sucrose, and Amber were in the kitchen preparing dinner—so it wasn't a good time to bother them.
Mona was still in her lab, and with her recent power-up, her research on the Realm's starry sky was progressing rapidly.
She had already completed around 12%… Oh? Ei and Yae Miko were in the hot spring, relaxing and having a pleasant chat.
Nolan had accidentally noticed them through his connection to the Wonderland.
Perfect. His current strength would surely be acknowledged by Ei. He'd challenge her again, and once victorious—he'd execute judgment on the spot!
Nolan, still brimming with the excitement from his power-up, headed confidently to the second floor.
Upon reaching it, he noticed the space had changed. There were cherry blossoms everywhere, their pink petals drifting gently in the air.
The ceiling had turned into a moonlit night sky, illuminating the entire second floor.
Someone had clearly activated the Realm's Scenery Alteration feature. And given the sakura blossoms—something distinctly Inazuman—there was no doubt it was Yae Miko's doing.
Watching the petals flutter down and carpet the ground, yet feeling no physical resistance as he stepped on them, Nolan chuckled softly and said,
"Quite the romantic touch…"
With that, he stepped into the hot spring bathhouse, changed out of his clothes in the dressing room, then parted the curtains and entered the hot spring.
Seeing Nolan enter, Yae Miko, her face flushed from the steam, froze for a second. Then a rosy hue spread across her cheeks—though the steam quickly masked it.
She gave him a faint smile and said,
"Oh my, there are girls bathing here. Barging in like this is highly inappropriate~"
Ei, on the other hand, didn't react at all to seeing Nolan unclothed. After living together for so long, she'd seen plenty—including him cuddling with other girls in bed.
"Ahem, I'm here to challenge Ei again. Last time I came up short, but this time—I'm certain I'll win!"
Saying that, Nolan stepped into the hot spring, walking toward the two of them.
"If you want to challenge Ei, can't it wait until we finish our bath? Coming now… feels like you've got other motives~" Yae Miko said playfully, turning her face toward Ei.
"This is a surprise attack! An ambush! There's no such thing as the 'right time' for that!" Nolan defended himself.
"If you're here to bathe, then sit down. I'm not in the mood to spar right now," Ei said flatly.
Her body was wrapped in the warm water, completely relaxed—fighting was the last thing on her mind.
Not to mention, they hadn't even put on clothes yet—starting a fight now would just seem rather improper.
"All right then, since that's the case, I'll just take it as your surrender. Let's start cultivating now," Nolan said, seeing that Ei's rejection was unsurprising. He slid smoothly into the water, opening his arms as if about to embrace Ei.
"Sigh."
Raiden Ei sighed lightly, stretching her fair right hand forward underwater and grabbing Nolan's weak spot, forcing him to surrender by instinct.
"Calm down, my bad, I admit defeat!"
Nolan hadn't expected Ei to use such a dirty trick, and with no other choice, surrendered.
"Hmph, when facing the sneak attack of someone with impure intentions, naturally I can't be blamed for doing whatever it takes to counter you, right?" Raiden Ei's lips curled slightly, a soft laugh escaping her.
"Yes yes yes, you're absolutely right!"
Nolan struggled to pry Ei's hand away, finally letting out a sigh of relief. He didn't dare act out anymore, obediently squeezing himself between the two and sitting down.
Ei didn't pay him any mind, tilting her head up to look at the moon, ignoring Nolan. If he dared lay a hand on her again, she'd just go for his weak spot.
"Hehe, that really was a spectacular duel. This truly broadened my horizons," Yae Miko couldn't help but cover her mouth and giggle softly.
"…" Nolan was quite regretful at his utter defeat, and when he saw Yae Miko actually laughing at him, his mischievous mind began to stir again.
Hmph, if I can't deal with Ei, I can certainly handle you!
As Nolan thought this, he suddenly wrapped his arm around Yae Miko, flipping himself to sit between her snowy thighs and flat stomach, quickly leaning in to kiss her.
"Ah!"
Yae Miko hadn't expected Nolan to launch a sneak attack, shrieking in surprise and instinctively grabbing his shoulders, trying to push him away and turning her face aside.
But her face was quickly cupped and turned back by Nolan, and then their lips met without resistance!
"Mmph!"
Yae Miko's fingernails dug into Nolan's shoulders, her knee pressed against his back. As the Guuji of the Grand Narukami Shrine, she had never been so passive in any situation.
After a while, when she felt her lips being pried open, a strange, involuntary pleasure crept over her body.
Realizing this, Yae Miko's humiliation was quickly followed by embarrassment and annoyance.
To prove she wasn't that kind of woman, Yae Miko decided to go all in—flipping Nolan to her left and pushing him right onto Ei, then straddling him, reclaiming the initiative for herself!
Nolan felt his head hit something soft at the back, then saw Yae Miko taking the lead to kiss him.
"Mmph!"
Raiden Ei saw Nolan being so bold and wanted to go after his weak spot again, but when she reached out her hand, all she touched was the softness of Yae Miko's stomach.
* (T/N: yeah that's it!)
The next morning at dawn—
Nolan woke up in Yae Miko's room, with Ei there as well, both of them held in his arms on either side.
Last night, he and Yae Miko had unexpectedly ended up pinning Ei down.
She tried to retaliate against Nolan in anger, but thanks to Yae Miko's protection, she didn't succeed.
Seeing this, Nolan felt he had no more weaknesses. With Yae Miko taking the lead, he began acting up toward Ei as well.
He reached right between her snow-white thighs, gently stroking and fondling her. When Yae Miko finally grew exhausted, even the archon herself, Raiden Ei, couldn't hold out any longer and rolled on top of him.
What followed was nothing short of a reenactment of one corner of the ancient gods' battle!
Though Nolan might still lose to Raiden Ei in a real fight, when it came to cuddling and intimacy, his experience prevailed—he made both Ei and Yae Miko admit defeat.
You could say he was the ultimate victor!
After winning in the hot spring bath, they had dinner—but Ei and Yae Miko were unwilling to accept defeat, dragging him back to the room for a rematch that lasted until two or three in the morning.
The result was obvious—neither of them could even get up!
Nolan teased Yae Miko's fluffy pink fox ears for a while, then turned and kissed Ei's soft lips.
"Mmm~"
Only half-awake, Ei instinctively reached up to push his shoulders away, but her hands had no strength.
After some more tenderness with the two of them, Nolan finally got up to prepare to go to Sumeru with Lumine and Paimon to check out the development of the "Akasha" system there.
He also thought he'd see where he could lend a hand.
With that in mind, Nolan stopped lingering in the girls' warm embrace, got up, washed quickly, had breakfast, and used "Interstellar Travel" with Lumine and Paimon to teleport to Nahida's side in Sumeru.
Sumeru City, Akademiya.
At that moment, in the upper levels of the Palace of Wisdom, Nolan, Lumine, Paimon, and Nahida all looked at the changes in the Akasha system.
The Akasha system, looking like a planet with rings, flashed a few times, then quickly settled down.
Then pinpoints of starlight started lighting up on the "Akasha" system.
"Phew, that's great! This hot patch is now complete, which means the framework for the 'Akasha Forum' is essentially in place and can officially operate!"
Nahida used her fair little hand to wipe her sweatless brow, then put her hands on her waist and turned around.
"Oh? That fast?" Nolan said, a bit surprised.
"You slacked off and haven't been around much, so you wouldn't know. Lately, we've mostly been discussing all kinds of functions for the 'Akasha Forum.' Once the specifications were decided, actually building the software didn't take much time at all.
"In other words, now we just need to conduct some small-scale testing, and once we make sure there are no issues, the forum can officially go live!"
Nahida was quite happy to have wrapped up such a project.
"Of course I'm aware."
Nolan naturally trusted Nahida's skills, but at the end of the day, even if it didn't take her long to actually write the program, the forum's features wouldn't follow those of other worlds without adaptation.
They still had to consider localization for Teyvat. After all, no one here had ever used a forum before; it had to start with the simplest functions.
If you just copied forums from other worlds with their complicated features, everyone would have a hard time adapting.
That meant higher learning cost, more difficulty getting started, and the confusion might kill people's motivation to explore.
"Hehe, we've taken all that into account! If you're curious, this playboy who only knows how to nap on girls' bellies can just give it a try!"
Paimon handed over a green Akasha terminal and continued:
"Don't be fooled that it looks just like before—it's been through many iterations inside, and it's loaded with a bunch of software, including the 'Akasha Forum.'
"Now it's your turn! Try out each feature, give us your feedback, and see if there's anything missing!"
"Hehe, of course, no problem."
Nolan hadn't been to Sumeru in a while, and since the Akasha system's signal didn't yet cover anywhere outside Sumeru, he hadn't been able to use the terminal.
So he was quite curious how far the Akasha terminal had come.
(End of chapter)
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