Serenitea Pot.
Keqing and Xiangling were both very worried about Ye Xi today, so rather than returning to Liyue Harbor, they stayed home and waited.
Beside them, Raiden Ei looked a little puzzled: "Keqing, why do you all look so worried?"
"Has something gone wrong?"
"If there's anything I can help with, just say so—I'll do my best."
After all, she had only just arrived in this household; even though she was the Raiden Shogun, she still wanted to help Keqing and the others as much as she could.
If she were to carry herself as a God every day, leaning on others' goodwill, she would feel rather embarrassed.
Keqing and Xiangling exchanged a glance.
This was the Raiden Shogun, a tremendously powerful God—perhaps she really could be of help?
So Keqing nodded and said: "Her Excellency the Shogun, the truth is, today Ye Xi he...."
She told Raiden Ei all about the matter of subjugating the Dendro Dragonlord.
Upon hearing this, Raiden Ei knit her brows slightly.
She naturally knew that a dragonlord's power was no ordinary thing, and so her heart, too, was filled with worry.
"I understand."
As she spoke, she waved her hand, and a screen appeared in the air.
"Th-this is..."
Keqing and Xiangling were startled to find that the image on the screen was, strikingly, a stretch of desert.
"This is the footage from Ye Xi's side."
Back when Raiden Ei was in the Plane of Euthymia, this was the very method she had used to observe the outside world.
As she spoke, the image gradually grew clearer.
The sky full of yellow sand was no longer hazy, and a colossal dragon appeared before everyone's eyes.
Seeing Apep's true form, both Xiangling and Keqing were dumbfounded.
"Oh my goodness! So huge!"
"This is the first time I've ever seen a dragon this big! It's hundreds of times larger than the Lord Rock King's Adeptal Ancestral Exuvia!"
Back when Zhongli faked his death, he had hauled out a dragon corpse, and that corpse had been far, far smaller.
At that very moment, Zhongli—who was listening to a storyteller at Three Bowls Drunk—sneezed.
Just as Xiangling was marveling at Apep's size, Ye Xi's figure appeared in the image.
"It's Ye Xi!"
"Oh no, it looks like a fight's about to break out!"
....
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Nahida sighed: "I never imagined it would have to come to this."
"Ye Xi, you must be careful!"
"Although Apep is already extremely weak now, the Dendro elemental energy within its body is still powerful!"
Beside her, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata cautioned as well: "You absolutely must not kill it, or the Dendro Elemental Power within it will erupt entirely!"
"Dendro Elemental Power of that concentration would make the rainforest grow out of control!"
"Towering trees would block out the sunlight completely, plants would compete with humans for air, and all of Sumeru would no longer be fit to live in!"
Ye Xi gave a nod, then used [Walk on the Wind] to fly straight up into the sky.
"Apep, have you thought it through?"
Before the words had even left his mouth, the answer that came was a dense barrage of Dendro Elemental Power attacks!
From within the windblown sand, countless green leaves came flying, like a hail of bullets.
With a single flash of movement, Ye Xi dodged this dense assault.
"It seems you've already made your choice."
"In that case, of course I have to respond."
As he spoke, he used the new skill he had obtained the night before.
[Ability Lock]
Suddenly, a beam of green light and a beam of white light appeared before Ye Xi.
White represented physical damage, and green, naturally, represented Dendro Elemental Power.
This was the breakdown of the Dendro Dragonlord Apep's power.
Ye Xi chose green.
[Lock: Dendro Elemental Power!]
The next moment, the light was pressed down.
Apep, in the very midst of launching its attack, suddenly came to a halt.
This abrupt turn of events not only astonished the watching Nahida, Raiden Ei, and the others—even Apep let out a sound of bewilderment.
"Wh-what's going on?! My power..."
Apep was utterly stunned inside.
It didn't know what had happened—it only felt that it couldn't draw out a single shred of the Dendro Elemental Power throughout its entire body!
"Why—why can't I use my power?!"
"What on earth is going on?!"
Hearing this, Ye Xi smiled: "I've locked away your Dendro Elemental Power, Apep."
"Now you're no longer the Dendro Dragonlord—just an ordinary dragon."
"Impossible——!"
Apep let out several furious roars, but the Dendro Elemental Power simply would not coalesce.
It bellowed in rage and snarled: "Even without using elemental power, I can still wipe out a puny little human like you!"
With that, Apep lunged with a great bite.
That abyssal maw could swallow whole not just Ye Xi, but even a Ruin Guard.
Yet Ye Xi had no intention whatsoever of dodging.
As the enormous maw bore down to swallow Ye Xi, the sight sent Keqing and Xiangling's hearts leaping into their throats.
At that hair's-breadth moment, they suddenly noticed that the Apep in the image had frozen in place, utterly motionless!
As if a binding spell had been cast upon it!
"It's Ye Xi's time stop!"
Xiangling patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief.
The night before, she and Keqing had gotten a good firsthand look at it.
The range of this time stop was no small thing, but even so it couldn't reach into the Serenitea Pot.
Hearing this, Raiden Ei was slightly taken aback: "Time stop?!"
She hadn't expected that Ye Xi could actually stop time itself!
That was simply too incredible!
Equally astonished was Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, who was there at the scene.
Although she had heard Nahida speak before of Ye Xi's power to stop time, this was the first time she had actually witnessed it!
She, too, was frozen in place—except that she still retained the ability to think.
The entire world had turned an ashen gray.
The windblown sand no longer drifted, and Apep stood utterly still, like a stone that had lost the power of thought!
Unhurried, Ye Xi left the space before Apep and made his way to a spot atop its head.
[One second passes]
[Two seconds pass]
[....]
[Ten seconds pass]
Ye Xi once again summoned a new Stand.
[Weather Report!]
A soft, adorable little white cloud drifted out, and in an instant the entire sky was blanketed with dark clouds.
Nahida was stunned, and Greater Lord Rukkhadevata gave a start as well.
This was the desert, after all!
Where would dark clouds ever come from in a desert?!
Could it be that it was actually going to rain in the desert?
Just then, Ye Xi suddenly lifted the time-stop effect.
Apep snapped its jaws shut, only to find it had bitten nothing but air.
"What?!"
It whipped its head around, only to discover that Ye Xi, who had been right in front of it, had somehow ended up atop its very head!
This gave it a fright.
"How—how on earth did you do..."
Hearing Apep's question, Ye Xi smiled: "You don't need to know."
"All right, it's my turn now."
Suddenly, a torrential downpour came pouring from the sky.
The rain came down in sheets, and the sandstorm ceased in an instant.
The rainwater seeped into the golden fine sand, soaking in without pause.
Some of it gathered into streams that flowed off into the distance.
Seeing this astonishing volume of rain, Nahida was greatly amazed.
"To actually make it rain this hard in the desert—since when did Ye Xi possess the Authority to control the weather?!"
Greater Lord Rukkhadevata shook her head: "Worthy indeed of a future Throne—his power is still ceaselessly advancing, and at a breakneck pace at that!"
Back in the Serenitea Pot, Xiangling's face was likewise full of disbelief.
"Goodness, this rain—it couldn't be that fellow Ye Xi's doing, could it?!"
Keqing nodded again and again: "It must be—the rainfall in a desert could never be this astonishing!"
She governed the lands of Liyue and had some knowledge of such matters.
It wasn't that deserts never rained—only that the precipitation was extremely scarce.
This exaggerated downpour before them could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be the work of nature.
Xiangling's face filled with adoration: "In other words, Ye Xi can even control the weather! That's just too amazing!"
"Somehow I feel like he's just like a God!"
Beside her, Raiden Ei nodded: "Theoretically speaking, I'm afraid Ye Xi may already be a God."
...
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