Tianheng Mountain is a tall mountain near Liyue. The mountain spring water flowing down from it passes through the entire Liyue Harbor, rushing to the sea, and finally merging into the ocean. Standing on the summit of Tianheng Mountain, one can almost overlook the entire Liyue city.
And now, Childe was half-crouching on the mountaintop, thoughtfully gazing in the direction of Tianqiu Valley.
That ray of light just now was too dazzling; he couldn't ignore its existence. However, with numerous Liyue Adepti and Rex Lapis hidden in the shadows, plus the Qixing keeping a close eye on him, he simply dared not rush over there carelessly. But he still dispatched his subordinates.
"Master Childe!"
The Fatui dispatched by Childe dared not be lax, so after investigating the situation, they hurried back.
"How are things?"
Childe's gaze remained fixed on the direction of the light beam. The clouds that had been dispersed by the beam still hadn't returned to their original state.
The void in the sky gave the illusion that the heavens had been punched through.
"The Millelith has completely surrounded the area, and half of the Liyue Qixing are present. Although we tried to negotiate with the Qixing, they don't seem to want us involved." The Fatui responsible for the investigation gradually broke out in a sweat, because in a sense, his trip had been fruitless. Even if Childe punished him, he could only accept it.
"You worked hard, go claim your reward." Childe nodded.
"Thank you, Master Childe."
The few subordinates breathed a sigh of relief, secretly congratulating themselves. As for Childe's so-called reward, they absolutely dared not claim it.
In fact, Tartaglia knew from the beginning that his subordinates wouldn't gain much from this trip. Putting himself in their shoes, if a similar incident occurred in Snezhnaya, they would absolutely not allow the Millelith and the Qixing to participate.
Cooperation only happened when both sides had equal strength. And for countries with unequal strength, like Mondstadt or Inazuma, methods of infiltration and gradual erosion would be used.
Childe actually knew a bit about the situation in Tianqiu Valley, such as the matters of the Geovishap and young Geovishaps. For other Fatui members, perhaps only the Juvenile Jade on the Geovishap was worth paying attention to.
In reality, Childe had noticed something else. It was about the legend of the Dragon King.
It was said that an ancient giant dragon, as long-lived as a mountain, once stood alongside the Lord of Liyue Harbor in an unrecallable age, but eventually became enraged due to human exploitation of The Chasm that damaged the ley lines.
It was finally sealed underground by the Emperor himself. So... did the appearance of the Primal Geovishap mean that the ancient giant dragon had awakened?
Actually, after Tartaglia arrived in Liyue, he had been trying to inquire about Rex Lapis, but besides the "Rite of Descension," there was no opportunity to approach that god.
The Rite of Descension was once a year, and on that day, security would be extremely tight. Unless one was prepared to turn against Liyue, it would be absolutely impossible to make a move on that day.
And the matter of the Geovishap gave Tartaglia an idea. If he found the Dragon King sealed underground and managed to release it... Would the Dragon King, after being sealed for so many years, draw out the elusive Rex Lapis? Even if the Dragon King was weakened due to the seal, he could still threaten Rex Lapis with the Dragon King's life to force him to appear.
Presumably, Rex Lapis wouldn't want to see his old friend, with whom he had fought for so many years, simply die like that?
It was just a pity that the beam of light just now attracted the attention of the Liyue Qixing. Tianqiu Valley was now strictly guarded, and it was even harder to break through the Millelith's blockade to investigate the situation inside.
However, since the opening had been found, the Fatui would eventually expand this opening indefinitely until the opponent disintegrated and completely perished.
Half-crouching on the mountaintop, Tartaglia felt the biting cold wind, and a sense of "cold at the top" immediately arose in his heart.
"Hmm?"
But the next moment, he seemed to realize something and slowly lowered his head. He found that an red halo had appeared beneath his feet at some unknown time.
This halo was not very large, only about two meters in diameter, and its surroundings seemed to be shimmering with some kind of light.
"What is this..."
"Boom—"
Scalding magma shot up into the sky, instantly engulfing Tartaglia's body. Although he managed to block the magma's damage with a timely surge of water, he couldn't block the enormous impact force of the magma.
He was sent flying high like a helpless plastic duck, falling down the mountain in a daze and plummeting into the valley.
"..."
The nearby Fatui were stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted.
"Master Childe!"
"Enemy attack! All alert!"
"Alert my ass! Go save him! Master Childe!"
No one knew why a volcanic vent appeared on Tianheng Mountain, nor why the volcanic vent then disappeared.
They only knew... if anything happened to Master Childe, they, as his subordinates, would be in deep trouble.
At the foot of Tianheng Mountain was, in fact, Bubu Pharmacy. The weather today was originally not very good, but an Adeptus had shown their divine power, erupting in dazzling light that cleared the dark clouds from the sky, and even the sun playfully revealed its face.
Seeing that the sunlight was quite good, Herbalist Gui began feeding the koi in the pond. The dozen or so koi here were ones he had recently purchased.
He tried his best to buy the exact same breeds as before. Under the power of money, the lotus pond actually showed signs of returning to its original state, so it was no wonder Mr. Bai had said that the Fatui would solve everything.
Now, he only hoped that Bai Luo, that demon, would never come to Bubu Pharmacy again. It was bad enough that he used his medicine pot to stew koi, but he also used it to stew frogs.
For a while now, he always smelled a strange odor when brewing medicine, and no amount of scrubbing helped.
He prayed that little Qiqi wouldn't follow Bai Luo and learn bad habits, otherwise, no amount of koi would be enough for her to eat. Alas, he stopped thinking about it; it was all such a bother.
Herbalist Gui slowly shook his head, continuing to feed fish food into the pond.
"Ah—"
Just as he threw a handful of feed, Herbalist Gui's attention was drawn by a sound from above. Looking up, he saw a figure falling from the mountain peak, and the location where he would land was... the lotus pond!
"Splash—"
"My fish!!"
Accompanied by a cry of lament, Tartaglia plunged straight into the lotus pond, splashing a large amount of water, soaking Herbalist Gui to the bone.
"Damn it... good thing I landed in the water."
Grimacing, Tartaglia climbed out of the pond, still somewhat confused. After being sent flying, he had originally intended to use the force of the water to land back on the mountain wall.
Who knew that after being sent flying, he completely lost control of his body, as if he were paralyzed? It wasn't until he fell into the water that his strength returned. So what exactly happened?
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[A/N: Poor Tartaglia. Always getting targeted by Bai Luo. The special part is that, most of the times he didn't even realise that he has been tricked by Bai Luo. I wonder how his reaction will be, when he realises the sheer number of times, he has been suffered by Bai Luo's hands.]
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