"Alright, alright."
Kaeya returned to his usual nonchalant demeanor, a devil-may-care smile tugging at the corner of his lips. His gray-blue eye locked onto Victor Wang's gaze, growing ever more profound.
"Do you know about the Light Realm?" he asked.
Light Realm…
Through the Three Realms Gateway Offering, Victor Wang had learned that Teyvat was composed of three worlds: the Light Realm, the Human Realm, and the Void Realm.
The Human Realm was the world he currently saw, heard, and touched—a world fit for human habitation.
The Light Realm was a world of pure, primordial elemental beings. Slimes and Geovishaps were originally creatures of the Light Realm. At some point, the First Throne used some unknown method to either hide the Light Realm or convert it into the Human Realm.
The power of the Void Realm was said to be poisonous to both Human and Light Realm creatures.
Victor Wang speculated, rather irresponsibly, that the Human Realm was merely a diluted version of the Light Realm in terms of elemental concentration. After all, Geovishaps and other elemental beings were now living in the Human Realm.
As for how Kaeya knew about the Light Realm—well, Khaenri'ah had once communicated with Enkanomiya, and if Enkanomiya knew, there was no reason Khaenri'ah—who made a bigger splash—wouldn't.
With that in mind, he replied, "You mean the world with a higher elemental concentration than ours?"
"Then do you know where the Light Realm is?" Kaeya countered.
Victor Wang could only shake his head this time.
"The Light Realm overlaps with the Human Realm—it's all around us. What we call Blink is actually slipping the body into the Light Realm and then returning."
As soon as he finished speaking, Kaeya vanished from Victor Wang's sight—and reappeared behind him.
Sensing the shift in presence, Victor Wang spun around eagerly. "That's exactly what I want to learn!"
"Since you already know what the Light Realm is, you should also know that its concentrated elemental energy is harmful to our bodies. I really wouldn't recommend learning this move." Kaeya shrugged helplessly. "But judging by your expression, you won't stop until you master it. Fine, I'll teach you."
"Push your Elemental Sight to the absolute limit—so far that you can see tiny fissures. If you can't, then you don't have the talent for this technique."
Victor Wang activated his Elemental Sight. Instantly, the world changed. Objects without elemental energy became dim, while those with it shone brightly. But he saw no "tiny fissures."
"Where exactly are those fissures? Do only objects with elemental power have them?"
"They're in the air. Look carefully—they're everywhere."
Victor Wang focused all his attention on the air in front of him. As his mental focus deepened, his Elemental Sight sharpened further. The air looked like it was under a magnifying glass—but still, it was just air.
Is this really the full extent of Elemental Sight? It didn't feel like enough.
His vision narrowed, sharpened—lines became points. The magnifying glass became a microscope. Irregular, ever-changing fissures began to surface within his sight, flickering with white light.
These must be the fissures…
Victor Wang willed himself to touch one—and was instantly pulled into a world of radiant white light.
He couldn't sense anyone else's presence. The ground and surrounding buildings had somehow remained, but they too were composed of pure, white light.
"My head's spinning…"
Within barely a second of observation, Victor Wang felt his body being crushed by the overwhelming light—as if he'd been dropped into the bottom of a sunless ocean. Even his mind felt strained. Only the Anemo energy inside him began to stir and swell.
Damn, I don't even know how to get back!
The pressure worsened. Then, out of nowhere, he saw an ice-blue glimmer floating in the air—and Kaeya arrived in the Light Realm.
Kaeya grabbed Victor Wang's shoulder. After another disorienting sensation—like being pulled into the Light Realm—Victor was brought back to the Human Realm.
There was no decompression sickness from the sudden shift in pressure. His body instantly returned to normal, as though nothing had happened.
"You're way too eager. I was only on step one."
Kaeya shook his head in mock annoyance. "But it looks like you've figured out how to enter the Light Realm. Getting back, though, takes an external aid."
"Here, look at this." Kaeya raised his hand. Tiny flecks of Cryo floated in his palm.
"Elemental energy can cross both the Human and Light Realms. The elemental energy we use here creates projections in the Light Realm. You enter the Light Realm through fissures; you return through elemental projections.
"That's why you always need to prepare a fallback before entering. And if the projection fades, don't panic—just find the nearest elemental projection, whether made by someone else or formed naturally. Touch it, and you'll come back."
Following his instructions, Victor Wang created an Anemo particle, entered the Light Realm again, then returned by touching the same particle with his mind.
"Looks like you've got it. Get used to it slowly—time for me to get back to work."
"Thanks."
Kaeya waved behind his back, took a few steps, then turned around with a serious warning: "No matter how tough you think you are, don't stay in the Light Realm for too long. They say bad things happen the longer you linger."
"What kind of things?"
"No clue. I've only got one life—I'm not about to risk it~"
So that's why there aren't any elemental creatures in the Light Realm, despite the overwhelming energy concentration? If the Light and Human Realms were separated by the First Throne, then perhaps he also placed a ban—prohibiting life from existing in the Light Realm?
Why worry so much? I'll just hop between realms as needed.
After several more attempts, Victor Wang had more or less grown accustomed to the Light Realm.
The terrain and buildings there—so long as they weren't living beings—matched the Human Realm exactly. The distance between places was the same, too. There was no such thing as "one step in the Light Realm equals ten in the Human Realm."
Moreover, since returning required the use of elemental projections from the Human Realm, using the Light Realm to save travel time was a non-starter. All it could offer was short-distance, instant-movement effects—like teleporting or blinking.
"Didn't expect it to be this easy to learn, but… doesn't seem that useful." Victor Wang murmured. Pairing a practiced Blink with his Ceremonial Bladework, he had evolved it into a new ritual sword technique.
Easy meant most Vision holders could probably learn it. If both sides could enter the Light Realm, it'd just be a battlefield shift.
...
Days passed in this fashion. Victor Wang continuously honed his swordplay, battling both the Treasure Hoarders and Bennett in combat.
There were just over twenty days left until the Rite of Descension in Liyue.
That afternoon, as he used Timaeus's alchemy bench to craft healing potions like usual, Victor Wang casually commented, "It'd be great if there were a device that could generate elemental energy."
Blinking between realms required elemental particles. His Anemo diffusion during combat also needed particles of other elements.
He recalled Timaeus had once built an elemental furnace—but that thing was huge. Plus, it consumed elemental power to produce other materials, which was exactly the opposite of what he needed.
So, he didn't hold out much hope.
"Elemental generation? You mean a device that produces that? Like… put in a Mist Flower, and it creates a Cryo orb?" Timaeus had grown familiar with Victor Wang over the past few days and knew he was an adventurer with Anemo power.
"You've got something like that?"
Timaeus propped his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe… but I imagine it'd be very expensive. You'd probably need ten Mist Flowers just to get one pure elemental clump."
Elemental clumps, as the name implied, were condensed blocks of elemental energy. Storing them was extremely difficult, and they dissipated shortly after creation, so they never became a viable energy source for the general populace in Teyvat.
True, stable elemental condensation only existed in elemental creatures—but you couldn't exactly carry around seven different types of slimes into battle.
None of this fit Victor Wang's needs.
"No, I don't need pure energy. I don't need clumps. Just need it to generate elemental particles."
"Hiss… In that case, I might be able to build something."
"A device?"
"A device. It's not something that would sell well, but if the reward's right, I can custom-make one for you."
"No, I meant—how big is this device?"
"You care about the size too? Hmm… probably about as big as that shelf behind me."
Victor Wang shook his head. "Ideally, I want to carry it with me. The smaller, the better."
At that, Timaeus's face twitched visibly.
"The smaller it is, the more its functionality gets restricted. That's going to be very difficult."
"If possible, I'd also like it to store energy in advance—so I don't have to load it with materials on the spot. And it'd be best if it could store seven elements."
Timaeus's facial twitches became more frequent. Then he looked like he wanted to punch someone. Finally, his expression settled into a resigned, bitter smile.
"You could've led with the core requirements, you know? If you only need it portable and capable of producing elemental particles, I recall Master Albedo made something like that. But storing energy, and all seven types? Haven't seen that yet."
Albedo made one? That's a pleasant surprise.
Still, if it couldn't store energy, he'd have to carry around stacks of Mist Flowers, Flaming Flower stamens, and the like. Totally impractical.
"Do you know where Albedo is right now?"
"Master Albedo's usually in the lab of the Knight of Favonius or out sketching somewhere. Can't say for sure where he is at the moment."