[Nahida to the Traveler: "It's okay. We'll meet outside the city."]
I am Sumeru's Dendro God, the Great Auspicious Wisdom Lord of Mahasattva, after all. This little thing is no big deal.
Traveler: Why, to protect me—
Nahida: Protecting my people is my mission. Alright, go quickly.
As long as you don't stop, you'll definitely meet me outside the city. So, don't stop!!!
Flowers of hope (Padisarahs) seemed to bloom around them, but actually, they didn't.
The Traveler left with tears—well, actually, no tears. The Traveler ran away quite decisively.
In fact, leaving Nahida there wasn't a wrong choice, because the real Nahida wasn't there. What was left behind was actually Katheryne.
Nahida's consciousness did have the possibility of being captured by the Doctor, but if she stayed there, the Traveler couldn't help much in this mental showdown anyway.
In the illustration, the Doctor approached "Katheryne" step by step, getting very close before saying:
["Such a powerful consciousness… You are—the God of Wisdom, aren't you?"]
The illustration's close-up focused on the Doctor. His beak-like mask covered half his face, but his aura and smiling appearance still made people think he was quite handsome.
Although readers were worried for Nahida at this moment and felt the Doctor wasn't a good person, they couldn't help but think: This guy has some "charm."
But it was useless—they still wanted to beat him up badly.
It had to be said, the Doctor's debut this time was indeed "grand." Most importantly, he made everyone feel a sense of powerlessness.
It was like seeing a Ley Line Blossom right in front of you but having only 19 Resin—just that kind of powerlessness.
But everyone didn't want to admit this powerlessness, so they didn't even bother cursing him.
Why not curse him? Because cursing him without being able to do anything about it would only make themselves feel more powerless.
Of course, cursing secretly was still necessary. Even if they couldn't do anything, at least it vented frustration.
As for why curse the Grand Sage? Because everyone could actually make their curses toward the Grand Sage come true—just enjoy it, Grand Sage.
On the other side, Collei's emotions were unstable. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her nails left marks in her palms.
Fortunately, Lucian was right beside her. He was familiar with techniques to suppress demonic residue—Collei would be fine.
Nahida was also using her power to regulate Collei's emotions. With multiple layers of help, Collei gradually calmed down and cast grateful glances at Lucian and Nahida.
"The Doctor should still be in Sumeru, right?" Cyno asked.
Lucian shook his head. The Doctor had actually already left Sumeru. The one staying here now was The Knave.
The Doctor finished his experiment, pulled up his pants, patted his butt, and left.
As for what came after, that would be handed over to The Knave to coordinate with Lucian.
According to the contract, Lucian would give them the Gnoses of the "Electro Archon" and "Hydro Archon," but back then, Lucian hadn't mentioned the Dendro God.
Why? Because getting the Dendro God's Gnosis required different conditions—this was a separate price.
The Doctor's segments were going to be destroyed anyway—letting me destroy one or two isn't excessive, right?
Indeed not excessive. Let alone whether the Fatui cared—the Doctor himself didn't care much.
However, Lucian wasn't doing it to vent anger on the Doctor, but because the upcoming animated short needed him for voice acting.
Back to the story—the Doctor didn't care much about his own segments, but others cared a lot about him.
The Traveler and Paimon ran outside the city before stopping to analyze the current situation, especially the Doctor's sudden intervention.
The Doctor's appearance obviously disrupted everyone's original plan. Originally, they were dealing with the Akademiya—now they had to add the Fatui.
Readers knew the Fatui's goal was nothing more than the "Gnosis." Then what about the Akademiya's goal? What agreement had the two sides reached to collude like this?
Could this agreement even make the Akademiya give up the Gnosis? What benefits did they get?
Sumeru people were extremely angry. These two were like turtles looking at mung beans and finding each other pleasing, but in the end, the ones suffering were ordinary Sumeru people like them.
Inazuma people couldn't help but sigh—turns out there are places worse off than us.
Back when Inazuma people compared themselves to Mondstadt and Liyue people, they felt they were the most miserable—truly in deep water and hot fire.
But looking at Sumeru now, they suddenly felt Inazuma was still livable. At least, there wouldn't be situations where you fall asleep and never wake up again.
Even Natlan people felt they lived much better than Sumeru people.
Although constantly facing Abyss pressure was stressful, Natlan internally didn't have so many messy things to worry about.
Because of the constant external enemies, Natlan was quite united internally.
Also because they faced war anytime and anywhere, Natlan people tried their best to enjoy life. In terms of living alone, it was actually pretty good.
Back to the story—although Nahida said to wait for her outside the city, the Traveler couldn't just wait. The Traveler planned to investigate further.
How to investigate? Naturally, by asking the amazing Tighnari.
On the way to Gandharva Ville, the Traveler encountered an ambush—it was desert mercenaries.
Regarding the appearance of desert mercenaries, real-life desert people frowned.
Although they didn't like the Akademiya or rainforest people, having followed the story all this way, they didn't dislike the Traveler—and even had a changed view of the Dendro God.
Comparing the Akademiya's various actions with Nahida's, they were actually on Nahida's side.
After all, the reason they resented the Dendro God was that desert people always thought the Akademiya's will was the Dendro God's will. Now they knew it wasn't.
[Tashfin: "Golden-haired Traveler, and the floating little elf—looks like no mistake. Look around; you've already fallen into our ambush."]
Yes, surrounded—this group of mercenaries was surrounded by the Traveler alone.
Traveler: Go, Paimon—you take them out!
I have the great general Paimon, who can slay mercenaries!
[Tashfin said: "We are the elite mercenary group that charges the highest tier commissions in Sumeru. This time, it's to complete a commission from a gentleman called 'the Exile.'"]
"Elite Mercenary Group"—yet they exposed their employer's identity right from the start.
Although it was a codename, the problem was that who this codename referred to was way too obvious! Wasn't this sent by the Doctor?
It always felt like something was off about this matter. Exposing the employer's identity so easily—either the mercenary group was unprofessional, or it was deliberate by that arrogant guy, the Doctor.
Most people leaned toward the latter, because this was totally something the Doctor would do.
Everyone's impression of the Doctor had a tag: "arrogant."
Actually, what made everyone puzzled was another thing: the Doctor was clearly a Fatui Executive—why send mercenaries instead of Fatui?