On this day, Teyvat was, as usual, nothing like the peaceful, orderly world Celestia had hoped for.
Not long ago, after Ganyu transcended her tribulation and broke through, the will of the world had practically rushed over wagging its tail to sign a contract with her.
From that moment on, even Celestia—the so-called Heavenly Principles—had technically become Ganyu's subordinate.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't a bad thing. At least she'd found herself a backer with truly terrifying background.
As a bonus, it had even made the Cryo Archon drop a few of her more… unrealistic ideas.
The world will and Ganyu empowered one another, and as the world will's subordinate, Celestia could grow stronger along the way.
This was what you called lying flat and leveling up.
For the past few days, Celestia had been quite content.
Unfortunately, that lazy happiness didn't last long.
Today, a single blast from the Dark Outer Sea sent her spiraling again.
If it had been the usual sort of explosion, it wouldn't have mattered. Even if someone flipped the sky upside down, Teyvat would remain untouched.
But this time… this was one of Alice's super grenades.
And that glaring rift that followed—Celestia saw it crystal clear.
Why had she once burned human order and history so desperately?
To build that barrier, to sever Teyvat from the Tree-and-Sea system.
A rootless world like that couldn't support itself forever. Sooner or later, it would collapse.
But if she didn't sever it, if they remained fully connected to the Tree and the Sea…
Teyvat would have died for sure.
It had always been a desperate gamble.
Now, a chunk of the barrier sustaining Teyvat had been blown apart. It had recovered quickly, yes—
But a barrier that had once been perfect was starting to lose its effectiveness.
When it finally disappeared altogether, Teyvat would fully connect to the Quantum Sea.
For all she knew, that single crack had already drawn plenty of attention to this little world.
In a universe built on technology, where "Tree and Sea" ruled, Teyvat—one of the only mystical civilizations—was a shining delicacy.
One careless move, and countless eyes would lock onto it.
And then there was the Imaginary Tree, heavy with powerhouses whose mental state could generously be called "unstable."
Like a certain star god who'd lost a great deal of face, for instance.
In the past, Celestia would have fallen apart on the spot, rolled over, and waited for death.
Now… she just had a stomach full of complaints.
The so-called powerhouses of the Tree-and-Sea universe?
They didn't matter nearly as much.
Not when Teyvat currently housed a late Return-to-Void cultivator.
If anyone foolish enough actually came knocking, Celestia could march right up and legitimately request assistance.
For the moment, though, all it meant was this: instead of peacefully lying down and growing stronger, she had to work overtime patching the barrier.
The world will certainly wasn't going to bother. To it, the barrier was useless—perhaps even irritating, given that it hindered the world's evolution.
As for "connecting to the Tree-and-Sea system will bring humanity to the brink of extinction"…
The world didn't care.
So long as the planet survived, what did humans matter? If they were wiped out, the world could grow a new batch.
In a sense, the world will was like Gaia from that other universe, while Celestia's nature resembled Alaya's.
Except she didn't have Alaya's authority.
Celestia was bound by the world will. Outside of a few limited permissions where she could choose how to act,
she was essentially the world will's earthly enforcer.
Now that something had gone wrong, the world will wouldn't lift a finger. It might even be quietly delighted.
And with Alice being a Mount Shu elder, the world will could see her screwup and still shrug.
So the only one who could be sent to do the grunt work—
Was Celestia.
She was the only one both willing and able.
Muttering curses, she sped up again.
Yes, she had Mount Shu as a backer now.
But she still hoped the people of Teyvat would someday stand tall and face these threats on their own.
That day was still far off…
While Celestia was hard at work, none of it had anything to do with Alice anymore.
She'd already offered a very sincere apology in her heart. If they didn't accept it, well, what could she do?
Those of Mount Shu would be judged only by Mount Shu.
That was their arrogance.
Right now, Alice was riding her sword through the air at full speed, carrying an unconscious woman toward Mount Shu.
The woman had fallen in right after the grenade blasted a hole in the barrier.
From the look of her, she'd been drifting outside any world, unconscious and helpless.
By that logic, Alice had technically saved her life.
Not just anyone could drift in the Quantum Sea and survive.
At first, Alice had suspected some opportunist sneaking into Teyvat while she'd messed up.
But the moment she got close enough to see clearly, she dismissed that idea.
This woman was a mess.
Her body was riddled with traces of erosion from some bizarre energy. Her life-force was almost gone.
To put it bluntly, she was a corpse that still happened to be breathing.
If this was someone's self-inflicted injury in a gambit, Alice would have to admit they were terrifyingly committed.
But after a closer look, she didn't sense any power inside the woman at all. Just a slightly strengthened physique.
Her armor was somewhat impressive, and the gem set in her chestplate was extremely odd—
its energy was comparable to, or perhaps even slightly stronger than, a typical demon god's.
But compared to cultivators, it wasn't worth mentioning.
There were too many strange details. Even Alice was puzzled.
And now, with one explosion, the demon gods of the Dark Outer Sea were depressed and terrified into silence.
She decided to cut the patrol short and head back to Mount Shu early.
Channeling her true essence to guard the woman's heart meridian, Alice couldn't help another sigh.
Seventeen or eighteen of this woman's heart channels were already broken.
An injury like that meant sudden death in minutes.
And this wasn't damage done by Alice's grenade—these were pre-existing injuries.
Her life-force was drained; her heart veins mostly severed; her organs ravaged and eroded…
Alice couldn't even imagine how one could suffer those kinds of wounds and not die immediately.
Still, her instincts didn't label this woman as dangerous.
In a blink, Alice passed over Inazuma. She glanced down to see Lumine looking around in confusion, clearly still wondering what had caused the small quake just now.
That made Alice a little guilty.
But she didn't stop—
she flashed over Liyue Harbor and arrived above Jueyun Karst.
She flung open Mount Shu's gates and darted inside with the unconscious woman.
Without slowing, she sped straight toward Great Bamboo Peak.
"Baizhu! Lisa! Get out here! We have a casualty!"
Her shout sent the entire sect into chaos.
Lisa had just been preparing to enter seclusion, ready to use Orobashi and Osial's souls to try to reach the peak of Refining Essence into Qi before the Nine Nether expedition.
Alice's yell nearly made her Qi run wild and burn herself to ashes with hellfire.
She put away the two souls, took a deep breath, and forced down the urge to scream.
"She's an elder… she's an elder… can't hit her. I can't beat her anyway."
What little respect Lisa had left for Alice was hanging by a thread.
Still, the call had everyone curious—
especially since she'd said someone was gravely injured.
They were confident that, aside from Zhongli and Jiang Yan, no one in Teyvat could really hurt Alice.
But they still worried.
Before long, nearly everyone had rushed to Great Bamboo Peak.
Klee had wanted to come too, but Ganyu had insisted she stay in Jiang Yan's cave to cultivate.
Klee obeyed. After all, Ganyu was her Master's wife.
"Elder Alice, you're back so soon—what happened?"
Lishu hurried over first from the spirit fields, a line of cranes behind him—
And stopped mid-sentence as he saw the woman floating beside Alice, held aloft by true essence.
Even without skill in medicine, he could tell she was a hair's breadth from death.
"What's going on? Who is she? How did she get hurt this badly?"
"Elder Alice."
Ningguang and the others arrived one after another.
After greeting Alice and confirming she was unharmed, their gazes all shifted to the unconscious woman.
The sight left every one of them stunned.
Changsheng poked his head out over Qiqi's shoulder, laying his tail along the woman's wrist.
A moment later, he sucked in a cold breath.
"Utterly bizarre."
"Seventeen, eighteen tenths of her heart meridians are severed. Her organs have completely lost function. Her life-force is down to less than ten minutes…"
"Her meridians are shredded, her bones riddled with tiny fractures. Worst of all, her spiritual sea is drained dry, on the verge of collapsing."
"Elder Alice, where did you find this still-breathing corpse?"
Alice ignored the phrasing and frowned.
"So it's really that bad?"
"Put it this way," Changsheng sighed.
"If Qiqi were ever in this state, I'd fully support the Geo Lord cremating her on the spot…"
Qiqi pouted, glaring at him.
"Changsheng speaks the truth," Baizhu said calmly, studying the woman.
"To become a jiangshi, one needs a final trace of will, and a body that's at least relatively intact."
"But her consciousness is collapsing, and her body is on the brink. Even undeath would be a luxury. With my former medical skills, there'd be no possibility of saving her."
Hu Tao blinked, disappointed.
"So we're preparing a coffin, then? Elder Alice, are you paying?"
She pulled out a notebook, ready to pitch the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's newest "packages."
Lisa, however, stepped in with a smile.
"No need to be so gloomy. We were ordinary people before. Now we're cultivators. What we couldn't do before, we might manage now."
"Wouldn't you say so, Brother Baizhu?"
Baizhu nodded, though he looked troubled.
"She can be saved… but the cost is steep. We'd need a Third-Turn Rebirth Pill. A single one of those can restore even a peak Refining Essence cultivator from the brink."
"Using it on her… is excessive, to say the least. Still, Elder Alice, this is the only method I can think of."
"A Third-Turn Rebirth Pill is worth three thousand contribution points in the Hall of Merits. If she's to be saved, it must be done quickly."
"Wait any longer, and she'll be beyond saving."
Three thousand contribution points for a mortal.
And with the Nine Nether expedition just around the corner.
Baizhu knew he couldn't do it.
Alice simply waved her hand, grinning.
"A Third-Turn Rebirth Pill? Easy. I've got plenty on me."
She pulled one out and popped it into the woman's mouth.
The Cryo Archon exhaled softly.
"Elder Alice… is she really worth it?"
"Why wouldn't she be? There's an old Buddhist saying: 'Saving one life is better than building a seven-tiered pagoda.'"
Alice's face was the picture of sincerity.
If Diluc hadn't heard her call all monks "bald donkeys" before, he might've believed her.
"In any case, my instincts say she's worth saving—must be saved. She's from beyond this world."
Alice pursed her lips, fell silent for a beat, then smiled.
"Of course, the most important reason is… those Rebirth Pills came from Klee. That little one eats them like candy."
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