"Venti, can I slap you?"
Lydia's words plunged the cathedral into an abrupt silence. Everyone froze mid-motion, their eyes wide with shock.
Even Barbara, who had been applying medicine to Lydia's wound, stopped dead. The cotton swab, soaked in ointment, hovered just above Lydia's shoulder, her face a mask of disbelief.
"What did you say?" Venti suspected his ears were playing tricks on him. He raised an eyebrow and dug a finger into his ear canal. "You want to... give me a slap? Did I hear that right?"
Lumine was the first to react, rushing to Lydia's side and pressing a hand to her forehead.
Hmm... temperature's normal. No fever.
Lumine then circled Lydia twice, tugging at the corner of her coat. "Don't tell me you got swapped out by that imposter back on Dragonspine?"
Lydia shuddered under the intense scrutiny and rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I'm me! That pathetic copycat isn't even a tenth as good as I am, okay?!"
She paused, her cheeks suddenly flushing red. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she nervously twisted the hem of her coat. "It's just... so many people have pinched my cheeks before, but I've never pinched anyone else's. Venti's face looks so round and chubby, so I just wanted to see what it felt like..."
"So you mixed up 'pinching a cheek' with 'slapping a face'?" Venti finally understood. Half-annoyed, half-amused, he reached out and flicked Lydia's forehead. "'Pinching' is a gentle touch, but 'slapping' means hitting someone! They're worlds apart!"
Paimon doubled over in mid-air, bursting with laughter. "Pfft—Lydia, you're hilarious!"
Barbara couldn't help but chuckle, the worry in her eyes finally fading. She gently patted the back of Lydia's hand. "If you wanted to pinch his cheek, you could have just asked nicely. Slapping someone is very rude, you know."
Lydia's ears turned bright red. She scratched her head sheepishly, her voice barely a whisper. "It was just a slip of the tongue... So, Venti, can I pinch your cheek? Just once, really gently!"
Seeing the hopeful look in her eyes, Venti sighed in resignation. He leaned closer, deliberately puffing out his cheeks. "Alright, alright. Just once, and be gentle!"
Lydia quickly reached out, her fingertips lightly touching Venti's baby-fat cheeks. They were as soft as marshmallows.
She couldn't resist giving them a gentle squeeze, her eyes instantly lighting up like stars. "Wow! So soft! Even softer than I imagined!"
-
While Mondstadt Cathedral was filled with laughter and joy, players on Earth were already in an uproar.
Due to the game's 16+ rating, Lydia's shoulder wound was heavily pixelated on screen.
However, many tech-savvy players managed to reconstruct the image of Lydia's wound using the game's text descriptions and the blurred visuals.
The deep brown scar was surrounded by faint bluish-purple bruising. When the gauze was removed, the unhealed skin was still red and swollen, and the muscle tissue deep within the wound was faintly visible.
They posted the "restored" images in live streams and game chats, instantly flooding the bullet comments with a sea of question marks and exclamation points.
"??? What happened to Lydia's wound? What the hell went down on Dragonspine? Why wasn't any of this mentioned in the story?!"
"Am I seeing things? That wound is way too deep! And they called this 'already treated'?"
"Holy Maserati! Mihoyo, you dare lay a hand on my Lydia? I'll blow up your damn company!"
Countless players slammed Alt+F4 on the spot, their fingers trembling. After restarting the game, they immediately rushed toward Dragonspine.
But just as they reached the fork in the road near the Snow-Covered Path, Paimon suddenly popped out, hands on her hips in a blocking pose. A prompt appeared on the screen: "Hey, you little maggot! The area ahead is off-limits. Come back later!"
"Damn it! Why can't we go in?! Devs, get out here and take your beating!"
"Update the game already! Mihoyo, are you deaf?!"
"Hiding key plot points is one thing, but we still know nothing about the story Lydia mentioned! Are you kidding me?!"
"..."
On a well-known international gaming forum, a blogger who called themselves "Lydia's #1 Fan" posted a ten-thousand-word manifesto, complete with an attached video.
The video showed a real-time recording of the blogger playing Genshin Impact. As they watched Lydia wince in pain and nearly cry while applying medicine, their own face flushed red with rage.
"F**k! What is this garbage plot?! Where's that fake Albedo?! I'm going to Dragonspine to kill him!"
In a fit of fury, they slammed their fist into the monitor.
CRACK!
The screen instantly spiderwebbed with cracks, but they continued to roar, their voice breaking: "Update the Dragonspine map! Give Lydia back her Vision! Or I swear to God, I'll burn Mihoyo to the ground!"
-
Inside Favonius Cathedral, Lydia hummed a tuneless little song, feeling the cool medicine on her shoulder gradually warm against her skin.
The soft touch of Venti's cheek lingered on her fingertips, and she couldn't help but smile.
Meanwhile, Venti shot Lumine a subtle glance, then gestured toward a side door, his expression turning grave.
Confused, Lumine and Paimon followed him.
The moment they closed the door behind them, a biting gust of icy wind blasted them from the side.
Before Paimon could even react, she was frozen into a translucent block of ice, falling to the ground with a soft thud.
"Paimon!" Lumine whirled around, about to summon her Dull Blade, but her hands were suddenly pinned down.
Fatui Debt Collectors!
They slammed her to the ground, immobilizing her. A knee pressed cruelly into her back, leaving her without the strength to even lift her head.
A thin layer of ice instantly formed around Venti's feet, the chill creeping up his ankles. Yet his expression remained unchanged as he stared coldly into the heart of the icy gale.
La Signora, the Eighth Harbinger of the Fatui, was slowly approaching.
"Barbatos, we meet again," Rosalyne said, stopping a few feet away. A mocking smile played on her lips. "It's time for the Gnosis... to be returned to its rightful owner."
She was about to unleash more vicious taunts when an invisible pressure suddenly slammed into her.
Around Venti... the wind began to howl!
Seeing Paimon frozen and Lumine restrained, images of Dragonspine flashed through Venti's mind, along with the bleeding wound on Lydia's shoulder.
A rage he had never felt before ignited in his chest. Anemo Power surged uncontrollably from his body, instantly shattering the thin ice at his feet. Shards of ice flew outward, hissing as they hit the ground.
Venti's body slowly floated into the air. His usual playful demeanor vanished from his eyes, replaced by the cold, divine authority unique to an Archon.
That pressure, like an invisible hand, clamped down on Rosalyne's breath, forcing the words she was about to speak back down her throat.
"You..." Rosalyne's face paled.
Gritting her teeth in defiance, she unleashed a furious torrent of Cryo Elemental Power, trying to counter Venti's overwhelming presence. But the ice spikes she managed to form were instantly crushed by the relentless Anemo.
This is bad, Venti thought, glancing at the Traveler.
The next second, as if all his strength had been drained, he collapsed to the ground, his face deathly pale.
Rosalyne stared, completely bewildered.
But she had no time to think. Seizing the opportunity of his weakness, she lunged forward. Just as Venti managed to push himself halfway up, she slammed her hand onto his chest.
A faint golden light shone from Venti's chest as Rosalyne brutally ripped the Gnosis from his body.
"Mission complete." Rosalyne put away the Gnosis and gave a meaningful glance to the two Debt Collectors.
The Debt Collectors immediately understood. One of them chopped the back of Lumine's neck, and her body instantly went limp. The light in her eyes faded as she lost consciousness completely.
They glanced at Venti, who lay collapsed on the ground, barely able to lift his eyelids. Then, without a backward glance, they followed Rosalyne and slipped away.
Inside the Cathedral, Lydia was still humming a song.
Only after Barbara had retied the bow on her gauze bandage did she turn to look where Venti and the others had been.
"Huh? Where did Venti and Lumine go?" Lydia tilted her head in confusion.
Before she could stand up, a scream echoed from the side door.
A nun had discovered the unconscious trio.