Original God, But a Chat Group

Li Yue set Nahida down from his shoulder and placed one hand on her head.

"But just like I said, with your dad here, you don't need to be afraid. No matter how powerful or terrifying that evil organization is, they won't be able to snatch you away from me. I can open that Portal whenever I want. Before your dad can defeat the Seven Archons, they'll never be able to catch us. And after your dad can defeat the Seven Archons, they'll never be able to outrun us!"

Although she was being comforted, Nahida's expression was exceedingly subtle.

This young man named Li Yue was absolutely determined to become her father.

"Godfather, this is your granddaughter!"

"Mr. Li Yue, I need to remind you that child trafficking is against the law. Liyue has a complete criminal code."

"I didn't traffic a child. This is my daughter. Come on, Nahida, introduce yourself to the innkeeper."

"Hello, I'm Nahida."

The Wangshu Inn Owner looked at Li Yue speechlessly.

"Do you think I'm an idiot? Or do you think I've never hosted Sumeru guests before? That name obviously isn't a Liyue name, and she doesn't look anything like you. How do you have the nerve to say she's your daughter?"

"Why can't she be my daughter? Her mother gave her that name. As for why she doesn't look like me, that's because she looks like her mother too. Unfortunately, her mother left early. Before Nahida was even born, her mother had already left. So Nahida often asks me what her mother looked like, and I tell her that she looks exactly like her mother did when she was little."

The innkeeper still looked utterly speechless. Did he even hear what he was saying? Why not say his grandfather had died before his father was born?

"Is that so?"

Nahida looked at Li Yue curiously, making his explanation seem even more pale and powerless.

"Next time you want to lie, at least make your lie more convincing. Otherwise, getting exposed will only make you embarrassed."

"Fine. Next time, I'll get our stories straight before I say anything."

You really were straightforward, huh? You were just dropping the act entirely?

The innkeeper's expression stiffened as well. After sighing helplessly, she spoke again.

"Tell me. Where exactly did this child come from?"

"I found her last night. She's an orphan, and I thought she was pitiful, so I adopted her. She's my daughter now."

Nahida was extremely helpless about Li Yue's forceful insistence on claiming her as his daughter. She had tried to explain, but every time she had yet to get a word out, Li Yue would forcefully interrupt her. Then came all the "I understand you," "I get you," "Don't be afraid, child," followed by talk of family bonds and emotional connections. It left Nahida's little head utterly bewildered. After enduring Li Yue's devastation all night, Nahida had ultimately chosen to temporarily acknowledge this bargain-bin father of hers.

Li Yue was absolutely delighted to receive Nahida's acknowledgment. If Nahida was his daughter, then by rounding up, didn't that mean Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was his wife? Mm, not bad, not bad!

Then, the next morning, he was stopped by the innkeeper as he headed out. She said that only Li Yue had been registered yesterday, yet now there was an extra child, and she had never seen this child before. So she suspected Li Yue had abducted someone else's child.

Yet after Li Yue's round of explanations, the innkeeper became even more convinced that he had abducted someone else's child. Left with no choice, Li Yue could only tell the truth.

"You found her last night? Why didn't I see you go out?"

"Because I was too fast for you to see, like this."

Right in front of the innkeeper, Li Yue used Flash Step and appeared outside the main entrance, then used Flash Step again to return to the inn.

"See?"

"So that's it. You're a Vision holder."

The innkeeper immediately took Li Yue for a Vision holder. As for where he had hidden his Vision, she had no idea.

Mm, write that down. She would report it to Lady Ningguang later.

"Sure, if you say so."

Li Yue could not be bothered to explain.

"Alright, the bill's settled. I'll take my daughter and go now."

With the misunderstanding resolved, Li Yue brought Nahida out of the inn again and onto the terrace outside, where they looked down upon the scenery of Liyue below.

"How does freedom taste?"

"Mm, it feels wonderful to walk outside on my own two feet."

Nahida stood on tiptoe and leaned against the railing, looking down at Liyue's scenery. It was completely different from the Sumeru sights she usually saw through Katheryne.

"The nation of the God of Geo is truly beautiful."

"Mm, Liyue's scenery is pretty good. I heard the other nations are quite nice too, but I've never been to any of them. Yesterday's Portal to Sumeru was an accident, but there won't be any accidents next."

"Mm?"

Nahida raised her head to look at Li Yue. He reached out, placed a hand on her head, and gently rubbed her soft hair.

"Next, I'm going to Mondstadt. You haven't been to Liyue before, so you definitely haven't been to Mondstadt either. Children your age should love seeing new and interesting things most. You can come with me to Mondstadt and have a look."

"Mondstadt, the nation of the God of Wind?"

"That's right. Mondstadt and Liyue are both nations ruled by two of the Seven Archons' oldest gods. We can come back later and let you slowly experience the nation of the God of Geo. Today, we'll go to the nation of the God of Wind first!"

"Mm, I'm looking forward to it."

Nahida was in quite a good mood. Though Li Yue had "hypnotized" her all night yesterday and she had helplessly agreed to become his daughter, she could tell that he genuinely wanted to help her. Moreover, Li Yue did not know her true identity, so she was not fundamentally opposed to his kindness.

Now that Li Yue could even take her to the nation of the God of Wind, she was even happier. She could finally see how Barbatos, the God of Wind from the legendary nation of freedom, governed his country. As an unqualified god who had been trapped in the Sanctimonious Palace, she had never had many opportunities or anyone to learn from. Now that she could meet Barbatos, that could not have been better. As a senior, one of the oldest gods, Barbatos should have plenty worth learning from for an unqualified god like her.

"Let's go. Today happens to be a good day to practice another one of my abilities."

Li Yue picked Nahida up and directly let her sit on his shoulders.

Mm, as expected of Nahida. She was fragrant and soft, with a faint scent on her body. Especially those fair little feet swaying in front of his chest. He had heard that licking them would make Padisarahs grow on one's tongue. He wondered if that was true.

"Hold on tight!"

After reminding Nahida, Li Yue jumped directly onto the railing. Then, under the terrified gazes of the others on the terrace, he leaped forward!

"Someone's jumping—wait, why is he running through the sky?!"

The crowd had thought Li Yue was taking Nahida with him to jump to their deaths, but to their surprise, after leaping out, he did not fall. Instead, he began running through the high air as if he were on flat ground!

"Am I hallucinating?"

"Probably. I think I'm hallucinating too."

"Maybe we're not awake yet. Let's go back and sleep a little longer."

"Yeah, yeah."

The guests all rubbed their eyes and returned to the inn to sleep a little longer, lest they begin doubting their lives. Only the innkeeper, after staring in shock for a moment, immediately pulled out her Notebook. After the information she had already recorded about Li Yue possessing a Vision, she added another note: Can run in the sky!

As Li Yue ran through the air, what he was doing was practicing another basic Bleach skill, Spirit Path Creation.

By gathering spirit particles beneath one's feet and forming platforms to step on, one could walk through the sky. As long as one mastered this technique and had sufficient Reiatsu, Bleach could perform double jumps, triple jumps, quadruple jumps, quintuple jumps, and even infinite jumps in the sky!

As a fellow wielder of Enma's Blade, Li Yue had accomplished what that man could never accomplish!

"You can walk in the sky, and without Elemental Power too. How did you do that, Li Yue?"

Nahida, riding on Li Yue's shoulders, was deeply puzzled by this. It was knowledge unknown to her, and as the God of Wisdom, she was filled with curiosity.

"I don't know either. I just suddenly knew how."

Li Yue gave a very perfunctory explanation as he casually diverted some of his attention to speak in the Chat Group.

Meme Lord: Good morning, everyone. It's another sunny day!

Not long after, someone responded in the group.

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: Good morning, Li Yue-kun.

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: Good morning. Li Yue-kun, you really are energetic, sending messages so early in the morning.

Kasumigaoka had not even gotten up yet and was still lying in bed.

Meme Lord: I'm heading straight to Mondstadt today, so I set off early.

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: By the way, you said we'd meet in the group last night, but we didn't see any messages from you all night. So what were you doing last night? Did you run into a woman going door to door to sell something while staying at the inn?

Li Yue's mouth twitched. That senior really dared to talk.

Meme Lord: I was indeed busy last night. I didn't meet any women selling things door to door, but I did pick up a god.

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: ?

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: ?

Aizen was somewhat confused by Li Yue's message. Then he noticed Li Yue had started a live stream. Upon entering the Live Stream Room, he saw Li Yue advancing through the air by creating spirit paths. That was nothing unusual, but there was now a very cute-looking little girl on Li Yue's shoulders.

Meme Lord: Godfather, let me introduce you. This is the daughter I acknowledged just last night, your granddaughter. She's Nahida, the Dendro Archon of Sumeru, the Nation of Grass, and bears the title Lesser Kusanali!

"She's only a 500-year-old child!"

Meme Lord: The Dendro Archon is a very special god among the Seven Archons. She isn't a god skilled in combat. Her position as the Dendro Archon was practically predetermined from above, because the Dendro Archon is the incarnation of the World Tree.

Meme Lord: The world I'm in is very strange. Though it is an independent world, the Ley Lines govern everything. Whether someone has passed on or is still alive, all the world's information is recorded within the Ley Lines. At the end of the Ley Lines lies the core of this world, the World Tree.

Meme Lord: Put simply, this world's information has been digitized, and the operation and storage of that data are handled by the World Tree. The World Tree is a giant server, while the Dendro Archon is the administrator of that server, responsible for managing its operation. Therefore, the Dendro Archon's identity is extremely important. She governs the information of the entire world, and because she governs all the world's information, she is also known as the God of Wisdom.

Meme Lord: The previous God of Wisdom was Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, an incarnation of the World Tree. But a Demon God went into the Abyss and obtained knowledge from beyond the world, polluting the World Tree and causing many problems in this world. It was like a virus appearing in a server and causing bugs in the system's operation. Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, the administrator, was also infected by the virus. In order to eliminate it, she chose to sacrifice herself and perish alongside the virus.

Meme Lord: Before sacrificing herself, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata used the purest branch of the World Tree—the part that had not yet been infected by the virus—to create the current Lesser Kusanali, intending for her to become her successor and continue managing the World Tree. But because she was made from the purest branch, Lesser Kusanali did not possess enough knowledge. After her birth, the followers of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata looked down on her and even considered her useless, so they imprisoned her.

Meme Lord: She was imprisoned for 500 years. While imprisoning Lesser Kusanali, those followers also wanted to use the knowledge left behind by Greater Lord Rukkhadevata to create a new God of Wisdom to lead them, replacing Lesser Kusanali. To that end, they continually diminished Lesser Kusanali's influence in Sumeru. By now, Lesser Kusanali had completely lost her influence. Some Sumeru people did not even know she existed. That was Lesser Kusanali's current situation.

High in the sky, Li Yue carried Nahida onward, continuously creating spirit paths. As he traveled, he also explained Nahida's background to Aizen and Kasumigaoka in the Chat Group. Yet after hearing the explanation, the two focused on entirely different things.

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: So this little girl is already 500 years old?

Meme Lord: Yeah, she's only a 500-year-old child.

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: ...

See? Kasumigaoka's focus was on the age, while Aizen's focus was different.

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: The God of Wisdom, the World Tree that holds the information of the entire world... Li Yue-kun's world is becoming more and more intriguing to me.

Meme Lord: Did Godfather think of something?

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: Since all the world's information is contained in the World Tree, doesn't that mean whoever controls the World Tree controls the entire world?

Meme Lord: As expected of Godfather. Just as you thought, since all information is stored in the World Tree, controlling it means controlling this world in a sense. For example, there was an idiot who was deceived into believing his friend had been killed by his mother. He tried every possible way to take revenge on her and even joined an evil organization for that purpose. But it turned out that evil organization had killed his friend. In a fit of rage, he chose to use the World Tree to delete his past. After his past was deleted, he became a blank slate, and the portions of other people's memories related to him also became blank. The World Tree even created perfectly reasonable replacement memories for those whose memories had been cut away. Isn't that interesting?

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: This story is awfully complete. It sounds like a real case.

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: It probably is a real case.

Meme Lord: Mm, that idiot really exists.

That idiot was still serving as the Sixth Seat among the Fatui.

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: Wait, even idiots can access something as important as the World Tree? Shouldn't something like that be incredibly, incredibly important?

Meme Lord: Yeah, that incredibly, incredibly important thing was easily accessed by that idiot. Because even prisoners have the right to an education.jpg

As Li Yue spoke, he raised his head and glanced at Nahida, who was looking around with wide eyes. When he had played the game, Sumeru's storyline had truly disgusted him. Nahida's actions had been so stupid they defied belief. But it was fine. There was still time to save her. Before Nahida lost her mind, Li Yue could start training her from scratch!

"Mm?"

Perhaps sensing Li Yue's gaze, Nahida lowered her head and stared at him curiously with her large eyes.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. I was just wondering whether you felt uncomfortable. We're in the sky, and we're moving so fast. You might get cold after a while."

"Not at all. The wind here doesn't feel cold. It's actually quite cool."

Nahida answered happily. Freely running through the skies over a foreign land felt incredibly novel, and the scenery was beautiful as well. She was in an especially good mood.

"That's good."

Li Yue nodded and continued looking ahead as he traveled.

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: It seems that letting that idiot access the World Tree should have been done by this Lesser Kusanali, right?

Watching the live stream, Aizen easily guessed why Li Yue had just looked up at Nahida.

Meme Lord: Godfather guessed right.

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: Judging by the result, this child is truly derelict in her duties as a god.

Aizen felt utterly speechless. This was too absurd. As the administrator of the World Tree, she had directly let others access something important enough to affect the entire world. Calling her derelict in her duties was no longer sufficient.

Meme Lord: So last night, I tried using my Zanpakuto to open a Portal and see where I'd randomly end up. I ended up in the room where she was imprisoned, and I immediately thought of keeping her by my side and properly training her, so she won't make such idiotic decisions again in the future!

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: Indeed. Such a factor must be kept under one's control.

In Aizen's view, Li Yue wanted to control Nahida in order to control the World Tree. If the World Tree was truly as powerful as Li Yue claimed, then it had to be kept in his own hands. Once Li Yue controlled the World Tree, he would be invincible in his own world.

Meme Lord: That's right. Once she's properly trained, it'll be time for her to play her role.