Original God, But Chat Group

"Bro, you're joking, right? This is something the Anemo Archon once used. To the Knights of Favonius Church, it's a sacred relic—top-tier maintenance, guaranteed. How could it compare to someone as sloppy as you?"

"Uh... my friend, you're right!"

Venti looked a bit awkward, but he chose to just roll with it.

"But unfortunately, due to its age, the Lyre of the Sky has lost its vitality. It needs new power infused into it to work again."

As he spoke, Venti looked at Li Yue.

Li Yue, however, frowned.

"Then why are you staring at me? Hurry up and infuse it with new energy!"

"But I can't..."

"Then go find someone who can! You know who can infuse new power, so go find them. Do I really need to spell it out?"

"Uh..."

Caught off guard by this turn of events, Venti froze for a moment. He'd originally planned to have Li Yue run the errand to find someone, but Li Yue beat him to the punch, leaving him at a loss for words.

"You're right!"

With no other choice, Venti hugged the Lyre of the Sky and went to find someone.

He knew that certain blond idiot had Dvalin's tears, and that the blond idiot could purify them to give the Lyre of the Sky new life. Too bad—he'd planned to stand right here drinking, have Li Yue do the legwork, and even put the tab on Li Yue's bill. Now he had to go himself.

Venti left with the Lyre of the Sky, but soon returned. When he came back, three people followed behind him.

The Knights of Favonius' Acting Grand Master, Jean, along with the ultimate tool, the blond idiot, and the emergency food, Paimon.

Jean, heading from the Knights' headquarters to Angel's Share, had run into Lumine and Paimon on the way, whom Venti had dragged to the tavern. So the three of them came together.

For the sake of the new team member, Venti told the story of Dvalin again, then had Lumine pull out the Dvalin's tears she'd collected. In front of everyone, he purified them into pure tears and set them into the Lyre of the Sky.

Pleased, the group made plans to head out the next day to deal with Dvalin, agreeing to meet at Mondstadt City's gates in the morning. Then they all dispersed. Li Yue and Nahida took the place of Diluc, who had originally been in the team. As for Diluc, the Darknight Hero, he was still on the roof of the West Wind Cathedral, intently watching every exit, his mind full of questions.

"Why aren't they coming out yet?"

26. Dvalin, Don't Be So Quick to Talk Big

Gazing Star Cliff. The members of the East Wind Dragon Strike Team gathered here.

Compared to last night's team, there was one more today. Diluc had finally joined.

Master Lu had waited on the West Wind Cathedral roof for a full hour. When Li Yue didn't come out, he chose to head back to the tavern to check things out. On the way, he ran into Grand Master Jean, who was returning to the Knights' headquarters. Jean was puzzled why she hadn't run into Diluc at the tavern, since he was the one who'd invited her. After some explanation, Diluc learned about Venti's plan. The next morning, he followed Jean and joined the strike team. Venti welcomed Master Lu's addition with open arms, and then everyone came to Gazing Star Cliff together.

Gazing Star Cliff. A cliff east of Mondstadt City, facing the sea. It was almost the highest point outside the city, and it had the best sea views in the Mondstadt region. The young men and women of Mondstadt loved this place; young couples often risked the trip to come here for a date.

"Wow, this place—the scenery's really beautiful."

The God's Mouth was the first to sigh in admiration after arriving at Gazing Star Cliff.

"It really is beautiful."

Li Yue nodded in agreement.

"A different kind of view. It's refreshing."

Nahida, this little Sumeru sprout, was seeing the ocean for the first time and let out a similar sigh.

"See? I picked a good spot, didn't I?"

Venti puffed out his chest with pride.

"Fits the theme of Destined Reunion, right?"

Destined Reunion was the theme Venti had set for his reunion with Dvalin.

"Alright, time to get started."

Grand Master Jean took a deep breath.

"Yeah, sorry for the trouble."

"All this time, all of Mondstadt City has been carrying too much."

Diluc glanced at Jean.

"And in the end, the one solving the problem is a bard. The Knights... I'll give them credit for effort, I suppose."

Master Lu, who had no love for the Knights, voiced his usual dissatisfaction with them.

"Alright, alright, everyone, stand back. The best bard in the mortal world is about to strum his strings."

Pulling out the Lyre of the Sky, Venti walked to the highest point of Gazing Star Cliff under everyone's gaze, then plucked the strings.

The Lyre of the Sky let out a beautiful sound. The power of Dvalin's tears within the lyre, amplified by Venti's Anemo Elemental Power, carried the sound into the sky, spreading across all of Mondstadt with the wind.

Less than a minute after the Lyre of the Sky's sound rang out, the gentle breeze on Gazing Star Cliff turned fierce. A roar echoed from the sky. Everyone looked up, except Li Yue, who stared straight ahead of the cliff.

"ROAR!!"

With a furious bellow, Dvalin burst up from below Gazing Star Cliff, circled in the air, then slowly descended to land right in front of Venti. His blue-glowing eyes coldly fixed on Venti as he opened his mouth and let out a low growl.

"It's you!"

"At this point... there's nothing left to discuss!"

"Is that so? Could I have been mistaken?"

Venti stood with one hand on his hip, a smile on his face.

"Your eyes look like you're reminiscing about this song."

"They can actually communicate."

Behind him, Grand Master Jean watched Venti and Dvalin in astonishment. She hadn't expected that the communication Venti had mentioned yesterday could truly happen.

"Hmm, up close, Dvalin really is huge."

Nahida was also full of curiosity about the close-up view of Dvalin. Another unknown—how nice.

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: He didn't look that big from afar, but now up close, even though his design is different from the dragons in our world's ACG works, his size is still enormous! Almost as big as a medium-sized passenger jet.

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: Size-wise, he's okay. He looks about as big as a Gillian, but in terms of agility and attack power, he should be much stronger than one.

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: A Gillian—those big black things?

Having watched Bleach, Kasumigaoka knew what a Gillian was.

Meme Lord: He's the Anemo Archon's familiar, after all, wielding the power of wind, and his own strength is formidable. In Godfather's world, a Gillian as a Hollow is a real pain for fodder Soul Reapers, but for upper-seat officers, it's nothing. Despite its huge size, it's slow, has weak defenses, and aside from Cero, it has no other attack methods. If you can deal with the Cero, a Gillian is just a sitting duck.

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: True. As the entry-level Great Hollow, a Gillian is indeed just a target in battle. I'm really looking forward to seeing what this East Wind Dragon in front of Li Yue-kun can do.

Meme Lord: Don't get your hopes up for that. Dvalin, having lost his power as the Anemo Archon's familiar and being corrupted, has barely a tenth of his original strength. There's no need to expect much. Godfather, instead of anticipating Dvalin, you'd be better off looking forward to my performance later.

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: Oh? Is Li Yue-kun going to take him down here?

Grand Master Jean and the others marveled at the exchange between Venti and Dvalin, while Li Yue had already started a livestream early on, letting the group members witness this iconic scene.

Having watched the streams these past days, Aizen understood that Li Yue's visit to Dvalin was purely for entertainment, so he was very curious about what Li Yue meant by "performance."

Meme Lord: Godfather, make sure to keep your eyes wide open later!

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: I'm looking forward to it.

Ending his chat with the group, Li Yue looked ahead. The atmosphere between Dvalin and Venti had calmed down, just as Venti had said—the Lyre of the Sky had indeed restored Dvalin's sanity.

"If I remember correctly, something's about to happen..."

Li Yue glanced at Dvalin's back. Sure enough, just as Venti was about to touch Dvalin, a block of ice suddenly shot out from behind Dvalin, aiming straight for the Lyre of the Sky in Venti's hand.

Slap—

A hand suddenly shot out, catching the ice block just before it hit Venti.

"Whoa!"

Venti acted startled, leaping back dramatically with an exaggerated yelp.

Li Yue's mouth twitched. Was that "whoa" a little too fake?

"Don't be fooled, poor dragon."

A sharp voice rang out as a Cryo Abyss Mage floated out from behind Dvalin.

"He abandoned you long ago, and now he's trying to deceive you again."

"See the people beside him?"

The Abyss Mage pointed at Li Yue next to Venti.

"This is what I've uncovered—he brought these people to kill you. Because you've become an enemy of Mondstadt, you're now his foe!"

"You have no way out now."

Though the attack missed, the interruption broke the Lyre of the Sky's calming effect. Fooled by the Abyss Mage, Dvalin flew into a rage again, opening his massive jaws.

"Ba..."

A tremendous pressure suddenly descended from the sky. The immense spiritual force slammed Dvalin's head down like a heavy blow, cutting off the word before it could finish. His massive body shuddered violently downward.

"Who is it!!"

After the brief tremor from the blow, Dvalin quickly spread his wings to regain balance, roaring upward in fury.

Facing the enraged Dvalin, Li Yue slowly stepped forward. With each step, he rose higher into the sky. After a few steps, he stood at the same height as Dvalin, facing him directly in midair.

Though Li Yue said nothing, Dvalin knew it was this human who had just attacked him. He roared in fury.

"Human! I'll kill you!"

But in response to Dvalin's angry roar, Li Yue merely smiled calmly.

"Dvalin, don't spout arrogant nonsense so easily—it only reveals your weakness!"

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: ...

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: 6!

27. Aizen's quotes never go out of style!

Above Gazing Star Cliff, the Anemo element gathered violently, turning the gentle breeze into a terrifying gale strong enough to snap trees and make it impossible to stand upright. It was as if the legendary storm of the God of Storms from the Archon War era had been recreated in this age.

The gathered, raging wind elements coalesced into a massive green tornado that pierced the sky. The shockwave from it forced everyone on Gazing Star Cliff to crawl to the ground to avoid being swept away. Paimon had to be held down by Lumine to keep from being blown off.

Yet, this raging tornado couldn't even touch the target it sought to strike.

"Humans! Don't think you can escape!"

The master of the raging tornado was none other than Dvalin, the East Wind Dragon. After being provoked by a single line of Aizen's quotes from Li Yue, he launched a frenzied assault on him.

"Escape? Do you see me running away?"

Li Yue pushed up the non-existent glasses on his face.

"I'm just giving you time to show off, because after this, you won't have another chance to display the power you're so proud of."

"Die!"

Enraged by Li Yue's Aizen's quotes, Dvalin gathered the surrounding Anemo element into swirling vortex shells, bombarding Li Yue wildly.

The elemental energy in the atmosphere instantly became chaotic. On Gazing Star Cliff, everyone was struggling under the turmoil.

"What's wrong with Li Yue? Why did he suddenly provoke Dvalin?"

The weakest of them, Paimon, couldn't help complaining. Diluc lay flat on the ground, using his greatsword to steady himself, while looking up at Li Yue, who was constantly dodging the vortex shells midair.

"More than that, I'm curious how he's flying without using any Anemo element."

"I heard from Kaeya that Li Yue seems to be one of the Adepti from Liyue."

"Adepti?"

Diluc looked at Li Yue with doubt. Meanwhile, Li Yue, after sidestepping another vortex attack horizontally, still wore a calm smile, looking utterly unfazed.

"Bastard!"

Realizing his ranged attacks were getting nowhere, Dvalin flapped his wings and lunged at Li Yue, aiming to bite him up close.

"Looks like you've run out of tricks. In that case..."

Watching Dvalin charge in, Li Yue gripped the hilt of his blade. The moment Dvalin was about to sink his teeth in, he vanished from his spot.

When he reappeared, Li Yue was behind Dvalin. Space itself was severed—not the space in front of Li Yue, but the space on Dvalin's back.

A massive wound split open across Dvalin's long spine, and blood sprayed into the sky.