Original God, But Chat Group

Green Pool is one of Liyue's classic scenic spots. While it doesn't have as many colors as the real-world Five-Colored Pond, its overall style is still a rare sight.

Unfortunately, it hasn't been developed into a tourist attraction. On the Teyvat continent, monsters can appear anywhere. Even in Liyue, where some High-Jumping Adeptus tirelessly clears the land day and night, monsters still show up, which hampers the tourism economy. Otherwise, with all the varied terrain in Liyue, developing tourism would be like raking in money hand over fist.

But for now, the monsters that once threatened travelers and tourists are, in Li Yue's eyes, just samples waiting to be collected.

"This is a Water Slime. It looks like a water ball, made entirely of water elements. Since it's an elemental creature, it has some immunity to corresponding elemental attacks."

Grabbing a small Water Slime, Li Yue recalls Keqing's ultimate slicing out a string of "immune" prompts, and explains seriously to Aizen and Kasumigaoka, who are watching the livestream in the group.

"For ordinary people, these small slimes aren't much of a threat. But large slimes are different. An ordinary person who can't fight might get hurt or even die."

Small slimes can at most bump into you, but large slimes are another story. Each large slime has its own special skill, and almost all of them share a highly lethal attack method—justice from above!

"Godfather, let me try sending this to you."

Li Yue grabs the Water Slime and tries to send it as a red packet, but it fails.

"Well, it's being flagged as a living thing. Can't send it."

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: No problem. If a live one won't work, just send me the corpse.

"Slimes won't work either. Once a slime dies, it reverts to pure elemental energy and dissipates, leaving at most some slime condensate. Let me catch some other monsters for you—those leave corpses."

Li Yue tosses the Water Slime aside and starts looking for other monsters. He remembers that not far from Green Pool, there should be a field boss—the Blazing Arbor! Also known as the super Flame Whopper!

Of course, that thing isn't the main point. The point is that nearby, there are Flame Whoppers and Hilichurls, both of which leave corpses.

Li Yue uses Flash Step to travel quickly and soon finds the Blazing Arbor's location. At the entrance to the cave leading to it, two Whoppers are active, and not far away, there's a Hilichurl camp.

"Came right to me without any effort."

He releases his Reiatsu, directly suppressing the two Whoppers so they can't scurry around, then Flash Steps in close and slashes at their heads. The strike splits their heads open from the middle, exposing the core inside, and they topple backward. Without pausing, Li Yue Flash Steps into the Hilichurl camp and starts cutting them down. Since there are no Hillichurl Brutes, only ordinary Hilichurls, he easily kills them all with one slash each.

Once the Whoppers and Hilichurls are corpses, he can stuff them into a red packet and send them off.

"Godfather, I've sent everything over in a red packet."

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: Ah, I've received them. The integrity is quite good—very nice samples.

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: Your conversation really reeks of mad scientists.

Seeing Kasumigaoka's comment, Li Yue grins slyly.

"Hehehe, you finally noticed? We are mad scientists!"

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: Given what Aizen plans to do, he certainly lives up to that title. So, Li Yue-kun, what about you? What are you going to do?

"Since we're mad scientists, of course we're going to destroy the world! We'll be the world's destroyers!"

Hair Gel Man in the Sky: Li Yue-kun, I have no intention of destroying the world. I'm merely pursuing higher realms and the unknown. If you're the same, please call us seekers of truth.

"Right, right, seekers of truth. Godfather sure knows how to talk. No wonder he's Soul Society's top philosopher."

When it comes to smooth talk, you can count on Aizen. His grand speeches are endless.

"Alright, I've seen the scenery and caught some monsters. Godfather, you go ahead and study them. I'll keep moving and see if I can reach Wangshu Inn by tonight."

Setting out again from Green Pool, Li Yue returns to the main road and arrives at the ruins of Guoli Plains. There, he introduces Kasumigaoka and Aizen to Teyvat's super organization, the Treasure Hoarders, then continues along the main road. Every so often, he uses Flash Step to travel, and when his ankles get sore, he switches to a leisurely walk. The scenery along the way is fantastic—highly scenic.

Around 3:30 in the afternoon, Li Yue finally reaches Wangshu Inn.

"This is Wangshu Inn, one of Liyue's landmark buildings. A super treehouse inn built atop a giant ancient tree."

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: I was already amazed seeing it from afar. Now that I'm looking up at it up close, it's even more stunning. How did this tree get so big, and how does it support such a huge structure? How many years has it been growing?

Aizen has already gone off to focus on his research, leaving only Kasumigaoka in the livestream. For her, it's a great way to pass the time during daytime classes.

"I don't know the exact number, but given its size and scale, it's probably over a thousand years old. Otherwise, it wouldn't have grown this big."

Li Yue looks up at the massive tree, commenting as he does.

"By the way, an adeptus lives on the top floor of this inn. Back when I was an ordinary person, he saved me."

That High-Jumping Adeptus—wonder if he's on the top floor right now.

"From here, heading northeast is Stone Gate. Past Stone Gate, you're in Mondstadt territory. But by the time I reach Stone Gate, it'll probably be evening, and there's no place to sleep there. So I'll stop at the inn for today and set out again tomorrow morning, aiming to leave early and head straight to Mondstadt."

"Alright, senpai, that's it for today's livestream. I'm going to check in. See you tonight!"

Fat Woman in Black Stockings: See you tonight.

Li Yue ends the livestream, takes the inn's water elevator up to the higher floors, and finds the owner—who calls herself the boss lady—to check in.

Once he enters his room and closes the door, he uses his Reiatsu to sense his surroundings and realizes the High-Jumping Adeptus isn't on the top floor right now, because he doesn't detect the other's Reiatsu.

After becoming a Soul Reaper, Li Yue naturally gained the Reiatsu sensing ability. Back in Liyue Harbor, he studied it: people with Visions have stronger souls than ordinary people, so they can see his Zanpakuto, and their Reiatsu is much stronger. As for the strength of their Reiatsu, there are differences. The highest he's sensed so far is at Captain level—the same as his own Kensei Muguruma level—while the lowest is at seated officer level. As for Zhongli, who is a god, his Reiatsu is even stronger, surpassing Captain level. Li Yue doesn't know what level the Captain-Commander or Aizen are, but Zhongli is definitely a monster.

Since he doesn't sense any strong Reiatsu here, it means Xiao isn't around.

"Probably out clearing the land."

Li Yue mutters as he draws his Zanpakuto.

"Since I've got some downtime, let's practice with the Zanpakuto."

Along the way, Li Yue practiced Flash Step and swordsmanship. Flash Step improved quickly from constant use, but his swordsmanship is still terrible—basically brute force. He didn't use Kidō because its destructive power is too high, and he needed to preserve monster corpses for Aizen. As for his Zanpakuto, he hasn't released it even once.

Taking this break, Li Yue decides to try practicing his Zanpakuto's release—specifically, cutting open a Portal.

Anyway, I was going to rest soon anyway, and it was safe inside Wangshu Inn—no need to worry about Reiatsu depletion affecting combat ability later. After a night's rest, I'd be fully recovered. Might as well take this chance to see where the Portal I cut open would lead.

"Sever the world, Enma's Blade!"

A blue light flared along the blade's edge. Li Yue gripped the hilt with his right hand and carved a cross into the air before him. The air tore open along the blue cross, and Li Yue felt his Reiatsu draining at a rapid pace, only stopping after a third of it was consumed.

The blue cross slowly expanded, stabilizing into a Portal. The scene on the other side became clearly visible.

At that sight, Li Yue's face lit up with surprise. Jackpot!

18. Nahida, Be My Daughter!

Inside the Sanctimonious Palace in Sumeru City, Nahida had been imprisoned alone within an emerald-green sealing sphere for five hundred years. Today, as usual, unable to move freely, she used the Akasha Terminal to control the Adventurers' Association puppet Katheryne, secretly observing the daily lives of Sumeru City's residents and checking if any children needed help.

But a surge of energy forced her to withdraw from Katheryne's body.

Opening her eyes, Nahida saw a cross-shaped rift suddenly appear in the air outside the sealing sphere.

"What's this?"

Never having seen such a sight, Nahida couldn't help tilting her big head, curiosity brimming.

The cross-shaped rift kept expanding, eventually forming a stable Portal wide enough for two people to walk through side by side. Then a young man in a floral shirt, shorts, and flip-flops jumped over from the other side.

"Whoa! This place is huge!"

The jumper was naturally Li Yue. Trying a random Portal slash, he'd cut straight through to the Sanctimonious Palace—and inside was the sealed Dendro Archon, Nahida. This was a massive jackpot!

"Hey there, little one."

Li Yue looked up and greeted Nahida, who floated inside the sealing sphere.

Though puzzled, Nahida responded politely.

"Hello, sir."

"Little one, is this your home? It's really big."

Li Yue pretended to be curious, looking around.

"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Li Yue, from Liyue. I was running a spatial teleportation experiment and accidentally ended up here. Say, little one, where is this? Still in Teyvat?"

Nahida thought for a moment.

"Mr. Li Yue, this is the Sanctimonious Palace in Sumeru City. It's still in Teyvat. Strictly speaking, this is indeed my home."

Li Yue nodded, then put on a sincere expression.

"Little one, where are your parents? I barged into your home with my experiment, so I need to apologize to them."

"Hmm..."

Nahida thought briefly before starting to explain.

"I'm actually the Dendro..."

"I get it!"

But Li Yue didn't give her a chance to explain.

"Nahida, you're an orphan, right?"

?

Nahida was struck silent.

"Your parents probably aren't in this world anymore, right? I know you want to show you're strong—kids your age always want to prove themselves. But it's okay, no one understands orphans better than me!"

Li Yue struck his signature pose, making an OK sign and pointing to the sky.

"And from the look of things, you're locked up here, right? No orphan would just casually trap themselves in a ball that looks super high-end."

Nahida, who had been stunned into silence by Li Yue's peculiar logic, suddenly grew sorrowful. Yes, she was imprisoned here—because she wasn't a qualified god.

"Tch, I can't stand seeing this. A cute little kid, an orphan no less, locked up by some evil organization—I can't let that slide!"

Li Yue fumed with righteous indignation, and Nahida perked up a little.

"Mr. Li Yue, it's fine. I..."

"Decision made. Nahida, be my daughter!"

"Huh?"

Nahida was startled. Young man, do you even hear what you're saying?

But Li Yue didn't explain. He simply swung his blade at Nahida's seal.

Seeing his move, Nahida quickly tried to dissuade him.

"This is a grea..."

"Great what?"

Before she could finish, the seal was slashed open. Li Yue appeared inside the sealing sphere, scooped Nahida up with one arm, and hoisted her onto his shoulder.

"I've never been to Sumeru, so I don't know what's going on here. But if an orphan like you is locked up like this, there's definitely an evil organization around. I'm new here and don't know them, so I can't figure out how to deal with them. For now, I'll just take you and run. Don't worry, with me here, they won't catch you!"

"I don't think that's necessary..."

Nahida still wanted to salvage the situation.

"Don't worry, I'm really strong!"

Li Yue reversed his grip on Enma's Blade and struck a muscular pose.

"The Seven Archons are the strongest tier on the Teyvat continent. No evil organization here could possibly reach that level. I can't match the Seven Archons yet either, but one day I will. When that happens, you, as my daughter, can carry my name and run freely across Teyvat!"

No sooner had he finished than an alarm suddenly blared inside the Sanctimonious Palace.

"Not good, looks like we triggered the alarm."

Li Yue hoisted Nahida over his shoulder and glanced left and right.

"Before anyone shows up, let's get out of here and leave no trace for the enemy!"

Nahida didn't have time to salvage herself before Li Yue carried her off, using a Flash Step to charge into the Portal and closing it immediately after passing through.

By the time the Akademiya guards burst into the Sanctimonious Palace, the Portal had vanished completely, and they saw nothing.

Soon after, the Grand Sage Azar rushed in and stared at the empty Sanctimonious Palace, instantly entering a blood-rage mode.

"What happened? Where is she?!"

"Grand Sage, it was already like this when we arrived. There's nothing here."

The guard braced himself and reported.

"Then what are you still standing here for? Go find her! No matter how many men it takes, you must find her!!"

Under the Grand Sage's orders, every available guard in Sumeru City—except those on essential duty—was mobilized, scouring the city high and low for any trace of Nahida.

But the Nahida they sought had already followed Li Yue to distant Liyue.

At Wangshu Inn, Nahida stared at the unfamiliar surroundings. After a brief daze, she realized she had arrived in an entirely new region. Here, she couldn't sense the Akasha Terminal or connect to it. Combined with the decor and Li Yue's earlier self-introduction, she knew she was in Liyue.

"The nation of the God of Geo?"

"Oh, you're pretty sharp. No wonder you got captured—the smarter the kid, the more the evil organizations target them."