Aftermath

The Withering had vanished—one that, in theory, had to have its core destroyed by the Dendro Element had been completely crushed by Xiao Bai's purest power, along with that forbidden knowledge.

Looking at the spherical crater hundreds of meters deep beneath him, Lin Feng chose to temporarily forget the consequences this would bring.

Feeling the Aranara in his arms no longer struggling, Lin Feng casually gave it another couple of pats—he had wanted to try touching one for a while. The feel was indeed quite nice, and he found a little amusement amid his misery.

Staring at the still-unconscious girl in his arms, Lin Feng pinched her limbs with rigorous care—checking whether she was missing any arms or legs.

—Looking at the packhorse beside him, which only had one horse leg left, Lin Feng felt that the girl would understand.

After confirming that the girl was unharmed, Lin Feng let out a small sigh of relief.

Watching Xiao Bai, whose status had returned to "Extremely Hungry," carry out a biological mass extinction, Lin Feng felt tired. Let it all be destroyed.

Lin Feng had vaguely known from the very beginning that this would be the final result.

—Everything around him, living or otherwise, would be wiped out except for himself.

Although this was already the least force he had instructed Xiao Bai to use, the destructive consequences were still somewhat beyond his expectations.

The elements within Xiao Bai were simply too complicated: seven elements, seven ultimate moves of different attributes—some of them even came from experts no weaker than gods.

The excessive elements interfered with and fused into one another, making it extremely difficult for Xiao Bai to use only one type of element at a time.

—Either use them all together, or use none of them.

At first, Lin Feng had thought Xiao Bai could not control its power because its intelligence was too low.

That guess was only partly correct, because even Slimes could freely use their own power.

So, after Lin Feng finally figured this out, his attitude toward Xiao Bai became: just obediently be a mascot. Otherwise, one day even Teyvat might be gone.

Although Lin Feng knew that an inexplicable connection existed between himself and Xiao Bai, meaning he would not be harmed by its power, he still avoided using it whenever possible. After all, power was conserved. Once it used power, even Xiao Bai needed to replenish itself, which manifested as its state of extreme hunger.

Putting his worries behind him, Lin Feng used Elemental Power to construct a vine bridge and made his way from the stone pillar beneath his feet to the edge of the crater.

He pulled out the still-trembling Aranara from his arms.

Seeing the dark green hat, blue bow, and distinctive green glow surrounding it, Lin Feng recognized the little fellow before him.

"Aranana?"

Lin Feng cautiously called its name.

"Wah!"

Aranana let out a scream and continued trembling.

"Hmm, little cabbage?" Remembering the peculiarities of these little fellows, Lin Feng tentatively said a term they disliked.

"I'm not cabbage! I'm Aranana. Aranana is a friend, an Aranara."

Though it had been frightened just moments ago, the instant it heard itself called cabbage, Aranana straightened up and began to argue.

Lin Feng: "..."

"As you can see, I only entered the Withering to save this child in my arms. I won't hurt you."

"So, you don't need to be so afraid of me."

Lin Feng knew that, as a very ancient Aranara, Aranana was not actually that afraid of humans. It could even fully adapt to human methods of communication.

"Nara Lin Feng is a good Nara. Nara Lin Feng defeated Big Iron Chunk and Marana. Nara Lin Feng is a hero."

Aranana answered frankly.

"Then why are you afraid of me?" Lin Feng asked curiously.

"Nara Lin Feng is very rough. Without permission, Nara Lin Feng hugged Aranana in his arms. Aranana was defiled." Aranana swayed as it answered.

Lin Feng: "..."

He had not expected that to be the reason. A miscalculation. He would still dare next time.

"That was to protect you. Otherwise, even if you're an Aranara, if that white light from before had swept over you, you probably would have vanished outright, without even the chance to become a seed."

"And where did you learn such a messy word? 'Defiled' isn't used like that. Hurry up and forget that word, or you'll lead children astray!"

Lin Feng explained while changing the subject.

"Ah, Aranana understands. Thank you, Nara Lin Feng, for protecting Aranana. Defiled is bad, forget it!" Aranana nodded, clearly convinced.

"I have a request. Can you keep everything that happened here secret? Don't tell this 'story' to the other Aranara or humans," Lin Feng said to Aranana.

"Nara Lin Feng defeated Big Iron Chunk and Marana. Nara Lin Feng is a hero. Aranana agrees to hug-secret."

The innocent Aranana agreed without much difficulty.

"Sigh, it's 'keep secret,' not 'hug-secret.' Forget it, forget it. As long as you understand the meaning." Lin Feng found himself too drained to complain.

"Can you explain the situation? Why were you here?"

Returning to the important matter, Lin Feng was quite curious as to why Aranana knew a girl from Liyue.

"Nara Yun Lu is a kind, good Nara. Nara Yun Lu sings all kinds of songs for Aranana. Nara Yun Lu is a friend," Aranana replied.

Through his conversation with Aranana, Lin Feng gradually learned everything:

It turned out that the uncle outside had come to Port Ormos this time to find a friend. This black-haired girl named Yun Lu had never left Liyue, so she begged the uncle to bring her to Sumeru. Perhaps because she had always studied at school and had not lost her childlike heart, she met Aranana, who had been lingering nearby, while passing through Vimara Village.

Because the girl loved music and was very interested in Aranana's songs, the two gradually became friends.

On this journey from Vimara Village to Gandharva Ville, Aranana had stayed by the girl's side the entire time. Whenever the adults were absent, it would secretly play with Yun Lu, who had no friends. Who would have thought that, while the uncle was traveling to Gandharva Ville, the Withering would suddenly appear? Yun Lu had been carried deep into the Withering by a startled packhorse. Although Aranana helped the girl avoid the monsters along the way, they were still cornered at the Withering Core by the Flying Dragon Beast.

Lin Feng knew everything that happened afterward—the uncle, having lost his daughter, was frantic with worry. Yet because he was still in the forest and could not find anyone to ask for help, he naturally became uncontrollably excited upon seeing Lin Feng approach on his own. With only this one daughter, he had not hesitated to offer all the merchant caravan's possessions in order to persuade Lin Feng, and had even wanted to kneel before him.

After figuring everything out, Lin Feng asked Aranana to help conceal the traces here as much as possible, then carried Yun Lu back to find the uncle still in the forest.

This rescue had simply been far too intense.

—The utterly exhausted Lin Feng had clearly failed to notice that the breathing of the girl in his arms had been somewhat irregular since earlier.

On the way back, Lin Feng calculated the gains and losses of this operation. There was no need to mention what he had lost—Xiao Bai had become hungry again, a small patch of rainforest had been completely destroyed, his clothes were ruined, and most importantly, there were the repercussions this incident would cause.

Yet his gains had also exceeded Lin Feng's expectations. Aside from successfully saving the uncle's daughter, he had completely eradicated a Withering of such a high level. Although no luxurious Treasure Chest had popped out, Lin Feng still received a gift from the ley lines—shown on his panel as a massive amount of energy, enough for him to rise seven levels at once.

As he walked, Lin Feng looked at the petite girl in his arms with her eyes closed, studying her gentle features and that Liyue face so completely different from those of most Sumeru people.

Feeling that long-lost sense of familiarity in his heart, Lin Feng let out a long breath and felt no regret—if he had to do it again, he would probably still make the same choice.