Harvesting Energy Like Crazy

Seven days had passed since Wang Lei reached an agreement with Kujou Sara.

When Wang Lei first transmigrated here, he had only wanted to grab a huge haul and leave. After all, he had no idea what the time-flow ratio between Teyvat and his original world was. If several days had passed by the time he returned, his family might have already reported him missing.

However, when Yang Jie and the others led Wang Lei to Tatarasuna's entrances, which had been sealed by an accumulation of Remnants of the Demon God Energy, the system's insane energy absorption rate changed his mind. In just one day, the system had fully replenished its Transmigration Energy and gained an additional 8,000 Energy Points. Wang Lei immediately decided to stay a few more days.

Tatarasuna had three entrances. Including travel time, three days passed just like that. By then, Wang Lei no longer cared. If the time ratio between the two worlds was 1:1, then three days had already passed; if his family was going to report him missing, they would have done so already. He might as well harvest more energy. Looking at his savings of over 30,000 Energy Points, Wang Lei was in no hurry to leave.

And so, seven days passed in the blink of an eye.

Over those seven days, Wang Lei's group of seven had traveled through nearly all of Kannazuka.

As for why there were seven of them, that was because, on the third day of the team's independent operations, they successfully used the system to absorb the Remnants of the Demon God Energy piled up at Tatarasuna's three entrances and reopened the roads. Then, a Grand Narukami Shrine Shrine Maiden named A Xing approached the six of them and asked for help. She hoped Wang Lei could assist her.

Wang Lei had long been fed up with the endless rain here, so he decisively agreed to A Xing's request.

The concentration of the Remnants of the Demon God inside needed to be reduced first. Otherwise, Yang Jie, Shi Chuan, Song Ping, Xiao Ye, and Uesugi, who were merely ordinary people, would certainly die if they entered.

So the team returned to the island where Kujou Encampment was located and exchanged the Remnants of the Demon God Energy they had absorbed earlier for an Elemental Sight skill.

Wang Lei remembered this mission. He recalled that they needed to use Elemental Sight to find the Ley Line Congestion nodes, then draw lightning down upon them. Finally, they would remove the foreign objects affecting the Thunder Sakura Trees.

With Wang Lei handling things like an old hand, they completed the mission in just one day. The skies over Kannazuka began to clear. To thank Wang Lei for his help, A Xing joined the team for their subsequent effort to save the Mikage Furnace.

Over the next few days, Wang Lei led the team in mapping out Tatarasuna's terrain and dangerous zones. Perhaps the Traveler had not arrived yet, and the Fatui Harbingers had yet to become active in Inazuma. At this point, no Fatui were stationed in Tatarasuna. Only a handful of Kairagi, whose souls had already been corroded by the Remnants of the Demon God, lived within.

However, these Kairagi were clearly far stronger than the ones outside that merely hid from the Remnants of the Demon God Energy. Not only could they infuse their weapons with elements at astonishing speed, but they could also absorb the surrounding Remnants of the Demon God Energy to heal themselves.

Yang Jie and the other four were no match for those Kairagi at all. If A Xing had not supported them with shrine arts, and if the talismans from Grand Narukami Shrine had not been powerful enough, they would have been cut down in the first exchange.

Thus, Wang Lei, who had originally planned to coast along, had no choice but to act. Now that he had sufficient Energy Points, he considered that after returning to his main world, his primary enemies would be the Taotie. He needed wide-area attacks, so he directly spent 5,000 Energy Points to embark upon the Path of Erudition.

From then on, every normal attack came with follow-up strikes and cleaving damage. He was practically invincible in group battles.

Of course, that was just wishful thinking. Although a Path Walker cost five times more than a God's Eye, it was still one of the cheaper exchanges in the system.

Accordingly, the benefits it brought were the same as a God's Eye's. It might become powerful later on, but he had to train it himself.

For now, the only benefit the Path of Erudition gave Wang Lei was Multiple Lock-On. He could now lock onto three targets and attack them simultaneously. It counted as an additional passive ability that let him focus on three things at once.

Wang Lei then used Multiple Lock-On to attack three Kairagi at the same time, successfully allowing Yang Jie and the other four to retreat.

What followed was a prolonged battle of maneuvering. Wang Lei discovered that no matter where in Tatarasuna he absorbed the energy of the Remnants of the Demon God, as long as the density of Remnants of the Demon God Energy nearby dropped, those Kairagi would quickly come looking for him.

Wang Lei set several traps in an attempt to kill those Kairagi, but the results were poor. After several days, he had only killed one or two. Meanwhile, Yang Jie and the other four had spent too long in Tatarasuna, which was saturated with Remnants of the Demon God Energy, and all fell ill.

Thus, on the seventh day, Wang Lei could only lead the team back to Kujou Encampment to request reinforcements. If nothing else, at least give me a capable archer.

A Xing did not possess a God's Eye, and her abilities were mostly geared toward exorcism and healing. Her archery was not bad, but her range was a glaring weakness.

Wang Lei had originally considered having her tie the system-conjured phone to an arrow and shoot it onto the rock wall near the Mikage Furnace. That would suppress the leak of Remnants of the Demon God Energy at its source and make it easier for him to harvest energy in bulk.

But while the plan was beautiful, reality was harsh. The Kairagi there made it impossible for Wang Lei and the others to approach the Mikage Furnace from below.

Going around from the cliffs beside Tatarasuna was not feasible either. The Remnants of the Demon God Energy there was so dense that even Wang Lei's skin felt as though it were burning. A Xing could not get anywhere close with Grand Narukami Shrine's talismans alone.

After Wang Lei reported everything to Kujou Sara, the frontline commander resolutely declared that she would personally help him solve all of those problems.

Wang Lei's team officially disbanded, and Yang Jie and the other four were sent back to Narukami Island to recuperate. They had made contributions this time, so becoming squad leaders in the future should not be a problem.

A Xing also returned with them to report back to Yae Guuji of Grand Narukami Shrine.

Afterward, Kujou Sara led a large force to sweep through the Kairagi hiding in Tatarasuna, then personally shot Wang Lei's "Purification Core" onto the rock wall beside the Mikage Furnace.

Seeing the Energy Points in the system jump by roughly forty every minute, Wang Lei was ecstatic.

Kujou Sara stationed troops near Tatarasuna for one day. Sure enough, by the next day, the lower levels of Tatarasuna could barely detect any Remnants of the Demon God Energy. The area had fully returned to a level suitable for habitation.

Meanwhile, the Energy Points in Wang Lei's system had broken through the 50,000 mark.

Now, only the final step remained: open the Mikage Furnace, throw the "Purification Core" into it, and absorb the last of the Remnants of the Demon God Energy inside. That would count as addressing the immediate symptoms of the Mikage Furnace's problem, and Wang Lei could then leave after accomplishing his mission.

However, just as Wang Lei had completed the final step and was waiting to harvest the remaining energy before leaving in a day or two, several Kujou Family soldiers suddenly arrived from Narukami Island. Holding a portrait of Wang Lei, they declared him a wanted criminal and demanded that he be arrested.

Wang Lei was utterly dumbfounded. He had not even left Kannazuka since coming to Inazuma, so how had he become a wanted criminal? Could it be that the Kujou Family simply did not want to pay him for resolving the Mikage Furnace issue, so they had deliberately found an excuse to put out a warrant for him?