Reshaping Raiden Ei's Worldview

After Wang Lei and Raiden Ei returned to the shop through the rift, Ei was like a curious child, wanting to touch everything she saw.

Then, noticing Wang Lei's strange expression, Raiden Ei cleared her throat, found a sofa, and sat down. She said seriously, "Wang Lei, you can explain what is going on with this world now. And who exactly are you? I'm listening."

Wang Lei sighed. For people like Raiden Ei, whom he had summoned, he had to tell the truth. Other than matters related to the system, he would tell them everything.

So Wang Lei explained the theory of the Imaginary Tree to Raiden Ei in detail. Terms such as the Imaginary Sea and World Bubbles made Raiden Ei's head start to ache. She had never studied the nature of worlds themselves; she was better at making puppets and forging weapons.

Still, she understood the general idea. Teyvat had a World Tree—Raiden Ei knew that much. The ley line trees scattered across the land were merely the terminal branches of the World Tree.

Raiden Ei also understood the concept of planets. The Sea of Outer Darkness was probably what Wang Lei called outer space.

Then, beyond the world, all worlds themselves were like ley line trees: branches existing upon an even greater World Tree.

Wang Lei had encountered some fortuitous opportunity that he did not fully understand himself. It had granted him the authority to connect to a universe-level World Tree, as well as the ability to travel between worlds. The price he had to pay was energy.

The World Tree recorded everything within a world, so this so-called universe-level World Tree possessed a similar function.

Naturally, Wang Lei had learned of his world's future from the World Tree. That was why he began using his abilities to seek energy in other worlds, hoping to obtain the power needed to save his own.

Then Wang Lei found Teyvat. After learning about the Mikage Furnace through the World Tree, he set his sights on the energy within it and descended upon Inazuma.

As for his identity, if he could connect to a World Tree on a level above Teyvat's, inserting a false identity into the World Tree was hardly a big deal. Forging a Tenryou Commission badge was even less of a problem.

Ei already knew what happened afterward. Out of curiosity, he had touched the Statue of The Seven when he landed, then followed the ley lines straight into her Plane of Euthymia. Afterward, Wang Lei successfully absorbed the overflowing energy of the Mikage Furnace and resolved that crisis.

Then he was wanted, brought before the Raiden Shogun, and accidentally had his true power activated by Yae Miko using the power of faith within the Gnosis.

Finally, he met her and used Yae Miko's explanation to persuade her to believe in his identity as the Sacrificer, before ultimately returning to his own world.

Yet when the enemy descended, Wang Lei realized that his own strength was still insufficient to save the people. He could only risk being cut down by her blade and bring her here to help.

To be honest, Raiden Ei was very angry. She was angry that Wang Lei had exploited the trust she had placed in him. But looking at it from another perspective, Wang Lei had not used her for his own gain. He had merely used everything available to save the planet where he lived. If Inazuma had faced Wang Lei's current situation, perhaps she would have made the same choice.

Moreover, seeing Wang Lei standing there as if ready to accept any punishment, Raiden Ei found herself speechless. She felt that if she punished him now, her conscience would not sit well with it.

Seeing Raiden Ei's expression, Wang Lei knew that he would not be cut down, at least. Otherwise, she would have drawn her sword already.

And according to the system, Raiden Ei's attitude toward Wang Lei was still one of trust. It did not seem to have dropped by much.

So Wang Lei prepared to tempt Raiden Ei with benefits. He had to give this stubborn goddess a way out, or she might say something rash in anger, like that they should never see each other again.

"Lady Ei, the world I come from holds many secrets as well. I cannot learn everything from the World Tree, only a rough outline. For example, the long-lived beings in this world have found a way to resist erosion. Oh, and let me say something on Heavenly Principles' behalf: erosion was not inflicted upon Teyvat's gods by her. Long-lived species throughout the universe generally face similar issues. And my world happens to be one that has solved this problem."

The moment Raiden Ei heard that, her eyes lit up. Why did she pursue eternity? Why had she abandoned her physical body and hidden within the Plane of Euthymia? Was it not to avoid erosion as much as possible? This place actually had a method to resist erosion. She nodded and said, "Continue. I am listening."

Seeing Raiden Ei take an interest, Wang Lei quickly told her about the God-Making Project and Gene Engines. He made it clear that Earth currently had angels over seven thousand years old, and that Morgana, whom Ei had just fought, was already tens of thousands of years old.

Raiden Ei frowned upon hearing this. Wang Lei thought she did not believe him, but then she said something that nearly made him spit out his drink.

"Is that so? Then why was a goddess tens of thousands of years old so weak? I am only a little over five thousand years old, yet I was able to drive her away."

Wang Lei had no answer to that. Teyvat's gods simply defied all reason. In Earth's myths, every one of them would be primordial gods born of heaven and earth, beings comparable to Gonggong and Zhurong. There was no proof that they possessed the combat power to destroy planets, but underestimating them was simply courting death.

And even among the gods of this world, without the support of celestial-scale computers, not even Divine Keisha had the ability to casually destroy a planet.

The only one capable of that was Leina, who could draw upon stellar energy at any time. By accelerating the rate of nuclear fusion within a star, she could rapidly destroy the planets around it. That was why, no matter how weak Leina was, all gods still feared her.

As for the previous Nuoxing War God, he had split the Blazing Sun with the cost of his own life. That could not be considered a conventional method.

Hexi had been right about one thing: once battles reached the king level—Fourth Generation God Bodies and above—the contest was often one of computational power rather than personal strength. So it was not strange that Morgana, without Demon One to support her, had been driven off by Raiden Ei, who followed a cultivation system.

At their core, neither path was inherently superior to the other.

Those who took the technological path could become immune to most forms of damage as long as they had enough energy. Conventional means of killing them became ineffective. But they were also easily countered. Once an enemy developed a specialized tool or overwhelmed them with superior computational power, there was basically no hope of turning the tables. The Taotie King had proved this when he installed a Void Engine and added algorithms designed to counter angels, allowing him to slaughter angels who were First and Second Generation Super Soldiers.

Those who followed the cultivation path had more ways to be killed than those on the technological path, but they could not easily be countered to the point where they could not even resist. At the same time, the evolution of their bodies and strength made them harder for the technological side to analyze, while preserving the possibility of killing their opponent with a decisive ultimate move.

Wang Lei planned to walk both paths. It would be difficult, but he had the system. He could directly exchange for many things. All he needed to do was learn how to use those powers.

Thus, Wang Lei spent a long time explaining to Ei that their different cultivation systems were what had led to this outcome.

He had no idea whether Ei truly understood. In any case, she seemed to have started looking down on this world's power system. In her words, if one of the little yokai in Inazuma's mountains lived for ten thousand years and cultivated properly, it should have become a god-level existence by then. Morgana had lived for tens of thousands of years and was only at that level—she was not worth looking at.

Wang Lei was speechless. Just wait until Demon One arrived later. Then this country girl would understand what king-level combat power truly meant. For now, she could keep showing off.

Still, Ei believed that this world had a way to resist erosion. If Morgana really was tens of thousands of years old, then she indeed had not suffered much erosion. Her speech and pronunciation were still clear, and she showed no signs of madness.

But Ei said that she still wanted to meet an angel who had lived for seven thousand years, so she could be completely certain that this world possessed a method to resist erosion.