La Signora's Bad Luck (4,000 Words, Please Recommend, Please Vote, Please Follow)

After Wang Lei ran to the top of the Wind God Statue, he looked down and clearly saw that the Fatui had already cleared the area around the entrance to Favonius Cathedral. From Mondstadt Cathedral to Wind God Statue Plaza, not a single Mondstadt citizen or tourist remained. If he had not teleported here from the Knights of Favonius headquarters, he would probably have been stopped halfway.

The Traveler could now confirm that it was Ying. She was being firmly suppressed by two Fatui Debt Collectors. Paimon floated anxiously in the air, wanting to do something but powerless to resist.

As for Venti and La Signora, they were currently having a heart-to-heart. It could only be said that Venti was completely toying with La Signora. Based on the energy intensity displayed by Aether Encoding, he was even slightly stronger than Raiden Shogun, yet he was only using a faint breeze to scare people.

The next second, Venti, who had been holding back, fell to the ground. A cyan Gnosis, shaped like the queen piece in chess, appeared in La Signora's hand.

But just as La Signora was about to comment on the Gnosis, Wang Lei moved.

He used Quantum Teleportation to instantly appear beside La Signora, slapped upward, and directly knocked the Gnosis out of her hand. Then he followed up with a shoulder charge, amplifying the force of the impact with Aether Encoding. La Signora was instantly knocked back and slid several meters away.

After La Signora was attacked, the two Electro Cicin Mages behind her reacted quickly and immediately unleashed their Electro Cicins at Wang Lei.

But to Wang Lei now, Electro Cicins were nothing more than mosquitoes. With a casual wave, he sent out a Fire Dragon that devoured every Electro Cicin while blasting both Electro Cicin Mages away as well.

Wang Lei then caught the falling Gnosis. In the next instant, just like when he had held the Inazuman Gnosis, countless prayers rang in his ears.

However, unlike Inazuma, where everyone prayed for the Electro Archon to protect them, Mondstadt's people perhaps knew that their own Anemo Archon did not handle such matters. Their prayers were mostly expressions of gratitude—gratitude to the Anemo Archon for bringing them the lives they had today.

Wang Lei's consciousness fell once more into the white space representing the Stellaron. Just as he had expected, another portion of the Stellaron's power was unlocked, and he gained a new ability.

The exchange within his consciousness only took an instant in the outside world. By the time Wang Lei fully understood his abilities and opened his eyes again, everyone outside was still dumbfounded.

Ying and Paimon had their mouths hanging open, wondering where this person had suddenly come from. Had someone ambushed the Fatui from behind, like an oriole stalking a mantis? Venti, meanwhile, was wondering who this unplanned visitor was. Someone capable of knocking La Signora back with one strike had entered Mondstadt, yet he had sensed nothing. Had he really drunk too much, to the point that even his perception had gradually weakened?

As for La Signora, she was practically exploding with rage. The Gnosis she had already obtained had been sent flying and landed in the hands of an unknown person. Although she had been caught off guard by those two attacks, the fact that he had managed to ambush her at all was enough to prove that he was no ordinary opponent.

La Signora forcibly suppressed her anger, stood back up, and said through gritted teeth, "You dare interfere in Fatui business. It has been a long time since I met someone so unafraid of death. Boy, state your name. I shall grant you eternal peace."

Wang Lei waved the Gnosis in his hand, provoking La Signora again, then said disdainfully, "My name is Wang Lei. If you want to send me into eternal peace, at least bring out one of the Fatui's Top Three Seats. You're nowhere near qualified. Still, this Gnosis really is nice. It's beautiful, isn't it?"

La Signora sneered. "Heh. It is nothing special. Some of my collections are better. Return the Gnosis to me now, and I can still grant you a quick death. Otherwise, you will regret ever being born."

The moment Wang Lei heard that, he decided without hesitation to light the powder keg. Shaking his head, he said, "La Signora—no, Rosalyne. If Rostam saw you like this, what do you think he would feel? He would surely be deeply disappointed. The Mondstadt he protected with his life, the woman he once loved, now wanted to harm it. And the reason was that he died protecting Mondstadt. Wouldn't that make you a yandere?"

At those words, fire nearly burst from La Signora's eyes. She did not waste another word and directly used the frost power bestowed upon her by the Cryo Archon.

A blizzard instantly rose near the gates of Mondstadt Cathedral. With La Signora at its center, ice spread outward in every direction.

This was indiscriminate AoE damage. Paimon had already frozen stiff and was clinging desperately to Ying. As for the two Debt Collectors suppressing Ying, they frantically activated the Pyro Delusions on their bodies, trying to counter the bitter cold.

Seeing this, Wang Lei decided to spare Paimon some suffering. The fight could not be too destructive this time. He could not damage Favonius Cathedral, or it would be hard to explain things to the Knights of Favonius. He had no desire to be treated like a wanted criminal everywhere he went, just like the Traveler.

He entered the Aether Edit interface and set the temperature within a twenty-meter radius centered on himself to remain fixed at 24 degrees Celsius.

The next second, the surrounding blizzard instantly became nothing more than a somewhat stronger spring breeze. Only the area less than half a meter around La Signora remained unaffected, as the Cryo Archon's divine power had not been defined by Wang Lei.

The way Venti looked at Wang Lei changed completely. Someone who could freely define the world... could this person be an envoy of the Heavenly Principles? Had the Heavenly Principles discovered some of his little schemes and sent someone down to stop him? Should he come up with an excuse right now to fool this envoy? Why was he so unlucky?

La Signora, meanwhile, was utterly baffled. She had never imagined that the authority bestowed upon her by the Cryo Archon could be suppressed by someone. Although that authority was mainly used to suppress the raging flames within her body, it was still divine authority. Even that useless Anemo Archon had just been suppressed by it. How could some random person counter it so easily?

La Signora gave the two Fatui Debt Collectors a look, signaling them to step forward and test him. If Wang Lei had to contend with the Cryo Archon's divine power, he should have no attention left to spare for anyone else.

The two Debt Collectors exchanged despairing looks. In the end, they released Ying and entered stealth mode.

Serving under La Signora, the Eighth Harbinger of the Fatui, was famously difficult. La Signora was notoriously temperamental. They could endure her inexplicable beatings and scoldings in ordinary times, but now she was asking them to ambush an enemy even she could not handle.

But in Snezhnaya, everyone believed in the Cryo Archon. The Fatui Harbingers were the goddess's mouthpieces. So no matter how unwilling they were, the two Debt Collectors did not hesitate in their actions.

Their stealth was like a bright lamp in the darkness before Aether Encoding. Wang Lei could not be bothered to deal with these two minor soldiers himself. They were perfect for testing the new Stellaron ability he had just acquired.

The space behind Wang Lei suddenly split open. If anyone from the Star Rail World had been present, they would surely have shouted, "Fragmentum!!"

That was right. Unlike the spatial rifts that could only be used for traversing space, the ability Wang Lei had gained through Mondstadt's Gnosis was the power to summon the Fragmentum. He could also control the monsters summoned from within it.

Of course, with Wang Lei's current strength, the number of Fragmentum monsters he could control was limited, and they would not be particularly powerful. But against two Debt Collectors, it was still like using a cannon to kill mosquitoes.

A monster slowly emerged from the Fragmentum, wielding a massive blue poleaxe. It wore armor that glimmered with an eerie blue light, exuded frigid air, and had a body made entirely of ice.

An Everwinter Shadewalker, a monster that imitated Belobog's Silvermane Guards, had now appeared in the world of Teyvat.

Since Wang Lei could directly tell it where the stealthed Fatui Debt Collectors were, it immediately leaped forward and accurately struck one of them out of stealth.

Judging from the way that Debt Collector flew through the air, he had clearly tried to block the attack with his twin blades. But reality was cruel. The Everwinter Shadewalker's strength was far beyond what he could withstand. His twin blades were cleaved in half, and his chest was split open. No blood flowed, because it had all frozen. By the time he hit the ground, he was already a corpse.

The remaining Debt Collector saw his companion die and decisively switched targets. His flaming twin blades slashed at the Everwinter Shadewalker's neck, intending to avenge his comrade.

But reality was cruel. The twin blades achieved very little against the Everwinter Shadewalker's neck. Strictly speaking, the Everwinter Shadewalker was not alive. It had no human weaknesses such as a neck, head, or heart.

So even though the flames carved a large gash across its neck, it was completely unaffected. Instead, the Debt Collector was struck in the stomach by the Everwinter Shadewalker's axe shaft, bent into the shape of a shrimp, and then beheaded by a follow-up swing.

The Everwinter Shadewalker killed the two Fatui Debt Collectors in merely two or three exchanges. Wang Lei was extremely pleased with its combat power. Based on that performance alone, it possessed at least the offensive and defensive capabilities of a First Generation Super Soldier.

And this was only his most basic summon. Once his strength improved in the future, he would be able to summon more and stronger Fragmentum creatures. An army of one would no longer be a dream.

While Wang Lei was still pleased with the Everwinter Shadewalker's combat ability, La Signora's expression had already darkened enough to drip water.

Since the power bestowed by the Cryo Archon could not deal with this unknown enemy named Wang Lei, she could only use her sealed power. Using that power meant that her barely sustained life would begin burning away again. But for the Cryo Archon, all of it was worth it.

La Signora stopped maintaining the utterly pointless blizzard and instead transformed herself into a huge cocoon of ice.

Though it was called an ice cocoon, anyone with Elemental Sight could see that it was in fact made entirely of Pyro energy.

Wang Lei was delighted to discover that the Pyro energy gathering around them was ownerless—the kind his system could absorb.

After all these years, Wang Lei had gained some understanding of what energy his system could absorb. In any case, energy that had an owner was absolutely impossible to absorb.

Although Ei herself possessed terrifying lightning energy, the electricity she transmitted into him would only leave Wang Lei smoking all over. The system would not absorb even a trace of it.

That was also why Wang Lei had never approached Leina despite knowing that such a super charging bank existed. If it were simply stellar energy, perhaps he could absorb it. But once it passed through Leina, it would most likely become energy he could not absorb. In the end, it would only harm him.

Therefore, the fire energy La Signora had gathered being absorbable by the system came as an enormous surprise to Wang Lei. Naturally, he declared that he would not stand on ceremony.

He rushed straight to the ice cocoon, pressed his hand against it, and let the system freely absorb the Pyro energy La Signora had gathered. Eventually, even that was not enough—he pierced the ice cocoon directly and grabbed La Signora inside.

Then Venti, Ying, and Paimon witnessed an utterly bizarre scene. With an excited look on his face, Wang Lei had thrust his hand into the ice cocoon La Signora had created. Vast amounts of Pyro energy in the air were drawn over, only to flow entirely into Wang Lei's body.

The ice cocoon encasing La Signora slowly shattered as well, revealing her within.

Yet La Signora did not transform into the Crimson Witch of Flames, because all the Pyro energy she had gathered had been absorbed by Wang Lei. As for the hellfire within her body, it had long been suppressed by the Cryo Archon's power and was now wholly insufficient to support her transformation.

Moreover, once La Signora appeared, everyone saw that Wang Lei had already seized her wrist, leaving her unable to escape.

Wang Lei's thinking was simple: such an excellent walking charging bank had to be drained dry today, no matter what. La Signora could forget about leaving now. Since he had already grabbed her, and since being touched by an unfamiliar man had already filled her with hatred, it was too late to let go now. On top of that, his actions had clearly enraged La Signora, and the surrounding Pyro energy began gathering noticeably faster. That meant even more energy for him to absorb.

So Wang Lei simply refused to release her. When La Signora slapped and shoved at him, he casually caught her other wrist with his left hand, completely restraining her before him.

To an outsider, if this scene were paired with lines like, "Go on, scream. No one will save you no matter how loudly you scream," it would look exactly like an old pervert molesting a woman.

If not for the terrifying Pyro fluctuations around them proving that the two were actually fighting over control of the Pyro energy, Ying and Venti would have already stepped in to stop Wang Lei's awful behavior. Killing someone was one thing, but what was with ignoring a woman's resistance and refusing to let her go?

And just as Wang Lei had said, La Signora's real name was Rosalyne, and she was also from Mondstadt. Venti actually felt guilty toward her, which was why he had let her slap him. Try that with someone else—did she really think the Anemo Archon was a pushover?

Wang Lei was genuinely enjoying himself now. In order to restore her true Crimson Witch of Flames form, La Signora desperately gathered the surrounding Pyro energy. Yet before that energy entered her body, it belonged to no one. Wang Lei absorbed every last bit of it.

The efficiency of this energy absorption was nearly on par with the time he had thrown the phone manifested by the system into the Mikage Furnace.

Wang Lei had truly abandoned all shame. Whenever he noticed that La Signora was running out of strength and the rate at which Pyro energy gathered slowed, he would squeeze her hands. He ruthlessly stimulated her nerves, allowing anger to take hold of her mind once more. This would usually restore the rate at which the surrounding elements gathered. Really, if you squeezed hard enough, anything could be wrung out.

In any case, La Signora was tormented until her mind could no longer endure it. Her head tilted to one side, and she fainted.

Only then did Wang Lei stop holding La Signora in such a death grip. He immediately extended an arm to support her, preventing her from falling to the ground.

Ying and Venti gathered around as well. They both had a bellyful of questions for Wang Lei.

Free releases had their advantages. He could just post the revised version directly; if the unlocked chapters needed to be unlocked again over three days, then so be it. At worst, he could just delete the duplicate chapters. Once it was premium, though, he would not be able to do that.