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The battle outside Favonius Cathedral looked perilous, but it had not actually lasted very long. Jean had not even finished catching up with her younger sister Barbara inside the cathedral before coming out.

Moreover, the commotion outside had not been very loud. After Ying's attention was drawn by the two Fatui Debt Collectors, La Signora froze her with a single move and kept her suppressed until Wang Lei appeared to save the day.

Venti had coasted through the entire fight, never forcing La Signora to use much strength.

As for Wang Lei, most of the battle had been a contest with La Signora over the elements, while he also defined the temperature around them. Thus, there had been neither explosions nor any drastic temperature changes that might have alerted people elsewhere.

The only slightly louder commotion had come from Wang Lei dealing with the two Fatui Debt Collectors and two Fatui Electro Cicin Mages. However, the two Debt Collectors were now corpses. The icy effect inherent to Everwinter Shadewalker had frozen their blood solid. Not even a drop of blood remained at the scene.

As for the two Electro Cicins, Wang Lei had shown some restraint. The Fire Dragon had merely triggered an Overloaded reaction with their Electro shields and knocked them unconscious. They would wake up on their own after a while.

Seeing that the battle was over, Ying, Paimon, and Venti gathered around. Venti's first words were still an expression of concern for La Signora.

"Your name is Wang Lei, right, young man? May I ask how the Fatui's Eighth Harbinger, La Signora, is doing now?"

The moment he finished, Venti realized that, given what had just happened, he probably should not be so concerned about La Signora's condition. He hurriedly added, "A Fatui Harbinger getting into trouble in Mondstadt is a serious matter. If anything really happens to her, we'll need to prepare ourselves for Snezhnaya holding us accountable."

Wang Lei thought that if Venti wanted to keep acting, he would play along. So, he introduced himself again, officially getting acquainted with Ying, Paimon, and Venti.

Once the introductions were over, Wang Lei answered Venti's earlier question.

"Don't worry, Lord Barbatos. La Signora... Rosalyne is fine. She merely exhausted too much mental energy and fainted. The Crimson Witch of Flames form did not truly awaken again, since her power failed to fully gather. And after the elemental struggle just now, the karmic fire in her heart will not ignite again for the time being."

Venti visibly relaxed upon hearing that, but Wang Lei's next sentence immediately made him tense up again.

"However, Lord Barbatos, I hope you can answer one question from the perspective of Mondstadt's god."

Venti's gaze had already begun to drift away. He had not forgotten the scene of Wang Lei defining the world just moments ago. Even if Wang Lei's actual power did not seem all that great, that move alone was enough to make one suspect he was an envoy of the Heavenly Principles. Besides, he had truly appeared in Mondstadt out of nowhere.

Thus, Venti was already considering whether he should just slip away first. He could not afford to offend the Heavenly Principles right now. Since the Heavenly Principles had not personally stepped in, either it could not spare the time, or it lacked definitive evidence that he was cooperating with the Cryo Archon in rebellion. Whatever the reason, if he slipped away now, it probably would not come looking for him specifically again. After all, the Gnosis was already in Wang Lei's hands.

But the instant Wang Lei saw something off in Venti's eyes, he knew the fellow wanted to run. Back in the early days of the game, this guy's Riddleman tendencies had been off the charts. Wang Lei decisively used Aether Encoding to define the airflow within a ten-meter radius as temporarily halted.

Venti immediately sensed the change in the air around him and understood that it was Wang Lei's warning. He could easily break through the force sealing him in, but doing so now would change the nature of things. It was like the difference between illegally modifying a vehicle to bypass an inspection checkpoint and being caught before directly crashing through that checkpoint.

Thus, Venti could only rarely recover a trace of his divinity and say seriously to Wang Lei, "Of course. Ask away."

Seeing that Venti was no longer preparing to flee, Wang Lei spoke bluntly.

"Alright, Lord Barbatos. First of all, I am not from Teyvat. I am something similar to Miss Ying. So there is no need for you to mislead me about many things. My question is this: from your perspective, has Rosalyne suffered erosion of the mind?"

Wang Lei had a reason for asking. While fighting La Signora just now, he had realized that she seemed like an excellent test subject for determining whether Teyvat's erosion could be treated using the Gene Engine.

First, she was not young. Her lover, Rostam, had died during the invasion of Khaenri'ah's monsters. That meant she was at least over five hundred years old. Yet her longevity came from the power of a witch; fundamentally, she was still human.

Furthermore, the symptoms Rosalyne, the Crimson Witch of Flames, had displayed throughout her transformation were very similar to erosion. At first, she had merely wanted to burn every monster to avenge her lover. But as she kept burning, she began incinerating monsters regardless of friend or foe. Even if innocent ordinary people were near those monsters, she would burn them together.

By the end, she might not even have known what she was burning anymore. Until the Cryo Archon saved her. Then Rosalyne, having regained some of her sanity, directed her rage at the Anemo Archon Barbatos, believing that he had failed in his duty as a god and caused her lover's death.

That was rather unreasonable. No god would truly promise to watch over every individual person's birth, aging, illness, and death. If they did, even gods would be worked to death.

What was more, during that time, aside from the Dendro Archon protecting the World Tree, the Seven Gods of Teyvat had all gathered in Khaenri'ah. At least two had even fallen there on the spot—the Hydro Archon Egeria and the Electro Archon Raiden Makoto. One could imagine just how dangerous that battlefield had been. Demanding that Venti take responsibility for Rostam's death was nothing more than misplaced anger.

The erratic moods, paranoia, and other symptoms Rosalyne displayed afterward resembled erosion even more. That was why Wang Lei asked.

Upon hearing Wang Lei's question, Venti was first delighted. Wang Lei not being an envoy of the Heavenly Principles was truly the best news possible. Then he furrowed his brows. Whether Rosalyne's current condition counted as erosion really was difficult to say. Still, there was nothing particularly secret about it, so Venti voiced his honest thoughts.

"You've really stumped me there. In principle, erosion is a phenomenon found only in long-lived beings such as gods and their familiars. It should not appear in Rosalyne. Though she has lived for more than five hundred years, she is still human. And generally speaking, even gods would not develop obvious erosion after a mere five hundred years. But then again, perhaps precisely because she is human, she has lower resistance to erosion. And it can be confirmed that negative emotions such as the death of a lover accelerate erosion. Hatred has indeed obscured all her other beautiful memories."

Wang Lei immediately broke into a cold sweat. Venti had effectively said nothing at all. After all that analysis, his conclusion was simply: maybe. His ability to smooth things over was as impressive as ever.

Fortunately, Venti had confirmed one thing: Rosalyne's hatred had made her forget all the beauty she had once known. If the Gene Engine could make her remember those things, it might truly save her life. At the very least, she probably would not blindly threaten Raiden Ei again.

Thus, Wang Lei decided that the first subject for his experiment regarding erosion would be none other than Rosalyne-Kruzchka Lohefalter.

For now, there was no evidence that the first Pyro Archon and the first Cryo Archon had also fallen during the Khaenri'ah Cataclysm, so he would assume that they had fallen after the cataclysm.