Yucheng's words were blunt, striking at both Nahida's and Apep's private thoughts at once. An eerie silence immediately fell over the scene.
Nahida had long known of Apep's existence, but Apep posed no threat to Sumeru. Back during the Archon War, neither King Deshret nor the Goddess of Flowers had taken much interest in this Dendro Dragon King. Sumeru was vast, and it wanted little. Giving it somewhere to hole up was hardly out of the question.
But all of that applied only while it was alive. If it died in Sumeru, it would bring an undeserved calamity upon the nation.
Thus, when Greater Lord Rukkhadevata realized that Apep might also have been corrupted by forbidden knowledge, she made it her highest priority and devoted tremendous effort to creating the Seed of Fire, which could simulate the workings of the Heart of the Oasis. It ultimately passed into Lesser Lord Kusanali's memories.
Besides, unlike the other, more conspicuous second- and even third-generation elemental dragons, this first-generation Dendro Dragon had always worried that openly appearing in Teyvat would attract the Heavenly Principles' attention and lead to its merciless execution. Thus, all these years, it had adhered to the principle of lying low and building its strength.
For thousands of years, Apep the Dendro Dragon had never appeared in human historical records. Even the Akademiya's Vahumana scholars, experts in history, did not know that a first-generation Dendro Dragon King still existed within Sumeru.
As for Apep, it naturally knew that it could not last much longer in its current condition. Looking back over its nearly ten thousand years of life, forbearance had defined most of its existence. Had Apep been an ancient dragon content to do nothing, that would have been another matter.
But it was a first-generation Dendro Dragon King that