The Battle That Ruined the Traveler's Reputation

At the edge of Whispering Woods.

"La la la~ Roasted Sunsettias, delicious roasted Sunsettias~"

Paimon danced happily through the air, already clutching two freshly picked Sunsettias. They looked juicy and delicious.

She watched Wei Zhenzu walking ahead, her little face full of anticipation for the coming dinner.

Wei Zhenzu's current look was as swaggering as it got.

He carried the heavy bone cleaver, transformed from the black iron wok of Hell's Kitchen, casually over his right shoulder.

The broad blade reflected a cold, hard gleam. Combined with his leisurely stride, he looked every bit like a gang boss on his way to inspect a wet market.

"Traveler, the camp's just up ahead."

Paimon pointed toward the faint wisps of cooking smoke rising in the distance.

"I'll get a fire going here first. Once you've driven those Hilichurls away, we can roast the fruit right away. Want me to find a few Sweet Flowers too?"

"Forget the Sweet Flowers. I'm afraid I'll get diabetes from eating them."

Wei Zhenzu waved a hand, stopped, and loosened his wrists and neck. His bones gave several crisp cracks.

He looked at the small Hilichurl camp ahead, surrounded by a simple wooden fence, and a contemptuous sneer curled his lips.

From Wei Zhenzu's experience playing the game, these Hilichurls usually spent their time either dancing around a big pot or lying asleep in the grass.

As soon as a player approached, they would charge over, howling and waving their clubs haphazardly, serving up free kills.

But the moment Wei Zhenzu actually stepped through the camp's entrance, the sneer froze on his face.

The scene in the camp was completely different from what he had expected.

There were no Hilichurls dancing around a pot, nor any lazybones sleeping on the ground.

More than a dozen Hilichurls stood together in neat formation in the clearing at the center of the camp.

When they saw the uninvited Wei Zhenzu, they didn't rush about like headless flies. Instead, at several short cries of "Yaika!" from a Hilichurl on a raised watchtower, they sprang into action.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

Six Hilichurls carrying sturdy wooden shields rushed forward and joined their shields together in front of them, forming an impenetrable shield wall.

Behind the wall, four Hilichurl fighters deftly raised their repeating crossbows. They even dipped their arrowheads in a nearby brazier, turning them into flaming arrows.

More absurdly, at the very center of the formation, in its most heavily protected position, stood two staff-wielding Samachurls, one on either side.

One was a Hydro Samachurl, the other a Cryo Samachurl.

"What the fuck?"

The hand holding Wei Zhenzu's bone cleaver trembled slightly, and his eyes went wide.

"Is this a fucking Macedonian phalanx? Since when did Teyvat's Hilichurls learn formations?!"

Before he could recover from his shock,

"Biat!"

The sentry on the tower gave the order.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" Four flaming arrows arced over the shield wall, aimed precisely at the spot where Wei Zhenzu stood.

"Bring it on. Watch me break your formation with one swing."

Wei Zhenzu had the experience of his previous battles to draw on. He snorted, gripped the bone cleaver's handle with both hands, and drove forward with his legs.

Rather than dodge, he intended to rely on the weight of his weapon and use brute force to cleave straight through the annoying shield wall.

The bone cleaver whipped up a gust of wind, precisely knocking the flaming arrows out of the air.

But just as he was about to crash into the shield wall, something unexpected happened.

The Hydro Samachurl in the rear waved its staff, and a strange chant rang out.

A jet of water suddenly erupted from the ground beneath Wei Zhenzu's feet. Immediately afterward, a localized downpour fell from the sky without warning, drenching him squarely on the head.

"Splash!"

Wei Zhenzu was soaked through in an instant, his suit clinging to him and dripping water.

"That's it? You think a little water can stop me?"

Gritting his teeth, Wei Zhenzu raised the bone cleaver high, ready to smash the wooden shields in front of him.

"Yaya!"

The Cryo Samachurl on the other side let out a piercing cry.

An icicle abruptly rose from underground, and bone-chilling Cryo swept over Wei Zhenzu's entire body in an instant.

Water met ice.

Empowered by the laws of Teyvat, the reaction displayed its utterly unreasonable crowd-control effect.

A crisp freezing sound rang out.

Wei Zhenzu, bone cleaver raised high and face fierce, was frozen solid in a huge block of ice.

Through the transparent ice, he could even see the Hilichurls behind the shield wall across from him mocking him with cries of "Gusha."

"Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!"

Wei Zhenzu struggled desperately inside the ice, his eyes darting wildly. These guys actually knew how to coordinate elemental reactions?

During the few seconds he spent trying to shatter the ice with brute force,

"Whoosh-whoosh-"

A heavy, scorching sound of something cutting through the air came from the blind spot on his right.

A massive, muscular Blazing Axe Mitachurl had silently circled around to his flank at some point.

It had already raised its enormous double-bladed axe, ablaze with roaring flames, high over its head.

"Roar!"

The Mitachurl bellowed, its enormous body spinning like a top.

Its signature skill: the spinning windmill chop.

The blazing giant axe slammed into the ice trapping Wei Zhenzu with terrifying force.

"Bang!"

The solid ice shattered, sending shards flying everywhere.

"I'll be back!~~~~"

Wei Zhenzu was knocked flying like a baseball.

He tumbled twice through the air and landed heavily in the mud more than ten meters away, getting a mouthful of it.

"Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo!"

Wei Zhenzu scrambled to his feet in a sorry state and spat out the weeds in his mouth.

He looked down. A large hole had been burned in the chest of his suit, its edges still trailing black smoke, and his breastbone ached faintly.

"You bastards, you don't play fair! Damn it, you're fighting dirty, huh?!"

Wei Zhenzu was completely enraged.

He gripped the bone cleaver tightly in both hands and charged the Mitachurl again.

"I'll chop you up into red-braised pork!"

But faced with the charging Wei Zhenzu, the Mitachurl didn't meet him head-on. Instead, it nimbly leaped backward, retreating into the protection of the shield wall.

As the Mitachurl retreated, the six shield-bearing Hilichurls immediately stepped forward, filling the gap in their formation.

Immediately afterward, the repeating-crossbow shooters in the rear poked their heads out again and sent a storm of flaming arrows at him as if they cost nothing.

When the enemy advanced, they retreated; when the enemy stopped, they harassed him.

Wei Zhenzu had barely stopped to swing his cleaver and deflect the flaming arrows when the Hydro Samachurl's rain cloud floated over again.

As soon as he tried to circle around and take out the squishy Samachurls first, the Blazing Axe Mitachurl jumped out and blocked his path.

The Hilichurls were like a seasoned professional esports team, with clearly assigned roles: the front line tanked damage, the back line dealt it, the supports provided crowd control, and the assassin looked for an opening.

They had taken kiting tactics to the extreme.

Wei Zhenzu was run ragged, panting and struggling to fend them off.

In less than two minutes, his suit had gained three scorched holes, and a flying stone had cut a bloody line across his face.

"Damn it, you've gone too far!"

Wei Zhenzu gnashed his teeth, burning with rage.

He thrust the bone cleaver into the ground and frantically called for the system in his mind.

"System! Connect me to [Sovereign of Hongyuan]! Today I'm blowing this lousy camp and these woods sky-high, and teaching these small fry a lesson!"