"That's what happened."
Wu Yi looked at Ronova and said earnestly:
"As a healer, I won't stand by and watch a patient die before my eyes. That is my professional duty as a doctor."
"Heh, hehehe..."
Hearing Wu Yi's words, Ronova burst out laughing:
"I never expected a mere mortal to dare lecture me about duty... You really are bold, mortal."
Ordinarily, Ronova should have been angry that Wu Yi had so brazenly admitted to deliberately breaking the rules.
But, perhaps because of the good impression he had left earlier, coupled with the responsibility he had expressed toward his profession, she was touched and felt some sympathy.
"Never mind. You are quite amusing, and I have always been merciful. I shall be a little lenient in dealing with your transgression."
"As for the one who should have died, I will return her soul to the Ley Lines to sate their thirst... As for you, you know a little too much, so have a good long sleep and forget this part of your memories."
"When you wake, you will know only that you cannot recklessly bring those who should have died back to life. That will suffice."
"Then farewell, interesting Descender. I hope we never... No, I hope it will be a long time before we meet again."
Coming from Ronova in her capacity as the Death Ruler, those words were a rare blessing.
After all, if they met again soon, it would mean either that Wu Yi himself did not have long to live, or that he had broken the rules of death again and Ronova had been forced to come after him. Neither would be a good thing.
So she could only wish that it would be a long time before they met again.
She had said something similar the last time, though then she had hoped never to see him again. This time, she felt a little more hesitant.
Somehow, she felt that seeing a pleasant-spoken mortal like him from time to time might make for a slightly more interesting interlude in her tedious work.
But in any case, it was time to bring this meeting to an end.
With that, Ronova raised a slender finger and pointed it at Wu Yi.
The next second, she used her Power of Death and bestowed "death" upon Wu Yi.
But... nothing happened.
"Hm?"
Ronova stared at Wu Yi, who was standing quietly where he was and looking at her curiously, and froze for a long moment.
What was going on?
Refusing to believe it, Ronova immediately raised her hand and used her power on Wu Yi again.
Yet once again, nothing happened.
Ronova sensed something was wrong,
Ronova tried again,
Ronova fell into thought.
Was something wrong with her power...?
But that couldn't be right?
Ronova looked again at Rosalyne and Kujou Sara, who lay lifeless in the distance. Her Authority over Death had indeed taken effect, stripping the two of their lives in an instant.
As for this straightforward doctor... Could it be a special case because he was a Descender?
But that shouldn't have been the case either. Descenders did have resistance to her authority, but at most, their souls would have a chance to escape the world of the dead after death, return to their bodies, and revive. They would still lose consciousness for at least a moment.
At the very least, when she had carried out the Curse of Death in Snezhnaya yesterday, she had encountered another outsider from beyond Teyvat who had arrived in the same period as Wu Yi. A slight movement of her finger had been enough to kill that person cleanly, without them even noticing her presence.
That made it truly baffling that Wu Yi could take the Curse of Death without a change of expression or even the slightest movement.
"How is this possible?"
Ronova flashed to Wu Yi's left.
"Are you kidding me?"
The next instant, she appeared on his right. She quickly circled him twice, scrutinizing him as she went, trying to figure out what was going on.
But no matter how much she thought about it, Ronova still couldn't come up with an answer. She could only frown at Wu Yi and ask humbly:
"What... did you do? Why did my Authority over Death have no effect on you whatsoever?"
"Even if you are a Descender, so long as you are in Teyvat, you should be subject to the Heavenly Principles. How could you possibly ignore the authority of the world itself?"
Wu Yi rubbed his chin and tilted his head slightly.
The answer to that question was naturally quite simple.
There was no other reason: the gap in their levels of existence was simply too great.
Wu Yi guessed that the authority Ronova had used probably came from Teyvat itself. Normally, even visitors from beyond the heavens would naturally be subject to Teyvat's local rules as long as they remained within it.
Unfortunately, an Emanator's level of existence was far higher than that of Teyvat as a whole.
Generally speaking, some of the finest Pathstriders could single-handedly contend with a planet itself, and there were even Pathstriders who could destroy a planet with a full-power strike. Yet before an Emanator, even the strongest Pathstrider's power was like a firefly before the full moon.
When Aeons did not intervene, all beneath an Emanator were ants, and only an Emanator had a chance of defeating another Emanator.
If Ronova could kill an Emanator in an instant with a casual use of her authority-especially an Emanator of Abundance, the "king of staying alive" among the many Paths-then she shouldn't have been content to be some Ruler of Death in little Teyvat. She should have been the Aeon of The Hunt or The Destruction in this universe instead.
Compared to killing an Emanator, wiping out a star system seemed far too easy.
But Wu Yi didn't intend to say so.
That would have been too boring.
For the moment, he wanted to see a little more of how Ronova would react. Just imagining how a softhearted goddess like her, so lofty yet prone to saying one thing and meaning another, would respond to such an unexpected situation was entertaining.
And aside from practicing medicine, Wu Yi's favorite pastime was watching amusing spectacles.
"I'm very sorry, esteemed Ruler of Death, but I don't understand what you mean."
He tilted his head slightly, looking confused, as though he had only just reacted:
"What do you mean by the Authority over Death? Did you just do something to me?"
"Hm? Do you really not know, or are you pretending?"
Ronova's brows furrowed tightly:
"Just now, did you really not feel anything at all?"
"Uh..." Wu Yi thought about it seriously. "If I had to say, I think I just felt..."
"Felt what?" Ronova asked immediately.
"I felt that you looked especially adorable while you were pondering, and I couldn't help losing myself watching you," Wu Yi said with a serious expression.
"...Smooth talker."
Ronova's cheeks reddened slightly, and she promptly rebuked him in annoyance:
"I'm talking to you about something serious. Stop flattering me."
After a pause, she immediately added:
"Besides, I am the Ruler of Death! How can you use a word like adorable to describe me?"
"You should use words like beautiful, elegant, dignified and gracious!"