"I see," Wu Yi said in realization. "You mean the Ley Lines forcibly extracted this maid's soul to fill the vacancy left by Teppei?"
"Oh, it seems you understand things well. That deserves encouragement," Ronova said evenly.
"So that can happen."
Wu Yi stroked his chin, a little surprised.
He had played Genshin Impact through so many major versions, yet he had never known it had a setting like that.
"I've managed to calm the disturbance in the Ley Lines and recovered this victim's soul... But this sort of extra work is troublesome, I hate it, and it also goes against the rules set by the Heavenly Principles."
"Ignorance is no crime. Since you knew nothing about it, I can pardon you for your offense, but... don't let it happen again."
At that, Ronova's voice grew colder:
"You'd better behave yourself in the days ahead. The Heavenly Principles' tolerance for you, and my tolerance for you, both have their limits."
"The Heavenly Principles won't place too many restrictions on Descenders, but they won't allow Descenders to do as they please, either. You should know that the Third Descender who came before you has now had his remains split into seven pieces, which the gods have been playing with for hundreds of years."
Ronova shot Wu Yi another sidelong glance and said coldly:
"If I were you, I'd understand my place and live cautiously, without trying to break the rules of the Heavenly Principles again."
"That's all I have to say. I hope you'll think it over carefully when you return and stop causing trouble for others."
"Goodbye, Fifth Descender... No, may we never meet again."
As her voice faded, all the dark red aura surrounding the maid was instantly drawn away. Then her body, as though it had suddenly lost its support, crumpled limply to the floor.
Next, the scarlet eyes that had filled the corridor all vanished without warning.
Half a second later, the door to the room opposite Wu Yi was flung open. The guard inside looked warily down the corridor and froze at the sight of Wu Yi:
"Doctor Wu?"
Wu Yi looked back at the maid, only to find that she had slowly regained consciousness. She scratched her head in some confusion and looked at the two of them:
"Huh? That's strange... How did I end up on the floor?"
Wu Yi spoke with the two of them for a while afterward. When the guard questioned him, he said nothing about Ronova's presence, only saying that he too had come out to investigate after hearing a noise in the corridor. The maid, meanwhile, had no memory of what had just happened.
In the end, they simply assumed she had gotten sleepy while walking and fallen over, and the matter was dropped.
After Wu Yi returned to his room and sat down at his workbench again, he fell into thought.
"Miss Death Harbinger is quite an interesting person."
Although she hadn't spoken very pleasantly and had called him a mortal at every turn... Wu Yi had understood what she was actually getting at.
In fact, she had descended here tonight with a display straight out of a horror movie because Wu Yi had caused a problem by not understanding Teyvat's rules of life and death. As the god of death, she had cleaned up the mess he made, come to complain to him about it, and then warned him not to make the same mistake again. She had had no intention of punishing Wu Yi at all; it had been a pure warning.
Considering her profession... she was almost too easygoing.
Wu Yi was deeply moved by this... and then prepared to let it all go in one ear and out the other.
What a joke. Give up saving people because of some mere Ley Lines? That might sound reasonable... but that was how a good-for-nothing thought.
He was a physician of the Path of Abundance. If he gave up over a minor problem like this, he might as well stop trying to make it in the Abundance faction.
"So I just need to soothe the Ley Lines' hunger, right?"
Wu Yi lightly tossed the Delusion in his hand, an idea already forming in his mind.
The next day soon arrived, and when Wu Yi stepped out of the house, he ran into Gorou, who had just come hurrying over.
After a brief conversation, Wu Yi learned that the Shogunate Army had launched a surprise attack on the Resistance camp at the Watatsumi Island front the previous night.
Although Kokomi had already been wary of such an attack and had instructed the soldiers to prepare in advance, the Shogunate Army had come in force. The Resistance's combat strength had also fallen somewhat after all the Delusions were confiscated, so after a fierce battle, they had a great many more wounded.
Gorou had hurried over this time to ask Wu Yi to go to the front and treat the wounded Resistance soldiers.
Wu Yi, whose urge to practice medicine was already about to flare up, naturally agreed at once and happily prepared to set out for the front.
But just as he went out, he also ran into the Traveler, who was about to leave.
"Oh? Morning, Paimon, Lumine. Where are you going?"
Wu Yi asked casually.
The question brought out a rather interesting piece of news-the Traveler and Paimon were on their way to destroy the Delusion factory.
That made sense, though, and Wu Yi wasn't particularly surprised.
Although Teppei hadn't died, the ever-helpful Traveler certainly wouldn't stand by and let the Fatui do whatever they pleased here. It was only a matter of time before she set her sights on the Delusion factory.
Only this time, the Traveler probably wouldn't lose her reason to anger as she had in the original story, fall into the trap Scaramouche had left for her, and suffer a crushing defeat.
So Wu Yi thought.
To be honest, he was quite interested in tagging along for a look. If he met the famous Scaramouche, he could even give his spinning top a few whacks while he was at it... But compared with a mere Scaramouche, treating the wounded and saving lives was a much higher priority.
Still...
"Catch."
After a moment's thought, Wu Yi tossed Lumine the Delusion he had just studied the night before.
"This is... a Delusion? Why are you giving this thing to the Traveler?"
After joining the Traveler in looking down at the object in her hand, Paimon, as always, voiced the question on Lumine's behalf.
That brought them to the modifications Wu Yi had made to the Delusion yesterday.
It had to be said that the Fatui knew a thing or two. As a substitute for a Vision, a Delusion was truly very useful apart from its consumption of life force. Even an ordinary person with no combat experience could quickly demonstrate quite respectable fighting strength after getting one.
So Wu Yi had installed a life-force storage device in the Delusion and filled it with some life force beforehand to replace what the Delusion consumed during use, allowing others to use it without side effects.
Of course, that life force wasn't unlimited... but it was more or less enough for the Traveler to use it to beat Childe up about a thousand times.
The Traveler's first reaction was to refuse the gift, saying it was too valuable. But after Wu Yi explained that he could get more Delusions from Kokomi afterward and that the life force and time spent improving it were hardly worth mentioning, Lumine accepted it and thanked him very sincerely.
Even that little miser Paimon said she would definitely treat Wu Yi to a fine meal next time.
-With the Traveler's money, of course.
After reminding the Traveler once more to watch out for the Fatui's traps, Wu Yi said goodbye to them and hurried to the Watatsumi Island front.
After spending some time treating the Resistance's wounded, Wu Yi made a decision and slipped over to the Shogunate's side to treat its soldiers as well.
After all, as a physician, he ought to treat all patients equally.
Kokomi had no objection to this at all and readily agreed:
"Although we're resisting the Shogunate, we're only dissatisfied with the Shogun's Vision Hunt Decree. Those Shogunate soldiers are just following orders, and there's no deep-seated hatred between us, so why would I stop you from treating them?"
Her outlook made Wu Yi think even more highly of her.
The Shogunate Army, however, wasn't as enlightened as Kokomi. After Wu Yi had treated them, they tried to stop him from returning to Watatsumi Island. Wu Yi borrowed the power of another Delusion he had just obtained from Kokomi to teach them a small lesson, then returned to Watatsumi Island.
By the time Wu Yi returned, a day had passed. Gorou then gave him a letter the Traveler had just sent.
The letter said that the Traveler's attack on the Delusion factory had gone very smoothly. She had defeated every defender in her path and fought her way into the factory, where she had encountered the sixth of the Fatui Harbingers, Scaramouche.
Thanks to Wu Yi's warning, the Traveler hadn't fallen into Scaramouche's trap. Instead, she had relied on her three elemental powers and the Delusion Wu Yi had given her to fight Scaramouche in a fierce battle that ended without a victor. Then, seemingly sensing that someone else had entered the Delusion factory, Scaramouche had seen that things were turning against him and retreated first.
The person who had followed the Traveler into the Delusion factory was a friend the Traveler had met before: Yae Miko, the shrine maiden of the Grand Narukami Shrine. After Scaramouche retreated, Yae Miko joined the Traveler in destroying the Delusion factory.
Yae Miko then invited the Traveler to discuss a plan to abolish the Vision Hunt Decree and said she would put her through "anti-Raiden Shogun training."
At the end of the letter, the Traveler told Wu Yi and the others not to worry and to await news. Once they made progress, she would notify Watatsumi Island again.
Overall... everything seemed to be developing much as it had in the original story.
The good news was that, thanks to Wu Yi's intervention, Scaramouche had suffered a small setback in his first clash with the Traveler, and the original event in which Yae Miko traded the Electro Gnosis for the Traveler had not occurred.
However, the Traveler's letter also mentioned that, after learning about Wu Yi's deeds, Yae Miko seemed very interested in him and hoped to have a chance to meet this miraculous doctor.
Unfortunately, Wu Yi had no such leisure at present. Fighting broke out every day on Watatsumi Island's front line, producing a great many wounded, and he couldn't bring himself to leave them unattended and run off.
In the days that followed, Wu Yi continued running back and forth between the Resistance and the Shogunate Army, treating the wounded and saving lives. At night, he found time to modify the Delusions he had obtained from Kokomi... Several days later, an unexpected visitor arrived on Watatsumi Island, asking to see Wu Yi by name.
The visitor identified herself as a Fatui Harbinger-La Signora.