"Why are you sleeping on the floor...?" After they returned to Bai Ju Inn, Ronava sat leaning forward on the bed and looked at the bedding beside it, curious.
"You can think of it as a kind of human etiquette," Tang Wang replied awkwardly.
"But this bed is so big. Why can't you sleep next to me?"
"That's what etiquette is, Ronava." With that, he lay down.
"But isn't that a bit...?" Ronava lowered herself until she was lying flat on the mattress, then leaned her head over toward Tang Wang.
Looking at her curious, uneasy expression, Tang Wang found her rather cute.
"There's no problem with it." He pulled up his blanket and shook his head.
"Oh." Still in that position, she slowly moved back onto the bed.
"Phew... This should do, right?" Lying on his bedding and gazing at the ceiling, Tang Wang felt a little dazed.
He didn't know whether what he was doing was right. After all, as far as he was concerned, the Fourth Descender's authority was simply too great.
Leaving everything else aside, a single line from Genshin Impact's introduction was enough to show that the Fourth Descender could probably eradicate the problem of the Abyss: "The sustainer is dying, the creator has not yet come. But the world shall burn no more, for you shall ascend to the seat of god."
And now, did his actions count as stealing the Fourth Descender's status and opportunities?
"Forget it, forget it. I've already decided to do it, so there's nothing to regret."
"Come to think of it, isn't Dvalin the Anemo Dragon King? Is it really okay for a few of us to go kill him?"
"No, wait, the real problem is that none of us seem capable of aerial combat. Even if we have enough raw power to win, the fight itself will be pretty difficult, won't it?"
At that thought, he began to consider Mondstadt's current fighting strength.
First of all, most members of the Knights of Favonius had to deal with the Abyss Order and other monsters. They had no time to spare.
That left only the handful of top fighters whose names he knew so well.
"I count as one. Varka should still be in Nod-Krai. Acting Grand Master Jean and Diluc will definitely join the fight. I don't know if Rosaria will come, and I'd better try to get Albedo on board..."
At times like this, he always regretted not taking a closer look at those so-called "power rankings." Although he knew that combat power wasn't important in itself; it served the plot.
Scenes where someone powered up on the spot and entered a second phase once the mood was right had been used to death in countless works. So there was no point in paying too much attention to that sort of thing.
However, he now knew he badly needed a benchmark for reference.
"La Signora... She should be working with the Abyss Order in Mondstadt, so there's no need to consider her. Besides, with my current strength, killing her wouldn't be difficult."
Tang Wang actually had made a rough assessment of his own strength. During his travels, he had even run into the Fatui's first-ranked Harbinger, the pinnacle of mortals, The Captain.
Tang Wang could exchange about five moves with him head-on. If they fought to the death, he was confident he could at least inflict some injuries on The Captain.
"Come to think of it, this so-called Gang Qi..." He recalled the secret traditional martial arts technique he practiced. "What exactly is it?"
"Did Teyvat really have something like this originally? It doesn't look anything like elemental power... Could it actually have been left behind by the Lord of the Night?"
As he restlessly tossed and turned, a pair of gleaming golden eyes appeared above his head once more.
"Tang Wang, can't you sleep?" she asked drowsily.
"A little," he answered. "I often lament my lack of power because I don't have a Vision."
As he saw it, if he could get a Vision, he would probably be confident of defeating most gods.
There was no helping it. The gap between the strongest and weakest gods was simply too large. The strong ones, like Zhongli, King Deshret, Ei, Decarabian, and Venti... really could move mountains and flatten seas with a wave of their hands.
As for the weak ones, like the God of Mushrooms and the God of Salt... He could easily defeat them now, without a Vision.
So where did the problem lie? There were very, very few extreme cases in Teyvat, and the rest were all somewhere in the middle. Looking at that bunch would give anyone a headache.
A simple question: was defeating one Lawachurl as difficult as wiping out a large Hilichurl camp? Which was harder, killing a bunch of Rifthounds or killing an Abyss Herald?
The most ridiculous part was that the answers to those questions were completely different for different people. Take him, for example. The secret traditional martial arts technique he practiced made him stronger the longer he fought head-on, so if he cleared the camp first and then fought the Lawachurl, he could kill it in a single move.
But if the situation were reversed, he would be drawn into a hard fight, then have to clear the Hilichurl camp while feeling the Gang Qi in his body steadily dissipate...
Amid his jumbled thoughts, he fell asleep without realizing it.
But there was a pair of eyes that could no longer close.
For five hundred years, a calamity known as the Wild Hunt had ravaged Nod-Krai. It was the power of the Abyss, guided and bearing someone's anger and hatred.
"Beware, collapsing claws and eyes." The tall, black-clad figure holding a lantern once again unleashed flame-like lightning from the dark blue spear in his hand.
Around him, countless members of the Wild Hunt vanished completely in the glow emitted by the Wheel of the Moon.
But this time, after they dissipated, a gem-like sphere rolled onto the ground. A black light flickered at its center.
The tall figure holding the lantern evidently liked such objects. He stepped forward and picked up the sphere.
Just as he was about to put it into his lantern, a vast mass of Abyssal power coalesced out of thin air. A vague human figure struggled into view before him.
"...Fl... Flins..." As the lantern-bearing man hurriedly jumped back and raised his spear on guard, the figure actually called out his name.
"Sir, do you still appear to be in possession of your senses?" Flins asked, unable to conceal his surprise. "How extraordinary. Surely there is nothing left of your body but the Abyss?"
"Columbina... Columbina..." He suddenly began repeating a name. "If... she comes to Nod-Krai..."
"Please... protect her..."
With that, the shadow vanished into thin air, leaving only Snezhnaya's mysterious little flame who feared the dark standing there in a daze.
"What a strange request." Looking at the sphere in his palm, Flins made his decision. "But since this gentleman was so sincere, I naturally won't refuse."
"Provided that this Columbina really does appear in Nod-Krai."
The night soon passed, and Tang Wang finally woke up between seven and nine the next morning.
In his arms, the blanket had been rolled into a ball to serve as a body pillow.
After briefly packing their luggage, the two first went to explain the situation to Hu Tao. She was quite understanding and readily agreed to Ronava's request to go out.
And so their journey to Mondstadt began. At that moment, the world's course was completely reversed.