"Guh..." Everyone present except Linaya was stunned.
The most bewildered, naturally, were the young nobleman who had been trying to escape and Eula, whose arm had been severed.
"Sorry, Miss Eula. You're strong, so I had to leave you unable to resist." As he spoke, he drove another side kick into Eula's abdomen.
At the same time, he clenched his right hand into a fist and struck the side of her head from the opposite direction. When the move was complete, Eula immediately fell unconscious.
Danika, who saw this through the gaps between Linaya's fingers, was utterly speechless. There was so much to mock in what Tang Wang had said that she didn't know where to begin.
Leaving everything else aside, there was his assessment of Eula... For a mortal, Eula was indeed strong. But to Tang Wang, who had just swept away all the monsters in the area and left Eula unable to resist in a single exchange, did that count as strong?
"Don't mind him. That's just the kind of person he is," Linaya explained. "If we weren't here, Tang Wang might have chosen gentler methods."
"But right now, Ronava hasn't recovered her strength, and your injuries have only just healed. For our safety, he has to eliminate every possible threat in the most direct way."
"Once before, he let a group of desert mercenaries go. And then... Lumi and I had to carry him and run through the desert for over three hours after they ambushed and seriously injured him."
"After he recovered..." Linaya paused. "Those mercenaries were never seen again. Though if you have time to visit the dead forest in the northern desert, you might still get to see their inner beauty."
"By inner beauty... you mean the skeletons left after their flesh rotted away, right?" Danika finally couldn't help voicing her thoughts.
Linaya merely smiled and did not answer.
"Lili, can you give them some basic treatment first?" Just then, Tang Wang slowly approached from a distance, dragging the unconscious Eula and the young man.
"Don't worry, I'll heal them completely." With that, Linaya held Lumi close. "Shine like a crystal!"
Surging Geo energy shimmered around Linaya and Lumi with a gentle glow.
Heart-shaped frames appeared around everyone nearby. In the light, the two people's severed limbs instantly grew back, and all their other injuries healed as well.
When they showed signs of waking, Tang Wang gave each of them another blow to the head, making sure they both slept like babies.
"Now..." He took a bundle of rope out of his Shadow Domain. "Let's deal with these two and hand them over to the Knights of Favonius."
"I've already gotten the information we need. I'll tell the Knights of Favonius about it later."
And so, with him dragging one person in each hand and Linaya supporting one with each arm, the group used the power of the Shadow Domain to return to Mondstadt City as quickly as possible.
When he dropped the two members of the Lawrence Clan off at the Knights of Favonius, the expression of the Favonius Knight who received him visibly changed.
"Miss Eula, how could she..."
"I don't want to believe it either," Tang Wang said, shaking his head regretfully. "So I'll leave it to you to determine the truth of the matter."
"However, I did get some valuable information out of that young man from the Lawrence Clan... Please arrange a meeting with Acting Grand Master Jean for me."
A while later, in Acting Grand Master Jean's office, he told her as much as he could of what he knew, using the most concise language he could manage.
"In other words, Dvalin is actually the victim?" Acting Grand Master Jean fell into thought for a moment. "It seems we can cancel the plan to take down Stormterror."
"Also, regarding the last Electro Abyss Lector," Tang Wang said calmly, "I can go after it as well."
"I know the difficulties the Knights of Favonius are facing right now, and I know you're all stretched thin. But I'll need some time to prepare. Besides that, I'd also like to ask for a little help from you."
"Just name it," Acting Grand Master Jean said quietly, pressing a hand to her forehead. "The Knights of Favonius will do what we can."
"Then, Acting Grand Master Jean, have you had any doubts about the large number of weapons that have recently flowed into Mondstadt?"
"Of course. Most of these weapons already have existing blueprints, but... there's no record of the original blueprints being leaked." She nodded. "But Mondstadt really needs them, so we could only turn a blind eye."
"Then all I can say is that those things should have been my property." He took a moment to arrange his words. "So please help me trace the source of these weapons."
"Don't worry, I only want to find the person responsible and demand an explanation in person. It has nothing to do with the buyers."
"The Knights of Favonius will do everything we can."
After Tang Wang left, the Knights of Favonius began questioning the two prisoners. Before long, they reached a conclusion that left them not knowing whether to laugh or cry:
The young man from the Lawrence Clan was indeed a perpetrator involved in the plot, but Eula had simply been wrongly accused.
"Why was that person so impulsive? Can't he even listen to what someone has to say?" Eula expressed her indignation.
"You really can't blame him for that, can you?" Kaeya said with an awkward laugh, smoothing things over. "You said yourself that by the time you arrived, his three companions were already out of the fight."
"Even if it was only to keep his companions safe, he had to make some... ruthless decisions."
"No, I have to find him and demand an explanation myself!"
"Then you can go to Angel's Share. They should be having lunch there."
Following Kaeya's directions, Eula stormed out of the Knights of Favonius headquarters.
At Angel's Share, she found the culprit sitting with three women, each with a different hair color and build.
The shortest of them, a woman with white hair in a high ponytail, sat beside him. A woman with pink hair and wings beside her ears sat across from him. The remaining seat, diagonally opposite him, was occupied by a tall woman with dark green hair.
At that moment, the woman sitting diagonally across from him was asking him something:
"...Mr. Tang Wang, in terms of personal combat strength, you're second only to my master among the people I know." Danika's tone was genuinely puzzled.
"In that case, do you really need to team up with anyone?"
"Yes, of course I do," Tang Wang said, sounding even more puzzled than Danika. "When you say I'm strong, you mean I'm strong in a head-on fight."
"But there's far more to an adventure than fighting head-on. And even in a head-on fight, I have shortcomings I can't overcome."
"Take the Abyss Heralds we just ran into, for example. I don't have a Vision, so I have no way to break their elemental shields. That's why you were actually the main fighting force in that battle. All I did was keep them occupied and make sure you were safe."
"Besides," he said, looking up at Linaya, "the Gang Qi provided by my Traditional Martial Arts Secret Method can only perform basic bleeding control, and even that consumes a great deal of stamina."
"Without Lili, I wouldn't be able to fight for long at all. Danika, strength in combat is important, but it has never been the only deciding factor..."
As Tang Wang went on at length, Ronava, sitting beside him, curiously stirred a constantly bubbling drink with a spoon.
Seeing this, Eula gave it no further thought. She walked straight up to Tang Wang and questioned him in a voice that was neither loud nor quiet:
"Tang Wang! Why did you do that? Don't you think you owe me an explanation?"
At those words, the other patrons in Angel's Share all turned their eyes on Tang Wang.
When Tang Wang had walked in with three girls, he had already drawn everyone's attention. And now...
"This young man's got some skills," one man murmured with a hint of envy. "Dating three at once isn't enough for him, and he's still out there chasing other women."