"Phew..." Looking at the corpse shattered across the ground and the Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds lying off to one side, everyone felt a sense of relief.
It looked like it was all over.
"All right, Dvalin." Once the alchemical seals had faded, Venti immediately set the breeze in his hand moving. "You don't have to bear the pain of the Abyss's corruption anymore."
"...It looks like we'll have to spend some time repairing Windrise when we get back." Acting Grand Master Jean couldn't help sighing as her gaze swept over the craters left by the raging thunder.
"I never expected that kid Kang Jie to be so crafty." Eula nodded with a hint of approval. "I think we should give him some credit too."
"Mm... Tang Wang, I'm so hungry right now." Over with the elite squad, Columbina rubbed her stomach with a melancholy look.
The wind Venti had summoned had already carried them back to the ground.
"Me too." Meanwhile, Ronava had recovered a little as well. "Tang Wang, do you have any sweet snacks left in your shadow domain?"
"I thought that mousse cake was really tasty."
"Don't worry. As long as you want some, I'll always have all kinds of cakes ready." As he spoke, he produced several porcelain plates from Liyue and a large blanket as if by magic.
And so, in the lull after the battle, a little picnic began without any planning at all.
"Is it really okay to let our guard down like this?" Danika seemed somewhat uneasy about it even as she swallowed a large piece of cake.
"After an intense battle, a little relaxation can indeed do a lot to relieve the stress accumulated in body and mind." Holding a plate, Albedo was studying the Star's Wedge on Danika.
"Wait a moment, Miss Danika..." Albedo asked curiously, "Is that thing on you a Star's Wedge, looking a little wary?"
"Yes. Why?" Danika stepped back half a pace, looking a little wary.
"Don't be nervous. As a scholar, I'm simply indulging my curiosity."
"...The power of the Star's Wedge comes from the Third Descender." After a moment's thought, Danika chose to take off her Star's Wedge and hand it to Albedo.
She felt that, after all, they could be considered comrades who had faced life and death together. This much trust was probably only right.
"I know." Albedo accepted the Star's Wedge. "Once you trigger the corresponding reaction, the power of the Star's Wedge creates a Polar Star Radiance Field."
"What I'm more curious about right now is the connection between the Polar Star Radiance Field and Lunar Reactions. They have something in common: both are related to a certain power that is closer to the essence of the world."
"If the rumors about the Shuttle of the Sun are true, then these three powers correspond respectively to Light Realm Power (the Wheel of the Moon), Human Realm Power (the Star's Wedge), and Void Realm Power (the Shuttle of the Sun)."
"I don't know if I'm overthinking it..." Albedo sounded slightly hesitant. "Together, these three seem fully capable of weaving every form in the world."
"The things you're talking about seem very complicated." Danika rubbed the space between her brows, looking somewhat helpless. "Perhaps the Second Seat would be better able to discuss them with you."
"No, let's not." Tang Wang, who was sitting nearby, clicked his tongue and dismissed the suggestion. "I don't deny the Doctor's intelligence, but I can't agree about how much so-called inspiration he actually has, either."
"I mean, a mad scholar whose aim is to transcend and smash the entire old order only ever drew the Four Shades' attention once, and that was in Irminsul... Doesn't that show that none of his actions can even resist Heimarmene?"
"By comparison, Mitiya seems..."
"I don't like that name." Suddenly, Ronava grabbed Tang Wang by the ear, obvious displeasure and disgust on her face.
Danika had only a faint impression of the name. If she remembered correctly, Mitiya seemed to be the person in charge of energy research.
"All right, my preliminary assessment is complete." Albedo returned the Star's Wedge to Danika. "Miss, you'd best practice using your own Elemental Power more."
"Is this the legendary five-star weapon?" The book in Acting Grand Master Jean's hands glowed with a blue-white halo, an unusual number of points of light flickering around it.
"Yes, that's right, Acting Grand Master Jean." At that moment, an unexpected voice came from behind them. "That is the Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds, the first poem infused with the power of the wind."
"Kang Jie?" Eula turned around curiously. "How did you find this place?"
"Ah, Auntie Eula, didn't you see just now...?" The little gentleman, who was alone, raised a hand and pointed at the sky in an unusual pose. "The sky was covered by a thunderstorm, and this was where it began."
"So I thought I... should come and take a look."
His words were vague and halting. He seemed to be avoiding something, yet also as though he were hiding something.
"Acting Grand Master Jean, the Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds in your hands was the... deposit I handed over while extracting information from the Abyss Order."
"Now, it's time for me to return it to its rightful owner."
His tone was so polite that Eula took the Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds from Acting Grand Master Jean and walked over to Kang Jie, one step at a time.
"Auntie Eula..." As if making some sort of struggle before drowning, Kang Jie looked at Eula, who was holding out the Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds, and gave a bitter smile. "Wouldn't you even question whether what I said was true?"
"First of all, don't call me something that makes me sound so old..." Eula frowned, thoroughly at a loss for words. "Second, the information you gave us was accurate and true. So we have no reason to doubt you."
"Kang Jie, you know..." Eula gave him a sincere smile. "You're a hero, and the pride of our Lawrence Clan."
Kang Jie simply accepted the Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds in silence.
Seemingly unwilling to hurt any more people, he suddenly began retreating along a strange path. Three steps, seventeen steps, nine steps... Only after he had put dozens of meters between them did Kang Jie finally stop.
"So this is what they call Heimarmene!" Under everyone's puzzled gazes, he burst into hysterical laughter. "Even your resistance is nothing more than part of a predetermined performance!"
"In that case, I have nothing left to question."
In his hands, the Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds opened of its own accord. Three black focal points and four white points of light intertwined and bloomed upon its pages.
Far away in Stormterror's Lair, Dvalin suddenly felt a wave of weakness. Before Venti's shocked eyes, the authority belonging to the dragon of wind was stripped away in reverse by a ritual carrying "time."
"Three is the manifestation, four is the essence." Kang Jie muttered the words. "Together they make seven, which is the vertical... Path of Transcendence!"