Soft, warm light dispersed the night's shadows.
It came from a formation—one that mimicked sunrise, gradually brightening with the hour.
On the large bed, beneath a slightly lifted snow-white quilt, several graceful figures lay entwined, their sleeping postures anything but proper.
Last night, during their so-called "training," Makoto had been somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that Nolan held the upper hand. She felt he was being too inconsiderate toward the ladies.
So, when Raiden Ei emerged from her meditation chamber, Makoto pulled her—along with Yae Miko and the General, who had just finished their work and returned to the Wonderland—into a united front determined to suppress him for once.
Seeing such a lineup, Nolan had no choice but to unleash a few semi-transparent psychic threads, each linked to his own senses. With them, he swiftly turned the tables and made all three of them yield.
In the end, Yae Miko's loss of control even left a few rather suspiciously darkened patches on the white sheets. Embarrassed and furious, she used her Waymark to contact the Raiden Shogun herself—and had her teleport over as reinforcement.
Thus, four of them together finally managed to pin Nolan down completely, leaving him unable to move.
They continued their "training" until dawn. Only when exhaustion overtook the girls did they collapse beside him, still clinging to his arms and torso in all sorts of indecorous poses.
Nolan looked at the girls peacefully asleep beside him, a faint smile playing on his lips.
Sometimes, training that required no personal effort really wasn't so bad—he could save his strength and still indulge to his heart's content.
After an hour or so, Makoto, Ei, the Shogun, and Miko all stirred awake, disturbed by the man's audacious "close-contact training" while they slept. They gave him looks of sleepy disapproval.
But they were still too drowsy from the previous night's marathon to resist, so they could only let him have his way.
During the morning, Nolan mentioned to Ei his request for help in forging a suit of armor. Naturally, she agreed without hesitation. Once she and Makoto finished their errand at the shrine and went back to the past to plant the Sacred Sakura Tree, they could then select suitable materials together.
By a little past nine, everyone was finally up.
After a simple breakfast, Nolan and the girls headed to Narukami Shrine to begin the planting.
The shrine maidens there were already sweeping the grounds. When they saw their own Guuji walking in with not one but three "General-samas" in tow, their surprise was understandable.
Trailing behind them, Nolan seemed far less noticeable by comparison.
Soon, they arrived before the Sacred Sakura Tree. Raiden Makoto produced a small seed—the seed of the Sacred Sakura itself—and time's familiar power began to ripple outward.
A pale gray film seemed to spread across the sky. The shrine maidens who had been sweeping forward suddenly reversed their motions, broom strokes moving backward as flower petals multiplied across the ground, just like a video rewinding.
Narukami Shrine began to dissolve from the rooftops downward; the fox-shaped Sacred Sakura grew shorter and shorter until it vanished completely, returning them to the barren peak of Mt. Yougou—five hundred years in the past.
"So this is what Mt. Yougou looked like five centuries ago…" Nolan murmured, gazing at the desolate landscape. "Seems the shrine hadn't even been built yet."
"Mm. It does bring back memories," Yae Miko said softly.
She had grown up here as a child, cared for by Lady Kitsune Saiguu. Fortunately, because of Nolan's intervention, Saiguu's soul had been saved and restored.
"Our time in the past is limited—let's plant the seed quickly."
Makoto stepped forward, dug a small pit where the Sacred Sakura once stood, and placed the seed inside.
"Is that all?" Raiden Ei asked.
"Next, let time itself nourish it," Makoto replied with a gentle nod.
No sooner had she spoken than the scenery began shifting again, fast-forwarding like a flickering montage.
Time accelerated. The buried seed sprouted.
A tender green sapling broke through the soil, the surrounding wilderness transforming as wild grasses and flowers faded away. Narukami Shrine slowly took shape.
The Sacred Sakura grew rapidly, its roots expanding, branches thickening. The shrine flourished alongside it.
Until finally, the gray filter vanished—and they returned to the present. The Sacred Sakura stood tall once more, shaped like a great fox, its eyes half-lowered as though gazing upon them with quiet understanding.
The sound of broom bristles brushing the ground resumed around them. Nolan raised his head to look at the tree towering overhead—it was exactly the same as when they had first arrived.
"So… this means the timeline has stabilized?"
"That's right," Makoto said, exhaling softly. "As long as the seed was planted at that precise point in time, no matter what happens in between, when we return, everything aligns perfectly."
With that, the most crucial matter concerning Inazuma was finally settled. There was no longer any need to worry about unforeseen disruptions.
The process of planting the Sacred Sakura had gone smoothly—after all, it was simply a matter of traveling to Narukami Shrine, journeying into the past, and burying the seed.
"I'll head back first," Makoto said. "The expenditure was quite heavy."
After speaking, she teleported herself back to the Wonderland. Bringing several people along through time was no small strain, after all.
Soon after, Yae Miko returned to the shrine to assign new duties to the shrine maidens, and the Raiden Shogun departed for Tenshukaku to resume her post.
Only Nolan and Ei remained beneath the Sacred Sakura.
Opening a rift in space, Nolan turned to her with a smile. "Come on—I'll take you beyond the universe. Let's see what materials we can find for your armor."
"Alright," Ei nodded lightly. "I've always been curious about the world beyond Teyvat."
Nolan chuckled, took her hand, and together they stepped into the Void StarSea.
At the same time, one of the "Sword God" avatar aboard the ship opened a matching spatial breach.
Moments later, the two emerged from the rift into a cabin aboard the ship.
The ship's operating schedule followed that of the Xianzhou Luofu, which meant its time zone differed from the Herta Space Station's.
When it was 9:30 a.m. in Teyvat, it was 5:30 p.m. on the Space Station—an eight-hour gap. On the ship, however, it was about 3 p.m.—a slightly shorter offset.
That was one of the hassles of space travel: in the vastness of the cosmos, time itself was never quite the same anywhere.
Nolan sat down at the bedside with Raiden Ei, pulled out the phone Asta had given him, logged into the Interstellar Peace Network, and opened the Interstellar Peace Corporation's online store.
This site truly had everything imaginable for sale.
If one had a specific goal, they could just enter the name directly. If not, typing in keywords would bring up relevant results.
Since Nolan's goal was to find materials suitable for forging armor, he entered keywords such as "armor material," "durability," and "tensile strength." Instantly, the system filtered a whole catalog of fitting items.
He handed the phone to Raiden Ei. "Here, see if any of these materials suit your taste."
Nolan himself had already looked into some materials that seemed promising—one of which was a substance known as Divine Amber.
According to the product description,
> "Divine Amber" comes from Qlipoth, the Amber Lord—the Aeon of Preservation.
> When the Amber Lord swings his Celestial Hammer to forge things like the Subspace Crystal Wall or Gravitational Source Core, bits of amber sometimes flake off from his divine body.
This wasn't ordinary amber—it was literally a fragment of the Aeon's flesh, a piece of the Amber Lord's divine form. Naturally, its defensive properties were extraordinary.
Thanks to the company's influence, whenever pieces of Divine Amber were shed, they immediately dispatched meteor hunters to intercept them.
Outside the company, it was practically impossible to obtain such material.
After all, no other power in the universe dared to compete with the Interstellar Peace Corporation—the monopoly that dominated almost every industry across the stars.
Even so, their meteor hunters couldn't possibly retrieve every piece. The most radiant fragment of Divine Amber always fell into the eyes of one destined person—and those chosen rarely parted with it for mere profit.
Thus, when Nolan saw the listed price, he felt a little faint.
It was sold by the gram—at ten million credits per gram. The sixty million he had just earned from his last commission could only buy six grams!
That much wouldn't even be enough to forge a ring, let alone a suit of armor.
Thinking of this, he turned to Ei.
"I only have sixty million credits for now. If you find something good, just buy it. If not, add it to the cart—we can get it later once I've earned more."
After all, if he was going to forge new armor, it had to surpass his current one. Otherwise, there was no point—he already had the Cursed Armor, a golden-tier piece capable of withstanding attacks from newly ascended gods.
Of course, it couldn't withstand the full power of a top-tier god like Ei.
That was why Nolan rarely used it himself—it was mostly worn by Fischl, Lumine, and others when they ventured out and fought monsters.
But now, even they were nearing godhood themselves, and Teyvat hardly had any creature left that could threaten them.
"I think this one feels right," Ei said, handing the phone back. "It gives me a sense of weight—even heavier than Morax himself."
"Hm?" Nolan glanced curiously. The item she pointed to was a sand-like material with a hue similar to Divine Amber.
The product description read:
> Dissipated Star Sand — Particles shed from the Amber Lord's hammer as he forges the stars, containing the essence of Preservation.
> Those who walk the Path of Preservation can use it to deepen their insight and strengthen their journey.
> For others, it serves as an excellent material for forging armor.
> Price: 100,000 credits per gram.
There wasn't much more detail, but like Divine Amber, it came from the Amber Lord's hammer.
And it was far cheaper.
With sixty million credits, they could buy 600 grams—more than a pound! Mixed with other metals, it would be more than enough to craft a solid suit of armor.
"In that case," Nolan nodded, "let's get one pound of Dissipated Star Sand. We'll spend the remaining ten million on supplemental materials."
The Interstellar Peace Corporation, always eager to boost sales, listed several design plans for armor made primarily from Star Sand.
The first was the premium option—fusing the sand with solid-state gravitons salvaged from the Gravitational Source Core, creating a unique Graviton-Star Sand Alloy.
However, that fusion process was proprietary technology and came with a hefty service fee.
Nolan checked the details:
> Solid-state gravitons cost 10 million credits per cubic millimeter—sold by volume, since they had no mass.
> The alloy-forging service fee was 30 million credits per instance.
He skipped that immediately.
Yes, such armor could supposedly withstand the pull of a black hole for two milliseconds—enough time for a space teleporter like him to escape.
But the enhancement was specialized; it only provided resistance to gravitational collapse. In terms of general defense, it merely blocked low-power ship-mounted beam weapons.
Nolan's own Wholehearted Guardian Shield could already do that, and far better—it could block any form of attack, even black holes. So there was no reason to waste credits here.
He scrolled down to the second plan—this one specialized in mental defense. Also expensive.
But when he reached the third option, something about it immediately clicked.
This plan combined Dissipated Star Sand with the same alloy used in planet-buster battleship hulls, refining them together into a new composite.
The result was stronger than the original battleship alloy, imbued with a faint trace of the Amber Lord's "Preservation" essence—enough to withstand a planet-destroyer beam for half a second.
Even against an Messenger-level strike, it could endure a blow or two.
There was even a case mentioned: someone had survived the destruction of a planet by wearing this so-called "Starbreaker Armor."
And the price? Reasonable.
The same alloy used for starship hulls cost about a million credits per kilogram, meaning ten million credits could buy over ten kilograms—plenty to forge a smaller suit.
Not that Nolan needed to wear it himself; fit didn't matter.
If the material turned out extremely scarce, he could even craft a miniature version—like armor for a figurine. It would still retain its properties, albeit slightly weakened due to less material.
After discussing it with Raiden Ei, they agreed that the third option was the most practical.
Nolan placed the order immediately. Credits drained from his account in a rapid swish, leaving just a single million remaining.
He didn't mind—money came easy to him anyway.
The delivery address listed the Interstellar Peace Corporation's Luofu Xianzhou Branch, so he could simply pick it up when he next arrived there.
(End of Chapter)
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