Sitting at home, minding my own business, I accidentally used the Soul-Snatching Technique and grabbed the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata right into my hands!
Seriously, bro, is this for real?
Lu Heng glanced at the two small seal script characters swirling around him.
The golden light was rich but not blinding.
Right! This is absolutely right!
Lu Heng's original intention was to boost his luck, hoping to get a few six-star red cards when pulling gacha.
But instead—
The luck didn't go into the gacha pulls but ended up here?
Lu Heng pondered for a moment.
Under extremely lucky circumstances, using the Soul-Snatching Technique without a specific target and accidentally grabbing the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata didn't seem all that surprising.
After all, the Greater Lord's current state wasn't great.
To put it bluntly, she was nothing more than a remnant soul!
A remnant soul with absolutely no power left!
No wonder he could sense her resistance but barely any strength behind it.
Even at her peak, she probably wouldn't have been able to resist, but Lu Heng still felt his luck was a bit too outrageous.
While Lu Heng was deep in thought, the Greater Lord was also lost in contemplation.
She didn't quite understand how she had been dragged here by this person.
As a remnant soul, the Greater Lord could barely perceive changes in the world.
What could she do in this state?
All she could do was wait—wait for the next generation of the Dendro Archon to "forget" her.
But during this wait, suddenly, a hand reached out.
That hand seemed to be searching for something.
And it landed right on her head!
Knowing she carried forbidden knowledge, the Greater Lord didn't want to pass it on to anyone else.
So, she tilted her head to dodge.
But as if her luck was truly terrible, the hand then grabbed her by the collar—and yanked her out!
At that moment, the Greater Lord was stunned. She tried to resist, but her tiny hands couldn't push him away. Powerless, she was "pulled" out of the void by Lu Heng.
He was strong—unimaginably so, beyond the limits of wisdom.
That was the Greater Lord's first impression.
Then came confusion.
Her petite, doll-like face was filled with deep bewilderment as she patted the hand gripping her collar and asked curiously, "Why did you grab me?"
In the Greater Lord's understanding, Lu Heng had deliberately captured her.
But what use was there in capturing her remnant form?
Was it for the forbidden knowledge?
But that didn't seem right either.
Would a being as powerful as him even need forbidden knowledge?
Lu Heng gradually snapped out of his thoughts.
Realizing that holding someone by the collar like this was impolite, he set the Greater Lord—who was about the same size as Klee—down beside him and said with an awkward expression, "There's something I need to tell you, and you might find it hard to believe."
"Just now! I was testing the Soul-Snatching Technique. Let me explain how it works..."
After explaining the principles of the technique, Lu Heng continued, "I didn't lock onto any specific target. I just reached into the void and randomly searched the real world... and then I found you."
"Pretty absurd, right?"
The Greater Lord, however, shook her head. "I believe you."
This was the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, the God of Wisdom who stood beside Irminsul and was hailed as omniscient!
She could see through people's hearts at a glance.
She could tell that Lu Heng wasn't lying.
And for someone as powerful as him, there was no need to lie.
Because no matter what he wanted to do, the Greater Lord couldn't resist anyway.
She believed him?
Good.
Lu Heng immediately felt relieved.
Honestly, he had no ill intentions. He was just curious about whose soul he had touched, especially since it resisted.
His original plan was to pull it out, take a look, explain his intentions, apologize, offer compensation, and then stuff the soul back where it belonged.
But now that he had pulled out the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata... where would she go back to?
"Do you want to go back?" Lu Heng asked.
The Greater Lord was taken aback.
She immediately understood—Lu Heng was considering stuffing her back into Irminsul.
Though the pocket dimension existed in the void, separated from reality by layers, the Greater Lord was still connected to Irminsul as its incarnation.
After sensing for a moment, she was surprised.
Irminsul wasn't a literal tree but had some tree-like qualities.
After her soul was completely extracted, the "diseased" Irminsul seemed to have lost its source of corruption!
Without the corruption, it would naturally heal over time!
But if the Greater Lord were to be stuffed back in...
She would be like the source of the virus, polluting Irminsul all over again!
This aligned with the Greater Lord's original plan.
Back when she realized she had been tainted by forbidden knowledge, she had gathered and confined all of it within her own soul.
She wanted to erase this forbidden knowledge completely, but she couldn't erase herself.
And now... she no longer existed within Irminsul!
Her current state could be described like this:
She was a hard drive disconnected from the mainframe, still carrying the virus but still connected to the mainframe via the network.
However!
The virus files were under her control. As long as she didn't send them, the mainframe would remain completely unaffected!
But she also couldn't delete these virus files entirely.
Her current state... actually seemed pretty good?
The Greater Lord snapped back to reality.
Now in a petite, childlike form, she shook her head vigorously like a rattle-drum. "No, I don't want to go back!"
Going back would mean infecting Irminsul with the virus again.
How could she go back?
The Greater Lord even considered severing the connection entirely and dying outside the world.
That way, Irminsul's crisis would be resolved!
As for her own life or death...
To be honest, the Greater Lord had never cared about that.
"Could I trouble you with something?" the Greater Lord asked.
"Go ahead."
After hesitating for a moment, she said, "I can't return to Irminsul. If I go back, I'll pollute it again. My current state is fine, but I'd like to ask for your help in letting me die outside the real world—preferably somewhere far, far away from Teyvat. Would that be possible?"
You really don't want to live, huh?
Lu Heng had to admit, he was momentarily blinded by the Greater Lord's radiant nobility and selfless spirit.
Such lofty virtue and dedication...
First, he felt deep respect. Then, he shook his head and refused.
"If I hadn't run into you, fine!"
"But now that I've pulled you right to my side, how could I just let you go?"
Lu Heng was fully capable of saving the Greater Lord, but she didn't know that—she just wanted to die.
Could he allow that?
Lu Heng had noticed something: none of Teyvat's Archons had ever lived for themselves.
Every single one of them lived solely for their people.
Even Raiden Ei was no exception. Right now, her reclusive state made her hard to judge, but if you looked back two thousand years, you'd see her fighting like a madwoman for Inazuma and her sister's legacy.
"Please, help me," the Greater Lord pleaded.
"No!"
"Eh?"
Lu Heng flat-out refused. "Don't worry, I'm not a good person, but I'll solve your problem for you!"
Not a good person?
The Greater Lord could see it in Lu Heng's eyes—he was clearly a good person.
But he seemed reluctant to let her die.
Yet if she didn't die, could the forbidden knowledge really be resolved?
As if reading her thoughts, Lu Heng grinned.
The terror of forbidden knowledge lay in its incomprehensibility, which led to corruption.
Wasn't this stuff basically the same as the whispers of eldritch gods?
Some eldritch beings were described as murmuring incomprehensible knowledge into people's ears, driving them mad.
Lu Heng opened his system panel—visible only to him—and took a look.
Oh, so you're the infamous forbidden knowledge?
What strength or tricks do you have to challenge me?
"Heh heh!"
Lu Heng smirked mischievously.
He bent down, pinched the Greater Lord's cheeks with both hands, and grinned even wider.
The Greater Lord shrank back slightly, a hint of fear in her eyes.
Just as she tried to retreat, Lu Heng grabbed her hand.
"What are you laughing about out there?"
A soft, sleepy voice came from inside the house—Furina, still half-asleep.
"Heh heh!"
Holding the Greater Lord's hand, Lu Heng called back, "I picked up the Dendro Archon, and she wants to play with me!"
Furina: "?"
The Greater Lord: "!"
The Greater Lord tilted her head, her small face full of confusion. She had a sinking feeling she'd stumbled into a den of thieves.
She tried to struggle.
Joke's on her—it was useless!
Oh no.
The Greater Lord realized things had taken a bad turn.
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T/N:
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