The two elemental spheres, one of fire, one of water, hovered in Lan's hands, a silent, breathtaking testament to a world irrevocably altered. The air in Ningguang's office was thick with the weight of this new, impossible reality. For a long, stunned moment, no one spoke. They could only stare at the quiet, unassuming adventurer who had, in an instant, become the first of a new kind of human.
Lan herself was the most profoundly affected. She looked from the ball of fire in her right hand to the sphere of water in her left, her face a mask of pure, unadulterated awe and disbelief. She, a woman who had spent her life managing the commissions of powerful Vision bearers, who had always seen elemental power as a distant, magical gift granted to a chosen few, was now a wielder herself. She could feel the power thrumming through the gauntlets, a clean, stable energy that was not her own, yet answered her will. Tears began to well up in her eyes, not of sadness, but of a joy so profound it was overwhelming.
Keqing stared, her usual sharp, pragmatic expression completely gone, replaced by a look of sheer, stunned astonishment. She had always believed that mortals had to strive, to prove their ambition to the heavens to be granted a Vision. But this… this was different. This was not a gift from the gods. This was a tool, forged by mortal (and adeptal) hands. It was a calculated, scientific circumvention of the divine order. The implications were so vast, so paradigm-shifting, that her brilliant, strategic mind could barely begin to process them. Mortals no longer had to wait to be chosen; they could now choose for themselves. This was literally her own views of humanity shining brightly in front of her eyes.
Ganyu's reaction was one of quiet, boundless pride, so immense it almost overshadowed her own shock. She looked at the miraculous scene, and then at her small, quiet brother, the source of it all. He had done more than just create a clever device. He had taken the most fundamental law of their world—that elemental power was the domain of the gods and their chosen few—and had simply, elegantly, rewritten it. He had, with his mind and his compassion, just offered the entirety of humanity a gift that was once reserved for heroes and archons. A deep, maternal love, so fierce it was almost painful, swelled in her chest.
Xianyun, the master craftsman and scientist, looked at her creation with the cool, analytical eye of a researcher, but even her legendary composure was tinged with a deep, profound awe. She was not just looking at a successful prototype. She was looking at the physical manifestation of a new age. The age of potions, of clumsy, temporary elemental infusions, was over. The age of relying solely on the whims of Celestia was over. This was the dawn of the age of mortal empowerment, an age of predictable, stable, and accessible elemental technology. It was a scientific leap so monumental it made all her previous inventions, even the heater and refrigerator, seem like simple children's toys.
But it was Ningguang, the Tianquan, the master of commerce and power, whose mind was truly exploding with the sheer, terrifying, and glorious scope of what had just happened.
She looked at Lan, the adventurer who was now a living symbol of a new kind of power. She looked at the gauntlets, the keys to this new era. And then, her sharp, amber eyes came to rest on the small, quiet boy who was the source of it all.
A slow, almost reverent, and utterly terrifying smile spread across her face.
Ren had not just invented an artificial Vision.
He had, in a very real, very practical sense, just invented a way to grant Visions.
The power to bestow elemental abilities, a power that had once belonged solely to the divine, the gods themselves, now rested in the hands of a ten-year-old boy and the blueprints locked away in his mind.
Ningguang's mind, a grand chessboard of political and economic strategy, lit up with a billion new possibilities. The Fatui and their dangerous, life-draining Delusions were now obsolete. The military balance of the entire world had just been shattered. Liyue, with exclusive control over this technology, was no longer just the most prosperous nation in Teyvat; it was poised to become the most powerful, by an order of magnitude that was almost unimaginable.
She looked at Ren, and she no longer saw a cute, brilliant child who was a ward of the adepti. She saw the single most valuable and powerful asset in the entire world. He was a living god of invention, a mortal who could bestow the powers of the divine. And he was, to her profound, unending, and strategic delight, theirs.